Green Parent Chicago

EarthTalk: What is Environmental Justice?

Dear EarthTalk: What is meant by “environmental justice” and how is it under assault in the new Trump administration? -- Mike Garner, New Orleans, LA

Environmental justice is defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” In layperson’s terms, it means making sure specific groups of people don’t bear a disproportionate burden from potential and existing environmental threats.

Traditionally, we think of situations like the siting and construction of a pollution-spewing factory in or near a low-income minority community as an example of an environmental injustice. Some recent examples ripped from the headlines include the lead contamination of the water supply of predominantly African-American Flint, Michigan, and the siting of the potentially hazardous Dakota Access Pipeline adjacent to sacred and ecologically sensitive Standing Rock Sioux tribal land.

“The federal government has recognized for decades that air and water quality are especially poor in low-income areas and communities of color, and some of that imbalance stems directly from government permitting decisions, such as where to allow the dumping of toxic materials,” reports the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental advocacy non-profit.

Environmental justice has been a hot topic lately as it relates to who bears the brunt of climate change impacts. According to EPA research, city dwellers and the poor are among the Americans most likely to suffer from climate change. NRDC points out that 24 to 27 percent of urban African-Americans, Latinos and indigenous people in the U.S. are now living below the poverty line, compared with only 13 percent of urban whites—meaning that minority groups are at the greatest risk from the heat waves, bad air, stronger storms and other negative consequences of a warming climate.

The federal government has been working on environmental justice issues since at least 1992 when then-President George H.W. Bush created a White House office dedicated to “environmental equity.” Bill Clinton took up the mantle when he assumed the presidency in 1994 and issued Executive Order #12898 calling for the federal government to identify and address “disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.” Clinton’s order created the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice to coordinate and oversee implementation of the rule across different federal agencies, and spawned the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, which has awarded upwards of $24 million since then in funding to more than 1,400 community-based and tribal organizations working in communities facing environmental justice problems.

But that all is likely to change now that Donald Trump has proposed slashing the EPA’s overall budget by $2 billion and cutting funding for environmental justice programs specifically by 78 percent, from $6.7 million to just $1.5 million. “These cuts are a direct attack on low-income communities and communities of color everywhere who are on the front lines of toxic pollution,” says NRDC’s environmental justice head Al Huang.

CONTACTS: EPA Environmental Justice, www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice; NRDC, www.nrdc.org.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Earth Action Network. To donate, visit www.earthtalk.org. Send questions to: question@earthtalk.org.

EarthTalk: What can I do to boost fuel efficiency and help my car run better on my upcoming summer road trip?

Dear EarthTalk: Summer is near and I am planning a big road trip. Do you have any tips for boosting my car’s fuel efficiency on long, hot drives? -- Esther McCoy, Burlington, VT

Ah, the summer road trip, that classic American experience. But long drives through steamy weather can burn through a lot of gas and cause untold wear and tear on your car’s engine and systems while putting you at risk for overheating. Doubling down on tactics to help your car run better will not only improve fuel efficiency, but could also help you avoid spending a large chunk of your vacation time in the breakdown lane waiting for a tow.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), there are lots of ways to conserve fuel on hot weather road trips that also will help prolong the life of your car. “In summer, drive during cooler parts of the day,” reports the group. “Cooler, denser air can boost power and mileage.”

While it may seem counter intuitive, using your car’s air conditioning is actually a smart idea in hot weather. “Today’s air conditioners create less drag on the engine than driving with the windows open,” says AAA. Meanwhile, if you have a hybrid, pre-cool it before you get in so it can devote more electricity to driving when you are out on the road. But don’t warm-up (or pre-cool) a conventional car, as the extra idling doesn’t do the car any good and just wastes fuel and creates extra heat. Another key tip for hot weather driving is to park in the shade when you can.

The Green Car Reports website suggests utilizing cruise control and overdrive features on cars that offer them on long summer roads trips; these features help normalize the energy demands of the engine which in turn helps conserve fuel.

