We Thank You
for Helping Us Keep Children
Happy and Healthy this Holiday Season
In This Issue
Support the Work that Children Everywhere are Counting On
At the Center for Environmental Health, we've spent the last ten years quietly earning our reputation as the nation's most effective advocate for removing toxic chemicals from the products that children and families use every day.
But in 2007, something unusual happened: everyone finally heard about it.
As companies like Fisher-Price and Mattel recalled millions of lead-tainted Thomas the Trains, Dora the Explorers and other toys, we found our phones ringing off the hook. Reporters world-wide were suddenly calling to ask about the charge we've been leading for over a decade.
Overnight, the Center for Environmental Health became the national go-to organization on dangerous chemicals in consumer products.
Today, when parents, reporters, and other organizations have questions about how to protect families from all the chemically contaminated products on the market, they come to us. And now that families like yours are pushing the government to address the problem, the House and Senate are also turning to us for advice to help them protect people across the country.
Won't you please help us protect your family from toxic chemicals in everyday products?
Click here to make a secure, online, tax-deductible donation.
Safe Toys for the Holiday Season
Well after this summer's toy recall frenzy, the Center for Environmental Health continued to scour the marketplace for lead contaminated toys. What we found was alarming and discouraging. But it was also something that parents who want to protect their children need to know: there continue to be many lead-contaminated toys on the market. 
The questions we get every day make it clear that parents around the country want to know how to keep their children safe from all of the lead-tainted toys and other products on the market. They deserve simple and clear answers.
Here are a few pointers:
- All-too-often, vinyl is made with lead (and other harmful chemicals) in it. Avoid buying products made from this dirty plastic, and definitely keep it away from children under six. Since it isn't always possible to know what's vinyl and what isn't, try to limit the amount of plastic products you give to children of that age. We know: this is difficult to do.
- Pigments in paints are sometimes made with lead. Ask store owners if they have tested the painted toys on their shelves. If they haven't, test them yourself.
- We've discovered children's jewelry contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead. Keep all metal jewelry away from children under six.
- Whatever the product is: when in doubt, test it. Our website has easy-to-follow instructions for testing your children's products. Read them here.
And a few other recommendations:
- Along with a group of other organizations that also work to protect children's health, we pooled together our data on toys. You can review it here.
- Another good resource for eco-friendly, child-friendly, and educational toys is National Geographic's Green Guide.
- Also, a Bay Area coalition of lead poisoning prevention leaders assembled a useful list of health tips and holiday gift ideas. Check it out.
Shame of the month: CPSC Urges Parents to Hope for the Best
Shocking, but true: with all the lead-tainted products on the market, the industry-led Consumer Product Safety Commission is recommending that parents don't bother to test their children's toys for lead.
Why? Because, they say, sometimes the tests aren't accurate.
So instead of recommending that parents attempt to protect their kids from the lead-tainted products that have flooded the market, the Commission says do nothing.
This might be a safe strategy if the CPSC were doing its job and keeping dangerous products out of children's hands, but the Commission has made clear its mandate to protect industry profits at the expense of children's health.
With all of the lead tainted toys on the market (we found 20 out of 100 in a sweep of big box stores last month), it is shamefully irresponsible for any government agency to urge parents to let their children go right on using lead tainted toys.
We're assembling our predictions for the CPSC's next shameful attempt to twist logic in favor of industries that poison children. Our current favorite: The CPSC urges parents not to use seat belts since they don't always work either.
Please send your predictions to charlie@cehca.org.
If you're like most people, phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are probably something you've never heard of. And if you're like most, they are also something that resides in your body right now.
Phthalates are a family of industrial chemicals that is used to soften hard plastics, so you'll find them in shoes, backpacks, personal care products, lunchboxes, bottles, furniture, cars, children's toys, and many other items. Most people in our country are exposed to phthalates on a daily basis.
Why should you care?
