Wishing You a Happy and Safe Halloween!
In This Issue
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Green Your Halloween
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Support the Work that Keeps Your Family Safe
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Protecting Kids from Lead in Artificial Turf
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Genetically Modified Sugar in Your Halloween Candy?
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Seven Billion Pounds of Bisphenol A
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Spotlight on a Staff Member: Charles Margulis
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CEH in the News
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Action Letter: Tell Hershey's to Kiss GMO Sugar Goodbye
All year
round, kids (and many adults) look forward to Halloween. With this year's costumes, candy, and parties
right around the corner, we thought we'd share a few tips to help you avoid
dangerous chemicals in Halloween products.
For several weeks now, we've been testing Halloween costumes and accessories for dangerous chemicals. In the process, we spotted a few kinds of products that families ought to be warned about.
- Our tests showed that many of the soft, rubbery masks on store shelves this year are made from vinyl, which can contain harmful chemicals. Please don't let your kids celebrate Halloween with their heads shrouded in the poison plastic.
- Fake plastic teeth and fangs can also be made from vinyl. They simply don't belong in our kids' mouths.
- All too often, costume jewelry is tainted with toxic metals.
Another tip: if you're putting whiskers on a trick-or-treating cat or blood on a once-a-year vampire, remember that cosmetics often contain hazardous ingredients that usually are not listed on the label. Your favorite brand of natural cosmetics is almost certainly a safer bet than any similar Halloween product. (Incidentally, Center for Environmental Health friend and ally Stacy Malkan wrote a must-read book about cosmetics. Check it out here.)
And for you think-global-act-local types, consider this: almost all of the common Halloween products travel many thousands of miles between factory and store. You can have the greenest Halloween by looking for costumes at second-hand or thrift stores or making your own from fair trade supplies.
Please see below for photos of Halloween items that we tested.
And enjoy the goblins!
Support the Work that Keeps Your Family Safe
Worried
about the economy? Anxious to see what
happens in the November election?
We share your concerns about the economic and political uncertainty we all face today.
But here are two things we're certain about:
- No matter who wins in November or how long it takes the market to rebound, companies will continue taking shortcuts and putting toxic chemicals in the everyday products your family relies on.
- The donations that support our work to remove lead from drinking water, candy, children's jewelry, lunchboxes, and many other products will decline.
Protecting
Kids from Lead in Artificial Turf
This
spring, the Center for Environmental Health started investigating lead
contamination of artificial turf. We found high lead levels in several
varieties of turf and indoor/outdoor carpeting sold by home installers,
retailers (including Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Costco), and turf
makers.
In June, we took legal action against the turf manufacturers, and we are now working with the California Attorney General to force turf companies to address this unnecessary threat to children's health.
Some frequently-asked questions about the problem:
Q. How much lead is in the turf?
A. The levels of lead we've found in some turf varieties exceed both the California standard and the national lead safety standards for children's products established by recent federal legislation, which take effect in February 2009.
Q. How much lead is dangerous?
A. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is clear: no amount of lead is safe for a child.
Q. Is this a problem in old turf, new turf, or both?
A. After reviewing data from older turf fields, CDC stated that, as turf weathers and ages, "the risk for harmful exposure increases." CEH has found that even brand new turf can leach lead.
Q. Why is lead in turf in the first place?
A. Manufacturers tell us that it is used in the pigments to make the products' attractive green tint last longer.
Q. I bought my turf from Store X. Is it contaminated?
A. The only way to be sure is to have it tested. If you send us a small sample, we'll test it for you. (Please include your email address for the results and any information you have about the turf, such as the name of the retailer you purchased it from and the approximate date of purchase) In the meantime: better safe than sorry. Please keep children and pregnant and nursing mothers away from the turf.
Our negotiations with the turf industry continue, and we expect to forge an agreement that requires them to eliminate the lead.
Stay tuned for our results.
Tell Hershey's to Kiss Genetically Engineered Sugar Goodbye!
For the first time ever, this year's sugar supplies in the US will no
longer be "all natural." That's because
some US
farmers planted genetically modified (GMO) sugar beets this season, and the
first harvest will be this fall. Food
companies who do not take special action to avoid GMO sugar will soon be
marketing hundreds of foods, from candy to breakfast bars to salad dressings
and more, containing this untested, genetically modified sugar.
Hershey's said in 2001 that it would reject sugar from the GMO beets, and just this summer the company announced it would use only non-GM sugar in its products in Brazil. But the company has been unwilling to make this same commitment for consumers in the US.
In Europe, Japan, and much of the world, GMO foods must be labeled - but in the US, consumers will have no way to avoid foods with GMO sugar, since our government has refused to protect our right to choose natural foods. That's why we're taking action directly to food companies, including Hershey's, asking them to reject GMO sugar.
Take action: Send Hershey's a letter today, asking them to protect your right to GMO-free food. A sample letter is below; you can also send an email to Hershey's and many other major food companies from http://www.dontplantgmobeets.org/
Learn more about GMO sugar beets from the Center for Food Safety: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/FINAL%20SUGAR%20BEET%20FACT%20SHEET--COLOR.pdf
Seven Billion Pounds of Bisphenol A
Seven billion pounds. We were having trouble wrapping our brains around the quantity, so we did the math.
If you
arranged eighteen-wheelers bumper-to-bumper and 
filled them to freight
capacity, the line would stretch from Maine
to Florida
before it weighed seven billion pounds.
