Happy Halloween

I got a late afternoon treat that put a big smile on my face.

The FDA’s science board, a group of outside experts, voted unanimously to endorse a report that found major flaws in the agency’s decision to declare BPA safe.

The science board agreed with the finding that that the FDA was wrong to base its August decision that BPA is safe only on studies funded by the chemical industry. Excluded studies suggest that BPA, which acts like the hormone estrogen, could pose harm to children at levels at least 10 times lower than what the agency allows.

It is not good when an organization like the FDA lets itself get manipulated into approving a chemical by ignoring that it is harmful and instead focusing on the corporate interest and revenue.

I am so happy that the public outcry created the need for an independent review!

HERE is an article about the decision. Although, I will warn you, it is depressing to see how little the FDA did to ensure our safety. For example:

When measuring the amount of BPA to which babies are exposed from liquid infant formula, for example, the FDA used data from more than a decade ago and sampled only 14 liquid formula cans, all from the Washington, D.C. area. It also based its exposure estimate on the average BPA level. That could allow children fed from cans with above-average BPA levels to receive far more of the chemical.

I am sure you will be hearing more about this as the week goes on.

how do we make this stop?

I sit here everyday scouring the internet and magazines for articles and news that I think you need to know about. I find data and I ask you to stop using products made from GMO seeds, or made with HFCS, or release BPA into your body.

But what I am beginning to understand, and I hope you do to, is that whatever effect those items may have on you and your body, can be doubled, tripled, or gosh knows how bad on our poorer populations.

I wrote yesterday about BPA being in canned goods and the threat chemical companies made to food banks. I asked a simple question, which is worse, these people being without food or the food they get being laced with a slow releasing poison?

I fear that we all sit in our homes, reading these articles about toxins and think to ourselves…”I rarely eat food out of a can, so I am not going to worry” or “Shelley told me to get a SIGG bottle, so I don’t drink out of plastic anymore”. Well, isn’t that nice that it doesn’t effect us. But are we not responsible for ensuring that change occurs so that people that don’t have the information of resources don’t get hurt? And, don’t we end up being recipients of that change, as well, because we will have less resources being sent to medical costs?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I am one to ponder and ask and come to a necessary conclusion. This comes up because it seems of all the water bottles out in the world, WalMart manufactured water is the most poisonous, containing chemicals at a higher level than is legal in California. You can find the article HERE.

Now, you may think you would never buy WalMart water because you prefer AquaFina. Which is fine. But what about the latino family that can’t afford anything better? Or what about the school that buys that water for a field trip for the fourth grade class because it is the most cost effective?

If our voices are heard more loudly, then shouldn’t we speak up about what is right and wrong?

I’m just wondering where to start and how to make it stop. Any input would be cool.

this doesn’t seem good, at all…

Since I live in California this kind of bother’s me.

If we all didn’t have enough to worry about with hormone altering cosmetics, water bottles, and cans (click HERE, HERE or HERE.) Or, polar ice caps melting. Or, money. Now, we get some new acronym to worry about.

Seems that there are these things called PBDE’s.. which are fire retardent chemicals put in a whole bunch of things, mainly furniture and bedding. The levels of these toxins are 10 times higher in California that anywhere else. What’s worse is that we have it at twice the levels in our bloodstream than anyone else in the country.

“Levels in California homes were 10 times higher than those on Cape Cod, five times higher than those in Texas, six times higher than those in Washington, D.C., four times higher than those in Boston and 200 times higher than those in Europe, where the chemicals are used sparingly.”

HERE is the article. And, HERE is some information from Wikipedia.

speaking of chemicals

How many of you like Pinkberry?

You can be honest. I’m not going to judge.

However, I am going to tell you what’s in it. You see, about a year ago they were taken to court because they wouldn’t release their ingredient list and many people thought they should not be labeled yogurt. As yogurt, has to have actual yogurt cultures to qualify, as such. Pinkberry lost the case and listed their ingredients.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients? I have! Most everything seems fine… if you like ingesting maltodextrin and lactoglycerides. But there is one ingredient that stood out to me: propylene glycol.

I love me a good dose of anti-freeze in my desserts. Yummy! Want to know what else propylene glycol is used for:

* As a moisturizer in medicines, cosmetics, food, toothpaste, mouth wash, and tobacco products
* In electronic cigarettes to make the produced vapor better resemble cigarette smoke
* As a medical and sexual lubricant (A.K.A. “personal lubricant”)
* As an emulsification agent in Angostura and orange bitters
* As a solvent for food colors and flavorings
* As a humectant food additive, labeled as E number E1520
* As a carrier in fragrance oils
* As a solvent used in mixing photographic chemicals, such as film developers
* In smoke machines to make artificial smoke for use in firefighters’ training and theatrical productions
* In hand sanitizers, antibacterial lotions, and saline solutions
* In cryonics
* As a working fluid in hydraulic presses
* As a coolant in liquid cooling systems
* To regulate humidity in a cigar humidor
* As the killing and preserving agent in pitfall traps, usually used to capture ground beetles
* To treat livestock ketosis
* As the main ingredient in deodorant sticks.

I really hope this gives you second thought before you go get your frozen “treat”.

girls, girls, girls

In a way, I can’t even tell you how much this breaks my heart.

Young women already have so much to deal with… body image and beauty issues, getting a good education, being treated equally, pressure to have sex too soon, drugs, cigarettes, a false need to seem older than they are, boys… or girls, for the matter. I’m sure boys have just as much stress in their lives, but I would doubt that the pressures put on them silently kills them the way it does women.

A report from the Environmental Working Group has found that teenage girls have high levels of contaminating toxins that disrupt their hormone regulating system. All of this because of the large amount of beauty products they use.

Read the article HERE.

If you have any teen women (or men) in your life… talk to them. Ask them about the pressures they face. Be a parent or friend or mentor and give them advice, or just be a person they know is listening to them. And, if they really, really, REALLY are commited to wearing two tons of make-up, instead of letting their natural beauty shine through… take them on a shopping spree! To buy ORGANIC cosmetics.