Healthy World Watch March 13th, 2009

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Blog

Janelle Sorensen

Friday, March 13, 2009

Here is our weekly look at the latest research and studies, along with our top picks for the best green tips and informational reading.

Fave Finds

• Green and Save is a website that offers professional consulting services for greening your home to save money, but you don’t have to hire them to benefit from their wisdom. For example, if you invest $1000 on a whole house water filtration system, you can save over $300 a year (not to mention the health and environmental benefits which are priceless!)

• Rent a Toy is a new service for parents and caregivers that’s like Netflix for toys. Simply pick a service plan, choose your toys, when you’re child tires of them, ship them back free of charge. I can’t believe the genius of this (and they have a great selection of eco-friendly toys, wooden toys, musical instruments, and much more).

Headlines

• The EPA has announced a plan for all public schools to adopt integrated pest management practices by 2015, which experts calculate will reduce use of pesticides by at least 70 percent. The strategy has been successful in pilot schools, which have reduced their pesticide use by around 90 percent, EPA officials said. The new plan is not a federal mandate, but a set of recommendations for implementing IPM. The plan includes no funding to help schools switch from conventional pest management, and there are no enforcement measures to ensure that schools heed the EPA’s recommendations. IPM experts, environmental health advocates and many school officials support the plan, though some fear it falls short of protecting children and teachers from pesticides.

• Bending to growing public and legal pressure that began in San Francisco, six major companies have agreed to stop selling hard-plastic baby bottles containing bisphenol A, an industrial chemical suspected of harming human development. The purveyors of baby-care products - Playtex Products Inc., Gerber, Evenflo Co., Avent America Inc., Dr. Brown and Disney First Years - said they no longer will market the shatter-proof polycarbonate bottles and some other baby products in the United States.

• Canadian health authorities have discovered Bisphenol-A in soft drinks. That's the same chemical banned from plastic baby bottles and water bottles. Health officials say the levels of BPA are below acceptable limits, but people drink a lot of soft drinks.The BPA is located in a very thin plastic film on the inside of the soda can and protects the soda from being exposed to the aluminum of the can.