Prevention
A healthy environment starts at home. Choosing non-toxic products and practices to clean your home and care for your yard and gardens is safer for people, pets and wildlife. Turn a critical eye on the labels of the products you use. Many people buy and stockpile cleaning and gardening products that are considered hazardous, without even knowing it. Look for these signal words on the labels: caution, warning, danger, poison, flammable, reactive, corrosive or toxic.
Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of these products, as their bodies and brains are developing rapidly. Their little bodies proportionately take in more potential pollutants, and their bodies may process them differently than adults.
- Learn to identify hazardous products.
- Reduce your use of toxic materials by buying only what you need, not more.
- Find non-toxic alternatives that work for your family.
- Dispose of hazardous waste properly, at WLSSD’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility.
The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District’s Healthy Homes program can offer presentations, workshops and an informational display to help demystify the process of identifying hazardous wastes in your home and offers local families ideas on simple ways to keep their homes clean and safe by using alternatives to toxic chemicals, plus disposal tips for unwanted products.
WLSSD provides a variety of Healthy Homes services to fit the needs of most any group:
- An informative display manned by trained, knowledgeable staff at health fairs or other events,
- 20-minute presentations for groups of any size.
- A 30-40 minute hands-on workshop, typically added to the presentation, allowing participants to visit several activity stations and mix up their own non-toxic cleaners to try at home!
For more information or to book a presentation or workshop, contact WLSSD’s Healthy Homes educator.
Funding for the Healthy Homes program is provided in part through a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program of the US Environmental Protection Agency.