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Mexican marijuana cartels sully US forests, parks
National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.
The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 — and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.
Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.
Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.
"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess." National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pocke... more -
2,500 evacuated after W.Pa. chemical leak | AP | 10/11/2008
Authorities in western Pennsylvania evacuated about 2,500 people due to a hazardous mile-long cloud from a corrosive material leak at a chemical plant.
Butler County emergency officials said the leak at the Indspec Chemical Corp. plant in Petrolia was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday. Plant manager Dave Dorko said a material called oleum similar to sulfuric acid overflowed from a tank and instantly evaporated into the air.
Freda Tarbell, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said authorities were concerned about the potential for respiratory damage and skin burns. She said a team with the federal Environmental Protection Agency had gone to the area from Wheeling, W.Va., to monitor air quality.
Authorities went door-to-door to warn the 2,500 people living in a three-mile radius around the plant to evacuate because of the cloud. Tarbell said the air would be monitored through the night and residents would probably be able to return home Sunday morning.
About 250 people went to shelters in nearby Karns City, North Washington and Bruin, and officials said the rest likely went to stay with relatives. Red Cross officials said they expected to shelter only 50 to 100 people overnight in the close-knit community.
Dorko said all 30 employees of the plant, which produces a bonding agent for the tire industry, were evacuated and no one was injured. Authorities said three residents were taken to hospitals with apparent respiratory problems, but officials said it was unclear whether they were related to the leak.
The dense cloud was reported moving slowly west close to the ground late Saturday night. No further evacuations were planned, but residents in the cloud's path were told to remain inside, close doors, windows and vents, shut down any system that draws air from the outside and put out any fires in fireplaces. Authorities in western Pennsylvania evacuated about 2,500 people due to a hazardous mile-long cloud from a corrosive material leak at ... more -
Tainted China water sickens 450
About 450 people have fallen ill in southern China after drinking contaminated water, the Xinhua state news agency says.
Four of the sick, in two villages in Guangxi province, have arsenic poisoning. Industrial waste from a metal company has been blamed.
Residents began to show symptoms of facial swelling, vomiting and blurred vision on 3 October.
Last month, tainted milk left more than 50,000 children sick.
Plant closed
Ge Xianmin, head of the Guangxi regional occupational disease prevention and control institute, told Xinhua: "The villagers were slightly poisoned. They can be cured in nine to 15 days with timely treatment."
Health officials said 23 children under the age of seven and 32 people aged over 60 had been kept in hospital for observation, while others were receiving outpatient treatment.
According to local government officials, torrential rain caused waste water containing arsenic from the Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical company to overflow and pollute nearby ponds and wells.
The company - a branch of the state-owned Liuzhou China Tin Company - was closed after the contamination was discovered.
Xinhua said the local government and the company had agreed to share the medical costs of the villagers.
Last month, four children died and more than 50,000 were sickened after they were fed on baby milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.
The scandal resulted in a recall of many Chinese milk products. About 450 people have fallen ill in southern China after drinking contaminated water, the Xinhua state news agency says. ... more -
Toxic Water Bottles?
A recent study found that high exposures to chemicals found in plastic water bottles could be harmful, but the FDA says otherwise. Who do you believe? A recent study found that high exposures to chemicals found in plastic water bottles could be harmful, but the FDA says otherwise. Wh... more
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A Happy Day in the Life of an Ordinary Chinese Person (Sanlu edition)
A funny satirical piece that combines all the many and various toxic food/products that have hit the news in China. Slightly dodgy translation, but a fun read. A funny satirical piece that combines all the many and various toxic food/products that have hit the news in China. Slightly dodgy tr... more
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Bisphenol-A, plastic water bottles, cans, leaching chemicals, BPA, Nalgene bottles
f you are like many readers of The Green Guide, you try and choose foods that are as free as possible of harmful chemicals such as pesticides. But if you consume canned soups, beans and soft drinks, organic or not, you also may be swallowing residues of a controversial chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) that can leak out of the can linings into your food. Nearly all can liners contain BPA, says Geoff Cullen, director of government relations at the Can Manufacturers Institute. BPA has also been found to migrate, under some conditions, from polycarbonate plastic water bottles.
