The Weekly Toxic Times
From the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental HealthNews highlights for the week of Friday, November 2, 2007
A recap of the top stories on toxins in Michigan and National news.
Michigan News
Send a message: Don’t buy toys this holiday season -- If government and companies will not protect us from dangerous toys, we should do it
The Oakland Press, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007, by Michael Gould
“The United States government banned lead in paint for toys as hazardous in the 1960s. Unfortunately, with the increase of outsourced toy manufacturing to China, we are now importing a Third World problem into this country. Nobody knows how long children have been exposed to lead or the amount of unsafe toys currently in American homes…”
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/103107/opi_20071031138.shtml
Halloween fake teeth recalled over high lead level
The Oakland Press, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007
“WASHINGTON (AP) – The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced an 11th-hour recall Wednesday to warn consumers that fake Halloween teeth sold by the tens of thousands since last year contain excessive amounts of lead…”
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/103107/loc_20071031151.shtml
National News
The Toxic Legacy series in U.S.A. Today included the first three articles:
Day One: Lead
U.S.A. Today, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007
For many kids, lead threat is right in their own homes
Article discusses lead sources (focusing mainly on lead paint), exposure routes, toxic effects, and a connection between lead exposure and crime rates. It also provides case studies to illustrate the concept that rural, suburban, and urban children can be exposed to lead.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-28-lead-cover_N.htm
Day Two: Mercury
U.S.A. Today, Monday, Oct. 29, 2007
Power plants are focus of drive to cut mercury
“Despite decades of government attempts to regulate it, ban it and erase it from household use, the poisonous metal mercury remains a threat to the environment and public health, especially to children and to women of childbearing age. As many as 600,000 babies may be born in the USA each year with irreversible brain damage because pregnant mothers ate mercury-contaminated fish…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-29-mercury-cover_N.htm
Day Three: Plastics
U.S.A. Today, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
“Everywhere chemicals” in plastic alarm parents
SAN FRANCISCO – Consider the BornFree baby bottle. It's made from a plastic five times as expensive as the one routinely used for baby bottles. It has to be shipped all the way from Israel. And its retail price – $9.50 – is about triple that of a conventional bottle. It's also a big seller in stores catering to parents who want the safest possible environment for their babies, stores where items labeled "bisphenol A-free" and "phthalate-free" line up next to the cloth diapers and breast pumps…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-30-plastics-cover_N.htm
Our Toxic Environment
NPR OnPoint, aired Monday, Oct. 29, 2007
“It's a chemical world. In our water bottles, our furniture, our cosmetics and lawns and food, we are surrounded by synthetic chemicals…”
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/10/20071029_a_main.asp
Chemical used in household plastic spark concern
Transcript of PBS NewsHour, aired Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
“The chemical bisphenol A, known as BPA, is used to make many common plastic products used in U.S. homes, including baby bottles. Scientists and expert panels have been tasked with determining whether BPA has adverse effects on human health...”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec07/bottle_10-30.html
“Endocrine disruptor” won’t be on label
U.S.A. Today, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
“Though scientists, environmentalists and manufacturers probably will debate the dangers of chemicals in popular products for years to come, many consumers wonder what they can do today to make "greener" choices at the store…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-30-endocrine-main_N.htm
Experts discuss Bisphenol A
Forum on PBS Online NewsHour, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007
“The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make many plastic products used in American homes, including baby bottles. Recently two expert panels examined whether BPA is likely to have adverse effects on human health…”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/health/july-dec07/bpa_10-30.html
Lead exposure, crime seem to correlate
U.S.A. Today, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007
“For decades, researchers have known that lead poisoning lowers children's IQs and puts them at risk for severe learning disabilities and more impulsive, sometimes violent behavior. New research increasingly suggests that lead also affects long-term juvenile and adult crime rates…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-28-lead-crime_N.htm
Illinois toddler had 13 times the safe lead level
U.S.A. Today, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007
“Anyone who believes lead poisoning affects just inner-city families should meet Sarah Taylor. For more than a year, the stay-at-home mother of four in rural Charleston, Ill., has been caring for a daughter poisoned so severely by lead that her doctors could find only one comparable case: that of a Minnesota boy who died after swallowing a lead charm…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-28-lead-illinois_N.htm
As holidays near, a race to keep toys safe: The truth about toys: how toy manufacturers and stores test for lead
CBS News, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
“(CBS) At the legendary toy store FAO Schwarz, the Christmas catalogs had already been printed and the holiday toys were already on the barges when recalls started happening this summer. It's forced FAO and others to play a game of catch-up. “The vast majority of toys, really, the manufacturers and the brands haven't been able to get in and change anything,” said FAO Schwarz’s CEO Ed Schmults. “What they've been doing is testing vigorously.” …“
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/eveningnews/main3442622.shtml
Where does lead go? Into bones
U.S.A. Today, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007
“Lead was once so pervasive that, even three decades after the government banned the chemical in paint and began phasing it out of gasoline, the country has still not shaken free of its legacy. Much of the lead that once swirled around us has been lurking in the most intimate of hiding places: our own bodies…”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-28-lead-bone_N.htm
ABC tests 100 children’s products and finds 10 with lead
ABC News, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
“As children across the country begin to compile their holiday toy lists, their parents are facing a major predicament. At a time when millions of toys have been recalled due to lead contamination, just how safe are the current selection of toys?…”
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=3805520&page=1
Study: Dangerous chemicals in common baby products
CBS 5, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
“(CBS 5) The Environmental Working Group surveyed 3,300 parents asking what products they use and compared the ingredients to lists of chemicals know to cause allergies, hormone disruption, damage to the nervous system, and cancer…”
http://cbs5.com/consumer/local_story_305191434.html
Articles were researched and compiled by Diane Sherman, MNCEH Intern.
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