Take Action: Earth Day Activities for Health

Looking for Earth Day Activities? Grab this free printable coloring page for kids. Help make Earth Day a day of ACTION as well as environmental awareness!

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The History of Earth Day

Earth Day is 46 years old! Did you know that it actually began as a day of action?

April 22 is widely known as a day for people around the globe to focus on the environment. But, in 1970, more than 20 million Americans took part in rallies and marches across the US to advocate for a healthy, sustainable environment.

Today more than a billion people around the world observe Earth Day hoping to change human behavior and public policy.

Change Your Products, Change the World

Earth Day has brought much-needed awareness to issues such as global warming, renewable energy, and environmental protection.

One important issue it hasn’t focused on? Dangerous chemicals in personal care products.

I began paying more attention to these substances when my dear friend, a young mother, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. What I learned was shocking!

The Shocking Facts

Companies in the United States can use almost any ingredient or raw material in their products without government review or approval. The European Union has banned more than 1,000 ingredients from use in personal care products; the FDA has only prohibited only 8!

Shocking Fact 1: These unsafe ingredients linked to cancer and hormone disruption have been found in teens and children in the United States.

Shocking Fact 2: Since teens tend to use a lot of personal care products they are at the greatest risk for health problems such as early onset puberty.

These facts convinced me to pay more attention to ingredient labels and select natural personal care products for my family.

Make Healthy Changes Today

Earth Day is a great day to take action and change your behavior! Clean unhealthy products out and find new healthy alternatives.

Step 1 – Read product labels and eliminate personal care items that contain:

• Parabens (often have prefixes Ethyl, Methyl, Butyl or Propyl)
• Polyethylene glycol (PEG, PPG, Cocoate), propylene glycol, polyoxyethylene, polyethoxyethylene, polyethoxyethylene mineral oil
• Petrolatum
• “Fragrance” (listed as an ingredient), DEHP, DHP, DBP 5, Dibutyl Phthalate, Diethyl phthalate, Phthalates
• Triclosan, Chloro, Phenol, Irgasan

Step 2 – Find healthy replacements:

• Use the EWG Think Dirty App to find product ratings.
• Check out Target’s Made to Matter collection which makes it easy to find healthy choices in personal care products.

Start Natural

I am crazy excited about the new Tom’s of Maine® products in the Made to Matter collection. My favorite new addition… Wicked Cool! Deodorant.

Why I am so thrilled by deodorant? Three great reasons:

1 – Wicked Cool! is free of artificial dyes & fragrances, aluminum, and parabens and is never tested on animals.

2 – It’s a natural deodorant made just for kids with fun designs and fresh scents.

3 – It’s a parenting win-win: kids use natural products AND they get to look more main stream when whipping natural deodorant out of a gym bag.

Wicked Cool! is only available at Target. Find it in the health and beauty section or on select Made to Matter end cap in cosmetics.

Earth Day Coloring Page

Let’s face it, kids will NEVER be excited to talk about deodorant or personal care products.

(Take a moment to imagine the eye rolls and melting into the floor posture …)

Ease the pain of the discussion with a free printable Earth Day coloring page (download the PDF in my free printable library). It helps kids gear up for Earth Day and creates a welcome distraction when chatting about healthy personal care.

Download the coloring page or coloring cards in the free printables library. Then, this April 22,  take action to make your family and the environment healthier!

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