Strollerderby : toxins

Breaking Bad on Plastics

JeanneSager — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:53:00 GMT

If only Benjamin Braddock knew then what we know now - plastics are a bummer for parents. Not to mention the environment.

But you don't have to be a graduate of anything to understand this helpful chart I picked up from the folks at Zo-Li, the baby product company that's managed to incorporate toxic-free plastics into all its goodies for kids.

Breaking down the different types of plastics, where you'll find them and what affect they'll have on your kids, the chart is a print and tack to the fridge if I've ever seen one. Because who wants to take a chance with their kids?

Their biggies to avoid:

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - also known as Plastic #3 - Usually found in cling wrap, squeeze bottles, bigs, mattress covers, diaper changing mats, bottles for cooking oil, window cleaner, and detergents PVC poses risks to both human health and the environment. PVC needs additives and stabilizers such as lead for strength and phthalates for ﬂexibility. The manufacturing and disposal of PVC emits dioxins into the air which settles on grasslands and water impacting the meat and dairy products consumed by humans. Dioxin is a known carcinogen and hormone disruptor associated with learning and behavioral problems in children, decreased birth rate, and reduced immune functionality.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - also known as Plastic #6 - Used in opaque plastic cutlery and Styrofoam disposable cups, carry-out containers and meat trays. Styrene can leach from Styrofoam containers and is a known carcinogen that is toxic to the brain and nervous system through prolonged exposure.

Polycarbonate - This is a catch-all of all plastics that don’t fall into any of the other six groups. Some of the new bio-plastics that are corn / rice / potato / tapioca-based plastics as well as the newer plastics labeled BPA-free are included in this group, but the type of plastic to avoid in this group is polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is commonly used in plastic baby bottles, reusable water
bottles, and some clear plastic cutlery. Bisphenol-A (BPA), found in polycarbonate is a hormone disruptor, which can leach into the foods and liquids in polycarbonate containers. BPA has been linked to several health issues including prostate and breast cancer, early onset of puberty, miscarriages, birth defects, behavioral issues such as hyperactivity, obesity, diabetes, and impaired immune function.

Want the whole chart to keep your kids safe? Click on the image below to print and save.

Images: BarSupply/Zo-Li Baby

They Say: Pool Water's Toxic for Baby

JeanneSager — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:21:00 GMT

Nobody wants to think of their kids taking in sips full of toxic water. But a new study says all the disinfectants we've been using to keep our drinking and swimming water clean may be doing just the opposite.

The ten-year study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency found that disinfectants mixing with organic matter in our water to create "disinfectant by-products" (DBP) with some pretty risky consequences.

"Some of these are toxic, some can cause birth defects, some are genotoxic, which damage DNA, and some we know are also carcinogenic," geneticist Michael Plewa said in HSDailyWire.com.

The scary part, as we head into summer, is the significant amount of DBPs found in swimming pools, where Plewa says body hair, urine (we all know kids pee in the pool) and other bits of human mix with the disinfectants in the pool. Because poolwater is generally recycled, Plewa says the concentration of DBPs in a swimming pool is tenfold what it is in drinking water. And babies, whose parents love to take them into the pool to escape the summer heat, are more susceptible than any of us to the damaging affects of DBPs.

So what can you do? Stay out of public pools - where people are doing all kinds of nasty. Stick your kids in fresh disinfectant-free water in a baby wading pool (and keep a VERY close eye on them), and wait until scientists come up with some new wonder product. . . which they'll find out twenty years down the line also causes cancer, but hey, what we don't know won't kills us. Right?

Image: ScienceDaily

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

Which Kids Shampoos Have Cancer Causing Agents?

JeanneSager — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Manufacturers of children's bath products are the latest to earn the ire of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which accuses the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Gerber and Bath and Body Works of putting chemicals linked to cancer in products meant for children.

