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. 

How Safe is Your Baby's Bottle?
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/LIVING/803030302/1032
Study sparks debate over safety of hard plastic baby bottles.
 

Fire Retardants Linked With Health Problems
http://cbs5.com/local/consumer.watch.flame.2.661700.html
There's a heated debate raging in Sacramento over the state's strict flammability standards for furniture. At issue, whether the chemicals used to save lives are actually making people and pets sick.

Protests Spur Stores to Seek Substitute for Vinyl in Toys
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277954938660931.html
After recalling millions of toys to protect consumers from lead paint, toy makers face growing pressure over another material, a plastic found in myriad playthings, from balls to dolls. The Toy Industry Association, the manufacturers' trade group, says polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, in toys poses no safety risks. Still, retail giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp. have started programs to get rid of some of the toys and other products that contain PVC, bowing to pressure from environmental activists concerned that children who chew on PVC could ingest dangerous chemicals.
 

Toys For a Green Generation
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/371ca4ae-e617-11dc-8398-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Laurie Hyman had a busy time at this month’s New York Toy Show, the US industry’s biggest annual event, with more than 1,200 exhibitors. Her start-up company, Green Toys, sells toy teacups, bowls and gardening tools that are made in California from recycled plastic milk containers, and sold in boxes made from recycled cardboard.
 

Toymakers Eye Possible New Toxin
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/18/eveningnews/main3842856.shtml
Lead may have hounded the toy industry this year. But at the New York Toy Fair, that's not the toxin they're most concerned about - it's phthlatates, found in everything from shampoos and lotions to plastic playthings, dating back decades.

Plastic (Not) Fantastic: Food Containers Leach a Potentially Harmful Chemical
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a
Is bisphenol A, a major ingredient in many plastics, healthy for children and other living things?

Genesee County Folks Weigh in on Whether Green Can Mean Clean
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/02/genesee_county_folks_weigh_in.html
Are you cleaning your home with hazardous waste? Even local green crusaders admit they sometimes buy products hyped for fighting grime rather than keeping the environment clean. But all that could be changing as manufacturers respond to a growing number of consumers seeking green alternatives to conventional cleaning products.

Options for State Chemicals Policy Reform: A Resource Guide
http://www.chemicalspolicy.org/downloads/OptionsforStateChemicalsPolicyReform.pdf
This report outlines a range of options to help reshape and reorient chemicals management policy at the state level so that it more effectively protects health and environment while stimulating innovation, and safer chemistry and products. The options provide tools and examples of strategies to gather and share information through supply chains; facilitate more effective prioritization and action on chemicals; promote assessment and application of safer alternatives to problematic chemicals; and support research and development of products based on green chemistry.

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State Plan to Reduce Mercury Depends on Finding Money
http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/02/state_plan_to_reduce_mercury_d.html
The Department of Environmental Quality plans to eliminate the use and release of mercury in Michigan - if it has the money. A report from a DEQ work group calls for legislation to regulate the toxic metal. It makes 67 recommendations that would develop a "baseline level" of naturally occurring mercury in order to track human-caused emissions.
 

Mercury Leaks Found as New Bulbs Break
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/26/mercury_leaks_found_as_new_bulbs_break/
Compact fluorescent lamps - those spiral, energy-efficient bulbs popular as a device to combat global warming - can pose a small risk of mercury poisoning to infants, young children, and pregnant women if they break, two reports concluded yesterday. But the reports, issued by the state of Maine and the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, urged homeowners to keep using compact fluorescents because their energy-saving benefits far outweigh the risk posed by mercury released from a broken lamp.

University of Northern Iowa Professors Probe Link Between Mercury and Autism
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/02/24/news/top_story/doc47c03669cc06a508014273.txt
A research article published by a pair of University of Northern Iowa professors concludes the link between mercury and autism can’t be ruled out and needs further study. The results don’t prove mercury exposure causes autism, a developmental disability that can affect language and social skills.

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Cutting TV Time Makes Children Healthier, Says US Study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/04/medicalresearch.health1
"Television viewing is related to consumption of fast food and foods and beverages that are advertised on television. Viewing cartoons with embedded food commercials can increase choice of the advertised item in pre-schoolers, and television commercials may prompt eating," Leonard Epstein of the State University of New York in Buffalo and his colleagues wrote in the journal Archives of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
 

Study: Pregnant Women Exposed to Household Pesticides May Increase the Risk of Their Children Developing Leukemia
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/newscience/2008/2008-0205rudantetal.html
In the study, parents of leukemia patients were more likely to have used pesticides and insecticides either at home or at work. Exposure to these chemicals is a risk factor for blood cancers, particularly if children are exposed in the womb, the authors' conclude.

Phthalate Chemicals Found in Infants
http://www.environmentreport.org/story.php3?story_id=3882
Infants are widely exposed to a class of chemicals that might be harmful to their reproductive systems. That's according to new research published today/this week (Monday, February 4th, 2008) in the journal Pediatrics.

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Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) Scientific Consensus Statement
http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html

LDDI has created a scientific consensus statement on environmental agents associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Download the complete document or the executive summary.

Upcoming CHE Partnership Calls

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

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

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

Several years ago LDA of Michigan joined as a LDA Healthy Children Project (HCP) state partner. The HCP project is dedicated to helping families learn about existing and emerging science linking certain chemical exposures to learning, behavioral, and developmental disabilities. LDA would now like to partner with other organizations to help inform families throughout Michigan about toxic substances in the environment, how they may impact children’s health, and to find out how they may join with others to make a difference in protecting the health of our children. Specifically, 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 info@ldaofmichigan.org

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

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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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