ROCKABYE BABY IN THE GREEN NURSERY; EXPOSURE TO PURITY STARTS IN THE CRIB.

Byline: Layne Steinhelper San Antonio Express-News 

Forget pink or blue. When it comes to outfitting your new baby's nursery, the choice is whether or not to go green - green as in ``Earth friendly.''

What could possibly be harmful about crib sheets decorated with fuzzy bunnies?

Plenty, say proponents of so-called green nurseries.

The chemicals used to grow the fiber and process the fabric may have wreaked ecological havoc. And the wrinkle-free, permanent-press finish may emit formaldehyde fumes.

Some skin-care products that include alcohol aren't ideal for babies either.

The lesson of a ``green'' nursery isn't lost on the Juvenile Shop in Sherman Oaks. The store has been carrying organic products as part of its larger nonorganic inventory for five years.

One of the Sherman Oaks store's most popular natural products is the Mustela skin-care line. ``It's natural, and it doesn't harm the baby's skin, and it smells good. I use it on my face,'' said Lauren Logan of the Juvenile Shop.

The Valley store carries three lines of organic bedding and clothes - Aware, I Play, and the Purist. Items include buttery soft flannel sheets, receiving blankets and clothes, all made of pure, unbleached cotton.

Polyester phobia 

Although some customers ask about organic products, Logan said most consumers just want to make sure the products are made of pure cotton, minus the taboo polyester.

``I only wear natural fibers myself. Why would I put my little boy in polyester?'' asks Cathy Ritthaler, manager of Beyond Conception, a shop in San Antonio that carries green products such as the Baby Organica line of organically grown, unbleached, undyed and otherwise chemically untreated sheets.

Ritthaler voices a chemical-free sentiment common to many of her customers.

A green nursery is most likely better for your baby. But is it worth the extra hassle - and expense?

Consider the formaldehyde fumes, known as ``off-gassing,'' one of the more thoroughly documented of potential health risks. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, formaldehyde belongs to a large group of substances known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which ``vaporize, that is, become a gas, at normal room temperatures.''

The CPSC goes on to state that at concentrations above 0.1 parts per million, the fumes can cause allergic reactions and symptoms ranging from sneezing to watery eyes. High levels may be carcinogenic.

The fact that newborns spend most of their time asleep, surrounded by furnishings that are often brand-new (when products are most likely to off-gas) suggests that the standard nursery may be filling a baby's head with more than sweet dreams.

On the other hand, there has not been discernible increase of formaldehyde-related ills reported by pediatricians, much less a plague.

The apparent contradiction may be explained by the fact that, according to the CPSC, the average formaldehyde concentration in an older house not insulated with urea-formaldehyde foam is usually ``well-below'' 0.1 parts per million.

In a house with ``significant amounts of new pressed wood products,'' however, the level can exceed 0.3 parts per million.

Hire a professional

The only way to know for sure how your house measures up is to hire a professional, such as Robert Miller of Argus Environmental Consultants in San Antonio. Before hiring a company to take formaldehyde air samples - which can cost about $75 - Miller suggests doing ``some detective work yourself.''

He stresses the importance of a good medical work-up to confirm that symptoms are environmentally related. Then he suggests scouting simple problems such as water leaks that could encourage molds and checking for possible irritants in dietary and cleaning products (unnecessary perfumes in laundry detergents, for instance).

Bear in mind that if off-gassing is the problem, it doesn't stop with the crib, or even the nursery.

There may be additional emissions from the pressed-wood cabinets in kitchen or bath, and carpeting throughout the house may be releasing, as Miller puts it, ``a whole soup of volatile hydrocarbons.''

Blowing smoke?

Dr. Robert Jacobs, a San Antonio allergist familiar with sick building syndrome, points out that because we are surrounded by such compounds in the modern world, putting a baby to sleep in a hardwood crib with organic sheets won't make an appreciable difference in the child's overall exposure.

Jacobs readily acknowledges that people find high levels of formaldehyde irritating. He cites, for example, the phenomenon of eyes watering in a fabric store. But Jacobs asserts that when concentrations fall within acceptable ranges, no definable formaldehyde-induced illness can be shown.

At the same time, Dr. Claudia Miller's research at the University of Texas Health Science Center indicates that a certain subset of the population does indeed report symptoms following low-level exposure to environmental chemicals ranging from solvents to disinfectants.

Some of these individuals may be genetically predisposed to such sensitivity. Others, she theorizes, may develop the sensitivity after repeated low or single high exposures to a particular toxic agent.

Miller, co-author of the book ``Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes,'' explains: ``Many of these are not compounds other generations have been exposed to.

``When we still know so little about their effects,'' she said, ``it makes sense to err on the side of caution.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) THINK GREEN

How to make your nursery environmentally safe

Cover design by Cesar Quebral/Daily News

(2) The lesson of a ``green'' nursery isn't lost on stores such as the Juvenile Shop. Its organic line includes buttery soft flannel sheets, receiving blankets and clothes, all made of pure cotton and unbleached.

John McCoy/Daily News

(3) The Juvenile Shop has been carrying organic products for five years.