Environmentally Friendly

Tue, 24 May 2011 23:34:07 +0100

Environmentally friendly surroundings are essential for life forms. Many species use hormones to regulate every cycle of their life. And when an environment becomes toxic, or contaminated, the production and influence of natural hormones can be severely impacted. Human health declines, and science is not yet ready with cures.

Toxic environments can contain "synthetic" hormone-like compounds that trick our bodies. The synthetic hormones get absorbed into our bodies through our skin and from contaminated foods from the area. Once inside, these synthetic hormones can be interpreted by our body as real. We soon have symptoms of hormone imbalance, yet our own hormone producing glands seem to be working under close examination.

Are your symptoms the result of having absorbed chemicals that your body interprets as real hormones?

There is a lot to consider. Can you name the environmentally friendly places where you have lived, and locations where the environmental issues placed you or your family at risk?

These articles on environmental issues may be of interest as they pertain to human health. Here you can learn how to create and maintain an environmentally friendly place to live for you and your loved ones.

Is Your "Organic" Skin Care disrupting your Hormones?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:52:42 +0100

What is Causing this Massive Wave of Hormone Disruption?

Many of today's illnesses are a result of TOXIC ACCUMULATION IN OUR BODIES, and we're doing it to ourselves.

Did you know that your organic skin care products could contain petrochemicals, cancer causing toxins and other hormone disrupters?

The food you eat requires USDA certification when it uses the word “organic”, yet, according to current law, skin care products can claim "organic" when it isn’t. The ramifications for you and your family’s health are endless. For purposes of this article, we’ll stick to what some of these ingredients are, what harm they can cause and what you can do about it.

Imagine buying that crazy good organic vanilla body lotion you love. Everyone says you smell terrific. But, as you slather on the lotion, you are feeding your skin ingredients such as: benzyl alcohol which is known for allergic reactions, producing toxicity for your brain, organs, and immune system, and irritation to your skin, eyes, and lungs.

Most lotions contain these toxic ingredients: Tocopheryl Acetate, Glycerl Laurate, Potassium Hyroxide, Sodium Benzoate, Stearyl Alcohol, Betaine, ... and many more.

These toxic ingredients have been reported by The Cosmetics Database to have tumor formation at high doses, organ system toxicity environmental toxins, and cause endocrine hormone disruption.

O.K. So now you know. Your organic lotion, along with any other organic personal care product you own, including shampoos and makeup may very well carry a risk of cancer risk as well as hormone disruptors.

What’s next? Well it gets worse.

What if you bought organic baby lotion for your precious little one, believing it was pure? Suddenly, you discover it has all the same ingredients as your organic lotion, which isn’t really organic.

There is good news though. Here are 3 things you can do to safeguard your health, and your family’s.

1. If you want to ensure that your skincare products are fully organic, only buy organic personal care products that have the USDA seal. There is a growing movement to change the cosmetics industry and guarantee that “organic” on the label means organic. It’s called: "The Organic Consumer’s Association Coming Clean Campaign", which has “been working to clean up the "organic" cosmetics industry since 2004. Unlike organic foods, many health and beauty products are falsely labeled as "organic". The goal of Coming Clean is to limit organic claims to personal care products that are certified to USDA organic standards. The Coming Clean Campaign stands for for Organic Integrity in the Health and Beauty Care Aisle.

2. You can also shop at stores like Whole Foods as they now have a policy to only carry USDA organic skincare products.

3. Finally, one more thing to help keep you healthy. We know that organic labeling is a real problem in the skincare industry, potentially causing you untold thyroid and hormone problems.

After years of accumulating waste from toxic products including shampoo, body lotion, skin care lotions, and household cleaners, testing your hormones is a wise step. Purchase the Canary Club Her AdvancedPlus Hormone Profile home test kit. A good way to check your overall hormone health, including your thyroid.

Her AdvancedPlus Hormone Profile (good for men not needing the PSA test) provides a comprehensive assessment of your thyroid, reproductive and adrenal hormones plus your Vitamin D levels. Hormonal symptoms often overlap with one another so a full evaluation of your overall hormonal profile is critical in diagnosing the core issues.

Pat Wyman, Research Editor

Research sites for this article:

CosmeticsDatabase.com
Skindeep.com
EWG.org

How To Create A Magic Garden

Wed, 12 May 2010 03:45:39 +0100

Marissa Henderson, the magic gardener,

theplantspirits@gmail.com

What is a Magic Garden? What does it look like? How do you envision it? Is it all veggies or are there lots of flowers and herbs, too? What are your favorites? Can you see them all in radiant full bloom? Are they ripe and lush overflowing with goodness? What about all the butterflies and the bees buzzing around the flowers, doing their job of pollinating? Can you see and hear them? Is your heart beating a little faster now in anticipation of all that goodness? Is your mouth watering? It’s not only a treat for the taste buds but the visual appreciation for all that beauty, the smells, and the feel of it all that is overwhelmingly satisfying. And you created it!

Feel the love that the plants are giving back to you for all the love you gave to them during the growing season. See all the ripe tomatoes and cucumbers, and loads of lettuce and greens galore. Don’t forget the onions, scallions, chives, and garlic, yum. Then there are the beets and carrots, ready for pickling. Don’t you just love all the cosmos and marigolds, flowering among the herbs like basil, dill, oregano, and mint? And the cilantro; ah there is noting like the smell of fresh cilantro from the garden. No Mexican meal is complete without it. Well neither is an Indian or Thai for that matter.

There now, you’re in the right frame of mind. You’re already cooking and eating fresh from your very own garden. You have achieved a vibrational set point that matches the vibration of what you want to create. In other words you’re visualization has brought you into vibrational alignment or harmony with your garden to be.

But how am I going to do this? I hear you thinking. Remember, this is a co-creative effort. It is to your benefit to have all this wonderful organic food to go pick out of your garden, but think about the plants. It is also to their benefit to get you to cultivate them so that they can fulfill their life cycles, reproduce create seeds and keep creating better, even more luscious varieties for you.

All you have to do is go out to your garden space and sit quietly. Then you ask the Plant Spirits, sometimes referred to as Devas, if they will lend their assistance to your gardening. You have to ask because they can not help you if you don’t. It is a cosmic law. So don’t be afraid, just try it and see what happens. Think of it as an experiment. Often what happens is after you have asked you may not receive any kind of answer in a linear language like the one you speak. But pay attention to any pictures you see in your ‘minds eye’ or any flashes of insights you might receive, for this is how they communicate. You might just ‘get’ to do something and wonder now where did that idea come from. Well guess who is working with you?

