Healthy Living Fair

Ever wanted to know about the products that effect women? Then it would have been wise to attend the Healthy Living Fair in Portland organized by Rachel's Friends. This fair is put on annually, so if you missed it today there is always next year, and this event is incredibly informative.

Today's key note speaker was Portland's own Nena Baker, the author of The Body Toxic. I would encourage everyone to get their hands on a copy of this book, as it takes a look at many of the chemicals that the average American carries. Nena actually paid to have her own body burden analyzed, and the results are described in her writing. Her book arrives after the Oregon Environmental Council's study of the chemical body burdens of 10 average Oregonians. The report from that can be found on the OEC website, or through the link HERE. Needless to say, the average person is carrying more chemicals than we wish to admit, regardless of how careful we try to live our lives.

Following Nena's talk, which wrapped up with the lack of bans on dangerous products from federal entities and the fact that consumers have become today's "regulators," Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis from the OEC introduced two upcoming Oregon bills. One bill, the Healthy Schools Act, focuses on promoting "green" schools (which actually is a cost-benefit plan) through green cleaning, green construction, and more preventative efforts in dealing with pests. The other bill, The Children's Safe Products Act, will be attempting to ban certain chemicals from children's products. If you are an Oregon voter, PLEASE check out both bills and send your support to your legislators during the upcoming session. When American children today are born with an average of 200 toxins in their cord blood, it's important that we attempt to contain the additional toxins they are exposed to throughout their lifetime.

Additionally, I found several great new resources. One is a Portland mineral make-up company called Alima. When searched in the Safe Cosmetics Database they result in a low-moderate rating, but in terms of make-up are some of the safest I've found. They are also a Portland based company and include a jar return program. I also signed up for a once a month delivery of produce from Organics to You, which is a spin off of the CSA movement. Organics to You delivers organic produce gathered from a variety of local farms to your doorstep, if you live in the Portland area. For the new mothers there was also Mother Nature's Baby Store...finally a good place to buy baby products for all my friends having babies. (Nothing makes me cringe more than going to a baby shower filled with toxic products these days).

So while a lot of this information may not apply to my international friends, hopefully those of you that are local will check out some of these resources and issues. And any of you will hopefully be interested in Nena Baker's book. I've been slightly out of commission with the new term and the beginning of the research project...but the good news is that I feel that I'm finally finding my nitch (and that there are opportunities to use it). I hope you all have been feeling equally blessed, even amongst all the economic drama of our world. The best to all of you!