Revised 1.2023
Compiled by Madronna Holden
Conumer Reports found dangerous levels of lead and cadium in popular organic brands of dark chocolate,
Mamavation.com: site that names brands of products ranging from cookware to pasta sauces, sportswear and baby products that have the best and worst scientific results for contamination with the PFAS (“forever chemicals”) that are connected with cancer, heart disease, hormone disruption and much else. This community generates infromation that allows consumers to buy wisely and to help stop the production of these (12,000 plus) chemicals that last forever in the environment and accumulate in our bodies.
Canadian boreal forests store twice as much carbon as do Amazonian forests, are the homes of a number of endangered species, are the foundation of many indigenous cutural traditions– and they are being logged for– toilet paper! Charmin, Bounty, and Puffs are bad actors in this regard. Don’t believe the website hype that “Charmin loves trees”. You can make a difference by buying toilet tissue that is recycled (rather than from old growth pulp) and from actual sustainable sources. The Natural Resources Defense Council website has a scorecard on tissues: check it out before you buy. There are many readily available sustainably sourced tissues: your consumer choice makes an important difference.
Gardeners beware. Such a lovely time to be out working with growing things. But be careful how you fertilize them.
Because sewage sludge is an ingredient in many fertilizers, so are “forever” chemials that are listed on the EPA’s particularly hazardous list that are sometimes found in that sludge. In a study reported in the Detroit Free Press, the Ann Arbor-based environmental nonprofit Ecology Center, along with the Sierra Club, purchased nine garden fertilizers from eight states and the District of Columbia, and sent it to a contracted laboratory for PFAS analysis:
- Pro Care All Natural Fertilizer, made up of 85.5% to 91.5% biosolids from an unknown source, purchased at Lowes
- Ecoscraps Slow Release Fertilizer, made up of 100% biosolids from an unknown source, purchased at Home Depot
- Milorganite 6-4-0 Fertilizer, made up of 100% biosolids from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, purchased at Home Depot
- Cured BLOOM Soil Conditioner, made up of 100% biosolids from DC Water’s Blue Plains Advanced Water Treatment Plant, purchased at W.S. Jenks & Sons in Washington
- Menards Premium Natural Fertilizer, made up of 100% biosolids from an unknown source
- GreenEdge Slow Release Fertilizer, made up of 100% biosolids from the JEA sewer collection system in Jacksonville, Florida, purchased at Home Depot
- Earthlife Natural Fertilizer, made up of 100% biosolids from the New England Fertilizer Co. of Quincy, Massachusetts; purchased at York Woods Tree & Products, Eliot, Maine
- Synagro Granulite Fertilizer Pellets, made up of 100% biosolids from Sacramento (California) Pelletizer
- TAGRO Mix, made up of 50% biosolids from the Tacoma Central Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, purchased at Ace Hardware.
“Eight of the nine products exceeded screening limits for PFOS or PFOA set in Maine, the U.S. state with the most robust action on dangrousin biosolids,” the study states. “The chemicals were measured at levels that would not be acceptable for the state’s agricultural soils.”
Only Synagro Granulite Fertilizer Pellets met the tough Maine standards for biosolids for both the dangerous chemicals.
Try for organic fertilizers, compost your own– or purchase from city-run composting centers.
Recent alert: A Consumer Reports study has found problematic levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium in fruit juices (including organic ones). The consequences of this are especially concerning when these juices are given to children.
This list indicates safety, environmental and justice issues associated with particular consumer products. Think what a difference it would make if we all refused to buy such products. This report indicates just what a difference that might make in getting toxic chemicals out of our environment. Also,the Environmental Working Group has extensive information on consumer products of all types that is regularly updated.
I concur with the folks at Safe Chemicals that what we need to protect the public from the trillions of pounds of some 84,000 chemicals placed into the US environment annually is responsible federal law. In the mean time, here is a shopping list that we can all hope we will only need in the short term! The US recently passed a new TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act), but it will need funding and research to make it effective. Meanwhile, consumers can continue to do their homework to honor their personal values and project their homes and families.
This list contains general information on foods, household and building materials, hidden everyday toxins, personal care products, clothing, jewelry, clothing labels, and charities. Use the search button to zero in on your particular interests.
RECENT ALERTS
European Union poised to reject Round Up license
It is just a formality and a matter of days before Round Up is pulled from European Union shelves in the aftermath of being declared a “probable” cancer cause by the World Health Organization. Protect your health and that of your family. Avoid this product, along with
Weed and Feed and its relatives! (See material on pesticides below).
Are your organic eggs really from free range chickens?
Organic standards allow egg-laying chickens a few square feet of cement “outdoors” to quality as free range. Cornucopia has an extension list of which organic eggs are also humanely produced.
Justly produced clothes good for the environment and your health
Dyes and pesticides in clothing often do not wash out (and if they do, do you really want them to go into our rivers and streams?) The same clothing manufacturers that give you cheap clothes with such toxins run clothing factories that have killed garment workers in the short term by locking them in during fires in unsafe machinery.
Buying used clothing can keep you in fashion without supporting such industry. And for those of you with the money to buy new clothes, below are some global clothing manufacturers whose labels you can trust. Some of these also sell organic toys and housewares:
Teflon in dental floss as well as cookware
In the wake of recent news that DuPont kept the health hazards of Teflon cookware secret from the public for 45 years, they now have 10 years to phase our their non-stick cookware.
However, many dental flosses are still coated with Teflon. Not good for the environmental OR your teeth, since so much dental floss must be disposed of annually. Here is a list of some non-Teflon containing floss options.
Also: don’t flush that floss of any kind down the toilet, as it can clog sewer systems.
Two victories for health and the environment in the US
Arsenic compounds will no longer be allowed in chicken feed by the US Food and Drug Administration, after the ban against using arsenic-laced chicken feed in the state of Maryland. The feeding of arsenic compounds in chicken feed was already banned in the European Union and Canada.
Enlist Duo (consisting of a combination of 2-4 D and Glyphosate) has had its license revoked by the Environmental Protection Agency in the face of a lawsuit challenging its safety. Enlist Due was on the market for a year as the EPA reviewed the data and agreed that this herbicide combination is too dangerous to be allowed on crops genetically engineered to withstand it– and regularly used for human consumption.
Both of these cases indicate the importance of local and citizen activism. It is only unfortunate that the FDA and EPA did not undertake these actions earlier.
Formaldehyde (or Formalin) on seafood
Formalin, a water solution of formaldehyde, is a disinfectant used in some medical (usually dental) procedures. however, it is misused when applied to frozen seafood, as it too often is. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that can also cause liver and kidney and therefore should not be ingested- though the USDA has no limits on allowable limits in our food.
Formaldehyde or formalin on fish is ongoing problem, as one of our readers noted with respect to fish she recently purchased that had a distinct off flavor. In 2013, the USDA found one quarter of the fish processed in Asia (mostly China and Viet Nam) tested positive for added formaldehyde. The US imports 91 per cent of its seafood, largely from Asia. Processed fish is treated with formalin or formaldehyde to extend shelf life (and mask odors) of older fish.
Earlier this year all fish tested by a local news station in North Carolina from the following stores/brands tested positive for formaldehyde. The station even purchased a second batch of fish from each of these to test when the first results came in positive– and all of these tested positive as well. (An email response from one of these producers is included in the station’s news story).
Walmart’s Cod Fillets from China
The Fishin’ Company’s Wild Islandic Haddock
The GREAT Fish Co.’s Whiting Fillets from Ecuador
Harris Teeter’s Wild Alaska Pacific Cod
All of the above were frozen fish.
At present, the best way to insure that you are not consuming formaldehyde on your fish is to buy fish NOT caught and/or processed at Asian facilities. You can also buy a test kit (which allows you to test for formaldehyde on fish for about one dollar per serving). It is truly unfortunate that consumers would have to take this on themselves. We need better regulation and federal testing in this respect.
Thanks for reader for alerting us to this issue.
Toxic Halloween face paint
Although Canada and Europe do not allow lead and other toxins in children’s face paints, the US allows their manufacturers to police themselves in this respect, with the results that many of the children’s face paints you might buy for Halloween contain lead, formaldehyde, phthalates and dioxins, which are readily absorbed through the skin and result in problems ranging from skin irritation to neurological problems and cancer. There is NO safe level of lead ingestion for instance, which is especially dangerous for children.
The good news is that there are four companies that have voluntarily taken these toxins out of their face paints: Elegant Minerals, Abe’s Market, Natural Market, and Go Green Face Paints.
Look for them!
Do not buy flowers from Bi-Mart
Bi-Mart’s supplier, Spring Creek Nursery, uses plants treated with neonics, which are systematic (persist throughout the plant) and toxic to the bees that visit them– and there is no notice of this to those who purchase flowers, thinking they may be helping the bees..
If you want to protest Bi-Mart’s policy, fill out the “Did we get it right?” pamphlet available at their stores and send it to corporate headquarters.
Good news from two home improvement stores. Lowe’s has agreed to phase out bee-killing “neonic” pesticides in its plants and Home Depot is phasing out toxic vinyl flooring. Those online petitions you sign do make a difference: after 223,000 signatures in a SumofUs.org petition protesting McDonald’s contributions to deforestation, it has announced its commitment to get deforestation out of its supply chain. Both Lowe’s and Home Deport are on line to drop neonics by next year (until then, ask at the store when you make a purchase to learn the status of the plants you want to buy). And very recently the current campaign to get True Value/Ace Hardware to phase out bee-killing chemicals has paid off as well.
And consumers are fighting back in other ways, as well, having recently won a court settlement in which 26 companies, including Colgate/Palmolive and Walgren agreed to stop selling products with cancer causing chemicals.
FOOD
Scientists link processed food to autoimmune disease
Processed and fast food contain a number of chemicals linked to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The link touches on the science involved especially in the refined salt in processed foods.
Other problems with refined foods include the addition of emulsifiers such as carrageenan (see elsewhere on this list) and polysorbate 80 (linked to infertility, colitis and obesity in test animals) chemical food colorings (as opposed to herbal food colorings such as turmeric) and food preservatives also linked to obesity and gut disease.
In general, fast food, industrialized methods of food preservation and pre-prepared meals don’t seem to be very good for us. You can avoid may of the problem foods on this list by preparing your own meals– and preserving your own food. If you organized and freeze, it does not even take more time that that fast food microwave and it is good for your budget as well as your health!
That way you also avoid the 175 chemical known to be hazardous that can be found in legally allowed food packaging today.
General information on food safety
What’s on my Food lists foods that are safest to eat as opposed to those most likely to be contaminated.
The Nutrition Action Health letter, produced by the non-profit Science in the Public Interest’s October, 2011 issue focuses on healthy eating in honor of Word Food Day, and November5,
Purchasing “organic” processed meals does not guarantee avoiding these, as some of them are currently allowed in processed foods labeled ‘organic’. There are some plants that have a propensity to pick up heavy metals– which is why even organic rice has so much arsenic in it. And those very crucifers (kale, broccoli, cabbage, turnips) that are so good for your health in some ways are not good for your health if they are grown on once-contaminated soil (even soil currently certified organic), since there is anecdotal evidence that they can concentrate high levels of thalium. Note that there is still some controversy over the kale finding.
Here is the 2015 “dirty dozen” list of commercially grown fruits and vegetables with the highest number of pesticide residues on them, according to tests conducted by the Environmental Working Group. These are listed in the order of their pesticide numbers (that is, the worst are first). To protect your health and the environment, produce on this list should only be purchased as organic. The persistent presence of apples on this list is of concern for children’s snacks and baby foods. Grapes are also an issue in that so many juices of all flavors contain grape juice as a primary filler (read the labels). I also want to alert you that kale is number 15 on the most contaminated list. Thalium or not (see above), you might not want to go for non-organic kale,
- Apples
- Celery
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Grapes
- Nectarines
- Peaches
- Potatoes
- Snap Peas
- Strawberries
- Sweet bell peppers
Plus
Hot peppers and kale and collard greens often contain pesticide residues of special concern.
And the contrasting (relatively) clean fifteen:
- Asparagus
- Avocado
- Cabbage
- Cantaloupe
- Cauliflower
- Eggplant
- Grapefruit
- Kiwi
- Mango
- Onion
- Papaya
- Pineapple
- Sweet peas
- Sweet corn
- Sweet potatoes
Why Avoid Pesticides in Your Food
Charles Benbrook, research professor in the sustainable agricultural program at Washington State University, developed a sophisticated dietary risk index using data on pesticide residues found on US produce. Charts indicating where particular foods fall on this index, including comparisons of imported foods, can be found in the October 2012 issue of Nutrition Action. This newsletter is worth subscribing to: it is an inexpensive ad-free newsletter published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which takes no corporate funding.
