To help him accomplish this goal, New Living provided helped him choose and install non-toxic flooring materials and no-VOC paint. While paint is very important to indoor air quality, Dr. Warner was especially excited about his new floors. Marmoleum, a brand of natural linoleum, was installed in this dentist’s treatment area. This flooring option contains materials that are harvested sustainably and also help inhibit the growth of bacteria and microorganisms, helping the environment as well as people.

Dr. Warner spoke passionately, stating “I wanted to improve the environment and improve health at the same time”, He says, “and as we know, those two go hand-in-hand”. By taking care of ourselves, we also take care of our Earth, a concept that is a driving force for Dr. Ben Warner, as well as New Living.

So now that you’ve designed and built your dream home, what’s next?

Why not take care of yourself and your home with healthy, environmentally-friendly cleaning products from Branch Basics, available at New Living.

This non-toxic cleaning line is made from all-natural ingredients, and it works wonders without unhealthy and unpleasant fumes. We sell Branch Basics All-Purpose cleaner and a Window and Glass cleaner. The former even comes in a concentrate to save you time and money!

There is a growing awareness that chemical-laden cleaning products may do harm to you, your family, and even your pets. From skin and eye irritation to chronic diseases relating to long-term chemical exposure, the EPA attributes many health and environmental problems to these common household items.

Why expose yourself and your family to harmful chemicals when you could choose Branch Basics?

PHOTO: Courtesy Threebrancheshealth.com

A Benefit Corporation – or B Corporation for short – is a new type of business charter that allows businesses to prioritize having a positive social and environmental impact. Traditional corporations are legally bound to serve the short-term interests of their shareholders, often making this difficult. While many large corporations in America and around the world have entire departments dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility and giving back to the community, B Corporations actually use their business model to achieve these goals. This idea is clearly catching on across America, with 476 B Corps in 60 industries grossing over 2 Billion dollars a year!

B Corporations are assessed and certified by a non-profit called B Lab, which looks into the business’ operations, products and/or services, and — very importantly — mission. Certified businesses are audited regularly to make sure that compliance is taking place, and that the B Corporation brand is protected. Business owners sign the B Corporation “Declaration of Interdependence”, promising that the business ”is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” Several states have recognized the uniqueness and potential in the B Corporation model, and have passed legislation to support businesses making these efforts.

As you may know, New Living is proudly a B Corporation. We were certified in January 2010 and have been working hard to do justice to the certification ever since. We start by offering green, healthy products and services — from our organic mattresses and furniture, to our sustainable and recycled building materials, to our relationships with quality designers, architects, and installers. The Green Painter, a more recent New Living spin off sells non-toxic paints and coatings and houses a Certified Green Painting service. We diligently screen our suppliers and subcontractors to make sure that your projects are as healthy and green as they can possibly be! In our day to day operations, we are also very careful to be socially and environmentally responsible. We recycle nearly everything, support small, local businesses when possible, and have transparent and equitable business practice policies.

Education is also an important part of our mission – and an important part of being a B Corp. We have programs training Certified Green Painters, and we would love to expand this type of training program to other professions. We also regularly hold environmental and health education events for the general public. We are always planning and expanding our educational programming, and have made it a priority to make Houston the most informed population as relates to healthy, green living.

For more information on B Corporations, please see B Lab’s website or just stop by either store. We’d love to talk to you about it!

These services are available at a comparable price to the leading paint and painting companies in Houston. You can call or stop by to discuss your upcoming projects.

Got a painting job? Call us first! You’ll be surprised how affordable green can be!

