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Women Heroes in the Safer States
May is a month focused on women—the month started out with Mother's Day, and the week of May 8 is National Women's Health week, established to empower women to make their health a top priority.
Toxic chemicals are an increasingly important topic with women's health—too much chemical exposure at the beginning of life, or during pregnancy, can cause adverse health effects for women and for their children.
This month, we are featuring women heroes: women who are strong advocates for reducing exposure to toxic chemicals. Three of the women are legislators, and one is a scientist. They are tied together in the hard work that they are doing in their field to make our world and our homes safer from toxic chemicals.
In choosing these women, it was overwhelmingly clear that it's possible to come from very different backgrounds and agendas and reach the same conclusion: that stronger policies to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals are necessary on a state and federal level, with bi-partisan support to protect the health of our families and the most vulnerable populations in our society.
Massachusetts to ban BPA in baby bottles and cups...only
Originally published by The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow.
Today the Public Health Council of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health voted unanimously to ban toxic Bisphenol-A (BPA) in baby bottles and cups, making Massachusetts the 8th state to do so.
However, this measure is inadequate as it still leaves infants and toddlers vulnerable to exposure to the toxic BPA in infant formula and baby food packaging. It also does nothing to reduce exposure to pregnant women, problematic because a significant time for concern about BPA exposure is during fetal development.
MA update: Business opposition halts progress on efforts
Originally published at The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow.
At midnight on Saturday night, July 31st, the buzzer went off on the "formal session" part of the 2009-2010 legislative session in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the Safer Alternatives Bill was not among the lineup of bills that were passed this time around.
Anyone who has been watching or reading the news in Massachusetts in recent weeks has heard about the stalemate in the legislature as the House, the Senate and the Governor debate casino gambling. It's tempting to take the easy way out and grumble about how the casino bill held up everything else, and that's definitely true for many bills, but for the Safer Alternatives Bill, that's not really the whole story.
Massachusetts BPA solution falls short
This week, the Massachusetts Public Health Council met to discuss a proposal to phase out certain children's products containing bisphenol-A (BPA). Our partner organization, The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, praised the move toward BPA regulation but urged that the regulation as proposed will not adequately protect children's health.
From The Alliance for A Healthy Tomorrow:
Today’s meeting followed a March announcement by Governor Deval Patrick in which he directed the Department of Health to issue a regulation on bisphenol-A (BPA), a toxic chemical that leaches from polycarbonate plastics and the linings of food and beverage cans into children’s products.
Massachusetts citizens call for strong BPA ban
The state of Massachusetts is considering a limited bisphenol-a (BPA) ban, with the charge being led by Governor Deval Patrick.
When making this announcement, Governor Patrick mentioned regulation on baby bottles and sippy cups. However Safer representatives in the state would like the bill to be more comprehensive and modeled after a law like Connecticut's which also bans BPA from infant formula, baby food packaging, and reusable food and beverage containers.
Our colleagues at Healthy Tomorrow are asking the concerned citizens of Massachusetts to call Governor Patrick's office this week — April 5 - 9 — to make sure that he knows that the state should be following in Connecticut's footsteps with strong BPA legislation.
BPA update: Wisconsin, Maryland, Washington
More than 200 scientific studies have linked Bisphenol-A (BPA) to known health effects including impaired brain and reproductive development in unborn babies, miscarriage in pregnant women, diabetes, obesity and cancer. Populations that are particularly vulnerable to BPA are infants, children and pregnant women.
These sort of facts are frustrating mothers and families, and this year there are a remarkable number of states working on legislation to eliminate BPA-laden products in vulnerable populations.
We have exciting news from several states this week in the effort to ban BPA:
13 states dictate principles for toxics reform
Officials from thirteen states joined forces today to dictate a set of eight guiding principles to be used for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA -- a law from 1976 which provides the EPA with the authority to regulate toxic chemicals.
The Obama Administration and Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, recently acknowledged that a major overhaul of this decades-old law is imperative for public safety.
There is concern, however, about the way that the Administration is setting out to reform TSCA. As Laurie Valeriano, policy director of the Washington Toxics Coalition wrote recently, "the changes are modeled after an approach that will result in endless government studies and gridlock when what we really need is action."
Health officials tell parents to avoid BPA
Massachusetts health officials released a statement this week warning parents of small children as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women to avoid using food and drink containers containing bisphenol A (BPA).
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health warning was welcomed by environmental health advocates, who have been lobbying for Massachusetts to join the several other states that have banned BPA in products like baby bottles and toddler sippy cups.
The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow (AHT) called the warning an important first step toward protecting all children in the state with a BPA ban. Read more about the warning on AHT's Web site.
Study: Plastic bottles deliver BPA to our bodies
A new study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health has confirmed that drinking beverages from polycarbonate plastic water bottles will quickly and dramatically increase a person’s bisphenol A levels.
In fact, the study found that students who cleared their systems of BPA by drinking from stainless steel bottles for a week and then switched to drinking from plastic bottles containing BPA, the amount of BPA appearing in their urine shot up by 69 percent in a matter of days.
This is concerning because of the dozens of studies that have found links between BPA exposure and health problems ranging from diabetes and obesity to infertility and heart disease.
Companies not doing enough to get BPA out of food packaging
Many leading packaged food companies use bisphenol A (BPA) in their packaging and are taking insufficient steps to move toward alternatives. Popular brands such as Heinz, Nestlé, General Mills, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola all sell food and beverages packaged in BPA lined cans, according to a scorecard released this week.
There were no flying colors in this report card as the highest grade was only a "C." Hain Celestial, Heinz, and Nestlé got the highest scores because they are involved in researching and testing alternatives to BPA and have plans to phase out the chemical in some of their products. Heinz is the only company surveyed that is currently using an alternative to BPA in some of its can linings.