In this process you are reviving your inner senses of imagination, intuition, gut feelings, hunches, and flashes of insights. All those things you were told not to pay attention to as a child as in ‘Oh that is just your imagination.’ Well, that’s right, it is your imagination, and it’s an inner sense trying to tell you something. Why not listen to it and see what happens. You just might be surprised.

For example, while I was writing this I ‘got’ that I would be better off putting my attention on creating another circular bed for flowers and herbs around my existing circular veggie garden rather than trying to create another garden along the straight fence that separates the property from the neighbors. As tempting as fences are…so many lovely things like to climb….the immediate vision I ‘got’ of flowers all in bloom around the veggie garden was tremendously expansive. I ‘got’ to start placing all my potted herbs and flowers plants about 3 feet around the outside of my existing circle garden as a beginning.

This made so much sense since I love the energy of a circular garden and the fence is visually toward the back of the house and I was having a hard time making it work. So I went right out and placed all my potted plants about 3 feet from the outer perimeter of the veggie garden. It was such a good feeling to envision how it would look all planted and with everything in bloom. I was ecstatic and I knew I was in total vibrational alignment with what was to come.

Then…..my left brain took over and said, “Well, you know you are going to have to borrow a roto-tiller and get help to dig those beds, don’t you?” I let out a big sigh and felt like a deflated balloon. Who knew how long that would take? I stared to lament my beautiful garden when I ‘got’ another picture. I clearly saw newspapers spread out on the ground, shaping the new circular beds. The papers were topped with chicken fence and the potted plants were sitting on top of the fence to hold it down.

Wow! Now that was something I could do myself and would not be too labor intensive. The grass under the newspapers would breakdown creating nice soil. The chicken fence would keep the wild chickens from scratching and making a total mess out of it. The potted plants would anchor it down and hold it in place until it was time to plant them. Meanwhile, I could start all my sunflowers and zinnias and other flowers and herbs in pots and by the time they are ready to plant they will have a nice root system going which will make transplanting them a breeze.

Voila! Magic Gardening at its best!

Visualizing what you want and asking the Plant Spirits for help. The Plant Spirits love you and couldn’t be happier that you want to create a garden. Why wouldn’t they want to help you? Just remember, whenever you come across a challenging or resistant thought like “How am I going to do that?’, it’s your left brain talking. Ignore it. Have faith and trust. Keep visualizing what you want and keep asking for help. Pretty soon you will be on to some great inspiration and you will feel elated! Rest assured they are there in spirit just waiting to be asked how, what, where, when or any other thing you might want to know. They really are a wealth of information once you learn to trust your inner senses as to how they are communicating with you.

So go for it! Dream big; Visualize; Ask; Allow; and watch how fast and fun it happens!

If you want to know more and/or be attuned to the Plant Spirits, I offer free 20 minute phone sessions. Just email me to set up a time.

Much love and happy gardening,
From the magic gardener,

marissa henderson: Marissa was a landscape designer in the San Francisco Bay Area, when she started receiving telepathic messages from the Plant Spirits. The information received was regarding how to gather the healing properties of flowers. She was then called to Mt Shasta where she created the Mt. Shasta Essences of Light, made from the wildflowers that cover the mountain. Later she made the Archangel Essences. After an extended time in India where she did personal consultations and taught organic gardening, she returned to Kauai to create the Kauai Orchid Essences and Kauai Esoteric Essenes. Marissa is a Reiki Master and an ordained interfaith minister. She has also studied with Ram Tsu, an enlightenedd Master of Advaita/Taoism. She recently wrote the Flower Essense Practitioners' Manual, an on-line certification course. Her passion is to help others to experience a deeper connection to their inner selves by learning to communicate with the Plant Spirits. Through the Attunements Process these wise spirits have brought great joy, love, laughter, and compassion into her life. She has also written a children's book "Ask Althea", about a little girl's journey into the world of the plant spirits.

View my complete profile

Marissa Henderson

theplantspirits@gmail.com

9 Tips to Keep Holiday Shopping Sane and Green

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:29:37 +0100

Green Gifts from TDG's Holiday Gift Guide

Green Christmas gift ideas for everyone on your list

The Daily Green's gift guide features the season's best sustainable and nontoxic gifts — safe toys, stylish gifts for the home, chic choices for fashionistas, gear for outdoors lovers...even treats for pets!

Whether you're the green guru of the house, or you're struggling to find a gift for one...whether you're a budget stocking stuffer or tying a big red bow around a car...you'll find selections that you can be proud to give. There are unique gifts you'll find only from independent artists and artisans, and items you can find in any shopping mall in America.

And, because The Daily Green believes citizens do a service by consuming less, we've highlighted ways to give without giving stuff at all — through volunteerism, charitable donations and more.

Special thanks to Olivia Zaleski for her hard work and research. Happy holidays to all!

These tips will help you (and not marketers) stay in control of your shopping experience – and your budget.

EPA to begin testing pesticides for endocrine disruption

Fri, 01 May 2009 07:30:16 +0100

EPA has issued the first list of pesticides to be screened for possibly disrupting the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and possibly disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by the human or animal endocrine system, which regulates growth, metabolism and reproduction.

“Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems -- especially for children,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Gathering this information will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure.”

EPA will issue test orders to the manufacturers of 67 pesticide chemicals this summer to determine whether their chemicals may disrupt the endocrine systems (estrogen, androgen and thyroid). Testing, conducted through the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP), will eventually be expanded to cover all pesticide chemicals.

The list was developed on the basis of exposure potential and should not be construed as a list of known or likely endocrine disruptors. The listed pesticide chemicals were selected because there is high potential for human exposure through food and water, residential activity, or agricultural pesticide application.

Also being announced today are revised policies and procedures that EPA will follow to order testing, minimize duplicative testing, promote equitable cost-sharing, and protect manufacturers’ confidential business information.

Source: US EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
Published Apr. 27, 2009

Toxic Chemicals Are Destroying Our Health

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:00:29 +0100

An Interview With Debra Lynn Dadd

by Craig Pepin-Donat, The Fit Advocate, citizen journalist
See all articles by this author
Email this author

(NaturalNews) Panelist for The International Health and Fitness Symposium and "The Queen of Green," Debra Lynn Dadd, Talks with Symposium Chairman and Host Craig Pepin-Donat, The Fit Advocate, about Toxic Chemicals that are Destroying our Health.

