TAKE ACTION:
Send a Holiday Wish to Your Senator
Ask for the Gift of The Safe Chemicals Act
This holiday season we want Congress to give us the gift of common sense limits on toxic chemicals.
Happy Holidays to All from Anne and Susan
BPA in Thanksgiving Canned Food
There may be an unwelcome guest at your Thanksgiving table this year: toxic bisphenol-A. A new report by the Breast Cancer Fund has found this endocrine disrupting chemical in canned foods used to prepare a typical Thanksgiving dinner.
BPA in Thanksgiving Canned Food shows the results from testing four cans each of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup; Campbell’s Turkey Gravy; Carnation Evaporated Milk (by Nestle); Del Monte Fresh Cut Sweet Corn, Cream Style; Green Giant Cut Green Beans (by General Mills); Libby’s Pumpkin (by Nestle); and Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. One set of cans was purchased in Massachusetts. Single servings of almost half of the products tested had levels of BPA comparable to levels that laboratory studies have shown may cause health problems. Read more...
CONNECTICUT'S BAN ON BPA TAKES EFFECT!!!
CSHC celebrates!
CSHC Coordinator Anne Hulick with members at 9/30 event.
Moms celebrate the implementation of a ban on BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups, infant formula cans and other reusable food containers.
State Ban On Chemical In Children's Products Starts Saturday
HARTFORD COURANT
September 30, 2011 by Christopher Keating
Environmental advocates are celebrating a new law that takes effect Saturday that bans a toxic chemical from use in certain children's products.
The new law - the first in the nation - bans products containing bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used to harden plastic. As such, the chemical can no longer be used in reusable food and beverage containers, including containers of infant formula and baby food, reusable spill-proof cups, plastic sports bottles and Thermoses. The sports bottles sometimes carry the names of popular sports teams.
Signed by Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2009, the law did not take effect immediately as businesses were given time to sell off their inventory of products and then make new products in time for the new law.
The narrowly written measure focuses mainly on products that would be used by children as opposed to the broader general public. It covers reusable products and not on beverage containers, jars and cans that are designed to be thrown away after a single use.
Anne Hulick, a nurse and attorney who serves as coordinator at the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut, said the state's law is the broadest ban in the nation that has "served as a national model'' on the issue. Read full story here.
National Day of Action to Support the Safe Chemicals Act!
Thank you Senator Blumenthal
for CO-SPONSORING
the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011!
Senator Blumenthal is thanked for his support!
Rep. Roy and CSHC members at the Day of Action.
Stroller Brigades: Families March for Chemicals Law Reform
Urge our Senators to be super heroes by protecting our families from toxic chemicals!!!
Parents, often moms, bear the brunt of finding safe products for their families. Connecticut has been a leader in banning toxic chemicals but we need the federal government to take action too! Join the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut and concerned citizens from around the state in urging support for safer chemicals, safer products and a healthy future!!
Help us urge our Senators to be heroes by supporting the Safe Chemicals Act!!
States Join Together to Get Rid of the Worst-of-the-Worst Chemicals
Mercury, lead, cadmium, DDT, PCBs, and toxic flame retardants. Ask most toxicologists about these dubious chemicals and they'll tell you they're a dastardly bunch when it comes to harming our health and the environment. In fact, they belong to a class of chemicals called PBT chemicals that many experts classify as some of the worst chemicals on the planet. And, unfortunately, these types of chemicals are all around us, in our bodies, in our food, in products we have in our homes, and in our environment.
The good news is that while the federal government has been slow to address these "worst of the worst" chemicals, several states, including Connecticut, have been quietly taking action for years to eliminate them from our lives. But, as our friends at Safer States point out in their latest blog on PBT chemicals, it's clear states can't continue to do it alone:
If there's one thing we know about PBT chemicals, it's that they don't respect state borders – which is why it is critical that the federal government's policies work hand-in-hand with state legislation to keep Americans safe from these harmful toxins which risk the health of our families.
"We need a fix at the federal level so that we don't have to do this in the states," said Ted Sturdevant, Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology. "States have limited resources and lack the tools of federal agencies to drive a national program. However, until we have a national solution, we will continue to act on chemical safety concerns in our states."
We couldn't agree more, which is why we're closely following the recently introduced Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 and asking Connecticut's Senators Blumenthal and Lieberman to be co-sponsors. You can help by calling Senator Blumenthal at 860-258-6940 or 202-224-2823 (Washington DC) and Senator Lieberman at 860-549-8463 or 800-225-5605 and asking them to support and co-sponsor this important bill. If you would like to do more, such as help to organize an in-state meeting with your legislators, please contact Susan at 860-232-6232.
Read Safer States' whole story of the impacts of these worst chemicals, what states have been doing, and why Congress may finally follow the states and do something meaningful to protect our health from these chemicals.
