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