5 Steps for Implementing a New Eco-Healthy Policy
Eco-Healthy Child Care® promotes safer, greener child care by reducing toxic exposure through policies on air quality, cleaning, plastics, pests & more.
Prioritizing the Importance of Safe Siting of Child Care Facilities
It is important that child cares are located in safe areas. Choose child care sites wisely to avoid toxic exposures. Ensure safe spaces and keep kids away from pollution for healthy growth.
Practicing Sustainable Ways to Reduce, Reuse, and Store Garbage
Practice reducing waste and protecting our health by reusing materials, avoiding disposables, composting, recycling, and keeping garbage areas clean and pest-free.
Impact of Noise Pollution on Children’s Health
Noise pollution harms children’s learning, hearing, and health. Quiet spaces support focus, language skills, and lower stress for better development.
Let’s Resolve to Reduce Our Plastic Use in the New Year
Let’s Resolve to Reduce Our Plastic Use in the New Year
By Kathy Attar, Program Manager, Eco-Healthy Child Care®
January 2022
During the start of a new year, we often reflect on the months ahead and resolve to continue good practices, change undesired behaviors, or improve our overall well-being.
Why not choose to reduce your use of plastic in the home or child care setting?
Plastics are everywhere in our economy and each year more end up in our environment and landfills.
The EPA estimates that in 2018, only about 14% of plastic was recycled, which means that the other 86% either becomes litter, landfill or is burned for energy—and needs to be replaced with new virgin plastics next year.
Certain plastics contain chemicals that are harmful to human health even at low levels of exposure. Soft, flexible plastics are often made with chemicals called phthalates, and hard clear plastics are often made with a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA). These ingredients can interfere with hormones (such as estrogen and testosterone) and may disrupt a child’s normal development and growth.
BPA and phthalates have been linked to cancer, diabetes, obesity, infertility, and behavioral problems. Polystyrene plastic products, including disposable dining-ware, foam, and packaging products, can expose children to styrene, a known neurotoxicant, and suspected carcinogen.
The full life-cycle of plastics from production-to use-to disposal is harmful to human health and the environment.
Most consumers aren’t aware that communities that live next door to plastic-producing factories are sickened from toxic chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde emitted by these facilities. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income families are more likely to live in these fenceline neighborhoods.
What is the plastics-climate change-environmental justice connection?
The oil and gas industry is shifting from fossil fuels for energy and transportation to plastics. With dozens of new plastics manufacturing and recycling facilities in development, the U.S. plastics industry will produce more greenhouse gas emissions than coal-fired power plants by 2030. Ninety percent of the climate pollution from U.S. plastics plants occurs in just 18 communities that are mostly in the poorer parts of Texas and Louisiana.
What are the solutions to our plastics problem?
- We need more cities, campuses, and companies to set goals to achieve zero waste.
- We must require producers to take more responsibility for their products during their entire life cycle (production, use, and disposal).
- Banning single-use plastic items that are not easily recyclable would assist tremendously in reducing pollution and waste.
- As waste is reduced, we must ensure that all toxic waste is disposed of safely.
There are success stories--many college campuses are building systems to manage waste and prioritize reusables over disposable products.
What can the consumer do now?
Tell your governor to ban single-use plastic in your state. Use U.S. Pirg’s take action page to send a message to your governor.
In your home or child care:
- Replace paper napkins and towels with cloth napkins and towels that can be laundered and reused.
- Avoid using disposable plates, cups, and utensils/cutlery. Opt for glass, pyrex, or porcelain food and drink containers whenever possible. Stainless steel drinking containers are ok for use with water.
- Buy/sell used items; always check with the Consumer Product Safety Commission website for product recalls before purchasing used toys and equipment.
- To avoid excess packaging, buy staple food items in bulk and use your own reusable storage containers (i.e., glass jars).
- Use reusable bags for shopping; opt for cloth bags as they are sturdy and can be laundered.
