Are you washing your baby with carcinogens?
A new report put out by an advocacy group called the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found trace amounts of formaldehyde in 23 of 28 baby shampoos tested, according to USA Today. The Environmental Protection Agency considers formaldehyde a probable cancer-causing agent. Formaldehyde is not listed as an ingredient in the baby bubbles, but is released as preservatives in the products break down over time.
Some 32 of 48 baby shampoos and bubble baths tested in the study contained trace amounts of 1,4-dioxane, which is also considered a carcinogen, as well. Here’s the full list of products tested, including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, and the results.
“Our intention is not to alarm parents, but to inform parents that products that claim to be gentle and pure are contaminated with carcinogens, which is completely unnecessary,” Stacy Malkan, a spokesperson for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, told the Washington Post.
The advocacy group is calling for the more strict regulation of such products. The manufacturers of the products contend that governments around the world consider such trace amounts of the chemicals safe.
Stopping global warming means stopping people from having too many kids, according to Britian’s lead government adviser on environmental issues. Jonathon Porritt says anyone with more than two young ‘uns is putting an “irresponsible” burden on the planet, the Daily Mail of London reported.
Porritt, as you might have guessed, has two children. The Sustainable Development Commission, chaired by Porritt, is expected to publish a report next month urging the British government to increase funds for family planning services, including abortion and contraception. “I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate,” Porritt told the newspaper.
Not surprisingly, his remarks have upset some people. As one reader on the Daily Mail Web site said, “The police state has arrived.”
China has long limited couples to one child in an effort to control the population. Some of the results: infanticides, an imbalance of preferred male children and forced sterilizations.
The government is doing little to stop the chemical pollution that could cause cancer and other health problems in students attending those schools, according to an investigation by USA Today.
Schools serving kids from pre-K to high school are located near factories giving off dangerous emissions of gases and metals. The air outside of an elementary school in East Chicago, Ind., showed levels of manganese more than a dozen times higher than what the government considers safe. Each year, three factories near the school release an estimated six tons of manganese, a metal that can cause mental and emotional problems.
No laws require anybody to monitor the air around children’s schools. The Environmental Protection Agency has created pollution models to help identify schools where toxic air is likely, but doesn’t regularly check those locations, USA Today reported.
“There are health and safety standards for adults in the workplace, but there are no standards for children at schools,” said Ramona Trovato, the former director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, who is now retired. “If a parent complains, there’s no law that requires anybody to do anything. It’s beyond belief.”
Children are far more vulnerable to air pollution than adults because their bodies breathe more air in proportion to their weight, and they’re still developing. Yet the toxins they breathe now probably won’t cause them major health problems until they’re adults. And by then, it’ll be hard to point to the air around their alma maters as the cause.
To see if your child’s school is located near a toxic hot spot, click here.
By Dec. 31, inhalers are going green. Asthma sufferers will have to switch an inhaler that doesn’t produce chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which damage the Earth’s ozone layer. Refills of the previous type of inhaler will no longer be sold, under an order by the Food and Drug Administration.
The effectiveness of the drugs in the new inhalers is still the same, but many asthma sufferers, particularly children, may be confused because the items have to be used differently.
The main concern seems to be in the spray. The new inhalers provide a softer spray, which may cause some patients to think that they’re not getting the proper dosage of medicine. Doctors say patients need to make sure they’re educated about how the inhaler works.
Another concern can’t be taken care of so easily. The inhalers, which use propellants called hydrofluoroalkanes, or HFAs, are more costly — $30 to $60 each compared with as little as $5 previously. Generics are not yet available, and many insurance companies have higher co-pay charges for name-brand prescriptions. Ashthma advocacy groups are lobbying Congress to make the inhalers be covered equally by insurance companies.
The inhalers are the first effective drug product being changed solely for environmental reasons. More info about the switch can be found here.
Autumn is a beautiful time of the year, but it may not be ideal for a baby’s birth. Fall newborns have a 30 percent increased risk of asthma compared to babies born during the other seasons, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Researchers blame the oncoming winter. Autumn babies must face a winter virus season just when they are at the most vulnerable stage of development: as they are forming their immune systems.
One of the most common infections is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which may lead to asthma if children have a severe infection. Earlier research found that about 40 percent of infants hospitalized for a respiratory virus eventually develop asthma by the time they are teenagers.
The study looked at data from a group of more than 95,000 infants born between 1995 and 2000. It was conducted by researchers at the Center for Asthma Research and Environmental Health at Vanderbilt University school of Medicine. The kids were part of the Tennessee Medicaid program and were tracked from birth through early childhood.
Photo by Mexicanwave
The good news: Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it made regulations on lead emissions from industrial sources 10 times stronger. It was the first time in 30 years that the federal government has taken action to reduce the pollutant, which threatens children’s brain development, from such sources.
Airborne lead pollution in the United States has been greatly reduced since it has been phased out of gasoline, starting in the late seventies. However, factories, such as lead smelters or battery recycling operations, still emit lead. (Here’s a Natural Resources Defense Council map of lead pollution around the country.)
The bad news: there are still many persistent sources of lead in the environment, which may harm children. Lead is a neurotoxin, which can interfere with brain development, causing permanent brain damage. Children can be exposed to lead by inhaling airborne particles, but the more common exposure is by eating dirt or dust, which the lead has settled into, or lead-based paint chips. Babies are especially vulnerable to being exposed at the developmental stage where they put everything, including their hands, into their mouths.
In the past two years, there’s also been a seemingly endless litany of product recalls of toys and children’s jewelry manufactured in China because of lead. The federal government’s ban on lead in children’s toys and jewelry isn’t yet in effect, so toys sold in stores this Christmas may still contain lead, according to U.S. News & World Report.
This week is National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. The EPA has tips here on how to keep your kids safe from lead in paint in your home, especially during home renovations, as well as how to avoid lead in drinking water.
Photo by Paul Falardeau
Concern about children spending too much time watching TV or playing video games and not enough running around outside has led to the drafting of a new “bill of rights” for kids. A number of advocacy and government groups in California are officially adopting the “California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.”
The idea: all children before they are 14 years old should have the opportunity to do these 10 fun things, according to an op/ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. With a little editing this bill of rights can be adapted to any state:
1. Discover California’s [or your state's] past.
2. Splash in the water
3. Play in a safe place
4. Camp under the stars
5. Explore nature
6. Learn to swim
7. Play on a team
8. Follow a trail
9. Catch a fish
10. Celebrate their heritage
Groups adopting the platform include the California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism and the California Biodiversity Council, but it can be embraced by any family. Hopefully, kids won’t elect to discover their state’s past or celebrate their own heritage by surfing the Web.
Photo by Vicki Watkins