According to the dietary risk index, commercial peaches and nectarines imported from Chile as well as bell peppers from Mexico, cucumbers from Honduras, green beans from the US and asparagus from Peru have residues above the safe level prescribed by the EPA. Commercial peppers, kale, and green Beans from Mexico are close behind. Though due to EPA restrictions, imported food generally contains more toxic residues, food from Canada is an exception. Only imported Canadian cherries have more toxic residues than US cherries; in every other tested category, Canadian produce was cleaner than US produce.
Of special concern for children are organophosphates, especially chlorpyritos. As shown in double bind experiments (testing blood levels of residue and IQs in children in housing projects treated with these chemicals), children living in the same projects with the highest blood levels of the pesticides had the lowest IQs; and IQ decline continues for several years. For adults, the issue is long term low level exposure to a range of pesticides (including herbicides) linked to cancer, heart disease, dementia, and diabetes: the strongest data in these cases comes from farm worker populations.
It is thus a matter of justice to those who grow and harvest our crops as well as our health and the environment to avoid fruits and vegetables grown under certain conditions.
The good news is that children eating organic produce show such a radical decline in pesticide blood levels that some of these are no longer detectable in as little as a few days to a week.
Given this data, the President’s Cancel Panel (2012) expressly recommends that people of any age eat organic produce whenever possible.
There are well documented problems with certain pesticides and their toxicity to honeybees and other pollinators. Join over 100,000 others urging Bayer to withdraw bee-killing chemicals from the market.
Good Organics and Bad
There are products labeled “organic” that may not even meet commercial pesticide residue standards– especially imported products. Other corporate “organics” such as Horizon have been fined by the FDA for keeping their cattle in crowded feedlots.
That does not mean that the organic certification means nothing: TILTH is a conscientious organics certifier. And USDA organics carries the promise that a sampling of these will be checked for accuracy. Although beware that a USDA certified organic product is not required to be 100 per cent organic- it may contain non-organic ingredients (see label info at the end of this list).
If you want to check the true organic, as well as sustainable and humane practices behind the food you consume, check out the detailed “scorecards” on Cornucopia.
Alas, Apples! A Special Note
Apples made the top of “dirty dozen” list above.
The sales from this Pacific Northwest staple took a dive during the “alar” scale– when this pesticide was determined to cause cancer. The problem is that the easiest route to blemish free fruit in our climate (given various fungi and the apple maggot) is spray, spray, spray. Sadly, the consumer demand for “heritage” apples has made things worse, since these fruits– often-grafted for quick production– do not have a chance to develop resistance over time. So no more alar means other sprays instead. And peeling helps little since many modern pesticides are “systematic”– that is, engineered to be taken up into fruit flesh and persist there.
This is especially problematic for children, since the EPA pesticide standards don’t account for their additional susceptibility as compared with adults– or the fact that they may be ingesting more apples that the yearly “average” they use to compute safety.
Buy organic apples to protect yourself, your children, and the environment. They are periodically on sale for less than commercial varieties locally in the Willamette Valley. Even better, look for unsprayed neighborhood trees where apples are going to waste–and ask permission to glean them. Many apples keep for months, others can be dried and sauced (cut out the wormy parts, which tells you they have not been sprayed!).
Want to help spread the word on current research and change the current pesticide use? Sponsor a screening of the highly praised documentary Unacceptable Levels available this past fall. The link to this film also has some personal action ideas, including a list of responsible corporations, some non-profits working on this issue and a downloadable card to take along when you shop for personal care products that lists the top ten toxics in these products.
CHOCOLATE WOES
Recent laboratory findings indicate high levels of cadmium and lead in many chocolates–including nibs that are labeled “organic”. The well documented harms of lead include the fact that ANY level of lead consumption is unsafe for children, and cadmium has been found to cause kidney, liver, and bone damage in humans.
The popular idea that chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is good for you since it contains healthy anti-oxidants is misinformation. There is some evidence particular extracted ingredients in cocoa nibs may provide health benefits, but in order to consume these in your diet, you would have to consume thousands of calories of chocolate a day–and you would have to avoid the lead and cadmium found in many chocolate products. CocoaVia powder is the brand used in a national study of potential nibs health benefits (you can participate by calling 800-633-6913), since it is relatively lower in lead and cadmium that other brands. But don’t expect to be eating chocolate bars, as they don’t have enough concentrations of ingredients to test for health effects.
Here is the list from the As You Sow website of those chocolate products that contain such high levels of cadmium and lead they would need warning labels under California’s toxics right to know law. Note that there are organics and fair trade bars and nibs on this list. Also, there are all dark chocolates on this list.
Bissinger’s: Bissinger’s All Natural 60% Dark Chocolate Whole Almonds: Lead
Earth Circle Foods (dba as River Canyon Retreat Inc.): Earth Circle Organics Organic Balinese Cacao Nibs Cold Pressed: Cadmium
Ghirardelli: Ghiradelli Intense Dark 72% Cacao Twilight Delight Chocolate Bar and Ghiradelli Chocolate Premium Baking Bar 100% Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate: Lead and Cadmium
Godiva: Godiva 50% Cacao Dark Chocolate Sea Salt: Lead; Godiva 85% Cacao Extra Dark Chocolate and Godiva Chocolatier 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate: Lead & Cadmium
Hershey (dba Artisan Confections Company): Scharffen Berger Semisweet Fine Artisan Dark Chocolate (62% cacao and Scharffen Berger Extra Dark Fine Artisan Dark Chocolate (82% cacao): Cadmium; Dagoba Organic New Moon Rich Dark Chocolate (74% cacao): Lead & Cadmium
Lake Champlain Chocolates: Lake Champlain Chocolates Dark Chocolate (57% cocoa): Lead & Cadmium
Lindt & Sprüngli (USA) : Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Excellence Extra Dark: Lead & Cadmium
Mars: Dove Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate Bar: Cadmium
Mondelez : Green & Black’s Organic 85% Cacao Bar: Lead & Cadmium
Moonstruck: Moonstruck Dark Chocolate Chile Variado (68% cacao): Lead
See’s Candies, Inc: See’s Candies Premium Extra Dark Chocolate (62% cacao): Cadmium
Kroger Co.: Private Selection 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate Swiss Bar: Lead & Cadmium
Theo Chocolate: Theo Organic Fair Trade Pure 85% Dark Chocolate: Cadmium
Trader Joe’s Company: Trader Joe’s Swiss 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate: Lead; Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Bar – Toffee With Walnuts and Pecans 70% cacao: Lead; Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Dark Chocolate: Lead; Trader Joe’s Pound Plus, 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate: Lead; Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate 73% Cacao Super Dark: Lead & Cadmium; Trader Joe’s The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar (85% cacao): Lead & Cadmium
Vosges, Ltd.: Wild Ophelia All Natural New Orleans Chili – Dark Chocolate Bar (70% cacao): Lead
Whole Foods Market, Inc. 365 Everyday Value Organic Dark Chocolate (56% Cacao): Lead & Cadmium
Child Slaves in Chocolate Production
Even organic chocolate may be sourced from African plantations that enslave children as laborers. Chocolate produced in Central American is likely to be better in this regard. Fair trade is best of all.
Nestle UK and Cadbury signed recent fair trade agreements with African workers– though the agreements are only partial. Mars and Cadbury also recently made agreements with the Rainforest Alliance to use at least in 30 per cent “ethically sourced chocolate” in their products. The other 60 per cent are still problematic as are Mars’ corporate practices– it contributed to defeating the 2012 food labeling initiative in California.
Hersheys, ADM and Cargill, however, are lagging behind. After a promised “voluntary” phase out of child slave labor, they have failed to produce any substantial change in nine years.
The companies below list their chocolates as “slave-free”— although some production methods have not been verified by a third party. In contrast, Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate hold cooperative contracts with laborers.
Slave-free chocolates
The following chocolates assert that they are slave-free:
Chuao
Denman Island Chocolate
Divine Chocolate Co.
The Endangered Species Chocolate Company
Equal Exchange
Green and Black
Health by Chocolate
Ithaca Fine Chocolates
Lake Champlain
Burdick Chocolates
La Siembra Cooperative
Malagasy
Max Havelaar
Mayordomo
Montezuma’s Chocolates
Newman’s Own Organics
Nirvana Chocolates
Omanahene Cocoa Bean Company
Original Hawaiian Chocolate
Plamil Organic Chocolate
Rapunzel Pure Organics
San Francisco Chocolate Factory
Seed & Bean Chocolate
Shaman Chocolates
Sweet Earth Chocolates
Terra Nostra Organic
Theo Chocolate
Tony Chocolonely
Trader Joe’s Organic Chocolate Bars
Yachana Gourme
SUGAR
Sugar leads to brain inflammation and memory loss in one recent study
The worst results came with high fructose corn syrup—the most common sweetener in processed foods. The results were also most dramatic for developing or adolescent brains. There are other reasons to avoid HFCS (see below), as well as to avoid soda with our without sugar (such as bone loss resulting from consumption of high levels of phosphorus in sodas). Now it seems that if you want to stay sharp, it is best to stay off sugar in general and HFSC in particular.
This confirms the belief of some parents and teachers that children lose ability to concentrate—or even sit still—after ingesting sugary foods.
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP
Recent research from Princeton University indicates all sweeteners are not the same. High Fructose Corn Syrup causes more weight gain than consuming the same number of calories in plain table sugar. Mice consuming hfcs also gain more abdominal weight and have more of the triglycerides in their blood associated with heart attack risk. More reason to avoid this sweetener.
To make sure you are not eating it in your General Mills’ cereals, don’t rely on the “no corn syrup added” labels. Many General Mills products contain high fructose corn syrup—it has simply been renamed. You can sign a petition here telling General Mills to drop this deceptive labeling.
Corn syrup is everywhere in processed foods/ A benefit to avoiding it is avoiding many processed foods. Research indicates it may be an “obesegen”—since it does not register in the brain’s satiety centers in the same way that ordinary table sugar does. Commercial corn syrup is also high in mercury, since its manufacture entails the use of lye made by pumping salt through large vats of mercury.
ARTICIFICIAL SWEETENERS
Experimental data published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature indicates that ingestion of artificial sweeteners alter bacteria in the gut in a way that produces glucose intolerance–and thus they may “enhance the exact epidemic (diabetes) they are intended to fight.” It is best to cut out artificially sweetened drinks for many reasons (see the section on colas below)– since they have no nutritional value. However, do NOT replace them with sugar, especially if you need to cut back on sugar or calories for health reasons.
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS
The Center for Food Safety has produced a detailed “True Food Shopper’s Guide” for avoiding gmos. Currently, foods labeled as USDA organic are not allowed to contain genetically engineered materials.
Round-Up and Round-Up Ready Genetically Engineered Corn Health Hazards
A recently released study by University of Pittsburgh researchers found that this herbicide applied according to label specs (no wind, spot application, etc). caused nearby amphibians to change shape. This comes on the heels of reports from Argentina about persistent human fetal abnormalities implicated in RoundUp use. Why Argentina? Monsanto’s widespread sales of its “RoundUp Ready” gmo crops there increases RoundUp use, thus exposing fieldworkers and their families to consistent doses of this herbicide.
Perhaps the most rigorously peer reviewed study published in contemporary scientific literature due to industry pressure against its publication has been republished, documenting (in mice, mind you), that a diet of genetically engineered “round-up ready” corn causes severe kidney and liver damage—as does ingestion of the herbicide Round Up on its own. These effects show up in a two-year study, indicating the problems with industry studies of six months. We now also know that some damage caused by some toxic chemical exposure shows up in the grandchildren of those who are exposed. And today, forty years after the herbicide Agent Orange was sprayed in Viet Nam, children are still being born with tragic birth defects resulting from exposure. More than enough reason to avoid toxins wherever possible—and to use caution in consuming genetically engineered products.
Foods genetically engineered to accept herbicides like RoundUp have led to escalating amounts of herbicides in our foods—and weed resistance to these herbicides. Because of this, the US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the use of crops engineered to take 2 4 D herbicides. 2-4 D is one of the principle ingredients of Agent Orange used to defoliate Viet Nam by the US in the 1960s. Though it is especially potent in combination with toxins like dioxin in Agent Orange, 2-4 D it is outlawed on its own in certain Canadian provinces and European nations. US agriculture does not need crops specifically engineered to “accept” this herbicide– which then goes onto your table, as well as into our groundwater.
One way to cut down on herbicide exposure—and research indicates that is certainly a good idea—is to avoid genetically engineered foods. GMO corn and soy are especially prevalent in processed foods.
