Toxic Chemical Soup - Part 1 Toxic Chemical Soup - Part 2 Toxic Chemicals in Your New Mattress Courtesy of the CPSC       Dangerous Flame Retardants - CBS News Part I White Gold - The True Cost Of Cotton storyofstuff.com       WATCH !! Kids Bathroom Products Contain Cancer causing Agents !!!!! Baby's First Home The Conventional Trap

2008 Toy Recalls

Recall Information

ABC's of Plastic
Navigating the world of plastic can be confusing at times, frustrating at others, and can leave you with more questions than you originally had when beginning your quest for answers.

An interview with green pediatrician Alan Greene
If you were to give a check-up to Alan Greene, eco-pediatrician extraordinaire, you just might diagnose him with ASHD -- Attention Surplus Hyperproductivity Disorder. It isn't a real disorder, of course. But whatever Greene's got -- whatever blend of vim and vision allows him to stay at the cutting edge of environmentalism and e-medicine while also writing books, doctoring, and being a 100-percent-organic-food-eating father of four -- well, it's something that's helped the world get better.

Assessing exposure to atrazine and its metabolites using biomonitoring
New research by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control indicates that the analysis the CDC has used to estimate human exposure to atrazine and atrazine-related breakdown products has strongly underestimated its extent.

Bisphenol: A Controversy
In February 2007, the public advocacy group Environment California Research & Policy Center published a report titled Toxic Baby Bottles: Scientific Study Finds Leaching Chemicals in Clear Plastic Baby Bottles.

Bisphenol A in your body: How it got there and how to minimize your exposure
The common plastic additive bisphenol A has been getting a lot of press lately. It's a hormone disruptor that can be found in almost everybody, and animal studies have linked it to breast and prostate cancer, and infertility.

BPA in formula: This is not a call to panic.
Being a parent, as I understand it, involves a lot of trust. You have to trust your pediatrician, eventually you'll have to trust a babysitter, and of course you have to trust all the well-meaning relatives who just want to hold her for a minute.

Breast is Best
Although the convenience and widespread availability of baby formula sometimes presents a tempting option to new mothers in particular, when having difficulty nursing, the bottom line where infant health and well being is concerned is clear: breast is best.

Cheatsheet: Bisphenol A (BPA)
What is it? Bisphenol A is a toxic plastics chemical found in polycarbonate plastic and the resinous lining of food cans.

Chemical in baby bottles may pose risk
Next week, a federally appointed panel of scientists is scheduled to finish its evaluation on the health risks of an industrial chemical, widely used in baby bottles, food cans and other consumer products, that many researchers believe poses risks to human reproduction and development.

Exposure of the US population to bisphenol A and 4-tertiary-octylphenol
A new analysis by the CDC indicates that many Americans are exposed to bisphenol A at levels above the current safety threshold set by the EPA based upon decades-old data.

Exposure to common chemical may be harmful
Americans are exposed to far more of a controversial chemical than previously thought-  levels that likely surpass the government's current safety standard and which have been shown to cause harm in animals, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by 38 leading scientists.

Gender-bender chemical probe targets PR firm
A company with a controversial history of defending the image of potentially damaging chemicals has aroused the interest of a US congressional committee.

Hard-knock plastic
A chemical found in plastics used for everything from water bottles to dental fillings poses a serious health risk, environmentalists and researchers say, although the jury has yet to deliver a final verdict.

How Plastic We've Become
Our bodies carry residues of kitchen plastics
In the 1967 film classic The Graduate, a businessman corners Benjamin Braddock at a cocktail party and gives him a bit of career advice. "Just one word...plastics."

Invisible Danger? Parents Look Inside the Lunchbox
Many parents are changing their buying habits to try to protect their children from what they see as chemical hazards.

Know your Chemicals
Learn about the effects of toxic chemicals on babies and children.

Mattel recalls 155,000 Mexican-made toys
Mattel Inc, the world's largest toymaker, has recalled 155,000 of its products made in Mexico over safety concerns, an official at the company told Reuters on Tuesday.

New warning about chemical in plastic
A warning about a possible link with breast and prostate cancers from a hormone-like chemical found in everyday plastic products such as food containers and water bottles has been issued by an international expert group.

Parent sue over bisphenol A in bottles
A group of California parents has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers and sellers of baby bottles containing bisphenol A.

Phthalates
Phthalates, or phthalate esters, are esters of phthalic acid and are mainly used as plasticizers (substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility). They are chiefly used to turn polyvinyl chloride from a hard plastic into a flexible plastic.

Plastic ingested, study finds
Scientists furious at conclusions reached by a federal panel charged with assessing the safety of a common household chemical have retaliated. And they're using science as their weapon.

The Right Start: The Need to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals from Baby Products
A child's first few years are an exciting time for parents who hope, if for nothing else, that their child starts his or her life happy and healthy. Unfortunately, not all products marketed for children and babies are completely safe for their use. Many contain toxic chemicals that may have detrimental health impacts for children exposed during critical stages of development.

Safer sipping for you, baby
Searching out sources of BPA-free bottles and containers
A growing body of research suggests polycarbonate plastics- which include many baby bottles and water bottles - leach unhealthy levels of bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical that mimics estrogen, into milk, water and other liquids.

7 ways to reduce your exposure to PBDE flame retardants
PBDEs are everywhere, and there's some evidence connecting them to brain and developmental problems in animals, and possibly even cancer. Exposure to flame retardant chemicals is ubiquitous, but there are things you can do to keep the concentration of PBDEs in your body as low as possible.

Support a New Congressional Amendment
Send a letter of your strong support for including the Feinstein Amendment before June 4th - restricting the use of six toxic phthalates in children's toys!

