This week, The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine Mainely Moms and Dads confirmed the chemical is still out there, and it can be found in many of the foods we’re giving our babies and toddlers. From the organization’s news release:

“The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine sent fifteen containers of food to Anresco Laboratories for analysis in January and released the results today. BPA was found in 11 of the 12 sampled containers of baby food manufactured by Beech-Nut, Gerber, Earth’s Best Organic and Shaw’s Wild Harvest brand. It was also found in all three of the canned foods sampled including Campbell’s Disney Princess SpaghettiOs, Dora the Explorer soup, and Chef Boyardee macaroni and cheese.”

This is pretty scary. In case you haven’t seen the data: Teams of independent researchers have found that BPA isn’t as safe as once though. The reason: It acts as an endocrine disruptor, mimicking human hormones like estrogen. People have linked it to increased risk of breast cancer, thyroid issues, lowered male fertility rates, decreased birth weight, and wheezing, among other ailments and issues. Another October 2011 Harvard School of Public Health study found BPA exposure in the womb is linked to behavioral and emotional difficulties in girls. Of course the folks who bring us this plastic and resin say it’s perfectly fine. Me? I’m thinking that all those researchers can’t be wrong, which is why I limit my family’s BPA exposure as much as possible.

The smart folks in Maine are asking manufacturers of food intentionally marketed or sold to children under three to replace BPA or disclose how much BPA is in their packaging. They say a second phase will ask for a complete ban of the substance. It’s a start, I guess, but I’d rather see our governments come out and ban BPA in all food containers as well as anything that might be ingested by kids or adults. What do you think?

I finally found a place for all the clutter -- at Best Buy!

We are big tech people. I can’t count how many servers, workstations, gaming consoles, and pieces of consumer electronics that we’ve purchased since we’ve been married. I’ve been recycling the big stuff — computers, laptops, monitors, and televisions — for a while now, but it’s been more difficult to figure out what to do with all the cords, remotes, and other electronic-related items that were left over. Oh, and I can’t forget the plastic gift cards that we used to purchase them. They were invariably thrown into the trash. Until now, that is.

I’ve always known that Best Buy has a fabulous electronics recycling program, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized the store also took stuff that other recycling sources won’t: CDs, DVDs, gift cards, wires, cables, cords, remotes, and controllers. Oh, and the store also has a repository for plastic bags, batteries, and ink and toner cartridges, too. At last! I have a place to get rid of everything — for free! While you might not think throwing away an empty gift card here and a wire there is a big deal, it really is because it all adds up. We, as a society, generate more than 4 billion pounds of e-waste every year, so it’s important to take every recycling opportunity we can. We should be recapturing whatever we can.

My Best Buy epiphany had its roots on YouTube. I found out about the company’s recycling program by doing a search. (I was looking for a place to get rid of all my old CDs and CD-Rs.) Even though I was busy that day, I actually sat through the company’s video about how it recycles. I wanted to be sure Best Buy wasn’t like so many other companies that say they are recycling but simply collect everything and dump it overseas without removing the hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. (It’s a great video, BTW, and worth sitting through and showing to your kids.) I was really happy to see that Best Buy is able to break down all those tvs, laptops, keyboards, and monitors into their most basic elements so they can go back into the supply chain. Who knew a keyboard could go right into a shredder?

Last week I made a trip to Best Buy with my kids. They watched as I unloaded a black garbage bag full of wires and cables as well as a small box of old remotes. When I got home I started a bag for gift cards. It’s sitting in the garage next to my bag of old batteries. While I know I can’t recycle everything, it really makes me feel good to lessen my footprint — if only just a little bit. How about you?

• About 10 percent of the juices that CR sampled (from five brands) showed arsenic levels that “exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.”
• 25 percent of samples had lead levels “higher than the FDA’s bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice.”
• We’re getting a large portion of our arsenic exposure from apple and grape juice. CR called the juices, “a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic,” according to its analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008.
• Kids are drinking a heck of a lot of juice. According to a CR parents poll, 25 percent of kids under five drink more juice than their pediatricians recommend.

