Healthy Children Project Monthly e-News

Feel free to let your friends, family and colleagues know about this valuable new resource. Instructions to subscribe or unsubscribe are at the end of this e-newsletter. MI Healthy Children's e-newsletter is part of a collaborative effort with the Learning Disabilities Association of America's Healthy Children Project, the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health website, and the Institute for Children's Environmental Health with support from the Beldon Fund. 

Children's Head Lice: What Are Your Treatment Options?

http://www.ldaofmichigan.org/LiceFactSheet.pdf

Download the latest fact sheet available from the LDA of Michigan's Healthy Children Project. You can also call the LDA of Michigan's Lansing office at 517-485-8160 to request hard copies of this document.

Older Autos Source of Flame Retardants
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/older-autos-flame-retardants/
Dust in used cars contains high levels of potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals, known as PBDEs, reports a study that measured them in older autos found at US dealerships. The findings show that car interiors represent another source of exposure to the compounds. Levels of one type of PBDE -- called BDE-209 -- were particularly high. Its levels varied by the vehicle's year, manufacturer and country where it was made. While there is increasing concern about PBDE exposure in the home, the levels in the cars tested were 10 times higher than in house dust.

DECA (Flame Retardant) Fact Sheet from the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health (MNCEH)

http://mnceh.org/documents/DECAfactsheet-12-12.pdf

The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/132/the-real-story-on-bpa.html
Surely you've heard about BPA by now. It's everywhere. Some 7 billion pounds of it were produced in 2007. It's in adhesives, dental fillings, and the linings of food and drink cans. It's a building block for polycarbonate, a near-shatterproof plastic used in cell phones, computers, eyeglasses, drinking bottles, medical devices, and CDs and DVDs. It's also in infant-formula cans and many clear plastic baby bottles. Studies have shown that it can leach into food and drink, especially when containers are heated or damaged. More than 90% of Americans have some in their bodies. BPA is dangerous to human health. Or it is not. That's according to two government reports in recent months that came to opposite conclusions.

Child Care Goes Green
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090205/NEWS/902050347/1001
The Oregon Environmental Council endorses day-care providers who strive to reduce a wide range of environmental toxins — such as pesticides and lead. Now the Oregon program, the first of its kind in the nation, is launching pilots in seven states.

Chemical Levels Decline Among Those Who Eat Great Lakes Fish
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/toxic-levels-decline-great-lakes-fish-eaters
People in the Great Lakes region -- long known for its high levels of contamination -- are carrying around less of some of the most dangerous and harmful chemicals found there. Thirty years after the national bans on PCBs and DDT, researchers find lower chemical body burdens, even in those who catch and eat sport fish.

New Study: Autism Linked to Environment
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=autism-rise-driven-by-environment&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend
Research links soaring incidence of the mysterious neurological disorder to fetal and infant exposure to pesticides, viruses, household chemicals.

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Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated with Mercury, Study Finds
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/press.cfm?refID=105025
Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published recently in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brandname food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

Children's Product Sellers Get 1-year Reprieve on Lead Testing
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-consumer-lead31-2009jan31,0,309448.story
Federal regulators on Friday postponed some testing requirements that would have forced many companies to pay ten of thousands of dollars to check children's products for lead content, giving manufacturers and retailers a one-year reprieve. The Consumer Product Safety Commission deferred the deadline, originally Feb. 10, by which manufacturers and importers of children's goods needed to test every item to ensure it didn't contain more than 600 parts per million of lead. They also have an extra year to test for phthalates, chemicals often used in plastic.

Learn about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Lead Poisoning Declines
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090131/METRO/901310379/1409/METRO
Highland Park and Detroit's east side have the highest incidence of lead poisoning in the state, but prevention efforts are working -- resulting in a 35 percent reduction in child lead poisoning statewide since 2003, according a study released Friday.

What Your Should Know About EPA Lead Cleanup

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10548336

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Study Finds Moms Share Phthalates with Their Babies
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/phthalates-in-moms-and-babies
In the first study of its kind, researchers in Taiwan find that phthalates can pass from pregnant women to their unborn babies and affect reproductive development in their daughters.
The paper reports an association between two types of the ubiquitous chemicals and permanent changes to the newborns' genitals that point to hormonal interference. Overall, the results provide more evidence that human exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals before birth can alter how reproductive systems form.

