HealthyStuff.org: new information on toxic products
We have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?
Let's start with the good news: there is a new website, just launched, where you can go to get lots of information to help you deduce which products are safe and unsafe for you, your family, and ... your pets (more on that later). HealthyStuff.org is your one stop shop for information over 5,000 common items such as pet products, women’s handbags, back-to-school products, children’s toys, cars and children’s car seats. That's what's there now, and the list keeps growing!
The bad news: the more product categories that the Ecology Center--the Michigan-based creators of HealthyStuff.org--tests the more places that they find that toxic chemicals are lurking. The chemicals found, included lead, bromine (brominated flame retardants), chlorine (PVC), cadmium, arsenic, and mercury, which have been linked in animal and some human studies to long-term health impacts such has birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, and cancer.
The hottest new information this year: lead and other toxic chemicals in products for our furry best friends. HealthyStuff.org includes over 400 pet products, including beds, chew toys, stuffed toys, collars, leashes, and tennis balls and found that 45% of pet products tested had detectable levels of one or more hazardous chemical. The most notable were pet collars and tennis balls, nearly half of which had detectable levels of lead. And it turns out that the tennis balls made for pets were much more likely to contain lead than those sold for hitting back and forth on a court!
Also new this year were tests on over 100 plastic women’s handbags. Lead was detected in over 75% of the bags analyzed, and over half of them had more than 1,000 parts per million lead. A very high number!
The findings go on and on, so please do visit the site to learn more. However, HealthyStuff.org cannot test every single product, and you can't possibly memorize all the results or bring your computer with you when you go shopping.
"The more products we test, the more it becomes clear that careful shopping alone, is not the answer. We need a larger solution: a law to protect people’s health from toxic chemicals.”
There is simply no adequate system to regulate or restrict chemicals even if they are made in the US. Changes in the law are needed to keep toxics chemicals out of products, especially those made for children and pets because they may be particularly vulnerable.
Both at the federal level and the state level there are opportunities to pass legislation to reform the current toxics policy. We need to take action now and phase out dangerous chemicals. We need to hold industry accountable for the safety of their products. And we need to use the best science to protect all people.