According to AA1car.com, a leading online information resource on auto repair and maintenance, placing a sunshade under the windshield and cracking the windows when parked can help keep the interior cool between drives. This can also “lighten the cooling load on the air conditioner when the vehicle is first started.” The website also reports that changing old dirty motor oil with a fresh higher viscosity one will help keep your car’s engine lubricated and running smoothly on those summer road trips.

“For example, you might want to change from 5W-30 to 10W-30, 10W-40 or 20W-30 for hot weather driving,” reports AA1car.com. “Synthetic motor oils are even better for high temperature protection.”

Of course, some fuel saving tips apply any time of year. For instance, jackrabbit starts are a big no-no; drivers should always try to accelerate gradually. Taking your foot off the gas as early as possible when approaching a red light is another way to save gas. Keeping filters clean, maintaining recommended tire pressure and driving at the speed limit are additional ways to conserve fuel, reduce emissions and treat your ride nicely.

Summertime road trips can also be hard on drivers and passengers, so pack plenty of sunscreen — especially if you plan to have the windows open (or top down)—and bring along a cooler with healthy drinks so everyone can stay hydrated.

CONTACTS: AAA, www.aaa.com; Green Car Reports, www.greencarreports.com;AA1car.com, www.aa1car.com.

EarthTalk® is produced by Doug Moss & Roddy Scheer and is a registered trademark of Earth Action Network Inc. View past columns at: www.earthtalk.org. Or e-mail us your question: earthtalk@emagazine.com.

EarthTalk: Microbeads and Marine Pollution

Products like facial scrubs, soaps and toothpaste contain thousands of polyethylene and polypropylene microbeads, ranging from 50-500 microns (or ½ mm) in diameter. Credit: 5 Gyres Institute.

Dear EarthTalk: What on Earth are plastic “microbeads” and how are they threatening the Great Lakes? -- Billy Alexander, Macon, GA

Can brushing your teeth or using an exfoliating face or body wash be an act of pollution? Perhaps so, because over 1,000 personal care products contain tiny plastic “microbeads,” each about a half millimeter in diameter. The Los Angeles-based 5 Gyres Institute, which works to end plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, found about 360,000 of these plastic beads in one tube of Neutrogena Deep Clean face wash. Hardly visible to the naked eye, these tiny objects flow straight from bathroom drains into sewer systems.

In July 2012, 5 Gyres went on an expedition with researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia to determine the micro-plastic pollution of the Great Lakes Region. Data from this study, which was published in the December 2013 edition of the peer-reviewed Marine Pollution Bulletin, revealed an average of 43,000 plastic microparticles per square kilometer in the Great Lakes. The highest concentrations were observed in Lake Erie, and accounted for about 90 percent of the total plastics found.

“We found high concentrations of micro-plastics, more than most ocean samples collected worldwide,” said Marcus Eriksen, the study’s lead author and co-director of the 5 Gyres Institute. “These were of similar size, shape, texture and composition to plastic microbeads found in many consumer products used as exfoliants, giving us circumstantial evidence that these products, designed to be washed down the drain, are not adequately being captured by sewage treatment.”

Sewage treatment facilities are not designed to capture tiny microbeads, and during rainy days sewage can overflow into waterways. Once they enter waterways, they move into fish, which confuse them for food, then into those who eat the fish, including wildlife and humans.

“People simply don’t like washing their face with plastic, and the fact that it’s designed to go straight into the environment makes microbeads a particularly egregious source of plastic pollution,” says Stiv Wilson, Policy Director at 5 Gyres. “These beads are similar in size to fish eggs and can absorb and concentrate toxins found in the aquatic environment, making them an ecosystem wide threat to the food chain.”

Once they determined the scale of plastic microbead pollution in the Great Lakes region, the 5 Gyres Institute launched a campaign asking personal care product manufacturers to remove plastic microbeads from their products. The response has been very positive: Unilever said that it would complete a global phase out of plastic scrub beads from personal care products in 2015; Procter & Gamble said that all of its products will be free of microplastics in 2017; Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Neutrogena facial products, has already begun the phase out of polyethylene microbeads in its personal care products and has stopped developing new
products containing plastic microbeads; and L’Oreal has decided not to develop any new products with microplastic-pearls and is also working on a substitute for these exfoliating agents in existing product formulas.

