Hey Stranger

Um, hi???? How freaking embarrassed am I. Deadbeat blogger! I was away last week, trying to squeeze another few days of recreation out of the end of the season, and I promise, I fully intended to blog my way through. But my sh*tty laptop and sh*tty wifi had other plans.

As nice as it was to be disconnected, I missed SMACK! It's good to be back. I just want to say up front, that this week will be a lot of catching up, plus the holiday weekend sneaking up on us, so I'm going to do my best to flesh out a few good posts.

I am actually a little excited to have found a new website devoted to lower-chemical living, www.safemarkets.org. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics ran the press release announcing it here. It looks pretty comprehensive, although the link to the parent organization, the Coming Clean Collaborative, is under construction. I would like to know more about both organizations.

In the meantime, though, it's worth checking out Safe Markets' page on flame retardants. For decades, these chemicals have been added to upholstery, apparel and other household textiles. I don't even want to think about the exposure. Seriously.

I'm reminded of the last couch we owned, this vile striped chenille thing that sagged in the middle and by the end was pretty much just a giant dog bed. I would joke, in the weeks that we waited for our new leather sectional, that I secretly wanted to burn the thing, but was afraid of the noxious fumes that would probably come out of it. Not so far off the mark, was I?? 

Back to Safe Markets. I like how the site presents information -- not too overwhelming or frightening, but informative enough to hopefully inspire some action. Very consumer-friendly. I'll definitely be visiting it regularly, and hope you do, too!

-- Jazzy