Green to Grow (baby bottles)--AVAILABLE HERE

For 20+ years, scientists have proven the harmful effects of bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen found in everyday products. [figure correction]

According to experts if you have been living in Europe or the US it is highly probable that you have BPA in your system as 90% of Europeans and Americans have detectable amounts.

Plus 3,175 million tons of BPA are produced annually, an alarming rise according to a petrochemical consulting firm Chemical Market Associates, Inc.'s (CMAI) figures when only 2.8 million tons was produced globally in 2002.

These tons of BPA ends up in a number of consumer goods including polycarbonate plastic products (reusable water bottles, sippy cups, leftover containers, baby bottles, toys), the lining of canned foods, baby formula and beverages, pizza boxes and other fast food containers, non-metal dental fillings, thermal paper (receipts), some medical devices and even leached into beaches' sand and water.

Here are some tips to limit your BPA exposure:

• Avoid drinking canned sodas, beers.
• Opt for bottled waters and other plastics with the recycling labels #1, #2 and #4 on the bottom and avoid those with PC or #7.
• Wash plastics by hand or on the top shelf of your dishwasher.
• Do not microwaves plastics.
• Eat fresh foods as much as possible and avoid canned foods (especially pasta, meats and soups).
• Try to stay away from receipts (sometimes it can be emailed) and carbonless paper, if you handle a large amount of receipts wash your hands often and try wearing gloves.

A Wake-Up Story is a must-see video for every parent and anyone that cares about the health and development of children. Watch it. Share it. Join the movement. www.Awakeupstory.org.

Babies are born at considerable risk nowadays due to the toxic load of their mothers. If a baby is exposed to numerous toxic compounds in utero, changes may occur that either directly cause cancer, or lengthen the period of sensitivity to carcinogens, therefore making the child more susceptible to cancer, and other diseases, later in life.

An EWG study is the first to detect BPA in umbilical cord blood, which is a very concerning finding considering this chemical has been linked to endocrine system disruption, reproductive and cardiovascular system abnormalities, diabetes and more at very low levels.

However, it is not the first to show just how extensive a chemical cocktail newborn babies are being exposed to.

Exposure to Nearly 300 Toxic Chemicals ... Before Birth

A prior study by EWG found that blood samples from newborns contained an average of 287 toxins, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, and Teflon chemicals.

Of the 287 chemicals EWG detected in umbilical cord blood, it's known that:

SIGG bottles, long upheld as the standard by which all non-plastic drink bottles should be compared, favourite of hippies and eco-gurus, juggernaut and arguably the biggest player in the metal bottle industry, has finally fessed up.

Their “water-based epoxy liner”, long rumoured (but never confirmed) to contain BPA, indeed had BPA all along.

SIGG kept this cozy little secret by constantly releasing reassuring statements that their proprietary formula had been extensively tested and was never found to leach BPA.

The subtle truth hidden in their messages was that they never said there was no BPA in there to begin with.  But now, one entire year after changing their liner to a new “EcoCare”, BPA-free formula, they are now admitting what so many have suspected all along.

Why you don't want this chemical hormone in your baby's food, and what you can do about it.

I'm a big, huge, enormous, ginormous fan of glass for food storage. It's safe. I have zillions of glass jars them in my fridge, cabinets, and freezer. For a while now I've been aware that the lids of said jars contain the controversial hormone disrupter bisphenol-a that has also been linked to infertility and cancer. Many of the people I know and follow online have come up with all kinds of ways to attempt to get around BPA in their glass jar lids including not filling food all the way to the top so it won't touch the lids, never storing acidic foods in jars, covering food in a circle of wax paper to act as a (completely unscientific)  "barrier" between the food and the lid, and even smearing the lid in beeswax.

Me, I think the point of storing food in jars in the first place is to minimize exposure to harmful and potentially harmful chemicals I prefer not to have in my food, or my daughter's food. But you have to live in the world. At some point you have to feel you've minimized, done what you can. I try not to fill my jars too full. But I'm also not thinking too much about it. I moved on.