You can determine if there are microbeads in your personal care products by checking the ingredients for polyethylene or polypropylene, or by using the 5 Gyres Institute app, Beat the Microbead, which scans the barcode of products and informs you whether or not they contain plastic microbeads and if the manufacturer has agreed to remove them.

CONTACTS: 5 Gyres Institute, www.5gyres.org

EarthTalk® is produced by Doug Moss and Roddy Scheer and is a registered trademark of Earth Action Network Inc. View past columns at: www.earthtalk.org. Or e-mail us your question: earthtalk@emagazine.com.

Nature as Nurturing: An Educator’s Narrative to Motivate Nature Play

A soft breeze graces against our skin, birds chirp happily in the tree tops and the sweet smell of a magnolia tree perfumes the air around us. Many of us recall distinctive sensory memories from our time outdoors and nature poses a feast for the senses. Visual stimuli abound: greenery of all shapes and sizes, leaves garnished with edges from smooth to jagged, and an array of characters from pale brown squirrels to vermillion insects. Nature invigorates and nurtures all of our senses: visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory.

Nature offers a lot more to us than just sensory memories, however. Children around us often serve as a reminder of how enticing nature can be. Many teachers and parents can speak to how many times “Can we go outside?” has punctuated a topic at hand.

This is for good reason: nature offers a learning environment that is engaging while remaining calming and restorative. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have conducted several studies that indicate time spent outdoors can have a positive effect on reducing the symptoms of ADHD in students ages 5 to 18 across gender and socioeconomic statuses. This evidence was also observed in both a nationwide study and a preliminary study whereby students were monitored for cognitive challenges before and after a walk.

It seems that nature offers something analogous to a holistic reset button, an effortless way to experience calm and effective attention restoration. These therapeutic effects within nature may even have beneficial effects yet to be explored, including components such as reduced levels of domestic violence within the home and positive uplift for cancer patients. Many would argue that these therapeutics effects are important to note in an increasingly stress-inducing, medicating world.

“Well, what about in winter?” The results are even more striking. The therapeutic effects of nature can be at work literally through a window view. Besides gardening, hiking, and walking outdoors, we can still receive nature’s perks by simply looking outside to a natural view. Many natural changes are impressive and breathtaking to witness, and as an added bonus, these benefits are cost-effective and increase support and appreciation for the environment.

How do we cultivate a system for beating the winter blues, homework blues, or “need a moment” blues? Pursuing a course of nature perks can be simple, elegant and personalized in a way meaningful to an adult, family or child. Here are some suggestions:

Begin a nature journal: Use it to press leaves or wildflowers, describe nature observations and practice nature poetry.

Dabble into the world of field guides: birds, trees, wildflowers, edible plants, medicinal plants… name it and there is a field guide that educates on the topic. These are simple, inexpensive and easily available online or in a local bookstore.

Go on a nature walk: Make family time in nature. Have kids collect artifacts from their walk (leaves, pinecones, flowers, etc.) and help them to identify what they found. For kinesthetic learners , have them act out a skit of their favorite nature walk moment.

Create a monthly nature goal: Consider a nature-inspired family trip, new walk route, nature photography collage or intention to make homework breaks “outdoor” breaks. This is a great way to capitalize on diverse family interests and talents.

Cultivating time to look, react to and document what is happening in the natural world is an important role to be reinforced. Without being aware of the subtle peace and beauty within our natural landscape, much understanding of where our food comes from or what is so precious about our natural landscape will be lost to generations raised indoors.

From solar panels to beautiful gardens and biodiesel, people need to pay attention to their natural surroundings in order to fully appreciate all the complexity our environmental world can and should offer. Look to the kids asking to go outside or romping in a nearby park and remember that nature is the best teacher.

-Julie Ann Howlett is an Illinois-based educator and nature enthusiast offering educational services that promote environmental respect, holistic understandings, and compassion for your educational journey. Sign up for her e-newsletter with JAHLearning@gmail.com or visit JulieAnnHowlettConsulting.com.

