Strollerderby : phthalates

Playdate: Would You Go "No Poo"?

JeanneSager — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Here's one way to answer the carcinogens in your kids' bath products - Amy Graff at The Poop is going "no poo."

As in no shampoo. Not a drop of Johnson & Johnson. Not a palm of Head and Shoulders. Graff, who is one of my favorite columnists over at San Fran's main parenting blog, is making a leap that I have to admire. Or hold my nose about.

The "no poo" method has had its proponents for years, folks who say it's better to let the body's natural oils keep the scalp healthy and the hair "clean." As Graff explains in her "no poo" mission statement, the idea is that a few weeks of greasy hair must be endured. But when the body takes over, word has it luscious locks take over.

The sort of fringe movement is jumping from granola crunchy greenies to parenting mainstream as reports on parabens, phthalates and 1,4-dioxane make more of us realize there's a lot more to fear than a dirty kid. Take Graff - she's always thought the whole thing sounds kind of "icky" . . . but her kids' shampoo is on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics' list of products loaded with carcinogens. For the sake of her kids, she's willing to give "no poo" a try.

I checked out the CSC list, and took heart that my daughter's shampoo isn't on there (although a bubble bath we once used an entire bottle of was - eek). If it was, I'd obviously change - to another shampoo. Although it's hard to trust the big companies, it's even harder to fathom not using something relatively heavy duty to rid my daughter's head of play-doh and play sand on a daily basis.

I'm going to follow Graff's experiment, but I'm not that brave. What about you?

Image: Boon

SC Johnson Says Bye Bye to Phthalates

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:24:00 GMT

It's like a tennis match with all the news breaking about chemicals and kids products lately. No more BPA in bottles. Yay! Carcinogens in bubble bath. Aaack.

We're back with some good news today - one of the biggest makers of household cleaners, SC Johnson (you know, the ones who call themselves "a family company") has promised to remove all phthalates from its scented products over the course of the next two years.

Score one for us!

Used to help make plastics soft and flexible, phthalates are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a "probable human carcinogen." Relying on its "family company" motto, SC Johnson CEO Fisk Johnson says the company wants to make sure today's families know they're safe when buying household cleaners and air fresheners. They've now got a site dedicated entirely to the make-up of its products (check it out here).

In other words? When your two-year-old gets ahold of the bottle of Glade (an SC Johnson line) air freshener and sprays out the whole bottle before you can make it to the bathroom to stop him, you'll know at least they won't be sucking down cancer-causing eau de cinnamon sticks.

Image: SC Johnson

UPDATE: Thrift Shops Won't be Affected Under New Phthalate, Lead Ban

JeanneSager — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:41:00 GMT

After the post below - and the Los Angeles Times story that prompted it - drew a lot of attention from parents worried thrift shops were on their way to extinction thanks to the impending Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act ban on children's products that test positive for phthalates and lead, we have good news!

Thrift shops are safe!

The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a clarification today stating, "The new safety law does not require resellers to test children's products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold."

Stores are prohibited from knowingly sell products that don't meet the new standards, but the new ruling clears up major confusion (and major fears) for retailers. Considering how much time I spend buying used clothes to save money on my daughter's wardrobe, it put a huge smile on my face too!

The original post:

Think the answer to saving money on your kid's clothes lies in the thrift shops?

You might want to stock up fast. Because the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) that will go into affect on February 10 will affect not only sellers of new products but those selling used goods too.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week, Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops, said the places most people go to save a few extra bucks on outfitting their families won't be able to cough up the thousands of dollars necessary for testing every product aimed at kids under twelve.

"They'll all have to go to the landfill," Meyer said.

In this economy? This is the best option out there? Thrift stores - or goodwill shops - are low-cost, sometimes free options for parents. I've found some great bargains on clothes for my daughter - clothes made by big names who might even have the money for the tests, but weren't required by law to do so when the clothes were actually made. In my rural neighborhood, most of the thrift stores are run by churches - who open the doors to families who are down on their luck because of illness, job loss or a fire, absolutely free of charge. Now, suddenly, the places that run on donations to GIVE donations, are being ordered to spend thousands that they don't have.

