Green Options

A Swedish study found that the rate of autism is higher for children in houses that have PVC vinyl flooring. The children in the study were apparently affected by the phthalates that are emitted from the material.

Infants and toddlers who had vinyl floors in their rooms were twice as likely to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than those with wood or aluminum floors.

Phthalates are out of kiddie plastic now.  Don’t worry; you can still find the endocrine-disruptor in your makeup and shower curtains and pretty much anything that includes the term “fragrance.”

But have you thought about what they put into the new Barbie dolls instead of phthalates? It’s not like they’re making her ginormous bust size out of wood nowadays.  (Insert Ken jokes here.)

So…what exactly is in your kids’ toys now?

In a effort to limit my family’s exposure to BPA and phthalates, I’ve tossed all those freebie plastic water bottles and replaced them with aluminum Sigg bottles.  I banned questionable toys.  I store and heat my leftovers in glass containers. I took down our cheap plastic shower curtain and put up a fabric one.  I even got rid of the rubber ducky. 

Frankly, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Until I saw a post this weekend at ZRecommends which shares the results of their research into which brands of food processors and blenders contain BPA, PVC, and phthalates.

As a quick refresher: bisphenol-A, or BPA, and phthalates, plasticisers used to soften PVC, are components found in many common plastics.  Studies have linked exposure to BPA and phthalates to hormonal issues such as early puberty and changes in breast tissue, as well as to some cancers.

And while I was well aware of their presence in toys, sippy cups, bottles, food storage containers, and a myriad of other places in the home, it really had never occurred to me that they might also be lurking within the devices I use for food preparation.

Fancy a new online store for eco-friendly children’s products?  Green product website Ambitious Green calls itself a “fun place to buy great products at the center of today’s environmental issues, concerns, and debates.”

Says Ambitious Green: “We think the environment and education are challenging debates worth having. Every time you make a buying decision you are telling manufacturers and the market what’s important to you.   We share the same frustrations you do - finding products that are natural, functional, friendly and fun. We believe that what’s good  for you can be good for the planet.”

Here are a few of the latest toys at Ambitious Green:

Dancing Alligator, $19.99 (shown above) “This award-winning, wooden alligator pull toy struts his stuff as he wiggles, bobs and click-clacks along.”  These toys are made in Thailand by Plan Toys, a green company that emphasizes socially responsible manufacturing.   It’s green because it’s made of organic rubberwood, non-formaldehyde E-Zero Glue, water-based dye, recycled and recyclable material and soy ink and water-based ink.

A year-long survey found that three-quarters of soft plastic toys in the country contain chemicals founds to be dangerous…and banned in the European Union.

“Natural as Mud” is the company logo and while I’m not sure I would lump this into the same category as mud, my girls will be finding this nail polish in their Christmas Stockings.

“Imagine a nail polish that is designed especially for those precious little girls in your life. Piggy Paint was recently founded by Melanie Hurley, a Stay-at-Home Mom with two fancy little girls, who love to have their fingernails painted. This Mom always hated the thought of her children putting their hands in their mouths after she painted their nails with traditional kid polishes. Not only did the ingestion of chemicals worry her, but the smell left her light-headed after painting two sets of fingernails and toenails.” -Piggy Paint Website

The product line is free of formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, biphenyl A, ethyl acetate and acetone. The ingredients are listed as: Water, water-miscible acrylic and polyurethane film formers and thickeners (well below 100 parts per million), glycol ethers. May contain mica, D&C red lake, ultramarine blue and chromium, iron and titanium oxide pigments.

Women exposed to hairspray in the workplace in their first trimester of their pregnancy have more than double the risk of having a son with the genital birth defect hypospadias, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The study was conducted by researchers from Imperial College London, University College Cork (Ireland), and Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (Spain) and is the first to show a significant link between hairspray and hypospadias, which is one of the most common birth defects of the male genitalia.

The causes of hypospadias are poorly understood. Instead of opening at the tip of the penis, a hypospadic urethra opens elsewhere along a line running from the tip along the underside to the base, usually corrected with surgery in the first year of the boy’s life.

With the arrival of each new morning, I find myself swamped with new warnings and cautions about children’s products. I have to question everything… “Is this safe for my child?”. It is a frightening and alarming world we live in when we cannot trust the products which are made available to consumers every day.

While browsing some of my favorite blogs today, I came across a link to the Healthy Legacy Guide to Safer Children’s Products. Being a Mindful Momma, I clicked, read, printed (on recycled paper of course) and decided this needed to be shared.

Mothers exposed to phthalates during pregnancy may give birth to boys with incomplete genital development and impaired testicular function.

Shanna Swan, a professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, authored a study recently, testing 106 expecting mothers’ urine for pthalates. They also looked at their babies at 12 months old, and found a correlation between the levels of pthalates in the mother’s body and certain physical traits, such as undescended testicles, smaller penis, and immature genital development.

Phthalates are an endocrine disruptor found in many everyday items, from PVC shower curtains to furniture to personal care products. Endocrine disruptors are seen by the body as hormones, and interfere with normal development, starting in the womb. If a male baby is exposed to something that lowers testosterone through interference, proper reproductive system growth doesn’t happen.

Bwah hah. Made you look.

Okay, folks it’s been 8 years of me apologizing. Really, I’m sorry about the whole W thing. We’ll do better next time. In the interim, our President has signed a really important bill into law.

Lead is now banned from children’s toys. Can we all do a happy dance?

Guess what?

The bill also bans a chemical called phthalates that is widely used to make plastic products softer and more flexible. I am positively swooning. Then I did a little research and stood still.

When it seemed like other countries *cough* CANADA *cough* were leading the way in banning unsafe chemicals from toys and baby products, the US Congress finally joined the 21st Century and banned phthalates, with state bills being credited for leading the way.

As my Cool Mom Picks co-founder Liz Gumbinner stated last year, 2007 was definitely the “Year of the Recall,” as too many toys to count were taken down from shelves (well, at least they were supposed to be) due to high lead levels. But the improbable has now happened and the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act has passed “with a veto-proof majority.”