February 28th, 2013

Just when we thought plastics were safe, having been cleansed of BPA, along came its replacement, the chemically similar BPS. Recent research shows that BPS also acts as an endocrine disruptor, meaning it can cause as much health havoc as BPA. Here’s how to avoid plastics likely to contain either additive.

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February 13th, 2013

A national report on the state of breast cancer treatment and prevention has concluded that too little attention is being paid to the environmental triggers that lead to breast cancer, whose incidence continues to rise. Among those factors are BPA, pesticides and alcohol consumption.

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May 7th, 2012

Autism now affects one in 88 kids, soaring in the last few decades, seemingly out of nowhere, to become a major health issue.
Research shows that genetics plays a role in autism, but many scientists believe that environmental factors are as important in triggering the disorder.

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March 6th, 2012

Campbell’s soup lovers, who may not love that the world’s largest soup maker uses the harmful chemical BPA in its can linings, may soon be able to rekindle their love affair with the company’s immortal chicken noodle soup.
Campbell’s has announced that it will indeed it replace BPA with a safer alternative in its epoxy steel can liners, as soon as it finds “feasible alternatives, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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October 27th, 2011

Campbell’s Soup, which I haven’t much thought about since eating grilled cheese sandwiches with a side of tomato soup while watching Bonanza, is suddenly in the news.
And the news is confusing.
First, there’s Campbell’s at the top of the “Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2011” which is a listing composed by Two Tomorrows of the top brands for sustainability which also promise strong performance for investors on Wall Street.

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October 24th, 2011

Behavioural and emotional problems in young girls are being linked to their exposure to the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) – a common chemical found in plastics – while still in the womb, according to a new study released today in Pediatrics.

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March 30th, 2011

You are what you eat. But according to a new study, you also are what your food was wrapped or packed in, at least to a small degree.

And if that food was enclosed in plastic or plastic resin-lined cans, it could be having an effect on your health.

Researchers investigating whether the endocrine-disrupting plastic chemicals BPA (bisphenol A) and DEHP migrate from food packaging into humans have found evidence that they do.

The study, by researchers from the Silent Spring Institute, the Breast Cancer Fund and Vassar College, sampled the urine of 20 participants in 2010, testing the levels of BPA and DEHP while the study subjects ate a regular diet containing canned and packaged foods, and then again when the study group was placed on a fresh food diet.

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October 4th, 2010

If you’ve been anywhere at all in the last few years, you’ve seen dozens of variations on t shirts promoting breast cancer awareness, research and solutions.
The latest iteration, designed by Donna Karan and sold by Saks Fifth Avenue stores, is worth a fresh look. It’s not your midriff-creeping Saturday morning t crammed with local sponsor names. This little item from Donna Karan t shirt could go to lunch with jewelry, even dinner, and more importantly, 100 percent of the proceeds of its sale will go to benefit local charity partners of Saks’ Key to the Cure campaign.

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September 17th, 2010

A startling decline in the Gulf of Mexico’s shark population may create strange bedfellows, as a team of U.S. scientists and environmentalists have held meetings with Cuban officials to discuss an alliance (which would include Mexico) to look into the problem.

Some shark species are estimated to have lost up to 50 percent of their number. Those figures helped spur U.S. and Cuban interests to take advantage of improved relations between the two countries to seek a solution. Along with Mexico, the three nations who share the Gulf could be uniquely positioned to protect the sharks.

“The Gulf of Mexico is one ecosystem, it’s not just the U.S. Gulf. The shark is a highly migratory fish that moves between the countries and it is troubled,” said Pamela Baker, Gulf policy advisor for the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund.

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August 27th, 2010

Studies with lab animals have shown that BPA, the chemical found in certain clear plastics, can disrupt developing endocrine and hormone systems.
A new study with humans suggests that BPA exposure also affects mature hormone systems. Researchers looking at a group of 715 Italian men, ranging in age from 20 to 74, found subtle but measurable differences in testosterone levels, with men registering higher BPA levels also showing an uptick in hormone levels.

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February 17th, 2010

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Concerned about all those dangerous household chemicals you keep hearing about: BPA, phthalates and pesticides with cryptic names like 2,4-Dioxane?

We’ve found just the book for you.

Slow Death By Rubber Duck:The Secret Danger of Everyday Things (Counterpoint, 2009. U.S. $25) will take you on a chilling, but informative ride through our chemically enhanced consumer product world. Starting with your kid’s Rubber Duck, which contains five chemicals of concern, imagine what the rest of the household contains.

Frankly, I worried that this cleverly titled book about the dangerous additives lurking in our house dust, furniture, hand soaps and Teflon pans would be just that, an inspired title followed by surface information. But I was quickly relieved of that concern. Co-authors Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie are not just scratching the stick-resistant surface here.

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August 21st, 2009

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Coca-Cola is getting kudos from environmentalists for meeting them half way on the subject of BPA, bisphenol-A, a toxic chemical used in food packaging.

On May 28 of this year, lobbyists from the chemical industry and food companies gathered at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting public health and the environment, the focus of the meeting was to white-wash the risks of BPA.

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