The other day, my eight-year old daughter asked me when she could have a cell phone. Irritated at the mere thought of my precious one joining the masses of teenage texting/twittering junkies, I gave her my stock answer: “When you’re sixteen”. She was horrified, “but all my friends have them, at which my husband butted in with his usual, “and if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do the same?” She stomped out of the room. Battle to be continued. This pleasant breakfast conversation, however, got me thinking: Is a cell phone really the new cigarette? Kids are dying to have one and the moment they get it in their sticky mitts, they become completely addicted.

I car pool with one of my daughter’s friends and before this delightful nine-year old got her cell phone, we’d have fascinating conversations on the way to school, or they girls would sing along to Taylor Swift. Now a silence ensues as her neck is crooked down- 3 inches from the screen and her thumbs are like two little Sumo wrestlers going crazy. “You know that that cell phones are dangerous girls,” I stated, as I watched my daughter in the rearview mirror, drooling with envy, “they can give people cancer.” It seemed although they both ignored me and the Sumo wrestlers carried on doing their thing – later, however, I overheard my daughter telling one of her friends that “cell phones can make you sick,” and sadly, I think she’s speaking the truth.

As a Green Expert and a mom who tries to navigate her way through a world, where toxic pollution is inescapable, I feel a responsibility to delve a little deeper into a topic that the media has given little credence too. We’ve heard the odd reports here and there that cell phones could emit dangerous radiation and that some models are worse than others, but we tend to want to believe the Industry backed reporters, who tell us that they’re perfectly safe. Why? Because we’re addicted too, and don’t want to have to turn off our lifeline to feeling connected. Ironically, we’ve become totally disconnected from the pulse of life, and our awareness of what is really going on around us, is completely impaired when we’re on the phone. Numerous tests have shown that after a hands-free phone conversation in a car, the driver’s brain waves are similar to that of a seriously drunk driver! So should we take the warnings of the few scientists who manage to dodge the industry lobbyists and offer us their foreboding warnings about the biggest elephant in the room?

A pollutant is something that is harmful to nature and to oneself. As a Green Expert, I have spent many years investigating the many products that we handle and use throughout our day that could add to our “Body Burden” of toxic chemicals. Many of these chemicals are possible carcinogens and so is a cell phone. These little rectangles of technology that we talk into emit Electromagnetic Radiation, which could cause a plethora of adverse health effects, including brain tumors. Children are particularly susceptible because of the thinness of their skulls and because they have more brain fluid. There has been a 40% increase in brain tumors in children over the past 20 years, which correlates with the time that cell phones have been heavily in use. Interestingly there has also been a 46% increase in cell phone use in children between the ages of 8 – 12 in the past five years. Cell phones still emit EMR when not being talked into and can affect any area of the body where the phone kept, which is why it’s important not to allow a baby or a toddler to play games on your phone, and to always turn the it off when not in use.

Dr George Carlo, former lead epidemiologist of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, led a $25 billion study on cell phones and public health in the 1990’s. Dr Carlo says, “There are over 300 statistically significant findings showing an increased risk of tumors [from cell phone use]. There are about three or four statistically significant findings showing no increased risk. So it’s like 300 to four. Now how do you reconcile that with what you see in the news media? We have never had an exposure like this before. We’ve never had an exposure that’s dangerous that’s being sustained by four billion people (cell phone users worldwide). We’ve never had it in history.”

So as a girl who relies rather too heavily on her Blackberry (one of the worst EMR emitters,) and mother to a wannabe tweeter, what should I do? I usually try to live by The Precautionary Principle, whereby I won’t use something until it’s proven to be safe (the opposite is generally true in the U.S. in that something isn’t taken off the shelf until is proven to be harmful,) however cell phones have proven to be a huge exception in this case. The truth is, I can’t get by without one.

So unless I become a radical, or risk alienating my daughter forever, I need to exercise caution and this is what I do:

1: Turn off my phone when I’m not using it (a total pain, but actually quite a relief not to be bothered all the time.)
2. Always use the speaker- phone (unless in the car, where I have Bluetooth)
3. When at home, use a landline that’s connected to the wall or put my cordless phone on speaker (cordless phones are just as bad.)

This is what I would advise for a child:

1. Use only in emergencies!
2. Only use the speaker- phone and never put the phone to your ear.
3. Turn off the phone when not in use.
4. Install a landline connected to the wall in their room.

Watching Don Draper and his wife Betty on Madmen, puffing away morning, noon and night, reminds me that it was only fifty or so years ago when my parent’s generation thought that it was perfectly normal and not in the least bit unhealthy to smoke cigarettes all the time. When the warnings started to trickle in, I was a teenager and literally couldn’t live without my Marlboro Lights. All parental warnings seemed prudish and silly – it was something that anyone who was remotely cool did – and therein lies the problem: will it ever – can it ever become cool to not use a cell phone? I highly doubt it. I just pray that my daughter has the sense and awareness to understand the world she’s now living in, a world where cancer rates across the board have tripled over the past 30 years, and many of these diseases have been attributed to environmental causes. Living a Green life is less about eco-chic cell phone covers and more about wising up to the fact that almost everything we use can have a negative impact on the environment and especially our closest environment, which is our body. It’s a tough call to have to dodge the many bullets that we now face, and no one wants to become a Green zealot or a bore, it’s all about awareness and questioning. The greatest gift that my father gave me was to question everything that I was told – in particular what I saw on TV and read. With the cell phone industry being as powerful as it is, I’ll just have to encourage my daughter to do the same.

