How to make a nursery eco-baby friendly

Conventional paint contains benzene, formaldehyde, mercury, solvents and petrochemicals, and it sends a cloud of VOCs into your baby’s bedroom. Investing in nontoxic, VOC-free paint is a wise choice that will keep nasty chemicals out of your nursery.

Find eco-friendly products at World Class Supply

A few things to keep in mind when you're selecting paint:

• Some paints carry a circular Green Wise logo on their label, which would seem like a good indication that the paint is environmentally safe. Sadly, Green Wise is green wash. The logo means only that the paint meets standards set by paint manufacturers. It doesn’t mean the paint is chemical free.
• “Low odor” doesn’t mean that the paint is free of chemicals.
• Zero-VOC paint is practically VOC free, but no independent standard exists to verify that.
• Natural paint, made from food-safe ingredients from plants and minerals, and milk paint, made from milk protein, pigments, lime, clay and water, are safe, chemical-free choices.

All-natural, nontoxic American Clay wall coverings bring a soft look to any nursery.

Removing wall-to-wall carpet, which off-gases chemicals and harbors toxins and pollutants, is the healthiest thing you can do in your nursery. If this isn’t possible, seal existing carpet using AFM Safecoat’s SafeChoice Lock Out, which keeps chemicals from off-gassing and repels dirt and stains. Cork or colorful natural linoleum, such as the kind shown here from Eco-Friendly Flooring, are also good bets.

Keep in mind when you're choosing flooring:

• If you choose bamboo, shop carefully. Prefinished bamboo flooring can off-gas formaldehyde and other harmful chemicals.
• If you choose carpet, opt for untreated 100 percent wool carpet and have it installed using a tack-down method rather than glue.
• Don’t pull up carpet yourself if you are pregnant. Pulling up the padding could expose you to a cloud of PBDEs. After the carpet is removed, have someone clean up the small particles with a HEPA-filter vacuum and mop.

by Cusano Construction Company Inc. »

Natural wood floors finished with nontoxic oils are one of the smartest choices you can make in the nursery.

by Carousel Designs »

Whether you use new furnishings or hand-me-downs, a little maintenance will go a long way toward creating the healthiest room for your baby.

How And Why To Choose Low/No VOC Paint

Excerpted from : thegoodhuman.com

March 26th, 2009

You know that smell – that freshly painted room that looks great but gives you a headache. In fact, if I am gone all day long and it’s warm out, when I get home I can still smell the paint in my house from 4 months ago when the landlord repainted it prior to us moving in. That is how long the chemicals in “regular” paint can last! That is why when I painted a room in our old apartment in California, the last time I painted much of anything, I used a Low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paint, and I was amazed at the lack of overpowering smell. I was painting my home office with this paint and when I was done I actually went right to work, surrounded by drying paint. No headaches, no nothing. It was tremendous. Some VOCs are greenhouse gases and therefore contribute to global warming and others are just bad for your health. While a few VOCs occur naturally from cows and trees, many come from manufactured products such as paint thinners, paints and varnishes and dry cleaning solvents. These VOCs contribute to illnesses and have been determined to be a cause of ”˜sick building syndrome’. The EPA has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air to be 2 to 5 times greater than in outdoor air due to paint and other products. Lucky for us, major paint companies are now making low or no VOC paints we can use, which really reduce our exposure to these chemicals. 

Mythic Paint

– This low odor, zero toxicity paint from Mythic Paints is a non-toxic, ultra low odor paint that provides the durability and coverage you expect from a premium paint without the off-gassing VOC’s and cancer-causing toxins that emit years after drying.

Bioshield Natural Paint

– The BioShield collection of paints, stains, thinners and waxes is made primarily from naturally-derived raw materials including citrus peel extracts, essential oils, seed oils, tree resins, inert mineral fillers, tree and bee waxes, lead-free dryers and natural pigments.

While there are many other products available, the most important thing you can do is pick any one of them over your “standard” paint.  Picking one of these products is safer for you, your home, and our environment, so choose wisely next time you go to paint.

Purchase these and other earth-friendly products at World Class Supply