The World Cancer Report states that cancer rates could increase by 50%, to 15 million new cases, by the year 2020. Cancer rates are higher amongst industrial nations, with the United States amongst the top five, according to the World Health Organization. In spite of advances in science and technology, toxic exposure from the environment, chemicals in our food, water supply, personal hygiene products, and household cleaning products contribute to our nation's ill health.

Debra Lynn Dadd, renowned author and the "Queen of Green," was one of 12 top experts in the fields of health, fitness and nutrition, who participated in The International Health and Fitness Symposium, hosted by author and international fitness expert Craig Pepin-Donat, The Fit Advocate. The Symposium brings together, in one composition called The People's Guide to Health, Happiness and Longevity, what it would take the average person years to research and discover.

In this ground-breaking segment from The People's Guide to Health, Happiness and Longevity, Dadd speaks with Craig Pepin-Donat about the startling health risks created by toxic chemicals in everyday cleaning products. You can learn more about Debra Lynn Dadd at (www.thepeoplesguidetohealth.com/The...) .

Toxins in Our Homes

Craig Pepin Donat: With toxins all around us, making us sick, what products should we avoid? What should we be concerned with that could damage our health?

Debra Lynn Dadd: Virtually any product that is in your home may have toxic chemicals in it, because there are toxic chemicals in every type of product. If you are not currently attempting to buy non-toxic products, then you probably have hundreds of toxic chemicals in your home. You might find particleboard furniture that emits formaldehyde, and chemicals in synthetic wall-to-wall carpet, a wood stove, and a fireplace. In the kitchen, aluminum cookware, canned food, and cleaning products may contain toxic chemicals. Coffee and chocolate may contain very dangerous pesticides. Now, as I point to this list, I don't want you to think that you can never drink coffee or you can never eat chocolate. You can. You just need to buy organic products. You don't have to be 100 % nontoxic all the time. You need to avoid enough chemicals so that your body can naturally regenerate itself and naturally heal itself, so that your immune system can work properly.

When you're in a nontoxic environment, your body detoxes. If you go into a toxic environment, you put toxic chemicals back into your body. One of the benefits of having a non-toxic home is that all the hours that you're in your house, your body is detoxing. Then, if you go out in the world and you're exposed to something, your body's much stronger.

Toxins in our Body

Pepin-Donat: How do these chemicals get into our bodies in the first place?

Dadd: There are four ways chemicals come into your body. You can ingest them; they can get absorbed through your skin; you can inhale them, because they're floating around in the air, and, they can get splashed into your eyes. Those are the only four roots of exposure, but there are many ways that your body tries to get rid of them. A lot of symptoms that we think of as just being common symptoms, that we might take an over-the-counter drug for, are actually symptoms of your body trying to get rid of something toxic.

Those symptoms would include: sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive urination, mucus membrane secretions. How many times do we suppress those symptoms when our body's trying to cleanse itself?
If you can't get toxins out of your body, your body starts collecting them in your fat tissue, in your bones, in your cell membranes, and in various other organs. You can end up with all kinds of illnesses, including cancer and heart disease. Your endocrine system also gets affected by toxic chemicals and that affects every area of your body. It affects fertility, reproduction, sex drive; you could be depressed. A lot of people who are exposed to toxic chemicals end up having hypothyroidism, because the thyroid gland is very sensitive to toxic chemicals. It affects your ability to lose weight or gain weight or maintain a regular weight.

Our bodies have a tremendous ability to heal and regenerate themselves. When we're sick, we think that illness is something wrong with our body. What illness means is that something is right with our body; it's our body trying to correct the problems. We just need to let the symptoms do their job, and you'll come out well in the end. Don't try to suppress them.

Living "Green"

Pepin-Donat: I think people are afraid of "going green," in their homes. First, you have to research all these products, and then find alternatives. They are afraid it may be difficult, or costly. But that's not true, is it, Debra?

Dadd: Let's talk about cleaning products for a minute, because cleaning products are one of the most toxic products you're going to find in your home, and they're also one of the easiest to change.

Everybody can wash their windows with vinegar and water. You can get rid of ammonia. If you look on cleaning products, a lot of them have warning labels that say "Caution" or "Danger." Find the ones that have the skull and crossbones on it, and those are the ones you cannot use anymore.

Most people are sleeping on sheets and bed linens that are saturated with formaldehyde. Formaldehyde causes insomnia. You have people all over the country buying millions of dollars worth of sleeping pills; all they need to do is change their sheets. You could get rid of a lot of toxic chemicals, our world would be perfectly fine, and we'd still be able to do everything we're doing. It's just a process of learning a different way.

Infertility Linked to Common Household Chemicals

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:38:33 +0100

Friday, February 06, 2009 by: Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor

(NaturalNews) For the first time, scientists have evidence that perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), long thought to be inactive in the human body, can disrupt fertility in women. This is particularly troublesome because PFCs are widely used in industrial nations -- they are in everything from pesticides and clothing to carpets, upholstery, food packages, Teflon-coated cookware and personal care products. And they persist in the environment as well as the human body for decades.

The University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) study, just published in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction, found that it was more difficult for women with the higher blood levels of the chemicals to become pregnant. The researchers studied data from a total of 1,240 women in the Danish National Birth Cohort. They took blood samples when the women were between four and 14 weeks into their pregnancies to check for concentrations of two kinds of PFCs -- perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). The women were also interviewed around the 12th week of pregnancy to find out whether the pregnancy was planned or not and how long it took them to conceive. Infertility problems were defined by a length of 12 months or longer to become pregnant, or if infertility treatments had to be used to faciliate a pregnancy.

The levels of PFOS in the women's blood plasma measured from a low of 6.4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) to a high of 106.7 ng/ml, and, for PFOA, from less than 1 ng/ml to 41.5 ng/ml. The women with the highest levels of PFOS exposure, indicated by the higher blood levels of the chemical, were found to have experienced 70 to 134% more infertility problems than women with the lowest levels of PFCs. Increased exposure to the specific type of PFCs called PFOA also upped the risk of infertility 50 to 154%.

