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This Halloween, there’s no need to make your child a toxic avenger by covering them in vinyl masks, PVC costumes or carcinogen-laden makeup. Send your kid out to scare the neighbors in style with these better choices and safety tips.

Safe Trick-Or-Treating

• Make sure your kids can both see and be seen. Avoid masks, hats and hoods that obscure vision.
• Small children should wear lighter colored clothing to increase visibility.
• If your older child is wearing a dark costume like the perennial favorite Darth Vader, be sure he or she also carries a bright flashlight (or a lightsaber). Also, avoid costumes that are too long and might cause your child to trip.

Glow Sticks
Light sticks are popular accessories on Halloween. They provide visibility to kids walking in the dark and, when used correctly, don’t pose a health risk to your children. However, if the exterior plastic is punctured, the materials inside glow sticks—a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, oxalic phthalate and fluorescent dye—can leak, causing skin irritation and may pose a health risk if ingested. Furthermore, glow sticks are made of non-recyclable materials, and fluorescent dye is not something we need accumulating in landfills.

Pumpkins
For younger kids, Hearthsong makes a pumpkin decorating kit that doesn’t require knives. Instead, the package includes colorful wooden features that children can safely stick into pumpkins to make faces. A parent should still supervise and help make holes with a screwdriver for wood dowel inserts ($21.95, hearthsong.com).

The Horror of Vinyl Costumes
Many Halloween costumes and masks are made from a truly horrifying substance: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a.k.a. vinyl.

Vinyl really makes me scream, because of the damage it wreaks at every stage of its life cycle, from fabrication through use to disposal. Moreover, soft vinyl products usually contain phthalates, substances that pose potential risks to human health and to normal fetal and child development. Watch for vinyl as well in wigs or in shiny leather-ish belts and boots.

For alternatives:

• Costumes often come wrapped in PVC packaging and accompanied by a PVC mask. (You know the smell: eeeww). To avoid both, check out the creepy costumes without masks available from Disney and California Costumes (available at big box stores like Toys ’R Us).
• Raid your closet for old clothes that younger kids can fashion into costumes. Remember being a ghost or hobo every year?
• Harrison’s Halloween (harrisonshalloween.com) makes 100 percent natural (not organic) cotton costumes for babies.
• Playstore offers satin princess hats, cotton doctor’s outfits and felt swords, see "active play" at playstoretoys.com.
• Hearthsong makes nylon fairy and butterfly wings that can be put on with straps ($11.95, hearthsong.com).

Children under five, and most people for that matter, will find it more comfortable and safe to trick or treat without a mask.

As with regular makeup and personal care products, the Halloween makeup found in conventional drug stores-white, green, and black cream makeup, multi-colored makeup crayons, and fake blood-contain a number of suspect ingredients.

A Little Label Reading
Reading labels may save you some future pain and heartache. Many types of makeup are labeled “non-toxic,” “safe” and “allergenic,” however, these Halloween makeup products contain ingredients such as these listed below that may add to the body’s exposure burden and contribute to long-term health effects such as cancer or endocrine disruption. Thanks to the Green Guide for this helpful information. With a little extra attention, we can make this Halloween fun and safe.

Steer clear of costumes that include:
Parabens. Preliminary evidence suggests that parabens (methyl-, propyl-,ethyl, butyl-), widely-used as preservatives, act like estrogens and may disrupt normal hormone functions.

BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) is a preservative and antioxidant that is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” according to the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s 2005 11th Report on Carcinogens. BHA is also a suspected hormone disruptor, and may act like estrogens in the body.

Phthalates have been found to produce cancer of the liver in lab animals and linked to changes in the genitals of boys born to mothers with high phthalate levels. Look out for “fragrance” in ingredient lists, a blanket term the industry uses to cover trade-secret components including phthalates. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, fragrance is the number-one cause of allergic reactions from cosmetics and phthlates have been linked to asthma and other respiratory ailments.

Formaldehyde is a preservative commonly found in nail polishes, eye shadows, mascaras and other cosmetics. Formaldehyde is listed as a “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” in the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s 2005 11th Report on Carcinogens.

A few safety-minded companies or some home cooking will allow you to say “Yes!” to scariness and “No!” to scary makeup.

Burt’s Bees, Real Purity, Logona, and Sante Kosmetics produce makeup to terrify friends without risking your health. Check natural supermarkets and health food stores or online at holisticbeauty.net. To avoid the risk of ingestion, however, do not apply any cosmetics to babies and young kids. Options include:

Earth’s Beauty eyeliner can be used by parents to draw whiskers or other designs on children’s faces ($10.50, earthsbeauty.com)

Burt’s Bees lipstick can stripe cheeks as well as rouge lips ($9.50, burtsbees.com)

Fact Source: greenguide.com

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