So when Health Canada came out with a test last week saying they had detected BPA in glass jars of baby food with metal lids, I wasn't surprised. Of course it is in there. All the more reason to make your own baby food. And store it in glass containers with glass lids, or not filled all the way up to a metal lid. Health Canada, by the way, is a federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health that assesses the safety of drugs and many consumer products, helps improve the safety of food, and "provides information to Canadians to help them make healthy decisions." Would that our government was doing similar tests instead of fighting over if BPA is even a health concern!? Ugh.

Bath plaything has become the symbol for hidden poisons found in many household items

The rubber duck's long history as a kid-friendly bath-time toy is coming to an end. Exposed by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie as a dangerously toxic little plaything, the rubber duck is now becoming something of a symbol for the hidden poisons that lie within so many of our favourite everyday objects, products and foods. In their new, best-selling book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health, Smith and Lourie expose the toxic makeup of everyday items ranging from bed sheets to toothpaste to antibacterial hand cleansers. "People have a profound sense that something has gone terribly wrong in terms of consumer product safety in this country and they're concerned," Smith said in a phone interview from his Toronto office. "That was the point of the book -- to really demonstrate that what we buy and what we use in our homes on a daily basis really matter; they really have a direct impact on the level of pollution in our bodies and perhaps more importantly, the level of pollution in our kids." To hammer their point home -- and to make it incredibly personal -- Smith and Lourie spent a week as experimental guinea pigs. They exposed themselves to pollutants that many people expose themselves to on a daily basis. They stayed in a condo with a carpet and couch recently treated with a stain-resistant coating. They plugged in an air freshener. They washed their hair and brushed their teeth with common drugstore products. Smith ate lunch from a plastic container heated in the microwave. Lourie ate several meals of tuna. And they both washed their hands with antibacterial hand soap. The results from their blood and urine samples were shocking -- even to Smith and Lourie, who are long-time environmentalists, fully versed in the dangers of many everyday household products.

(Editor's Note: Presented below is an entry from Whole Story, a blog from the Whole Foods Website. Whole Foods is joining the list of corporations taking a stand against the use of Bisphenol-A.)

Studies about Bisphenol-A (BPA), the plastic monomer used to make polycarbonate plastic, have been getting a ton of media attention lately, and our customers have had quite a few questions about it. While we certainly don’t have all the answers, we wanted to share with you what the research currently shows and what we, as a company, are doing to address the issue.

Over the past 20 years or so, polycarbonate plastic has become ubiquitous in the U.S. It’s very hard, as clear as glass – yet virtually unbreakable, lightweight and inexpensive. Because of these unique properties, it is used widely to make water bottles, aluminum can linings, and many other food containers. But in the past few years, a growing body of research has raised some difficult questions about polycarbonate plastic, and Bisphenol-A (BPA), the monomer out of which the plastic is made.

Dozens of studies have been published on the subject in the last few years, and they show that in certain quantities, Bisphenol-A can act as an endocrine disruptor. The human body essentially mistakes these substances for its own natural endocrine hormones, which can impact a number of systems in our bodies.

Some studies have also suggested that BPA can leach from polycarbonate plastic, although it has not been clearly established whether the amount of BPA that might leach from food containers causes harm. However, the research that has been done definitely raises some important questions, and we believe that much more work needs to be done to answer these questions and help consumers, businesses and the government understand the safety of this substance.

With studies stacking up against the chemical, here's what you need to know to lower your exposure

With yesterday's study linking bisphenol A--a chemical in hard plastics and the linings of food and beverage cans--to diabetes and heart disease, you may be wondering what you can do to minimize your exposure. The Environmental Working Group last year conducted an analysis of BPA in various canned foods and found the amount varies widely depending on the food. Condensed milk, for instance, has relatively little BPA, while infant formula has a lot more--about one fifth the safe dose limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. Of course, the potential risk also depends on how much you consume. Canned soda has less BPA per serving than some other foods, but if you're having a six pack a day...