So what do these chemicals do to a woman's reproductive system? The researchers said in a press statement that the biological mechanisms by which exposure to PFOS and PFOA might reduce fertility are not known. However, there is good reason to think PFCs may interfere with hormones that are involved in reproduction.

{loadposition fjrelatedhormonal

"Our data showed that higher proportions of women reported irregular menstrual periods in the upper three quartiles of PFOA and PFOS compared with the lowest, and so this could indicate a possible pathway," UCLA scientist Dr. Chunyuan Fei, the study's first author, said in a statement to the media. "PFOS and PFOA were considered to be biologically inactive, but recently animal studies have shown that these chemicals may have a variety of toxic effects on the liver, immune system and developmental and reproductive organs. Very few human studies have been done, but one of our earlier studies showed that PFOA, although not PFOS, may impair the growth of babies in the womb, and another two epidemiological studies linked PFOA and PFOS to impaired fetal growth."

The researchers also suggested that the sperm quality in men could be harmed by PFC levels. "Studies on sperm quality and PFOA/PFOS are certainly warranted," Professor Jorn Olsen, Chairman of the UCLA Department of Epidemiology and principle investigator of the study, stated in a press release. " We are waiting for further studies to replicate our findings in order to discover whether PFCs should be added to the list of risk factors for infertility."

For more information on PFCs:
http://www.eshre.com/ESHRE/English/...
http://www.ewg.org/node/21714
http://www.watoxics.org/homes-and-g.

The Failure of Chemical Regulations: The Case of Mercury

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:29:50 +0100

The Failure Of Chemical Regulations:The Case Of Mercury

Rachel's Democracy & Health News #840,
Feb. 2, 2006
By Peter Montague

Mercury pollution offers us a well-lit window into the failed system of chemical regulation in the U.S.

Mercury was discovered harming humans in Japan starting in 1953 – 53 years ago. Hundreds of people were affected by severe brain damage, blindness, and horrendous birth defects -- all from eating fish heavily contaminated with mercury dumped into Minimata Bay by the Chisso Corporation. Birds and cats were afflicted with the same symptoms.

Ten years later, researchers in Sweden were systematically scouring the countryside, finding dead birds with elevated mercury in their blood. This time the culprit was seeds treated with mercury-containing fungicides. In 1966 Swedish researchers held a conference in Stockholm to present their findings and issue warnings -- mercury levels in the environment were rising ominously, partly because of the use of mercury in pesticides, and partly for reasons unknown. The U.S. government sent representatives to the Stockholm conference, but they returned home without making a peep.

In 1969, Environment magazine told the story of mercury in Japan and Sweden and openly speculated that mercury would be found throughout the environment of the U.S. if anyone took the time to look for it. No one did.

Then in February 1970, the Huckleby family in Alamogordo, New Mexico was poisoned by a batch of mercury-treated seed that they had fed to their hogs, which provided the family's ham and bacon. Three Huckleby children were severely injured -- one deafened, another was blinded, a third arriving at the hospital raving mad. The story made national news and within 24 hours the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) wrapped up "10 years" of research on the dangers of mercury and declared mercury-containing pesticides an "imminent hazard." Within days USDA canceled the registration of mercury-containing pesticides and demanded that the manufacturer recall the product from store shelves.

A month later, Norvald Fimreite -- a graduate student at Western Ontario University -- revealed that fish in many lakes along the U.S.- Canada border were contaminated with mercury at high levels (7 parts per million, for example). Ohio closed its portion of Lake Erie to commercial fishing. On June 18, 1970 Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel declared mercury "an intolerable threat to the health and safety of the American people" -- a statement so true and bold that it remains the quintessential summary of the mercury problem 35 years later.

Later that same year, 1970, a public interest research organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico -- Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) -- arranged to take samples from the stack gases emitted from the Four Corners coal-burning power plant and analyze them for mercury. SRIC's staff scientist, Charles Hyder, was convinced that burning coal was the major source of mercury in the natural environment. The Four Corners tests proved him right. The Associated Press reported the results -- that burning coal releases enormous quantities of mercury -- but no one with any authority raised an
eyebrow, much less a finger. (Disclosure: I worked with Hyder on that project.)

Meanwhile, Norvald Fimreite's lonely work around the Great Lakes had aroused the world. Researchers began looking for mercury in fish everywhere. Soon everyone knew that big fish -- fresh and saltwater, both -- contain dangerous amounts of mercury: big walleye, big swordfish, big tuna, big grouper, and big pike. Obviously, mercury was concentrating as it moved up the food chain. People began to realize that at the top of the food web you find big bears, large birds, and humans.

Soon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration established an "interim" standard, setting 0.5 parts per million (ppm) as the maximum allowable concentration for mercury in fish. It seemed as if science and good sense had prevailed to protect the public.

But then the U.S. regulatory system began to work just as it was designed to: in 1977, the nation's swordfish distributors took the FDA to court, demanding that FDA stop seizing swordfish that exceeded the 0.5 ppm limit. The trial lasted four days and when it was over a federal judge had effectively doubled the nation's allowable limit on mercury in fish, to 1.0 ppm.

Instead of building a scientific and precautionary case to protect the public, to prevent harm, the FDA caved in to the food distribution industry. In 1979, the FDA announced in the Federal Register that it was formally adopting 1.0 ppm as the new standard for mercury in fish, based in new data provided by the Commerce Department, showing that Americans didn't eat as much fish as the FDA had thought.

Relaxing the acceptable level of mercury in fish, the Commerce Department said (and the FDA repeated), would "provide a significant economic benefit to those industries most seriously affected" by the more stringent limit and "enhance the future development of a number of presently underutilized fisheries." Moreover, Commerce and FDA said, a less restrictive rule "would significantly increase consumer confidence in seafood."

As the public grew more health-conscious, the consumption of seafood steadily rose, and the FDA turned a blind eye to questions of safety. The FDA essentially went to sleep for 12 years until a report from the National Academy of Sciences embarrassed it again in 1991. At that point FDA began testing fish to see how much mercury they contained, and the agency repeatedly promised to revisit its 1.0 ppm limit on mercury in fish, but it never actually got around to it. That 1979 limit still holds today…

To read the full article go to: http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/rachels060208.cfm#the

Mercury Contamination Maybe More Widespread Than Thought

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:27:35 +0100

Tests of Women's Hair Finds High Mercury Levels

By Molly M. Ginty - WeNews correspondent

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Asheville asked volunteers to buy testing kits to measure the mercury in their hair, Molly Ginty reports today. Findings released last month indicate mercury contamination may be more widespread than previously believed.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Kerry Easton's blond mane held secrets. Last year, she decided to unveil them by participating in the largest-ever study of mercury contamination as measured in human hair.

