I am clearly not the target of this book. The writer's style got on my nerves. The choices of typesetting size and colors made all the side-bars very hard to read. The author recommended so many specific products is felt like a very long infomercial. And not once could I find any reference to how or why she comes to her conclusions.

This book may well be useful to someone - but not to me. I prefer a bit more science in my reference works. ( )

I have to admit...I had a hard time prying this book out of my husband's hands. When it arrived he scoffed it up and I was, "Hey, I need that to do my review!" He was all, "Just let me read this section, it has good information for building the yurt." So I guess you could say we both found this book to be a valuable resource for our family library. I did finally pry it out of his hands and I will now give a synopsis of BOTH of our impressions.

I must admit that reading it can be a bit overwhelming all at once but if you use it like a reference book it provides lots of useful information about the harm that can be done by the chemicals in various cosmetics and beauty products. Not to mention the horrors of sweatshops when it comes to making the clothes that we wear. It was helpful to have the green alternatives presented.

My husband's main complaint was a lack of footnotes for the statements made regarding the chemicals and the harm they can cause. He is a researcher at heart and would have liked more information. But overall he is very happy to have the book for a reference point. He has already found some internet sites leading him to different products for the yurt.

I think that once you get past the OMG factor the information given is good and it is important to keep the chemicals out of our bodies. And out of our ecosystem. ( )

I have made an effort the past few years to do my part, small though it may be, to be more environmentally aware and friendly in my daily life. I recycle most things, I do compost for my garden, I purchase more “green” products and try to buy locally and organically when possible. After reading Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Porducts & Services by Adria Vasil, I am now aware that there are so many simple and inexpensive ways to aid in a healthier environment not only for the planet but for my family.

Ms. Vasil is a columnist for Canada’s NOW magazine and has written a weekly “Ecoholic” column for five years. This book is a funny, easy to understand collection of the same ideas and insights included in her column. Ms. Vasil does not ask the you to run out and hug the nearest tree, donate your clothes and start knitting a hemp sweater or forgo bathing. She does provide quite a bit of eye-opening enlightenment which may make you examine your normal purchases and habits in a different light.

The book is divided into twelve sections such as home products, food, clothes, beauty, children and finances. Each section covers quite an array of material but the writing is to the point and gives an overview of both the bad and the good. Ms. Vasil explains what toxins are in make-up or cleaning products and she is not afraid to name names (as in name brands) of those that are guilty as well as highlighting those manufacturers that are taking some steps to make their products a little safer. She is also honest with the “good” products as well. When discussing nail polish and nail polish removers, she mentions one brand of remover that is 100% soy- and corn-based. Great except for the massive headache it caused. Since regular nail polish remover causes my eyes to water and sinuses to freeze, I would probably look into the natural remover. I may still have the headache but I don’t have to worry about the dogs or cats accidentally knocking over the bottle and sneaking a taste. I enjoyed the quick pace of this book. It was not full of extraneous information, history or examples. It is more like a field guide then an encyclopedia. This also means there is not much in the way of explaining from where Ms. Vasil found her information or many details as to exactly why something is not green. Short, simple and humorous is the name of the game. And it works.

Yes, lurking in your cozy abode are some serious pollutants that can make the indoor air quality in a house worse than a smog-alert day. They’re hiding in your cookware, cleaning products, coffee table, and candles. They’re even building up in household dust (which is a problem when you dust as infrequently as I’ve been known to) and settling in your tissues. (page 162)

The index at the end of the book is wonderful as is the glossary and a list of national environmental organizations. Ecoholic is not a bible for environmentalism. It is an everyday reference tool, fun to read and easy to implement.

I not only had a great time reading this book, the website is fantastic! There is a link to Ms. Vasil’s NOW column as well as the Echolic facebook group, a weekly podcast, episodes of Ecoholic TV, updates to information in the book, and a list of “kick ass websites”.

I would like to thank Julie from FSB associates for giving me the opportunity to read this enlightening book. I certainly learned a thing or two or three. Julie was also gracious enough to send me Ms. Vasil’s latest article. Take a look if you pack your lunch for work or for the kiddos.

Save Cash and Trash: Packing Healthier Waste-Free Lunches
By Adria Vasil,
Author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services

I won’t lie. I loved my juice boxes, pudding cups and classic cream-stuffed snack cakes as a school kid — but they were all wrapped in plastic destined for the lunchroom garbage can (not to mention totally unhealthy!). Add them all up and a typical student trashes a whopping 70 pounds of lunch packaging every year!
Now, what if instead of reaching for pre-packaged munchies, parents everywhere bought snackables in bulk and placed them in their own reusable containers? By god, we’d have a lunchtime revolution! In fact, if every student packed a zero-waste lunch, we’d save 1.2 billion pounds from landfill a year. You’ll also be saving some serious coin (since individually wrapped foods tend to cost more) and coincidentally cutting out many of the not-so-healthy heavily processed ingredients that often come with pre-packaged snacks.