The freshly painted KIAH Offices

KIAH table, painted with non-toxic paint

KIAH now has green, healthy offices

***Testimonial compiled by Whitney Moore***

Working as a house painter for the past 30 years, Nemicio always used regular paints containing toxic VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) until a friend suggested that he visit New Living and try some of our non-toxic NOVOC paints. “With regular paint,” he says, “you have to get used to the smell, and wear a mask so you don’t inhale the fumes. But with the paint from New Living there is no smell and you can use it without wearing a mask and not get a headache.” He even suggests New Living’s paints to other builders and contractors, telling them that they are much better than traditional toxic paints. The EPA states that exposure to VOCs can lead to adverse health effects such as damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system, as well as cause cancer . The risk is especially high for house painters due to the prolonged exposure to these chemicals. By switching to New Living’s non-toxic paints, not only is there no smell, but also no exposure to toxic VOCs, creating a much healthier environment for the painters and the residents. We are very glad to have Nemicio and many other Houston painters using our product, and especially glad when they love it!

***This and other testimonials compiled by Whitney Moore***

As a sustainable business and certified B Corporation, we are hosting this event because this is an important issue facing our community and Texas. Eliminating harmful chemicals is a core part of New Living’s mission. If you can’t make it to the event, 90.1 FM will be live broadcasting the entire panel. For the live broadcast, visit these links – direct link: http://ku.audioport.org:9000/special;  playlist file: http://pacifica.org/special.m3u.

(Houston) Why did a Corpus Christi woman stand up at the White House last month and loudly demand protection from the Obama administration? Why, for the same reason, did a Hollywood actor give up his career and return home to take on the biggest fight of all in Port Arthur? What drove a Gulf Coast fisherwoman to sink her fishing boat on top of a plume pouring deadly dioxin into Galveston Bay? How did a Houston man use a school to organize communities impacted by chemical contamination and fight for policy to make healthier communities in the dirtiest city in the nation?

All of these heroes will be telling their stories and showing how chemical pollution has no boundaries, that all Texans are threatened by the chemical stew the pervades the state. But another big question now is why are the Governor of Texas and Texas Congresspersons attacking the Environmental Protection Agency regulations to protect our health when the people of Texas are already sick from pollution?

Featuring:

Al Armendariz, EPA Region 6 Administrator

Juan Parras, founder of the non-profit organization Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS), Houston

Suzie Canales, Citizens for Environmental Justice, Corpus Christi

Hilton Kelley, founder/CEO, Community In-power and Development Association Inc
(CIDA) Port Arthur

Diane Wilson, author of “An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, And the Fight for Seadrift, Texas.”

Neal Carman, PhD, environmental scientist, Sierra Club, Austin

Moderated by Leo Gold, host of KPFT’s New Capital Radio Program

Maintaining a healthy home is about more than just you and your family, it’s also about the people who work in your home as well. Both housekeepers and house-painters are affected by the chemicals in the products used on our homes – and they usually suffer the worst of it. While we may never have to smell the strong toxic chemicals or suffer from the dizziness and headaches associated with conventional paints and cleaning products, the people who work on our homes certainly do, and it’s affecting their health and their livelihood. Joseph Avelar, owner of Avelar Quality Painting who uses New Living’s NO VOC paints for his jobs, says that “Just because we are painters and we’re around paint all day doesn’t mean we like the smell or the health hazards that come with it.”

Since 1989 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has found that for painters there is “sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of occupational exposure…” The occupation of painter is one of the few jobs that is listed by the IARC as having an occupational risk for cancer. Painters are also at a high risk for skin irritations, headaches,  and can develop problems with their nervous system. The chemicals in paint can cause respiratory illnesses that lead to a build up of fluid in the lungs and chronic bronchitis. Further, VOCs in paints (and related paint products such as thinners) can cause liver and stomach damage to painters. The effect that doing their job and making money to support themselves and their families has on their health is a travesty, particularly because it doesn’t have to be that way.

For housekeepers, house cleaners, and maids, there are high rates of illness among them and their children. House cleaners typically suffer from high rates of asthma and other respiratory problems because of the toxic chemicals in the cleaning products they use. Cleaning workers suffer from more heart attacks and early death due to motor neuron diseases than any other profession. They’re also at risk for cancer and frequently experience chemical burns and skin irritations associated with cleaning products. The chemicals involved in the work housekeeper’s do also affects the health of their children. Woman cleaning workers are twice as likely as other female workers to suffer from pre-term delivery and stillbirths while male workers have an increased risk of children who are born with birth defects and down syndrome. Although we may not have to smell or deal with the chemicals that are used to clean our homes directly, those who do face imposing and  irreversible problems when it comes to their health.