"I'd been eating sushi and tuna twice a week for years," says Easton, a fundraiser in San Francisco. "As a result, my hair had very high levels of mercury--more than double the level of one part per million that the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe."

Fearing her health could be at risk, Easton rid her diet of tuna, which, along with shark, swordfish and mackerel, has higher-than-average mercury contamination.

Last month, Easton had her hair tested again and learned her mercury levels were half what they had been the year before, a welcomed discovery since she and her husband hope to start a family and mercury can harm a developing fetus's nervous system.

"Our research shows that women who eat fish regularly are at high risk for mercury contamination," says Steve Patch, a professor of statistics at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and co-author of the mercury study. "Most of this mercury likely comes from coal-fired power plants that release the pollutant into our lakes, rivers and streams."

Patch's study, released last month, enrolled a record 6,600 subjects (4,400 of them women) and adds to evidence that mercury contamination in the United States is a growing problem. In 2002, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 1 in 6 U.S. women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her body to harm a developing fetus. Patch's study indicates that 1 in 5 women--25 percent more than previously estimated--have this level of mercury in their bloodstreams.

Volunteers Tested Hair Samples

Co-sponsored by the San Francisco-based Sierra Club and the Washington-based Greenpeace, Patch's study enrolled volunteers who each paid $25 for home hair-testing kits then had their mercury levels analyzed by a professional lab.

This research is part of health advocates' efforts to raise public concern about the dangers of mercury contamination: damage to the heart, nervous system, kidneys and liver in adults and autism, cerebral palsy and attention deficit disorder in children.

Mercury is of special concern to women, since women bear children, and since mercury can exacerbate conditions for which women are particularly at risk: fibromyalgia, infertility, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

Possible sources of mercury contamination include air pollution and exposure to thermometers and blood pressure machines containing the liquid metal. "We examined several possible sources, including dental amalgams and flu vaccines," says Patch. "We found little relationship between these sources and higher-than-average levels. But we did find a very strong relationship between fish consumption and elevated mercury."

Study subjects who ate eight or more servings of seafood per month had 0.9 parts per million of mercury in their hair. Subjects who ate no fish had dramatically lower levels: 0.06 parts per million, or 15 times less.

Air Pollution Affects Fish

Mercury winds up in fish when coal-burning power plants release the metal into the atmosphere, where it mixes with rain and falls to the earth, polluting waterways. Bacteria in water transform mercury into methyl-mercury. Small "bottom feeder" fish eat this toxic bacteria. Predatory fish then eat the smaller fish, which is why large predatory species have the highest levels of mercury contamination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Md., advise women who may become pregnant to refrain from eating fish with mercury levels that average more than 0.55 parts per million: king mackerel, orange roughy, shark, swordfish and tilefish. They also recommend women avoid fish and shellfish that average more than 0.12 parts per million mercury: bluefish, croaker white, lobster, Spanish mackerel, marlin, scorpion fish, tuna and sea trout.

In 2004, the EPA announced that fish in virtually every U.S. lake and river were contaminated with mercury. To protect residents from affected species, 48 states have issued fishing advisories on mercury.

Though the FDA has yet to honor health advocates' calls for mandatory mercury warning labels on freshwater fish, San Francisco now requires its grocery stores to issue warnings in English, Spanish and Chinese.

"Authorities urge women who are pregnant, plan to get pregnant, are nursing or have a child under eight to consider limiting their consumption of large fish," says Felice Stadler of the Mercury Policy Project, based in Montpelier, Vt. "But the real solution to this problem is not to stop eating fish, but to go after the sources that are contaminating our food supply. Elected officials are not being tough enough when it comes to cracking down on mercury sources."

Project Turns Up Heat on Coal-Fired Plants

Like a host of other health groups, the Mercury Policy Project is turning up the heat on America's 600 coal-fired power plants, which represent 55 percent of the nation's electric generating capacity and the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States.

Last year, the EPA proposed that coal-fired power plants reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2018. The agency also proposed that power companies be able to "buy" pollution credits instead of reducing emissions now.

Claiming these proposals are far from sufficient, 15 states are contesting the EPA's recommendations in federal court, charging that they should not go into effect because they violate the 30-year-old Clean Air Act. States involved in the litigation are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

"Coal-fired power plants have the capacity to lower their mercury emissions, but they are still releasing 50 tons of mercury into the air each year," says Patch. "Environmentalists say we could cut this down to five tons, reducing emissions by 90 percent if we increase the cost of energy generation to the consumer by just 5 percent."

While health advocates and power companies continue wrangling, sponsors of the recent University of North Carolina-Asheville study are continuing to gather more hair samples in the hopes of publishing their study in an academic journal and strengthening the case against coal-fired power plants.

"Our research sheds light on how serious this problem is," says Christina Kreitzer, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club. "We wouldn't have to monitor what kinds of fish we eat if our leaders were cleaning up mercury from coal-fired power plants using the best technology available."

Molly M. Ginty is a freelance writer based in New York City.

Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at \n editors@womensenews.org .

For more information:

Sierra Club - "Mercury Survival Guide": - http://www.sierraclub.org/mercury

Food and Drug Administration - "What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish": - www.fda.gov

Mercury Education and Response Campaign: - http://www.gotmercury.org/

Note: Women's eNews is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites and the contents of Web pages we link to may change without notice.

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The Environment and Our Children

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:35:46 +0100

Green Hour
March 20, 2006

Modern nature deficit in children may be the greatest hurdle to having a stronger nationwide conservation sentiment we have ever faced as a movement. Research shows that the single most reason people feel connected to nature is the time they spend enjoying the outdoors. But kids are now spending an average of nearly six and a half hours a day staring at some form of electronic device -- TV, computer, video game. NWF wants every child in the nation to spend an average of an hour per day outdoor in green spaces -- a "Green Hour" www.nwf.org/greenhour

Here is the latest --

National Wildlife Week (April 22-30) helps us make it one big nationwide Green Hour -- Also, a group of Ozark communities take on nature deficit with 82-miles trail plan. Predators of children are way more likely to be online than they are outdoors if Dateline NBC has been showing us anything -- Family Online covers some dos and don'ts of Internet use for kids. A new global pediatric health study says nearly 50% of U.S. kids will be obese by 2010 -- another study finds that kids need 60 minutes of moderate exercise per day -- such as they would get playing outdoors.

