Fu of the week

Hey, don't ask me what "fu of the week" means, but I thought this was pretty cool. Sustainable Dave is pretty cool, if you ask me.

is anyone else completely freaked out by this?

All this recent (to me, at least) news about bisphenol-A (BPA) in baby bottles (and everything else) basically has totally freaked me out.

For those of you who don't know (yet) about bisphenol-A, it is a chemical which is added to plastics and as sealants on metal (and probably a lot of other things, too). The chemical industry tells us it's wonderful because it makes plastics resilient, clear, basically unbreakable, and it seals metals from foods, as in baby food jar lids. But I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

Evidently, a lot of people have been talking about and researching the negative effects of bisphenol-A for a while. I've been seeing these baby bottles made by BornFree at Whole Foods for a while, with signs on them saying they are free of bisphenol-A. I had no idea what BPA was then and, like a lot of new parents, didn't have a lot of time to research it.

Well, let me tell you, I've been researching. And the news is not good.

NOTE: DO NOT go to a website called bisphenol-a.org for unbiased info. Despite being a DOT ORG, they are actually run by the plastics industry. Other info which is against BPA may not be unbiased either, but at least it isn't the industry itself putting out the info. Remember how the cigarette companies insisted for decades that their research showed that cigarettes were fine for your health, maybe even good for you? And now it's clear that they were purposefully lying.

BPA mimics hormones and is known to disrupt hormone function as well as how chromosomes are sorted. There is evidence that, even at very low doses, it is linked to cancer, diabetes, reproductive development, hyperactivity, and lots of other health problems.

So, with everything else going on right now, we've been researching this BPA thing, calling companies, buying new things (good for the economy, right?) and trying to decide what exactly to get rid of.

This is what I've come up with so far:


Avent bottles - DO contain BPA; they should be avoided. Supposedly, BPA leaches out at a higher rate if the plastic is heated (as in a dishwasher) or if harsh detergents are used on it (as in a dishwasher). I'm guessing that I'm not the only parent who has put baby bottles in the dishwasher thinking that they'll be more sanitary that way. They are working on a non-BPA bottle and will send out a free sample to you if you call them to complain (1-800-542-8368).


Earth's Best organic baby food - the metal lids contain BPA. So much for buying organic because it's better for my baby. And he liked it, too. :-( The cereals in boxes, though, are OK.


Nalgene bottles are apparently bad, too. Which is too bad, because I love my Nalgene bottles. However, Nalgene says they're phasing out BPA bottles within the next few months, and they already have a BPA-free alternative on the market, called their "Everyday" line.


Powdered baby formula is almost always packed in containers that has BPA, at least in the metal tops and bottoms. Some companies also use BPA in the cardboard on the sides of the containers, too. Similac says that their individual packets do NOT contain BPA. (However, you'll be throwing away a lot more trash with this option, but maybe it's worth it.) Although surprisingly, when I checked in the grocery store, it did not appear to be more expensive. And the organic formula does not appear to come in the individual packets. Again, it's ironic that the organic option comes with extra chemicals (no extra charge!! sorry for the sick humor). They also said that the already-prepared liquid has BPA on the lid part, but not in the bottle. If you know of a formula that doesn't have BPA, let me know! The organic stuff from Earth's Best supposedly has even more BPA than the Similac, although I forgot to ask those folks about formula when I was on the phone with them.

In general, plastics with the numbers 3, 6, or 7 on the bottom (in the little recycle symbol) should be avoided. Some #7 materials (which just indicates "other" plastic) are OK, for instance, if it is a combination of #1 and #2, it will be marked as #7. Plastics marked with #1,2,4,5 should be OK for contact with food.

Now for the good news:
The Canadian government ROCKS!! - I have another post coming up with details on this one.


I've already changed to BornFree baby bottles, mostly glass bottles.


Earth's Best organic cereals are in boxes that have no BPA.