The CSC, which put out a scathing report last year on cancer-causing agents in lipsticks, has released a study this month dubbed "No More Toxic Tub," accusing major kids bath product manufacturers of using formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane to produce shampoos, soaps, sunscreen, bubble bath and lotions. Neither is listed on the labels, the CSC says, but actual tests of forty-eight products found trace amounts.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies 1,4-Dioxane as a “Group B2, probable human carcinogen,” while it ranks formaldehyde as "a probable human carcinogen." According to the CSC, sixty-one percent of twenty-eight products tested contained both chemicals. Twenty-three out of twenty-eight products tested contained formaldehyde at levels ranging from fifty-four to six hundred ten parts per million. In the broader spectrum test of forty-eight products, thirty-two contained 1,4-dioxane with levels up to thirty-five parts per million.

So what should you avoid?

The products that tested positive for 1,4-dioxane include:

American Girl Hopes and Dreams Glistening Shower and Bath Wash
American Girl Real Beauty Inside and Out Shower Gel – Apple Blossom (three samples)
American Girl Real Beauty Inside and Out Shower Gel – Sunny Orange
Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash (three samples)
Baby Magic “Soft Baby Scent” Baby Lotion
Barbie Berry Sweet Bubble Bath
CVS Baby Shampoo
CVS Kids Body Wash – Blueberry Blast
Dora the Explorer Bubble Bath
Equate Tearless Baby Wash
Gentle Naturals Eczema Baby Wash
Grins & Giggles Milk & Honey Baby Wash
Hot Wheels Berry Blast Bubble Bath
Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
Johnson’s Moisture Care Baby Wash
Johnson’s Oatmeal Baby Wash - Vanilla
L’Oreal Kids Extra Gentle 2-in-1 Fast Dry hampoo – Burst of Cool Melon
Mustela Baby Shampoo
Mustela Dermo-Cleansing Gel for Hair and Body Newborn/Baby
Mustela Multi-Sensory Bubble Bath
Night-time Bath Baby Wash
No-Ad Sun Pals SPF 45 UVA/UVB Sun Protection
Pampers Kandoo Foaming Handsoap – Magic Melon
Sesame Street Bubble Bath – Orange Mango Tango
Soft & Beautiful Just for Me! No-Lye Conditioning Creme Relaxer, Children’s Super
Suave Kids 2-in-1 Shampoo – Wild Watermelon
Tinker Bell Scented Bubble Bath

The products that tested positive for formaldehyde include:

American Girl Hopes and Dreams Shimmer Body Lotion
American Girl Real Beauty Inside and Out Shower Gel – Apple Blossom (three samples)
Baby Magic “Soft Baby Scent” Baby Lotion (three samples)
Barbie Berry Sweet Bubble Bath
CVS Baby Shampoo
CVS Kids Body Wash – Blueberry Blast
Dora the Explorer Bubble Bath
Equate Tearless Baby Wash
Grins & Giggles Milk & Honey Baby Wash
Hot Wheels Berry Blast Bubble Bath
Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash
Huggies Soft Skin – Shea Butter
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo (two samples)
L’Oreal Kids Extra Gentle 2-in-1 Fast Dry Shampoo – Burst of Cool Melon
Pampers Kandoo Foaming Handsoap – Magic Melon
Sesame Street Bubble Bath – Orange Mango Tango
Tinker Bell Body Lotion
Tinker Bell Scented Bubble Bath

For a look at some alternatives, SuperEco has a round-up of non-toxic kids shampoos. You're probably going to need it.

Image: OneStepAhead

UPDATE: Bye Bye BPA: WHICH Bottles Will Go Bisphenol Free

JeanneSager — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:57:00 GMT

Checking for the BPA-free label when shopping for baby bottles may soon be a thing of the past. The six largest manufacturers of bottles in the United States have voluntarily agreed to go Bisphenol-A free.

We reported on this story over the weekend (see below), but thanks to our friends at SuperEco, we now have a list of who's involved in the manufacturer cave in.

Going toxin free are Gerber, Avent America (which stopped production back in December), Evenflo, Disney's First Years, Dr. Brown and Playtex.

