Green Shopping: When to Turn Into Scrooge What in the world to buy for the holidays?
If that’s the question troubling you these days, here’s a way to narrow your list. Cross off these five environmentally harsh products. That’s the advice of Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet, an environmental consumer organization and publisher of The Green Guide newsletter, from which this list derives. 1. Vinyl (PVC) toys, raincoats, backpacks and teething rings A Greenpeace study found lead and cadmium in dust released from some of these products as they age. This summer, the Consumer Products Safety Commission recalled some backpacks and rolling luggage with high levels of lead in the painted decorations. In mid-November, Toys ‘R’ Us announced plans for the immediate worldwide removal of all direct-to-mouth PVC products for infant use – such as teethers, rattles and pacifiers – made soft and pliable with a dangerous substance called phthalates. Mattel and Gerber also intend to phase out the substance from their vinyl toys and baby-care products. 2. Cards and wrapping paper made