Here are some good rules of thumb for reducing your intake of BPA.

With a new school year just around the corner, let's follow the example set by Canada and pack our children's lunches in safe, plastic free containers and give them healthy food, assembled with love. It lets our children know how much we care, saves money they would have spent on food that would probably not be as healthy, even gets them to participate in the selection and preparation of the lunches.  Put in a note that says you love them and it's a win-win lunch all the way around! Your child will be the envy of the others!

Leslye Adelman, Founder
Gentle Nurturing

Thermos® lunch kits and FUNtainer™ for Kids reduce waste and help parents pack safe, healthy lunches

Ask any Canadian mother how she feels about packing school lunches and you will find she is concerned about food safety, health and waste reduction. Food must last in a hot locker or backpack and be sensitive to student's food allergies. Beverage containers must be hygienic and bisphenol A (BPA) free. Homemade lunches are best, they're economical and packed with love. And all lunches must comply with school litterless regulations. Who would have thought this simple task was so complex?

Today, how you pack your children's lunch is just as important as what you put in it. Did you know that Canada is the second highest per capita producer of municipal solid waste in the world? And school lunches are a major source of waste as the average student's lunch generates a total of 30 kilograms of waste per school year, or an average of 8,500 kilograms of waste per school per year, according to the Recycling Council of Ontario.

It is no wonder school boards across Canada have implemented waste reduction programs with litterless lunches becoming compulsory. The concept means no throwaway packaging: food and drinks are packed in reusable containers within a reusable lunch bag; and all containers are resealable, so that leftover food and drink can be consumed (or composted) later.

Follow these simple ways to pack an eco-friendly, litterless lunch:

Two major Canadian retailers have removed clear, hard plastic bottles in the Nalgene style from their shelves, citing concerns over the health effects of polycarbonate plastic ingredient bisphenol A (BPA).

BPA is used to make plastic hard and transparent, and also in the manufacturing of resins used to line the inside of food cans. Laboratory studies have shown it to function as an endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen within the body. It has been observed to lead to both reproductive and developmental defects in children and adults.

A panel of 38 scientists recently published an article in the journal Reproductive Toxicology (PDF), warning that "the wide range of adverse effects of low doses of BPA in laboratory animals exposed both during development and in adulthood is a great cause for concern with regard to the potential for similar adverse effects in humans."

While BPA has not been regulated in the United States, Canada's health service recently announced that it would conduct a comprehensive assessment of the chemical to determine if its use should be phased out.

Spurred by this decision and by consumer concern, Mountain Equipment Cooperative, a Canadian retailer similar to REI, announced that it would stop selling clear, hard plastic bottles at all 11 of its stores.

Notice that the information about the ill effects of BPA and phthalates come from every corner of the world. I am totally amazed as I gather articles to share with you (and some that I choose not to), that the writing has been printed literally in publications from just about every country in the world.

Canada is undeniably out in front in what they are printing and doing to put a stop to the use of these chemicals and the United States comes in second (although we are not a close second). This disappoints me, but I do live in California, a state that is doing it's fair share and will be banning plastics within the next 2 years!

Leslye Adelman, Founder
Gentle Nurturing

There is no doubt that plastic does tremendous harm to our bodies and our environment. And the best way to help both is to cut down on its use, says a recent article in Time  magazine. But it's not as simple as it sounds. For there is little available in the market today that does not contain plastic in some form.

"Our food and water come wrapped in plastic. It's used in our phones and our computers, the cars we drive and the planes we ride in," says writer Bryan Walsh. The US produced 28 million tons of plastic waste in 2005, 27 million tons of which ended up in landfills.

And while environmentalists fret about the petroleum needed to make it, and parents worry about the possibility of toxic chemicals making their way from household plastic into children's bloodstreams, there are a few groups of people who are trying to minimize the use of plastic in daily life.

Walsh gives the example of 28-year-old Chicago resident Jeanne Haegele who, last year, resolved to cut plastics out of her life, and of Frederick vom Saal, a biologist at the University of Missouri, who is a member of a group of researchers who have raised questions about the safety of some common types of plastics.