Download Ted Schettler's PowerPoint "Environmental Threats to Child Development" from the LDA of Michigan's Fall 2008 Conference (PDF).

The Campaign for Smokefree Air

The Campaign for Smokefree Air (CSA) is a grassroots coalition committed to creating smokefree workplaces in Michigan. CSA is currently working to pass legislation to Make MI Air Smokefree. If you want to receive updates from CSA, please visit http://www.makemiairsmokefree.com/.

Healthy Michigan Healthy Kids Campaign

Lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals simply don’t belong in kids’ products. But as the nearly 5 million children’s product recalls for lead in the first seven months of 2008 demonstrate, our national system for protecting children from toxic products has failed. It’s time for Michigan’s leaders to take action.

• Download the Healthy Michigan, Healthy Kids Platform at http://www.healthymichigan.net/documents/HMP_Signon_6.17.08.pdf (pdf).

• Download Toxic Chemicals, Healthy and Economy - A Guide For Candidates at http://www.healthymichigan.net/documents/safer-candguide_4.08-05.pdf (pdf).

The Healthy Michigan, Healthy Kids platform calls for Michigan to follow the lead of other states and countries by taking commonsense steps to protect Michigan’s children from toxic chemicals in children’s products by: eliminating added lead, mercury and arsenic; giving the public the right to know what other high-priority toxics are in kids’ products; and encouraging “Green Chemistry” and safer product development in Michigan. If you have questions about Healthy Michigan, Healthy Kids please visit http://www.healthymichigan.net/.

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2008 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book Released
http://www.milhs.org/information/default.asp?NavPageID=39432

The Michigan League for Human Services has release its 2008 Data Book on Michigan. The book includes information regarding the welfare of children in the state, including health aspects such as lead.

Upcoming Toy Testing Events: Saturday, February 7, 2009 & Thursday, February 12, 2009

Bring your kids', grand kids' or friends' kids' toys and children's products to be tested in Brighton and Detroit by experts who will speak and answer questions about the presence of lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals in toys. Learn more at http://www.ecocenter.org/newsletter/ecolink/jan09/index.php#testing.

Subscribe to "Toxic Times"

http://www.mnceh.org/toxictimes/news.php

"Toxic Times" is a weekly recap of the top stories on toxics from the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health.

CHE Partnership Calls

http://www.healthandenvironment.org/news/calls

You can also listen to previous calls, download documentation and view call blogs at this website.

Upcoming calls include:

• Critical Windows of Development -- A CHE Partnership Call featuring Dr. Theo Colborn, with Drs. Pete Myers and Linda Giudice -- Tues, Feb 10 at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern

LDA of Michigan's Healthy Children Project Offering Conference Co-Sponsorships

http://www.ldaofmichigan.org/conf.cosponsorships.pdf

LDA would like to co-sponsor up to three (3) statewide conferences of 501(c)3 non-profit organizations which are dedicated to children’s health issues and family memberships. Those selected will receive $500 from the LDA HCP to help support their overall conference. To learn more, download the PDF information sheet and Microsoft Word application form.

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Call toll free at 888-597-7809 or 517-485-8160

Email us at jackie.igafoteo@ldaofmichigan.org

Write to us at 200 Museum Dr. Ste. 101, Lansing, Michigan 48933

To subscribe to the Healthy Children Project e-Newsletter, send a blank email to healthychildrenproject-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
 
If you feel that you have received this message in error or are no longer interested in this topic, please send a blank email to healthychildrenproject-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
 
For more information on The Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan's Healthy Children Project visit http://www.ldaofmichigan.org/healthychild.htm.

 
For more information on The Healthy Children Project visit http://www.healthychildrenproject.org/index.html.

 
For more information on the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative, coordinated by the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health visit http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html. To join the the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI), please complete the form at http://www.iceh.org/LDDImembers.html.

 
For more information on The Beldon Fund visit http://www.beldon.org/.

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