Healthy World Watch February 6th, 2009

Our Mission: We ignite the movement that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals. Donate »

Blog

Janelle Sorensen

Friday, February 06, 2009

Fantastic Finds (bookmark these!)

• Embrace eco-friendly child-care. Low Impact Living has started a new directory for finding eco-friendly child-care. They already have over 120 from across the nation! Visit their site and enter your zip code to find one in your area – or visit to share the name of any you know of.

• Save green on your groceries. The biggest list of organic coupons I’ve ever seen thanks to Affluent Pauper. She has coupons you can print now, ones you’ll have to wait a bit for, and then a list of companies that don’t currently offer coupons, but maybe would if we all started asking them.

Recent Research

• Toddlers are less able to detox arsenic than infants. As babies grow into toddlers, their ability to alter arsenic into less harmful forms changes, leaving them less able to get rid of the cancer-causing metal and perhaps, more susceptible to its effects.

• Dust in used cars contains high levels of potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals, known as PBDEs, reports a study that measured them in older autos found at US dealerships. While there is increasing concern about PBDE exposure in the home, the levels in the cars tested were 10 times higher than in house dust. The authors estimate that, even though people spend much more time in their homes, most BDE-209 exposure is likely to come from the car. A prior study found dust from new cars also had several kinds of flame retardants that could be a long-term source for people.

• Greenlandic Inuit with high levels of certain, long-lived industrial pollutants in their bodies also have DNA with altered function. This is the first study to look at the association between persistent industrial chemicals and modified DNA function in a human population. Despite living thousands of kilometers away from industry, Greenlandic Inuit have some of the world’s highest levels of industrial pollutants in their bodies. Air currents carry the compounds north. The chemicals fall to the Earth in the cold Arctic temperatures where they contaminate soil, water and wildlife. The Inuit's exposure to industrial pollution -- mostly through their food -- is believed to be harming their reproductive, endocrine and nervous systems.

Bad News, Good News

• In the final month of the Bush administration, federal regulators gave DuPont Co. three more years to complete key tests of whether the toxic chemical C8 is leaching out of consumer products, records show. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawyers agreed to extend DuPont's deadline -- originally set for Dec. 27, 2008 -- for three more years. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but regulators have yet to set a binding federal limit for emissions or human exposure.

• Europe leads effort to push for design of green drugs. Before Dr. Lars Lööf writes a prescription for his patients, he checks a new database--but it's not just to search for the typical warnings about a drug. He wants to know whether the medication might harm the environment. In some cases, he even can find a more environmentally friendly drug, all with the click of his mouse. The new database, available to physicians in Sweden, is the first of its kind in the world, prompted by a broader law in Europe that transforms the way pharmaceuticals are evaluated before going to market. The European Union requires pharmaceutical companies to analyze the environmental risks of new drugs, adopting guidelines in 2006 that grew out of concern about traces of drugs discovered in waterways and drinking water.