Not incidentally, Monsanto, a key producer of genetically engineered food, including the RoundUp Ready seed, has been voted into the Corporate Hall of Shame several times for its anti-consumer, anti-environment activities. Especially troublesome is the gmo producers attacks on small farmers as well as on gmo labeling for consumers.
FOOD ADDITIVES
Carrageenan
Recent research links carrageenan with gastrointestinal inflammation and insulation resistance (the precuror to diabetes), both in laboratory animals and in studies using human colon cells. To be on the safe side, avoid yogurt, ice cream, frozen yogurt, pudding– and for the holiday season, egg nog— thickened with carrageenan. Read your labels on this one.
Dr. Joanne Tobacman, who has published 18 peer-reviewed papers on this subject, gave testimony before the federal Organic Standards Board in which she stated:
1) exposure to carrageenan causes inflammation which is harmful;
2) the amount of carrageenan consumed in the human diet is sufficient to cause inflammation;
3) both undegraded and degraded carrageenan cause inflammation, and both kinds of carrageenan inevitably exist together.
These points directly counter industry claims that they sell only undegraded carrageenan which is not harmful and good scientific studies have been done only for larger amounts of ingestion than that found in the human diet and on non-human animals.
BPA
BPA is directly linked to childhood obesity, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
At breastcancerfund.org there is a downloadable wallet card on canned foods to avoid, since they are sealed with this synthetic estrogen that double blind studies have linked with breast cancer, reproductive problems, obesity, and ADHD. These include especially salty, fatty or sugary food into which BPA leaches so that you consume it with the food. This means most processed canned foods (even organic ones like beans and coconut milk).
For home canners, BPA is also used in the older lids of Kerr and Ball home canning jars sold in the US. There are alternatives available: ask at the store where you purchase your canning supplied. Look for “bpa” free labels on Kerr and Ball jar lids.
Be especially careful of high acid fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and some fruit juices in cans. Giving these to children is a bad idea, since certain tomatoes in BPA sealed cans have been tested to leach enough BPA to replace natural hormones.
The following companies have gone BPA free in their canned foods:
Eden
Vital choice, Oregon’s choice, Wild Planet and Eco Fish (canned fish)
Trader Joe’s : canned corn, canned beans, canned fish, canned poultry, and canned beef at Trader Joe’s are all packaged in BPA free cans. However, any other products that contain corn or beans or fish, etc. and other items – for example in soups or chilis – are not in BPA free cans, the company said. No labeling here, either.
Edward & Sons produces a line of exotic, often organic, sustainably raised canned and packaged goods without BPA in their packaging, including Native Forest and Native Factor brands.
More companies will hopefully be added to the safe list as more data comes out on BPA dangers. As always, it is best to buy fresh or frozen goods.
More general tips
Since BPA is found in many plastics, the recommendation of “Rachel’s” (community breast cancer research advocates) is to avoid heating in plastic microwave packaging.
Also switch to stainless steel or glass cooking and storage containers—especially for high acid or hot foods.
It is also a good idea to avoid aluminum in cooking utensils. Though we do not know why, tangled brain circuits in Alzheimers patients concentrate aluminum in them.
Debra’s List contains a list and analysis of over 1000 healthier alternatives or green products: especially useful for parents.
For more info and if you would like to join an alliance that works to protect our families by keeping toxics out of our food, homes, and larger environment, check out Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.
Older Teflon (outlawed in some developed countries) has also been linked to cancer development. The newer “ceramic” finish claims to avoid these harms, though I don’t know of research to support this, I do use these pans myself. .
Recent research suggests that some plastics certified as BPA free may have just as many endocrine-disrupting properties as BPA-laced plastics. Given this, stainless steel utensils appear to be the safest, especially for children’s foods. A recent Scientific American discussion indicates silicone coated implements may also be safe, though little research has been done on them.
MSG
This chemical causes reactions such as migraines and digestive upsets in some consumers. Avoiding it, however, is not so easy as avoiding a label that says MSG. Here’s why:
The FDA also allows MSG-containing products to be labeled as follows: Autolyzed Plant Protein, Autolyzed Yeast, Calcium Caseinate, Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP), Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), Maltodextrin, Monopotassium Glutamate, Sodium Caseinate, Soy Protein Concentrate, Textured Protein, Yeast Food or Nutrient and Yeast Extract.
Swanson Beef and Chicken Broths, Target brand Market Pantry Homestyle Chicken & Wild Rice Soup, Annie Chun’s Soup Bowls, Chef Boyardee’s Mini ABC’s and 123’s with Meatballs all say “no MSG” on their labels, even though their ingredient lists indicate a form of MSG is actually in their product.
—————-
Milk products containing rBGH
rBGH or recombinant bovine growth hormone is a genetic copy of cow hormones that causes them to produce more milk. This hormone is banned in Canada, Australia, Japan, and all countries in the European Union due to its effects such as speeding up the growth of breast and prostrate cancers. It is also boycotted by 95 percent of US dairy farmers. However, the FDA, EPA and Department of Agriculture continue to license the drug (and other genetically engineered foods) without adequate pre-market safety tests.
The Breast Cancer Action Coalition summarizes data that links the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and breast cancer. It is especially important that girls and young women do not consume dairy products with this hormone added, as new data indicates that fast growing breast tissues are the most vulnerable to toxic exposures. Thus girls or young women exposed at this vulnerable time in their lives are at risk for developing breast cancer later in life.
The Institute for Responsible Technology outlines the data that indicates Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of this hormone is profiting both from causing cancer and selling drugs to treat it.
Buy milk and cheese that are rBGH-free . If you are in Oregon, support local dairy farmers who have refused to use this hormone from the outset.
The presence of this hormone in older dairy cows (a major source of hamburger in the US) is another reason to buy organic and/or totally grass fed beef from local farms you trust. See below for problems with corn fed beef.
SPECIAL NOTES
“Organic” foods and medicines from China
The USDA tests only one per cent of foreign imports and what it has found for the Chinese use of the “USDA Organic” label is that many of these foods are not only NOT organic, but have toxic residues that surpass standards for any food being sold in the US. Some still contain melamine: the plastic-waste “protein” that sickened a number of babies with melamine-laced infant formula and killed many pets with its presence in pet food.
Rice from China has other problems. Because of the proliferation of coal-fired plants in China, rice is now the single greatest source of mercury contamination there. Coal burning produces mercury as a pollutant, which then falls onto crops.
Herbal and other medicinal products from China have also been found to contain high levels of lead and other toxics.
Sadly, the offenders in this regard undermine the confidence with which you can buy “organic” products from those China producers who use this label legitimately– and many do. Know your producer!
Healthy Veggie Burgers? Not if they are not organic
Veggie burgers with processed soy protein are processed with the neurotoxin hexane (not allowed in gasoline). Here is a list of products that contain and do not contain hexane:
Veggie burgers containing hexane:
Boca Burger, conventional
Franklin Farms
Garden Burger
It’s All Good Lightlife
Morningstar Farms
President’s Choice
Taste Above
Trader Joe’s
Yves Veggie Cuisine
Hexane-free products:
Products labeled “organic” aren’t allowed to contain any hexane-derived ingredients, but that rule doesn’t apply to foods that are labeled “made with organic ingredients.”
Amy’s Kitchen (originally on the hexane-containing list, but their tsp protein is now labeled “hexane free”).
Boca Burgers “Made with organic soy”
Helen’s Kitchen
Morningstar “Made with organic”
Superburgers by Turtle Island
Tofurky
Wildwood
Protein bars containing hexane:
For a list of “made with organic ingredients”-labeled protein bars made with hexane, see the Cornucopia Institute’s “Behind the Bean.”
Peanut allergies develop from dry-roasted nuts?
In the face of escalating allergies to many food, including peanuts, there is some question as to how modern preparation of those foods may incite such allergies. The latest example is some research from Oxford University (published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology) indicating that eating dry roasted peanuts may instigate peanut allergies..
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Corn Fed Beef
Once upon a time (I remember the days!) “corn fed beef” was considered prime, but no longer. Cattle are naturally grazing herbivores, and feeding them grain in order to hasten fattening leads to digestive upsets on the part of the cattle, as well as health and environmental risks to humans. Michael Pollen, in his Ominivore’s Dilemma, indicates the scientific case for why.
Grass fed beef is almost entirely free of the e coli contamination of grain fed beef– a corn diet changes the acidity of the cow’s stomach, which allows these bacteria to flourish. One feedlot vet told Pollen that if his bovine charges had been fed grass instead, he would be out of business. As it is, feed lot cows are fed a constant infusion of antibiotics and many still fall victim to various disease, since the corn diet plays havoc with their immune systems.
Furthermore, “corn fed” no longer means fed with good old fashioned corn. In spite of the prohibitions on feeding cows certain body parts of sheep to prevent “mad cow disease” (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy), protein in feed lot cow feed often includes blood and other body parts of chickens (such as skin and feathers) as well as beef “waste” from other butchered cattle.
Corn-fed hamburger is especially bad, since a pound of commercial hamburger may contain the meat of a hundred cows scraped from areas near the bone and spine where the “prions” of mad cow reside.
The corn diet also largely does away with healthy fats found in grazing animal flesh, replacing them with unhealthy saturated fats.
Moreover, corn feeding takes a substantial toll on water and oil resources in the raising of subsidized corn crops for cattle feed. whereas environmentally conscious (rotated) grazing utilizes lands otherwise unsuited for agricultural production.
Especially if you have humanitarian concerns, the CAPOS (concentrated feeding operations) give animals a wretched existence, as well as giving workers some of the worst jobs in the nation. See Fast Food Nation for more details. It is no surprise that the agribusiness lobby recently asked the FDA to prevent pictures of their operations from becoming public.
If you consume meat, buy grass fed beef from a local farmer to pressure changes in the current irrational system of beef production.
.——
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in (even organic) poultry
At the same time that the “organic” sales bandwagon has caused large poultry producers to go “organic”– it may also have caused them to push the envelope in terms of using antibiotics to promote growth. The FDA organic poultry label allows for the injection of antibiotics into egg sacs and chickens on the first day of life and large growers may well be taking advantage of this, given the presence of antibiotic resistance bacteria in their organic poultry.
In this respect, the federal RWA (Raised without Antibiotics) label s safer than the organic label IF that label is placed on poultry from a large national brand that also raises commercial chicken. In a recent study, organic and commercial poultry were found to be comparable in containing antibiotic-resistance strains of e. coli within the same brands. There may also have been cross-contamination in production and processing in organic and commercial poultry.
The study above also found a substantially higher number of strains of resistant bacteria in poultry labeled “kosher” than in commercially raised poultry. There are no restrictions on antibiotic use in kosher chicken.
Here are my recommendations based on this study and testimony by its lead author, Lance Price, before the FDA, on the growing issue of antibiotic resistance generated by consumption of poultry:
- Purchase your “organic” chicken from small farmers you know and/or avoid large industry farms that raise both organic and commercial poultry. Ask your local farmer if they have used antibiotics at any stage of life of the chicken you purchase. Alternately, buy organic chicken that also has a RWA label.
- In terms of antibiotic resistance, RWA (raised without antibiotics) label is preferable to an “organic” label of a large commercial grower. There were fewer antibiotic-resistant strains found in the RWA than in the “organic” chicken.
- If you purchase Kosher chicken, do so for religious rather than health reasons– do not expect it to be “cleaner” than commercial chicken.
Seafood
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an extensive list of sustainable and healthy fish choices to supplant those that are mercury laden, have extensive bycatches or are implicated in ocean habit degradation and species extinction. They have a downloadable card you can print and take shopping with you.
Problems with Farmed Salmon
One of the fish listed as a health risk on the Monterey Aquarium website calls for special attention: farmed salmon. Ocean-going wild salmon (labeled “wild Alaska salmon”) is one of the cleanest fish you can buy– and one of the highest in healthy fatty acids and vitamin D. Unfortunately, farm raised salmon is one of the dirtiest fish you can purchase– and its healthy fatty acids have gone the way of its diet, which includes carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT found in the mix of soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feather these penned fish are fed.
Any salmon that is labeled “Atlantic” is farmed, since there are no more wild Atlantic salmon fisheries.
Microwave popcorn
Two problems: butter substitutes which have caused serious health risks in workers (and are now slowly being phased out) and chemicals in bag linings, which are highly toxic. Here is where the budget conscious come out on top: it only takes a few minutes to pop your own popcorn. If you don’t want to do it on the stove top, check out local second hand stores for super cheap air poppers.