Senator Lautenberg Introduces the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011
Today Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) broke new ground by announcing the introduction of the “Safe Chemicals Act of 2011” by video posted on YouTube.
Lautenberg’s video announcement opens with a series of compelling stories from people who have testified before his committee about the need to reform the nation’s chemical laws. Among those featured are:
Molly Gray, who testified before Congress that her struggles with infertility may be related to her “body burden” of toxic chemicals. Read her blog about testifying before Congress.
Sanjay Gupta, MD, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, who told Lautenberg’s committee last year “What we don’t know can really hurt us and there’s a lot we don’t know” about toxic chemicals and our health.
Philip Landrigan, MD, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who told CNN “Eighty percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about.”
Senator Lautenberg lays out his case for reforming the nation’s chemical law, stating that the legislation is an “opportunity to ensure better health and life for our kids.”
“The average American has more than 200 industrial chemicals in their body, including dozens linked to cancer and other health problems. The shocking truth is that the current law does not require tests to ensure chemicals used in everyday household products are safe,” said Senator Lautenberg in a press statement.
“The EPA does not have the tools to address dangerous substances and even the chemical industry has asked for stronger laws to assure consumers that their products are safe. My 'Safe Chemicals Act' will breathe new life into a long-dead statute by empowering EPA to separate the chemicals that help from the chemicals that hurt.”
Closing with a call for bi-partisan support for the legislation, Senator Lautenberg urges all viewers to spread the word, and share his video message on Facebook and YouTube with friends and elected officials. “The need is urgent, we can’t afford to wait.“ said Lautenberg.
Food packaging as a source of BPA & DEHP exposure
In March the Newton, Massachusetts based Silent Spring Institute published a new study that is the first to show that food packaging is the major source of people’s exposure to the hormone disruptors BPA and DEHP, and that a fresh food diet reduces levels in adults and children by half, after just three days. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives on March 30.
BPA and DEHP are hormone disruptors—chemicals that may affect breast and other hormonal cancers, reproduction, and development. DEHP and two other phthalates measured in this study were recently banned under Europe’s REACH regulation because of concerns about reproductive toxicity.
The good news is that this study provides clear evidence that can guide solutions. The findings show that replacing these chemicals with safer alternatives would significantly reduce exposures for most people. It's a clear guideline for individuals working to protect themselves and their families from toxic chemicals.
The problem, is that it's not a guideline that everyone can to follow.
To be able to follow this guideline you have to meet three criteria which are out of reach for many:
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You have to have enough money to buy fresh food. Unfortunately, fresh food is often much more expensive than packaged food - which is at least partly a result of some problems with our food system a topic for another blog post and campaign.
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You have to have fresh food available at your local stores. All too often, food stores in low income communities in particular sell low quality produce and other foods that can hardly be called fresh and is certainly not packaging-free.
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You have to have read or heard these guidelines. While we'd love to think that everyone in Massachusetts is keeping such close tabs on what Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow is writing about that this article will be everyone's dinner conversation tonight, that's not the reality. And if you don't speak English, don't use a computer, or are working 3 jobs just to keep your head above water, this information is especially unlikely to reach you.
In short, this is a major environmental justice issue. Which brings us to the fact that this study also needs to be a clear message for legislators that we need to pass laws to replace toxic chemicals in our daily lives with safer alternatives, for example by passing Senate Bill 210 in Connecticut. In the meantime, if you'd like to read the study, check out the extensive media coverage, or study some tips for avoiding BPA and phthalates, visit Silent Spring Institute's website.
This article uses material from the website of the Silent Spring Institute.
Obesity and Chemicals: A Matter of Environmental Justice
Posted on March 11, 2010
By Jose Bravo
Childhood obesity has received a lot of media attention lately, but the solutions in the news focus just on personal responsibility. First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative is a great start, but it only addresses eating healthy food and getting exercise. While personal responsibility is important, there are other underlying issues that contribute to the childhood obesity problem.
Scientific evidence shows that certain chemicals block our hormones and disrupt the body’s normal functions. Known “endocrine-disrupting” chemicals, this class of toxins includes PCBs, DDT, dioxin, some pesticides, and many plasticizers, like BPA. These chemicals play an important role in the global epidemic of obesity. Dr. Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California in Irvine believes there’s evidence that industrial pollutants are contributing to America's obesity epidemic. Dr. Blumberg calls those chemicals “obesogens.”
"Despite what we've heard, diet and exercise alone are insufficient to explain the obesity epidemic." —Dr. Bruce Bloomberg, UC Irvine
There is now strong evidence that our bodies mistake certain man-made chemicals used in plastics, food, wrappers, and fragrances, and many more items, for naturally occurring hormones that regulate the production and storage of fat cells.