This article appears in the August 2014 issue of Natural Awakenings Chicago

Green Homes for Everyone: Talking Passive Homes with Evolutionary Home Builders' Brandon Weiss

 

The availability and affordability of green housing is a concern for many eco-conscioius home buyers in the U.S. today. As green building technology continues to improve, more and more home buyers are realizing the long term benefits of building green.

A recent study by the National Association of Home Builders, reports that the majority of green homeowners would purchase another green home and recommend purchasing a green home to friends. 

This weekend, the U.S. Green Building Council-Illinois is organizing the 2014 Green Built Home Tour. All homes on the Green Built Home Tour were third-party verified (or pending verification) to ensure they were built (or being built) to national standards, earning certification through programs such as: ENERGY STAR for Homes, LEED for Homes, the National Green Building Standard, DOE Challenge Home, Illinois GreenStar, and Passive House.

Brandon Weiss, founder and principal of Evolutionary Home Builders in Geneva, IL will present his firm's Uber Haus, a Passive House, that showcases a uniquely extreme approach to energy efficiency at the tour. Green Parent Chicago recently spoke with Weiss of about his firm's Passive House technology and why this method of building can bring more adaptibility and affordability to the market for green home ownership.

According to Weiss, a passive house meets the world's strictest energy efficiency and building science certification. It is also designed and specified to be one of the healthiest homes in the country. The Uber Haus is the 28th home to be built to these stringent standards thus far. Evolutionary Home Builders is seeking Living Building Challenge and LEEDv4 Platinum certifications for the Uber Haus. If acheived, it would be the first such home in Illinois to achieve these certifications.

"Passive is definitely something that makes a ton of sense financially and environmentally," explains Weiss.

The technology behind passive homes optimizes gains and minimizes losses of the home's energy. It is a virtually air-tight building primarily heated by passive solar gain and internal gains from people, electrical equipment, lighting, etc.

Passive home technology reduces the heating and cooling demand on the house by 90 percent. In addition, the special design and construction of the house keeps out moisture which can lead to deterioration and degradation, as well as conductive heat loss. By not having air leaks in the house, drafts are kept out.

"Typically air leaks are the number one source of energy loss in a home," according to Weiss. "Passive house makes sense financially. It's quality construction, better air quality, your getting a higher quality home, lower utilities cost."

The passive house building concept was developed in Urbana, IL by a German architect in the 1970’s. According to The Passive House Institute US, a passive house building can realize net zero energy consumption without applying potentially expensive "active" technologies like photovoltaics or solar thermal hot water systems. Although these can certainly be added to a passive house design. Passive houses do not need a traditional furnace or air conditioning system.

"LEED homes are great for the holistic green approach, but the energy side of that isn’t as great as passive homes," says Weiss. “The absolute easiest way to get [net zero] is a passive home.”

In terms of health and air quality, a passive house has a "balanced ventilation system" and continuous exchanges of air to allow moisture from the kitchen and bathrooms to be exchange for fresh air that is filtered.

Because a passive house is "performance based" Weiss says it is a technology standard that can be applied to various types of construction and sizes of home.

"We don’t concentrate on a certain aesthetics or price," he says. "Passive house can be (very adaptive). Whatever method you can use to get [to passive house certification]. It's open ended, it allows for creativity, it's not just putting points together."

Tour the Uber Haus and 17 other green built homes at the Green Built Home tour, this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Tickets, map and info, available at the link)

-photo credit: Green Built Home Tour

-Christine

 

 

Friday Reading List: Fresh, Sweet and...Chemical Free!

 

This spoof ad above was created by Women's Voices for the Earth in response to this one by S.C. Johnson. Please share it, then take action to ask S.C. Johnson to disclose their ingredients.

Learn 10 steps you can take to reduce your family's exposure to chemicals that are linked to breast cancer, infertility, birth defects, asthma, and other serious illnesses.

If you have a child who loves to pretend with makeup, but you're worried about lead, chemical fragrances and other nasties, 3 Girls Holistic has a nice line of eco-girl and eco-kid friendly products called "3LittleGirls" that you can feel better about.