My biggest concerns about the CPSIA plans came after talking to moms who make and sell products online, who talked to me about possibly going out of business because the government plan is so generalized it doesn't take into account the fact that organic cotton (just an example) isn't likely to share a toxic profile with plastics anyway. The legislation calls for ALL products that could "reasonably" land in a child's mouth to be tested by an independent lab, then tagged to prove it.

If it hasn't been tested - even if there is no lead or phthalates - it will be considered toxic, and it will have to be trashed. As in sent to the landfill, like Meyer said.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), is supposed to consider today an excemption for clothing and toys made of natural materials such as wool or wood, but even that won't help most thrift shops. Clothes made of cotton - but with dyes - or cotton-polyester blends will still be subjected to the (expensive) tests.

I've said it before - I'm all for protecting the kids. But protecting our kids also means protecting parents' ability to put clothes on their back and shoes on their feet. And if the thrift shops or goodwill stores have to shutter on Feb. 10, an overwhelming number of Americans suffering in the midst of a recession, won't be able to do that.

Image/Source: The Los Angeles Times

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How to Avoid #3 Plastic (That's PVC) in Everything

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

There are lots of reasons to dislike PVC, also known as #3 plastic or just "vinyl." Its production uses more mercury than nearly any other industry. When it's made or incinerated it creates dioxins, some of the nastiest of the nasty toxics. It's full of icky, bad-for-you additives like phthalates (that's "thay-lates" if you want to sound knowledgable when arguing with retail clerks) that can leach out. The list goes on...

The creepy thing is, it's everywhere. It's the covering on most waterproof "chewable" baby books. It's in some pacifiers. It's the frame of most new windows and all new "linoleum" floors. It covers three-ring binders and shows up in raingear and shower curtains and some disposable silverware and dozens of other common items. Not to mention tons of packaging.

Frankly, this sounds to me like a stellar case of why sometimes a little regulation is good. You could spend a full time job (and the pay from a part time one) seeking out and getting rid of all the PVC in your life. Not an efficient allocation of resources, in my book. Much better that we collectively decide this is something we don't want in our air, homes, landfills, or kid's bodies.

But in the meantime if you want to find PVC-free alternatives in at least some areas of your life (say, the stuff entering your baby's mouth or your own), or at least not add any more during the holiday season, the good folks at Center for Environmental Health and Justice are here to help with their Pass Up the Poison Plastic guide. The guide explains how to identify PVC and where it often shows up and offers a list of manufacturers of PVC-free versions of key items.

You may not be up for suggestions like "Call the manufacturer's 800 number if you can't tell from the labeling whether the packaging on a product has PVC or not" (though kudos to you if you are. I'm sure it will help get the stuff phased out), but surely anyone with a baby at least wants the list of safe pacifiers.

Picture of PVC pipes by Groupe Aménagement Numérique des Territoires, via Flickr.

What Won't Men Do With a Diaper?

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:31:00 GMT

I'm beginning to wonder if some men just have a diaper fetish.

First it was the guy stealing dirty diapers off porches in upstate New York. Now a Ukranian boxing champ is extolling the use of his son's wet diapers to reduce swelling in his fists.

"Baby wee is good because it's pure, doesn't contain toxins and doesn't smell," Vitali Klitschko told a German newspaper this week. "The nappies hold the liquid and the swelling stays down."

Apparently he's had one knock too many on the noggin.

Let me poke a little at his bubble. I'll do it carefully; I don't need to be "wee'd" on. See, babies are little humans. In other words, he's wrapping his hands in human waste. Doesn't sound quite as nice as baby wee, but what the hey.

Oh, and about those toxins. Apparently he doesn't keep up with the 'Derby. Because Amy gave us the lowdown months ago on all the toxic nasties that have been popping up in baby piss tests of late - think that unpronouncable hot parenting word, phthalates. Considering he got the idea from his Grandma, I guess we can excuse that part. Granny wasn't worrying about phthalates or BPA when she plopped her kids in their lead-painted crib.

