The Healthy Neighborhoods

Project

10 Awesome Tips

To Save You Money & Make Your Neighborhood a

Better Place to Live!

10 Healthy Tips

Tip #1

Modern cars don’t have to be idled on cold mornings. Their engines warm up faster if driven at moderate speeds. Never idle a car in a garage. People can be poisoned or even die from carbon monoxide exposure.

Remember cars get 0 mpg at idle!

Tip #2

You don’t have to buy fabric softeners and fragrant laundry soap. These products are over-priced and contain many cancer-causing and flammable chemicals that are a leading cause of asthma, allergies and headaches. Dryer vent fumes are the leading source of neighborhood pollution.

Solution: Baking soda is an excellent, inexpensive laundry soap. Add a little vinegar to the rinse if you want. You can use rubber balls or re-usable static eliminator cloths in the dryer.

Remember fragrances make clothes smellier, not cleaner.

Tip #3

You don’t have to use cancer-causing chemicals to have beautiful landscapes and gardens. Herbicide and pesticide are a leading cause of cancer in pets and asthma in children.

Solution: Go organic - many smart people already have.

Tip #4

You don’t have to use toxic petroleum products to get that barbecue flavor. Foods barbecued with charcoal briquettes and propane are a leading cause of stomach cancer. Barbecue fumes also cause lung and respiratory problems, which has led to bans in some areas.

Solution: Real men use hardwood! If you barbecue, use only dry wood and no lighter fluid. The food will taste better because it is better.

Better still, cooking with cast iron can provide the same flavor with much less heat wasted.

Tip #5

You don’t have to buy petrochemical fertilizers to have green lawns. They cause gnat swarms and water contamination, and the lawn needs to be mowed more often. They are also known to cause cancer.

Solution: Let clover grow in your lawn by not using Weed & Feed, Roundup or other herbicides. Clover makes natural nitrogen available to grass.

Remember paying someone to pull a few weeds is cheaper than getting cancer.

Tip #6

Burn only dry, well-cured, finely split firewood in your fireplace. You will get much more heat for your money from a brightly flaming fire and less dangerous creosote build-up.

Photo by Persia Dubois

Resources

Fragrance Free:

www.drsteinemann.com

www.staticeliminator.ca/purecosheethome.html (Static Eliminator cloths)

Pesticide Alternatives:

www.stephentvedten.com

www.pesticide.org 541-344-5044

www.beyondpesticides.org 202-543-5450

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible - by Edward C. Smith

General:Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org 212-727-2700

Center for Health, Environment & Justice www.chej.org 703-237-2249

The Healthy Neighborhoods Project is sponsored by the

Healthy Buildings Coalition. www.healthybuildingscoalition.org

206-279-7149

If you can see smoke leaving your chimney, you are wasting fuel in the form of fine particulates that end up in your neighbors’ lungs. Consider extending your chimney to help fumes rise.

Remember don’t use lighter fluid or junk mail to light a fire - trash burning is illegal in many places for good reasons! (So is burning leaves and lawn clippings.)

Tip #7

You don’t have to use poisonous pesticides to control insects and rodents.

Remember pesticides are designed to kill animals.

Solution: There are many alternatives. Heat kills bedbugs, boric acid bait kills ants, etc. Ladybugs and wasps will eat thousands of aphids if they have an unsprayed habitat.

Water your lawn less often and more deeply. Your plants will be healthier and have deeper roots. Over-watering encourages slugs, mosquitos and gnats, and mold in buildings.

Make sure pet food is not available to rodents, and don’t feed the birds. Instead, provide birdhouses, birdbaths and unsprayed habitat. Birds will eat more insects if they aren’t fed seeds.

Tip #8

Second-hand smoke and petrochemical fragrances waft through neighborhoods and make people sick.

These addictive and brain-damaging chemicals are a leading cause of ADD, hyperactivity and respiratory problems.

Solution: Tobacco and marijuana users should use smokeless forms or quit using.

Stop buying toxic aerosol “fragrances,” plug-in “air fresheners” and scented personal products. These contain many untested, unregulated chemicals. Open a window or set out a dish of baking soda to freshen inside air.

Remember clean air has no smell!

Tip #9

Gasoline mowers and edgers are expensive to maintain and emit more pollution for their size than cars.

Solution: Use electric machines or a push mower (think good exercise in clean air). Plant clover or grass varieties that flop over and don’t need to be mowed. Put in rock gardens, sand boxes or vegetable gardens.

Tip #10

Plant fruit and nut trees and grape arbors for shade and wind breaks. You will save on energy bills plus get free, organic food. Having your own fruit and vegetables is the healthiest way to eat!

Fun Hint: You can rate yourself on how many of these tips you follow. Then share your rating and this flyer with your friends on social media and elsewhere.