See www.nwf.org/greenhour

The Choice for a Sustainable World

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:32:48 +0100

An excerpt from the writings of
Joanna Macy

We can choose life. Dire predictions notwithstanding, we can still act to ensure a livable world. It is crucial that we know this: we can meet our needs without destroying our life-support system. We have the technical knowledge and the means of communication to do that. We have the savvy and the resources to grow sufficient food, ensure clean air and water, and generate the energy we require through solar power, wind and biomass. If we have the will, we have the means to control human population, to dismantle weapons and deflect wars, and give everyone a voice in democratic self-governance.

To choose life means to build a life-sustaining society. “A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations,” according to Lester Brown of Worldwatch Institute. In contrast to the Industrial Growth Society, a Life-Sustaining Society operates within the “carrying capacity” of its life-support system, regional and planetary, both in the resources it consumes and the wastes it produces.

To choose life in this planet-time is a mighty adventure. As people in all countries and walks of life are discovering, this adventure elicits more courage and enlivening solidarity than any military campaign. From high school students restoring stream for salmon spawning, to inner city neighbors creating community gardens on vacant lots, from forest activists sitting in trees to delay logging until environmental impact studies are done, to windmill engineers bringing their technology to energy-hungry regions – countless groups are organizing, learning, taking action.

This multifaceted human activity on behalf of life may not make today’s headlines or newscasts, but to our progeny it will matter more than anything else we do. For if there is to be a livable world for those who come after us, it will be because we have managed to make the transition from the Industrial Growth Society to a Life-sustaining Society. When people of the future look back at this historical moment, they will see, perhaps more clearly than we can now, how revolutionary it is. They may well call it the time of the Great Turning.

They will see it as epochal. While the agricultural revolution took centuries, and the industrial revolution took generations, the ecological revolution has to happen within a matter of a few years. It also has to be more comprehensive – involving not only the political economy, but the habits and values that foster it.

Let us borrow the perspective of future generations and, in that larger context of time, look at how this Great Turning is gaining momentum today, through the choices of countless individuals and groups. We can see that it is happening simultaneously in three dimensions that are mutually reinforcing. These are 1) actions to slow the damage to the earth and its beings; 2) analysis of structural causes and creation of structural alternatives; and 3) a fundamental shift in worldview and values. Many of us are engaged in all three, each of which is necessary to the creation of a sustainable civilization…

Green Streets Program

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:30:19 +0100

Adam Johnstone,
November 2005

Walking down Flinders Lane in Melbourne on a sunny Monday morning, I noticed a small group of school students looking up at the buildings, discussing with each other place names, and pointing to planter boxes on balconies overhead.

With curiosity and spontaneity, an approach was made to ask the students what they were doing. Only minutes before commuting to work on the train, I was reading a Richard Register article about eco-city mapping. The boys told me they were undertaking an exercise called "City Experience." One eager student said they were identifying place names and marking them on a map. Clearly marked on their maps were the names, Flinders Lane and Centre Place. I wished the boys good luck and said goodbye.

Walking along Flinders Lane with the spring sunshine illuminating the streetscape, my thoughts centred on:

What are the signs of an emerging eco-city? And how in this age of technological advancement, can we connect with other emerging eco-cities to be inspired by the work of others, to celebrate our achievements, and to focus on our future work to help build sustainable and just communities?

More than 10 years ago, I volunteered time to work with Urban Ecology Australia on the Halifax Eco-City Project in Adelaide. Vivid memories of lavish, home cooked, organic lunches remind me of a happy time, with passion uniting eco-city architects, interns and the founders of Urban Ecology - Cherie Hoyle and Paul Downton. It was indeed a memorable time - an experience fused with spirit, laughter and community. Little did I know at the time, that the experience was to form the foundation for my own personal and career development in the field of sustainable community design. Maybe I did know, but like ancient wisdom, it's there to learn from, if we choose.

Village Well
Like a lot of things in Life, history repeats itself, and now the time is right for me to begin, or continue the work of developing eco-cities with another organisation - Village Well.

Village Well, based in Melbourne, is a progressive communication and cultural change organisation that is recognised as one of Australia's leading facilitators in creating sustainable communities and businesses. Village Well ask:

How can we move beyond the rhetoric, dropping our personal agendas, and activate new measurements of sustainable progress?

How do we enrich the lives of our local communities, local businesses, youth and elders?

How can we access the knowledge, leadership, wisdom and creativity in our communities?

Village Well weaves a connection between many disciplines: Community, Government, Business, Environment, Urban Design, Culture and Deep Ecology. We help communities realise and implement their vision of a positive future by creating cooperative partnerships and accessible forms of communication.

Led by the colourful and inspirational Gilbert Rochecouste, Village Well has talented, dynamic and innovative place making and cultural change practitioners inspired to create a better world. From town centre renewal, to business retail development, community building and practical sustainability projects, Village Well has established a network of change across Australia, with more than 1000 businesses experiencing the unique and authentic processes that unleash the creative capacity of teams to create vibrant and sustainable cultures. In particular, regeneration projects such as St Arnaud in regional Victoria provide support to rural communities in the hinterland where sustainable solutions are just as important as they are in major cities.

Green Streets Program
Conceptualised as a result of Village Well's mainstreet renewal work, Green Streets is Australia's first integrated sustainable mainstreet program. This innovative program was piloted in Smith Street, Collingwood between September 2003 and September 2004. Twenty small businesses were involved in a series of workshops, training and audits to transform their business practices. Hands-on tools and processes assist the traders to manage their businesses in a sustainable manner that is practical, profitable, decreases ecological footprint and promotes community participation to raise the awareness of sustainable business practice.

The program is unique in its deliberate integration of economic, environmental, social and cultural initiatives. The current Green Streets program is running in the Rose Street Precinct in Essendon. Assessing sustainable behavioural change is a key objective of the program, and while sustainability assessments can determine areas of immediate retrofit improvements, surveying the attitudes of business traders for long-term behaviour change addresses the link between the human dimension and a sustainable culture.

