September 22, 2009
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko, PhD.
Appeared in:
- Orange Coast Voice, Dec. 16, 2009
- Southern Sierran, Dec. 2009
- Fullerton Observer as A Few Less Toxins in Toyland, Nov. 2009, page 9
- San Fernando Valley Sierra Club newsletter, Nov. 2009
This is an updated version of
Fewer Toxins in Toyland that incorporates recently stalled legislation in California aimed at protecting young children from risky chemicals.
This holiday season, parents shopping for children can rest just a tad easier because of a recent California law restricting the use of toxic phthalate plasticizers in toys and childcare products made of plastic. Additional legislative efforts to rein in two other classes of chemicals suspected of posing health risks to youngsters, bisphenol A and halogenated flame retardants, emerged this year in the State Senate, although neither met with success.
But, perhaps the best news is that California has enacted laws establishing a groundbreaking precautionary approach to the oversight of chemicals that should soon make such painstaking chemical-by-chemical regulation a thing of the past.
Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | 
California, green business, health, plastics, politics, pollution, science, sustainable living, toxics | Tagged: bisphenol-a, California, cancer, endocrine disruptors, flame retardants, Green Chemistry Initiative, halogenated flame retardants, health, infant formula, PBDE, phthalates, plasticizers, plastics, politics, polybrominated diphenyl ether, polyvinyl chloride, PVC, SB 772 Leno, SB 797 Pavley, toxic chemicals | 
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Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
August 13, 2009
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko, PhD
Also see an update to this article, Too Fewer Toxins in Toyland, that incorporates stalled legislation in California aimed at protecting young children from risky chemicals.
California has moved to restrict use of toxic phthalate plasticizers in PVC children's toys. Photo courtesy of Center for Environmental Health and Justice.
This holiday season, parents shopping for children can rest a tad easier because of a recent California law restricting the use of toxic phthalate plasticizers in toys and childcare products made of plastic. Additional classes of chemicals suspected of posing health risks to children, bisphenol A and halogenated flame retardants, could be reined in before long too, pending the fate of two struggling state senate bills.
But, perhaps the best news of all is that California has enacted laws establishing a groundbreaking precautionary approach to the oversight of all chemicals that should soon make painstaking chemical-by-chemical regulation a thing of the past.
Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | California, health, plastics, politics, pollution, science, sustainable living, toxics | Tagged: bisphenol-a, California, cancer, endocrine disruptors, flame retardants, Green Chemistry Initiative, halogenated flame retardants, health, infant formula, PBDE, phthalates, plasticizers, plastics, politics, polybrominated diphenyl ether, polyvinyl chloride, PVC, SB 772 Leno, SB 797 Pavley, toxic chemicals | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
April 1, 2008
Appeared in
- Southern Sierran as Firefighters Back Ban on Flame Retardants, July 2008, page 2
- Orange Coast Voice as Toxic Flame Retardants: Ubiquitious but toxic BFRs are everywhere, even the Artic, April 2008, page 11
Firefighters Back Banning Controversial Flame Retardant
Sarah S. Mosko, Ph.D.
BFRs are so ubiquitous that they are found in remote areas of the Artic and throughout the food chain, from zooplankton to dolphins and polar bears.
Your TV, mattress, couch and computer could be sources of man-made toxic chemicals building up in human tissues, including breast milk. Sounds crazy, but it’s not.
Many consumer products are imbued with a class of flame retardants considered by many to be bad news since they accumulate in fatty tissues, resist breakdown in the environment, and disrupt normal development in lab animals. They are called polybrominated diphenyl ethers or just brominated flame retardants (BFRs).
Introduced in the 1970’s, BFRs have become commonplace in upholstery foam, textiles and electronics because synthetic materials, like petroleum-based plastics, are generally more flammable. BFRs impede the spread of fire bycreating a layer of bromine gas around a heated product, keeping oxygen at bay. They comprise up to 30% of an item’s weight and migrate out over time into air, dust, and soil. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | California, green business, health, politics, pollution, sustainable living, toxics | Tagged: AB706, BFRs, breast milk, brominated flame retardants, California Professional Fire Figthers, California State Firefighters' Association, cancer, deca, environment, fire fighter, Firefighter Cancer Support Network, Firefighters Burn Institute, green business, green chemistry, health, IKEA, octa, PBDE, penta, pollution, polybrominated diphenyl ether, science, sustainability | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
March 1, 2007
Appeared in:
- Orange Coast Voice, August 2007, page 10.
- Southern Sierran, March 2007.
Trust in Chemicals Unhealthy: U.S. Can Learn from European Union
Sarah S. Mosko, Ph.D.
About 80,000 chemicals have been introduced since World War II, produced at facilities like this one.
WWII marked the introduction of man-made chemicals into modern society, revolutionizing many of the consumer products we use every day.
Consider the following. Plastic cotainers, non-stick cookware, and cleaning products stock our kitchen pantries. Our foods are grown with liberal use of synthetic fertilizers. Hardly a wall anywhere goes unpainted. We sit, walk, and sleep on materials that do not derive from nature. Few of us can image getting through a hectic day at work or school without the aid of computers, telephones or other chemical-laden electronic devices. Even popular high-tech clothing fabrics are 100% synthetic.
We do not give much thought to what chemicals went into the manufacture of these everyday commodities. We trust whole-heartedly that any chemicals used are safe and well regulated by the government. But, are they?
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Leave a Comment » | health, politics, science, sustainable living, toxics | Tagged: breast milk, cancer, chemical safety, EPA, man-made consumer products, REACH, reproductive abnormalities, synthetics, toxic chemicals, umbilical cord blood | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
Boogie Green 