Consumer Reports says the source of the arsenic and lead is contaminated apple orchards. Soil is contaminated due to a number of reasons, For example, arsenic-based pesticides that were used in the past are still hanging around. Plus, there’s plenty of arsenic and lead in the environment from things like the production of pressure-treated wood.  Even more significant, I think, (and something the CR article points out, too) is the fact that much of our apple juice is made from concentrate that comes from China, a country that still uses arsenic-based pesticides.

I have always had a few rules about juice. First, anything my kids drank had to be 100 percent juice — no high fructose, sugar-added junk for us. Second, it had to be organic. Finally, juice was an occasional thing. We drink it sparingly at playdates, at mommy-and-me classes, and always watered it down in a 2-to-1 ratio of water to juice.

These rules, I assumed, would keep my girls healthier. We would avoid pesticides and reduce our risk of obesity. After all, juice is way better than the other options out there — aside from water, of course. Two separate 2010 studies out of Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and Baylor College of Medicine seemed to support my theory.

One study found that children between the ages of two and five who drank 100 percent fruit juice had “significantly” higher daily intakes of vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium and “significantly lower intakes of added sugars compared to non-fruit juice consumers.” Juice drinkers, for some reason, also ate more whole fruits and whole grains. The other study — of children ages six to 12 — had similar results. Kids who drank juice took in more key nutrients and ate more dietary fiber, according to the study. In addition, “overall diet quality, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index — a measure that evaluates conformance to federal dietary guidance — was higher in all fruit juice consumers assessed.”

Great. Juice is good for adults, too, as studies have found that it can reduce the risk of some cancers and is beneficial to cardiovascular health. Except, of course, when the juice contains carcinogens. So what’s a parent to do? I plan on sticking to water or orange juice for a while, or limiting my purchases to apple and grape juices that are organic and clearly marked, “Made in the U.S.A.” How about you?

My husband's cast iron skillet: The grosser it looks, the better it is to cook on!

First, a little background. You and I call it Teflon, but what we’re really talking about is perfluorooctanoic acid (or PFOA), which is what manufacturers use to make all your brownie pans, frying pans, and turkey roasters non-stick. You can also find the chemical, which is sometimes referred to as C8, inside of packaged foods containers such as microwave popcorn bags and in many other consumer products. (The Environmental Protection Agency has a page dedicated to PFOA that’s got a lot more information. It’s certainly worth a read. You can find it here.)

Here are the problems that the EPA had with PFOA, taken directly from its site:

• PFOA is very persistent in the environment; it doesn’t break down and go away.
• It is found everywhere. You can see very low levels both in the environment and in the blood of the general U.S. population
• It sticks around inside of us for very long time, too. Once you ingest it or breathe it in, it’s in there.
• It has been found to cause “developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals.” (And in humans, too!)

If you’re like me, the last item in the list might be the one that’s giving you pause. What kind of adverse effects, you might want to know. Well, according to research studies PFOA can be linked to:

• Lower birth rate and size: Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that babies with higher concentrations of the chemical had smaller heads and lower body weights. Read the study here.
• Infertility: Women with higher levels of PFOA took longer to get pregnant, according to a study out of the UCLA School of Public Health.
• Elevated cholesterol: Kids with higher levels of PFOA have higher cholesterol levels, according to a study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
• Thyroid disease: A “study revealed that people with higher concentrations of PFOA in their blood have higher rates of thyroid disease. The researchers analyzed samples from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES),” according to researchers.
• ADHD: In this study, Boston University School of Public Health researchers found “increased odds of ADHD in children with higher serum PFC levels.” (PFOA is one of the PFCs they tracked.)

