As more and more research is done on our environment, the more we learn about its effects on our children. Find out more about this important issue and how you can take action.

The Environment and Your Health

• Toxic chemicals banned in toys widespread in children's school supplies. Click here for article. 
• Are Learning Disabilities Linked to Environmental Toxins?
• Out of Harm's Way: Preventing Toxic Threats to Child Development, Part I
• Out of Harm's Way: Preventing Toxic Threats to Child Development, Part II
• Environmental Influences on Learning Disabilities
• EPA: Human Exposure to Environmental Contaminents
• FDA: Mercury Poisoning Linked to Skin Products

News and announcements related to environmental impacts on human health, collected from a multitude of sources, especially Environmental Health News. Follow CHE’s blog and join in conversation: Our Health and Environment.

American Academy of Pediatrics endorses legislation to protect children from unhealthy chemical exposures. Thursday, April 18, 2013 Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013, a bill introduced by US Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) that would reform chemical management policy in the United States. AAP.

Bisphenol A-associated epigenomic changes in prepubescent girls: a cross-sectional study in Gharbiah, Egypt. Thursday, April 18, 2013 These data indicate that BPA may affect human health through specific epigenomic modification of genes in relevant pathways. Environmental Health.

Sandra Steingraber: prepared sentencing statement for the Reading Town court, April 17, 2013. Thursday, April 18, 2013 On March 18, I willfully stood on private property owned by the Inergy company and blocked access to a compressor station site that is being constructed in order to prepare explosive hydrocarbon gases, propane and butane, for storage in abandoned salt caverns that are located beside and beneath Seneca Lake. Sandra Steingraber.

Impacts of radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) from cell phone towers and wireless devices on biosystem and ecosystem -- a review. Thursday, April 18, 2013 Based on current available literature, it is justified to conclude that RF-EMF radiation exposure can change neurotransmitter functions, blood-brain barrier, morphology, electrophysiology, cellular metabolism, calcium efflux, and gene and protein expression in certain types of cells even at lower intensities. Biology and Medicine.

C8 lawsuits to go before U.S. District Court. Thursday, April 18, 2013 All C8 personal injury lawsuits against DuPont over water contamination at its Washington Works plant have been moved to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Point Pleasant Register, West Virginia.

This art is all made from a newly invented kind of wood. Thursday, April 18, 2013 Plywood is stuck together with lots of nasty chemicals, so a university student invented a new method to make it cleaner. And now a bunch of artists have convened an exhibition with art made from the new material. Fast Company.

The kids are (not) all right. Thursday, April 18, 2013 According to a UNICEF report issued last week -- "Child Well-Being in Rich Countries" -- the United States once again ranked among the worst wealthy countries for children, coming in 26th place of 29 countries included. Only Lithuania, Latvia and Romania placed lower. New York Times.

Environmental Health Links

• Centeres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Environmental Health
• Harvard School Of Public Health (HSPH), Dept. of Environmental Health
• Mass Health and Human Services (MHHS), Bureau of Environmental Health
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA), For Consumers and Patients 
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA), For Health Professionals 
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA), For Scientists & Researchers 
• FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition - CFSAN/FDA
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Report on the Environment 

Environmental Toxins in the news

• What's in your children's jewelry?
      When we go into a store and purchase a product, especially a product for children, we would like to believe that someone has made sure that it is safe.
• New study finds toxic chemicals in hundreds of consumer products.
      Toxic chemicals linked to the rising rates of endocrine disruption related disease on the rise were found in a broad array of consumer products and reported in a peer reviewed article in Environmental Health Perspectives today. 
• Real Cost of Dental Mercury. 
      Dental mercury fillings pollute the environment, contaminate fish and are far more costly for taxpayers than the alternative tooth-colored material, according to an economics report released by MPP and a broad coalition of health, consumer and environmental groups.
• Removing Heavy Metals from the Body Is "Dangerous"? 
      The American  College of Medical Toxicology held a conference at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this past February about the "use and misuse" of chelation therapy—a misleading title suggesting some semblance of scientific objectivity, which was nowhere in evidence.
• When It Comes to Natural Health for Children, We're Living in a Police State.   
       Increasingly, state governments are determining what treatments a child can and cannot have—regardless of parents' wishes. Three shocking stories prove the point.
• Scientists find higher concentrations of heavy metals in post-oil spill oysters from Gulf of Mexico
      As the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico approaches, a team of scientists led by Dr. Peter Roopnarine of the California Academy of Sciences has detected evidence that pollutants from the oil have entered the ecosystem's food chain.