Everything Changes - The Guide to Young Adult Cancer

Cancer-Free Trees Please
I like to get the skinny on how to raise healthy kids because let’s face it, many cancer patients have the brittle immune system of an infant or a toddler. What’s good for the bodies of the knee biters and rug rats is often good for young adult cancer patients too.

Far be it for me, a Jew, to tell you what to do with your Christmas tree. But let me at least throw some information your way.

Today I read on the Healthy Child Healthy World blog, a post about pesticides and Christmas trees. The Environmental Protection Agency has approved for use on Christmas Trees pesticides that are linked to cancer, hormonal disruption, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as a host of other less than enticing bodily diseases and malfunctions.

My goal here is not to sound the sirens of enviro-paranoia. Has a Christmas tree ever killed someone? I bet not. (Well maybe electrocution, but I doubt cancer.) My hunch is that most often it is not one singular toxic event that causes environmentally triggered cancer, but rather a collection of exposures from multiple sources over a period of time.

So what to do about the toxic tree dilemma:

1. Nothing. Sit back and enjoy the glow.
2. Keep your tree around for two weeks instead of until valentine’s Day.
3. Wash you hands after touching your tree and before touching food.
4. Check out Beyond Pesticides to learn more about purchasing an organic Christmas tree or wreath.

How do you usually decorate your home for the holidays? Do you have any other suggestions for those who want to forgo a toxic tree?