There have also been studies linking PFOA to cancer, although most of the research has been on the effects of PFOA released into the environment as a byproduct of manufacturing. No matter, the research is so compelling that, way back in 2006, the EPA asked manufacturers to phase out the chemical. Eight large non-stick manufacturers complied. The voluntary ban will be achieved by 2015, but that doesn’t do anything for all the folks who have non-stick cookware in their homes already unless they proactively get rid of everything non-stick they own.

That’s exactly what we did. Despite the fact that my husband loved his non-stick griddle, we tossed it along with four frying pans, a brownie pan, cake pans, cookie sheets, and a roasting pan. We actually threw it in the recycling bin rather than donating it to make sure it wasn’t going to be around to potentially make someone else sick. Today, we use either cast iron or stainless steel when we cook, bake, or fry, and I didn’t spend a fortune to make this happen.

My husband, for instance, got a $30 cast iron griddle to replace his beloved non-stick one. (No, he did not like it in the beginning, but has grown to love it.) I bought it from my local Target, and was thrilled to discover it was actually made in the United States, which is a rarity these days. Target also carries a number of other cast iron Lodge products including loaf pans, skittles, and fryers. (Note: I have nothing to do with Target or Lodge and am not being paid to say that. I just like the products.) I picked up some really inexpensive Pyrex brownie and cake pans at the Pyrex outlet. I got my stainless stuff as hand-me-downs, and was actually pleased to find that I had a plain stainless cookie sheet already sitting in my cabinet as well as a nice stainless frying pan.

From a cooking perspective, I love the fact that the glass and stainless stuff cleans up really easily. It’s also adding some extra flavor to my baking since I am forced to grease and flour my cake pans and butter up the brownie pan. The cast iron griddle, which is fully seasoned now, gives off a warm, homey smell when things are cooking on it. Plus, I love the extra boost of iron the entire family gets with our pancakes and eggs. (The American Dietetic Association confirms that cooking foods in or on cast iron increases the amount of iron in foods.)

Of course, most people aren’t going to be able to toss all their non-stick cookware into the garbage like I did, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something. I challenge everyone to replace one pan — the one you use the most — by the end of the year since it can make a huge difference in your PFOA exposure. Ready to give it a shot?

This post is how I am participating in this week’s Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays, two awesome blog carnivals dedicated to promoting the use and consumption of — what else? — real food.

The story has been the same all over the Island. Everyone, or so it seems, is talking about how crazy-vicious the mosquitoes are and how SOMEONE should do something. This weekend we got a call telling us that Nassau County was going to do that something: The county was going to be spraying my area and others surrounding us with Scourge, a resmethrin- and piperonyl butoxide-based pesticide since someone in the area had been diagnosed with West Nile virus.

As much as I hate those bugs, as much as I wish they were gone, I wish the county had simply let nature — and the impending cold weather — take care of the mosquitoes.

First off, I really don’t like the fact that our county executive robo-called everyone in Nassau warning them to keep their windows and doors closed, take children’s toys inside, cover fish ponds, and keep pets inside. The fact that it would take the time to do this means that these are not simple warnings. There is actual danger. And I really hate the product spec sheet from Bayer Environmental Science, the company that manufactures Scourge. “Harmful if absorbed through the skin,” and even better, “Caution. Keep out of the reach of children. Hazard to humans and domestic animals. This pesticide is highly toxic to fish.”

But what I really hate is that experts have come out against spraying, linking it to cancer, behavioral and developmental issues, and respiratory problems. The Cancer Prevention Coalition, founded by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., who is at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, has a long, scary FAQ about Scourge. Here are some of the highlights taken directly from the site:

• About one-fourth of the Scourge formula is “inert ingredients,” including petroleum by-products.
• Unpublished data by the manufacturer reveal that Resmethrin is cancer-causing, with specific risk of liver and thyroid cancers.
• Unless homes are air-tight and windows are closed at the time of spraying, all residents living in the vicinity of Scourge applications are at risk from inhalation.
• The EPA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have emphasized that the inerts used in Scourge are frequently contaminated with the potent carcinogen benzene, a well-documented cause of leukemia and other malignancies.
• There are many case reports on these inert ingredients causing respiratory problems including irritant and allergic responses, asthma and conjunctivitis following inhalation or skin exposure to Scourge.
• Children and the elderly are at increased risk for problems.
• There are less toxic control methods that are just as effective.

