The dirty dozen- now an iphone app

We can always use a reminder of the dirty dozen and now it comes as an iphone app from EWG.

The dirty dozen:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (Imported)

And of course the clean 15:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (Imported)

Download the pdf wallet guide or the iphone app from foodnews.org, EWG's Shoppers Guide to Pesticides

Massachusetts' Safer Alternatives Bill- 6th time's the charm

Massachusetts legislators are filing a bill this week to protect children, families and workers from harmful chemicals found in everyday household products from window cleaner to shampoo...

The legislation, called The Safer Alternatives Bill, would require businesses to replace toxic chemicals with safer ones if there are ones available. It also sets up a review system for other chemicals. This is the 6th year the bill will be filed in Massachusetts, but despite the budget woes of the state, environmentalists say they expect to make headway...

Read more about Massachusetts' Safer Alternatives bill at boston.com

Read the full Safer Alternatives bill

Massachusetts residents- contact your elected officials and show your support for this bill



30 states announce legislation aimed at curbing toxic chemicals

Source: Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition

In response to continued public concern over the presence of dangerous chemicals in common household products, coupled with Congressional inaction on the matter, on Wednesday, January 19, legislators and advocates in thirty states across the country and the District of Columbia will announce legislation aimed at protecting children and families from harmful chemicals. Despite well-funded opposition from the chemical industry, 18 state legislatures have already passed 71 chemical safety laws in the last eight years by an overwhelming, bipartisan margin – with more to come this year.

Bills to be considered in the 30 states include: bans on BPA and hazardous flame retardants in consumer products; requirements that children's product manufacturers use only the safest chemicals; and resolutions urging Congress to overhaul the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – the federal law that allows dangerous and untested chemicals to be used in everyday products and materials.

Read the full press release at Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families

Contact your State Legislators to voice your support for this kind of legislation

State and Local Governments Form Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse to Promote Toxics Reduction

Environmental officials from 10 state and local governments announced today that they have formed an umbrella organization - the Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) - to promote a clean environment, healthy communities, and a vital economy through the development and use of safer chemicals and products...
  

Read the Press Release from NEWMOA

More information about IC2

Rise in Childhood Cancers Parallels Toxic Chemical Proliferation

Last year the President's Cancer Panel report provided confirmation that exposure to toxic chemicals is an important and under-recognized risk factor for cancer, and recommended that the government take immediate action to reverse this trend. The Panel advised Congress to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act, commenting that this law is "the most egregious example of ineffective regulation of chemical contaminants" and noting that weaknesses in the law have constrained the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from being able to properly regulate known and suspected carcinogens...

..."There are so many possible multiple sources of exposure," she said, "baby products, bath products, household products. Lindane is used to treat lice, parents put it on their childrens' heads. Do they know it causes cancer?"

In 2009, nine chemicals, including lindane, were added to a list of toxic substances that are to be eliminated under the Stockholm Convention, an international treaty.

"In Europe, the burden of proof of safety lies with the chemical companies, said Brouwer, "while here the company's right to make a profit is paramount."

New types of tumors are emerging due to exposure to new chemicals, Brouwer said. "Most people believe the government regulates chemicals, but it doesn't," she said, urging Congress to quickly reform the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Read the full article at the enviroment News Service

Find out more about Safer Chemicals, Healthy Children

Learn more about the Toxic Substances Control Act

California expected to curb chemicals in consumer products

By CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

As Congress struggles to reform the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, California in the next few months is expected to issue comprehensive rules curbing chemicals in consumer products such as toys, cosmetics and plastics...

...Under current law, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has required testing on just 200 of the nearly 80,000 existing chemicals, and restricted only five.

Read the full article at the LA Times

Massachusetts introduces bill for "Safer Alternatives" to toxic chemicals

Source: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikespice/3774854067/)

Massachusetts legislators are filing a bill this week to protect children, families and workers from harmful chemicals found in everyday household products from window cleaner to shampoo... 

..The legislation, called The Safer Alternatives Bill, would require businesses to replace toxic chemicals with safer ones if there are ones available. It also sets up a review system for other chemicals. This is the 6th year the bill will be filed in Massachusetts, but despite the budget woes of the state, environmentalists say they expect to make headway.

Read the full story by Beth Daley at Boston.com's Green Blog

Call or write your Massachusetts legislator today to let them know you support this bill

Obesogens!

 

...Hidden chemicals, called obesogens, are the building blocks of everyday household items. Researchers say they're wreaking havoc on our bodies by disrupting our hormonal systems, which affect fat cells and gene function."Certain cells that would normally differentiate into cells that would develop into, say, muscle tissue, or connective tissue, would change and develop into fat tissue or fat cells," said Dr. Theresa Piotrowski, medical director of Lahey Clinic's Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Center.

Obesogens include now infamous bisphenol-A, or BPA, phthalates, which are synthetic chemicals found in plastics, and Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which is found in non-stick and stain resistant products. Obesogens are also found in plastic shower curtains, canned goods, and cosmetics."Endocrine disruptors are seen a lot in PVC plastics, a lot of kids toys, some household goods, building products, even pet toys," said Mia Davis, organizing director at Clean Water Action.

Studies have shown that 93 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies and that 75 percent have detectable levels of phthalates in their urine."It can take very, very low doses, the relevant doses that we're all exposed to, to cause a reaction," said Davis...

Read more at thebostonchannel.com

New York State: 85 chemicals to avoid

Source: ny.govThis is a great initiative, but it will be interesting to see if state agencies can "avoid" cadmium and lead (and others) which are ubiquitious in computers and other electronics.

When someone with $8 billion a year in purchasing power tells the world what they don’t want, marketers and manufacturers pay attention.

That’s what’s happened recently in New York, where state agencies operate 16,000 facilities and a fleet of 17,000 vehicles and generate more than 800,000 tons of waste a year. Those agencies are now working with an official policy that urges them, for the sake of public health, to avoid products, equipment and other items containing any of 85 toxic chemicals whenever safer, cost-effective alternatives are available. The goal is to minimize New Yorkers’ exposure to these chemicals as much as possible and prevent them from ending up in the state’s landfills.

The unprecedented step is a victory first and foremost for the people of the New York, but potentially also for other states that may be inspired to follow the Empire State’s example. If they do, New York’s “Chemical Avoidance List” gives them a huge head start in developing their own policies.

Two days before the end of 2010, the Interagency Committee on Sustainability and Green Procurement approved the policy directing all state agencies to consider avoiding the 85 toxic chemicals. The list consists of known and probable human carcinogens identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Toxicology Program as well as substances that accumulate in the human body and don’t readily break down in the environment. They are known as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals, or PBTs for short....

Read the full story by Olga Naidenko at EWG.org

List of Chemicals for Consideration in Green Procurement

Banned, contemporary chemicals widespread in U.S. pregnant women.

A new study finds for the first time that the bodies of virtually all U.S. pregnant women – and possibly their unborn children – carry multiple chemicals, including some banned since the 1970s and others used in common products such as non-stick cookware, processed foods and personal care products.

Synopsis by Ami Zota, Sc.D in Environmental Helath News

Original article by Tracey J. Woodruff, Ami R. Zota, Jackie M. Schwartz in the science journal Environmental Health Perspectives