"Fast Track," the TPP and Why we Must Stop them Both

Today's blog will be a collection of links and quotes from other source because this is a complicated issue and an important one. The TransPacific Partnership is a free-trade agreement (a la NAFTA) supported by President Obama and the GOP, so it has bipartisan support. It also has HEAVY support from industries like Monsanto and some have called the bill "NAFTA on steroids."

Safer Chemicals Healthy Families: Stop “Fast Track”  

"Fast Track is a piece of legislation that was first introduced by Nixon in 1974, but was recently  re-introduced by U.S. Representative Dave Camp and Senator Max Baucus as a bill that  would grant President Barack Obama “Fast Track” trade promotion authority.

This is a fancy way of saying it would take away power from Congress to amend and discuss important details of secret international trade deals. Trade deals that may roll back state, national and international laws on toxic chemicals, environmental and worker protections. "

Hmmm. Let's take a look at the trade deal itself.

Stop TPP

"The nations involved are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, and Peru. Japan, Mexico and Canada have indicated a desire to join.

• TPP will offshore millions of good-paying jobs to low-wage nations, undercutting working conditions globally and increasing unemployment.
• TPP will expand pharmaceutical monopoly protections and institute longer patents that will  decrease access to affordable medications
• TPP will limit food GMO labeling and allow the import of goods that do not meet US safe standards.
• TPP will institute SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA-like regulations and Internet measures which restrict our right to free speech.
• TPP will roll back Wall Street regulations, and prohibit bans on risky financial services.
• TPP will give multinational corporations and private investors the right to sue nations in private tribunals. These tribunals have the power to overturn environmental, labor, or any other laws that limit profit, awarding taxpayer funded damages.
• TPP will encourage the privatization of lands and natural resources in areas where indigenous people live."

From The Huffington Post:

"One of the most controversial provisions in the talks includes new corporate empowerment language insisted upon by the U.S. government, which would allow foreign companies to challenge laws or regulations in a privately run international court. Under World Trade Organization treaties, this political power to contest government law is reserved for sovereign nations. The U.S. has endorsed some corporate political powers in prior trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the scope of what laws can be challenged appears to be much broader in TPP negotiations."

One of the many reasons people have been pushing back against this law is that negations have been taking place in secret. Wikileaks is responsible for finding and releasing some documents to the public. I'll compile some links below that will provide more information on the trade agreement and actions you can take.

Expose the TPP
Citizen Trade Campaign
Flush the TPP

Toxic Chemicals and Mental Illness

Mental illness is often kept quiet, in this country. We may all know someone who suffers from a mental illness but none of us may want to talk of about it. Having lost people in my life to suicide, I try to make a point to support mental health causes when and wherever I can. That's why I became interested in the link between toxic chemicals and mood disorders.

It turns out that heavy, pesticides, solvents, PCBs, vinyl chloride, and other chemicals and cause or trigger mood disorder symptoms*. How does this happen?

According to Dr. Janelle Sinclair, 4 different mechanisms cause depression.

1. Toxins, particularly solvents, heavy metals, and pesticides disrupt neurons' (brain cells') normal abilities to communicate with each other through electrical signals.
2. Both mercury and lead are so toxic to the brain that they damage the actual structure of the brain.
3. Toxins affect the levels of neurotransmitters available. The electrical signals lead to the creation of neurotransmitters, like serotonin, that travel from neuron to neuron. Too much or too little of these neurotransmitters can affect our mood. An example, provided by Dr. Sinclair is manganese. Manganese reduces serotonin levels. If your serotonin levels are too low, you feel depressed.
4. Mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic create free radical damage in the body. In the brain, this can lead to inflammation, and neuronal death.

Now what about other disorders? Well, from the citation below, you will find a treasure trove a information, including pesticides. I will post some charts from the paper below.

*Collaborative on Health and the Environment. (2008, November). Mental Health and Environmental Exposures from Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative. Retrieved January 30, 2014, from http://www.healthandenvironment.org/?module=uploads&func=download&fileId=620

Companies continue to hide toxic chemicals from consumers.

According to a recent report from Women's Voice for the Earth, twenty-two companies have requested "trade secret" status in order to bypass California's new public database of toxic cosmetic chemicals, the California Safe Cosmetics Program Database.

