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People assume that products must be proven safe before they can be sold and that the government wouldn't allow unsafe toys to be sold. These assumptions are false.

Government regulations are very outdated and weak when it comes to the burgeoning world of chemicals and their use in consumer products, despite our growing scientific understanding of the potential hazards of many of these chemicals.

For example:

• Government doesn't require companies to fully disclose to consumers what's in their products, or to label them so consumers can make their own choices.
• The office in charge of regulating children's toys, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), does not have the authority to ensure that toys are safe. The CPSC cannot legally test children's products before sale and would not have the capacity or funding to do so even if they wanted to. Recalls are mainly voluntary, rarely happen and generally only do after damage has already been done.
• Even if the US had tougher regulations in place for local manufacturers, imported toys would still slip through the regulatory cracks given the CPSC's current capacity. Right now, there are only 15 staff people watching hundreds of ports of entry (down from a peak of 970 staff 27 years ago).

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Healthy Child has always advised consumers to be wise with plastics, which can often leach dangerous toxins. Baby's Toxic Bottle, a study by a team of US and Canadian researchers has shown that plastic polycarbonate baby bottles leach dangerous levels of Bisphenol-A (BPA) when heated. All five brands tested, including Evenflo and Gerber, leached BPA. Adults should also be aware of the dangers as popular "Nalgene" bottles and other water bottles are made of the same type of plastic.

BPA, a common component in clear plastics, is a hormone-disrupting synthetic estrogen. According to the study, even at very low doses, BPA's mimicry of estrogen resulted in an array of health maladies including prostate and breast cancer, early onset of puberty, obesity, hyperactivity, lowered sperm count, miscarriage, diabetes, and altered immune system in animal studies. The hormone-like chemical could be the reason for overall rates of lower sperm counts, faster onset of puberty, and increased prostate cancer in humans.

Over 150 scientific journals have shown the dangers of small amounts of BPA in lab animals, which is sufficient to show their potential for harm in babies. The Work Group for Safe Markets, a coalition of public health and environmental NGO's, found that 95% of bottles on the market currently contain BPA. All of the brands they tested, Avent, Evenflo, Dr. Brown's and Disney/First Years, leached between 4.7 - 8.3 parts per billion of BPA and were purchased from major stores across the country.

Take Action: Ask your U.S. Representative to stand up for the protection of health and the environment by joining with his/her colleagues in the U.S. Congress through a letter to stop a pro-pesticide amendment in the Farm Bill, which is still under consideration in a House-Senate Agriculture conference committee.

Your Member of Congress received a "Dear Colleague" letter from Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Donald Payne (D-NJ) and the letter s/he is being asked to sign will go to the Farm Bill conferees. To sign on, tell your Member of Congress to email Rep. Holt's aide Michele Mulder michelle.mulder@mail.house.gov or call her at (609) 750-9365.

The provision, and other substitute language now floating around, stops the U.S. Department of Agriculture from curtailing hazardous pesticide use through its conservation programs, either by targeting specific contaminants that are poisoning water or hurting wildlife, or facilitating a transition to organic practices.

For more information on this important issue, read Beyond Pesticides' full action alert.

Christopher Gavigan, Healthy Child Healthy World, green, disease, pollution, children, energy, Penguin Books, books

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Parenting used to be simpler. Sure, there have always been emotional struggles and family crises, but the day-to-day logistics of life were quite clear. Here is your layette, here is a crib, babies are breastfed or fed with this bottle with this milk. The choices were simple and unambiguous.

Today, an enormous amount of time (that could be spent actually parenting), is spent wandering the baby product aisles of superstores trying to decide which of the 200 types of bottles available is the best one for your baby. Or which diaper or which pacifier or which bouncy seat or which car seat and on and on and on.

This enormously time consuming task has only become more difficult with the growing awareness that many of the chemicals used as building blocks for these modern conveniences might not be safe for growing babies. Now we have to consider not only whether our baby will latch on to the bottle we selected, but also whether this bottle will leach suspect chemicals into the milk?

And the scientific discourse in the media is of minimal help at all, but most often adding to your confusion and fear. One article says avoid this chemical at all costs and the next one says that the science has been blown out of proportion, that the exposures are so small we don't need to worry. Who do you believe? And if you decide to read the studies yourself, how do you decipher and translate them? It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to raise a child.

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Christopher Gavigan is our guest blogger during the week of April 28th. If you have any questions for Christopher Gavigan, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some brief information about Healthy Child, Healthy World:Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home:

Nothing makes one more keenly aware of health risks lurking in the everyday world than becoming a parent. Most know the importance of using cabinet locks and child gates, but research is showing many more ways we need to be childproofing our homes. Tens of millions of American children now face chronic diseases and illnesses including cancer, autism, asthma, birth defects, ADD/ADHD, allergies, learning and developmental disabilities, as well as a host of lesser but disruptive ailments. And the growing research points to much of the increases on unseen threats wrought by exposure to chemicals in everyday products like cleaning supplies, beauty care and cosmetics, home furnishings, plastics, some foods and toys as contributing to these ailments. With that in mind, the non-profit organization Healthy Child Healthy World offers parents a definitive guide to creating a healthy, nontoxic, and environmentally sound home.

Filled with easy steps and simple solutions to improve family living without wreaking havoc on schedules or budgets, this book includes inspiring ideas for safe, eco-friendly cleaning methods, choosing healthier food, pet and garden care, nursery and home building materials, plus extensive tips for energy saving and family fun. With contributions from environmental science and public-health experts such as Dr. Phil Landrigan, Dr. Harvey Karp and Dr. Alan Greene, as well as many celebrity supporters (including Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Tobey Maguire, Sheryl Crow, Vanessa Williams, and Tom Hanks), Healthy Child Healthy World is the essential guidebook for parents wanting to go green.