Are you concerned about exposing your children to harmful chemicals? Would you consider being a spokesperson for the chemicals industry by exposing your unborn child to potentially harmful products in order to help their cause?
Even if that job requires you to sign a release form protecting the chemicals industry from any liability should your child develop birth defects or other harm later in life. Nice, huh?
If you’re not aware of the harmful effects of the chemical BPA (bisphenol A), I strongly urge you to read more here about where it’s found (you’ll be surprised) and the potential harm it exposes our children to.
Parents have had success so far in getting BPA out of most baby bottles, along with some counties, cities and states, and are providing the support and momentum to push legislative that will ban a host of known harmful chemicals in children’s products. It's been a long, hard battle, but we're making progress with the collective help of each other.
Against the voice of the consumers, the chemicals industry and lobbyists are fighting back using scare tactics. Instead of investing in safe alternatives for BPA, the industry recently met to construct a $500,000 PR plan using an expecting mom (who signs that release form, of course) to convince moms across the country that we shouldn’t be afraid of BPA. They want us to ignore the facts presented by every reputable 3rd party and listen to them, the chemicals industry - they have our best interests in mind. Right?
This outrages me. Because, like the Corn Refiners Association with their “high fructose corn syrup is natural“ campaign, I fear that these folks will convince some parents that BPA is ok. And it’s clearly not. Many other governments support that and ours will too when the FDA reviews the information under unbiased leadership.
If you're not convinced, check out the meeting minutes from the chemicals industry meeting mentioned above. It's all there, with the highlights pointed out.
So, for now it’s up to us parents. We need to stand up and protect the rights of our children to a safe childhood, free of harmful chemicals. We need to share this information with friends and family that have children, grandchildren or take care of them. BPA lurks in many unsuspecting places like the liners of canned foods, beverage bottles, even reusable plastic bottles and many toys.
What can we do?
Use your dollars to advocate by avoiding can foods - buy fresh (always best!), frozen, or look for glass packaging.
See how Coke and Del Monte are involved to plot against mothers here and what we can do about it.
Learn more about the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act at the Environmental Working Group's website.
Join EWG's Facebook group by clicking here to get updates on the issues and have an opportunity to get involved.
Host a Healthy Child Healthy World Home Party with some friends who are pregnant or have young children to share some of this information with. It’s a fun, light way to spread the word. Healthy Child Healthy World will send you everything you need for just $20, along with great samples from their sponsors. You can learn more about hosting a party right here.
I’m passionate about keeping my kids chemical-free (if you couldn’t tell already). And I’d love to help you keep yours safe too. We’ve made a lot of really simple changes in our life to avoid them - call or write me if you want help or suggestions to do this in your home too.
Great stuff, Gina.
Posted by: LisaatEWG | June 04, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Thanks for this great article - along with the links that you included. It makes me shiver that people are openly discussing how to convince people to buy something that is proven dangerous. And to take advantage of a pregnant woman - that just pisses me off beyond belief.
I should be getting some stainless steel food containers in the next few days from a company in Canada - I'll try them out with my kids' lunches and then write about them. Trying to get away from plastics for our food storage...
Keep up your passion!
Michelle
Posted by: Michelle | June 05, 2009 at 08:59 PM