Resolvamos reducir nuestro uso de plástico en el año nuevo
Durante el comienzo de un nuevo año, a menudo reflexionamos sobre los meses venideros y decidimos continuar con las buenas prácticas, cambiar los comportamientos no deseados o mejorar nuestro bienestar general.
¿Por qué no optar por reducir el uso de plástico en el hogar o en el entorno de cuidado infantil?
Los plásticos están en todas partes en nuestra economía y cada año más terminan en nuestro medio ambiente y vertederos.
La EPA calcula que en 2018, sólo alrededor del 14% del plástico fue reciclado, lo que significa que el otro 86% se convierte en basura, en vertederos o se quema para obtener energía, y que necesita ser reemplazado por nuevos plásticos vírgenes el próximo año.
Ciertos plásticos contienen sustancias químicas que son dañinas para la salud humana incluso en niveles bajos de exposición. Los plásticos blandos y flexibles a menudo se fabrican con productos químicos llamados ftalatos, y los plásticos duros y transparentes a menudo se fabrican con un químico llamado bisfenol-A (BPA). Estos ingredientes pueden interferir con las hormonas (como el estrógeno y la testosterona) y pueden alterar el desarrollo y crecimiento normal de los niños.
El BPA y los ftalatos se han relacionado con el cáncer, la diabetes, la obesidad, la infertilidad y los problemas de conducta. Los productos de plástico de poliestireno, incluidos los productos desechables de comedor, espuma y embalaje, pueden exponer a los niños al estireno, un neurotóxico conocido y la sospecha de carcinógeno.
El ciclo de vida completo de los plásticos, desde la producción hasta el uso y la eliminación, es perjudicial para la salud humana y el medio ambiente.
La mayoría de los consumidores no son conscientes de que las comunidades que viven al lado de las fábricas de plástico se enferman por los productos químicos tóxicos como el benceno y el formaldehído emitidos por estas instalaciones. Las familias negras, latinx, indígenas y de bajos ingresos tienen más probabilidades de vivir en estos vecindarios cercados.
¿Cuál es la conexión plástico-cambio climático-justicia ambiental?
La Industria del petróleo y el gas está pasando de los combustibles fósiles para la energía y el transporte a los plásticos. Con docenas de nuevas instalaciones de fabricación y reciclaje de plásticos en desarrollo, la industria estadounidense de plásticos producirá más emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero que las plantas de energía a carbón para 2030. El noventa por ciento de la contaminación climática de las plantas de plásticos estadounidenses ocurre en sólo 18 comunidades que se encuentran principalmente en las partes más pobres de Texas y Louisiana.
¿Cuáles son las soluciones a nuestro problema de plásticos?
- Necesitamos más ciudades, campus y empresas para establecer objetivos para lograr cero residuos.
- Debemos exigir a los productores que asuman más responsabilidad por sus productos durante todo su ciclo de vida (producción, uso y eliminación).
- Prohibir los artículos de plástico de un solo uso que no son fácilmente reciclables ayudaría enormemente a reducir la contaminación y los desechos.
- A medida que se reducen los desechos, debemos asegurarnos de que todos los desechos tóxicos se eliminen de manera segura.
Hay historias de éxito: muchos campus universitarios están construyendo sistemas para gestionar los desechos y priorizar los reutilizables sobre los productos desechables.
¿Qué puede hacer el consumidor ahora?
Dígale a su gobernador que prohíba el plástico de un solo uso en su estado. Utilice la página U.S. Pirg’s take action page (página de acción de U.S. Pirg) para enviar un mensaje a su gobernador.
En su hogar o en su entorno de cuidado infantil:
- Reemplace las servilletas de papel y las toallas por servilletas y toallas de tela que se puedan lavar y reutilizar.
- Evite el uso de platos, vasos y utensilios / cubiertos desechables. Siempre que sea posible, opte por recipientes para alimentos y bebidas de vidrio, pyrex o porcelana. Los recipientes para beber de acero inoxidable se pueden usar con agua.