Cottonseed oil (and cotton clothing)
Cotton is the most highly pesticide- sprayed crop in the US , but it is not classified as a food crop, so the pesticides in its oil are not regulated by the EPA. Since cottonseed oil is one of the cheapest oils available, it is liable to show up in processed snack food like potato chips. Sometimes this is obscured by a label that reads, “may contain soy (or some other oil) or cottonseed oil”. Don’t buy it; if is either/or, you can be pretty sure it contains the cheapest oil.
Of the 15 pesticides used on cotton, the EPA has classified 7 of them as probable, likely, or possible causes of cancer. In the Punjab in India, cotton growing areas center cancer outbreaks.
Throw out anything with cottonseed oil in it. And look for “organic”, “green” or “fair trade” cotton in your clothing unless you want to be cause environmental and human health damage as you pick out your “natural” cotton clothing.
Also, rice grown in former cotton growing areas in the South (where arsenic was an early pesticide) are more likely to have unacceptable levels of arsenic (that is, higher than the FDA limit for drinking water) than rice grown in California where no cotton was formerly grown.
SODAS
BVO: There is enough question about whether “bromated vegetable oil” can build up in human tissue to cause it to be banned in the European Union, where soda manufacturers use readily available alternatives. BVO is an emulsifier that gives these light colored sodas their cloudy appearance, but BVO, originally banned by the FDA and given provisional status in the 1970s (and still allowed under that “interim” status), has been linked to suggestive bromine build up in the body in European studies. Bromine build up is linked, in turn, to heart muscle and nerve damage.
Phosphates: You could switch to colas like Pepsi and Dr. Pepper which do not have BVO– if you don’t care about your bones. The combination of phosphorus and carbonation in beverages interferes with calcium uptake in the bones. This is especially hazardous to teenage girls who should be building up their bone mass to allow them to avoid osteoporosis later in life. Sodas do NOT belong in school cafeterias for this reason alone.
Sugar or “Diet”: most sugar in commercial sodas is corn syrup (see below) which has its own problems. At the very least, we don’t need all this extra sugar in our diets. But if you switch to diet drinks in the hopes of avoiding calories, you may not be thereby avoiding extra pounds. Why? Researchers don’t know, but recent studies have indicated the same amount of weight gain with those ingesting diet sodas as those ingesting the sugared variety. One supposition is that “fake” sugar may stimulate the appetite system without satisfying it, thus actually inciting people to eat more sugar in response.
The evidence is ambiguous, however, since another well-controlled study that compared children ingesting diet as opposed to regular sodas found the diet soda drinkers gained less weight and less body fat over a year’s time.
Diet soda drinkers also need to contend with the problematic effects of artificial sweeteners. Counterbalancing the claim that there is false hype in the publicity indicating the dangers of aspartame (brand name, Nutrasweet), a suit before the FDA requesting outlawing of aspartame cites cases of 551 persons who reported negative effects from ingesting this artificial sweetener, as well as nine other clinical studies indicating its dangers. On the other side, one peer reviewed study indicated that a single dose of aspartame might be safely ingested by those with impaired livers (from alcoholism, for instance). As for longer term use, a 2011 study found that long term use was correlated with decrease of an important liver enzyme.
And then there is Splenda (sucralose): a recent Italian animal study linked ingestion of sucralose to a higher probability of developing leukemia.
Unless you are diabetic, it seems best to forgo artificial sweeteners.
Sugar-sweetened beverages, however, are no better. Not only is sugar ingestion connected with the epidemic rise in type II diabetes, but with heart disease. Thus the American Heart Association recommends a sugar limit of 100 calories (6 teaspoons) of sugar daily for women and 150 calories (9 teaspoons) for men. Since the average US citizen ingests 40 per cent of dietary sugar from sugar sweetened beverages–sodas, energy drinks, sugared fruit drinks, and coffee and tea– forgoing those can go a long way toward reaching the limited- sugar goal.
Toxic Pepsi and Coke bottled in India
I don’t know how you can tell where the pop you drink is bottled, but recent studies (related to the pesticide deaths and cancer epidemics among school children in India) has found that Coke and Pepsi bottled in India has 30-36 times recommended pesticide levels.
Better to avoid these altogether (see below for more reasons to do so).
And as for fruits and vegetables (and tea, I presume) imported from India– what are the chances these contain significant pesticide levels, including pesticide residues of toxins banned in the EU and the US? One hundred per cent, according to Amit Khurana, head of the Food Safety and Toxins Program at the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi, India
Yet another reason to eat locally produced food from farmers you trust.
The use of products banned elsewhere is pushed by pesticide salespersons who urge their use on rice crops and others to poor Indian farmers. Finding ways to avoid pesticide use around your home and garden also withdraws your economic support from pesticides responsible for the deaths of thousands of children in India and Nigeria (and these are only the documented deaths).
BOTTLED WATER
Carry your own cup to stop ocean plastic waste, waste of energy and water in bottling water, as well as corporate buy-up of water rights.
In case you need additional health concerns to stop using bottled water, the FDA allows lead in bottled water, even though there is no safe level of lead for human consumption, even though lead in any amount negatively effects the human nervous system, especially in children. Here is basic information on lead in drinking water.
For a list of the host of toxic chemicals found in bottled water, see here.
Here is an overview of the consequences of the corporate buy up of water.
And here is a fun short film by Annie Leonard (“Story of Stuff”) on bottled water.
The results of a study funded by the Germany Environmental Agency of endocrine disrupting chemicals in bottled water (likely from plastic containers) found one widespread chemical that is an antagonist to both estrogenic and androgenic hormones: di(2-ethylhexyl) fumarate (DEHF). This is good health reason to add to the environmental reasons to avoid bottled water. Fill up and carry your own stainless steal bottle.
ARSENIC IN THE FOOD SUPPLY
Arsenic in baby formula and energy bars
The source of contamination is evidently brown rice syrup— even, in some cases, brown rice syrup that is supposed to be organic. The baby formula incidence is most alarming, since it is largely the type of arsenic that is known to cause cancer. However, one cereal bar had 12 times the arsenic currently allowed in drinking water.
Trying to avoid arsenic in your organic rice? Use organic rice grown in California rather than former cotton lands in the South-central US where arsenic was used as a pesticide in those earlier crops.
Milk-based formulas were lower in arsenic than non-dairy formulas– likely because of the rice syrup sweetener in non-dairy products. The researchers at Dartmouth who found this suggest that a single energy bar poses little hazard, but that those on gluten-free diets who use a substantial amount of rice in their diet vary this by using other grains as well.
Nature’s One organically certified infant formula has a response to this problem in which they indicate that their products are specifically tested for their arsenic levels.
Why rice? Arsenic is naturally occurring in particular water sources and rice takes much water to raise. Air pollution from the smeltering of particular metals falls back onto rice products, which is why Chinese rice tends to be so high in mercury from coal burning. Such heavy metal concentration– unless specifically tested for– may well fall below the radar of organic certification that is checking for pesticide exposure– though arsenic was one of the earliest forms of pesticides used in the pre-DDT era.
Older forms of treated wood were also treated with arsenic (now illegal): and leach readily into garden beds. Treated wood of all types (including the old arsenic treated variety) is ground and recycled into chips sold to homeowners and landscapers. Lane County Waste Management, for instance, does not take it in as “hazardous waste” (though they used to)– but instead gives all incoming treated wood to these chip sourcing companies. Children’s play structures with arsenic-treated wood have largely been replaced in public parks– but I don’t know if anyone has traced what happened to the treated wood they replaced.
This problem with arsenic exposure follows shortly after the finding of arsenic in apple juice below.
Arsenic in apple juice
All commercial apple juices were recently found to contain inorganic arsenic, with baby foods containing some of the highest levels.
Arsenic as a pesticide has been outlawed in the US, but is still used in China, where much processed apple juice originates.
Arsenic in Commercially Raised (Factory Farmed) Chicken
Chickens raised in crowded commercial conditions in which they are unable to move have plenty of problems related to these inhumane conditions, including frequent debeaking so that they will not act on the cannabalistic impulses created by such crowding.
On a health basis, commercial chicken is yet another product in which consumers may find arsenic— evidently fed to these chickens to help combat infections deriving from frequent sores caused by their living conditions. I can’t tell you why commercial chickens might also contain caffeine and Benadryl, though a banned class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones is more understandable– if no less problematic. The latter were found in the analysis of chicken in peer reviewed studies of researchers at John Hopkins and Arizona State University.
According to recent lab results, some wines contain 4 times the percentages of arsenic allowed in California drinking water. It is currently unclear where the arsenic is coming from: perhaps from past use of arsenic as a pesticide on agricultural land or arsenic naturally found in local water supplies– as it is in volcanic lands in various areas of the west. It is also not clear why the least expensive wines have the most arsenic in them.
Here is the list of wines which have been tested by BeverageGrades and determined to contain arsenic levels in excess of 10 parts per billion. These wines are the subjects of the class action lawsuit filed March 19, 2015.
| Brand | Consumer Item Description |
Supplier | Year |
| Acronym | Gr8Rw Red Blend | Winery Exchange | 2011 |
| Almaden | Heritage White Zinfandel | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Heritage Moscato | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Heritage White Zinfandel | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Heritage Chardonnay | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Mountain Burgundy | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Mountain Rhine | The Wine Group | NV |
| Almaden | Mountain Chablis | The Wine Group | NV |
| Arrow Creek | Coastal Series Cabernet Sauvignon | Winery Exchange | 2011 |
| Bandit | Pinot Grigio | Trinchero | NV |
| Bandit | Chardonnay | Trinchero | NV |
| Bandit | Cabernet Sauvignon | Trinchero | NV |
| Bay Bridge | Chardonnay | The Wine Group | NV |
| Beringer | White Merlot | Treasury Wine Estates | 2011 |
| Beringer | White Zinfandel | Treasury Wine Estates | 2011 |
| Beringer | Red Moscato | Treasury Wine Estates | NV |
| Beringer | Refreshingly Sweet Moscato | Treasury Wine Estates | NV |
| Charles Shaw | White Zinfandel | Bronco | 2012 |
| Colores Del Sol | Malbec | Treasury Wine Estates | 2010 |
| Glen Ellen By Concannon | Glen Ellen Reserve Pinot Grigio | The Wine Group | 2012 |
| Concannon | Selected Vineyards Pinot Noir | The Wine Group | 2011 |
| Glen Ellen By Concannon | Glen Ellen Reserve Merlot | The Wine Group | 2010 |
| Cook’s | Spumante | Constellation | NV |
| Corbett Canyon | Pinot Grigio | The Wine Group | NV |
| Corbett Canyon | Cabernet Sauvignon | The Wine Group | NV |
| Cupcake | Malbec | The Wine Group | 2011 |
| Fetzer | Moscato | Fetzer Vineyards | 2010 |
| Fetzer | Pinot Grigio | Fetzer Vineyards | 2011 |
| Fisheye | Pinot Grigio | The Wine Group | 2012 |
| Flipflop | Pinot Grigio | The Wine Group | 2012 |
| Flipflop | Moscato | The Wine Group | NV |
| Flipflop | Cabernet Sauvignon | The Wine Group | NV |
| Foxhorn | White Zinfandel | The Wine Group | NV |
| Franzia | Vintner Select White Grenache | The Wine Group | NV |
| Franzia | Vintner Select White Zinfandel | The Wine Group | NV |
| Franzia | Vintner Select White Merlot | The Wine Group | NV |
| Franzia | Vintner Select Burgundy | The Wine Group | NV |
| Hawkstone | Cabernet Sauvignon | Winery Exchange | 2011 |
| Hrm Rex Goliath | Moscato | Constellation | NV |
| Korbel | Sweet Rose Sparkling Wine | Korbel | NV |
| Korbel | Extra Dry Sparkling Wine | Korbel | NV |
| Menage A Trois | Pinot Grigio | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Menage A Trois | Moscato | Trinchero | 2010 |
| Menage A Trois | White Blend | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Menage A Trois | Chardonnay | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Menage A Trois | Rose | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Menage A Trois | Cabernet Sauvignon | Trinchero | 2010 |
| Menage A Trois | California Red Wine | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Mogen David | Concord | The Wine Group | NV |
| Mogen David | Blackberry Wine | The Wine Group | NV |
| Oak Leaf | White Zinfandel | The Wine Group | NV |
| Pomelo | Sauvignon Blanc | Mason Cellars | 2011 |
| R Collection By Raymond | Chardonnay | Jean-Claude Boisset Wines | 2012 |
| Richards Wild Irish Rose | Red Wine | Constellation | NV |
| Seaglass | Sauvignon Blanc | Trinchero | 2012 |
| Simply Naked | Moscato | Constellation | 2011 |
| Smoking Loon | Viognier | Don Sebastiani & Sons | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | Sauvignon Blanc | Trinchero | 2010 |
| Sutter Home | Gewurztraminer | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | Pink Moscato | Trinchero | NV |
| Sutter Home | Pinot Grigio | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | Moscato | Trinchero | NV |
| Sutter Home | Chenin Blanc | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | Sweet Red | Trinchero | 2010 |
| Sutter Home | Riesling | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | White Merlot | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | Merlot | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | White Zinfandel | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Sutter Home | White Zinfandel | Trinchero | 2012 |
| Sutter Home | Zinfandel | Trinchero | 2010 |
| Trapiche | Malbec | The Wine Group | 2012 |
| Tribuno | Sweet Vermouth | The Wine Group | NV |
| Vendange | Merlot | Constellation | NV |
| Vendange | White Zinfandel | Constellation | NV |
| Wine Cube | Moscato | Trinchero | NV |
| Wine Cube | Pink Moscato | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Wine Cube | Pinot Grigio | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Wine Cube | Pinot Grigio | Trinchero | NV |
| Wine Cube | Chardonnay | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Wine Cube | Chardonnay | Trinchero | NV |
| Wine Cube | Red Sangria | Trinchero | NV |
| Wine Cube | Sauvignon Blanc | Trinchero | 2011 |
| Wine Cube | Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz | Trinchero | 2011 |
| *NV – No Vintage | |||
HOUSEHOLD AND BUILDING MATERIALS
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral used in homes and automobile products and by ship builders and in the construction industry throughout the last century. Mesothelioma is a serious form of cancer, especially prevalent among those serving in the US Navy. Though presence of asbestos is currently limited to 1 per cent in commercial US and Canadian products, research indicates there is no safe amount of asbestos exposure once an asbestos-containing product becomes “friable” (degraded or seal-broken or cracked) or exposed to the air– and home owners have contracted mesothelioma from do-it-yourself renovation projects on pre-1980 homes that released asbestos.
