In this week’s New York Times there was an interesting article about Detoxifying the Home that I thought you might enjoy. The reporter, Penelope Green, wrote about hiring a consultant to come into her NYC apartment and assess how safe it was from a toxins/chemical exposure perspective. The consultant, Matthew Waletzke, is “a 35-year-old triathlete-in-training with a degree in psychology, who turned to building biology as a way to “detox” Simply Vibrant, his Rockville Centre, N.Y., wellness center. He was treating a lot of autistic children, he said, and after learning that some studies indicate their immune systems have a difficult time processing toxins, he wanted to create as benign an environment as possible there.”

So Mr. Waletzke goes through Ms. Green’s apartment with a fine tooth comb, so to speak, and enlightens her on everything from electromagnetic radiation, to cleaning product toxins, to mold and mildew.

Anyway – it’s a pretty interesting and a somewhat entertaining read so definitely check it out if you have a minute – you can click here to read the complete article. (Note: the photo credits go to the NYT article)

BPA and Phthalates. I swear I could blog continually about new tests showing the dangers of these two chemicals. So this week, a report called  No Silver Lining, was released reviewing a study conducted by The National Workgroup for Safe Markets, a coalition of U.S. public health- and environmental health-focused non-governmental organizations. The study reported on the presence of BPA in canned foods, and the results were reviewed by research scientists in cellular biology from Tufts University Medical School and a professor of environmental health and chemicals policy from the University of Lowell School of Health & Environment.

The methodology for this study was carefully planned. According to the report:

“We enlisted 20 people from 19 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada to donate 50 food and beverage containers from their home pantry shelves and local groceries. Cans were collected from Alaska, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada.

In most cases, two cans per location were submitted: one can from a home pantry or kitchen cupboard, and a matching or similar product purchased from a chain grocery store specifically for this project. The double sampling allowed us to investigate the possible correlation between the amount of BPA in the canned food and the age of canned products.

We selected a wide variety of products, including fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tomato products, sodas, and milks, which are common ingredients and meal options for a wide range of North American consumers.”

So basically they took all of these cans of food and had them sent to an independent testing lab. Here’s where it get icky. Of the 50 cans of food that they tested, 46 were found to have detectable levels of BPA. Yep – 46 of 50. A whopping 93%.  And what I found to be disturbing was the fact that  they discovered that BPA levels in canned food cannot be predicted by the price of the product, the quality, or relative nutrition value of the product, or where it was purchased. So that means more expensive, organic canned products purchased at Whole Foods were just as likely to have BPA as cheaper, lower quality products purchased at a discount store.

Why all the fuss? Well here’s the thing. BPA has been shown (despite what chemical companies want you to think) to have an impact on health that has been documented in numerous studies. On the EWG.org website, you can see a complete chart of these studies. The cumulative impact of eating foods that are packaged in BPA-lined cans can add up quickly in a day – which is especially worrisome for pregnant women, particularly during their first trimester.  No Silver Lining shows an example of a hypothetical diet for a woman in her 20’s. According to the study, “these hypothetical diets show that a pregnant woman may be exposed to potentially harmful levels of BPA that have been shown to alter fetal development in laboratory animals.” Oh. Not good.

And you know what? Canned foods is only ONE way we are exposed to BPA – it’s in many other products as well. Polycarbonate water bottles (unless they say BPA-free), plastic baby bottles and sippy cups (again, unless they say BPA free) and even those big 5 gallon water coolers at your office. BPA was found in the urine of 93% of adults tested in the US by the CDC, and it has been found in the cord blood of newborn babies by the Environmental Working Group BEFORE they have even been exposed to the “real world”. Yikes.

Some states are working to ban BPA in baby products (currently Massachusetts is developing legistlation). But it needs to go further. There are alternatives that are notably safer for can linings. These are outlined in the report as well. So why should we stop at baby bottles – shouldn’t it be banned in all food/beverage products? And shouldn’t it be happening in all states? Seriously. What ARE we waiting for?

