Update on E-Waste Recycling
The Basel Action Network is launching a new program called E-Stewards to help consumers ensure that their e-waste is being properly disposed of. Consumers can look for companies that use the E-Stewards logo. The new program will compete with the R2 program, developed by manufacturers with the help of the EPA, which is less stringent in its standards of disposal. For more details, read the New York Times article.
Mercury and Cadmium in Toy Jewelry
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has issued consumer warnings about mercury-containing children’s jewelry (pendants). Coming on the heels of reports of cadmium replacing lead in other children’s jewelry, it is important that parents keep an eye on their children’s toys.
New Lead Safety Rules for Contractors
Contractors who will be working in homes built before 1978 must now comply with new EPA regulations regarding lead abatement. All projects, except those you do yourself, must comply with the new rules for containment and clean-up. Even if you do- it- yourself, we strongly recommend taking the same measures to protect your family’s health. The guidelines are available on the EPA link below.
Consumers should also be aware that, prior to 1991, mercury was commonly used in latex paints as a fungicide. Labeling was not required and the limit for exterior house paint (2000ppm) was higher than the limit for interior house paints (300ppm). At least one case of acrodynia (mercury poisoning) was reported in a 4 year-old boy from breathing in the vapors in his freshly painted house (in 1989). We recommend not using latex paint manufactured before 1991 on any interior surface
EPA Study: Autism Boom Began in 1988, Environmental Factors Are Assumed
By David Kirby – Reprinted from Huffington Post
If it seems like most of the people you know with autism are 22 or younger, that’s because most people diagnosed with autism were born after 1987. A recent US EPA study has found a distinct “changepoint” year – or spike – in autism in California and elsewhere and concludes that it would be “prudent to assume that at least some portion of this increase is real and results from environmental factors.” Read more.
Consumption of certain fish during pregnancy associated with poorer cognitive performance
Children who eat fish more than 3 times per week show a worse performance in the general cognitive, executive and perceptual-manipulative areas. Those with higher levels of exposure to mercury show a generalised delay in cognitive, memory and verbal areas. Mercury is a contaminant found especially in oily fish and canned fish and to a lesser extent in white fish. Read more.
Chemicals Found in Plastics, Non-Stick Products, Sports Water Bottles, and Beverage Cans Detected in Bodies of Pregnant Women Babies enter the world already having been exposed in the womb to chemicals from common everyday consumer products, according to a new study released today by the Washington Toxics Coalition (WTC), Commonweal, and the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition. The groups say policy changes are needed to protect babies and mothers from toxic chemicals during this critical time of development. Read the study.
100% of Lake Fish Test Positive for Mercury In a study published on November 10th, the Environmental Protection Agency found that mercury was detectable in all fish samples taken from 500 representative lakes nationwide. The mercury concentrations in game fish exceeded the EPA’s recommended levels at 49% of lakes and rivers nationwide. It is critical that consumers pay attention to the fish consumption limits for different species established by the EPA. Read the press release. More details about the study.
Symposium highlights unresolved issues of Minamata disease sufferers
The problems facing people suffering from fetal Minamata disease remain unresolved more than 50 years after the mercury-poisoning disorder was officially detected in 1956, a researcher of the disease said Sunday. Read more.
Coal’s Assault on Human Health
Physicians for Social Responsibility just released “Coal’s Assault on Human Health,” which reviews the devastating impacts of coal, and its nasty bi-products like mercury, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. SafeMinds joins PSR in recommending that the US government establish a standard, enforceable by the EPA, for mercury emissions from electrical generation. Why? Coal contains trace amounts of mercury and when burned, this mercury evaporates and is emitted into the environment. Burning coal has an adverse impact on respiratory health as we inhale the products of combustion. It also has adverse effects on the nervous system, particularly the brain. Stroke and loss of intellectual capacity due to mercury are the two most important neurological consequences of burning coal.
Read the new report.
Four Perspectives on H1N1 Vaccine and Virus
From Healthy Child Healthy World Blog
Healthy Child Healthy World doesn’t typically address the vaccination debate, but we know it’s important to our audience of parents. And, it’s become especially important with the pandemic spread of the H1N1 virus. Parents are scared and we want to help. We don’t have a recommendation for whether you should vaccinate or not, but we do believe you should have easy access to expert insights that can help you make an informed decision. Here are four perspectives you should take into consideration. Four perspectives are from Dr. Robert Sears, Dr. Jay Gordon, SafeMinds board member Jackie Lombardo, and Dr. Greene. Read more.
Don’t Mess with the Mercury
The Environmental Protection Agency has just released a terrific video, geared towards kids, to teach them about the dangers of mercury and what to do when they encounter it. The press release includes some additional background information. Read the press release. Please be sure to watch this with your kids! Then send it to relatives, teachers, doctors and anyone else who might help spread the word. Let’s make sure kids know that mercury is dangerous!