Depending on whom you talk to, BPA is either perfectly safe or a dangerous health risk. The plastics industry says it is harmless, but a growing number of scientists are concluding, from some animal tests, that exposure to BPA in the womb raises the risk of certain cancers, hampers fertility and could contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.
According to its critics, BPA mimics naturally occurring estrogen, a hormone that is part of the endocrine system, the body's finely tuned messaging service. "These hormones control the development of the brain, the reproductive system and many other systems in the developing fetus," says Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses. "The most harm is to the unborn or newborn child," vom Saal says.
Plastic water and baby bottles, food and beverage can linings and dental sealants are the most commonly encountered uses of this chemical. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay put. BPA has been found to leach from bottles into babies' milk or formula; it migrates from can liners into foods and soda and from epoxy resin-lined vats into wine; and it is found in the mouths of people who've recently had their teeth sealed. Ninety-five percent of Americans were found to have the chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
read more of the story from link above. f you are like many readers of The Green Guide, you try and choose foods that are as free as possible of harmful chemicals such as pes... more -
Milk off shelves as China's safety scandal grows
China's food safety crisis widened Friday after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies — prompting stores, including Starbucks, to yank milk from their shelves.
The recalls come as evidence is mounting that adding chemicals to watered-down milk was a widespread practice in China's dairy industry.
Sipping from a carton of milk at a news conference, the chief financial officer of one of the companies, Mengniu, apologized for the tainted milk. But he insisted only a small portion of the company's inventory had been contaminated and said the tainted milk came from small-scale dairy farmers.
"Large-scale milk farms are very disciplined. They won't take the risk to do something like that," Yao Tongshan told reporters in Hong Kong.
The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to tainted milk powder, used to make baby formula that has been blamed in the deaths of four infants and for sickening 6,200 other children.
But tests found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from China's two largest dairy producers, Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co., as well as Shanghai-based Bright Dairy. The chemical, which is used in plastics and fertilizers, can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
All batches that tested positive were being recalled, China's product safety watchdog said in a report on its Web site. It pledged to "severely punish those who are responsible."
Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, makes products with it appear higher in protein. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk to cover up the resulting protein deficiency.
No tainted infant formula has turned up in the United States, where authorities have inspected more than 1,000 retail markets mainly serving Asian communities. China is an importer of liquid milk, so it's unlikely that milk from that country would have been shipped to the U.S.
But the Food and Drug Administration said it is stepping up inspections at ports as a precaution. Inspectors will be sampling bulk shipments of food ingredients from Asia that are derived from milk, such as milk powder and whey powder. The FDA also plans to issue a consumer alert warning people not to buy milk products from China on the Internet.
A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor.
"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin," said Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co. "Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading."
But he and others expressed skepticism that so many farmers would know to add melamine to milk. The chemical is not water-soluble and must be mixed with formaldehyde or another chemical before it can be dissolved in milk.
"Farmers can't be well-educated enough to think of melamine," Chen said. "There must be people from chemical companies contacting them and telling them it's a good idea." China's food safety crisis widened Friday after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk produced by three of the count... more -
What the Chemical Industry Doesn't Want You to Know about Everyday Products
The chemical industry has spent years trying to suppress information about a certain chemical. Will Congress help the public know the true dangers?
It takes a lot of nerve to go up against the $3 trillion-a-year global chemical industry.
Ask University of Missouri-Columbia scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons. They've been in the industry's crosshairs for more than a decade, since their experiments turned up the first hard evidence that miniscule amounts of bisphenol A (BPA), an artificial sex hormone and integral component of a vast array of plastic products, caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice.
Their findings touched off a steady drumbeat that has led to a ban on BPA-laden baby bottles in Canada, mounting support for a similar ban in the U.S., major retailers pulling plastic products off their shelves, a consumer run on glass baby bottles and a blizzard of scientific reports raising increasingly disturbing questions about the chemical's dangers at the trace levels to which people are routinely exposed.
But back in early 1997, when the Missouri team produced its pioneering research on low-dose BPA, challenging the chemical-industrial complex seemed quixotic, even risky. Soon after the report appeared, a scientist from Dow Chemical Company, a major BPA manufacturer, showed up at the Missouri lab, disputed the data and declared, as Vom Saal recalls, "We want you to know how distressed we are by your research."