Attorneys general in Connecticut and New Jersey put forward a request to the bottle makers, asking for the hormone-disrupting chemical to be removed from the manufacturing process. The request came on the heels of newer research that shows the affects of BPA are large even at low doses, doses lower than the FDA's current standards. Studies have linked BPA to everything from cancer and obesity to problems with brain function and mood disorders. They've also shown BPA is building up in the bloodstream. In a study of people age six and older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found detectable levels of BPA in ninety-three percent of two thousand five hundred seventeen urine samples.

Of course, the big companies aren't exactly doing this all out of the goodness of their hearts. Babies R Us and a number of other retailers announced last year that they would phase out all sales of bottles with BPA in them. Canada has outright banned the substance.

But sometimes even the big companies make decisions that are good for parents.

Image: OhMyGov

Trace Mercury Found in High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

I thought the bad news was pretty much in on high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). But now here's further reason to cut back or eliminate it from our diets. Researchers found traces of mercury in 9 of 20 samples of HFCS. The source of the mercury is caustic soda and hydrochloric acid manufactured in their own plants and sold to HFCS processors. The chemicals are used to extract the sweetener from corn kernels. In some plants, the chemicals are made with a process that uses mercury and leaves traces of the dangerous element in the final product.

Some producers of caustic soda and hydrochloric acid changed their process a few years ago when suspicions began to arise about the mercury problem, but several still use the mercury. As a result, the mercury-contaminated HFCS is still finding its way into food.

There is no amount of mercury considered to be safe, but there are recommended limits for its consumption. Pregnant women in particular are warned to keep their exposure as low as possible. Until now, the biggest danger has been considered contaminated fish, and it still is. Though the mercury in products containing HFCS is a much smaller amount, HFCS is found in so many products that a pregnant woman could still get twice the recommended maximum amount of mercury in her diet through HFCS depending on the plants at which it was processed.

Since mercury is so highly toxic and dangerous to child development it's probably a good idea to turn those packages over and read the ingredients before tossing them in the grocery cart.

Kid Dies After Parents Said No to Hib Vaccine

JeanneSager — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:31:00 GMT

It's a disease entirely preventable, but a sudden burst in diagnoses of Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type B) in Minnesota kids has led to the death of one seven-month-old. His parents, along with those of two other infected children were in the growing group who have opted out on vaccinating their kids.

The fourth child infected was in the middle of the three-part vaccination process, while the fifth had an immune deficiency.

Despite the low number of infections, the CDC has gotten involved, concerned that parents choosing not to vaccinate their kids are putting other children at risk. Five kids, they say, is the highest number of cases in one area since 1992, when vaccinating against Hib became common practice in pediatricians' offices.

"The situation is of concern," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease at the CDC, told CNN. "It could be happening elsewhere, and of course it's tragic that one of the children actually died from a preventable disease."

Since vaccinating against Hib became the norm for American children in the early 1990s, the CDC has seen a ninety nine percent drop in reported cases (from as much as twenty thousand before vaccinations).The disease primarily strikes kids under five, and it kills one in twenty. Of those who survive, ten to twenty percent end up with brain damage, many more go deaf.

What's troubling to me are the children infected despite their parents proper attempts to vaccinate - because other parents refusal to do so has allowed the disease to once again flourish. It's something very few people in the anti-vaccine community focus on - what happens to everyone else's kids. They argue that they are protecting their children from supposed toxins in the immunizations. But as a recent study proving the efficacy of the meningitis vaccine points out, the "herd immunity" provided by immunizing children protects the community as a whole.

By refusing to immunize their kids, these parents are putting society as a whole at risk - including the fourth and fifth kid in Minnesota, who were at special risks.

Image: CNN

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Organic Dreams or Toxic Nightmares? You Pick

JeanneSager — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

I wasn't sure if I should feel like a bad parent or a bit of a grinch when I read this New York Times piece on the plight of parents trying to green every bit of their baby's world.

Keeping this mom up at night wasn't SIDS or milk production. She wants to known what's lurking inside her son's "organic" mattress.

Breaking down the confusing world of just what qualifies as a "safe" mattress, the article explains the root of parents' fears: fire retardants used to protect families from fires in bed have been found to show up in breastmilk, and some (discontinued) foams lead to nervous and reproductive systems in animals in 2004 study. Today, the materials used to make mattresses are largely proprietary, and the term "organic" can refer simply to the use of some organic cotton in the batting. What's more, the memory foam that's purported to give you a great night's sleep is a petroleum product.

