“Here, use my inhaler.” We had just come out of our ballet class, and we watched as the woman who usually sits at the front desk tried to get her young teen daughter to take a puff of albuterol. The studio’s owner looked worried as she asked the woman if her daughter was sick. Did she have asthma, she asked. The woman explained that her daughter never had asthma. “But she says her chest feels tight.” Nosy person that I am, I had to say it. “Maybe it’s the fumes from the cleaning supplies.”

Our adult ballet class is the last class of the night. The woman who works the front desk cleans the studio while her daughter sits in the small, narrow lobby doing homework and eating her dinner. There had been several Halloween classes/parties on Monday, so there was lots of cleaning to be done — chocolate fingerprints, sticky doorknobs, errant cookie crumbs (some courtesy of my daughter, actually). The woman behind the desk was trying to do a good thing by cleaning so vigorously, but as research shows us, by using traditional chemicals-based cleansers she may have inadvertently made her own daughter wheeze. Heck, I was only in the lobby for a few minutes and by the time I left I was feeling lightheaded, too. (Okay, maybe my lightheadedness was also because of the spins we had done in class, but the headache was definitely about the fumes.)

A 2007 study found that even once-a-week use of spray cleaners may cause asthma in adults. “The risk of developing asthma increased with frequency of cleaning and number of different sprays used, but on average was about thirty to fifty percent higher in people regularly exposed to cleaning sprays than in others. The researchers found that cleaning sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass-cleaners, had a particularly strong effect,” according to the 2007 American Thoracic Society study. Asthma is just the tip of the iceberg, though. There are so many other conditions and ailments that scientists are just starting to link to traditional household cleaners such as cancer, birth defects, and even obesity.

Earlier this fall more than 150 scientists and doctors turned out for a three-day conference sponsored by the Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., the Professor of Pediatrics and Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented an intro to children and the environment. One take-away: Chronic childhood diseases linked to toxic chemical exposure cost the U.S. more than $55 billion each year. The larger costs may still be unknown, though, since many of the chemicals in our homes have not been tested to see if they have any long-term developmental effects, said Dr. Landrigan.

That’s why I was really excited to hear about something Seventh Generation, activist Erin Brockovich, and industry group Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families is doing to help banish existing chemical legislation and bring in new tougher standards and testing. Called the “Kids Safe Chemicals Act,” it will also do one more thing: Require the companies to make the results of that stricter testing public. This means you can make a more informed decision about whether or not you want to use a specific product on the same surfaces that you cook, bathe, and sleep on. If this sounds like something you’d like to get involved in, check out the Million Baby Crawl Web site, where you can learn more about the movement and create your own virtual crawler who will descend on Washington and demand toxic chemical policy reform. You can also start reading labels; The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services maintains a database where you can browse by category, search by product name, and compare chemical contents and see the effects they might have on your home.

Have you made a switch to more environmentally- and human-friendly products? What’s your favorite? Do they clean as well as the traditional options? Would love to hear your feedback. In addition, there’s still plenty of time to enter my Seventh Generation goody basket give away.

**WIN IT**

As a reminder, to enter, leave me a comment telling me which Seventh Generation product is your favorite.

For additional entries:

1. Tweet this giveaway
2. Mention this giveaway on Facebook or any other social media site
3. Blog about this giveaway

Leave a separate comment for each thing you do.

Comments will close at midnight, November 20. Winner will be randomly selected and notified via e-mail on November 25. Winner will have 72 hours to claim their prize. Contest open to US addresses only, please.

This is what happens when you stay up too late writing blogs. Note to self: Must get eyebrows done.

As I sit here nursing a huge shiner — I was walking around in the dark, bent down to pick something up, and smashed my face into the top of the banister — I am very glad that I have a diversion to keep my mind off of my ever-expanding eyelid. Today’s Favorite Things are sites and resources I stumbled upon this week. Some were suggested. Some I found on my own. What do you think of them? Do they make your favorites list, too? Comment and let me know.

My First Freebie: SeventhGeneration.com. Take a peek at the laundry list of laundry products — and diapers and cleaners, too — so you can  enter my first ever blog giveaway. Seventh Generation, the manufacturer of earth-friendly, green products, will give one of my readers a basket full of goodies that includes the following:

• Glass Cleaner- Ruby Red Grapefruit
• All Purpose Cleaner- Green Mandarin and Leaf
• Shower Cleaner- Green Mandarin and Leaf
• Toilet Bowl Cleaner- Emerald Cypress and Fir
• Tub and Tile Cleaner- Emerald Cypress and Fir
• Kitchen Cleaner- Wild Orange and Cedar Spice
• Natural Paper Towels- 120 Count
• Seventh Generation Reusable Tote

To enter, check out the Seventh Generation site. Then come back and leave a comment below about which product is your favorite and why. *Disclosure: Seventh Generation is not paying me for running this contest, and I’m not getting anything for free. I have actually paid for and used the company’s products for years now.

(Sk)in Deep with it: KidsSkinHealth.org. I have really, really white skin. Really, really. I have slathered it with SPF every day since my early 20s, but I was not as careful as a child. I didn’t realize that skin cancer would become the problem it is today, or that 65%–90% of skin cancers are due to UVA and UVB (sun and tanning beds, baby) exposure. My daughter knows, though. This week she learned more about why Mommy is an insane woman with sunscreen, as well as other nail-, hair, and skin-related topics by spending some time on this site, which is sponsored by The American Academy of Dermatology. The lessons were so catchy and kid-friendly — a kids’ role-playing game was a favorite — that she didn’t realize she was getting an education, too.

To TV or Not to TV? BrainyBaby.com. O.K., you know I’m not a fan of babies watching TV, but I’d pick a carefully crafted DVD over Bugs Bunny or Hannah Montana any day. And I certainly have no problem with someone keeping her two-and-over child busy with an educational video. That’s why I think it’s a wonderful thing that Brainy Baby is offering parents a way to add to their child’s library without spending too much cash. The company from now until December 31 is offering four of its titles (ABCs, Music, Laugh & Learn or Shapes & Colors) free of charge aside from a $6.95 shipping and handling fee. Those in Atlanta can save the shipping fees by picking their video up.

Go to Your Room: Ohdeedoh.com. We recently moved Katelyn into a big girl room, moving Keira out of my office and into the nursery. Both rooms had to be designed from scratch. While the bed and crib are in place, the actual walls and windows are works-in-progress, which is why I was thrilled to stumble upon this site. Plenty of amazing photography, step-by-step ideas, and a fun attitude make for a really incredible kids’ design site. The home tours, especially, speak to the voyeur in me. I can’t wait to try out some of the ideas that are right there for the borrowing.

On the Road: Concertimatic.com. First off, I don’t have an iPhone, but I thought this was just so neat — and I am hoping the company develops an Android version — that I had to pass it along. The premise is pretty simple. This $.99 iPhone app scans your playlists, figures out your favorite artists, and pings you if one of them is appearing in concert nearby. It even lets you order tickets right from your phone.

That’s it for today. Going to baby my eye with a little ice. Next week: We look at some healthy snacks, talk about fitting in, and look at the latest in eco-friendly kids clothing.