"It was not a subtle threat," Vom Saal says. "It was really, really clear, and we ended up saying, threatening us is really not a good idea."
The Missouri scientists redoubled their investigations of BPA and churned out more evidence of low-dose BPA toxicity to the reproductive systems of test animals. Industry officials and scientist allies fired back, sometimes in nose-to-nose debates at scientific gatherings, sometimes more insidiously.
"I heard [chemical industry officials] were making blatantly false statements about our research," says Welshons. "They were skilled at creating doubt when none existed."
On at least one occasion, the industry tried to mute Vom Saal's increasingly insistent voice. In 2001, according to three knowledgeable sources, a representative of the American Chemistry Council, the industry trade group, called an official at the Washington-based Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) to urge that Vom Saal be barred from the dais at an upcoming convocation at Stanford University. Society scientific director Sherry Martz says the industry spokesman objected to Vom Saal's appearance at the prestigious event on grounds that his work was "very controversial, and not everybody believes what he's saying."
"Our response," says Martz, "was no."
By that time, Vom Saal, Welshons and their Missouri colleagues realized that they had a tiger by the tail. The financial stakes were mind-boggling. The global chemical industry produces about 6 billion pounds of BPA annually, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods, from cell phones and computers to epoxy coatings and dental bindings, is probably incalculable. Though scientists have known since the 1930s that BPA mimics estrogen in the body, for unrelated reasons, the chemical serves as an essential building block of hard, clear polycarbonate plastics and tough epoxy resins, ubiquitous materials in the modern world.
"It's probably the largest volume endocrine-disrupting chemical in commerce," says Vom Saal. "This stuff is in everything." Because plastics made with BPA break down easily when heated, microwaved, washed with strong detergents or wrapped around acidic foods like tomatoes, trace amounts of the potent hormone leach into food from epoxy lacquer can linings, polycarbonate bottles and other plastic food packaging.
Environmental Working Group studies have found BPA in more than half the canned foods **********CONTINUES************ The chemical industry has spent years trying to suppress information about a certain chemical. Will Congress help the public know the ... more -
United Kingdom Talk Saturday 13th September 2008
Saturday's edition of my three times a week talk show. Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
News on Joy.
Testing.
Why do we go abroad ?
Pet food advice.
Turning the machine on.
Forums.
Things discovered in inhumane ways.
My eye is observing.
Not answering the phone.
Are you of advanced years ? What did you give your pets before pet food became available ?
Mad scientists.
Broken down ? Ross will help you.
Thanks to Shaun.
A harness.
Jimmy's doing well at his new school.
We are not made to eat chemicals.
James Dean is at the top of the list if you Google matinee show.
Paying the vet.
I am a hobosexual.
No elevator for Suko.
A new gadget.
Hospital phones.
Taking on too many jobs again.
A very big experiment.
Ear wax.
Take the work while it's there.
Where's the home made marmalade gone ?
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UK Saturday's edition of my three times a week talk show. Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats. ... more -
In Their Element
If you think the periodic table of elements is dull, then prepare to think again. The University Of Nottinghamshire offers elements, YouTube, big hair and explosions. If you think the periodic table of elements is dull, then prepare to think again. The University Of Nottinghamshire offers elements, Y... more
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Green Nail Salon Grows Organically
In the posh Union Square area of downtown San Francisco, Nova Nail Spa is a different kind of nail salon – a green business with eco-friendly building materials. Step inside and you won’t find the headache-inducing fumes from harsh chemicals. The shop uses a vegan substitute as a nail polish remover instead of the cheaper acetone. The scent of mandarin – from orange-infused, organic products -- lingers in the air.
“I’ve been doing this job for 15 years,” says Kim Pham, a manicurist and shop owner. “I did acrylic [nails] before …and I just get sick. A lot of sneezing and headaches and too much [exposure] to chemicals.”
So when she and her husband, Don Kim, had the chance to open their second nail shop, they wanted to do things differently. They stocked organic products and nail polishes free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate – chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm.
“It’s not just for the customers,” Don says. “We decided to do this because, [my wife’s] working, we have a lot of workers, and my babies come and play here.”
Kim is not alone in reporting health problems from exposure to chemicals on the job. Manicurists commonly report symptoms such as headaches, skin rashes and nausea. Some workers have had cancer and given birth to children with birth defects.
