Wallet Mouth

Help CA say "See ya!" to PFCs

Some years ago, I started avoiding Teflon-coated cookware after hearing that the nonstick chemicals, while awfully convenient for cooking, are awful for human health. They're called perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and it turns out that they're awful for the environment, too (especially if you're this species of turtle, or a pet bird).

So today, when I got an email from the Environmental Working Group informing me that PFCs are used in various types of grease-resistant food packaging (for things like microwavable popcorn, fast food, and pizza)—and that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to veto a bill in the California state legislature that would ban the use of PFCs in food packaging—I did the email's bidding, calling the gov and signing the petition. If you'd like to do the same, click here.

To me, the most irksome thing this battle has revealed is the fact that we have no way of knowing which specific packages contain PFCs. As this page from the Environmental Working Group's site puts it, "consumers are unfairly deprived of their essential right to know and to make informed, independent decisions.... [A] consumer going to the store would not know which brands to avoid because manufacturers are conveniently withholding this crucial information."

How about some legislation requiring transparency in this arena?

Still alive, just parenting

Now that Mini Mouth has surpassed the five-month mark and is ever more interested in the world around her (sigh, gone are the days of one-handed net surfing while the cute one slumbers in my lap), I'm finding it much harder to keep up with Wallet Mouth (not to mention other things, like email, my copyediting work, and, ahem, personal hygiene). Please accept my apologies for the lag. I shall persevere, however slowly.

This will be a short post. It's mainly just to say that yes, I'm still here; I'm just not e-here. It's also to barf out a few random bits, such as... I bought a new yoga mat after seeing two or three different stories within the same week talking about the fact that most yoga mats are phthalate-y (for more on phthalates, you can read my post on the sadly-now-defunct Alonovo Review here). I opted for Jade Yoga's "travel" mat, which is the same thickness as my previous, PVC mat and suits me just fine. I picked Jade's because (a) conveniently, I could buy it in person at my yoga studio, which is a member of the Green Yoga Association, and (b) Jade has partnered with Trees for the Future, which plants a tree for each mat sold. The natural rubber is a bit smelly, but it's not a horrible smell, and it should dissipate over time.

Uh-oh, Mini Mouth awakes. I guess that'll just be one random bit for this post, then.

Until next time...

Amuse-bouche: DIY toys

With all the recent reports about toxic plastic toys, it's worth remembering that you can always make your own (though, granted, not of plastic).

Happy Father's Day!

It's a strange and wonderful thing to have your first Mother's Day or Father's Day as a parent. Mr. Wallet Mouth and I celebrated his day with a delicious South Indian brunch and some poking around in bookstores. Mini Mouth was remarkably well behaved.

Speaking of the baby, maybe it's because of her that I responded so quickly to a recent email from the Environmental Working Group's Ken Cook appealing for money to help fund the organization's Kid-Safe campaign, which officially launches today. Turns out Cook is also a new parent. "It's my first Father's Day," he wrote, "and we couldn't be more excited, but I definitely don't want a tie covered in stain-proofing chemicals. Instead I want to start fighting for a law that will protect kids from dangerous toxic chemicals, including the stain-proof kind."

So I slung them some cash for an e-card to Mr. Wallet Mouth. Happy Father's Day, and may we look forward to a less-polluted world in the future.

Cancer warning to appear on "natural" labels?

Think your "green" soap is squeaky-clean? Maybe not. The California Attorney General's Office has filed a complaint against four makers of green-branded personal-care and cleaning products, stating that they are violating the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65)—and the state's unfair-competition law, to boot.

Products made by Avalon Organics (owner of the Alba brand), Beaumont (Citrus Magic), NutriBiotic, and Whole Foods (specifically, its private-label brand, 365) were recently found to contain the toxic contaminant 1,4 dioxane (which I've blogged about before). The AG's suit states that the companies have known that their products were exposing users to 1,4-dioxane since late May of 2004, yet they did not provide "a clear and reasonable warning," as required by law. Violations of the safety law and the unfair-competition law each carry penalties of $2,500 a day.

1,4-dioxane is not an ingredient per se but rather a by-product of a process called ethoxylation.

Citrus Magic 100% Natural Dish Liquid is the product with by far the highest level of the contaminant (97.1 parts per million), according to the Organic Consumers Association's study (whose results, according to my sources, were confirmed by tests the AG's office had done). NutriBiotic's Super Shower Gel Shampoo with GSE was found to contain 32.2ppm, Alba's Passion Fruit Body Wash contains 18.2ppm, and Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value Shower Gel contains 20.1ppm.