That's how much bisphenol A (BPA) is used every year to make polycarbonate water bottles, polycarbonate baby bottles, resin linings of tin cans, dental sealants, and other polycarbonate plastic products. So it's no surprise to learn that BPA is found in virtually all of us today.
Why should you care? Hundreds of laboratory tests show that small amounts of BPA can cause health problems. Scientists writing in last month's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) called these studies "overwhelming evidence of harm." The first large-scale study of BPA health problems in people linked BPA exposure to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
But our government will protect us, right? Wrong. With strong support from the plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration just repeated its declaration that bisphenol A is safe. JAMA describes the politics behind this decision as "an aggressive disinformation campaign using the techniques (‘manufactured doubt') first developed by the lead, vinyl, and tobacco industries to challenge the reliability of findings published by independent scientists."
Someday (soon!) CEH and our environmental health friends will help science triumph over the chemical goliaths. In the meantime, here are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your family from BPA:
- Get rid of old polycarbonate (Nalgene) water bottles and polycarbonate baby bottles. Polycarbonate plastic is usually translucent and quite stiff. It sometimes also has the #7 recycling symbol on it.
- Replace polycarbonate containers with glass, stainless steel, or BPA-free plastic.
- When possible, buy food in glass jars instead of tin cans.
- Don't buy canned infant formula.
- Ask your dentist to limit sealants on your children's teeth.
Spotlight on a CEH Staff Member: Charles Margulis
Q: How did you get involved with CEH?
A: Michael Green [CEH's founder and director] and I are old friends, so I've known about CEH since its inception. Michael and I met at North Star Camp in Hayward, Wisconsin, when we were little kids. He was wild, and I was quiet but sneaky. Michael's changed, but people tell me that I haven't.
After Michael started the organization, I followed its success for several years and supported the work as a donor. When I got the chance to work here, it seemed like a great fit.
Q: What do you focus on at CEH?
A: I work on our media relations, which means I write and circulate press releases and I talk to reporters about our work. I also organize opposition to genetically engineered foods.
Q: How did you get interested in sustainable food?
A: When I was 19, I went to cooking school, and for the better part of the next fifteen years I worked as a baker, most recently in an organic, whole grain, worker-owned (collective) bakery in Madison, Wisconsin. There's a history of food policy activism arising from baking collectives going back to the late 1960s, so the bakery was a great training ground for my current food work.
Q: Why all the fuss about genetically engineered (GE) foods?
A: The marketing and release of GE and cloned food products is far ahead of our ability to understand and protect the public from the potential harm to our health and to the environment that these products pose.
This is a mass food experiment on our kids. Since the US government has refused to require labels on GE food (unlike Europe, Japan, China, and many other countries), it's an experiment that's going on largely without our knowledge and completely without our consent.
[For more on genetically engineered foods, see our February 2008 newsletter here.]
Q: From cosmetics and cleaning products to candy, medicines, and lunchboxes, CEH has found dangerous chemicals in so many everyday items. Can you share one of the tips you use to protect your family?
A: I'm generally suspicious of plastic toys, and I try to nix anything made with vinyl. I don't have any jewelry for my daughter, who's 2 years old, and I'll probably try to keep jewelry away from her until she goes off to college (we'll see how that goes). We also eat almost all organic food, and when the kids eat meat (not often) it's usually organic and/or from non-feedlot farms that don't use growth hormones or growth-promoting antibiotics.
CEH Sues Major Artificial Turf Companies; Eliminates Lead in Schoolyards and Backyards.
CEH Eliminates the Largest Source of New Lead in the Environment.
Sample Letter: Tell Hershey's to Kiss GM Sugar Goodbye!
Hershey
Foods
100 Crystal A Drive
Hershey, Pennsylvania
17033-0810
Telephone:
(717) 534-6799
Toll Free: 800-539-0261
Fax: (717) 534-6760
Email: jcook@hersheys.com ; pr@hersheys.com
Subject: GMO Sugar
I want to avoid buying genetically modified (GMO) foods, because scientists have raised concerns about the risks these foods pose to health and the environment. I understand that GMO sugar beets will be harvested soon, but without labels on GMO products, Americans must rely on companies like yours to reject GMO sugar. This is the only way we can be informed when making purchasing decisions for ourselves and our families.
Since Hershey's recently announced that it will not use GMO ingredients (including GE beet sugar) in the products it makes in Brazil, I am hoping that your position will be the same for the products I purchase in the US.
Several years ago, Hershey's stated that it would not use GMO sugar. But now that commercial farmers are planting GMO sugar beets in the US, you have made no such public assurances.
Please afford US customers the same protections afforded to those in Brazil by taking steps now to avoid the use of GMO beet sugar in your products and by letting US consumers know about your decision to use only non-GMO sugar in your products.
Sincerely,
(name, address)
Photos of Halloween Items We Tested
Many Halloween masks on the market, including the ones below, are made of polyvinyl chloride, the poison plastic. We urge parents to keep these toxic products away from children.
"Do you smell something toxic, dude?"
Fake teeth and fangs we've purchased during the last few weeks were also made from vinyl. Here is one of many such products on the market right now. We strongly recommend avoiding items like this:
We have been working to remove lead-tainted jewelry from the marketplace for several years. These items of Halloween jewelry all tested high for lead.
We're here to help you protect your family. Questions? Please contact us: kyle@ceh.org.