A coalition of advocates and nail salon workers and owners have organized to educate manicurists and consumers about safer and healthier workplaces, and some are looking to “green” nail shops as an alternative.
Changing customer tastes – a greater demand for organic or non-toxic beauty products -- spurred the husband and wife team to design and build a green salon from the ground up. The salon’s interior features non-toxic paint, recycled denim for the insulation, and slate and bamboo finishes.
*CONTINUES* In the posh Union Square area of downtown San Francisco, Nova Nail Spa is a different kind of nail salon – a green business with eco-f... more -
The People of Bhopal Lead the Way to Justice
Some important news came out of India last month that didn’t get much play here in the West, and perhaps for good reason. On August 8, the People of Bhopal won a major victory when the Indian government agreed to meet the full set of demands issued by the ‘Walk Your Talk’ campaign for justice in Bhopal.
That means the government has committed itself to economically rehabilitate Bhopal’s chemical disaster survivors, remediate the disaster site, and pursue legal action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemical.
India’s Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Steel made the announcement when he payed a visit to the ‘Walk Your Talk’ campaign site in New Dheli. The campaigners were on the 60th day of their indefinite hunger strike.
A victory such as this is extremely rare, as I’m sure you know well. It’s also one that didn’t come easy. Those who survived the chemical spill — representing the 15,000 that did not, and the thousands more who suffer on a daily basis — have been struggling since 1984 to reach this historic moment. They’ve organized more than 1000 demonstrations, held 12 hunger strikes, walked 1200 miles, and faced off with the police on countless occasions.
Perhaps that’s why the governement’s recent annoucnement has received so little media coverage? Because it shows us the commitment we must pledge to bring the justice we need to live our lives, unwavering and indefinite.
Or, maybe it’s because of that frightening thing called accountability? After all, it’s commonplace to let corporations reign free no matter how cruel their policies, or genocidal their intent.
Then again, maybe it’s just about the green, you know, the stuff that grows on trees? Remediating a chemical disaster site is expensive after all.
And we mustn’t forget how hopeless it would make the hundreds and thousands of companies around the world that ditch their waste wherever and whenever they want.
Just look at Canada. According to the Treasury Board of Canada Inventory on contaminated sites, there are 4,464 toxic sites within the treaty territories of Indigenous People. That’s roughly 1.5 sites for all of Canada’s 2,720 Reserves.
Sure, these toxic sites can’t compare to Bhopal, but it’s no less serious and no less urgent. Especially if you take into account the overall health crisis facing indigenous people in Canada.
Now you can begin to understand why the government and the corporations haven’t even made so much as a gesture towards environmental remediation and compensation for the harm they’ve done — and why the people of Bhopal have had to fight so long for something so obvious and necessary.
The media, along with the governments and corporations, are afraid to open the door because they know they won’t be able to close it once they do — where we, the people of Bhopal, the indigenous Nations of the world and all who struggle for a better life, know that we must take the door off its hinges, for good. Some important news came out of India last month that didn’t get much play here in the West, and perhaps for good reason. On August 8,... more -
Perfume can put unborn child's fertility at risk
Pregnant women have been advised to avoid perfumes or scented creams as they contain chemicals that can increase the risk of unborn boys developing infertility in later life.
Edinburgh University researchers claimed a crucial window between eight and 12 weeks of pregnancy determined future reproductive problems in male offspring. Professor Sharpe also said the chemicals may increase the risk of baby boys developing other reproductive conditions in later life, including testicular cancer.
He added that women planning on becoming pregnant should avoid putting any cosmetic products on their skin which could then be absorbed into their bodies. Pregnant women have been advised to avoid perfumes or scented creams as they contain chemicals that can increase the risk of unborn bo... more -
Too Good To Waste? To Sludge or Not To Sludge that is the question.....
A few snips from the full article .......
"It has been a long time since sewage consisted of pure human fecal material. Into sewage, anything goes. An enterprising American sewage-treatment manager once expressed this by producing water bottles supposedly made from sewage effluent. Their labels listed the ingredients: water, fecal matter, toilet paper, hair, lint, rancid grease, stomach acid and trace amounts of Pepto Bismol, chocolate, urine, body oils, dead skin, industrial chemicals (aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, selenium, silver, arsenic, mercury) ammonia, soil, laundry soap, bath soap, shaving cream, sweat, saliva, salt, sugar."