I'm making baby food for now, organic, fresh, home-made, BPA-free. Love the pressure cooker.

changing the world one loan at a time

My mom bought this book

for me off my wishlist which, by the way, is amazing and I recommend it.

The author, Muhammud Yunus, started a microlending institution in his native Bangladesh about 25 years ago (ish), and he and the Grameen Bank have been lending small amounts of money to the poor ever since. His goal is to eradicate poverty. The stories he tells are incredibly moving. He was the head of the economics department at a university in Bangladesh when he started questioning why economics and development practices don't help those who are below the poverty level. He saw how lending someone as small a sum as $27 (I think that was the amount) would be enough to start helping someone get out of basically a slave-labor situation. One of the things that's interesting about the Grameen bank is the extraordinarily low default rate, which is something like less than one percent (don't quote me on that number), compared to a much, much higher default rate amongst borrowers who actually have collateral.

With the book, my mom sent a note saying that I should check out Kiva.org which is a microlending organization that she had been lending with for a couple of years or so. I remember reading about microlending sometime back in the '80s and wanted to get involved then, but didn't know where to start. Kiva makes it very easy, and you can choose who you lend to. I recommend checking them out, too. They've been having a lot of publicity lately, which means that occasionally they actually run out of people who are looking for loans.

waste not, want not

I heard this story about a guy who plans to not throw anything away for an entire year on NPR on my ride home today. Fascinating. Here's the link to his blog, where he'll describe the process for a year.

It's hard to imagine not throwing anything away for a year. Including recycling. Yikes! We don't have much trash (considering), but our recycling bins overflow.

I love composting, and having a yard (finally!), makes it (relatively) easy to do. I once had a worm composting system, when I lived in an apartment in the middle of the city, but it didn't work very well for me. I guess I didn't have enough worms or something. But composting outside rocks!

I'll be following his progress when I can make it to the computer. Yeah, you know, I'm not here very much any more.

pissed off

Does blogger allow you to use language like that on here? I can't remember if I've seen anyone else doing it. But the constant recalls of items for children due to excessive lead paint really pisses me off. Not that the items are being recalled, mind you. But what the hell is anyone doing using lead paint in children's stuff?

I'm on the CPSC's email list for child & infant product recalls. CPSC=US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Every so often, they send me an email with several items on it that have been recalled. And the vast majority of them are for lead paint. And all but one item so far that I've noticed has been made in China.

Granted, the vast majority of products being sold in the US are manufactured in China now. And whatever my/your stance on that for economic reasons is beside the point. My point here is that if you are the CEO of a US company, and you are trying to cut corners so that you can give your stockholders big earnings, so you ship all your manufacturing overseas because they use slave cheap labor there, you had better be paying attention to the quality of the products. Sure, all the plastic crap is meant to break so that you'll have to buy your kid another one. I don't even care about that right now.

WHO is deciding to use lead paint? Where is it coming from? Are the US companies like Mattel and FisherPrice (and they are far from being the only ones) calling for lead paint in their specs for the toys? My guess is probably not. So are the Chinese factory managers/owners substituting lead paint because it's cheaper, easier to come by, or some other reason? And if so, where the hell are the US companies' CEOs, managers, bazillions of people who are paid the big bucks, when it comes to checking on what's actually going on in the factories?

And God forbid that the government in general, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in particular, try to protect children from businesses that just want to do their thing as cheaply as possible with no regard for the effect on children. Nancy Nord, who is head of CPSC, said that "a Democratic bill that would expand her agency 'could have the unintended consequence of hampering, rather than furthering, consumer product safety.'" See the original article in Newsweek here. And UPI reports that Nancy Nord and her predecessor took nearly 30 trips financed by industry groups. All of this makes me so mad, I feel my blood pressure rising.

This post has been working its way through my brain for a while now; I finally had to vent. I may add more in this vein another day, but for now, I'm putting it out there. If this is an issue that you care about, I encourage you to contact your reps and senators.

What is more important?

I find this very moving.



Call your representatives today.

Kids! Stand strong together.