My 8-year-old recently tried their "Pretty Flower Perfume" and "Orange Pop Lip Gloss". Both are packaged in easy to apply containers (the perfume comes in a roll-on, how convenient!) and the lipgloss is in a tube. Made with natural ingredients like apricot kernal oil, grapefruit essential oil and lavender, the perfume is litely citrusey and sweet and not at all overpowering or too long lasting. My daughter loves to dab it on, and even with her very sensitive skin, she's had so problems with it.

The Orange Pop lip gloss is, of course, orangey flavored naturally, and made with moisturizing coconut oil among other natural ingredients like beeswax and honey. My daughter, who is known to dislike lip gloss, even lip balm in winter, said about the gloss, "you know how some lip glosses smell funny? I like it because it doesn't, and it doesn't taste bad if you swallow some of it."

Have a fantastic weekend and thank you for reading!

-Christine

 

EarthTalk: Rise in Early Puberty May Have Environmental Roots

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that American kids are going through puberty earlier today than in previous generations, and are there any environmental causes for this? -- Paul Chase, Troy, NY

Research indicates that indeed Americans girls and boys are going through puberty earlier than ever, though the reasons are unclear. Many believe our widespread exposure to synthetic chemicals is at least partly to blame, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why our bodies react in certain ways to various environmental stimuli.

Researchers first noticed the earlier onset of puberty in the late 1990s, and recent studies confirm the mysterious public health trend. A 2012 analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that American girls exposed to high levels of common household chemicals had their first periods seven months earlier than those with lower exposures. “This study adds to the growing body of scientific research that exposure to environmental chemicals may be associated with early puberty,” says Danielle Buttke, a researcher at CDC and lead author on the study. Buttke found that the age when a girl has her first period (menarche) has fallen over the past century from an average of age 16-17 to age 12-13.

Earlier puberty isn’t just for girls. In 2012 researchers from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) surveyed data on 4,100 boys from 144 pediatric practices in 41 states and found a similar trend: American boys are reaching puberty six months to two years earlier than just a few decades ago. African-American boys are starting the earliest, at around age nine, while Caucasian and Hispanics start on average at age 10.

One culprit could be rising obesity rates. Researchers believe that puberty (at least for girls) may be triggered in part by the body building up sufficient reserves of fat tissue, signaling fitness for reproductive capabilities. Clinical pediatrician Robert Lustig of Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco reports that obese girls have higher levels of the hormone leptin which in and of itself can lead to early puberty while setting off a domino effect of more weight gain and faster overall physical maturation.

Some evidence suggests that “hormone disrupting” chemicals may also trigger changes prematurely. Public health advocates have been concerned, for example, about the omnipresence of Bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic chemical in some plastics, because it is thought to “mimic” estrogen in the body and in some cases contribute to or cause health problems. BPA is being phased out of many consumer items, but hundreds of other potentially hormone disrupting chemicals are still in widespread use.

Dichlorobenzene, used in some mothballs and in solid blocks of toilet bowl and air deodorizers, is also a key suspect in triggering early puberty. It is already classified as a possible human carcinogen, and studies have linked prenatal exposure to it with low birth weight in boys. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently made screening Dichlorobenzene for hormonal effects a priority.

Parents can take steps to reduce our kids’ so-called “toxic burden”: Buy organic produce, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat and dairy and all-natural household cleaners. And keep the dialogue going about healthy food and lifestyle habits so kids learn how to make responsible, healthy choices for themselves.

CONTACTS: CDC, www.cdc.gov; AAP, www.aap.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

-photo credit: Christiana Care, Flickr

 

Victory! Proctor & Gamble to eliminate triclosan and DEP from its products

Procter & Gamble has announced plans to eliminate the toxic chemicals triclosan and diethyl phthalate (DEP) from all its products by 2014.

P&G is one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer products. Its line includes well-known household and personal care brands such as Cover Girl, Tide, Crest and Ivory.

According to the activist group Women's Voices for the Environment, P&G joins Johnson and Johnson who has pledged to eliminate triclosan and diethyl phthalate (DEP) in its products by 2015.