Another source — the California Environmental Protection Agency — in a 2007 study reported that “for resmethrin, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that there is a likely risk of carcinogenicity in humans, requiring the manufacturers to provide more detailed data to prove that it can be used safely in vector control.”

And yes, according to the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC), the chemical takes a long time to leave the environment. According to the chemical’s fact sheet: “The typical half-life of resmethrin in the soil is 30 days.” So after a month, about half of the amount of pesticide sprayed is still out there. The worst part, also according to the NPIC, is that the reason the county is spraying in the air is that it is released as an “ultra-low volume (ULV) spray” that lets “very tiny droplets that stay in the air and kill flying mosquitoes that may carry public health diseases.” The way I am reading that is that the spray sticks around a bit in the air. How long? Who knows?

I called Nassau County this morning and was told that the spraying trucks, which get a police escort, will be driving up and down blocks tonight between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. The Scourge is blasted out 75 feet on either side of the truck, which means it will be coming right at my house, my windows, my front door. I’m really pissed.

Today, when I dropped Little Girl off at school I asked the director if she will be washing the outside equipment tomorrow. In the morning especially there is dew all over everything and it will intermingle, I assume, with a dose of Scourge. The director said the kids would be staying inside all week because she wouldn’t have time to power wash until the weekend. Sigh. I hated being the bearer of bad news, but I am glad my child, who is constantly touching her nose, eyes, and mouth, will be protected from the Scourge. Of course, the better protection would have been to avoid spraying in the first place.

The sick, crazy part is I just got off the phone with a staffer at Nassau County executive Edward P. Mangano’s office who told me that the county did not want to spray. That they had hoped the mosquitoes would die when we got a frost earlier in the month, but that they got “beaten up” in the press for not spraying. The source also said (and yes, I identified myself as a journalist) that he agreed with my safety concerns and that the chemical “probably” is a carcinogen, and that’s why the office does as much as it can putting out press releases and letting people know about the dangers, but the media and the public just don’t care. And that is the most depressing fact of all.

Take my dinner tonight. I ate a baby spinach salad dressed with chicken and artichoke hearts and sprinkled with a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The spinach was organic. (I should say that when it comes to the Dirty Dozen, the 12 vegetables and fruits that have the most pesticide residue — celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, and grapes — I am vigilant with my own diet.) So was the dressing — don’t want to eat non-organic grapes and all. But the chicken and the artichokes were Trader Joe’s conventional stuff.

Granted, they are probably going to be better than what you might find at a regular supermarket, but by how much? Certainly the chicken wasn’t my air-chilled organic chicken breast (it’s so important, that air-chilled part) that I typically buy for the kids. And the artichokes were the non-organic kind sitting in brine and oil. Yummy, to be sure, but probably doused in pesticides since, as I have just learned, artichokes are perfect candidates for “aphids, botrytis rot, and fungus, so most commercial artichokes are sprayed heavily with pesticides and fungicides.” Even worse there’s a list of the top 50 pesticides used on artichokes in California. Really?!? Son of a…

Okay, so now I am sitting here feeling queasy. Sure, as my mother likes to tell me, you can’t live your life in fear. However, if you’re walking around at midnight in a shady section of town and a guy who looks dangerous is walking toward you on the street, wouldn’t you cross the street to avoid any potential problems? Or would you just keep walking and see what happens? Because you can’t live your life in fear. Me, I’d cross the street. Or in this case next time I’ll spend the $3.99, and buy the organic artichoke hearts packed in oil from Whole Foods. Also, next time I won’t be lazy and buy the prepackaged balsamic chicken. I’ll make my own. I guess since the whole monkey see, monkey do comes into effect I should have been doing that all along. Sigh.

