About three and a half years ago I decided to go public with the idea of writing a book. Most of the people I told were pretty encouraging- except my friend Josh. When I told him about my plans he immediately said ‘You should make an App.’ I think I was vaguely aware that he wasn’t asking me to whip up a light snack before dinner- he was talking, back in 2007, about an app for mobile phones. Josh was on to something.
After the book came out last December, I created a handy little wallet card to hand out at books talks. The card lists the ‘Dirty Dozen’ and ‘Clean Fifteen’ produce items, along with a guide to making safe fish choices and a recipe for homemade all-purpose cleaner. I kept one in my own wallet because I had a hard time recalling all the pesticide load information while I was at the grocery store – organic asparagus? Plums? Alaska Salmon or Atlantic? Between the card becoming dog eared and difficult to extract, and the possibility of a wide reach with a mobile phone app I decided it was time to distill the Greening Your Family book into an app.
Apple released the Greening Your Family app on June 4th, 2010. It’s available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad and sells for $2.99. The description that appears in the App Store is reproduced below:
Practical Guide to Greening Your Family
The Greening Your Family app is a road map for making safe product choices for yourself and your family. Do you wonder if you should buy organic or conventionally grown apples? Want to know which fish varieties have the least environmental contaminants? What about the safest brands of children’s shampoo or toothpaste to buy? This app answers all of these questions and more.
The app is designed to make it easy for you to minimize your family’s exposure to harmful chemicals found in many of the products that line the grocery store shelves. It’s based on the award-winning book titled Greening Your Family, by Lindsey Carmichael, MPH.
Features:
- Extensive information covering three broad categories: food, personal care and cleaning products
- Recommendations for safe brands of products in each category
- Information about ingredients to avoid in conventional products
- Detailed information about labels on food, cleaning and personal care products
- Ability to create a ‘favorites’ list for quick access at the store Easy social network integration for Facebook and Twitter
- Updates ensuring current information about the ever changing green products landscape
- Safe Guide to Plastics for foods
- Guide to House Plants That Purify the Air in your home
- Table of the top 15 ingredients to avoid in personal care products
