Your child car seat may contain toxic chemicals

Your child's car seat may contain toxic chemicals. A Michigan-based study has found that 60% of child car seats sold in Michigan contain dangerous chemicals. See this report. They helpfully list the most toxic and the least toxic car seats.

Government should recommend organic foods

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is calling on the US Government to revise national dietary guidelines to encourage people seeking to minimize their exposure to toxic chemicals to choose organic. The call comes just weeks after a report from the influential President’s Cancer Panel said that eating foods grown without pesticides was one practical way to reduce environmental cancer risk. The report added that exposure to antibiotics and growth hormones could be similarly “minimized by eating free-range meat raised without these medications.”
Read article in Natural Products magazine (UK)

Study suggests use of cleaning sprays, air fresheners and mould removers may increase risk of breast cancer

Based on retrospective self-reporting of use of household cleaning chemicals, higher use appeared to be linked to the doubling of breast cancer risk. Many such products contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals linked to breast cancer in laboratory experiments on rodents. Read article in the Independent.

BPA (Bisphenol A) in plastic bottles 'poisoning us'

A leading toxicology scientist believes tighter regulations are needed to prevent chemicals leaking into the human body from common plastic drink bottles and packaging. University of Canterbury professor of toxicology Professor Ian Shaw says it is crucially important to decrease the amount of the chemical BPA from New Zealanders' diets. BPA, which leaches from food and drink containers into the body, has consistently been found in overseas tests in blood, urine and even the amniotic fluid protecting a foetus. Such chemicals are linked to health problems that can include reduced sperm count in men, early puberty in girls and increased incidence of breast and testicular cancers - and countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have become alert to potential risks.
Read article in the New Zealand Herald

US chemical companies and US government and military authorities who ordered its spraying on Vietnam knew dangers to human health of Agent Orange

A review of the documents related to the use of Agent Orange – a dioxin-laden herbicide – in Vietnam, including decades-old declassified papers from the companies that manufactured it and the government and military that used it, provides evidence that those in charge also concealed evidence of the devastating effects it could have on people.
Read article in the Thanh Nien Daily (Vietnam)

Do you use an insect repellent? Could it be harming you?

Do you use an insect repellent? Could it be harming you? - The Telegraph reports that "According to scientists the active ingredient in many insect repellents, N-diethyl-m-toluamide, better known as DEET, could be toxic to the central nervous system". - That's your central nervous system, not just the insect's central nervous system...

Some toxic pesticides banned in Europe

Sharp restrictions on the use of pesticides, passed by the European Parliament on Tuesday 13 January, will see the use of a number of highly toxic chemicals within pesticides banned and pesticide use severely reduced.
Read article at euobserver.com

Further deaths from toxic fungicide in some Chinese-made furniture

Toxic leather armchair kills father, son and cat, family claims
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The settees and armchairs, made in China, are treated with a fungicide that can cause severe allergic reactions and eczema.

Thousands of complaints have been made about the furniture, made by south China factory LinkWise and previously sold by chains including Argos, Walmsley's and Land of Leather.

Earlier this year Elizabeth McLaughlin, 59, of Luton, Beds, died after sitting on a recliner and suffering swelling and shortness of breath.

The wife and mother of the latest victims, in Paris, said they used a LinkWise chair sold by French firm Conforama. She said: "They had burns on their backs and legs. When my husband was in hospital, our cat would not leave his master's chair. Two weeks later he was dead.""

Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products and air fresheners

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.
Read article at physorg.com

Your shower curtains may be toxic...

Toxic shower curtain warning
Article in the Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"American scientists are warning that the humble plastic shower curtain is responsible for releasing more than 100 toxic chemicals into homes, including some suspected of causing cancer or having gender-bending effects.

A report from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice calls for PVC curtains to be banned, a call echoed by Greenpeace. Several stores have already phased them out."