Scary stuff. Definitely enough to make you question your parenting prowess if the main criteria used for picking your kid's mattress was "will a diaper blow-out be easy to clean at 2 a.m.?" Because that, next to cost, topped my list when it came to picking my daughter's crib mattress.

To be fair, "phthalate" wasn't a buzzword in early 2005 when I registered for my baby shower. But even since it has been bandied about, I haven't rushed to her room to chuck her mattress and pile the bed with organic cotton blankets. And, frankly, after reading this, I'm no more inclined to do so.

The Times piece - like so much of what is coming out these days about toxins - makes for worthy, interesting (and in-depth) reading. But it provides no real answers. It doesn't say mattresses are good, but there's little to point to anything wrong with it either. So I'll focus my fears where I know they're founded for now - and when it comes time to buy a "big girl" mattress, I'll read up once again to see if newer news can shed light on my questions.

Image: New York Times

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Vatican to Women: The Pill Pollutes Environment, His Testes

JeanneSager — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:01:00 GMT

Sometimes being a Catholic is all about ducking your head in shame and saying, "this is not my life."

Because the boys in the Vatican - you know the ones, they don't have sex - have come out with another decree about the woman's body. This time, it's the way our contraceptive pill is harming everyone else, and men worst of all.

As if we didn't know already that each little round pill popped out of the foil packet was destroying the world 28 days at a time by preventing the creation of more Catholic babies, now it's apparently sending toxins out to destroy the earth via our urine. The hardest hit? The male reproductive system.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations," said in the report.

Bear with me here. A report just printed in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano says the pill makes women pee toxins. Which hurt the environment. Which makes men infertile.

Ah yes, making sense now. Because as any good Catholic girl knows, it all comes back to making babies. Which is why this one and done Mom is now a casual Catholic (well, one of the reasons).

I know pointing to the lack of baby-making experience anywhere inside the Vatican is an easy mark, but that doesn't make it any less true. As long as the church wants to focus its attentions on contraception and conception rather than equality between the sexes, as long as the misogynistic approach toward women's choices remains the Holy See's holy sayings, I'm wondering how they expect to retain credibility on a global scale.

Image/Source: Yahoo

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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.

Furniture Industry Won't Suffer as Long As We Keep Making Babies

JeanneSager — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Madison Avenue had it right all along. Sex sells. Well - sex that creates babies anyway. One of the brightest spot in today's floundering economy is apparently centered on the children's furniture industry.

That's the news out of the furniture trade show in North Carolina this week, where salesmen are celebrating an expected 23 percent growth in the industry through 2012. Why now, in the midst of a recession? Americans aren't just having more kids - they're giving their kids their own bedrooms. And individual bedrooms means not just additional beds but dressers, desks and other furnishings.

Parents aren't scrimping. They're buying $700 beds and $500 desks. "It's not the cheap stuff like the race-car beds. It's substantial stuff," Tom Liddell, a vice president of sales for California furniture company Powell told the Canadian Press. Not surprising? We're not outfitting the rest of the house quite as lavishly as we are our kids' rooms. At Powell, the kids division saw a 45 percent increase in the past year. The rest of the company's sales are "not that shining," Liddell says.

With a focus on ensuring our kids' bedrooms are safe, it's getting harder to scrimp on their furniture. Where our parents' generation passed cribs from family member to family member, we're worried about toxins in the paint and recalls on the hinges. We're putting more emphasis on greening the home, and we're uneasy about little hands getting caught in handmade toy chests. My daughter actually has my old dresser, with the drawer broken by my brother when we were kids, but the rest of her bedroom furniture was purchased fresh during my pregnancy. Buying a convertible crib was our nod to saving money, but we were wary of cutting any more corners.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones.

Image: Amazon

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Yeah, Save the Babies, But What About Environmental Hazards For Moms?