"In 2002, a senior EPA microbiologist called Dr David Lewis led a University of Georgia study that analysed 53 incidents where health issues had been reported near sludge sites, and found a puzzlingly high incidence of staph infections. Lewis thought chemical irritants in sludge may be causing lesions that allowed staph easy access to the bloodstream. He told reporters: "In my opinion, the land-spreading of sludge is a serious problem. We have mixed together pathogens with a wide variety of chemicals that are known to enhance the infection process. It makes people more susceptible to infections." Taking excrement from hundreds of thousands of people, mixing it and spreading it on land is simply "not a good idea". Not long afterwards, he was fired"......
"The Harper-Collins Dictionary of Environmental Science defines sludge as "a viscous, semi-solid mixture of bacteria and virus-laden organic matter, toxic metals, synthetic organic chemicals and settled solids removed from domestic industrial wastewater at a sewage-treatment plant". The Clean Water Act keeps it simple and calls it a pollutant. "
"Critics don't just object to possible risks to human health: Ellen Harrison of Cornell University, a soil scientist by training, also worries about the health of soil. In a paper entitled "The Case for Caution", she pointed out that "lead used by Romans persists in the soil two millennia later".
{Of course soil science is extremely complex, and long-term tests run by Defra looking at metals in sludge-applied land have found no cause for concern. Even so, Switzerland - which used to land-apply 40% of its sludge - has banned the practice because of fears from farmers that it was harming their soil. The Netherlands has banned agricultural use of sludge, and national farmers' associations in France, Germany, Sweden, Luxembourg and Finland are against it, partly because of concerns about organic contaminants such as PCBs and brominated flame retardants
(linked to liver and neurodevelopmental toxicity and hormone disruption), which some research has shown persist in sludge."
'Food retailers Del Monte, Kraft and Heinz won't accept produce grown on sludge-fertilised fields. EU organic regulations - which are followed by all UK organic certification bodies - won't allow it, even though the principle of closing the nutrient cycle is one that is dear to organic hearts."
"Ntifo attributes the Swiss ban to "a powerful incineration lobby". Opposition from food retailers, meanwhile, is about "a perception of perceptions". Food retailers worry what their customers think. "They are calculating their commercial risk. It's not about the science." Water UK states that "there has never been a recorded outbreak of human ill health in the UK as a result of the practice of recycling biosolids to land."
______________________________________________________________________________
This article makes some good points, some pro, some con. I have to wonder how far we are willing to go with a disposal process such as this. This stuff has to go somewhere, and reading this article makes me think of the old saying; "not in my back yard". A few snips from the full article ....... ... more -
Poisonings from exposure to chemicals increase...
EPA's Sluggish Response
Wednesday 27 August 2008
by: Hartford Courant | Editorial
The number of reported poisonings from exposures to pesticides known as pyrethrins and pyrethroids have increased as the chemicals have exploded in popularity over the past 10 years. (Photo: AP)
Pesticides known as pyrethrins and pyrethroids, long considered "safe," have exploded in popularity over the past 10 years. Unfortunately, so has the number of reported poisonings from exposures to these chemicals.
Yet the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which collects this data and has a role in protecting public health and the environment, has been unconscionably slow in responding to the threat. Read more at above link. EPA's Sluggish Response Wednesday 27 August 2008 by: Hartford Courant | Editorial ... more -
Just how harmful are plastics?
"First synthesized in 1891, bisphenol-A came into use as a synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. Later, chemists discovered that, combined with phosgene (used during World War I as a toxic gas) and other compounds, BPA yielded the clear, polycarbonate plastic of shatter-resistant headlights, eyeglass lenses, DVDs and baby bottles.
But during the manufacturing process, not all BPA gets locked into chemical bonds, explains Tim A. Osswald, an expert in polymer engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. That residual BPA can work itself free, especially when the plastic is heated, whether it’s a Nalgene bottle in the dishwasher, a food container in the microwave, or a test tube being sterilized in an autoclave.