Remind me not to shake hands with any boxers from the Ukraine.

Image: DiaperReview

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Congress Moves To Ban Phthalates, Despite Bush Opposition

Amy S.F. Lutz — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:36:00 GMT

You'd have to be living in a bubble not to know about the phthalate controversy - they're chemicals found in plastics, shampoos, fragances, moisturizers, and other consumer products, and recent studies have shown that high levels of phthalates can cause reproductive problems in males, as well as an increased risk of kidney and liver cancers.

Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Babies R Us have already announced that, effective January 2009, items containing phthalates will no longer be allowed in their stores. California, Washington and Vermont have enacted state-wide bans. Internationally, the European Union has prohibited many phthalates from children's goods since 1999. Now, Congress has included a ban on certain phthalates in children's toys in a new bill reforming the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

And boy, is the chemical industry pissed. Millions of dollars have been spent by Exxon Mobil - the manufacturer of one of the most common phthalates found in toys - over the past year and a half in an effort to prevent exactly this kind of ban from going into effect. At least Exxon can take comfort in knowing they bought at least one vote - President Bush has come out in opposition to Congress' act, although it's not clear whether or not he will go so far as to veto the measure.

Have you heard the logic used by both the Bush camp and the chemical industry lobby to explain why we should put up with these toxic chemicals?

Apparently, banning phthalates will INCREASE health risks to kids, because the chemicals manufacturers will have to replace them with may be even more dangerous! According to Keith Hennessey, director of Bush's Economic Policy Council, the ban "may result in the introduction of unregulated substitute chemicals that harm children's health."

Is that a threat? "Unregulated substitute chemicals"? I just can't believe the chemical industry would risk the financial and PR backlash that would occur if it turned out they replaced toxic additives with even more toxic additives. Imagine the lawsuits!

What we need, according to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the ban, is to model our regulations after the Europeans, who require that manufacturers first prove a chemical is safe BEFORE it's allowed to inundate the market. Just a slight improvement over our current M.O., which involves discovering 50 years after their introduction that the chemicals added to virtually every piece of plastic crap in every house nationwide can act like hormones and cause low sperm count, undescended testicles and cancer.

Big Toy Retailers Tighten Toy Safety Standards

Karen Murphy — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:07:00 GMT

In a stunning display of responsibility, toy retailers Toys 'R Us and Wal-Mart are both creating strict new toy-safety standards that will affect every toy they sell. New standards will include third-party safety testing (as opposed to relying upon toy manufacturers to churn out toys meeting basic standards...we all know how well that went in the past) and a ban on phthalates. Yay!

Skeptical-me knows this new move is partly damage-control, since toy retailers took huge hits last year with massive wave after wave of recalls and a certain amount of resulting consumer panic/malaise, but any business would be stupid not to jump on a changing world anyhow and if it results in better and safer toys for our kids I'm not much concerned how it comes about.

The new standards will include a ban on phthalates by the end of 2008, way-stricter standards on lead on surface coatings, and a ban on nickel-cadmium batteries. And since Toys 'R Us is the U.S.' largest toy retailer, and Wal-Mart has eaten pretty much the entire world, smaller retailers will have little choice but to follow suit, creating pressure on manufacturers and resulting in safer toys everywhere.

No word on how the new standards will affect toy prices, but they are sure to rise somewhat to absorb the costs of testing. Sounds worth it to me, though.

Photo: www.thisisventure.co.uk

Cosmetics are Making Us Infertile?

Madeline Holler — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Okay, we all know we’re smearing chemicals on our faces, scalps and body as a part of the daily beauty regimen. They’re safe, right, these products? Not tested on animals! FDA approved! Well, yeah, but still, a writer/activist says we’re soaking up lots and lots of carcinogenic crap and other dangers whenever we look to Revlon or Maybelline or Lancome and all the rest to get rid of those lines/blemishes/narrow eyes/dark circles/double-chins/bulbous nostrils.