The more I learn, the more I wish I didn’t know and the more I wonder how big agriculture can get away with this crap. FIFTY pesticides for a single crop of artichokes? For shame, Mr. and Mrs. Conventional American Farmer. For shame.

Say no to plastic spoons!

It is no secret that I LOVE Trader Joe’s. Love it. One of my favorite things about the store is tucked way in the back along the left wall: the sample counter. Yesterday, they were sampling Checkerboard Mousse Cake ($6.99.). Are you freakin’ kidding me? So sweet and smushy and yummy. I couldn’t buy it. I will, but not until the day before I will be toting it to my in-laws’ house so I don’t eat it all in one sitting. The other sample was Sweet Potato Pie Bites — layers of fillo dough filled with sweet potato purée, brown sugar, butter, and a candied pecan. Sounded amazing, but I had to skip it since it contains nuts. Last Wednesday they were giving out samples of Fully Cooked Half of a Roasted Turkey as well as pre-made mashed potatoes. I took some of both (and yes, both were good), but I felt SUPER guilty about it. You see, in addition to two little paper cups, I also got two plastic spoons.

It took me less than five seconds to devour those goodies, but those plastic forks will remain forever in our waste stream. Yes, forever, because they are made from traditional petroleum-based plastic, which hurts the environment during manufacturing (petroleum by-products sort of suck — benzene, xylenes, etc.) and during disposal because it’s not like anyone is recycling all those plastic spoons and forks. For example, I know my own town’s recycling program won’t take plastic forks and spoons. In fact, according to the Clean Air Council, enough paper and plastic utensils are thrown away every year to circle the equator 300 times. From a recent press release I got:

“It is estimated that close to 40 billion individual plastic utensils—meaning between 14 and 18 billion plastic spoons—are produced each year… [and] most of them end up in our landfills, beaches and oceans, where they are likely to remain for hundreds of thousands of years.”

Uggg. In the past, I’ve turned down the forks, sticking with the squeeze and suck method to get the food out of the little cups. And it does work for the most part, but I always figured there had to be a better way. This morning I got a press release from a company called EcoTensil, which sells, something that fits that bill: Paperboard spoons that are recyclable and compostable.

Sounds like a great idea, right? The company is making some decent inroads. I was very impressed that Stonyfield Farms is using EcoTensil’s EcoTaster spoons for its event samplings. Recently, Stonyfield used about 60,000 EcoTasters at the U.S. Open! With that kind of backing and visibility I am hoping that smart, eco-friendly companies like Trader Joe’s get the hint and get rid of stupid plastic spoons. (And no, I have nothing to do with EcoTensils or Stonyfield OR Trader Joe’s. I just like this idea.) Until then, I’ll be sticking with the squeeze and suck route. How about you?

I recently discovered PopCorners, an amazingly good snack food made with air-popped popcorn. Flavors include butter, sea salt, kettle, and jalapeno. I’ve got some samples to give out to ten readers who post below. I’ll be choosing winners randomly and “popping” them in the mail by Friday, December 3. Want to be one of the lucky ones? Tell me why you need a new snack fix.

Kellogg’s said the packages were recalled because it identified a substance in the package liner that can “produce an uncharacteristic waxy-like off-taste and smell.” They were caused, the company said, because of elevated levels of a common substance that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in packaging. The Environmental Working Group identified the substance as methylnaphthalene, a petroleum-based product.

From an EWG press release: “This compound, methylnaphthalene (methyl-NAP-tha-lene), has been the subject of major, on-going government and oil industry testing and information-gathering initiatives to identify potential safety issues and fill basic data gaps, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of the scientific literature. Kellogg’s has not publicly identified the chemical but provided the information to EWG in response to our inquiries.”