Some contend that a little bit of dioxane probably isn't anything to worry about (specifically, TreeHugger writer Karin Kloosterman in this post, and Ecover, whose dishwashing liquid was found to have 2.4ppm). For context, I looked at the EPA's webpage on the chemical. There, I learned that 500ppm is the ceiling recommended by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to avoid "immediate damage to life or health," and that according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 100ppm is the concentration to which most workers can be exposed without adverse effects "over a normal 8-h workday or a 40-h workweek" (which? I wondered).

One can't help but observe that 100ppm is pretty close to the 97.1ppm in Citrus Magic... but fortunately, even with my exacting standards, I don't (quite) spend eight hours a day scrubbing our dishes.

Amuse-bouche: Message in a bottle

I just learned, via the blog Fake Plastic Fish, that not long after my post about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, another journey to the North Pacific Gyre launched, this time on a vessel made in large part of plastic bottles. Read all about the educational effort buoying it here.

And enjoy this related graphic from Klas Ernflo, via Digg:

More BPA resources

Two BPA-themed e-newsletters just landed in my in-box. The Center for a New American Dream’s dispatch mentions a helpful site, the Bisphenol A Portal, which compiles news reports about the endocrine-disrupting chemical. Particularly helpful is the site’s Smart Plastics Guide (pdf), which breaks down what all those numbers on plastic containers mean and gives tips on how to avoid BPA.

The most recent e-newsletter from the Environmental Working Group’s points to the BPA cheatsheet on its Enviroblog. Interestingly, the central graphic used on that page is a water bottle made by Nalgene, which recently announced that it will phase out production of BPA-containing bottles.

The A-to-Z’s on BPA

Someone just forwarded me a great resource for parents who are concerned about all this BPA business: a blog called Z Recommends and its report on BPA in children’s feeding products, which rates makers of products such as pacifiers and sippy cups. Besides the online directory, there’s a mobile component. Just text-message “zrecs” followed by the name of the company you’re curious about to 69866 to receive info on your cell phone.

The blog points out one problem that I’d never considered: while the main functional part of any given children’s product may indeed be BPA-free, that’s not necessarily true of the item’s other parts, which are equally likely to end up in kids’ mouths. The “shield” on a pacifier, for example, isn’t meant to be sucked on, but we all know how that goes. Said shields are often made of polycarbonate plastic, which contains the endocrine-disrupting chemical.

The ratings—there are four categories, ranging from Excellent to Poor—are based on “product quality, innovation, the range of products a company offers, their stance on BPA and their openness about sharing information about their products.” Z Recommends also provides a list of companies whose wares are all BPA-free, so you can trust anything they make. I found it heartening that there are 30 names on that list.   

Z Recommends isn’t just for parents, by the way. It’s chock-full of informative posts such as this one, which talks about Wal-Mart U.S., Nalgene, and BPA-related company claims that warrant skepticism.

BPA blowup

Finally the mainstream media is talking about bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in many plastics, in light of a new brief by the National Toxicology Program that expresses concern over the substance. As the report puts it, “the possibility that bisphenol A may impact human development cannot be dismissed.”

It’s especially nice to see more light being shed on the fact that the FDA based its sketchy “BPA is safe” stance on two studies funded by the plastic industry [link], ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies that raised red flags about BPA.

In my recent post about the chemical, I expressed surprise to learn that it’s found not only in baby bottles but also in aluminum food cans and beverage cans and bottles. Turns out it’s in numerous other everyday objects, such as CDs, too. Today's Washington Post story on the issue quotes an overseer of the report as saying, “It’s everywhere.... Your cell phone is probably made out of it.”

In Canada, as the New York Times reports, the government is expected to label it toxic in the coming days. Meanwhile, big retailers there, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, are already pulling BPA-containing products from their shelves.

Much of the focus in recent reports is on BPA’s presence in baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula containers. That’s as it should be, since developing bodies are more affected by endocrine disruptors than adult bodies are.

The Washington Post story points out that BornFree, a company that makes BPA-free baby bottles, can’t keep up with demand. I don’t know about other parents, though, but I’m sticking to glass bottles. Today it’s BPA, but tomorrow...?

Antimony antipathy

I recently read William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle, and one of the many thought-provoking points the book makes is that sometimes what appears to be environmentally friendly reuse in fact isn’t. They cite as an example the use of recycled plastic bottles in such things as carpet and fleece clothing, because PET plastic contains antimony, a toxic heavy metal.

As I wear fleece from time to time, I’ve been idly wondering if I should jettison the stuff from my wardrobe. Now comes this Treehugger post on the subject. Apparently we don’t have to worry about wearing it, just manufacturing it.