The results of the Village Well projects and programs allow communities to experience a sense of purpose and place. The strategic partnerships between community, businesses and local government assist to build dynamic and diverse communities that are able to embrace sustainable choices appropriate to their needs.

The culture of collaboration unites creative and motivated people to build those "urban fractals" that will eventually converge to truly make eco-cities, towns and communities a reality and not just a vision.

Adam Johnstone is the Green Streets Program Manager with Village Well. He was a volunteer with Urban Ecology Australia in 1993-94, and has worked with State and Local government on environmental policies, projects and programs, and most recently developed wind farms in Victoria and South Australia.

This article is intended to inspire all people committed to building safe, healthy and vibrant communities.

For more information on Village Well or the Green Streets program, please visit our websites or give us a call. We'd be pleased to help make more eco-cities a reality.

Village Well
Ross House, Level 4, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: (03) 9650 0080 Fax: (03) 9650 0477
Email: info@villagewell.org
www.greenstreets.com.au

Natural Swimming Pools

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:26:27 +0100

New York Times
April 5, 2007
Steven Kurutz

MICK HILLEARY, an industrial designer who builds zoo exhibits and trade show displays, and who expanded into residential pools five years ago, has found that Americans have a clearly defined idea of what constitutes a proper swimming pool.

“It’s a white-tiled thing,” said Mr. Hilleary, whose company, Total Habitat, in Bonner Springs, Kan., specializes in what could be called the opposite of the white-or blue-tiled things found in millions of backyards across the country.

The “natural pools” that Total Habitat builds are bordered with wood, planted with lush vegetation and free of chemicals like chlorine; they resemble nothing so much as a swimming hole. “It’s natural-looking, like a pond,” Mr. Hilleary said. “But the water looks so clean. People really want to swim in it, more than in a farm pond.”

Natural swimming pools (or swimming ponds, as they are called in Europe, where the concept originated 20 years ago) are self-cleaning pools that combine swimming areas and water gardens. Materials and designs vary — the pools can be lined with rubber or reinforced polyethylene, as in the case of Total Habitat’s, and may look rustic or modern — but all natural pools rely on “regeneration” zones, areas given over to aquatic plants that act as organic cleansers.

The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and draw it across a wall of rocks, loose gravel or tiles, to which friendly bacteria attach, serving as an additional biological filter. Unlike artificial ponds, which tend to be as murky with groundwater runoff and sediment from soil erosion as the natural ponds they’re modeled on, in a natural pool the water is clear enough to see through to the bottom.

The pools, which cost about the same as or slightly more than conventional ones, depending on landscaping, appeal to gardeners because of the great variety of plant life that can be grown in them, as well as to green advocates and others who don’t want to swim in chlorinated water.

“Many, many people don’t like chlorine,” said Bryan Morse, who runs a landscaping company in Vista, Calif., called Expanding Horizons that builds water features and branched into natural pools five years ago. Taking advantage of the Southern California climate, Mr. Morse created a sort of jungle lagoon in his own backyard, building a natural swimming pool with a thatch-roof palapa and a regeneration zone filled with tropical foliage like Madagascar palm and varieties of canna lilies.

The business is hardly a growth industry, at least in the United States. Total Habitat has built eight natural pools, mostly in the Midwest. (Mr. Hilleary said he has formed a trade organization, the Natural Swimming Pool Association, “to protect the integrity” of the industry; he has certified himself under its requirements. The group has only two members, Mr. Hilleary and Michael Littlewood, a builder in England.) Mr. Morse said he has built four pools, including his own, mostly for “ex-hippies.”

The pools are more popular in Austria, where a company called Biotop has been designing them for residential and public use since 1986 and now installs about 50 a year, according to Peter Petrich, Biotop’s owner and the person credited with inventing the concept.

Mr. Petrich said he and his colleagues have given much consideration to why natural pools haven’t caught on in the United States and have concluded that “perhaps in Europe people have more contact with nature and life is not so clinical.”

Toni Schneeweiss of Biotop said that private pools in Austria, unlike those in the United States, generally do not require building permits, which can be harder to obtain for projects using unfamiliar technology. But it is also true that natural pools are not well known in the United States, and that it is hard to find people to build them.

For builders like Mr. Hilleary and Mr. Morse, natural pools are a side business, and mainstream pool contractors don’t seem to offer them at all. Penny Johnson, the chairwoman of the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals, an industry trade group, said she had never heard of the concept until she was asked about it for this article. She expressed skepticism about the technology. “I don’t know how plants could filter the water for bathing use,” she said, adding that in her experience outdoor pools have to be “shocked” with chemicals to kill bacteria.

Asked about safety concerns, Mr. Petrich said that the water in the natural pools his company builds meets European Union standards for bacteria levels and that the risk of swimmers becoming sick is “very low.”

One American homeowner who has such a pool, Jim Smith, a 45-year-old computer programmer who lives in a suburb of Wichita, Kan., said he learned about the pools in a sales pitch given by Mr. Hilleary at a home show in 2002. Mr. Smith and his wife, Susie, who is an avid gardener, decided to build a natural pool with a miniature waterfall, plants like hornwort and anacharis and a 40-foot recirculating stream that would run past their living room windows. (Mr. Smith said he spent about $50,000 on the pool, or $20,000 more than he estimates a standard pool would have cost; he attributed the higher cost in part to elaborate landscaping.)

The couple, who have two daughters, had a chlorinated pool at a previous home, and Mr. Smith said the transition was difficult. “It took us the first year to learn how to deal with the water,” he said, referring to the way natural pools can become overgrown with algae. “In a regular pool, you just put chlorine in and shock it.”

Indeed, algae is the great scourge of the natural pool world, for aesthetic reasons more than anything else. “It’s very important for people that their water be clear,” said Mr. Petrich, whose pools in Europe use plants to starve algae of nutrients.

Algae tends to be a problem in the first year of a pool’s existence and then to clear up significantly once the plants have grown large and developed a root system, he said. (Each spring, natural pools will go through an algae phase anyway, Mr. Morse said.) But given algae’s sliminess and the widespread view of it as disgusting, Mr. Hilleary has taken additional measures to stem the growth of algae and eliminate bacteria, installing ultraviolet sterilizers in the pump area.

Mr. Morse said he adds trace amounts of chlorine — less than the amount found in tap water — which reacts with silver and copper beads housed in the pump area and has a similar effect.

