Deal Finder Dad Giveaway

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Just say no to glow!

Optical Brighteners aka Florescent Brightening Agents

Conventional laundry detergent with optical brighteners under a blue light

What are optical brighteners?

* Chemicals in conventional laundry detergent designed to make fabrics appear cleaner and brighter.

How do they work?
* The chemicals absorb ultra violent light and emit it back as a visible blue light. This blue light covers any yellowing and makes your fabric seem brighter and whiter. Your clothes are not cleaner but they look like it. 

 Why they are bad?

* Many times, skin rashes commonly blamed on fragrance and dyes are actually caused by optical brighteners. Brightening agents bind irreversibly to the skin and when in the sun can cause burns.

*Optical brighteners contain chemicals that are toxic to fish and other animal and plant life.

*They are slow to biodegrade, so they build up in waterways affecting the animals, plants, and anyone in contact with the water. 

Military uniform washed in optical brightener, check out the glow!

* Optical brighteners make your diapers appear cleaner by looking "whiter" through the refraction of light. These chemicals if loaded into the detergent can also compromise cloths diapers ability to absorb and make covers, pocket diapers and AIO's leaky.

What chemicals are optical brighteners?

* Triazine-stilbenes, Coumarins, Imidazolines, Diazoles, Triazoles, Benzoxazolines, Biphenyl-stilbenes, Disodium Diaminostilbene Disulfonate, benzoxazolyl, benzimidazoyl, naphthylimide

* Many times laundry detergents do not list the ingredients or they list them as brighteners or whiteners

 What laundry detergents use optical brighteners?
Dreft Powder

Era Liquid (all versions)
Gain Liquids (all versions)
Gain Powders (all versions)
Ivory Snow Liquid
Ivory Snow Powder
Tide Liquids (all versions)
Tide Powders (all versions)
Tide Tablets (all versions)
Fab (all versions)
Dynamo (all versions)
Ajax (all versions)
Suavitel Fabric Softener (all versions)
All laundry products made by Colgate-Palmolive
Arm & Hammer Liquid (all versions)
Arm & Hammer FabriCare Powder (all versions)
Arm & Hammer Fresh 'n Soft Fabric Softener (all versions)
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
Rain Drops Water Softener and Detergent Booster
DeliCare Fine Fabric Wash (all versions)
Wisk (all versions)
All Liquid (all versions)
Surf Liquid (all versions)
Yes (all versions)
All Dial Laundry Products including:
Purex Powder (all versions)
Purex Liquid (all versions)
Purex Fabric Softener (all versions)
Purex Baby (all versions)
20 Mule Team Detergent (all versions)
Zout (all versions)

Choose a laundry wash that is non toxic to your family and the environment, just say no to the glow!
-Amanda

Scent

Are scents in A Happy Green Laundry Wash Bad?

Kristin and I LOVE having scent left behind in our diapers and clothes so when making our laundry wash we  looked into ways that we could have a fragrant laundry wash without the detrimental build up. We first started with the chemicals used to make the wash, each one of them cleans without building up (they are free of optical brighteners and soap, both have been proven to build up in your clothes, prevent absorption and hold onto stink). We then turned to the scent. A lot of cloth diapers say that their warranty is void if they are washed with a detergent containing perfumes so we needed to find fragrance oil not perfume oils (the difference is in the chemicals). We found an amazing scent company that makes all of their own scents as fragrances oils not perfumes.

Fragrance oils are broken down into three parts, the top note, middle and base note. Each “note”  is made up of different scents, and is mixed to last longer, the base notes are designed to last the longest, this is what you are smelling when you pull your clothes out of the dryer. The scents are designed to evaporate (the top notes faster than the bottom) and not build up in your clothing, this is why they are so strong when you first take them out of the washer and almost nonexistent by the end of the week. The company that we use employs some great chemist and perfumers. They work really hard to create scents that won’t evaporate too fast, but won’t stay long enough to negatively affect your clothing.
-Amanda

Laundry Balls!