Did you know that skin cancer accounts for more than 50% of all cancers combined? Or that one person dies every HOUR from skin cancer? These are just 2 of the 8 Shocking Facts About Skin Cancer from About.com.

According to information on The Skin Cancer Foundation website, a “recent poll by the research company GfK Roper showed that 58 percent of people are concerned today about skin cancer. Yet only 11 percent of people use an SPF 15 or higher daily.” Scary, isn’t it? This is a huge issue – especially with our obsession of looking tan. Tanning bed usage has sky rocketed – and thankfully now the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel has started to really take note. In March they met and agreed that tanning beds need to be more regulated. They are even considering banning the use of tanning beds by minors. And why shouldn’t they? Tanning beds in my mind are equivalent to cigarettes. It’s not a matter of IF they are doing damage, it’s a matter of WHEN the person will experience the damaging effects. As the FDA has stated – no tan is a safe tan.

How is it that we can learn that something is dangerous (sun damage), find solutions (sunscreen and sun avoidance), and then simultaneously develop this enormous tanning industry? What makes anyone thing those beds are a good idea? Sure, your skin may look tan – but there are safer ways to do that if you insist on a tanned look. Self tanners have improved tremendously so you can actually get a good, natural (and SAFE) tanned look easily and less expensively than at a tanning salon. Not to mention the fact that tanning has been proven to age skin. Have you taken a look at people who were sun-worshipers years ago? They are the ones that look 10 years older than they are.

So in this Skin Cancer Awareness Month, take a minute to remind yourself of the importance of sun avoidance and the use of sunscreen. I know – no one likes to glob the stuff on, but a few minutes of messiness is worth your skin’s health. And check out the Skin Cancer Foundation’s  Prevention Guide for more tips.

On a related note, I want to add that I hear from many customers who would like to see Garden Girl products include sunscreen. And I am in total agreement, believe me. No one wants our products to have an SPF rating more than I do! However, while the FDA regulations are fantastic for the health of your skin and for consumer safety, they make it nearly impossible for a company of our size to enter into the sunscreen market. So until we have our own products, we continue to recommend that you use a sunscreen every time you are out and about – whether it be at a soccer game or at the beach or out for a run. Garden Girl face creams can easily be layered with your favorite sunscreen so you benefit from the anti-aging properties of the face cream and the sun protection from the sunscreen. And if you choose your sunscreen carefully, it will not cause breakouts or clog pores.

A few posts back, I mentioned that I had used the website www.alice.com and among the products I had ordered, was something called the BathroomStone. Well I have been using this for a few weeks now, and it is definitely a pretty cool tool.  And earth friendly, too!

You’re probably wondering what exactly it is.  The packaging probably says it best:

” BathroomStone is the most powerful scouring product available. It easily cleans even the toughest hard water, soap scum and mildew on porcelain or tile and grout. It will not absorb odor causing bacteria.”

The thing that is so different about this is that it’s made from recycled glass! It’s wild. The company’s founder, Andrew Ungerleider, was determined to stop the destruction of New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains from the mining of pumice stone. So instead, he developed a technology that creates a glass “foam” from recycled beverage bottles. According to the site “The waste stream of crushed bottles that would end up in the landfill is converted into products with green qualities that have desirable physical properties and cost benefits.” Pretty clever!

I have to say, it’s something that you have to use very carefully. It clearly could scratch the heck out of surfaces that are not “safe” so it should only be used on porcelain or tile and grout. I used it in the shower and in the toilet bowls to get rid of hard water stains. It worked amazingly (and relatively effortlessly) well on the hard water stains that I couldn’t get to budge before. You need to use it either under water or with water, and scrub in a circular motion to make sure it doesn’t do any damage.

The company also produces similar products for use on porcelain-coated pots/pans in the kitchen, on the grill (definitely want to check that out), and in outdoor pools. They can be purchased online or in stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s.