Hollywood Goes Green

Earth Day has come and gone, but for some Hollywood types, the lure of green continues to be enticing. For example, “Healthy Child Healthy World,” a new book from the Los Angeles-based advocacy group of the same name, written by Christopher Gavigan, the group’s chief executive — with an introduction by Meryl Streep and advice from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Sheryl Crow and Tom Hanks — urges parents to forgo chlorine bleach and ammonia for hydrogen peroxide and hot water as one of many steps to “creating a cleaner, greener, safer home.”

Actor Ed Begley markets his own line of “environment friendly” plant-based cleaners — Begley’s Best — guaranteed to biodegrade in a week or less.

And the Greening the Cleaning product line developed by Deirdre Imus, wife of radio jock Don Imus, contains corn- and palm oil-based cleaning agents, all clearly listed on the label. Imus and her husband founded a ranch for children with cancer as well as a pediatric oncology research center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Her concern that children with cancer were being exposed to potentially harmful chemicals in hospitals prompted her to create her line of cleaners. The Hackensack medical center is one of several healthcare facilities in the Northeast using her products.