In recent years dozens of scientists around the globe have linked BPA to myriad health effects in rodents: mammary and prostate cancer, genital defects in males, early onset of puberty in females, obesity and even behavior problems such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Although experts debate whether mice make good models for human effects, the crux of the argument over BPA is that experimental results have not been reproduced. A 2004 report from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis found “no consistent affirmative evidence for low-dose BPA effects.” According to I. Glenn Sipes of the University of Arizona, a co-author of that paper, it is this inconsistency that bothers skeptics. “I’ve never had a problem saying that we can see biological effects in these low-dose studies,” he says. “But why are we seeing these studies that can’t be repeated?” A onetime result in a rodent model, Sipes argues, cannot be extrapolated to mean negative impacts for human health."
Much more at link, both sides of the story. What do you think? "First synthesized in 1891, bisphenol-A came into use as a synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. Later, chemists discovered that, comb... more -
Pollution to Protest
Chinas rapid economic growth has stunned the world, making it a global power in a short span of years. It has also produced a staggering amount of environmental damage, which the world is also beginning to note. But it has also done something elsespurred ordinary Chinese citizens to start organizing, sometimes in defiance of the government. In the process, theyve created the beginnings of a civil society that could bring greater freedom overall inside the worlds largest dictatorship. Chinas rapid economic growth has stunned the world, making it a global power in a short span of years. It has also produced a stagge... more
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Planned Chemical Dumbing Down of America
Why is America so brainwashed by the corporate media? Why do we care more about American Idol and sports games than being poisoned with mercury in our vaccinations and sodium fluoride in our water supply? America needs to wake up and get the facts about our chemical manipulation before it's too late. Why is America so brainwashed by the corporate media? Why do we care more about American Idol and sports games than being poisoned wit... more
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Air Fresheners' Unlisted Ingredients- Over 100 Chemicals NOT LISTED
"Laundry detergents and air fresheners have long promised to keep your house and clothes smelling sunshine fresh and rain shower clean. But what they haven't said is what exactly you're sniffing when you snuggle up in your just-washed sheets. After hearing from people who said strong scents made them sick, University of Washington researcher Anne Steinemann scratched the surface and found almost a hundred chemicals that weren't listed on the labels. According to her report in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review, plug-in air fresheners, scented sprays, dryer sheets and detergents all contained a mixture of volatile organic compounds.
Since manufacturers aren't required to list their ingredients for such consumer products, the boxes only admitted to containing a "mixture of perfume oils." But five out of the six products Steinemann tested emitted one or more so-called hazardous air pollutants, which are carcinogens determined to have no safe exposure level by the EPA. While the study did not test for any human health risk from exposure to these chemicals, Steinemenn says the next time the air in the house smells stale, maybe you just open a window."
This links to a podcast on this subject. This is craziness, the whole point of listing your ingredients is so consumers can avoid hazardous things! How many other products do we use and have no REAL idea what's in it?
Who can you trust to give you this infomation??? "Laundry detergents and air fresheners have long promised to keep your house and clothes smelling sunshine fresh and rain shower ... more -
Controversial chemical declared "safe" by FDA - do you trust them?
"A controversial chemical commonly found in baby bottles, can linings and other household products does not pose a health hazard when used in food containers, according to a draft assessment released by the Food and Drug Administration Friday.
The report stands in contrast more than 100 studies performed by government scientists and university laboratories that have found health concerns associated with BPA. Some have linked the chemical to prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity and reproductive problems in lab animals.
Exposure to the small amounts of bisphenol A (BPA) that migrate from the containers into the food they hold are not dangerous to infants or adults, the draft said.
"FDA has concluded that an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses," regulators wrote in the draft report, which will be reviewed Sept. 16 at a meeting of members of an FDA advisory committee studying the safety of the chemical.
The chemical industry and the agencies that regulate the use of BPA, the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency, have deemed the chemical safe, largely on the strength of two industry-funded studies that found no problems. The American Chemistry Council welcomed the findings of the new report.
But FDA critic Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said the agency lacks sufficient
BPA, in commercial use since the 1950s, is found in many everyday items, including compact discs and automobiles. One federal study estimated the chemical is present in the urine of 93 percent of the population.
Canada has decided to ban the compound in baby products. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, and Toys R Us, the largest toy seller, have said by January their shelves will be free of children's products containing BPA."
What do you think? "A controversial chemical commonly found in baby bottles, can linings and other household products does not pose a health hazard ... more
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Chemicals
