Environmental Products and "Greenopia"

Show Summary - April 13, 2009

Guest: Gay Browne

Gay Browne (Santa Barbara, CA), Greenopia, "Maintaining a Green Lifestyle through the Greenopia Website"

Gay Brown is with the www.greenopia.com website that promotes and advertises environmentally safe products. They will be exhibiting, with many other vendors, at the "Go Green Expo" in New York City this week.

Ms. Brown got interested in a healthy lifestyle because she has asthma, which can be greatly aggravated by toxic chemicals and air pollution. She was very interested in Nature's Tears EyeMist because her website does not list any "air" products.

She cites numerous problems with many artificially formulated consumer products, for example, No More Tears baby shampoo, which contains several allergenic chemicals. There are other shampoos, she says, that are 100% natural and also do not cause tears. Her website rates and ranks the products, favoring products that are more organic and less artificial.

Her website has 50 categories of products, three city guides (with many more on the way) and a guide to businesses.

Mrs. Brown believes that the most important item to covert to "all-natural" is sleeping paraphernalia. This includes organic mattresses, sheets and sleepwear. Sharon noted that we shed large amounts of skin while we sleep, which are fed upon by invisible dust mites. The more shed skin on the sheets and mattresses, the more mites, which can eventually cause itching and allergies. Sleep is also the time when our body rejuvenates and as a result, we often wake up dehydrated.

Sharon and Gay recommend starting each day with a large glass of water. Gay also recommends purchasing a new mattress every five years or so, and purchasing organic and wickable sheets and sleepwear. Sheets should be changed at least weekly. Mattresses need to be "wickable" so that bacteria and fungi will not grow as a result of moisture from the body.

Sharon suggests always bringing your own sheet and blanket to motels and not sleeping directly on their sheets, mattresses or bedspreads.

Gay and Sharon both urge keeping windows open to let outside air in. As far as building insulation, 30 years ago, the big push was energy efficient buildings. However, buildings are now so well insulated that the air inside can become very dry and dehydrating. They also recommend lots of house plants and avoiding harsh cleaning solutions. Sharon recommends letting tap water run before drinking it in case something had been festering in the pipes.

Categories: Ecology and the environment; health and wellness; business, patents and the environment