Healthy World Watch April 17th, 2009

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Fave Finds

Want to know more about what goes in your mouth? Check out the GoodGuide to food. They have developed a nutrition scoring system, a simple ingredient hazard score for preservatives and additives, an environmental impact score, and a social impact score. Check back regularly because they’ll be adding tens of thousands of additional food products to their database over the next month. They’re also developing tools for you to discover how processed a product is, and how transparent a company is about its supply chain. You will soon be able to search for specific ingredients and who owns your favorite food company.

Which household items contain mercury? Despite being phased out of many products, mercury still lurks in our homes. Elemental mercury was recently common in light switches, batteries and electronic appliances like space heaters, clothes dryers and washing machines, but regulations and voluntary efforts helped pull those products off the shelves. Many people still own them, however, as well as antique items that contain mercury and could potentially leak it as vapor.

Looking for a new blog to add to your reading list? We recommend Smart Family Tips because it’s loaded with, um, well, smart family tips! (Also, they gave us the honor of their feature “do-gooder” today. Thanks, Beth!

Hot Headlines

Health agency covered up lead harm. From 2001 to 2004, Washington, D.C., experienced what may have been the worst lead contamination of city water on record. Tens of thousands of homes had sky-high levels of lead at the tap, and in the worst cases, tap water contained enough lead to be classified as hazardous waste. Not that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government oversight agency for public health, was worried.

Report warns of problems with multivitamins. More than 30 percent of multivitamins tested recently by ConsumerLab.com contained significantly more or less of an ingredient than claimed, or were contaminated with lead, the company reports.

Groups urge Obama administration to support international ban on lindane. Representatives of 158 countries meet next month to debate whether lindane, a potent neurotoxin used to treat head lice, should be added to a list of chemicals targeted for a global phaseout under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The United States has signed but not ratified the treaty.