Because once they're in the human body, phthalates, like many industrial chemicals, mimic the behavior of hormones - the chemicals that dictate how we develop, grow, behave, age, and much more. And because even miniscule changes in hormone levels can cause extreme developmental and health problems, phthalates and other hormone mimics have no place near pregnant mothers, infants, babies, and small children. To list just a few of the health outcomes associated with phthalates:
- damage to sperm
- deformities to male sexual organs
- premature birth
We agree: it's appalling that the chemical industry has been allowed to expose people to yet another dangerous chemical.
But there is good news out there too. The Safe Drinking Water and Toxics Enforcement Act of 1986 (also known as Proposition 65) requires the State of California to keep a list of the chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive harm. Because phthalates have been proven dangerous, the state has added four phthalates to that list in the last two years.
At the Center for Environmental Health, we have been working this year to identify products that contain these phthalates so that we can force companies to remove them from products on shelves nationwide. Our studies have found these chemicals in polymer clays, plastic gloves, and in the headset cables of Apple's popular iPod and iPhone. The makers of the clays and gloves have committed to reformulating their products, and we are urging Apple to follow suit.
It is painstaking work to search for individual chemicals in products. But until we force our government to adopt a sensible policy that requires companies to prove their chemicals are safe before they allow them on the market (an effort we are also working on), the Center for Environmental Health will continue to find dangerous products and get them off the market.
In the meantime, here are two important ways to avoid exposure to these chemicals
- Phthalates are often used personal care products. While they can be listed on ingredient labels as "fragrance," they are sometimes listed by name. Avoid using any personal care products that list phthalates.
- Phthalates are frequently found in soft vinyl. Avoid products made from soft vinyl
Spotlight on a CEH Board Member: Paul Adelstein
Paul
Adelstein is an actor and a musician. After attending Bowdoin College
in Brunswick, Maine, Paul became a founding member of New Crime
Productions, a theatre company in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois,
whose productions focused on social inequalities. After working with
the Steppenwolf Theatre for a number of years, Paul started working
primarily in television and film. Credits include the Coen brothers'
Intolerable Cruelty, Memoirs of a Geisha, Be Cool, Bedazzled, Prison
Break and Grey's Anatomy spinoff, Private Practice. Paul is also a
composer and songwriter. His band, Doris, has released two well
received albums. In addition, Paul composed the score for the HBO short
film Mullitt, as well as scoring television spots for Emily's List and
Organ Donors of Illinois, among others.
Q. Where did you grow up?
A. Chicago, Illinois.
Q. You've known Center for Environmental Health founder Michael Green for a long time. How did you two meet?
A.
Michael was a counselor at North Star Camp in Wisconsin when I was
camper. When I became a counselor we were co-counselors for a summer.
It was one of the highlights of my life.
Q. Why did you join the Board of the Center for Environmental Health?
A.
They asked, and I jumped right in. I've always been excited and
inspired by the work that the Center for Environmental Health does. I
was looking for ways to get more involved; becoming a board member has
allowed me to do just that.
Q.
You've introduced many of your friends and family to the Center for
Environmental Health. What reactions have you had from people when you
tell them about our work?
A. First of
all, people are always shocked, even in this cynical age, to learn of
the various chemical hazards in our environment. Once they recover
from that initial shock and amazement, people are impressed and
inspired by the work the organization does to combat these health
threats.
Q. What role do you see for the entertainment industry in the promotion of environmental health?
A.
The entertainment industry can be an amazing tool to educate us about
various issues. A great recent example is 'An Inconvenient Truth.' The
film and the surrounding attention it garnered significantly raised
awareness about global warming specifically and about the need for
action to protect ourselves and the environment more generally. Like global warming, environmental health is an issue that affects us all. I'm hopeful that my industry can play a greater
role to raise awareness about the way we are all affected by toxic chemicals and just as importantly about the positive ways we can all address this problem. It's important work and organizations like the Center for Environmental Health need and deserve our support.
The
best holiday movie you may see this year doesn't have any big Hollywood
names in it. It isn't about a selfish person who learns to be
generous, and it doesn't feature an actor you are surprised to see in a
Santa suit. This year's best holiday movie follows a different formula.
