Environmental Health
That time of year has come again: school supply shopping. My daughter and I had plenty of company doing our back to school shopping this afternoon. It seemed as if all of Needham and Newton had descended on Staples!
So there we were along with dozens of others picking out markers, pencils, glue and folders and I found myself wondering: Are these products safe? And how would I know?
A little research confirmed my suspicions that back-to-school supplies–like many consumer goods–are chock full of industrial compounds. Products like markers, crayons, notebooks and lunchboxes contain chemicals that have been associated with a range of diseases including allergies, asthma, cancer and behavioral disorders.
Chemical reform legislation that is making its way through Congress will hopefully change this, and put the burden on industry to prove that chemicals are safe before they go to market, as well as pull those suspected or known to be hazardous.
But in the meantime, I return to my original question: how are we to know which markers, notebooks, and lunchboxes are safe?
Fortunately, there are a couple of great resources we can turn to for help answering this question:
- The Environmental Working Group has put together a series of Healthy Home Tips to help families choose safe, non-toxic products. Their Back to School Guide offers great tips for how to keep toxins out of your kids’ schools supplies.
- The Center for Health, Environment and Justice has also created a guide focused on avoiding PVC. PVC is one of the most toxic plastics and yet is found in a wide variety of consumer goods, including those designed for children. Examples include backpacks, lunchboxes, and three ring binder. You can download CHEJ’s guide by clicking here and find out more about PVC by clicking here.
Happy & healthy shopping!
When you hear the word pollution what image comes to mind? Perhaps it’s oil washing ashore the gulf coast, or power plants spewing black smoke, or smog hovering over congested freeways.
Back when I was a kid we learned that pollution was a threat to the great outdoors: damaging habitats, rendering waterways unsafe for swimming, and sullying the beauty of the natural world. We also learned that we could do something: Woodsy Owl encouraged us to “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute!” We picked up trash and learned to recycle; and our government passed groundbreaking legislation—such as The Clean Air Act—that has gone a long way towards cleaning up our outdoor air and waterways.
But while we’ve been cleaning up the outdoors, another form of pollution has reared its head. It’s called indoor pollution and it has seriously compromised the health of our homes, schools, offices and other indoor spaces. Here are the grim facts:
- “Body Burden” studies conducted by the CDC have detected over 200 industrial chemicals in the blood and urine of test subjects. Many of these chemicals—including the now infamous BPA—are common in consumer products.
- Almost every week a new study comes out linking chemical exposure to a wide range of health risks from asthma and allergies to cancer to developmental disorders. Click here and here for examples.
While we no longer behave like the Drapers in Madmen, shaking picnic remnants onto the ground, we still have a serious pollution problem on our hands.
The good news is that Congress is finally acting to protect our health. The Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 would require safety testing of all industrial chemicals and give EPA greater authority to pull chemicals that are deemed a threat. You can voice your support for a strong bill by calling your representatives in Congress.
And here’s another piece of good news. When we change our behavior we reduce our exposure and our body burden. We don’t need to and shouldn’t wait for Congress to act. We can begin right now to make choices that will make a difference for our health & the environment. Here are some tips to help you get started:
By now, you’ve probably heard that many of the harsh chemicals that we spray, wipe, and scrub our homes with are not so good–for us or the planet. But maybe you’re a little fuzzy about why or what you should do to protect yourself and maintain a modicum of cleanliness.
First, here are some reasons why many of the ingredients in conventional cleaners aren’t so good (for more information see Healthy Child, Healthy World):
- Some (such as ammonium quaternary compounds and phthalates) are associated with asthma and allergies.
- Some (such as phthalates and llkyl phenol ethoxylats or APEs) are suspected or known endocrine disruptors.
- Some are suspected or known carcinogens (such as diethanolamine or DEA).
- Some form toxic byproducts when exposed to other compounds, or may be contaminated by toxic byproducts (for example, chlorine reacts with organic matter in drinking water to produce trihalomethanes, which may cause cancer and possibly developmental effects).
- Some pollute are water ways and are harmful to acquatic life (such as phosphates and EDTA).
- And some have been associated with more than one health and/or environmental concern.