We are a staticy family (well, our clothes are). At least once a month my poor husband finds an article of clothing stuck in his pant leg as he is walking around work (it is usually a pair of my underwear, my poor hubby is in the army so you can imagine how embarrassing it is for him to have a pair of hot pink women’s underwear sneak out of the leg of his military uniform). To combat our static problems we have always used dryer sheets. On average they would cost us about $3 a month, not too much, and they saved us total embarrassment (think pink panties and combat boots, not a good combination). Then one day I decided to look up what exactly in a dryer sheet, as you can guess it is not pretty:

Benzyl Acetate (linked to pancreatic cancer), Benzyl Alcohol (known to cause upper respiratory tract irritant), Ethanol (a chemical listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and capable of causing central nervous system disorders), A-Terpineol (another cause of  respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage), Ethyl Acetate (a narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list),  Camphor (it causes central nervous system disorders), Chloroform (a lovely neurotoxin, anesthetic and carcinogen), Linalool (a  narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders), and  Pentane (a chemical known to be harmful if inhaled).

Like I said it’s not pretty. So what is a staticky family to do? The answer is something I am very excited about, Dryer Balls!

A dryer ball is ball that when placed in your dryer with your wet clothes helps to lift and separate the clothing, reducing static and drying time, and leave your clothes soft and fluffy-without all of the horrible toxins (the technical explanation for a dryer ball is that it improves the circulation of heat and air through the wet clothing).

Dryer balls run about $10 on average and last approximately one to two years, a much better deal in the long run than those toxic dryer sheets. Even better they reduce drying time by up to 40%. This will cut the cost of your energy consumption and your electric bill!

I don’t know about you but I think that toxin free and economical are two great reasons to make the switch. There are many different dryer balls out there, our favorite are Bouncing Woolies! Not only are they free of chemicals, these are 100% natural wool. Even better they can come scented so that your clothing smells amazing when they come out of the dryer!

To purchase Bouncing Woolies check out www.bouncingwoolies.com or check out http://www.ahappygreenlife.com/ where you can find woolies scented to match your favorite laundry wash!
-Amanda

Giveaway!!

A fellow mama blogger is hosting A Happy Green Life Laundry Wash giveaway right now!! Head on over to A Crunch Beach Mama http://crunchybeachmama.com/2012/02/a-happy-green-life-natural-laundry-wash-2-winners/ follow her amazing blog and enter to win a bag of laundry wash!

A Happy Green Cause

If you haven’t noticed yet we here at A Happy Green Life like food, in fact we LOVE food. Chef Mike is a professional chef and the rest of us are professional eaters. When we heard the statistic that 1 in 5 kids, over 16 million children, don’t know how they are going to get food each day we were shocked. Between our two families we have four kids and tons of nieces and nephews; the idea that any of these innocent children could be hungry or that any of their friends might be, broke our hearts.

We know how tired and cranky our own kids get when they are hungry, heck we know how crazy and cranky we get when we are hungry, imagine feeling that way all the time. Imagine being too little to get food, or too embarrassed to tell people that you need something to eat.

Kids who are hungry are sick more often, recover slower and are more likely to be hospitalized. They get headaches, stomachaches, colds and ear infections. They cannot learn as much, as fast, or as well and they lack the nutrients that they need to concentrate and perform well at school.

There are more than 16 million children in our country suffering from these problems. These kids are the hope for the future, they will one day be our doctors, scientist, and teachers but they are not going to make it if they don’t get something to eat.

We here at A Happy Green Life have decided that we need to do something. We are partnering with SHARE OUR STRENGTH NO KID HUNGRY to end childhood hunger by 2015. We ask you to take the pledge with us to end childhood hunger. http://nokidhungry.org/

In addition to everyone at A Happy Green Life taking the pledge, we will be donating a portion of the proceeds from every Doodle Bug Natural Laundry Wash purchased to the SHARE OUR STRENGTH NO KID HUNGRY program.

Just $1 can help a child connect to up to 10 healthy meals through the program. Hopefully we can get these kids not just 10 healthy meals but three healthy meals every day for the rest of their lives.