“Evidence has been steadily accumulating that certain hormone-mimicking pollutants, ubiquitous in the food chain, have two previously unsuspected effects. They act on genes in the developing fetus and newborn to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, which stay with you for life. And they may alter metabolic rate, so that the body hoards calories rather than burning them…” —Retha Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals that may be linked to obesity include:
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Bisphenol A (BPA) is ubiquitous in the environment. It is used to make polycarbonate plastic water bottles, baby bottles, the linings of metal food and soft-drink cans, thermal receipt paper, and dental sealants. Studies show that mice and rats fed low doses of BPA during early development became more obese as adults than those that weren't fed the chemical. BPA leaches from food and beverage containers into what we eat and drink.
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Phthalates are plasticizers found in PVC tubing, plastic, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, fragrances and more. One recent study linked a type of phthalate that leaches into processed food with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in men.
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Atrazine is a commonly used weed killer found to contaminate drinking water supplies, and exist as residue in food. After noticing an apparent overlap between areas where the weed killer is used and the prevalence of obesity, researchers conducted animal studies of the effects of low doses of atrazine. The findings suggest that atrazine may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and obesity, especially when the exposure is associated with a high-fat diet.
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Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is used to make non-stick cookware, found in grease-proof food packaging, and stain-proof coating on clothing and carpeting. Several studies show that PFOA exposure results in reduced birth weight followed by weight gain after puberty.
You can learn more about chemical obesogens here:
José T. Bravo is Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance based in Chula Vista, California.
Mar 31, 2011
Dear Mr. President:
Though overall cancer incidence and mortality have continued to decline in recent years, the disease continues to devastate the lives of far too many Americans.
In 2009 alone, approximately 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease. With the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the unacceptable burden of cancer resulting from environmental and occupational exposures that could have been prevented through appropriate national action.
The Administration’s commitment to the cancer community and recent focus on critically needed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is praiseworthy.
However, our Nation still has much work ahead to identify the many existing but unrecognized environmental carcinogens and eliminate those that are known from our workplaces, schools, and homes.
- Cover letter to President Obama from the President's Cancer Panel, May 2010.
When the President's Cancer Panel released a report in May 2010 advising Americans to take specific steps to reduce environmental toxins in their lives and thus reduce cancer risk, it was a watershed moment. The report recommended that Americans drink filtered water, avoid bisphenol-A (BPA), eat food grown without pesticides, and carefully choose the household products they use.
In an interview with the Breast Cancer Fund, Dr. Margaret Kripke, member of the President's Cancer Panel, commented on the creation of the report: "This was an enormously eye-opening experience for me." The panel decided to focus on cancer-causing environmental toxins because they are of concern to many Americans, and because 6% of cancers are thought to be caused by environmental carcinogens – this means that about 20,000 Americans are dying each year due to cancer caused by their environment.
Speaking further on the issue, Dr. Kripke talked about the United States' stance on the regulation of chemicals in commerce today: over 80,000 chemicals are approved for use in every day products, and only a few of them have been tested. Rather than proactively require testing of these chemicals, the federal government allows their use until the chemical is proven to be harmful.
"I always assumed that if something was a known human carcinogen that it would be regulated and this is clearly not the case.
Also, there are carcinogens in our environment that have been banned in Europe, banned in Canada that we are still using and that remain unregulated to this day, and I always assumed that, before things were put on the market, that they would be tested.
And that, too, is absolutely not the case -- we test very few things for cancer-causing properties."
—Dr. Margaret Kripke
In the absence of an overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) on the federal level, it is up to the states to control toxic chemical use to the best of their ability. And advocates are working hard on the ground to protect as many people as possible from the risk of cancer due to environmental factors.
ON THE MONEY:
NEW STUDY FINDS HORMONE-DISRUPTING CHEMICAL BISPHENOL-A (BPA) RUBS OFF ONTO DOLLAR BILLS
Hartford -- Calling it “invisible pollution that can’t be avoided even by the most conscientious consumer,” the Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Connecticut (CSHC) pointed to a new study released today “On The Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts” that revealed that the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) was found on 95% of dollar bills collected for a study that set out to investigate the extent to which thermal receipt paper containing BPA has permeated the market, and whether the dangerous chemical is being transferred onto money that lies close to the receipts in consumer’s wallets.
“This is a perfect example of how much our state and our nation is in need of comprehensive reform,” said Mark Mitchell, M.D., M.P.H., who provided the dollar bill sample from Connecticut. Founder and President of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and a member of CSHC, Dr. Mitchell added, “Connecticut arguably has one of the strongest BPA laws in the nation and yet consumers are still not protected.”
Read full report here.
Read CSHC press release here.
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