Unfortunately, full ingredient disclosure is neither required nor common practice for household cleaning products, making it very difficult to find out exactly what is in these products. Adding insult to injury, many manufacturers have rushed to fill the growing market for green cleaners with products whose credentials are questionable and/or difficult to vet and verify.
In the face of this, The Natural Products Association has just stepped in with a voluntary standard and certification for natural home care products. The NPA standard is a vast improvement over the current state of affairs, providing a guaranteed level of protection against exposure to toxins.
But it does not–surprise, surpise–provide everything that a health and environmentally-conscious consumer would want. For example, the antibacterial triclosan is allowable under the standard even though it has been linked to a host of health and environmental concerns including endocrine disruption and the development of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Of course, no standard is perfect, and I suspect that an imperfect standard is better than none at all.
In addition, there is a lot that an educated consumer can do to protect herself from chemicals in cleaning goods without relying on a standard. Advocates for local and sustainable food often advise consumers to “know your farmer.” Well I’d like to give the same advice for cleaning products. It is possible to “know your cleaning product manufacturer.” Of course it probably won’t be as personal but you can find out a lot of dependable information from conscientious, environmentally responsible companies that fully disclose all ingredients, like Seventh Generation and Ecover. In the absence of full ingredient disclosure you can generally trust specific claims, like “chlorine free” or “no petrochemical ingredients.”
Perhaps even easier and much less costly, you can also make your own cleaning products from natural & non-toxic household staples such as lemon, baking soda, vinegar and salt. In my house we use a mix of packaged and homemade cleaning products. There’s been some trial and error as we’ve tried to find and make products that we like. We started with Seventh Generation laundry detergent but have since switched to Ecover. We made our own floor cleaner from vinegar and water but we’ve since added a little Ecover floor soap to the mix. We have had only moderate success using baking soda and vinegar to open clogged drains but refuse to use chemical drain opener. So there’s a learning curve and an adjustment process–but I’d rather this than breathing in allergens, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.
If you’d like to give DIY cleaners a try here are some resources to get your started
Here’s the bad news: Almost every day there are new studies linking exposure to toxic substances to health risks–from autism to asthma to infertility to cancer (You can keep up-to-date with the latest science by subscribing to Environmental Health News). The continual onslaught is especially depressing when coupled with the results of biomonitoring studies (like the CDC’s National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals) that identify widespread exposure.
But here’s the good news: Finally, Congress is moving to pass national legislation that will protect citizens from toxins in consumer products. Recognizing that the Toxic Substances Control Act is woefully outdated, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced a bill to radically reform the existing law and put the onus on manufacturers to prove safety before they bring products to market.
You can stay abreast of what’s happening on the national level by following the Safer Chemials Blog. In the meantime, continue to do what you can to reduce your own exposure. There are some great resources out there that can help including
- Healthy Child, Healthy World, a non-profit working to help parents protect their children from environmental health hazards.
- Healthy Stuff, an organization that tests consumer goods for chemical components and publishes the results online.
- Skin Deep, a cosmetics database that rates the safety of personal care products based on testing and research done by The Environmental Working Group.
- Smart Guides published by the Institute on Agriculture and Trade Policy on topics such as plastic safety and hormones in the food system.
It seems that everywhere we go our kids are being tempted by–even bombarded with–opportunities to consume excessive amounts of sweeteners, salt and bad fats (partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oil). Unfortunately sweeteners, salt and bad fat aren’t the only things we need to watch out for in junk food. There are a host of chemicals added to processed food–either to extend shelf life, to “enhance” flavor or to make the food more visually appealing–that make them even more unhealthy. For example, several chemical food dyes have been linked to hyperactivity in children.
The best way to reduce your intake of chemical additives is to eat as much whole food as possible, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. And make sure you read the ingredient lists of all processed food you buy–the shorter the list, and the more ingredients you recognize on it, the better. Finally, check out the report, “Chem Cuisine,” published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and try to avoid additives considered to be unsafe.
So you’ve heard that idling is bad for the earth, that it isn’t “green”. But did you know that idling your car contributes to health problems? Even with advanced emissions controls, cars and light trucks (not to mention large trucks) emit pollutants such as carbon monoxide, ground level ozone and particulate matter that can contribute to headaches, asthma and allergies. And did you know that idling wastes fuel? In fact, you use more fuel idling for 10 seconds than you turning off and restarting your engine. 10 seconds! Add to this the fact that idling (for more than 5 minutes) is illegal in MA and there are lots of reasons for each of us to idle no more.
