Tag Archives: lead in toys

Good guide

Posted on by

While we’re eye-high in corn this weekend, here is a wicked cool link for you. The people over at the good guide believe we should know more about what’s in our food, where it  comes from, and how it was created. So they rate foods, products, and toys to let you know how they’re made and what each will do to your body. They say on their transparency manifesto:

“There are three simple things everyone should know about their food but don’t:
Where did it come from? How was it made? What’s in it?

In the United States, manufacturers of processed foods are still not required to label where a product came from, whether it contains genetically modified organisms, or was produced using synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.”

Check it out. They’ll tell you which sanitizers are best for your body and the planet. They have a great list rating the personal and ecological impact of thousands of foods and products including cleaners, toys, food, and personal products. Play around on their site. It’s good, clean fun.

You’ll drink your rocket fuel and be grateful!

Posted on by

So the EPA doesn’t think poisonous perchlorate in our water is a problem. It’s rocket fuel water, literally, but at least you’re living in a country with running water. Twenty percent of the world’s population has no access to drinking water (and you should see what we’ve done to Iraq’s water supply). Seven million people a year get sick from man-made crap in their water, and wealthy nations are paying a premium in petroleum-heavy shipping costs for bottled water that often has toxic chemicals, bacteria, and plastic residue in it.

But the EPA’s refusal to ask for a defense department clean up of their mess in our water shouldn’t surprise us. Science has been declared moot (and mute) under the current administration, and in various states. Our fish are pumped full of mood-altering drugs because we pee and flush our antidepressants into rivers.

From the LA Times:

Among the compounds now phased out or restricted in Europe but still used in high volumes in the United States are the pesticides atrazine, lindane and methyl bromide; some phthalates, found in beauty products, plastic toys and other products; and nonylphenol in detergents and plastic packaging. In animal tests, those compounds have altered hormones, caused cancer, triggered neurological changes in fetuses or damaged a newborn’s reproductive development.

The “biggest single difference” between EU and U.S. policy is in the regulation of cosmetics, said Alastair Iles, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. Cosmetics sold in Europe cannot contain about 600 substances that are allowed in U.S. products, including, as of last September, any compound linked to cancer, genetic mutations and reproductive effects.

So let’s toast with our rocket fuel water, eat our Prozac fish and hormonally altered mad cows, scrub our herbicide/pesticide infested produce, drink our toxic formula from toxic baby bottles, play with our lead-covered baby toys, and sleep on toxic mattresses and give thanks to the EPA, FDA, and USDA. It’s good to have you looking out for us.