You have seen the signs and claims as much as I have.  Nontoxic!  A sense of relief issues forth and we, more or less, feel we are safe.  It doesn’t matter what product we’re talking about, or what service, the fear or measure of security is there once we see the nontoxic claim.

Being a dry cleaner (Greensleeves) of a truly nontoxic and environmentally safe process and plant, and, I’ll admit, a bit of an environmental sentinel, I see the signs everywhere on dry cleaners.  Nontoxic!  I know better but the public does not and it irritates me to see these dry cleaners hanging out these nontoxic signs with utter impunity.  One store (or more) I’ve seen actually has a picture of Rainbow Trout swimming into a dry cleaning machine as a demonstration of how safe their solvent is.  The sign says, “So safe even Rainbow Trout can live in it.”

First their solvent is Isaparafin Hydrocarbon, a toxic synthetic petroleum distillate - like virtually all petroleum related substances.  Second, it is devoid of any free oxygen, a must for any fish to live in since fish need oxygen and they obtain it from the liquid they are ’swimming” in - their form of breathing.

This assaulted my sense of dignity as an environmentally safe dry cleaner that goes to great lengths to make sure every aspect of our plant and process is safe for the environment and, at the same time, gives us an outstanding cleaning without harming the environment, the person who wears it or our employees that do the cleaning.  The picture of those trout got stuck in my head.  I knew the claim was ridiculous but how could they get away with it?

Looking into it I found some rather disturbing “loopholes” in the country’s labeling laws.  Unless a substance is proven to be toxic through official studies and tests, it is considered nontoxic and can be so labeled.  The substance can be a deadly poison but unless it had been officially designated a toxic substance through proper studies it can be labeled, advertised, broadcast to the whole world that it is nontoxic.

Caveat Emptor.  Buyer beware, read between the lines.  Read the labels and get to the details.  Look for substances you don’t know and put the item back on the shelf.  Almost absurd advice in today’s world of products with so many chemicals or so many unfamiliar names that even a qualified chemist can’t tell you if everything in the product is safe 0r n0t.  And that’s just the way corporate America wants it.

The Good News. The internet has opened so many avenues of awareness to the common people like you and me that we can find out the real deal in a matter of seconds - if we take the time to look.  There are so many watchdog sites that are out there spreading the news and opening the truth to everyone that we have little excuse for purchasing a product or service that isn’t safe for us.  

One refuge of truth and a site I heartily recommend is focused on safety for products in the arts but covers many products and services. Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety  and the offer fact sheets on many substances here:   http://artscraftstheatersafety.org/datasheets.html

There are many other similar sites out there and if you can’t find information on the substance or service you are looking for, write to some of the people that run these sites, they’ll be glad to help.  Or write to me and I’ll do whatever I can to find the information for you.  

The important thing here is to not use or stop using  any service or product that has toxins in it.  It most certainloy is not good for your health.

Not to spoil your holiday, but there is a dark side of this day.  Turkeys raised on corporate game farms, hatched and caged in a production oriented environment, trapped in tiny cages, tubes jammed down their throat and force fed a carefully devised diet that fattens them up faster than you can say “gobble, gobble.”  

The cages they’re kept in and spend their entire life in are no bigger than their unnaturally fat white meat breasts because this keeps the meat tender.  Hormones have been eliminated from the diet because consumers now shy away from this additive but who needs hormones when you can force feed and confine? Sitting on your best china serving plate dripping with golden juices, stuffed with a family recipe stuffing and trimmed with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and followed with pumpkin pie, who stops to think of how our supermarkets are able to obtain enough delicious holiday turkeys for a nation of hundreds of millions of drumstick preferring people?

If you do decide to give up the turkey this year you will find you are a part of a growing number of caring intelligent souls that not only show their compassion for this doomed species but find themselves sitting in front of a far healthier meal also. 

There is a wide spectrum of alternative recipes for the main course on Thanksgiving.  In this time of economic struggle this change will also bring a fair savings for your efforts.  That is what I call a win-win situation!

 Passing on the traditional holiday turkey reduces the number of birds hatched and raised in deplorable conditions, most likely being replaced with a healthier main course like a vegetarian substitute and saving money to boot. Wow! Going green can be truly beneficial.

But wait!  There’s more.  

Try recycling and reusing.  Adding these much advocated activities to your green Thanksgiving adds to the environmental cause and also - again! - saves you money.  Big family get together?  Don’t reach for the paper plates and plastic utensils; instead use the tableware to its limits.  Fancy turkey depiction adorned red and brown and orange napkins by each setting?   Take out the cloth napkins instead. 

Most of all don’t go all out in setting the table.  Many families tend to spend days in the kitchen cooking so many different courses that no sane person would try to eat some of each and yet we all do.  The next day stomach aches abound and the left-over side dishes pack the refrigerator.  Leftovers are served for the next week or so and eventually a lot of food finds its way into the garbage – because it was simply too much.  Cut back a little this year; eliminating waste is the first maxim of living green.