Prevention Prevention involves storing all detergents, gasoline, paints, glues, thinners and other household products in locked or inaccessible cabinets. These products should never be used in enclosed spaces and areas should be thoroughly ventilated after using the product. Even with adequate room ventilation, it is probably prudent to avoid exposing children altogether (see case 4, below). Tell parents to avoid taking children to beauty salons and to keep them away from newly renovated rooms that may contain exhaust solvents from carpet and wallpaper glues. Laundry should be aired in the yard or in an open garage for a day before being brought indoors, and car windows should be opened when transporting freshly dry-cleaned clothes. w). As at home, art materials used at school should not be toxic. “Acceptable Art and Craft Materials for Children,” a list of 2,500 non-toxic art materials, is available from the California Department of Health Services.34 Clinicians should be alert to parents who may be exposing their children to solvents in the home through a hobby series. , including screen printing, furniture restoration, model building, and illegal drug labs (a growing problem in some communities).35 Finally, during the well-child interview, children should be screened for any drug abuse, including the use of "legal" drugs. substances such as solvents. The best way to dispose of solvents is to use them as intended. Otherwise, solvents should be treated as hazardous waste and disposed of through a licensed hazardous waste handler.36 ”The interesting thing about this advice to try to avoid any contact with chemicals in our lives is that it is impossible. If a breastfed baby can't avoid toxins, none of us are. For one day I committed to reading the labels of the products I used and the food I ate. I found that most of the ingredients I couldn't pronounce and had no idea why they were in the product or what they were used for. I also learned that most of what I use and consume contains high fructose corn syrup or sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate. I don't think it's necessarily good, but I just hope it's not really bad. From now with Bill Moyers, transcript:MOYERS: Of the approximately 3,000 high-volume chemicals in use in this country today, only 43% have even been minimally tested. Only about 10% have undergone extensive testing to examine their potential effects on the body part being prepared on the day of development.