A recent op-ed about flame retardants in the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/11/ED55544.DTL Dangerous Chemicals 11 June 2003 "FLAME RETARDANTS seemed like such a good idea. Used in upholstered furniture, clothing and many other consumer products, they promised to save lives. But, as it turns out, some of these chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, appear to be endangering lives as well. PBDEs break down slowly, persist in the environment and accumulate in human and animal fat. San Francisco Bay harbor seals, for example, bear some of the highest levels of PBDEs in the world. American women, it turns out, have 10 to 70 times more PBDEs in their breast milk, tissues and blood than do women in Europe, where industry has gradually phased the chemicals out. This year, in fact, the European Union banned PBDE compounds...." [The essay goes on to describe what is known about their effects on children's brain development and endorses a bill in California legislature that seeks to ban PBDEs. I think this is a bill that we in the lactation community could really rally behind. Any thoughts from lacnetters in California?] -- -- Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors 110 Rice Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 [log in to unmask] www.steingraber.com *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html