The US and Canada are currently the only developed nations which have not banned asbestos entirely.
Asbestos is a tiny invisible fiber that lodges in the lungs to cause this particularly dangerous form of cancer– which may not show itself until after it is dormant for two decades. Construction workers have contracted mesothelioma, as have teachers working in older school buildings.
Asbestos is not dangerous when “bound” (in “popcorn” ceilings, floor tiles, older insulation, or cement blocks, for instance), but should not be removed or disturbed except by professionals with proper protection equipment. Here is the extensive list of products like older joint compounds, cements, and sidings that often contain dangerous levels of asbestos– many of which are still manufactured at the 1 per cent level.
And here is a list of asbestos alternatives that might be chosen instead.
There are also government-certified environmental testing groups who will test your ceilings for asbestos (many but not ALL pre-1980 “popcorn” style ceilings had asbestos in them).
Here is a general link that offers a number of other resources on asbestos: https://mesothelioma.net/
Lumber sourcing
D0n’t buy IKEA products until they stop logging Russia’s 600 year old trees for their wood products, and tell their CEO why you are boycotting them.
Avoid Paseo or LIVI brands and their offshoots– since they are pulping ancient biodiverse Asian rainforests to produce toilet paper.
Some North American old growth forests are also being for toilet paper. To avoid this, look for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified paper and wood products.
A consumer campaign recently caused Home Depot to change its suppliers and carry FSC certified lumber.
Consumer response does make a difference! Thanks to Home Depot for changing its policy and offering sustainable alternatives to its customers.
Reduce your exposure to formaldehyde, linked to asthma and to cancer, by avoiding pressed-wood products or buying only those that are labeled as U.L.E.F. (ultra-low-emitting formaldehyde), N.A.F. (no-added formaldehyde) or C.A.R.B. (California Air Resources Board) Phase 1 or Phase 2 compliant.
Pre-1978 bathtubs may contain lead in their finish
A test kit from your local home and garden store can test this. This is an especially important issue in bathtubs used by children. If your bathtub does test positive for lead, either re-finish it with a lead free product or only give children baths in plastic tub inserts.
Do-it-yourself bathtub strippers can be fatal.
The US Center for Disease Control early this year (2012) announced deaths of at least 13 persons using methyl chloride compounds available in your hardware store that come with only a small print warning NOT to use in the bathroom because of the need for ventilation in using this extremely toxic paint-stripping product. Notably, the deaths were of professional bathroom refinishers. Data on home owners trying this for themselves are not available.
Methyl chloride has been further implicated in two deaths of those using paint strippers containing this product.
COSMETICS
Cruelty-Free Cosmetics and Household Products
Unfortunately, animal testing on certain personal care and household products is still going strong, especially among large corporate sellers. In most cases, this entails animals born, raised (or in some cases captured) especially for testing– and treated as objects in the process. We don’t need products with chemicals that require treating other lives as disposable. It is no surprise that many such chemicals are so bad for the environment as well as our personal health. See the Environmental Working Group’s detailed analysis of such chemicals for consumers.
Beware skin lighteners that rely on mercury for their effectiveness
Products used to lighten and smooth skin as well as to rid the skin of freckles often contain a mercury compound as their active ingredient, which can become airborne and contaminate kitchen products, with special hazards for exposed children. Here is a discussion of health problems caused by this contamination.
Shimmery Makeup Enslaves Five Year Old Mica Miners
The shine in glittery make-up may well be provided by children as young as five years old forced to work in illegal mica mines (mica is the source of that shimmer) in India. Make sure that your cosmetics do not contain mica. The website, Made in a Free World (madeinafreeworld.com) provides other information on ways to avoid slavery in the supply chain of consumer goods.
MISCELLANEOUS
Dangerous Paper
Don’t touch BPA-laced thermal paper (as in some cash register receipts) and/or use hand sanitizer and then touch food.
Recent research indicates that these actions transfer BPA into the body. BPA is associated with cancer, hormone disruption and artherosclerosis. And as for hand sanitizer, it also often contains triclosan, which effects human heart muscle and thyroid function in rats. (See links to research below). If you need to use a sanitizer for medical or professional purposes, make sure to wash it off before touching anything going into your mouth. And avoid anti-bacterial soaps for general household use, since they contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
A number of grocery stores now use BPA-free paper (ask at check out if your store does not have a sign specifying BPA -free receipts).
Plastic Toothpaste
Dentists discover plastic “microbeads” in some toothpaste.
These little bits of plastic do not dissolve or wash away and though Crest toothpaste manufacturers (the brand in which they are most implicated) tell us they are perfectly safe, if you want to avoid them, read the ingredient list and avoid “polyethylene”.
CLOTHING
A new study has found numerous hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing. Greenpeace has an easy to read cartoon format presentation on these toxins along with ways to contact their manufacturers to protest. Adidas, American Apparel, Burberry, C & S, Disney, Gap, H&M, Li Ning, Nike, Primark, Puma and Uniqlo tested positive for toxins in their clothing. Uniqlo, H & M, C &S, and Puma are to be lauded for joining a detox campaign to rid their garments of these toxins. The Greenpeace technical report is here.
Note that buying “one hundred per cent cotton”– unless it is organic cotton– does not protect against these toxins, since they may be in fabric dyes and manufacturing processes.
Support toxin-free brands for the sake of your children, the workers who make these clothes, and the environment. Valentino, Mango and Zara (Limited Brands) have made significant progress toward their goals in making toxin-free clothing. Others who have joined the detox campaign besides Uniqlo (Fast Retailing), C & S, H & M, and Puma, include Inditex, Benneton, Coop, Canepa, and Esprit– all have promised to disclose the chemicals in their products and commit to the elimination of 11 priority chemical groups.
Unfortunately, Adidas, American Apparel, Burberry, Disney, Gap and Primark are taking no action to detoxify their children’s clothing.
Yellow pigments in clothing, paint and paper
A form of banned PCBs, PCB-11, is found in especially high levels in yellow clothing, paint, and other materials such as paper with yellow graphics. It is classified as an “unintentional byproduct” rather than a chemical specifically added to these goods, and though this form of PCB is metabolized by the body as opposed to other forms of the chemical which simply persist, it has been found in high enough concentrations to be of concern, especially in children’s clothes from China. Our rivers and even midwestern farmlands contain this chemical as a result of wastewater contamination. Given its lack of persistence, this indicates high source input.
Better to choose another color and be careful in handling ad circulars with colorful yellows, as the PCB can rub off on your hands and also go into household air. A good action for you and for the environment (save a tree!) is to call the source of those circulars and ask they not be delivered to you. Here is the link for putting your household on the national “do not mail” directory.
A new study indicates that eight out of ten hand blenders used for cooking emit hazardous chemicals.
Halloween Special
One hundred per cent of children’s face paints tested by the Environmental Working Group contain lead, for which there is no safe exposure limit. Because face paint is classified as a cosmetic, its ingredients do not not have to be labeled, so parents have no way of telling that what they are purchasing for childhood fun contains lead and other heavy metals. Here are tips for a toxics-free Halloween (including costumes made with PVC and laced with phlalates recently outlawed in children’s toys).
Avoid toxic Halloween costumes and treat bags with info at the “Healthy Stuff” website.
Alta Gracia: a clothing label to look for
Alta Gracia apparel is made by workers who earn living wages in union shops in the developing world. You will find their products on university campuses–and their prices compete with the likes of Nike.
More info on Alta Gracia here.
Avoid chlorine bleach
Chlorine in cleaning products produces volatile organic compounds implicated in causing cancer, as well as dioxins.
Chlorine bleach has been banned in certain European countries. It has a proto-estrogen effect (see note on herbicides and plant hormones below). Moreover, incineration of products treated with chlorine produces dioxin, a highly toxic and persistent chemical in extremely minute amounts.
If possible, avoid not only using chlorine bleach, but buying bleached paper products and swimming in pools disinfected with chlorine products. There are safer alternatives to all of these.
Cotton
Non-organic cotton clothing is contaminated with toxic pesticides in spite of being washed, and cotton growth is responsible for millions of cases of pesticide poisonings in developing countries annually. This is especially tragic in the case of children exposed to pesticide spray both in the fields and in their homes.
Pesticides on cotton include aldicarb, which is one of the most toxic pesticides ever produced– and though it is being phased out in the US, it is still used in developing nations. According to a report of the Environmental Justice Fund, one drop of aldicarb absorbed though the skin can be deadly to a human being. Not a good thing to have on human skin in even trace amounts–and aldicarb is only one of the pesticide offenders used on cotton.
Cottonseed is also rendered into meal for cattle feed with some serious consequences for the dairy supply. also discussion on cotton below for more reasons to avoid consuming cottonseed oil.
Sandblasted jeans
Some manufacturers still use manual sandblasting to soften or shape denim: a process that puts thousands of worker lives at risk of silicosis, a deadly pulmonary disease. Good news: Levi’s, H&M and C&A have abolished this practice.
However, Armani and Roberto Cavalli have refused to even discuss banning this process. The following companies have publicly committed to a ban, but are dawdling in carrying it out: Benetton, Diesel, Dolce & Gabbana,New Yorker, Orsay, Replay and Versace. Don’t buy their jeans unless they get serious about not risking their worker’s health to produce them. Check Clean Clothes for updates on this issue and others effecting the workers that produce our clothes.
Electronics
Electronics pose special problems in their usage, as well as their contribution to the waste stream. Of special concern is Apple’s removal from green certification with its intention to engineer products that cannot be broken down for recycling. Check EPEAT for the green electronics certification.
Cell phones
There is evidence that exposure from cell phone radiation disrupts cell configurations– especially in brain cells, since folks tend to hold phones against their heads. Tips for lessening radiation exposure include speaking on headphones, not sleeping with cell phones under your pillow or near your head, and carrying cell phones with keyboards facing your body so that the “roaming” functions of the phones (its back) is on the side away from your body. If you are not expecting a call, you might even turn your phone off– if someone does call, you can always call back later. Also, different cell phones differ radically in how much radiation they produce. Here is a list of the 20 worst offenders– ones you will not want to get your loved ones for Christmas.
The Environmental Working Group has a working paper on cell phone radiation you can download and an easy to use one page guide on good ways to avoid cell phone radiation. This is especially important for children using cell phones.
Lead Shot and Fishing Tackle
Check out cheap, readily available alternatives to lead shot and fishing tackle. Lead shot the size of a BB can poison an eagle; lead shot in game meat can poison its human consumers.
