Toxic Chemicals, Are Your Children Being Exposed?

Home
>
Parenting
>
Toxic Chemicals, Are Your Children Being Exposed?

Toxic Chemicals, Are Your Children Being Exposed?

You do what you can to keep your little ones safe and healthy in this world we live in. You put your household cleaners out of reach and make sure the front door is securely locked. You tuck them in at night with a story and a kiss, wishing them sweet dreams. Unfortunately, your children are not safe! While they sleep, they are being exposed to toxic chemicals found in that crib or bed you so lovingly tucked them into.

Liver poisoning, thyroid problems and altered learning, memory and behavior may be caused by Polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs. These chemicals are used as fire retardants and are found in mattresses and other furniture. PBDE levels in people and the environment have been rising rapidly in recent years, particularly in North America, where the use of PBDEs is highest. In Europe, foods, especially fish, are thought to be a major source of exposure. But in North America PBDEs are much more prevalent in consumer products than they are in Europe. In Sweden, PBDEs have been banned.

You might be thinking that if these PBDEs were so dangerous, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) would know about them and do something. The fact is, they do know. Last year the EPA announced no new manufacture or import of these chemicals can occur without first being subject to EPA evaluation. No systematic monitoring of PBDEs in the bodies of US residents is underway, and no plans have been made to assess the risk posed by the millions of pounds of PBDEs that are already found in furniture and other consumer products in people's homes. To be fair, the EPA has stated that they have not concluded that PBDEs pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. Of course, they have also acknowledged there is evidence that these chemicals may cause liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity.

What can we do to protect ourselves and our children from these chemicals?

Get as much information as you can about how your household furniture is made and what chemicals are used in the process. You might consider using organic products that are naturally made with no harmful chemicals. We can never be completely safe from the many chemicals we're exposed to on a daily basis, but we can reduce them significantly. We can look into the faces of our children and know that we are doing our part to keep them safe in an unsafe world.

Resources:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ? Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics; http://www.epa.gov

Northwest Environment Watch; http://www.northwestwatch.org

Author:

Shelly Platt

http://www.naturallygood.net

In The News:

'Facebook parenting' is destroying our children's privacy
CNN
Editor's note: Aisha Sultan is a parenting columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and recent Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. Follow her on Twitter: @AishaS. Jon Miller is director of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth in ...

and more »

Apodaca: Don't listen to parenting naysayers
Daily Pilot
The photo was a provocative lead-in for an article on the latest controversy over the issue of child rearing, the practice of what's called attachment parenting. Now the subject is all over the news, providing fodder for talk shows, ...

Sydney Morning Herald
Judges rarely meet young in parenting disputes, says study
Sydney Morning Herald
In New Zealand, 65 per cent of Family Court judges said they often, very often or always met a child who was the subject of a parenting dispute. Dr Fernando said Australia was lagging behind other countries in attitudes to children meeting with judges.

and more »

Putting The Post-Deployment Family Back Together
Vermont Public Radio
Kevin Ross, 31, says the ADAPT parenting program has helped him and his family communicate more effectively. When parents deploy to a war zone overseas, their absence can have ripple effects that are felt long after they return.

and more »

Compete, Pout, Martyr and Shout
Huffington Post (blog)
Please let us teach you the Handel Method®, or if you already know it, let us help you apply it to your parenting. If you want to learn how to put the above into practice, come to Parenting by Design, the four-week course to design and implement the ...

Parenting group bans unvaccinated adults
msnbc.com (blog)
By Diane Mapes The recent whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic in Washington state has prompted the parent support group PEPS to issue a new policy regarding participation in their groups. "Because of the pertussis epidemic in Washington, ...

and more »

The Water Cooler: Parenting
San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it! The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon! Do you think people should have to take a mandatory course in parenting before ...

CBS Local
Legacy Parenting Project Holds Conference To Help Teen Moms
CBS Local
By Tim Jimenez PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Legacy Parenting Project, a non-profit helping young parents, held a conference for more than 100 teen mothers today at a hotel at Philadelphia International Airport. Morgan is a high school senior in Aston and ...

Sydney Morning Herald
Brad Pitt, 'Killing Them Softly': Actor Talks Stepping Behind Camera ...
Huffington Post
By JAKE COYLE 05/24/12 06:53 AM ET Since he last collaborated with Andrew Dominik, he's starred in the Coen brothers' "Burn After Reading," David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," Terrence ...
Pitt rules out becoming a directorWTVQ

all 287 news articles »

Parenting And The Zen Of Roller Coaster Riding
Huffington Post
It's parenting. Growing up has its ups and downs, some wild, many downright frightening. Our kids must stay on for the ride, because you can't get from childhood to adulthood without all these lurches and loops. Parents, though, have a choice (or a ...

Google News