We should always strive to provide a safe environment for everyone in our lives, including those who work for us. For our painters, we can always make sure we buy paints  that have no VOCs – they’re non-toxic, have a low odor, and don’t contain harmful chemicals. For those who clean our homes and spend their days directly inhaling toxic chemical fumes, we should purchase green cleaning products made from natural ingredients and that either have a natural scent or no scent at all. All of these products are provisions we can take now – allowing us to be healthy and caring employers that provide a safe and ultimately happy environment for those who help us out so much in our daily lives.

More Information:

IARC (part of the World Health Organization) on the Occupational Hazards of the Paint Profession

IARC on the Occupational Risk of Cancer for Painters and Firefighters

Journal of Occupational Medicine – Occupational Risk Factors and Reproductive Health of Women

California Department of Health Services – If I’m Pregnant Can the Chemicals I Work With Harm My Baby?

Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Health and Safety on the Health of Cleaning Workers

As the committee hearing and debate goes on this summer over the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 even more information has come out about the links between the chemicals in our homes and the danger it poses to our health. This serves as an urgent reminder that consumers need the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 to help protect them.

In mid-June, multiple national news outlets reported on a new study published by Environmental Health Perspectives that found further links connecting PBDEs – a common chemical used as a flame retardants in carpets, mattresses, couches, and electronics -  to problems with the thyroid hormone in pregnant women. The study, which looked at 270 pregnant women, found that women with higher levels of PBDEs in their bodies had lower levels of the thyroid stimulating hormone in their bodies by anywhere from 10.9 to 18.7%. These levels meet the definition for sub-clinical hyperthyroidism – indicating an early stage of thyroid malfunction. When the thyroid malfunctions (know as clinical hyperthyroidism) pregnant woman can possibly have children with birth defects, suffer from in-uterine growth problems, experience miscarriages, or have stillbirths.

What’s most shocking about the study, researchers note, is that the levels of PBDEs that were tested in women and caused sub-clinical hyperthyroidism is fairly typical among American women. These are risk that most American woman – who are exposed to products like conventional mattresses, carpets,  foam couches, and electronics – face. This is due in large part to antiquated flame retardant regulations, most companies refusal to use non-toxic alternatives in products that we use, and poor regulation of toxic chemicals by federal agencies. Matthew S. Tejada, the executive director of Air Alliance Houston*, believes that these types of discoveries about how our home environment effects our health aren’t going to end. He says “On the health perspective, the horror story is only going to get worse. The deeper we dig as more research is done, we are only going to find [out] more about the nasty impacts of what we buy.”

As more studies like this one are released and as we discover more about the dangerous chemicals in products we use everyday, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need regulations to protect us as consumers so that we don’t have to live in fear. The Safe Chemicals Act can protect us and it’s something we need NOW. Tejada says “For decades we just let these chemicals go totally unregulated. The way food and medicine are regulated is [good], but the regulatory structure formed by the EPA is so weak that it’s effectively not regulated.” The Safe Chemicals Act is a strong start towards something that has enormous potential to help us as consumers find safe products for our family and ourselves, helping to ensure that we are protected from chemicals like PBDEs. Click here to send a letter to congress and find out more about what you can do to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010.

If you’re wondering what to do now though, the best way to protect yourself is by researching what’s in the products in your home and making smart decisions by choosing non-toxic alternatives that we are sure are safe for our homes and our families.

Find out more:

The Environmental Health Perspectives Study Profiled Here

LA Times – Household Chemicals Linked to Reduced Fertility

Slate Magazine – Why are flame retardants required in furniture anyway?

* Air Aliance Houston is a group that works on outdoor and indoor air quality in the Houston-Galveston region. To see their website click here.