Toys Ranked by Hazardous Chemicals: A Must See Before Holiday Shopping!

Before you hit the stores on Black Friday, you need to hear this!

 

Are you preparing your Black Friday search for bargains, but wary of purchasing toys this holiday season? Has the rash of recalls affecting more than a million popular toys got you wondering how to spread holiday cheer without harm? Well, there is finally some good news on the toy front.

 

The Ecology Center, in collaboration with the Washington Toxics Coalition and other leading environmental groups, has tested more than 1,500 toys and ranked them from highest to lowest in terms of harmful chemicals such as lead and PVC. They performed the tests using technology far more reliable than home testing kits. The results will be released to the public at www.healthytoys.org on Wednesday, December 5^th. Each week until Christmas more toys will be tested based upon shoppers’ requests.

 

So rather than braving the crowds this Friday, why not sleep in? This way you can wait to hear which toys are safest and avoid waiting on long return lines along with other customers who learn the toys they have purchased rated poorly on the test for hazardous chemicals.

CNN Reveals Body Burden data: Children have dangerous toxins in their bodies

 Bravo to CNN for shedding some light on the devastation that chemicals are causing. It is wonderful to see the mainstream media tackling the issue of chemicals and kids. For those of you who aren’t aware of the Body Burden study, I have included an excerpt from “Holler for Your Health: Be the Key to a Healthy Family”, which cites the study several times. If you are a parent or know someone who is, please tell them to check this out. Avoiding toxic chemicals and minimizing their impact on the body is truly the most important component of health in today’s world. Check out my links at http://www.holler4health.com to get started on a safer path.

Excerpt from “Holler for Your Health: Be the Key to a Healthy Family”:

“There is nothing on this earth equal to, no nation has any resource greater than, the potential of just one child.” –Richard Pelzer, Author of A Child Called It We all live in a toxic soup. We are bombarded with chemicals whose toxicity and potential dangers are often unknown. Although we may all suffer the effects of toxins, it is our children who are at greatest risk.

Children are uniquely vulnerable to environmental toxins. Their rapid metabolism and growth and development expose them to more toxins by requiring increased consumption of food, water, and air for their body weight than adults. Children also behave differently than adults. They put everything in their mouth. Products may be considered to have “safe” amounts of toxins because they were not intended to be placed in the mouth. Crawling and spending more time on the ground places children in closer proximity to the toxins that settle in the earth and household dust. Toxins are also more likely to make a child ill because the systems required to detoxify or excrete these poisons are still maturing. Moreover, acceptable exposure limits are typically determined by risk assessment calculations in adults, not more vulnerable infants and children. ¹

We now know that children are contaminated before they even take their first breath of air.² This is especially concerning because the blood brain barrier is not fully formed until months after birth allowing these toxins to enter the brain causing irreversible brain damage in the unborn child.

 

Medical Stuff: The blood brain barrier shields the delicate brain from potentially harmful substances that may be circulating in the bloodstream.

 

Of the 287 industrial chemicals and pollutants found in umbilical cord blood from newborns tested in a 2004 study, 180 are known to cause cancer, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or developmental abnormalities.²

How did we manage to contaminate our children with all of these toxic chemicals before they have even taken a breath of air let alone smoked a cigarette? When we look at the information on toxic releases into our air and water, the answer is obvious. In 2004, U.S. industries released over 70 million pounds of known carcinogens, 96 million pounds of known developmental toxins, nearly 38 million pounds of reproductive toxins, more than 826 million pounds of suspected neurological toxicants and nearly 1.5 billion pounds of suspected respiratory toxicants into the air and water.³

Yet these releases are not our greatest toxic threat. For every pound of neurotoxins, carcinogens, reproductive or developmental toxins that industries reported releasing to the environment in New Jersey and Massachusetts, an average of 42 pounds of the same chemicals are used in products intended for use in or around the home.⁴ And so our greatest toxic threat comes from our own purchasing decisions. This means we have the power to change the state of our health by simply choosing to purchase safer products.

Unfortunately this is no easy task. Chemicals known or suspected of causing health problems are frequently not labeled so consumers have no idea how toxic their homes have become or how to choose safer products. This book is intended to change that by providing practical tools and tips for making healthier choices. But first we need to understand that others aren’t positioned to help. We must step up to protect ourselves.

Learn more about how to protect yourself and your loved ones at www.holler4health.com

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Leaves Women in the Dark

You may have noticed all the pink in the air this month. Organizations are cashing in on a wide variety of products based on their intent to contribute a portion of the proceeds, however small, to a breast cancer charity. In case you didn’t know why you were seeing all the pink products, it is because October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

 

With an alarming one in eight American women now diagnosed with breast cancer, it is certainly a cause that demands attention. Yet, despite the claims to raise awareness, surprisingly little is being said about how to AVOID this calamity.

 

Some organizations are spreading the word about diet, exercise, and other preventive measures, but there are other factors that, if addressed, would dramatically improve the odds that a woman can live her life breast cancer free.

 

Estrogen is one of the most well known causes of breast cancer. This is why anti-estrogen medications are a mainstay of breast cancer treatment (in women who have estrogen responsive breast cancer). This is also the reason that having children, which causes a reduction in estrogen levels, decreases a woman’s breast cancer risk.