Kelly Mills — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:31:00 GMT

I will admit that I did not go fully organic until I was pregnant, and all of the sudden became more conscious of the fact that what I put in my body went directly to the fetus I was boarding. Being a host made me care more about environmental hazards, because it wasn't just my health I was worried about anymore. And this is part of the point one writer makes when she calls attention to crap like phtalates in common products like cosmetics.

She points to a small sample study of umbilical cord blood that found, "an average of 287 contaminants in their cord blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides, phtalates and Teflon's PFOA chemical." And 180 of those contaminants cause cancer. Now, there were only ten samples, which isn't a nice big size for a study, but it certainly makes my eyebrows rise. While it's great to recall toys and set up organic nurseries, if we just pass on toxins to our babies through our own exposures, there's trouble. And, um, we might want to care about the actual health of moms and other adults as well, even if children make our concerns feel more imperative. Careful with that mommy makeover.

The Milk Is Poison: Common Contaminant Bad For Nursing Infants

Kelly Mills — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:34:00 GMT

Perchlorate is a commonly found industrial pollutant that is often present in water supplies, among other places. As it turns out, it also accumulates in breastmilk. It's more dangerous to nursing infants than was previously thought, notably since it blocks the ability of the thyroid and mammary glands to absorb iodide, which in turn is crucial for development of the central nervous system. "Babies who don't make enough of these thyroid hormones may become mentally impaired." Oh, is that all?

Is your water contaminated? Well, the U.S. EPA has so far found 75 perchlorate releases in 22 states, mostly California and states in the Southwest. Oh, and this article was right next to one from 2005 with this lead: "In a new study of breast milk and store-bought milk from across the United States, scientists at Texas Tech University found perchlorate in every sample but one." Hmm. Every day I read the news, lead-coated toys just sound less and less dangerous. Thanks industry and government, for conspiring to keep us eating, drinking, breathing, and absorbing horrible toxins every day!

Glass Bottles. Helping Kids Suck or Sip Toxin-Free?

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Sat, 05 May 2007 17:27:00 GMT

Glass baby bottles have made a comeback. Although plastic solved the safety issue of shattering bottles and cups generations ago, parents are returning to glass in reaction to reports that toxins are leached through the most typical kinds of plastic used today. Some retailers are reporting a ten-fold rise in glass bottle purchases, making anxious parents even more worried while they wait for back-orders to be fulfilled.

Of concern is chemical bisphenol A, which has been reported to reside in a baby bottle, some toys, canned food lining, anti-cavity sealants and electronics. One side says bisphenol A can be leached when heated and has been shown, even at low levels of exposure, to cause estrogen-like changes in lab animals. The other says, not so, assessing that the scientific proof that minimal exposure to the chemical validates the concern. The spokesman for the American Chemistry Council questions the alternative use of glass bottles, saying, "I think parents are arguably being misled into buying products that may not be as safe."

While one parent in this article says that switching to glass bottles is one small thing he can do to contribute to the health and well-being of his daughter, he also admits she'll eventually be inundated with exposure to plastics.

I have to admit, I have no idea what to make of all this

Do I want my child to be exposed to a toxin that might cause bodily changes that lead to cancer? Of course not. Do I think that glass bottles and cups are lovely and much more sturdy than their tippy, dishwasher-scratched counterparts? Of course. In protecting my child against toxin leaching would I have been putting him at risk every time he hurled a bottle or sippy cup from a stroller? And is there a daycare in the United States that would allow my kid to show up on the playground or in a class with ten other kids toting glass? Oy.

I am all about the happy medium. I would be happy to make an effort to use glassware at meals. At home. Where we have a rug. Over carpeting.
And I would be willing to take into consideration the nine tips outlined by the Environmental Working Group to minimize kids' exposure to concerning chemicals. The only thing is, just reading this list -- which ranges from avoiding food wrapped in plastic to not letting your child put plastic toys in their mouth toonly choosing PVC-free wooden toys -- stresses me out as much as the idea of switching from plastic to glass.

What I'd love is for some concerned and realistic parent who stands smack in the middle with so many of us to outline some ideas that we can all live with that won't have us stressed out or returning every single baby shower gift we got back to the store. Any takers?