Read Alternet’s interview with the author for all the juicy-lipped details.

I don’t wear a lot of make-up and not because I have Julianne Moore’s skin and Angelina Jolie’s lips. I’m just suuuuuuper lazy and plain Jane vanilla when it comes to beauty. However! As the mother of two girls, I know the drill -- they’re probably going to want make up someday. Already they line up for face cream and lipstick anytime the bottles and tubes come out of the cabinet. They smear whatever I do have all over themselves with some frequency. I think I’d like grandchildren some day. So, yeah, time to read the teeny tiny labels on lip balm too.

Did the possibility of lead in your lipstick make you throw everything out and start over? Do you know a phthalate from a paraben? Does it matter?

Hey Dads! Your Kids' Toys are Making You Fat!

Karen Murphy — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:15:00 GMT

Finally, something worthwhile to blame that ten-pound spare tire on that you've been carrying around for the last six months (and your wife said it was all those cookies, pffffftt!). Oh, and you can quit bathing, too. Because those toys you keep stepping on? And the soap? Is what's been making you fat. Finally, a study that makes perfect sense!

We already have heard that many plastic toys contain phthalates, the plastic additive that is used to make PVC plastic more pliable and that we already know is toxic to babies. But now they're saying that there is a link to phthalates and low testosterone levels (now that'll get someone's attention!) and poor sperm quality. Your boys have been swimming in a toxic chemical soup, my friend! And low testosterone is thought to have an impact on belly fat and pre-diabetic conditions (another reason to lay off the cookies).

Since phthalates are found, like, everywhere (in cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, and plastics, and even in the coating of timed-release medications!), practically 75% of the populationhas measurable levels of several phthalates in their urine. (Though no one tested me; did they test you?) DuPont Chemical's slogan used to be "Better Living Through Chemistry". Maybe it's time to rethink that one.

Put That Toy Down! It's Toxic!

Karen Murphy — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:33:00 GMT

Ah yes, phthalates. Ya can't live with 'em, ya can't live without 'em. I can't even pronounce 'em (and when I try to, it makes me think of fellatio, so never mind). Anyway, that stuff that shall remain unpronounceable, what is it exactly? Oh yes. Chemicals. And chemicals = bad! And this stuff is in your nail polish, your flooring and your perfume, your sex toys, not to mention in your baby's toys. That he puts in his mouth. It's the stuff they mix with other plastic to make it nice and soft and pliable, and it's the stuff that was banned and then not banned in toys in San Francisco.

Although like many controversial subjects there is conflicting information about the effect of phthalates, many toy manufacturers voluntarily discontinued their usage in certain baby toys (notably rattles and teethers) way back in 1999, and these toy manufacturers have removed them from their entire product lines: Brio, Chicco, Evenflo, First Years, Gerber, Mega Bloks, and Safety 1st.

San Francisco Ratcheting Down Toxic Toy Limits

Karen Murphy — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:54:00 GMT

In what appears to be an unprecedented bow to the pressure of the Crappy Plastic Toy industry, the City By The Bay is proposing to drop a ban on the sale of toys and child care products containing phthalates, a group of chemical compounds used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible and commonly found in nail polish, caulk, and sex toys.

A 2004 study revealed that there was a "very strong link" between phthalates and allergies in children, and an even more disturbing small 2005 study suggested that there was a correlation between phthalates and small penis size on boys, as phthalates were thought to mimic estrogen. Whoa.

Keep in mind, though, that these studies were small and that they have been refuted by another 2004 study which suggested that phthalates had no known effects upon adolescents exposed to them while as "neonates" (newborns; under 4 weeks of age. I looked it up), and in 2006 the European Union declared two specific phthalates as "safe".

So what does this mean? I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice my son's potentially John Holmesian penis just so he can drink out of a sippy cup now. And San Francisco? I thought you were kinda liberal over there. What happened? You're appeasing the American Chemistry Council over the children and parents of the city? I might have to take back all the nice things I said about you earlier.

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