Environmental Working Group and Seventh Generation host a Conversation about Chemicals and our Children (with Dr. Alan Greene)-

A few weeks ago I posted about this forum taking place in Boston. I really wanted to go, and I was happy to read this post about it from the always informative Seventh Generation blog, and to view the webcast as well.

This is a great presentation, with first slide show and talk from a leading EWG researcher. She spoke about EWG's study of umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, and the shocking amount of industrial chemicals they contain (over 200). Babies are being born pre-polluted, often with chemicals that were banned 30 years ago.

She does a nice overview of the terribly outdated environmental law that I have written about here: The Toxic Substances Control Act. This loophole ridden law has allowed thousands of chemicals to go into products we use everyday without any testing for their safety.

She offers simple solutions for some of the problems:
"*Eat Organic
*Eat Safer (or no) Fish to reduce mercury exposure
*Filter Tap Water
*Use Cast Iron Cookware
*Avoid Fragrance"

But there are some exposures "we can't shop our way out of". For these we must rely on the Kid Safe Chemical Act (which I've written about many times here).

Now that we have a new president elect, a congress that will hopefully take these issues seriously, and with public support we can get this bill passed! I'll keep you posted about how to support this bill as we learn more about its progress.

Dr. Greene, the author of Raising Baby Green, shares how VOCs can cause asthma in children, and how our homes are full of these chemicals. Also, the question and answer sections have some great discussions about ingredients, politics, and chemicals.

The "brand mother" from Seventh Generation also shared a new online tool to help consumers learn more about the ingredients in many household products. They created a database of chemicals used in products found in current cleaning products, and reports about their safety, precautions and usage. This is a handy tool, and you can use it from your cell phone, too, as you are shopping. Or you can download a widget to your desktop.