This database is fairly new, only released this month, and it requires companies to report reproductive and carcinogenic toxins under California's Proposition 65. Proposition 65 was approved by voters in 1986 and was also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. According to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which administers the program and database:

"Proposition 65 requires businesses to notify Californians about significant amounts of chemicals in the products they purchase, in their homes or workplaces, or that are released into the environment. By providing this information, Proposition 65 enables Californians to make informed decisions about protecting themselves from exposure to these chemicals. Proposition 65 also prohibits California businesses from knowingly discharging significant amounts of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water. "

Products in California that meet the requirement for reproductive and carcinogenic toxicity can also carry Prop 65 labels.

These companies, listed below, are trying to abuse the trade secret system in order to avoid these labels and public pressure to change their ingredients. It's a shame the once again, profit trumps public health. Shame of these companies! If you would like to voice your opinion on this issue, you can call the 1-800 number listed on the products, ask the manufacturers about the ingredients and demand action.

Alberto Culver

• Motions
• Nexxus
• Soft & Beautiful
• Tresemme

Alberto Culver USA, Inc.

• FDS (removed trade secret ingredient)
• St. Ives (removed trade secret ingredient)
• VO5 (removed trade secret ingredient)

Chattem, Inc.

• Balmex
• BullFrog
• Cortizone 10
• Gold Bond
• Herpecin-L
• Mudd
• Selsun Blue
• Selsun Naturals
• Selsun Salon

Colgate-Palmolive Company

• SOFTSOAP (removed trade secret ingredient or discontinued product)

Conopco, Inc.

• Suave (removed trade secret ingredient or discontinued product)

Demeter Fragrance Library, Inc.
Demeter
Farouk Systems, Inc.

• Bioglitz
• Bioglitz Color
• BioSilk
• CHI
• CHI Organics
• Chromatic (discontinued product)
• Sungliltz
• Sunglitz

Great Clips, Inc.

• Detour – Great Clips
• Solutions by Great Clips

Jan Marini Skin Research, Inc.

• Jan Marini Skin Research

Kenra Professional, LLC

• Elucence
• Kenra (r) Classic
• Kenra (r) Platinum

Lumene Oy

• Lumene

Melaleuca, Inc.

• Nicole Miller – Confidential  (removed trade secret ingredient)

Nars Cosmetics

• NARS

Regis Corporation

• Costcutters
• Mastercuts
• Regis Design Line

Robell Research

• Supersmile

rolland srl

• Insight
• Organic Way
• Una

Rowpar Pharmaceuticals, Inc

• CloSYS

Schwartzkopf & Henkel

• Got2B
• Smooth N Shine

Shiseido America, Inc.

• Basala  (discontinued product)
• NARS
• Shiseido
• Shiseido Benefiance BENEFIANCE
• Shiseido Future Solution
• Shiseido Pureness
• Shiseido The Makeup
• Shiseido The Skincare
• Shiseido White Lucen

Shiseido Co., Ltd.

• Cle de peau beaute
• Qiora
• Shiseido
• Shiseido Benefiance
• Shiseido Bio-Performance
• Shiseido Elixir
• Shiseido Hair Care
• Shiseido Men
• Shiseido Pureness
• Shiseido The Makeup
• Shiseido The Skincare
• Shiseido White Lucent

Tammy Taylor Nails, Inc.

• Tammy Taylor
• Tammy Taylor Nails

The Dial Corporation

• Coast
• Dial
• Right Guard

Thanks to Women's Voices for the Earth.

Toxic Burnout

As if worrying about what we eat and what we put on our bodies isn't enough. Now we have to worry about where we sit and where we sleep! Toxic flame retardants are found in mattresses, carpets, chairs, couches, strollers, nursing pillows, and electronics, just to name a few.

In theory, flame retardants are supposed to slow the growth of fires and allow for extended escape time, in the event of a fire. In reality, these chemicals may provide only extra seconds of escape time, which is fine, but is it worth the long-term health risks? (Notice that the American Chemistry Council has sites promoting now refuted research on flame retardants and escape times - www.flameretardantfacts.com/benefits/). Also, these chemicals are only necessary because so many of the products we use today, including furniture foam, are made from petroleum products.

If you look around your home you will probably see some tags that look like this:

In 1975, California adopted Technical Bulletin 117, which required all furniture sold in the state to meet open-flame tests, so that the cushions would not ignite in the presence of a flame. Because CA is a large market, so furniture producers began to make all of their furniture with flame retardants and thus, the chemicals spread nationwide. Unfortunately, flame retardants are volatile and enter the air and our bodies.

A 2013 study by the MIND Institute at UC Davis found one component of the flame retardants accumulates in human blood, fat and breast milk.

