Consumerist
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public safety
EPA And Academics Fight Over Notifying Public Of Weed-Killer In Drinking Water
Atrazine—a widely-used herbicide—is one of those chemicals for which there is no evidence it will kill you or give you cancer or make your eyes fall out. It's true that it's been linked to egg production in male frogs, but I think we can all agree that frogs pretty much want to mutate and will apparently do so at the slightest chemical nudge. The question for Americans is, should the EPA have notified affected citizens in the four states where atrazine has exceeded federal safety limits? Because it didn't. More » -
bisphenol a
Industry Brainstorms How To Convince Consumers BPA Isn't The Devil
As studies continue to link bisphenol-A (BPA) with all sorts of health problems, states and cities are banning the chemical from baby bottles and sippy cups and Congress is considering a ban in all food containers. This worries industry groups, who last week held a private meeting to devise strategy to protect the use of BPA. Someone sent the notes to the Washington Post. More » -
Find the hidden ingredients lurking in your personal-care products. Think the "Ingredients" section of a product's label tells you all you need to know? Not so fast. ShopSmart points out that certain chemicals that are considered byproducts of other ingredients may not show up on the label. These include possible carcinogens, such as formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. Yum. [ShopSmart]
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wa wa waaaa
Consumerist And Consumer Reports Will Crap All Over Your Holiday Weekend
It's Memorial Day weekend, the weather is looking nice, and people are leaving work early to hit the pool, fire up the grill, play golf, or enjoy our national pastime. We're doing none of those things, so we thought we'd ruin it for everyone else. More » -
Is Your Leather Couch Making You Sick? The Chinese Poison Train rides again, this time in the form of chemically treated leather couches that are inflicting burns and rashes on people who sit on them. [Consumer Reports Safety]
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bpa
Minnesota Becomes First State To Ban BPA
Minnesota has enacted the "Toxic Free Kids Act," which will ban bisphenol-A (BPA) in sippy cups and baby bottles. Minnesota joins Suffolk County, New York, which banned BPA earlier this year. Other states and counties, as well as the federal government, are considering bans on the potentially dangerous chemical, which has been linked to all sorts of adverse health effects. The Minnesota ban goes into effect in 2011. (Photo: tiffanywashko) -
gardening
Trade Group Asks Obamas To Please Use Pesticides In Their Vegetable Garden
We don't blame the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA)—a pesticidean agribusiness trade group—for promoting its interests, but we still think it's funny that they've asked the first family to not grow organic vegetables in the White House vegetable garden. MACA's Executive Director Bonnie McCarvel sent a long letter to Michelle Obama reminding her of the importance of technology in modern farming, then publicized the letter via an email where she noted, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder." More » -
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science says
Baby Products: Now With Formaldehyde!
More than half of the baby products recently tested by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics were found to contain trace levels of formaldehyde and dioxane. Though the study didn't accuse Johnson & Johnson of dumping barrels of the potential carcinogens directly into their baby products, the dangerous chemicals can form during the manufacturing process as other ingredients break down. The full list of 48 tested baby shampoos, lotions, soaps, and wipes—including some well-known products you probably have on your shelf—inside. More » -
Worried about toxic makeup? The Environmental Working Group has a database with safety ratings on more than 25,000 personal-care products. [Skin Deep]
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babies
No More BPA Baby Bottles In US?
Philips Avent, the nation's largest seller of baby bottles, announced today that it will voluntarily stop selling bottles containing the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Attorneys general from Connecticut and New Jersey had written a letter to several bottle makers asking them to stop, and the Washington Post says the six largest baby bottle manufacturers in the country have voluntarily complied. More » -
bpa
Suffolk County Bans Bisphenol-A In Baby Bottles
Suffolk County, New York enacted the nation's first Bisphenol-A (BPA) ban on Tuesday when it voted to ban BPA from bottles for children 3 and under. More » -
bpa
Chicago Considering A Partial Ban On Bisphenol-A Products
Chicago might become the first place in the United States to partially ban the sale of products that contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), the chemical that some studies have shown may have harmful effects on humans. They're proposing to forbid the sale of any BPA product intended for children. Canada banned the chemical last year, but the FDA has so far come down on the side of manufacturers. More » -
taking it seriously
Woman Sues McDonald's For Serving Cleaning Liquid Instead Of Iced Tea
A Baltimore woman is suing McDonald's for negligence, after she says they served her a cup of kitchen equipment sanitizer instead of iced tea. More » -
bpa
Study Finds Bisphenol-A Can Enter Your Body Through Non-Food Sources
A new study from the University of Rochester shows that bisphenol-A (BPA), a potentially toxic chemical found in many plastics, can enter the body via non-food sources and lingers in the body longer than previously thought. More » -
lawsuits
Class Action Lawsuit: Victoria's Secret Bras Causing Skin Rashes?
Discover Magazine has an interesting blog post about some consumers who were complaining that Victoria's Secret bras were giving them painful rashes. When their lawyers bought similar bras and had them tested — they were found to contain formaldehyde. More » -
bpa
BPA Levels Higher In Those With Heart Disease Or Diabetes
Another report measuring the negative effects of bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical found in plastics that Canada has banned and that the U.S. continues to fight over, has been released. Today the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found that:
those with the largest amount of BPA in their urine had nearly three times the risk of heart disease and more than twice the risk of diabetes as those who had the lowest levels.
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bpa
Confirmed: BPA Will Harm Your Monkey
The bisphenol-A (BPA) saga continues, this time with a study that tried to replicate the ongoing environmental exposure to BPA that the average American faces, only with monkeys instead of rodents. The Washington Post reports:
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have linked [BPA] to problems with brain function and mood disorders in monkeys—the first time the chemical has been connected to health problems in primates.
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chemicals
New York, 9:23 PM
Wed Nov 11
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