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• Ever wonder what doctors and scientists eat to stay healthy? Seemingly healthy foods like apples, salmon, and tomatoes are surprisingly NOT on their lists.
• As we start a new year, many of us look around our homes and offices in efforts to organize things from last year. Mindful Momma has some great suggestions on how to repurpose old food and beverage containers.
• Green your Valentine’s Day this year, make gifts from recycled mementos. Show your kids how to express their feelings also, through homemade cards for teachers, friends, and grandparents.
• Thinking about taking a vacation? Lessen your carbon footprint while maximizing your travel experience

Recent Research

• New study suggests infant swimmers more at risk of asthma and respiratory allergies. Experts believe the chlorine used to disinfect pools combine with swimmers’ sweat, saliva, or urine creating a chlorine byproduct and over time damages airways. Children whom had been in pools more than 20 hours prior to age 2 were 3 1/2 times more likely to develop lung infections. Dr. Alfred Bernard, of the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels warns against over chlorinating home pools and avoiding public pools that are heavily chlorinated.
• Breast milk from young mothers tests highest for PBDE flame retardants. Associated with both male and female infertility, PBDEs are detectable in most Americans blood. Commonly used flame retardants known as PBDEs are used to reduce risk of fire in electronics, furniture, carpeting, and textiles. It is believed that dust and food are the greatest sources of transmission to humans. Researchers feel younger mothers are at greater risk due to their environment and lifestyle.
• Birth weights decline 2 ounces over past 15 years. Studies conducted between 1990 and 2005 have found the average birth weight in the US to be 7 pounds with an average of being 2 ½ days early. This is a reversal of a trend seen in 1950 through 1980 of an increase in weight resulting from higher weights of women, pounds gained during pregnancy, reduced smoking, and older maternal age. Medical professionals warn low-birth weight babies are at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes.

Other News

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) takes tougher stance on chemical confidentiality claims. Changes will require companies that manufacture, process or distribute chemicals to notify the EPA if a chemical presents a substantial risk of injury to human health or the environment. Reports of said chemicals will then be posted on the EPA website. However, under the Toxic Substances Control Act disclosure of information that companies claim would damage their profits are exempt unless the government objects.
• In efforts to cut back on pollution, Washington D.C. imposes a 5 cent tax on plastic bags. The revenue collected is intended to fund the clean-up of a local river. This is not the first time a city has encouraged residents to shop in a more eco-friendly fashion, San Francisco ordered all plastic bags be replaced in 2008. Plastic bag manufacturers are touting that the new tax will cost Washington D.C. public 5 million dollars in the next year, or on a more positive note, can give residents millions of opportunities to choose a better alternative.
• Energy companies drilling for natural gas and oil threaten drinking water supplies across the country while federal and state regulators look the other way. Injecting toxic petroleum distillates into the earth to extract gas and oil presents the risk of contaminating drinking water with high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen at even the lowest levels. In 2005 Congress exempted such hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act despite risks following strong lobbying by energy companies.

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