Everything Kids

How many of our children's toys are electronic or battery-operated?

Did you know that to produce 240 microchips (ie a single six-inch silicon wafer) it takes:

• 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power,
• 9 kilograms of chemicals,
• 10342 litres of deionised water,
• 623 cubic centimetres of hazardous gases,
• 90 cubic metres of bulk gases,
• 11 kilograms sodium hydroxide,
• 28,404 litres of waste water, and
• 3.5 kilograms of miscellaneous hazardous wastes.

Our children are our greatest asset. Our future is determined by their attitudes, ethics, and practices. Their future is also determined by their health. We as parents, grandparents and caregivers need to ensure that our children grow up healthy, happy and environmentally and socially aware. This means our role is expanded to keep their environment as free from toxins and dangers as is practicable, and that they are aware of the social and environmental implications or consequences of their actions.

No easy job!!!!

Often the most difficult thing for us is to be aware and informed, so we can make informed decisions in relation to our children and their environment, and so we can support our children's acquisition of knowledge and understanding, in order for them to acquire attitudes, ethics and practices to support sustainable living into the future.

Keeping our children's environment as free from toxins as is practicable means we need to know what toxins they are likely to come into contact with. This means toxins in toys, in building materials and paints, in food and, food storage and packaging, in cleaning products, and in the food our children eat and the water they drink. We also need to understand the environmental and social consequences of toy production and disposal.

There is an absolute avalanche of toys on the market. Our children are bombarded with images and marketing persuasion daily. Many of these toy are either structurally unsafe, toxic, or environmentally unsound in manufacture or disposal, or have no educational/stimulative worth. Many countries have regulations which require labelling to assist consumers to know if toys are safe, but this labelling is misleading and incomprehensive.

As parents we can play an important role in supporting our children to be environmentally aware, spiritually aware and to develop compassion for all living beings.

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