FURNITURE
Get your furniture tested for 7 dangerous fire retardants for free
Duke University’s superfund research program is offering this service. Here is what to do to take advantage of it:
- Complete an electronic sample request to generate your Sample ID Number
- Prepare your sample
Cut a piece of foam, 1 cubic centimeter in size (a little bigger than the size of a marble)
\Wrap the foam in aluminum foil
Place each foam sample in its own re-sealable sandwich bag; be sure to completely seal the bag
Attach or write the Sample ID Number on the re-sealable sandwich bag
Mail to:
Gretchen Kroeger
Box 90328 – LSRC
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
Foam mattresses expose infants to high levels of VOCs
Infants who spend a good deal of their lives sleeping are especially susceptible to the off-gassing of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from foam mattresses– especially polyurethane foam mattresses. Inquire of your mattress supplier whether the stuffing of the mattress you are considering contains foam. There are latex, wool, and cotton alternatives available.
Other ways to avoid or reduce VOCs in household air: choose paints that have few or no VOC emissions (this info should be on the label in the US!) and avoid or remove problematic household products listed on the Minnesota Department of Health fact sheet on VOCs.
Short term VOC exposure has been linked to eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, nausea and vomiting, dizziness and worsening of asthma symptoms; long term exposure to high levels of VOCs (indoor air generally has 2 to 5 times the concentrations of outdoor air) can increase risk of cancer, as well as liver, kidney, and nervous system damage.
Fire Retardants
Once thought to enhance consumer safety, chlorinated TRIS fire retardants are now known to be persistent toxins that accumulate in the human body and the environment. Consumers can anticipate the EPA’s action plan to remove these chemicals from clothing (especially children’s pajamas), furniture, and bedding by avoiding products, including electronics, with Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).
Some children’s car seats, blankets and other products contain the same toxic flame retardant prohibited for use on adult mattresses. For more details see here. Until the law is changed to prohibit these flame retardants in all products, avoid any product that is labeled: “treated with TB117”. Meanwhile, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to rid your child’s room of dust with this toxin in it.
More on children’s mattresses:
In December 2012, a study of children’s mattresses found that three manufacturers: Angeles, Babies R Us, and Foundations, continued to be saturated with banned fire retardants. Representatives of Babies R US stated that they believe mattress covers can keep the chemicals (in the chlorinated TRIS family) from contact with children’s bodies and will continue to use this retardant in their mattresses, even though less toxic fire retardants are available. All three of the above brands are made in China. US made mattresses had none or only trace amounts of the toxic fire retardants: those tested and found to be clean include Colgate Classica, Baby Cache Sweet Dreams, Serta Mater Sleeper, Sealy Signature, Simmons Kids Slumber Naturally, Little Dreamer by Moonlight, Cub Club Crib Mattress, Dream on Me, L.A. Baby Compact Crib Mattress, Naturepedic Organic Cotton, Kokcraft Good Night Crib and Toddler Mattress.
This is an especially important issue, since some babies may spend 12 hours a day in contact with toxic mattresses in a crib.
More on dangerous Chemicals in Children’s Furniture
Because of well-meaning but misguided regulations required fire retardant chemicals (now banned) in children’s furniture, children’s polyurethane foam-filled furniture, sold in California, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Washington and Vermont, contains chemicals (including fire retardants slated to be outlawed) that disperse into the air to be inhaled by children even if the furniture is covered. These chemicals have been linked to endocrine disruption, obesity, and genetic damage.
The state of California changed its fire retardant law (11.21.2013) so that problematic fire retardant chemicals need no longer be used in bedding and furniture, including children’s furniture. Check with the manufacturers of your purchases to make sure they are not using toxic chemicals (including fire retardants) in their products.
The Center for Environmental Health in Oakland suggests another option: to steer clear of products made with polyurethane foam altogether and look for furniture made of wood, cotton, polyester fiberfill or canvas. This organization also has a campaign for toxics-free children’s furniture.
PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS
Here is also a brief analysis of personal care products from a health standpoint with references and links.
Lipstick
Many lipsticks and other colorants in personal care products currently contain substantial amounts of lead. Just this year (2011) the personal care industry spent $170,000 lobbying Congress to defeat a Senate Bill that would hold these products to the same standards that prohibit lead in paint and gasoline.
As of now, the lead in lipstick (and children’s Halloween make up, it seems) does not even have to be labeled. See Skin Deep for an assessment of the ingredients in particular personal care products. The website of the Environmental Working Group’s has an outline for safety in personal care products (published February 2013).
In General:
Adults
- Avoid soaps, surfactants, and lubricants listed at the beginning of the product label that start with “PEG” or have an “-eth” in the middle (e.g., sodium laureth sulfate).
- Avoid ingredients in the middle of the label like “FRAGRANCE (artificial) ,” “FD&C,” or “D&C” colorings.
- Avoid these preservatives listed at the end of the label:
- Chemicals ending in “paraben”
- DMDM hydantoin
- Imidazolidinyl urea
- Methylchloroisothiazolinone
- Methylisothiazolinone
- Triclosan ( common in foaming and disinfect soaps, has been additionally linked to weakening of human muscle cells by researchers at the University of California, Davis)
- Triclocarban
- Triethanolamine (or “TEA”)
Children
Here are the EWG’s six top chemicals to avoid in children’s products:
- 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3 Diol
- BHA
- Boric acid and sodium borate
- DMDM Hydantoin
- Oxybenzone
- Triclosan
Unfortunately, tests by the Silent Spring Institute found a number of toxics in products touted as “green”. But there is good news: Here are the Silent Spring study tested products that do NOT contain toxic chemicals of concern:
- Healthy Pet Foods Here’s the Scoop! Natural Unscented Clay Clumping Litter
- Seventh Generation Chlorine-Free Diapers
- Bon Ami Polishing Cleanser, No Chlorine, Perfume or Dye
- Seventh Generation Free and Clear Dishwashing Detergent
- Seventh Generation Free and Clear Natural Dish Liquid
- Tom’s of Maine Natural Long-Lasting Deodorant Stick, Aluminum-Free, Unscented
- Bean Products Pure Cotton Shower Curtain
- Excell Home Fashions Ultimate Nylon Shower Curtain or Liner
- Carapelli Extra Light Olive Oil
- Magick Botanicals Fragrance Free Hairspray
- Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps Unscented Baby-Mild Pure Castille Soap
Since many chemicals of concern are not labeled, Dr. Dodson suggests the avoidance of products that contain fragrances and antibacterials or anti-microbials, which must be labeled by law. Other tips for avoiding toxic chemicals in household products from the Silent Spring Institute:
CHOOSE:
Fewer products.
Plant-based ingredients.
Plain water, baking soda, and vinegar for cleaning.
Shade, hats, and tightly woven fabric cover-ups for sun protection.
AVOID:
Fragrances in cleaning and personal care products.
Vinyl products, especially pillow and mattress protectors.
Antimicrobials in soap, toothpaste and other products (watch out for “antibacterial,” “antimicrobial,” “triclosan” and “triclocarban” on the label).
Stain resistant furniture sprays or clothing.
Parabens in lotions, deodorants, shampoos and other cosmetics (look for “paraben-free”; watch out for “methylparaben,” “ethylparaben” and “butylparaben on the label).
Cyclosiloxanes in sunscreen and hair products (watch out for “cyclomethicone” on the label).
The Silent Spring Institute has a downloadable wallet card with this information on it.
The Institute also suggests avoiding products with lavender and tea tree oil, though I haven’t been able to verify why. I know that these are herbal anti-microbials that perhaps become chemicals of concern in concentrated or distilled formulations. For instance, thyme is a cooking herb, whose oil is used in herbal cough syrup, but such cough syrup must be kept out of children’s reach, since drinking several teaspoons of thyme oil can cause brain damage.
Revlon cited for cancer causing chemicals in its cosmetics
According to a survey by The Breast Cancer Fund and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says Revlon cosmetics contain the following cancer-causing and hormone-disrupting chemicals.
- Butylated compounds (BHA, BHT): Found in hair dyes and lip glosses—linked to cancer
- Quaternium-15 and other formaldehyde-releasing chemicals: Found in mascaras, pressed powders and eyeliners—linked to cancer
- Parabens: Found in eyeliners and hair dyes—an endocrine disruptor linked to cancer
- Octinoxate: Found in foundation makeup—an endocrine disruptor linked to thyroid disorders
- Resorcinol:Found in hair dyes—an endocrine disruptor and allergen
- p-Phenylenediamine: Found in hair dyes—a respiratory toxicant
- Carbon black: Found in eyeliners—linked to cancer
There are no current protections against toxics in cosmetics. they are regulated by a 75 year old law, which leaves ingredient decisions up to the cosmetics industry. Under current law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot require cosmetics companies to conduct safety assessments or pre-market testing, and cannot require product recalls.
The Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act of 2013 introduced in the House, would fix this. Until this is passed, safety is up to consumer advocacy groups. Thus UltraViolet is hosting a petition to present to Revlon, while the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is hosting a letter-writing campaign.
Avoid Glade air freshener
Health advocates Women’s Voices for the Earth tested Glade and found potential allergens and hormone disruptors in its fragrances. However, these are not listed on Johnson and Johnson’s label for this product.
J and J claims consumers can choose whether to buy their product, so the toxic chemicals in Glade are a moot point. But consumers cannot choose if they don’t know what they are choosing.Tell J and J to come clean.
Sunscreen
All brands, including alternative ones, tested in the Silent Spring study, had concerning levels of estrogenic chemicals. Some have nanoparticles in them engineered to carry UV filers deeper into skin layers. Neither of these are characteristically labeled and thus Dr. Robin Dodson, lead researcher of the Silent Spring study, advices that sunscreen be used judiciously–and replaced by use of shade, hats, and covering clothing where possible. She notes that it is a contemporary engineering opportunity to design a sunscreen that prevents skin cancer without toxic chemicals.
Ahava beauty products: These are not made in Israel as touted, but in a settlement the UN has declared illegal in Palestinian territory, and they exploit Palestinian resources from the Dead Sea in their manufacture. There will be no peace in the Middle East or security for either Israel or Palestine until Israel follows UN guidelines in this respect– a point made by the international boycott on this brand.
Women’s Voices for the Earth has issued a report indicating that hygiene sprays, soaps, deodorants, douches, tampons and pads often have dangerous unlabeled chemicals, some of which are assimilated though the vagina at many times the rate they might be if swallowed.
This report lists brand names and toxic chemicals, as well as the research upon which it is based. It also contains a petition you can sign to Procter and Gamble– the maker of Tampax– demanding they take toxic chemicals out of their products.
The list of chemicals is extensive, but here are general actions the report lists as ways to protect yourself:
- Reduce or eliminate your use of feminine “hygiene” products unnecessary to a healthy vagina. The vagina is self-cleaning and most hygiene products do more harm than good (the report contains details).
- Choose unscented products where available (particularly tampons and pads)
- Choose chlorine-free bleached or unbleached cotton tampons and pads (chlorine produces dioxin, which you definitely do not want anywhere in your body, much less in any permeable area)
- Try reusable, washable menstrual pads (be sure to wash thoroughly in hot water to prevent infection or irritation from re-use)
- Try switching brands of products you believe may giving you allergic symptoms (and call the company’s 1-800 customer service to tell them why you are switching!)
- Read the labels of products (where available) to avoid problematic chemicals discussed in this report and while you are at it, patronize brands that disclose all ingredients, including fragrances
- Talk with your health care provider about how the use of feminine care products may be affecting your health.
- Tell the FDA if you have any concerns about or to a feminine care product – Call 1-800-332- 1088 or fill out a consumer reporting form available at: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.htm
Antibacterial Soap
Most of us know to wash our hands thoroughly to prevent the transfer of flu and colds now that the season is upon us. But anti-bacterial soaps are not the way to go.
Most such soaps contain triclosan, which recent research at the UC Davis shows effects the human heart muscle and also the thyroid function in rats. The UC Davis researchers conclude that “opting out of antibacterial soaps with triclosan may be a good idea”, especially since it is unnecessary. Washing your hands properly will do the trick without them.
Moreover, anti-bacterial soaps are implicated as culprits in antibiotic resistance.
JEWELRY
The Need for Ethically Sourced Jewelry
Most diamond mining leads to serious environmental and human rights harms– including displacement of a number of indigenous African peoples from their traditional lands. The link above offers ethically sourced diamonds instead.
Gold mining has serious environmental harms and been responsible for the dislocation of number native peoples, as well as the mental illness and death of gold miners from mercury poisoning. Reservoirs downstream from gold mining operations still have problems with mercury and cyanide pollution today. The ravaging of Native American lands through gold mining continues, as well as health issues associated with gold mining.
Check out the site of “ethical metalsmiths” jewelry consortium offering “fairly mined gold” from Peru and Australia to avoid contributing to harms caused by tin as well as gold.
Diamonds and gold are luxury items in any event,–and there is no reason to purchase them without ethical considerations.
