Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World (Rodale Organic Style Books)

What do salt, peaches, and carpet have in common? Two things: chances are you have them in your house, and they all have the potential for serious toxicity. Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World is full of scary eye-openers, but it also includes plenty of ways to improve the well-being and safety of your family at home, work, daycare, or the local park.

The 101 suggestions in the book range far and wide in the search for common sources of toxicity and are further subdivided into areas of special interest. Each chapter has a short list of questions to help you identify which topics to focus on, such as "How old is your house?" and "Does your school have science labs?". Depending on the answer, a list of topic numbers will be of special interest in your hunt for solutions. Chapter topics include food safety (stop using antibiotic washes), household chemicals (don't use mildew-resistant paints), and reproductive risks, so it's also possible to simply flip to the area of greatest concern.

Because of arrangement by topic rather than toxin, easy solutions like giving away poisonous philodendrons and poinsettias are featured right next to suggestions on ripping out carpets and putting down wood floors; chemicals that are known to be instantly deadly are listed right next to potential sources of long-range impact. While the overall range is excellent, the book may be overwhelming to novices in the world of chemicals. --Jill Lightner