- Comprar / vender artículos usados; siempre consulte con el sitio web del Consumer Product Safety Commission (Comisión de Seguridad de Productos del Consumidor) para conocer los retiros de productos antes de comprar juguetes y equipos usados.
- Para evitar el exceso de empaque, compre alimentos básicos a granel y use sus propios recipientes de almacenamiento reutilizables (es decir, frascos de vidrio).
- Utilice bolsas reutilizables para las compras; opte por bolsas de tela, ya que son resistentes y se pueden lavar.
Racial Healing and Environmental Justice
Racial Healing and Environmental Justice
Children from low-income communities and communities of color often have greater risk of exposures to pollution, higher levels of contaminants in their bodies, and more illness or disability such as asthma and learning disabilities. These high risk children are also experiencing the direct and indirect impacts of climate change the most and hardest.
Structural racism has led to the disparate impact of hazardous waste sites, polluting facilities and poor quality housing stock being located in or near neighborhoods with high concentrations of Black and brown people and economically disadvantaged populations.
The COVID-19 pandemic points a spotlight on the impact systemic racism has had on Black and brown communities’ health–leading to poorer health outcomes and increased mortality.
The National Day of Racial Healing which occurs every year on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time for action on #HowWeHeal from the impacts of racism. It is hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and was created with the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation community partners. Racial healing is at the core of racial equity. The National Day of Racial Healing provides an opportunity for ALL communities to come together to create a more just world.
The effects of racism are evident in the health, economic and environmental policies all around us and the places in which we live, learn, work and play. People experience these effects when they take their children to child care or school, when they try to rent or buy a home in a safe and non-polluting neighborhood, and when they deal with the impacts of increased flooding, a rising heat index, and contaminated water and soil from climate change.
The home-based Flores Family Child Care facility is located in East Los Angeles, a community made up of primarily Latinx families with over 26% of the population living below the federal poverty line. Many families with young children in East L.A. live in older and often over‐crowded housing, which is often associated with elevated environmental health risks to children. Numerous major freeways also surround the community, which pollute the air. Compared to Los Angeles County, East L.A. is disproportionately affected by health problems linked to the environment including childhood asthma.
Between 2017 and 2019, Flores Family Child Care noticed how the majority of children in their care were frequently ill. In May 2019, a University of Southern California study found significantly elevated levels of lead in the teeth of children living in five L.A. neighborhoods including Flores’s. Lead is a known neurotoxicant, and particularly harmful to children and babies. Also located in this area, Exide Technologies’ battery recycling plant and its predecessors emitted lead and other dangerous pollutants for decades. These harmful emissions have left homes, apartments, schools, parks and child care facilities in the local area with dangerously high levels of lead contaminated soil. Fortunately, Flores Family Child Care was able to have the lead removed from their facility’s’s grounds. Their facility is also an Eco-Healthy Child Care® endorsed home-based child care. They protect children from environmental health risks by preventing vehicles from idling in the parking area as well as in pick-up and drop-off locations, thus decreasing exposure to air pollutants. Flores Family Child Care improves their indoor air quality by using furniture with fewer harmful chemicals and low-volatile organic compound paint on the facility’s walls.
We applaud child care providers like Flores Family Child Care who are protecting children and staff from environmental hazards in early learning settings. However, to bring about environmental justice we need our housing, education, and health systems, among others, to eliminate indoor and outdoor air pollution and climate risks.
East L.A. is just one example of how communities across the U.S. have suffered and continue to suffer the health effects of systemic racism. Racial healing recognizes the need to tell the truth about past wrongs created by individual and systemic racism and address the present impacts. It can build authentic relationships that bridge divides created by real and perceived differences. It is essential to pursue racial healing prior to making change in a community and to truly work toward the protection of all children.
Take action and begin the racial healing conversation in your community this year!