An investigation by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found that nearly all infant formulas are packaged in containers that contain the dangerous toxin bisphenol A.

The EWG surveyed the top five manufacturers of baby formulas sold in the United States about the packaging of their containers. All five, including the makers of Nestle, Similac, Enfamil and PBM formulas, acknowledged the use of bisphenol A in the lining of metal liquid formula containers. Among makers of powdered formulas, four of the five top manufacturers also admitted to using bisphenol A to line metal portions of containers.

Nestle denied using bisphenol A in the containers of powdered formula, but the EWG notes that the company "failed to provide EWG with reliable documentation of their alternative packaging, and thus is not a clear improvement over other types."

In addition, the EWG expressed reservations over endorsing Nestle products due to the company's history of unethical infant formula marketing practices in Third World countries.

Bisphenol A is widely used to make plastics hard and translucent and to line metal cans. It is known to disrupt the hormonal system of vertebrates, causing reproductive and developmental defects, including brain damage and neurobehavioral problems. It is considered particularly dangerous to developing animals, such as humans exposed during fetal development or in early childhood.

Recent studies have also shown that bisphenol A exposure during development can lead to cancer later in life, and that it may be linked to obesity.

The FDA can continue to attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, but we will not allow them to bamboozle us with their lack of concern for the health and well-being of our children and ourselves. Let them try. We know what BPA, phthalates and other toxins are doing and we will not sit idly by. Thanks go to ReusableBags.com, the Environmental Working Group, the states in the U.S. who have filed class action suits against the baby bottle manufacturers and to the nation of Canada for all it has done to put an end to this health hazard and not allowed the dirt to be swept under the carpet.

Leslye Adelman
Owner, Gentle Nurturing

In a response to the BPA controversy, the FDA announced recently that parents should not be concerned about safety in regards to the use of the chemical bisphenol-A in their children’s baby bottles. Claiming the concerns raised recently were based on uncorroborated evidence, conflicting results and research done on rats, the officials defended the use of BPA and phthalates.

Our Take: Yikes. In this shockingly irresponsible (and much delayed) response, the FDA continues to erode its “brand” and public trust. Sounds like ass-covering and siding with industry. The old US standard of having to prove a substance is unsafe before it is pulled from the market is alive and well. As much as the government may wish, we have a feeling this isn’t over.

Link: Baby bottles safe, FDA official says

A chemical that can disrupt hormones is in almost all canned foods and popular Nalgene bottles, but should you be worried?

If you are like many readers of this site, you try and choose foods that are as free as possible of harmful chemicals such as pesticides. But if you consume canned soups, beans and soft drinks, organic or not, you also may be swallowing residues of a controversial chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) that can leak out of the can linings into your food. Nearly all can liners contain BPA, says Geoff Cullen, director of government relations at the Can Manufacturers Institute. BPA has also been found to migrate, under some conditions, from polycarbonate plastic water bottles.

Depending on whom you talk to, BPA is either perfectly safe or a dangerous health risk. The plastics industry says it is harmless, but a growing number of scientists are concluding, from some animal tests, that exposure to BPA in the womb raises the risk of certain cancers, hampers fertility and could contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.

According to its critics, BPA mimics naturally occurring estrogen, a hormone that is part of the endocrine system, the body's finely tuned messaging service. "These hormones control the development of the brain, the reproductive system and many other systems in the developing fetus," says Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses. "The most harm is to the unborn or newborn child," vom Saal says.

Plastic water and baby bottles, food and beverage can linings and dental sealants are the most commonly encountered uses of this chemical. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay put. BPA has been found to leach from bottles into babies' milk or formula; it migrates from can liners into foods and soda and from epoxy resin-lined vats into wine; and it is found in the mouths of people who've recently had their teeth sealed. Ninety-five percent of Americans were found to have the chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

An Arkansas woman has filed a federal lawsuit accusing a Connecticut company of making plastic baby bottles with a dangerous chemical linked to serious health problems.

