Are politics valued more than children’s health?

Posted on by May 14, 2012

baby with bottle

Wait… Don’t answer that. I don’t think I really want to know where our legislators, and society by default, see the greatest value. Actions speak louder than words. To me, and to countless other parents, the choice to NOT act when the scientific evidence clearly indicates that a toxic chemical is hazardous to human health, particularly children, speaks louder than anything else ever could.

The choice to sit idly by when study after study shows that a totally unnecessary chemical in children’s feeding products is harming our children is cowardly. Many manufacturers and retailers have already voluntarily demonstrated that they understand the importance of this decision, but that is not enough. Many other states’ legislative powers have already decided to ban BPA from children’s feeding products and all should follow suit.

Now it is time for Oregon’s legislators to step up.

It is time for all of Oregon’s families to be able to know without a doubt that any baby bottle, any sippy cup, is not going to leach an endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemical into their child’s food. It is time for all children to be able to have some protection in this world. We may not be able to stop everything and we may not want to, but we can do this. We have to do this. We have to.

It is time to put the value into Oregon’s children, not the metal can manufacturers and chemical industry (out-of-state corporate interests) that are putting up the opposition.

Right now SB 695, the BPA-Free Baby Bill, is stuck. It passed the Oregon Senate, but is now just stalled in committee. It needs a little help to get out to the floor so that the rest of the Oregon House gets a chance to do their part. This bill is good for babies, good for business, and good for Oregon. As the world goes BPA-free, we have to make the choice do we want politicians that value out-of-state industry or do we want leaders who value people, small business, and this state?

What you can do:

  • Sign this petition that will be delivered to the House Committee on Energy, Environment and Water co-chairs on May 23rd! (Updated: This petition was signed by 500 parents and hand delivered on 5/23 by some very determined volunteers from The Mother Pac.)
  • Learn more about BPA from OEC. I have also recently written about it here, here, and here.

Updated: Oregon’s legislators have thus far ignored the petition signatures, the calls, and the letters from Oregon parents – Oregon constituents and have left the BPA-Free Baby Bill to languish in committee hoping that we don’t notice or don’t care enough to raise our voices loud enough to demand children’s health over politics.

Please, take the time today to contact your legislator. Tell them you are disappointed. Ask them to make their position on BPA clear. Ask them to make children’s health a priority now.

photo credit: flickr

Why we make this organic garden grow

Posted on by December 10, 2018

Little gardeners
We are just now getting our little garden started again for this year. We have been lucky to not have the horrific weather that has been affecting so much of the country lately, but we have also not had the best gardening-with-small-children weather.

Let’s face it, I am not about to get out and work in the yard in the rain and the cold.

We are amateur gardeners at best. Some of us like to dig in the dirt and feel the mud oozing through our fingers. Some of us like to learn about the plants. Some of us like to eat. We all enjoy the garden.

Our garden is not about growing and saving for the winter -not yet anyway. Our garden is not about reducing our grocery bills, although that would be a nice benefit. Our garden isn’t even about a love of gardening, although if we all learn a bit more of that along the way, it would be a good thing.

We have a garden to simply teach our children about growing and caring for plants, understanding that food comes from hard work, fortunate weather, and the earth – whether that is in our own backyard, the local farm, or a large cooperative of farms farther removed from our daily lives. Food does not come from the store. Let me rephrase, food does not originate at the store.

We have an organic garden so our children can run barefoot in the yard, in the dirt and in the grass. So they can stand in the raspberry bushes and pluck the juicy berries with muddy little fingers and enjoy the sun-ripened goodness right then and there without a thought that they should not.

Muddy hands eating berries

We have a garden because of then I can hear my 7 year old tell my 5 year old in his knowing voice that the tomatoes that we grow in our garden taste so much better than the ones that we get from the store. It amazes me to hear two boys that ordinarily would not willingly eat tomatoes become excited about the tomato plants that we have growing out back and look forward to the fruit they will bear.

We have a garden to try vegetables that might otherwise be passed over in the store or varieties that are simply not available there. I might not love Brussels sprouts, but we are going to grow them and I’ll eat them! They might not love broccoli, but we are going to grow it and they’ll try it. Planting heirloom varieties you don’t see everywhere is fun and exciting and lends itself to more adventurous eating on all of our parts.

We have a garden to experience it in all the triumphs and failures, in all the deliciousness of the fruits of their labor and the healthfulness of the vegetables we grow despite how we may really feel about them, the patience and work, the learning and careful tending. There are life lessons to be learned here and I hope to let my children find them as they’re growing.

Tell me about your garden! Why do you have one and what do you grow?