If you are as concerned as I am about the probable dangers of cell phones, try for one week to limit your use to the bare minimum. You may be pleasantly surprised how easy it is. A friend of mine dropped cell iPhone down the toilet last week and didn’t have time to get another. “It’s the most peaceful week I’ve had in years!” she told me. If the habit proves too hard to break, at least consider getting yourself an Air Tube Hands Free Set, which is apparently the only headset that can protect you from the dangerous rays.

Environmental Pollutants are just about everywhere, so unless you go live off- the- grid in an eco-community (and even then you’ll still get a few,) the most savvy thing you can do is to make a mental list of the worst offenders and then do something about it. If you lived in a community where the local water supply had been polluted with possible carcinogens, you would likely do something about it yesterday! Don’t ignore the elephant in the room and protect yourself and your family today from one of the most ubiquitous environmental pollutants around.

Many predict that in the not too distant future, we will be fighting over water, not oil. The problem is that the Earth isn’t generating the clean, drinkable water that it used to. The good news is that if we can use less and learn to protect our rivers, lakes and oceans, we may drink to see another day! So how can we really get a grip on our own personal situation?

There are many small changes that you can make today. Would you consider trying to cut down your home water consumption by half? Since the average American uses 151 gallons of water per day, and the French get by on just 71 gallons (Brits even less), it makes sense to give it a go. Here are some tips to get you started: Consider purchasing an Eco Drop. This is a British invention, which measures how much water you use when you shower. The little man icon displays how much water is pouring out and when you’ve used the recommended amount (which is pretty fair), a buzzer goes off for 5 seconds. Since I get carried away with all manner of scrubs and exfoliators in the shower, it makes sense to have, however annoying it is, that little man telling me when enough is enough. A shower used 2.5 to 4 gallons per minute for a conventional shower head. It might also be a good idea to get a low-flow shower head too. They are inexpensive an can cut down your water consumption by half.

The toilet uses 3.5 to 6 gallons per flush. That’s a lot of water. Consider:

a) A low-flow toilet

b) A dual flush toilet (where you press a different flush button for #1’s and #2’s)

c) Placing an old liter water bottle filled with small rocks into the toilet tank

A bath uses up to a whopping 60 gallons a day. That’s almost your entire water quota (if you’re going for 75 gallons). I am trying to give up the tub altogether, although I have to admit, it’s my biggest eco-sin.

Your Dishwasher uses 4 gallons per load if it’s Energy Star rated (6 if not). ONLY run when its choc full.

Watering your lawn can be the biggest waster of the lot. When running your hose, you are using 5 to 10 gallons per minute. Ugh – so when I’m only watering the planters on my patio, I can easily use up to 50 gallons on a hot day.

It makes sense to either rip out your lawn and landscape an edible front yard or have some eco-friendly artificial grass installed – a worthwhile investment. I love New Grass.

I’m all for the edible front yard. Even if you don’t want to rip up your entire front yard, you could build two or three raised beds and grow quite a few veggies. I’m currently teaching a Garden-To-Table class to the 6th Graders at a Charter School in Los Angeles. We have just built raised beds and last week we planted baby salad leaves and Arugula. When asking the kids, who doesn’t like lettuce, a few (many boys), raised their hands. That’s my Gorgeously Green Challenge this month: to persuade these foot-shuffling/eye-rolling dudes that baby salad leaves, drizzled with fruity olive oil and balsamic is heavenly.

Either way, even if its pouring with rain in your neck of the woods, consider the bigger picture and treat clean water as a limited and extremely precious resource.

I am crazy about composting. Each time I toss veggie scraps into the little ceramic compost crock on my kitchen counter, I am thrilled that every little morsel is going to good use.

We need good topsoil – the planet is desperately in need of it, which is why in countries like Sweden, composting is mandatory. It’s amazing to realize that topsoil is the earth’s skin and we are entirely dependent on it for our food supply. Over the past fifty years, much of the healthy soil that we used to have, due to intensive/conventional farming, has been rendered devoid of all the nutrients it needs to give us beautiful and healthy food. This is why so many of us now have to take a plethora of supplements. The crazy amount of veggies that you virtuously devour, are likely devoid of many of the minerals and vitamins that their ancestors possessed.

The best way that we can create the highest quality topsoil imaginable is to compost. All those scraps decompose into odorless brown gold. If you have a garden, you’ll be able to grow veggies bursting with goodness, and if you don’t have a yard, you’ll find someone who’ll take your compost in a jiffy.

So which compost bin is the best? I get asked this question weekly and I have honestly tried almost every model on the market. There are pro’s and con’s with all of them, however the Ecomposter is my current favorite and hard to beat for all it’s incredible attributes. It’s a bizarre looking globe on legs, which looks like something from outer space (in a cool way.) First and foremost nothing can get into it – so no more nasty furry surprises for those of us who have a few pesky friends running around our neighborhoods. Little finger like tubes direct oxygen right into the deepest recesses of the actual compost, which considerably speeds up the process. You’ll get good, rich compost in just 4-6 weeks. When you’re ready to get the compost out, you just roll the big green ball to the area of your yard where you want the compost, unscrew the lid and empty it out. It’s made of recycled plastic and is just fun to spin around every time you walk past it.

My husband and our stray cat Zoom were extremely cynical at first. My husband had had his fill of strange bins, “digesters” and worm towers appearing weekly in our yard, and Zoom was very partial to my old big black bin because of the hole in the back that had become the backdoor for a extended family of rats. After a few weeks, my husband was delighted with the new “space ship”, as nothing can get into it. Zoom, however, has abandoned his perch above the old bin. He has to content himself with chasing the sassy squirrels.

Now that I’m juicing daily (totally inspired by Kris,) I can empty the dregs, along with the paper filter, straight into the compost bin and know that this time next year, all that shredded carrot and beat mush, will be fertilizing my heirloom tomatoes – heaven!

Happy Composting,

Sophie Uliano