The lawsuit by Ashley Campbell against Playtex Products Inc. of Westport is the latest challenge involving the industrial chemical bisphenol A. The lawsuit seeks nationwide class action status to represent what it says are thousands of people who bought plastic bottles containing the chemical from Playtex or other companies.

Canada said last month the chemical, found in hard plastic water bottles, DVDs, CDs and hundreds of other common items, is potentially harmful and may ban its use in baby bottles. A growing number of parents are turning to glass bottles amid the concerns over bisphenol A.

The U.S. government's National Toxicology Program said last month that there is "some concern" about BPA from experiments on rats that linked the chemical to changes in behavior and the brain, early puberty and possibly precancerous changes in the prostate and breast. While such animal studies only provide "limited evidence" of risk, the draft report said a possible effect on humans "cannot be dismissed."

Harmful chemicals in plastic containers could be leaching into the food we eat 

There is a toxic substance in your house, most likely seeping into yours and your children's hormonal systems.

Chemicals from it have been linked to obesity, early puberty, increased cancer risk and reduced fertility. And yet, many of us unknowingly continue to eat and drink from items that contain it.

The substance is Bisphenol A, or BPA, an ingredient in polycarbonate plastics. BPA chemicals have been found in plastic food wrapping, plastic containers and feeding bottles, and the resin that lines food cans.

They contain endocrine disrupters, synthetic chemicals that when absorbed into the body either mimic or block hormones and disrupt the body's normal functions, and they are facing a ban in the U.S., and have already been banned in Canada.

Research has shown that BPA leaches from these products and has been found in a large percentage of people in developed countries, including in urine and blood and in amniotic fluid, placenta, umbilical cord blood and breast milk.

What can consumers do to protect their health and avoid BPA?

The outdoor store REI has pulled all bottles containing a potentially harmful but common chemical found in plastic off its shelves, and Gander Mountain is phasing them out as well.

REI's decision was made on the heels of an announcement by the bottle company Nalgene to replace its "outdoor" line of containers with alternatives free of bisphenol A.

According to Scott Livingston, REI's assistant store manager in Brookfield, the store removed the products from shelves nearly two weeks ago.

He said the decision had come from REI's corporate level, but looking at trends in his own store, it made perfect sense.

He said customers have increasingly been choosing bottles that don't contain bisphenol A, such as Sigg aluminum bottles and Klean Kanteen stainless steel bottles.

Dear MomsRising.org member,

The evidence is mounting.  After years of concern about the safety of baby bottles, children's care products, and other food and beverage containers which contain the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), the verdict is in--and it's not good.

Yesterday the Canadian government announced it is planning to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles, and declared BPA dangerous.[1]  And, earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. based National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded that there is "some concern" that babies, fetuses, and children are in danger because BPA harms animals at the low levels found in nearly all human bodies.[2]  Sadly, a recent study found this chemical in all five leading brands of American baby bottles.
 
It's enough to sink any mother's stomach.

The full report from the Environmental Working Group can be read on their Website, or as a PDF available here on Gentle Nurturing. 

Your cat probably has more mercury in its system than you do, and your dog has twice as much of the chemicals found in stain-resistant carpets and couches. That's the conclusion of an environmental group that tested pets for a wide range of industrial chemicals.

If you walk on a stain-resistant carpet, you may kick up and inhale a tiny dose of perfluorochemicals, or PFCs. But what if you stretched out on it for a while and then licked your fur? That's what Richard Wiles and his colleagues at the Environmental Working Group wanted to know.

"It occurred to us that no one had actually tested pets, [which] live in the same environment as we do, for the toxic contaminants that we know are in people," Wiles says.

A Guide to Recycling Codes

Sometimes it seems like modern America is one colossal plastic palace. The versatile material is in our cars, toys, packaging, clothing, home goods, food utensils, medical devices and so much more. It is also littering our streets, clogging our waterways and choking marine life.

Many plastics can be readily recycled, but how do consumers make sense of all the different types and rules?