 

Unfortunately, our homes are now overloaded with products that contain chemicals that behave like estrogen; thereby, placing all women at an alarmingly high risk of developing cancer, with or without having had children. This is why the following 3 steps are vital for all women to protect themselves from cancer. Please tell all the women you care about to follow these steps; it could save their life:

1. Avoid bisphenol A, which is a hormone disruptor that is found in many common household products. It leaches out of polycarbonate plastic containers into the food within. Polycarbonate plastic is used to make 5 gallon jugs of water, reusable water bottles (not the disposable ones), and many baby bottles. Turn over your plastic products and look for the #7 inside the recycling triangle, which indicates it is polycarbonate. If you are unsure, call the manufacturer. Bisphenol A is also used to line the inside of paper containers that hold liquids and cans that contain food or beverages. Whenever possible, rinse canned foods before consuming them and avoid buying acidic food, like tomato sauce, in a can.
2. Avoid plasticizers (called pthalates with a silent p), which are also hormone disruptors. These plasticizers are everywhere. They are in cosmetics, baby shampoo, baby chew toys, perfume, cleaning products, plastic containers, pest and lawn care products, etc. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contains these harmful plasticizers and is a common route of exposure for many women because PVC is the component of many plastic wraps used for food. Look for the #3 inside the recycling triangle, which indicates it is PVC. If you are unsure, call the manufacturer. Go to www.cosmeticdatabase.com to find out if your personal care products may increase your odds of breast cancer. Check out www.thegreenguide.com to find safer cleaning products. If you purchase fatty foods such as cheese that is wrapped in commercial plastic wrap, remove it, slice off the outer layer, and rewrap it in unbleached parchment paper and place it inside a Ziploc baggie or a glass storage container.
3. Get a daily dose of brassica vegetables, which include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and cabbage. Brassica vegetables bind to estrogens in your body and convert them to a form that is easily eliminated so they have less time to cause cancer. Broccoli sprouts are an excellent form of brassica and you can grow them right on your windowsill without having a green thumb. Go to www.brassica.com for more information.

By avoiding #3 and #7 plastic products, choosing safer cleaning, personal care, lawn, and pest control products, your risk of breast cancer can be dramatically reduced. Because it is impossible, in this day and age, to completely eliminate your exposure to estrogen-like chemicals, remember to eat your daily dose of brassica vegetables.

 

While “a race for the cure” is beneficial, it is not good enough. It is time we stop treating and start preventing breast cancer in the first place. For more information about preventing chronic illnesses, cancer, autism, ADD, Alzheimer’s disease, etc, visit www.holler4health.com. You will be able to follow the links described above and many others to find your path to health. While there, reserve a copy of “Holler for Your Health: Be the Key to a Healthy Family”, which provides a 10 Step Action Plan to preserve or reclaim health.

Health Insurance For All: Panacea or Peril?

There is a strong push for all Americans to gain access to health insurance. While this may sound logical and beneficial on the surface, we must dig deeper. The real issue is that we want all American children, pregnant women, young parents, the self-employed, the working poor, and the elderly to have access to quality healthcare. The problem is this is not what universal health coverage will provide. There are enormous problems inherent in the current system of healthcare coverage, and extending a flawed system to more people is shortsighted.

The current system reimburses services that are administered by conventional medicine while ignoring effective treatments with the potential to reverse or eliminate diseases. Ensuring adequate nutrients to assist the body to rid itself of illness is not covered, nor are detoxification strategies to safely eliminate the deadly toxins that accumulate in our bodies over our lifetimes. These two factors are the root cause of virtually all chronic illnesses that plague our people and threaten to bankrupt our healthcare system. Yet these services are neglected in the current payer system, which serves to benefit the expensive patented drugs and costly diagnostic procedures currently employed in medical care.

By extending healthcare coverage to all, we are extending the ability to afford more costly medications with dangerous side-effects while failing to provide effective prevention of disease through less costly measures such as providing all children with wholesome food that is not laced with pesticides, life-giving water that is not loaded with toxic chemicals, and access to medical providers who test for and treat nutrient deficiencies and toxic exposures before (and after) diseases have a chance to develop. (Many of these preventive and proven medical tests are not covered by the conventional system)

Extending the current medical model serves only to use our tax dollars to expand the market that pharmaceutical and medical diagnostic corporations exploit with their expensive products and services. Patients with existing coverage are forced to pay out of pocket for the services they really want and need when they become ill. These services are not part of the conventional medical system and are rarely covered.

While attending a pharmaceutically supported meeting earlier this week, an expensive new medication was being discussed. When the physician assistants in attendance inquired about the cost of the new medication, which was an outrageous 3 dollars per pill, the pharmaceutical agent simply stated not to worry about the price because it would be covered by insurance. I have heard this message repeatedly from drug reps, but it is not an adequate response. These pills may be covered by insurance, but we are indirectly paying the price through our astronomical health insurance premiums if we are fortunate enough to be covered. So by prescribing or taking costly medications, we are indirectly responsible for raising premiums and shutting more and more people out of the health care system.

It is time for a change. It is time we spent our hard-earned money on techniques to prevent illness rather than costly treatments that line corporate pockets. Each American citizen should be provided with a water purification system or have a public water supply that is not loaded with toxic chemicals. Toxic releases should be further reduced to insure that each American has clean air to breathe. Pesticide, irradiation, growth hormone, genetically modified, additive-free food should be offered at prices affordable to all Americans, not just the wealthy. Corporate polluters should be held accountable and swiftly made to clean up their messes (after all they are making a fortune at the expense of our air and water quality) so taxpayers aren’t left footing the bill while the corporate executives are slapped on the wrist and left with ample resources to move on to other polluting endeavors.

If these changes were made, we would see a dramatic reduction in the incidence of acute and chronic illness in adults as well as our precious children. There is a reason that the cancer rate has skyrocketed from 1 in 8000 in 1901 to nearly 1 in 2 today. Arguing over how to pay for coverage of expensive treatments is a mute point. Let’s prevent Americans from getting sick in the first place! This is not an unrealistic goal if we cease sponsoring pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies through third-party payers and crack down on corporate pollution.