Clearing the shelves: Join us in asking retailers to mind the store!

April 11, 2013

We were thrilled when the Safe Chemicals Act was introduced in Congress earlier this week. The proposed legislation would restrict the usage of hazardous chemicals and hold chemical companies responsible for ensuring the safety of new chemicals.

Now, we are proud to announce that, as reported inUSA Today, we are part of a coalition of groups that launched a campaign this week asking major retailers to phase out potentially toxic chemicals from their shelves (we're calling it the "Mind the Store" campaign). You can join us by taking action here.

We are frustrated with the EPA’s current lack of power to collect data and regulate toxics. To help retailers Mind the Store, the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition has created a list of priority chemicals that we're urging them to phase out. The list focuses on chemicals widely used in consumer products, with strong evidence of their toxicity, and an emphasis on chemicals that have the potential to disrupt the health of our families - known carcinogens, developmental and reproductive toxicants and endocrine disruptors.

Join us: Urge Walmart, Target, Costco, Kroger, Walgreens, Home Depot, CVS Caremark, Lowe's, Best Buy and Safeway to develop plans within one year to phase out some of the most toxic chemicals used in thousands of everyday products, including wrinkle-free clothes, vinyl flooring, shampoos, sofa cushions and food packaging.

New Study Finds Women Exposed to Hazardous Chemicals at Work Are 42% More Likely to Develop Breast Cancer

November 19, 2012

Today HealthyStuff.org and the National Network on the Environments and Women's Health (Canada) are jointly distributing the results of a new study on breast cancer and occupations.

The study released today in the journal Environmental Health found a statistically significant association between the increased risk of breast cancer among women who work in jobs where they are exposed to a "toxic soup" of chemicals. Researchers were from Canada, USA and UK, including four from the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group (OEHRG) at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

The case control study, involving 1005 women with breast cancer and 1147 without the disease, revealed that women who worked in jobs classified as highly exposed for 10 years increased their breast cancer risk by 42%.

Dr. James Brophy and Dr. Margaret Keith, lead researchers for the study, both work in the OEHRG at Stirling as well as the University of Windsor in Ontario.

"Breast cancer incidence rose throughout the developed world in the second half of the twentieth century as women entered industrial workplaces and many new and untested chemicals were being introduced,” said Dr. Keith. “Diverse and concentrated exposures to carcinogens and hormone disrupting chemicals in some workplaces can put workers at an increased risk for developing cancer."

Amoung the occupation with the highest risk were plastic manufacturing. The risk of developing breast cancer doubles for women working in the Canadian car industry's plastics manufacturing sector; and among those who were premenopausal, the risk was almost five times as great. Many plastics have been found to release estrogenic and carcinogenic chemicals and cumulative exposures to mixtures of these chemicals are a significant concern.

"Consumers are exposed daily to the same toxic soup of chemicals that workers are, and we are greatly concerned that government standards are not enough to protect us from carcinogens and endocrine disrupting chemicals in plastics and vehicles," said Jeff Gearhart, lead researcher at HealthyStuff.org.

"The study also points to the need to re-evaluate occupational and environmental exposure standards, keeping in mind that there may be no determinable safe levels to cancer-causing or hormone-disrupting chemicals," said Dr. Keith.

iPhone 5 Ranks Higher than Galaxy S III in New Study on Toxic Chemicals in Mobile Phones

October 3, 2012

For the first time the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center teamed up with technology gurus at ifixit.com to research toxic chemicals in 36 different cell phones, including the recently released iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III. The results were released today at www.HealthyStuff.org and www.ifixit.com.

The Motorola Citrus ranked the least toxic phone followed by the iPhone 4 S and the LG Remarq. The new iPhone 5 ranked 5th, versus its primary competitor, Samsung Galaxy S III, which ranked 9th. The most toxic phone tested was the iPhone 2G. The full list of rankings can be found at HealthyStuff.org.

Every phone sampled in this study contained at least one of following hazardous chemicals: lead, bromine, chlorine, mercury and cadmium. These hazardous substances can pollute throughout a product’s life cycle, including when the minerals are extracted; when they are processed; during phone manufacturing; and at the end of the phone’s useful life. Emissions during disposal and recycling of phones as electronic waste, or “e-waste,” are particularly problematic. The mining of some tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold used in mobile phones has been linked to conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Even the best phones from our study are still loaded with chemical hazards,” said Jeff Gearhart, research director at the Ecology Center and founder of HealthyStuff.org. “These chemicals, which are linked to birth defects, impaired learning and other serious health problems, have been found in soils at levels 10 to 100 times higher than background levels at e-waste recycling sites in China. We need better federal regulation of these chemicals, and we need to create incentives for the design of greener consumer electronics.”

A 2004 study found that three-quarters of all cell phones leach lead at levels that would qualify them as hazardous waste. While tracking e-waste is difficult, it is estimated that 50-80% is exported to countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Phillipines, where there is a labor-intensive, informal recycling infrastrucure that often lacks environmental and human health safeguards.

Learn more about responsible electronics recycling from the Electronic TakeBack Coalition

Suggested mobile phone recyclers: Go to e-stewards to find a responsible recycler. The companies below have signed the e-stewards pledge to not export e-waste to developing countries:

Capstone Wireless – Use their website to request a free UPS shipping label. They have a buy back program, so you may get money back for your old phone.

Call2Recycle – The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp also accepts old cell phones for free recycling. They have drop off sites in many cities (usually in stores). Use their location finder to enter your zip code to find the closest.