It is called The Story of Stuff, and it features Center for Environmental Health ally Annie Leonard.
Annie plays herself: a smart, funny, and dedicated activist who understands the world we live in and is able to share that understanding with anyone with twenty minutes to spare.
Please watch this important and entertaining film on line. We promise it won't feel like homework.
Did you know that your old television may contain several pounds of lead? And that it may also contain cadmium, mercury, and a host of other dangerous chemicals? Or that when incinerated, the plastics it is made of can create dioxin, the most dangerous substance known to science?
When you as a lone consumer write a letter to Panasonic demanding they make televisions more responsibly or, better yet, that they take them back and dispose of them safely when customers upgrade, Panasonic won't likely pay much heed. You are one person, and Panasonic can ignore your concerns without suffering any impact on its bottom-line.
But what if you were buying 10,000 televisions and you raised these same concerns? Then you'd find, as we do, Panasonic suddenly competing with RCA, Sony, and all the other television manufacturers to meet your demands.
This is the logic behind our smart, targeted work in the Electronics TakeBack Campaign (formerly Computer TakeBack Campaign). We are working to teach the officials who buy vast numbers of electronics for hospitals and other institutions how to make demands that will invert the industrial world's traditional race to the bottom.
To learn about a campaign in which your voice can make a difference, click here.Center for Environmental Health in the News
Whether the story was lead in children's products, the CPSC's attempt to rig tests in favor of industry, or Congress's effort to protect children from dangerous toys, the media made us the nation's go-to organization for eliminating dangerous chemicals from everyday products this year. It brought our work unprecedented attention. Here are just a few of the big stories:
Taking Lead Safety Into Its Own Hands
November 10, 2007
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110902348.html
How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels
Washington Post
Feb 18, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021800528.html
Tempest in a Lunch Box: How the US Government Decided Lead Levels Were OK
ABC News
Feb 18, 2007
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2885275
Wal-Mart Recalls Baby Bibs For Worries Over Lead Content
Wall Street Journal
May 03, 2007
http://www.cehca.org/news/lead-in-baby-bibs/wal-mart-recalls-baby-bibs-for-worries-over-lead-content/
Some Baby Bibs Said to Contain Levels of Lead
New York Times, Business Section, Eric Lipton
Aug 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/business/15lead.html
Admitting Error, Toys ‘R' Us Stops Selling Lead-Tainted Bibs
August 18, 2007
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/business/18bibs.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/S/Story,%20Louise
Get the Lead Out
New York Times, Charles Margulis
Aug 11, 2007
http://www.cehca.org/news/lead-in-jewelery/get-the-lead-out/
Toys Need Regulating
Washington Post, Charles Margulis
Sep 24, 2007
http://www.cehca.org/news/eliminating-toxics/toys-need-regulating/
Toy Firms Outline Delays in Recalls: Can Take a Month After CPSC is Told About Lead Presence
Chicago Tribune
Sep 19, 2007
http://www.cehca.org/news/eliminating-toxics/toy-firms-outline-delays-in-recalls-can-take-a-month-after-cpsc-is-told-about-lead-presence/
Congress Weighs Sweeping Overhaul of Consumer Product Commission
October 30, 2007
Wall Street Journal
http://www.cehca.org/news/eliminating-toxics/congress-weighs-sweeping-overhaul-of-consumer-product-commission/
Disposal a Murky Issue in Recall of Lead-tainted Items
Los Angeles Times
Oct 08, 2007
http://www.cehca.org/news/eliminating-toxics/disposal-a-murky-issue-in-recall-of-lead-tainted-items/
Curious George Dolls Might Have High Lead Levels
October 11, 2007
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-george11oct11,1,5376211.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=2&cset=true
Parents Taking Toy Issue Into Their Own Hands
November 2, 2007
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/02/eveningnews/main3447844.shtml
Apple Faces Legal Threat over "toxic" iPhone
October 17, 2007
London Times
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article2674093.ece