The institute summarized the study by saying the “chemical, quite literally, reduces brain power.” The findings “bolster the argument that genetics and environment can combine to increase the risk of autism and other neurological disorders.”

These chemicals are also persistent, meaning they are long-lasting in the environment (our homes and our bodies). 

Yet many of these compounds have also turned out to be environmentally mobile and persistent — turning up in food and household dust — and are now so ubiquitous that levels of the chemicals in the blood of North Americans appear to have been doubling every two to five years for the past several decades.

Young children may be the most vulnerable to flame retardant exposure because they are often found in children's products and children often spend time on the floor around dust. Exposure to these chemicals can lead to developmental problems, reduced IQ, cancer, and impaired fertility.

A recent film, Toxic Hot Seat, examined the issue of flame retardants and how they were making firefighters sick, as well as others.

Recently, Gov. Brown of CA called for TB 117 to be reviewed, but the review will not eliminate or ban all flame retardants. More work will still be needed.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6099722/dan-morain-an-insider-questions.html#storylink=cpy

Toxics and Healthcare Costs

Today, I'm in a really bad mood; a REALLY bad mood. So I thought I'd channel my emotions into a post about how toxic chemicals drive up health care costs and how the chemical industry continues to lie to the public.  As I stated in a previous post, our health care system, here in the U.S., is based on treatment, not prevention.

We already know that chemicals can lead to cancers, allergic reactions, act as irritants, and neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors (chemicals that mimic or antagonize our body's hormone system).  According to a recent report from Safer Chemicals Healthy Families (SCHF):

• Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers have increased by more than 20% since 1975.
• Breast cancer went up by 40% between 1973 and 1998. While breast cancer rates have declined since 2003, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is now 1 in 8, up from 1 in 10 in 1973.
• Asthma prevalence approximately doubled between 1980 and 1995 and has stayed at the elevated rate.
• Difficulty in conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy affected 40% more women in 2002 than in 1982. The incidence of reported difficulty has almost doubled in younger women ages 18–25.
• Since the early 1990s, reported cases of autism spectrum disorder have increased tenfold.

 Those are some pretty expensive conditions, aren't they? Also in the SCHF report:

• 133 million people in the U.S.— almost half of all Americans — are now living with chronic diseases and conditions, which now account for 70% of deaths and 75% of U.S. health care costs.

• Even if chemical policy reform leads to reductions in toxic chemical exposures that translate into just a 0.1% reduction in of health care costs, it would save the U.S. health care system an estimated $5 billion every year.

Unfortunately,  the companies that make these chemicals have the ear of many in Congress, through their lobbying dollars. They have been able to set up front groups, like the American Chemistry Council to widely promote their message and they have been able to convince the public that they need these chemicals to maintain their current level of comfort and lifestyle.

Let's look at bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen, designed to be a pharmaceutical, it was replaced by diethylstibestrol (DES). BPA went on to become an ingredient in many plastics, including baby bottles until consumers demanded the estrogenic endocrine disruptor be taken out of several products. Well, BPA has been removed, but it has been replaced with bisphenol S (BPS). BPS degrades more slowly than BPS, so it remains in the "BPA-free" product longer and it's also estrogenic and toxic.

However, according to industry, BPA is safe and necessary for modern life. Take a look their website,
Facts About BPA and see what they have to say about products that are "BPA-free."

Myth: If I buy a BPA free product, is it safer?

Reality: Materials used in contact with food or beverages in the U.S. are evaluated for safety by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has recently stated that BPA, used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, is safe for currently approved uses in food containers and packaging.
“Free of” claims on food packaging have nothing to do with FDA’s safety determination.  “Free of” claims are frequently used for advertising purposes to signal the absence of a chemical or material. Note that the Federal Trade Commission has specifically cautioned that “free-of claims may deceive consumers by falsely suggesting that … the marketer has ‘‘improved’’ the product by removing the substance.” 
- See more at: http://www.factsaboutbpa.org/bpa-safety/myths-realities#sthash.tSfvhgCf.dpuf

Reality: Materials used in contact with food or beverages in the U.S. are evaluated for safety by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has recently stated that BPA, used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, is safe for currently approved uses in food containers and packaging.

“Free of” claims on food packaging have nothing to do with FDA’s safety determination. “Free of” claims are frequently used for advertising purposes to signal the absence of a chemical or material. Note that the Federal Trade Commission has specifically cautioned that “free-of claims may deceive consumers by falsely suggesting that … the marketer has ‘‘improved’’ the product by removing the substance.”