So how do you lighten your lunch load?

* Say goodbye to disposable plastic baggies. Get reusable sandwich-size sacks like Lunch Skins (3greenmoms.com). They’re perfect for, yes, sandwiches, as well as chopped up veggies like carrots, peppers and celery.
* Buy yogurt, dried fruit, snackables like pumpkin seeds or even organic cookies in bulk, then pack them in reusable food containers (just not the kind made of clear, shatterproof polycarbonate plastic since those contain hormone disrupting bisphenol A — the same stuff that made headlines in clear plastic baby bottles).
* Pass on pricey, packaging-heavy drinking boxes and buy juice in large cartons/jugs. Pour a single portion into a polycarbonate-free drink canister like Thermos’ Foogo (keeping in mind that a stainless steel container of tap or home-filtered water is way healthier than a shot of sugary, nutritionally dead boxed OJ).
* Pour last night’s soups and even stews in an insulated thermos for a homemade meal on the go.
* Don’t forget to toss a cloth napkin and, if necessary, washable cutlery into your lunch box.

Keep the lead out of lunchtime
Speaking of lunch boxes, stay away from anything made of vinyl, aka PVC. Back in 2005, California’s Center for Environmental Health filed a lawsuit against some big-name makers of soft PVC lunch cases (including Toys”R”Us, Warner Brothers, DC Comics and Time Warner) after testing revealed that their products contained high levels of lead.

Better to go for all-natural cloth or even nylon.You’ll find a bunch of alternatives online at sites like www.reusablebags.com (think funky organic and recycled cloth bags, stainless steel containers and compartmentalized bento-box-style Laptop Lunch kits).

Move the message school-wide
Once you’ve got the knack of trash-free lunches, why not spread the message throughout your child’s school? Consider forming a zero-waste lunch committee. If you’ve got a keen teacher on your side, you might even get students to kick things off with a garbage audit (think garbology 101). That means measuring how much trash goes in bins before and after lunch hour. The mini researchers can put on rubber gloves and note what kind of disposables are taking up the most room.
Raise cash for trash
Whatever you do, don’t let any disposables that you and other parents might still use end up in landfill. Talk to your kid’s school about saving them up and sending them packin’ to be made into purses and pencil cases! Once you’ve collected a bunch of branded drink pouches, candy/cookie/energy bar wrappers, chip bags and yogurt cups, ship them off to TerraCycle and the upcycling company will give you 2¢ to 5¢ per package for your trouble (terracycle.net). Call it a cash-for-trash fundraiser and you’ll be garbage-free in no time!

©2009 Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services

Author Bio
Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products & Services, is a best-selling author and journalist for Canada’s NOW, where she has been writing the “Ecoholic“ column for five years. She lives in Toronto.

For more information please visit www.ecoholicnation.com ( )

Adria Vasil has written a super guide to the most planet friendly products and services. as well as information on how and where to get them.
This is a book everyone should read. It covers earth friendly issues from diapers to driving, water to makeup, home improvements to cleaning supplies. It names names and explains why we need to make better choices. Ecoholic does not preach, but gently teaches while you read. This book covers everything you need to live an environmentally friendly life.

I love the fact that so many small changes could make such a big difference, if we could get more people to get with the program.

If I had one criticism, it has nothing to do with the content, but the info pop-ins are in dark green with black print and are very difficult to read.

I learned so much reading this book, and though I have barely made a dent (using curly florescent bulbs), but I am going to make some changes. If everyone read this book and followed some of Vasil’s advice, we might all live on a better planet. ( )

This book has lots of good, solid, up-to-date information, mostly applicable across Canada. It provides a lot of sources to learn more and is generally sensible, reliable, and sometimes even entertaining. It loses a star (and if I were grumpy today, it would lose two) for consistently recommending "alternative" medicine (including the completely worthless homeopathy), even for pets. It's bad enough when it's something you're inflicting only on yourself, but to inflict it on a pet is horrifying. "Alternative" medicine is environmentally worse than real medicine because it uses up resources without providing any more results than a placebo. Real medicine has its issues, but at least it works. At any rate, the remainder of the information is solid. ( )