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Ecoparenting Issues

Florida Issues Lead Warnings Fact Sheets for Parents
Tallahassee, Florida , November 5, 2007

Products CAN be tested for lead. Information about lead testing for consumer items can be found here. Of the different tests mentioned below and in the fact sheet, the best thing to do is to have a product tested by a certified environmental laboratory. All other options have limitations. The home lead test kits (the do-it-yourself kits also known as "color change tests" or "swab tests") are unreliable. Click here for information on their unreliability. XRF detectors also have limitations and are generally not available for consumer use.

The Florida Department of Health, Division of Environmental Health, Bureau of Community Environmental Health has a Florida Lead Alert Network. Information is available about lead recalls and instructions for signing up for the Florida Lead Alert Network. Click here to get e-mail updates on the latest product recalls.

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Danger in Plastic Baby Bottles?
The chemical is known as bisphenol A or BPA. Is a chemical used in plastic baby bottles — and many other food and beverage containers — causes genetic damage in mice, a new study suggests. It is found in all kinds of common products, mostly polycarbonate plastics. Nearly all plastic baby bottles in the United States are made of this type. As well, so are many common food containers, water storage bottles, aluminum can linings, and even some kinds of dental sealants. Animal studies, which are not always reliable for human effects, suggest that the dangers of BPA leaching into the milk of babies in a bottle could include: low sperm count, hyperactivity, early puberty, obesity, small testes size, and enlarged prostates.

BPA in infant formula
Laboratory tests of canned infant formula conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a certified commercial laboratory reveal that BPA also leaches from metal can linings into formula at levels which, according to new analyses, would expose some bottle-fed infants to BPA in excess of doses that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests. There are no government safety standards limiting the amount of BPA in infant
formula. For more information visit www.ewg.org/reports/bpaformula

What is the alternative to polycarbonate baby bottles?
Polypropylene bottles are becoming more popular, and can be found online and through many retailers. You will know a polypropylene bottle by the recycle symbol and the number 1 or 2 on the bottom!

The best alternative to baby bottle and formula concerns: Breastfeeding!

• Breastmilk is a natural renewable resource and is all the baby needs for the first six months of life.
• Requires no resources for advertising, packaging, shipping, or disposal.
• No energy is wasted sterilizing bottles and refrigerating them.
• No water or detergent is needed for washing and mixing bottles.
• It does not create pollution from the manufacturing and disposal of bottles, teats, and cans.
• It helps space babies by suppressing fertility in the mother.

What is in those cans of baby formula?

• 3,506,870 lbs. of steel from formula cans
• 364,463 lbs. of paper
• 359,608 lbs. of HDPE from plastic milk containers
• 3,790,007 gallons of milk, requiring 65,271,668 lbs. of dairy feed to produce
• 861,192 gallons of oil (equivalent) for cow milk, formula production transportation and refrigeration,
  which produces …
  • 19,373,385 lbs. of carbon dioxide
  • 4,892 acres of forest are required to absorb this amount of carbon dioxie
• Breastmilk is one of the few foodstuffs produced and delivered to the consumer without any pollution, unnecessary packaging or waste. Formula and bottles require large amounts of water, fuel, glass, plastic and rubber--and produces significant amounts of garbage.

Most people know that breastfeeding is best for babies. Some people know that breastfeeding offers health benefits to the mother. But very few people realize the importance of breastfeeding for the environment.

Dairy production destroys land and pollutes air and water
Substituting cow's milk infant formula for breastmilk destroys the water, land and air. It would take 135 million lactating cows just to substitute the breastmilk of the women of India; that many cows would require 43% of the surface of India be devoted to pasture.

Artificial feeding causes waste and uses valuable resources
If every child in America were bottle-fed, almost 86,000 tons of tin would be needed to produce 550 million cans for one year's worth of formula. Bottles and nipples require plastic, glass, rubber, and silicon; production.

Artificial feeding means more tampons
Women who practice total, unrestricted breastfeeding average over 14 months without menstruating. Multiply this by the four million US births each year to see that over one billion sanitary products annually could be kept out of our nation's landfills and sewers.

Breastfeeding - a valuable natural resource
Two years ago, President Clinton, joining an unprecedented worldwide consensus, voted to impose restrictions on the advertising and promotion of infant formula. His vote demonstrates a new American commitment to breastfeeding. Story, Dia L. Michels, photos as noted or Nursing Mother 1998.

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Environmental Issues with Diapers!

• Every child adds about 6500 disposable diapers to our landfills.
• Disposable diapers have little to no recycling potential and the long term effects of them on the environment remain unknown.
• Disposable diapers can take up to 500 years to decompose.
• One baby can produce up to two tons of landfill waste using disposable diapers.
• Harsh bleaches and cleaning agents used at diaper services can cause damage to the environment.
• Serious threat of contamination from disposable diapers because of human sewage going into landfills.
• Disposal of human waste in residential garbage is technically prohibited and instructions on disposable diaper packaging recommend that you shake out any fecal matter into the toilet before disposing of it.
• Viruses found in feces can pose a threat to our water supplies and wildlife.
• Each baby in disposable diapers consumes 4.5 trees (Based on only two years in diapers.)

Alternatives!

• Hybrid diapers ( cloth cover, flushable inside liner) from gDiapers.com
• Cloth diapers, easy to use, velcro and snaps and very comfy for baby
• “greener” disposables, diapers not made with plastics and gels, but rather non-bleached wood pulp! Tushies and Seventh Generation make such diapers.
• For more on alternatives, visit www.keysglee.com/html/reuse_recycle.html

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Mercury Alert!
The FDA wants pregnant women to know that some fish contain high levels of a form of mercury called methylmercury that can harm an unborn child's developing nervous system if eaten regularly. By being informed about methylmercury and knowing the kinds of fish that are safe to eat, you can prevent any harm to your unborn child and still enjoy the health benefits of eating seafood.

HIGHEST MERCURY AVOID Eating	LOWER MERCURY Eat no more than six 6-oz servings per month	LOWEST MERCURY No more than two 6-oz servings per week
Grouper Marlin Orange roughy Tilefish Swordfish Shark Mackerel (king) HIGH MERCURY Eat no more than three 6-oz servings per month Bass saltwater Croaker Halibut Tuna (canned, white albacore) See tuna chart below Tuna (fresh bluefin, ahi) Sea trout Bluefish Lobster (American/Maine)	Carp Mahi Mahi Crab (dungeness) Snapper Crab (blue) Herring Crab (snow) Monkfish Perch (freshwater) Skate Cod Tuna (canned, chunk light) Tuna (fresh Pacific albacore)	Anchovies Butterfish Calamari (squid) Caviar (farmed) Crab (king) Pollock Catfish Whitefish Perch (ocean) Scallops Flounder Haddock Hake Herring Lobster (spiny/rock) Shad Sole Crawfish/crayfish Salmon Shrimp Clams Tilapia Oysters Sardines Sturgeon (farmed) Trout (freshwater)

Chart obtained from the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC); data obtained by the FDA and the EPA.