A Mother’s Day for change

Posted on by March 12, 2012

My kids are still little. I am not sure they really understand the concept of Mother’s Day at all, which is really fine by me. I suppose that makes it all the more easier to shape it into something that we would like for it to be rather than have expectations placed upon us about what it has to be.

I was handed a Mother’s Day art piece when I picked up my preschooler on Thursday. He was obviously quite proud of the work that he had done. And he made sure to point out it was just for me.

I was given a card made in the first grade class when I picked my son up from his school on Friday. Again with obvious pride. The inside of the card said that I was pretty and smart and caring with a drawing of me to go alongside.

And that is enough.

My three little ones

And yet it isn’t.

I don’t need flowers or chocolates or jewelry (although perhaps an iPhone to get me out of the cell phone stone ages). But I do need something more.

I often talk about the fights I will fight for my children. I often talk about my belief that their health and the health of their world should not be compromised for profit. I often talk about what I will do, what I believe, and what kind of world I want for them. We mothers have such responsibility, and all too often not enough respect or support from the people charged with making decisions that have the greatest impact on our health, on the quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink.

Today, for Mother’s Day, I want to know that my children will not have to pick up this fight in twenty years.

I expect that my children won’t take the lives they have been given for granted.

I expect that they, and their generation, will fight for their humanity in this world we have given them.

I expect that I will teach my children well enough to grow up, to be successful, to make a positive difference in this world in some way.

I know that there are mothers the world over that want the same things and are fighting to get them.

But I don’t want for them to have to fight this fight.

What I want and what we all need is for the world’s leaders of all shapes, sorts, and sizes to understand that our children deserve to grow up in a world where chemicals are tested for safety before entering the market toxic pesticides with proven adverse health effects are not allowed near their food, no one would dream of touching the Clean Air Act unless it were to make it stronger, and where a person like me that likes to research and share the things that might harm the health of a child or her environment would have a lot of extra time on her hands to play with her children.

Happy Mother's Day!

That will be my Mother’s Day wish until it comes true. I will keep fighting until it does. Will you?

This post was written for the Moms Clean Air Force (MCAF) blog carnival, A Mother’s Day Gift, where participants share their hopes and dreams about what kind of world they want their kids to grow up in.

I want to wish a very Happy Mother’s Day to my mom. She did indeed teach me well. I read this on NPR and wanted to leave you with her favorite song :

Sunshine on My Shoulders

 

New Studies Find Prenatal Exposure to Pesticides Impact IQ

Posted on by October 5, 2012

A few days ago, three long-term studies were released that found that a woman’s exposure to organophosphate pesticides during pregnancy could affect IQ and memory in her child 6 to 9 years later. Organophosphates are one of the most commonly sprayed, and most toxic, used today on food crops.

We can do better for our children.

People have long known that organophosphates are neurotoxic at high doses. They were originally developed as nerve-gas agents for chemical warfare.

Studies have long linked chronic, low-level exposure to organophosphates to: ADHD and learning disabilities in children; reduced levels of testosterone and fertility in men; leukemia and lymphoma; increased risk of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease.

Now, three separate teams of researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health have found that a child’s IQ will decrease in direct proportion to the mother’s exposure to organophosphates while pregnant.

Study after study has shown the damaging effect these pesticides have on the developing brain. The EPA had put a few restrictions in place, but the emergence of these three new studies show it isn’t enough. The link between prenatal exposure and long-term cognitive development is clear.

Farmers Market Veggies

The largest source of organophosphates are fruit and vegetables that have been sprayed with the toxic pesticide.

Reduce exposure to organophosphates by:

  • washing all produce thoroughly. All produce.
  • buying organically grown produce.
  • buying locally grown, in season produce.

If you are unable to buy all organic produce, then just do your best to buy the produce with the highest levels of pesticide use organic. Use this handy Shopper’s Guide from the Environmental Working Group to help you learn about the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15!

EWG Shoppers Guide

But we can’t stop there. I am sure most of you can guess who the test subjects were for each of these studies? Some were agricultural workers or the family members of agricultural workers, some were mutli-ethnic inner city dwellers. All were low-income.

The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 is one way we can work to make sure all Americans are safe from the highest risk chemicals, not just ones that can afford to buy organic and live in areas with clean water and clean soil.

Have you contacted your Senator yet? Not sure what to say? Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families has some great tips to use writing a personal letter or phone call. Or simply join in sending a message directly to your Senators.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes that we are not protecting children and pregnant women adequately and support this proposed legislation. It is time Congress did too.

How are you going to make a difference today?