Children’s Cheap Metal Toys and Jewelry
According to an assay published in Montreal, the metal in such toys and jewelry sold in North America is too often toxic, containing metals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic– especially problematic for younger children who put these in their mouths.
PESTICIDES
There are a number of pesticides the EPA has listed as known, probable or possible cancer causes that it continue to license for household and agricultural use–or allows shelf stocks of these to be sold even after they have been banned. Last year’s report of the President’s Cancer Panel found several hundred chemicals approved for current pesticide use that research has linked to breast, colon, lung, testicular, and other cancers.
Pesticides have other liabilities as well:
According to Pediatrics (May 2010), children’s pesticide exposure (at the level of simply eating commercial produce– or playing on treated school lawns) is clearly linked to ADHD. This no surprise, since many pesticides and organophosphates in particular are designed to have toxic effects on biological nervous systems. These have also been linked to Parkinson’s disease (see below) and other neurological disorders.
Here is a partial list of brand names of organophosphates or combined chemical products that include these (which may be even more dangerous because of synergistic effects):
Cythion, Malathion, Grain Protectant, Fyfanon, Backrubber, Orthene, Acecap, Sniper, Guthion, Captan, Diazinon, DCT, DCT Dual, Caption CT, Chlorpyrifos, 3M Livestock Premise Spray, Dursban, Disvap Mec, Lorsban, Pyrifos, Pyrate, Pyrinex, Basudin, DZN, Diazol, Protector, Proturf, Y-TEX Optimizer, Potato Seed Piece treatment, Agrox B-2, Agrox CD, Eliminator, Dichlorvos, DDVP Plant Fume, Disvap, DDVP, Vapona, Vaportape II, Disvap III, Barn and Livestock Spray,Emul Plus No3, Kelthane, Dicofol, Cygon, Dimethoate, Lagon, Di-Thioate, Endosulfan, Thiodan, Thionex, Vendex, Aliette, Fosetyl-aluminum, Mancozeb, Ridomil Gold MZ, Gavel, Monitor 480L, Methamidophos, Naled, Dibron, Phoslane, Zolone. Phosmet, Imidan, Louse Kill, Clean Crop Mushroom Fly Dust, Counter, Terbufos, Ectogard ear tag, Dylox, Neguvon.
(Compiled from the source list of the BC Ministry of Agriculture).
If you have any of these pesticides in your household and want to dispose of them, take them to your local landfill for special hazardous waste disposal. Never simply put them in the trash.
Pesticides to avoid for documented harms to bees:
Neo-nictionoids: below are the brand names of pesticides implicated in colony collapse disorder devastating bees throughout the world.
These products have been banned in four European countries: They include
–Clothianidin: Poncho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena.
–Imidacloprid: Admire, Advantage, Confidor, Gaucho, Marathon, Merit, Premeir, Provado, Bayer Advanced, Rose Defense, Kohinor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.
–Thiamethoxam: Actara, Crusier, Platinum, Helix, Centric
–Acetamiprid: Assail, Intruder, Adjust
–Thiacloprid: Calypso
These bee-killing pesticides are found in plants of “big box” store.
“Neonics” have been found in over half the supposedly “bee-friendly” plants sold in such stores. “Neonics” are insecticides that have been banned in the EU due to their bee-toxic properties. However, they are being sold in plants offered by Bi-Mart (Lowe’s has agreed to phase these out in response to consumer pressure—thank you, Lowe’s!). Moreover, these plants are often treated with forms of the pesticide that disperses throughout the plant and persists. In buying these plants, you are buying bee poisons.
Until plant sellers take the same pledge as retailers in the UK not to sell neonics or plants treated with them, consumers can only avoid poisoning bees with such plants by buying organic plant starts.
Consumers should also know that the manufacturers of these pesticides threatened US beekeepers with legal action if they continued to publicize their dangers.
Other pesticides are likely implicated in the collapse of over one third of honeybee colonies in the US in less than a decade. One recent report shows that honeybee cells of collapsed colonies contain sealed pollen cells– evidently in an attempt to protect the colony from toxins, since the sealed cells were especially high in pesticides compared to other colony cells. Unfortunately, this did not work for the bees, since these were the cells of dead colonies.
Other pesticides with documented dangers:
Atrazine
The most widely used herbicide in the US has now been pulled from the market by the European Union. Scientists have recently found that it works by disrupting sunlight related energy-production in plants. Humans have a similar chemical process that enables communication between the pituitary gland and other organs, which may explain atrazine use is statistically related to higher rates of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in farmers, pesticide applicators, golf course workers, and dogs in homes using atrazine as a lawn chemical. Moreover, the spread of atrazine, which is extremely water soluble, cannot be contained or controlled– since it travels through ecological systems following the same routes as do water cycles.
Pesticides implicated in causing Parkinson’s disease in consistent research results over the last 30 years:
Though some of these have been banned, manufacturers are allowed to sell remaining stocks from their shelves: Rotenone (Dursban); Paraquat, Dieldrin, Maneb and Benomyl. See organophosphate list above for additional neurotoxins that are also implicated in neural disorders ranging from ADHD in children to Alzheimer’s in the elderly, both of which are on the rise in numbers indicating environmental causes. Autism is another neurological condition whose numbers are increasing exponentially–and has been linked to pesticide exposure.
A recent study has also linked RoundUp with Parkinson’s.
Carbaryl/Sevin is a neurotoxin that can no longer be legally used– or so I thought until I saw an ad for it in a recent home store flyer!
Check your dog’s flea collars to make sure this is not an ingredient.
One test showed that Sevin powder applied to rosebushes resulted in changes in brainwave patterns of children (10 year olds) in neighboring yards for up to a year.
The data is so solid against Sevin that the inventor of Carbaryl/Sevin has asked that it be taken off the market.
—————
Weed and Feed (with its 2 4-D) and related herbicides have recently been banned in Quebec after an evaluation of health effects by a national doctors’ panel.
Many herbicides such as these work by using a plant hormone that stimulates over-growth and subsequent death of broad leaf plants. Unfortunately, that hormone is chemically similar to female mammal hormones which human bodies may mistakenly respond to with cellular overgrowth in reproductive organs (creating miscarriages in pregnant women and reproductive problems and cancer in a number of species, including humans). These chemicals have also been implicated in decreasing male hormones in numerous species– including humans.
Round up (glyphosate: including Monsanto Round Up Ready seeds):
Dr. Don Huber, coordinator of the Emergent Diseases and Pathogens committee of the American Phytopathological Society, recently warned the USDA of a new, self-replicating, micro-fungal organism found in high concentrations in Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, distillers meal, fermentation feed products, pig stomach contents, and pig and cattle placentas– and implicated in spontaneous abortion and “sudden death” in livestock. This follows a report of Argentine scientists that Round Up causes birth defects in frogs and chickens. Round Up has been implicated in fetal abortion and premature birth, as well as birth defects in humans as well, according to the assessment of the scientists on Earth Open Source, reporting on research in several countries. This follows on the heels of a suit a few years back pressed by New York State against Monsanto, manufacturer of Round Up and “Round Up Ready soy”‘ charging that Monsanto’s advertisements calling d Round Up’s safe consisted of fraud. Earth Source cited data that showed Round Up in moderate amounts (less than that used on lawns) not only caused birth defects in animals, but in larger amounts caused the outright death of human placental cells. The use of Round Up ready soy (a gmo product) and Round Up together was implicated in the rise of dozens of new plant diseases in Argentine fields.
A just published peer-reviewed study outlines the physiological pathway between glyphospate and cellular inflammation implicated in a number of human diseases, including cancer and Parkinson’s. The results of this study come in concert with investigation that implicates glyphosate and 2-4 D, both in their chemical constituents and their heavy metal contamination, with kidney failure that has caused the death of 16,000 agricultural workers in both Asia and Central America.
2-4 D
Not only is 2-4 D implicated along with Round Up in the kidney failures above, dogs in homes whose yards are treated with Weed and Feed (2-4 D formula) are ten times as likely to develop particular cancers according to the City of Eugene Stormwater’s newsletter (spring 2013).
The cancer rate of dogs exposed to Weed and Feed on their owner’s lawns have ten times the rates of particular cancers as those animals in homes that do not use this product.
The World Health Organization has verified fatal poisonings of 20,000 persons annually from these pesticides; since these cases are difficult to verify, the actual statistics may be ten times that much. See The Death of Ramón Gonzáles for a detailed analysis of the social and environmental effects of these pesticides on global agricultural systems.
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Pesticides linked with disease clusters
There are distinctive geographical “disease clusters” linking higher levels of specific diseases to residence near facilities with particular chemical or radioactive outputs. Unfortunately, some of the chemicals responsible for these disease outbreaks include more than one source or a combination of chemicals, making them both more insidious and harder to trace.
These clusters indicate both the necessity of re-assessing an economic system which rewards such toxic releases–and the inequities in toxic chemical release, since many of the toxic hotspots are in low income areas.
Indoor insecticides and children’s IQs
In parts as low as 4 parts per trillion, exposure in pregnant women to the supposedly safer Pyrethroid formulations lowered the developing mental capacity of their babies for up to 36 months after birth (the length of this study reported in Pediatrics). Organophosphates that these formulations replaced are nerve toxins to which pregnant women should not be exposed. Household sprays Black Flag and Raid contains OPs.
If you must: tips for safer pesticide usage:
It is better to avoid this minefield altogether and use natural (and cheaper) alternatives in the NCAP and PAN libraries (see our links page). But if you must use them, follow the rules below:
- Use bait rather than spray to control drift.
- Chose non-systematic and non-persistent chemicals
- Follow label directions carefully and notify your neighbors when you apply chemicals. (You may be liable for chemical “trespass” that harms the health or gardens or bees of your neighbors; Oregon’s department of agriculture will pull licenses of pesticide applicators who violate labels so as to endanger the gardens of neighbors. You may file a complaint directly with them if you see an application in label violation– sprayed when there is a wind that carries the chemicals onto other properties, for instance).
- Keep your children and pets away from treated areas–and do not walk in treated areas and wear your clothes and shoes in the house. Such contamination can cause pesticide exposure to be greater indoors than out.
- Check the chemicals and labels of pesticides applied by yard services.
- To keep honeybees and other pollinators of over one third of our crops safe, never spray or treat plants in bloom– especially blackberries, thistle and dandelion. The latter two are not only a favorite of bees but of goldfinches, who numbers are collapsing.
SAFE GIVING VERSUS QUESTIONABLE CHARITIES
It is heart warming to know that many of us share with those in need. Indeed, the poorest among us give away the largest percentage of their income. But phone solicitors for hard to resist causes (like helping injured veterans or terminally ill children) may be lining their own pockets and those of charity administrators rather than the cause they solicit for.
Such charities are often deceptively named to mimic legitimate ones (The Wishing Well Foundation as opposed to the legitimate Make a Wish Foundation). And the Veterans Fund and Veterans Assistance Foundation are on the “50 worst charities” list, along with a number of other “donor advisories” of veterans’ charities on Charity Navigator.
Indeed, phone solicitation costs money and unless done by a volunteer– preferably someone you know personally, you may just paying the telemarketers’ salary.
The recent investigative report in the heading link lists America’s worst charities in this regard, as well as resources that help you to put your money where your heart is.
A SPECIAL NOTE ON CORPORATIONS
Corporations would not survive without our support. Together we can effect dramatic change by choosing where to spend out dollars: Take the case of Wal–Mart:
There have been over 200 suits against Wal-Mart in the US courts charging illegal labor practices, including charges that Wal-Mart has pressured employees to work overtime for free or be fired.
Such practices forcing down employee salaries put Wal-Mart at the top of both the 2008 and 2009 Oregon Department of Human Services list of employers whose workers received food stamps and/or state subsidized medical coverage for the poor.
Wal-Mart is also a known polluter: in Eugene, it has received several notices for violating allowable discharges.
It is no better on the international arena: Wal-Mart subverted local planning codes through bribes in order to build a store near a sacred pyramid site in Mexico. When questioned as to why they chose this location, a Wal-Mart spokesmen stated it was a conscious strategy to show the Mexican public Wal-Mart could build anywhere in Mexico they wanted to.
Wal-Mart is also one of the main buyers supporting the company in Bangladesh where a fire burned at least 112 employees to death behind locked doors in November 2012. Though Wal-Mart subsequently announced it would strengthen safety regulations among its suppliers, a corporation document indicated Wal-Mart actively worked to undermine institution of such safety.
Is this the kind of business we want to reward with our business?
Monsanto is another corporation that is mentioned above in terms of its questionable ethical practices.
