Toying With Toxic Substances

It’s not the labels of only food products that parents need to pay attention to. According to Toronto-based Environmental Defence, some children’s toys contain triclosan. A synthetic broad-spectrum antibacterial agent, triclosan is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a pesticide and has been linked to human health effects. It can also be found in makeup, socks, underwear, and garbage bags, among other places.

According to Washington, DC’s National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, triclosan is associated with skin irritation, allergy sensitivity, bacterial and antibiotic resistance, and the destruction of aquatic ecosystems.

Additional potentially harmful substances in everyday products used by kids and families are phthalates (which have been linked to testicular dysfunction in children) and bisphenol A (which has been shown in some studies to be associated with breast and prostate cancer).

There are simple steps parents can take to make sure the stuff they’re surrounded by is safe, say environmental consultant Bruce Lourie and Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, who wrote Slow Death By Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health (Knopf Canada, 2009). Top among them is to do your research.

Research resources
The website HealthyStuff.org researches toxic substances in everyday products. They rate toys for levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, and bromine, among other chemicals (healthytoys.org).

The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep site lists ingredients in makeup and personal-care products, noting which ones are associated with such effects as neurotoxicity, allergies, and reproductive toxicity. (cosmeticsdatabase.com)

The EWG also has a shopper’s guide to pesticides, which can be downloaded for free and outlines the fruits and vegetables that are the most and least contaminated. (foodnews.org)

As well, the EWG is campaigning to get “rocket fuel” out of baby formula: The organization claims on its website thatstudies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found perchlorate, a substance in rocket fuel than can interfere with infant brain development, in 15 brands of powdered infant formula. (ewg.org)

By: Gail Johnson, managing editor of blush.