You’ve transitioned to BPA-free baby bottles and water bottles. But did you know that canned food liners also contain BPA? Last year, Globe and Mail tests of canned food revealed disconcerting results: BPA concentrations in tomato sauce were 18.2 parts per billion, 6.2 ppb in kid’s ravoli, and 14.1 ppb in tomato juice. These numbers may not seem high, but scientists are concerned that concentrations of even 1/2 part per trillion may be enough for this estrogen-like chemical to disrupt our endocrine system–the effects of which are not pretty. BPA exposure has been linked to many different diseases including breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease (to name just a few). And scientists continue to discover more health impacts all the time .
What is a consumer to do? As a green lifestyle consultant my advice (and my own practice) is to choose fresh, dried, and frozen food over canned food (for example, I soak my own beans whenever I can). When I do need to buy preserved food, I either choose canned food from Eden Foods and Trader Joes, which use BPA-free can liners or I choose food preserved in glass jars (although food preserved in glass jars may also be tainted with BPA that has migrated from their metal lids, albeit at much lower levels).
Clearly we consumers will not be able to solve this problem by simply “voting with our pocketbooks”–although this is certainly an important and powerful tool. We need our government to at the very least regulate BPA, and ideally ban it (which Japan has done) rather than continue to regurgitate industry greenwashing (click here to read the FDA’s position on BPA).
As the West Nile virus season kicks into high gear (according to the CDC, most cases occur during late summer and early fall), it becomes more important to protect ourselves against mosquito bites. But you may not want to spray yourself with DEET every day either (I know I don’t!): although considered safe for usage in small quantities by CDC & EPA, some studies have shown detrimental health effects in regular users. On the other hand, mosquito-born diseases like West Nile can be very dangerous. Fortunately, there are two alternatives that provide protection comparable to repellents with low-levels of DEET. First, there is Picardin, which is considered healthier than DEET. And there is an effective plant-based repellent, lemon oil eucalyptus (click here to read more). Of course it also helps to stay inside at dusk and dawn when mosquitos are most active and to wear long clothing is mosquito-heavy areas.
Much of the furniture that is on the market today contains potentially harmful chemicals including (but not limited to):
- formaldehyde, often present in wood products
- chemical flame retardants, often applied to mattresses and upholstery
- chemical stain treatments, often applied to clothing and upholstery
These and other chemicals that are present in our furniture have been linked to many health problems including cancer, reproductive harm, and developmental harm (for more information about some of the health risks associated with home furnishings click here and here).
Thankfully there are healthier alternatives, many of which can be found online at the Green Home Guide’s furniture know-how section.
Bostonians and metro-Bostonians may wish to check out Furnature in Waltham, a family-owned business that has been committed to providing people with healthier, less toxic furniture, mattresses and bedding for almost twenty years.
If you aren’t already using mineral sunscreens, you might want to consider making the switch this summer season. Mineral sunscreens protect from the sun by physically blocking UV rays from reaching your skin (hence the white tint that they leave on your skin). Chemical sunscreens, on the other hand, work by chemically absorbing UV rays once they reach your skin. Research has shown that several of these chemicals research have estrogenic effects, potentially disrupting users’ hormone systems. Chemical sunscreens also frequently contain a host of other potentially harmful ingredients, including parabens, phthalate laden chemical fragrances, and urea preservatives.
The Green Guide’s Sunscreen Buyers Guide offers more information about the problems with chemical sunscreens as well as product recommendations for mineral sunscreen (I personally use Alba Botanica Fragrance-Free Mineral Sunscreen, available at Whole Foods). Maybe the white tint that mineral sunscreens leave on your skin isn’t so bad after all…
Another good resource is the Environmental Working Group’s 2009 Safe Sunscreen Guide (updated 7/13/09).
That time of year has come again: school supply shopping. My daughter and I had plenty of company doing our back to school shopping this afternoon. It seemed as if all of Needham and Newton had descended on Staples!