Check out the information on Sum of Us.org, which works to assess corporate ethics—and call out those who violate human rights and ethical environmental choices.
By contrast, those at the CSRwire.com are businesses we should go out of our way to support.
CONSUMER INFO AND LABELING
“Humanewashing”
80 per cent of US consumers want the meat, eggs, and dairy they consume to come from humanely treated animals and are willing to pay more to make this happen. Unfortunately, the US Department of Agriculture “humane” label may allow for higher consumer prices– but not ensure actual humane treatment of an animal. According to a report of the Animal Welfare Institute, the USDA accepts as “humane” the raising of 30,000 chickens in a single facility without any natural light or fresh air– or even facility cleaning during the chicken’s lifetime, so that ammonia levels are so high as to cause significant risk of skin, eye, and respiratory disease.
If you are looking for humanely raised chicken, look for the Animal Welfare Association label instead of the USDA one.
Assessing labels
Labels can be very helpful in making healthy and responsible choices. However, you will also want to avoid “greenwashing”– labels that mean absolutely nothing, such as “natural”, “cage free” or “antibiotic free”. For an outline of what labels really mean, check out this explanation in the March 2011 Audubon.
In the early 1990s produce growers agreed to add an “8” before a four digit produce code to indicate that produce had been genetically engineered. However, industry did not follow through on this promise and today the only way to guarantee (for the most part) that you are not consuming genetically engineered food is to buy organic.
Organic foods have a five digit number beginning with “9”; commercial produce has a four digit number beginning with “4”.
Here are additional certification labels the consumer can trust:
Ecologo ecologo.org: Third party certification of environmentally-preferred products)
Energy Star energystar.gov: US EPA certification with emphasis on efficient energy use and sustainable production
Forest Stewardship Countil us.fsc.org: certification of environmentally, economically and socially appropriate logging practices.
Green Good Housekeeping Seal greengoodhousekeepingseal.com Assessment of “green claims” for the benefit of the consumer
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design usgbc.org/leed international green building program
The “food identity theft” website features information on such deceptive food labeling, including a “read your label” campaign with information to help foster both consumer responsibility and health.
More about labels on this Environmental Working Group page.
Our Earth/Ourselves 
This list is so helpful because it doesn’t just list the things not to use, but it explains why these products are so harmful to your health and the environment. Definitely something I will start using on a regular basis!
Great, Kristi! Thanks for the feedback.
Thank you Dr. Holden for this list. I appreciate the time you have spend to combine so many elements into a simple, easy format. There are so many daily articles posted that say “this is good for you” and “this is bad for you”, etc. that I always feel overwhelmed and ultimately uninformed about the best choices to make. This makes me always feel guilty that I am making the wrong ones, but with this list I will know where I stand. Thanks again.
You are certainly welcome, Trent.
I appreciate reading this. I follow everything on this list to the best of my ability. I eat organic, all my cleaning products and body products are organic and my yard is organic as well. Ninety percent of my clothing are from consignment shops and if something breaks I usually try to have it fixed before buying new.
Debora Williams
ps: BVO was interesting and new to me. however, if I have an itch for a soda it’s organic too 🙂
Hi Debora, thanks for the feedback. It sounds like you have some great personal choices!
This is a nice resource to have available, I am excited to be able to send my friends to this site. Our family has always avoided soda because of the damaging effects to bones and high sugar content, I had never heard about the BVO, one more reason.
I agree with Trent’s comments about feeling overwhelmed the more informed I become. This list will help because it gives the specific things to avoid and also some products that are safe.
Thank you
Thank you for being an alert consumer, Kendra. With thousands of chemicals being put into the environment annually, it is hard to keep track of all these things. I would only add that I am glad what is on this list is useful, but it is only what I am aware of– there is much more information out there in the links on this page.
I hope to see the day that consumers become so savvy in their choices that truly healthier and consciously produced products become the norm.
I can not believe the USDA only tests one per cent of the foreign imports. This is freighting! I did not know the USDA Organic labeled products that came from China are toxic. Over half of my diet consists of using Organic foods.What about the International Organic label on China’s Organic food, do they have some of the same standards as the USDA Organic labeled?
Hi there, thanks for allowing me to clarify this to the best of my ability. There are a number of different organic certification agencies. Domestic or foreign products labeled USDA Organic are supposed (or often, assumed) to follow certain standards, but are tested rarely. Thus the scary problem of finding so many products labeled USDA organic from China that in fact do not meet commercial standards for sale in the US. I do want to say this is not true of all Chinese products, but knowing which are problematic for the consumer who does not have a personal relationship (or whose store does not) with the producer.
The USDA organic seal also allows a certain percentage of the product to be non-organic; special problem with processes food, in which a certain percentage of processing chemicals are allowed. To the best of my knowledge, some of the other certifying agencies (see labels references at the end) like Tilth or Fair Trade have consistent ongoing relationships with producers.
Especially liable to be polluted are rices from China (mercury from coal-burning) and herbs (heavy metals). Once again, I must stress that some Chinese growers are responsible, but knowing which takes some doing.
I might also state that some formerly small organic farmers in the US have been taken over by large corporations and have some questionable practices as well. And others have had problems from the beginning, Horizon has had its certification pulled by the USDA for mistreatment of its cattle herds.
If you don’t know your growers locally, pressure your local natural food stores to research what they sell — and check out indicaters like the list here of those producers who supported as opposed to those who contributed to the fight against the consumer right to know act in California. That should tell us something right there.
Good luck! Other consumer info links on our links page may help you as well.
Stay well. When you choose healthy foods for the earth, you choose health for the land we share as well.
I am still learning about choosing the right products to eat and where it comes from. It was surprised that California labeling of GMOs did not pass and some of the big lobbies that apposed of this labeling was Horizon, Santa Cruz Organic just to name a few, but I did find out they are owned by the giant corporations. Thank you for the informative information and I will be spending more time at your site, since my next project to learn where most of our clothing is coming from and the conditions of the workers.
Great! You might also look at the “clean clothes campaign” in our links.
This really is a fantastic list and tool to have! My only wish is that there was one made up for the Australian consumers.
Thank you, Kim.
Sorry that I don’t have links to give you for Australia. Perhaps it is time to start your own? You can begin with some cross-overs between this list and what you can buy there.
Thank you for this wonderful list of products not to purchase, I’ve been utilizing this list.
Great! I am glad it is useful for you.
This is a giant list that is so important to have and to spread around but also such a sad reminder of all that needs to be repaired on this planet.
Thank you, Renee. My hope is that it will prove useful–and yes, it is sad that it is so long and seems to keep growing!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Everything… on one list. Perfection!! Words cannot express the VALUE of this. ❤
You are quite welcome, Yolanda.
Hello, Ms. Holden… Thank you as well for this wonderful compilation of critical information- no doubt resulting from many… hours of difficult work. Your efforts likely scratch the sophistication and yes… the ‘brilliance’ of those dedicated to their nefarious agendas.
For one completely devoted to an inner-spiritual evolution- which i suspect your heart and its source of inspiration likely resonate, your work offers me further insight (and affirmation) into the realms of darkness which seemingly have dotted every ‘i’ and crossed very ‘t’ in their endeavors to poison and enslave humanity. And i don’t offer this esoteric observation to promote helplessness but simply to point out to other readers (fellow-humanity) that something beyond ‘normal’ greed and corruption is at hand.
This ultra-sophisticated world-wide poisoning which permeates our freshwater, air, oceans, lands, etc, and which even ‘targets’ our children -all under the auspices of governmental safety- must at the very least be contemplated in collective seriousness. We ‘progressive’-educated types seeking organic solutions are likely quick to label and dismiss ‘conspiracies’ when the ultimate conspiracy may be at hand. This is the essence of true spiritual awakening: that we wake-up collectively to acknowledge this darkness silently tightening the noose, so as to unite in thwarting its (thus far) ‘denied’ presence/agenda.
Let us take advantage of your heart-extending efforts/info into our supermarkets, but let us as well open our mental doors to this greater nefarious likelihood entrenched in our systems of corporate government.
Thank you for your fine work. Many Blessings.
p.s. i’m currently in deep-down Mexico. Might you know if rGBH is still used in their milk-dairy products?
You are welcome, Francois. Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific info on the growth hormone usage in Mexico.
Amy’s Kitchen says right on the ingredients that the TSP is HEXANE FREE.
Three cheers for Amy’s for modifying their particular tsp after the reports linked in this List came out. This company (which often has health and environmentally conscious products) deserves recognition for this and I modified the list accordingly.
A caution: there are many forms of TSP. Just because Amy’s labels theirs as hexane free, that does not imply all non-organic TSP is hexane free.
And one other issue: non-organic soy that is not labeled “GMO free” is liable to have large amounts of pesticide residues in it, since the largest percentage of gmo soy is “Roundup Ready”– meaning it is engineered to be grown in concert with substantial amounts of this pesticide.
And thank YOU for being a careful reader and taking the time to help keep this list accurate.
This was very helpful
Great– thanks for your feedback.
you folks are wonderful, and so priceless that you can’t be bought!
Thank you for such a kind reply!
http://www.foodinsight.org/blogs/why-you-should-care-about-carrageenan
Dr Joanne Tobacman, associate professor at the Illinois College of Medicine, has published 18 peer-reviewed studies linking carrageenan to human bowel inflammation, which in turn has been linked to ulcers and cancer (see an example in a public talk at http://www.cornucopia.org/2012/06/eminent-scientist-addresses-impact-of-carrageenan-in-food/).
The industry site linked above states there are no scientific studies indicating problems with carrageenan. Our readers can judge for themselves. I might add that there are delicious organic local ice creams made locally in Oregon without the carrageenan the industry site asserts necessary for a smooth texture.
In fact, this inflammatory response is not surprise. The same process that makes ice cream and chocolate smoother with this additive also changes the texture of colon cells. This biology is so well known that it has been used in hundreds of experiments testing the effects of anti-inflammatory drugs on cells inflamed by carrageenan.
I would love to see a list of tea companies who use formaldehyde in their decaffeinating process.
Thanks for your comment. If I can find info on this, I will post it.
Does anyone know of a brand of luggage that is non-toxic and is not made of cancer causing chemicals?
Hi Elaine,
I don’t know of any myself off hand– but perhaps a reader might.
Patagonia is leading the way with a model to promote sustainable consumer practices. By educating their customers, this company aims to ensure a long life for outdoor adventure gear. It is interesting to see a company so committed to holistic environmental values which support the greater good: buy less, repair more.
http://www.patagoniaworks.com/press/2015/3/31/patagonia-mobile-worn-wear-tour-if-its-broke-fix-it
Good to hear from you, John! I hope you are doing well. I absolutely agree with you about Patagonia!
tried to forward this excellent report, but not sure it worked; i could only see three numbers, no words, then, it just read “closed”
Hi Emily. I don’t see a report here. What is this about? If you like, you can email me a link to put up.
holdenma@comcast.net
This site may not let you put up an attachment, but it should let you put up a link to a report.
My concern is the use of formalin used on fish – it makes the seafood white and appealing and limits bacterial growth. I opened a packet of calamari which was packaged to look local but was from China – it reeked of formalin. I think all fisheries use it to some extent. Fish doesn’t taste nice anymore.
Hi Sheila,
Thanks for passing this on. Really a shame that we cannot trust something as wonderful as fresh fish. As your comment points out, it is also important to check out where fish is processed when you buy it.
Formalin is actually a form of formaldehyde, as you may know. It was used on kelp at one point–and other seafood to keep older seafood from getting that “fishy” smell. You (and all of us) would obviously rather have fresh fish.
I put a note on this issue o the “list”.
I suggest that products that are not organically produced should be called “non-organic”, not “inorganic”. It really does make a difference–especially when so much that you write involves chemistry. Also, could you please list the source for your information whenever you give a recommendation? I would like to check the sources. Thank you.
Good suggestion about non-organic. Will make that change when I get a chance in the next day or two. Thanks for being a careful reader and checking sources. I have provided links to check in the past, but will try to add more in the future.
Wonderful collection of what not to eat so just would be great if we had a list of what we can eat! I’m sadly letting go of organic grape juice…..I buy sprouted, organic beans, oatmeal and rice in bulk but now wondering if I’m contaminating myself?
This is without a doubt one of the very best sites. It would be a tremendous public service if you could do an updated version. Thank you for your efforts to alert people to the toxins to which they are being exposed.
Thank you for your kind response. I appreciate your desire for an update and unfortunately, I am retired, so (as you likely noticed) I only occasionally add an update. I do recommend the Environmental Working Group for more information on environmental toxins. Thanks once again.
Commending the tenacity you put into your blog and extensive information you provide.