Cleansing the Air at the Expense of the Waterways
from New York Times, October 12, 2009
MASONTOWN, Pa. — For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states — including New York and New Jersey — sued the plant’s owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain. Read more.
No Quick Solutions for Quicksilver More than a century of mercury mining in California and other western states has left a toxic nightmare. The contamination of soil and water will require enormous amounts of time and money to clean up – but first the government must make a committment to solving the problem. Read more.
How to Tell If You Are Poisoning Yourself with Fish 
Researchers are creating genetic tests to determine if mercury hiding in that “healthy” dinner could be messing with your brain.
From the April 2009 Issue of Discover Magazine by David Ewing Duncan; photograph by Kathrin Miller
When the halibut on my hook breaks the surface, writhing in a splash of seawater off the coast of Bolinas, California, I am thinking less of this fish’s fate than of my own. Considering that I plan to kill and eat it, this might seem cruel. Yet inside the fat and muscle cells of this flat, odd-looking creature is a substance as poisonous to me as it is to him: methylmercury, the most common form of mercury that builds up inside people (and fish). At the right dose and duration of exposure, mercury can impair a person’s memory, ability to learn, and behavior; it can also damage the heart and immune system. Even in small quantities, this heavy metal can cause birth defects in fetuses exposed in the womb and in breast-fed newborns whose mothers’ milk is laced with it. Read more.
Blinders Won’t Reduce Autism
From the March 13, 2009 Atlanta Journal Constitution by Jon Poling
For the million plus American families touched by autism, like mine, there is real urgency to find scientific answers to help loved ones and prevent future victims. Unfortunately, some doctors still fail to even accept the increasing autism rate as real, rather than their own better diagnosis.
Keeping Our Kids Safe
By SafeMinds Board Member Deirdre Imus from March 7, 2009 Huffington Post
If you are like most Americans, you have an expectation that our federal regulatory agencies will protect us from unsafe chemicals found in the products we use everyday. We expect our children’s toys, baby bottles and drinking water to be safe. Read more.
Obama administration proposes binding international mercury treaty
From the February 17, 2009 edition of the Jurist.
The administration of US President Barack Obama [official profile] on Monday proposed the development of a binding international treaty to regulate global mercury [DOS backgrounder] levels. The announcement by US State Department [official website] Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Sustainable Development Daniel Reifsnyder came at the 25th Session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environmental Forum [official website], a meeting of global environment ministers held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) [official website] in Nairobi, Kenya.
New Test for Mysterious Metabolic Diseases Developed at Stanford/Packard
From February 9, 2009 Business Wire
STANFORD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a much-needed way to monitor and find treatments for a mysterious and devastating group of metabolic diseases that arise from mutations in cells’ fuel-burning mechanism. Read more.
On Vaccinations: Consider the Source and Follow the Money
By SafeMinds Board Member Deirdre Imus in February 7, 2009 The Huffington Post
Last month, Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the vaccine industry’s most outspoken activist, warned Huffington Post readers not to “risk going unvaccinated.” Read more.
New Worries About Gardasil Safety
CBS Evening News Exclusive: Vaccine-Safety Group Study Shows Higher Instance Of Medical Side-Effects Than Another Vaccine
From February 6, 2009 CBS Evening News by Sharyl Attkisson
There are new concerns about Gardasil, the vaccine that prevents a virus that caused cervical cancer. It’s approved for girls as young as nine. And five million have received it since it was approved two years ago. The FDA and its maker insist it’s safe. But CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has exclusive information on some very serious side effects. Read more.
Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: The Wrong Side of History
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and David Kirby from the January 27, 2009 Huffington Post
Even as the evidence connecting America’s autism epidemic to vaccines mounts, dead-enders at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) — many of whom promoted the current vaccine schedule and others with strong ties to the vaccine industry — are trying to delay the day of reckoning by creating questionable studies designed to discredit any potential vaccine-autism link and by derailing authentic studies. Read more.
Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds
Brand-Name Food Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury
January 26, 2009 Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Press Release
Minneapolis – Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today 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. Read more.
Government bans all use of mercury in Sweden
The Government today decided to introduce a blanket ban on mercury. The ban means that the use of dental amalgam in fillings will cease and that it will no longer be permitted to place products containing mercury on the Swedish market.
January 15, 2009 Government of Sweden Press Release
“Sweden is now leading the way in removing and protecting the environment from mercury, which is non-degradable. The ban is a strong signal to other countries and a Swedish contribution to EU and UN aims to reduce mercury use and emissions,” says Minister for the Environment Andreas Carlgren. Read more.