The Food and Drug Administration states that triclosan is not proven to actually kill bacteria, a claim suggested by many manufacturers of anti-bacterial products containing the ingredient. 

"At this time, FDA does not have evidence that triclosan added to antibacterial soaps and body washes provides extra health benefits over soap and water. Consumers concerned about using hand and body soaps with triclosan should wash with regular soap and water."

Triclosan has been implicated as having a hormone altering effect in animal studies. Even more worrisome, some studies suggest that triclosan may actually contribute to making bacteria more antibiotic resistant.

DEP (diethyl phthalate) has been shown in animal studies as having reproductive toxicity resulting in skeletal deformities in offspring of animals exposed to the substance. A 2002 report by environmental health advocacy group Health Care Without Harm, revealed the dangers to humans from repeated phthalate exposure:

Phthalates are in the blood of pregnant women at levels of concern, particularly when the contaminants are considered in the aggregate. Phthalates cross the placenta and also contaminate breast milk. Relevant animal tests show that phthalates interfere with normal fetal and infant development."

EarthTalk: Avoiding Environmental Cancer Triggers

Dear EarthTalk: I know that some of us are genetically predisposed to get cancer, but what are some ways we can avoid known environmental triggers for it? -- B. Northrup, Westport, MA

Cancer remains the scourge of the American health care system, given that four out of every 10 of us will be diagnosed with one form or another during out lifetime. Some of us are genetically predisposed toward certain types of cancers, but there is much we can do to avoid exposure to carcinogens in our environment.

According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit working to protect public health and the environment, a key first step in warding off cancer is lifestyle change—“stopping smoking, reducing drinking, losing weight, exercising and eating right.” The American Cancer Society reports that smoking and poor nutrition each account for about one-third of the 575,000 U.S. cancer deaths each year.

But smoking and obesity are obvious and other cancer triggers aren’t so easily pinpointed. In 2010 the President’s Cancer Panel reported that environmental toxins play a significant and under-recognized role in many cancers, causing “grievous harm” to untold numbers of Americans. And EWG reports that U.S. children are born “pre-polluted” with up to 200 carcinogenic substances already in their bloodstreams.

Given this shocking fact, it may seem futile to try to reduce our bodies’ chemical burden, but it could be a matter of life and death. EWG lists several ways anyone can cut their cancer risk. First up is to filter our tap water, which can include arsenic, chromium and harmful chemicals. Simple carbon filters or pitchers can reduce contaminants, while more costly reverse osmosis filters can filter out arsenic or chromium.

The foods we choose also play a role in whether or not we get cancer. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is healthy, but not if they are laden with pesticides. Going organic when possible is the best way to reduce pesticide exposure. And when organic foods aren’t available, stick with produce least likely to contain pesticides (check out EWG’s “Clean 15” list of conventional crops containing little if any pesticide residue). EWG also suggests cutting down on high-fat meats and dairy products: “Long-lasting cancer-causing pollutants like dioxins and PCBs accumulate in the food chain and concentrate in animal fat.”

Eliminating stain- and grease-proofing chemicals (Teflon, Scotchgard, etc.) is another way to cut cancer risks. “To avoid them,” says EWG, “skip greasy packaged foods and say no to optional stain treatments in the home.” And steer clear of BPA, a synthetic estrogen found in some plastic water bottles, canned infant formula and canned foods. “To avoid it, eat fewer canned foods, breast feed your baby or use powdered formula, and choose water bottles free of BPA,” reports EWG. Personal care products and cosmetics can also contain carcinogens. EWG’s “Skin Deep” cosmetics database flags particularly worrisome products and green-lights others that are healthy.

Another cancer prevention tip is to seal wooden outdoor decks and playsets—those made before 2005 likely contain lumber “pressure-treated” with carcinogenic arsenic in order to stave off insect infestations. Of course, avoiding too much sun exposure—and wearing high-SPF sunscreen—when using those decks and playsets is another important way to hedge one’s bets against cancer.

CONTACTS: EWG, www.ewg.org; President’s Cancer Panel, http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

The Story of Our Toxic Food System

Via Column Five for Healthy Child