First the tip:  Healthy Legacy, a Minnesota consortium of environmental advocacy groups, is hosting educational meetings for parents on how to reduce childrens’ exposure to plastic additives that many fear may be harmful to their health. You can contact Healthy Legacy here. Keep in mind, that they will also ask you to express your support for a bill pending at the state legislature that would ban such additives in children’s products.
Now the facts: Phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) are becoming household words. They are most certainly found in most households – in the most mundane of household products made from plastic. Bisphenol A is the stuff that makes plastic hard and clear. Phthalates is the stuff that makes vinyl soft. You know that new car smell? Phthalates.
There is a growing body of research is raising questions about whether those chemical additives are causing any number of health problems. The list includes obesity, cancer, asthma  and developmental problems with the sexual reproduction system. 
So far the connection has been proven in rats, primarily. Not people. Last year a panel of scientists convened by the National Institutes of Health said that there’s “some concern” BPA could have neural and behavioral effects on fetuses and young children. The most recent study to rocket around the parenting blog world that found BPA leaches from plastic bottles when heated. 
But never mind the research. Parents, especially, are not willing to wait for the final scientific word and are voting with their dollars. Giant retailers are responding.
Whole Foods and other giant retailers like Target and Wal-Mart are phasing out plastic products for children that contain the suspect additives. Sales of far more expensive glass and stainless steel beverage containers are soaring.
 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the tell tale traces of these chemicals are in all of us. Unlike drugs and medical devices, chemicals are rarely tested much before they are infused into our lives. So we don’t know. But when it came time to replace my vinyl shower curtain the last time around, I just didn’t. As I opened the package I could smell those phthalates. So I just use a cotton one now and I wash it more often.  Why not.
 
Have you made changes in your home to reduce plastics? Got any tips? 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 6:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.