Still, owners say that once they adjust to the idea of their pools as living ecosystems and master the maintenance particular to natural pools — trimming dead plants; fishing debris and the occasional snake or turtle out of the water — there are advantages. Watching the seasons change is one. “In the spring, all the wildflowers come up,” Mr. Smith said, both in and near the water. “In December, the pool ices over and becomes gorgeous.” Two ducks spent the last month visiting the Smiths’ pool.

There are also the elaborate landscaping and design possibilities. The regeneration zone can be along the perimeter of a natural pool or on one side of it, separate from the swimming area, and, as Mr. Hilleary says, “a person can go to town with water plants,” like marsh marigolds and water lilies.

Bill Johnson, a petroleum engineer in Wichita, built a natural pool at his family’s house last summer with two waterfalls and a bordering wall built of massive boulders — a design that would have been difficult with a conventional pool, he said, because the concrete liner might have buckled under the weight. “With the natural pool I don’t mind if the ground shifts a little,” Mr. Johnson said. “It gave us flexibility with the landscape.”

Mr. Littlewood, a landscape designer in England who has built 35 natural pools in southern England since 2001 and wrote a book on the subject, “Natural Swimming Pools,” said a natural pool blends into its surroundings in a way that a “turquoise box” cannot. “It’s beautiful to look at all year round,” he said, “and you can educate your children about the ecology.”

Some owners of conventional pools have also begun turning toward more organic-looking styles, said Gina Samarotto, a designer at All American Custom Pools and Spas in Norwalk, Conn., who has noticed an increased demand for landscape features like boulders and native plants around pools. She added that she has also seen an increase in the popularity of copper-silver ionization systems that significantly reduce chlorine content.

Whether Americans will go for the natural pool remains to be seen. For those who do install them, Mr. Smith offered some advice born of experience. “I wouldn’t say they’re for everyone,” he said. “You can’t be uptight and unable to wait on nature to repair things.”

Algae, he said, “is natural, and healthy water is going to have some algae.”

One more tip: “Kids like to throw algae.”

Water Conservation Tips

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:05:54 +0100

California continues to struggle with an extended drought, leaving many communities to urge voluntary conservation measures. Many of these conservation campaigns encourage every person to work to save just 20 gallons of water each day. I’m pleased to provide five simple ways to reach this goal.

Stop leaks. Fixing just one leaky faucet can go a long way in reaching the goal of saving 20 gallons of water a day. Some leaks are obvious, but others are hidden. Check with your utility company to find out how to check for leaks.

Replace an old toilet. Toilets use more water than any other usage in most homes. If your home was built before 1992 and the toilet has never been replaced, you should consider switching to a water efficient model. The oldest toilets can use upward of several gallons per flush. The newest toilets use no more than 1.6 gallons, some even less. And when you do, install a lower flow shower head which will save even more water.

Turn off the faucet whenever you can. Turning off the faucet when you brush your teeth can save three gallons a day. You can save about 5 gallons by reducing your shower by one or two minutes. If you turn off the hose while washing your car, you can save up to 150 gallons per wash.

Switch to Energy Star Appliances, including your clothes washer and dish washer. These types of appliances use 35 to 50 percent less water and 50 percent less energy per load. You will save money on both your water and energy bills. And many local utilities offer rebates on the purchase of these products. And run these appliances only when they are really full. Washing partial loads wastes water and energy.

If you are thinking about changing your landscaping, consider plants that require less water. If you don’t want to change your landscaping, assess your irrigation needs. Water only when your yard is dry, and then apply only as much water as needed. Watering very early in the morning will also help conserve water because of reduced evaporation.
None of us know when this drought may come to an end, but if a significant number of Californians save 20 gallons of water each day, we may be able to avoid mandatory water conservation measures, while saving money on water and the energy needed to supply it.

Children and PCB's

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:02:36 +0100

Children and PCBs
How Behavioral Effects Are Measured in Infants and Children

Major sources of PCB exposure in children include eating contaminated food, drinking contaminated water, and breathing contaminated air near some hazardous waste sites or in buildings with old electrical appliances that use PCBs. PCBs accumulate in pregnant womens' bodies and are released during pregnancy, passing through the placenta, and thus exposing fetuses in utero. Infants may also be exposed through nursing; because PCBs dissolve in fat, they can accumulate in the mothers' breast milk and be transferred through breastfeeding.

Adverse effects in infants and children include:

low birth weight
shorter gestational period
smaller head size

abnormal neurodevelopment (e.g., abnormal reflexes, motor immaturity, permanent learning disabilities, mental retardation, impaired cognitive skills, problems with memory, and depressed responsiveness)
increased hyperactivity)
immunologic effects (e.g., less wheezing, fewer allergic reactions, higher prevalence of recurrent middle ear infections, and higher prevalence of chicken pox)
problems with thyroid function
facial abnormalities
birth defects

How Behavioral Effects Are Measured in Infants and Children

Some of the tests used to measure infant/child behavioral effects are the Fagan Test of Visual Recognition (also known as the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence), Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS).
The Fagan test involves showing an infant or child two identical photos of human faces for about 20 seconds, then changing one of the photos for a new one and presenting the new combination of photos. Normal babies spend more time looking at the photo of the new face. Children with memory problems cannot remember the first two photos well enough to recognize that the second two photos are different.

The Bayley test is a standardized test gauging small children's development
(children aged 1 month to 3.5 years). It includes a mental development index (MDI) and a psychomotor development index (PDI). MDI measures memory, the ability to solve simple problems, and language capabilities. PDI measures body control, coordination, and fine motor movement. Both indexes are scaled like a standard intelligence quotient (IQ) test.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R) measures verbal and nonverbal performance skills.

The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale measures behavioral development. The scale evaluates 28 behavioral and 18 reflex items (e.g., assessing an infant's reactions to a variety of stimuli, such as a light in the eyes, a rattle, or a moving ball).

Teen Cosmetics Linked to Cancer

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:51:33 +0100

IndyStar.com,
January 17, 2006

Several cosmetics and personal- care products popular with teenagers contain ingredients linked to breast cancer and other serious health problems, according to a recent analysis of cosmetics products. The full article can be seen at: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060117/LIVING01/601170302/1007/LIVING.

Environmental Risk Factors and Children's Ill Health

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:48:55 +0100