The EWG did a little research on methylnaphthalene and didn’t find much info, but what it did find is troublesome. For example, four years ago the FDA asked for “toxicology information” about the substance. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said it wasn’t easy to get exposure to it unless you lived near a hazardous waste site. Wow.

So we don’t really know very much about a substance that is commonly detected, according to the EWG’s press release, in “cigarette smoke, diesel and gasoline engine exhaust, wood smoke, tar and asphalt.” We do know, however — according to the same EWG research — that “methylnaphthalene causes lung damage when exposure occurs via inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. Mice given feed containing 0.075 percent or 0.15 percent of 1- or 2-methylnaphthalene for 81 weeks had lung damage known as ‘pulmonary alveolar proteinosis,’ marked by abnormal lipids, proteins and fluid in the lung.” And to date no one — no agency or organization — has set safe limits for the chemical. And yet there it is in cereal marketing to and made for children.

I don’t know about you, but that completely and totally ticks me off. Completely and totally. The EWG is calling for the FDA to do its job and actually “investigate and regulate all chemicals that make their way from cardboard boxes, plastic bags, metal cans and coated papers into our breakfasts and our bodies.” I say that’s a good place to start.

Does this recall affect what you’ve been buying for breakfast? Do you worry that the FDA isn’t taking our best interests to heart? What can we do to make our food safer? How can we best work with companies like Kellogg’s and other food manufacturers to ensure they are thinking about our safety? I’d like some answers.

This post is my participation in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again. Would love to hear any tips you might have to help keep kids focused on eating. What super-yummy, high calorie foods can you suggest? I’d like to know.

I finished the story and just feel terrible. Every day it seems like there is another report and another study linking our environment to negative health problems. And every day companies and organizations such as the Vinyl Institute and the American Chemistry Council — even pro-health organizations such as The American Cancer Society — come out and tell us not to worry. It will all be okay. The researchers don’t know what they are talking about. The studies are all wrong. It’s just really depressing and disheartening.

So today, a day late, I am ending my post with a haiku. (The WordCount Blogathon asked participants to write haikus yesterday. I forgot.)

It is the money
That trumps our health and wellness
We should be ashamed

And…

Chemical exec
A place is waiting for you
In hell and it’s free

And…

I cry for our kids
What are we doing to them
We need to stanch it

And…

Money can’t buy health
It can buy lawmakers though
A very sad state

Please let me know if I messed up the moras or anything. I haven’t written haiku since fourth grade. And since I love participation: How about adding a haiku of your own? Oh, yeah. And see that little brown square to the right? The one that says Top Mommy Blogs? Click on it and vote for me? You can vote every day to help me move up on the list.

From the study press release: “The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes was two to three times higher for those with the higher levels of [PCBs] compared to those with the lowest. Type 2 diabetes prevalence among those with high levels of heptachlor epoxide, a break down product of a previously common pesticide, was at about two times higher than those with low levels of the compound. (The United States banned the manufacture of PCBs in the United States in 1979 and banned heptachlor for most uses in 1988, but the compounds persist in the environment, especially near former industrial sites or contaminated soil.)”

Oh, and the report failed to mention that PCBs can also be found in fish. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a few years ago put out a report that looked at which states had the highest fish advisories for PCBs. You can check it out yourself, but suffice it to say more than 35 states were on the list, most of which are on the East Coast. A March 2010 lawsuit even claims that PCBs can be found in fish oil supplements. (One weird aside: researchers also found people with higher levels of beta carotene, a type of vitamin A, were also more likely to have diabetes.)

I spent an hour on the phone with a friend tonight. The same friend who is going through cancer treatments with her mother and husband. We talked a lot about chemicals and the environment and how we’re really suffering because of the lack of regulation and care from our government. You have to wonder: will BPA become the next PCB? Good question, right?

What do you think of reports like this? How do you feel about the lack of government oversight when it comes to chemicals and additives in our environment?