The Xenoestrogen Bisphenol A Induces Inappropriate Androgen Receptor Activation and Mitogenesis in Prostatic Adenocarcinoma Cells
Most previous work on endocrine disruption by bisphenol A has focused on exposures in the womb. This study identifies a new target of vulnerability: adult men undergoing hormonal treatment for prostate cancer.

Your BPA questions, answered
When we posted a little analysis of the new research on the toxic plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA) leaching from polycarbonate bottles, we had no idea how many questions it would inspire.

Latest Toxic Toy Recalls 2009:

Bottle Water Quality InvestigationThe bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, but comprehensive testing has shown that this image is far from the truth. The Environmental Working ...

Skin Deep a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by the researchers at the Environmentally Working Group

Know your Plastics  Plastics are everywhere. Some are eco-friendly and appear to be very safe for kids. Most are made from non-renewable petroleum, much of which needs to be imported. Some plastics cause dangerous pollution during manufacturing, and some contain chemicals suspected of causing harm – especially to kids...

6 Steps to Reduce Toxic Exposure to Synthetic Hormones in Food  Hormones are responsible for much more than just acne in teenagers and mood swings in pregnant women. They are the messengers for much of your body’s functioning, including growth and development, immune response, regulation of metabolism, and reproduction among other things.

How Chemicals are Compromising Reproductive Health It seemed so unfair. It is unfair and the story is becoming all too familiar. Men and women unable to conceive. It should be compellingly disconcerting to us as a species that the average sperm count is half of what it was in 1930; that 1.2 million women reported fertility problems in 2002 (a nearly 50% increase in just twenty years); and that miscarriages, still births and birth defects are all increasing...

Fight Germs without hazardous Antibacterials As children return to school, health and environmental groups are encouraging parents to protect their children from harmful germs without using hazardous chemicals in lunch bags, school supplies, soaps and sanitizers. The dangers of and alternatives to using triclosan (often marketed as Microban) and the related compound triclocarban, are documented in new educational materials for parents...

80, 000 chemicals in everyday products, but who's counting ( no one ) I’ve read over and over about the 80,000 chemicals in everyday products (most of which have only been in use since World War II). It’s a stunning figure used as an attention getter when people discuss health issues linked to certain toxic chemicals. Some sources put it higher and some put it lower. Some say they’re all in use and some say they’re just “registered.” I did some research and what I found is that no one really knows.

SIGG Bottles have BPA- The internet’s ablaze with the latest consumer fury over SIGG’s (the Swiss water bottle company) confession that their aluminum water bottles have indeed had BPA in them despite their shrouded denials.

BPA: Low Doses Are Poisonous, Too-  What hormones and these contaminants do is at very low doses they turn on and off genes. Genes are being turned on and off trillions of times a second throughout your lifetime. And the orchestration of that is absolutely vital to life. If the genes get turned on or off at the wrong time, that’s gonna lead to a problem. You’re gonna lack a protein that might be important for example in suppressing a tumor or in controlling the growth of your heart....

Gardasil For Boys: FDA Recommends Controversial Vaccine- The FDA is recommending Gardasil for boys, saying in a memo that it seems to be safe and effective in preventing genital warts in young men and boys. And guess what! None of the boys tested got cervical cancer! Kidding.

Hormone Disrupting Chemicals Push Girl’s Puberty to Age 9  I still remember that first trip to the department store for a training bra when I was in sixth grade. I didn’t really need it, but my friends were all wearing them.  It was also the year I started wearing deodorant, and a year later,  I began menstruation at age 12.

Refuse This Routine Procedure - Or Expose Your Baby's Brain to Severe Danger... Hepatitis B vaccination has been recommended by federal health officials since 1991 for all infants and children.There are now hepatitis B vaccine mandates for children to attend daycare or school in 47 states, despite strong evidence that the health risks of doing this outweighs the benefit for your child. 

Why a Shingles Epidemic is Bolting Straight at the U.S. It's now been fifteen years since Merck's chickenpox vaccine was approved for market.What had always been regarded as a relatively benign childhood illness was suddenly reinvented in the 1990s as a life-threatening disease for which children must get vaccinated or face dire health consequences.

Make Your Own Diaper Spray: Eco- and Wallet-Friendly  If you’re using cloth diapers, you already know that you are doing good for your baby’s health, the environment and your bank account.  You may also be using a natural and/or eco-friendly diaper spray.  Why not simplify further and make your own.  It’s really easy!

First Steps: The Diaper Debate  From birth to toilet training, a baby goes through an average of 8000 diaper changes. This sheer volume of diapers makes one thing clear: Your choice of diaper – cloth or disposable – has a tremendous impact on the welfare of your baby and the planet.  To help you decide what’s best for your family, here are some things you should know.

Benefits of EC – Elimination Communication  Prior to our daughter Anjali’s birth, some close friends (who also had a baby on the way) asked us, “So are you using disposable diapers, cloth diapers or going diaper-free?  We had already made plans to cloth diaper. But what of this diaper-free? Well, who knew how quickly and determinately we could learn and incorporate Elimination Communication (EC), a more appropriate name than diaper-free. Now I cannot imagine taking a different path with our daughter.

Toxic Cosmetics: 300 Contaminants Found in Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood

Cry-It-Out: "Toxic" For Babies' Brains- A new book puts more pressure on parents to pick up that crying baby, calling the cry-it-out method (CIO) “toxic” and “very bad for brain development,” the BBC reports.Many of you consider yourself natural or attachment parents, so chances are, you would never consider “Ferberizing” your baby. That’s where you lay baby down awake and occasionally soothe the child, but do not pick her up, even if she cries. This sleep training was popular in our moms’ and grandmothers’ times so as not to “spoil” the child.