Interesting, since in this case, "BPA-free" means "replaced with BPS." Even more interesting is the "Contact Us" page that shows that the American Chemistry Council is behind the site. 
I for one and sick of industry having more influence than scientists and consumers. How about you?

Reality: Materials used in contact with food or beverages in the U.S. are evaluated for safety by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has recently stated that BPA, used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, is safe for currently approved uses in food containers and packaging.
“Free of” claims on food packaging have nothing to do with FDA’s safety determination.  “Free of” claims are frequently used for advertising purposes to signal the absence of a chemical or material. Note that the Federal Trade Commission has specifically cautioned that “free-of claims may deceive consumers by falsely suggesting that … the marketer has ‘‘improved’’ the product by removing the substance.” 
- See more at: http://www.factsaboutbpa.org/bpa-safety/myths-realities#sthash.tSfvhgCf.dpuf

Myth: If I buy a BPA free product, is it safer?

Myth: If I buy a BPA free product, is it safer?

Reality: Materials used in contact with food or beverages in the U.S. are evaluated for safety by the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has recently stated that BPA, used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, is safe for currently approved uses in food containers and packaging.
“Free of” claims on food packaging have nothing to do with FDA’s safety determination.  “Free of” claims are frequently used for advertising purposes to signal the absence of a chemical or material. Note that the Federal Trade Commission has specifically cautioned that “free-of claims may deceive consumers by falsely suggesting that … the marketer has ‘‘improved’’ the product by removing the substance.” 
- See more at: http://www.factsaboutbpa.org/bpa-safety/myths-realities#sthash.tSfvhgCf.dpuf

Myth: If I buy a BPA free product, is it safer?

More Toxic Chemicals to Avoid and the Need to Real Reform

Here is an image from the website It's a Harleyyy Life that shows succinctly shows 30 toxic chemicals to avoid and their health effects. Many we have already gone over, but I like the presentation of this graph and it may be a good printout for your home or shopping list.

Here is another image from Women's Voices for the Earth.

As you can see, by removing toxic chemicals, we could avoid many costly health issues. However, our health system is based on treatment, not prevention and current laws are not strong enough to regulate these chemicals off of the market. While Ava Anderson offers non toxic products and I am proud to be a consultant, I am also a believer in the need for real legislative reform.

Currently, there is a bill called the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA) in the Senate and in Committee in the House that has the backing of the Chemicals Industry (The American Chemistry Council). CSIA does not allow states to ban or take action on chemicals they determine to be dangerous. It does not protect hotspot/fenceline communities. It does not protect pregnant women, children, or other vulnerable populations, and it places more bureaucracy in place at the EPA, delaying any action they could take on toxic chemicals by 5-8 years. 

That's why I support the group Safer Chemicals Healthy Families. They work in DC and they work in collaboration with groups around the United States to lobby Congress, and push for real legislation reform to protect our families and ALL populations.

Are obesogens harming your weight loss plans?

Obesogens are endocrine disruptors; chemicals that disruptor our body's hormone systems. Obesogens disrupt the way our body regulates our weight. Resulting in decreased calories burned, increased fat cells and even changes in the way your body manages hunger. 

According to Dr. Oz, obesogens work by the following methods:

• "Encourage the body to store fat and re-program cells to become fat cells.
• Prompt the liver to become insulin resistant, which makes the pancreas pump out more insulin that turns energy into fat all over the body.
• Prevent leptin (a hormone that reduces appetite) from being released from your fat cells to tell your body you are full."

You'll find obesogens in the following places:

• flame retardants = found in furniture and electronics
• Bisphenol A(BPA) = plastics with recycling number 7 on the bottom, receipts, lining of cans
• phthalates= new car smell, fragrance in personal care products
• triclosan = antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers
• polyvinylchloride (pvc) = shower curtains. Look for non pvc curtains.
• Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) = teflon cookware. Try cast iron pans.
• high fructose corn syrup
• atrazine  = pesticide (atrazinelovers.com). Get a water filter to avoid this.
• microwave popcorn
• vinyl flooring, industrial strength plastic wrap, grocery store plastic wrap over meat. Ask for meet wrapped in brown paper.
• air fresheners. Try dried herbs and flowers.
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PCBs) = industrial chemicals that enter the food chain and enter our diet through fish and meat. Try Meatless Mondays.