A Green Eyed View - green ideas and advice

BPA Served Up With The Change For Your Latte

You do your best to avoid BPA (bisphenol A) because you know it is linked to abnormal reproductive system development, diminished intellectual capacity and behavioral abnormalities and can set the stage for other serious conditions, such as reproductive system cancer, obesity, diabetes, early puberty, resistance to chemotherapy, asthma and cardiovascular system disorders. But now we're finding BPA served up with your change for your latte.

You may even be supporting a federal ban on BPA being used in food containers. That's great. But the Environmental Working Group reported last summer that we are faced with a new source of exposure to BPA –  thermal activated cash register receipts. Just normal handling of one of those receipts is enough to allow BPA to be absorbed into your system by way of your skin.

Environmental Working Group's tests indicate that two-fifths of the cash register receipts from gas stations, fast food stores, major retailers, banks, grocery stores, convenience stores that were tested showed from 0.8 to nearly 3 percent pure BPA by weight. Receipts from some major chains, including Target, Starbucks and Bank of America ATMs, issued receipts that were BPA-free or contained only trace amounts.

Studies by the Center for Disease Control show that retail workers carry 30 percent more BPA in their bodies than other adults. Cashiers handle BPA coated receipts hundreds of times a day. And they don't have to. Since many retailers use receipts that are not coated with BPA, the solution is at hand.

Meanwhile, as we wait for this particular hazard to get taken off out of the retail market there are some ways to reduce your exposure:

• Don't take receipts from gas pumps, ATMs, or other machines when you are given the option
• Keep your receipts together in an envelope in your wallet or purse
• Don't let your children have access to your receipts
• Wash your hands after handling a receipt, especially before handling food
• Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling receipts. A recent study showed that these products can increase the skin's BPA absorption (Biedermann 2010).
• Take advantage of a store's ability to email your receipt
• BPA residue can contaminate other paper –  DO NOT RECYCLE receipts

Please be careful and pass this news along to your friends and family.

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New Study Points Out Risks in Pool Chlorination

Chlorine disinfection is a cheap and effective method when used in our water. It's commonly used by municipal water treatment facilities. It's also used for public and private swimming pool maintenance.

A new study points out the risks in pool chlorination. Chlorine combines with organic matter creating a whole new combination of disinfection by-products. Dr. Manolis Kogevinas is a professor and co-director of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain and he just completed research showing that the by-products created can and do have adverse health effects on humans.

Disinfectant by-products, DBPs, show up in thousands of different combinations in our swimming pools. Chlorine combines with what's already in our municipal water and with other organic materials being continuously introduced to the water in which we swim, such as sweat, skin cells, and urine.

Dr. Kogevinas studied biomarkers in swimmers before and after they swam for 40 minutes in a pool treated with chlorine. What he found was that biomarkers associated with cancer were elevated in the blood and urine of test subjects after they completed their swim.

Other studies have shown that DBPs in drinking water may be associated with increased cases of bladder cancer. We don't have long term studies of swimmers as yet.

You can reduce your risks associated with chlorine in your pool by eliminating it from your pool   maintenance program. With the Mineral Pure Pool Purification System you'll be disinfecting your pool without the harmful exposure to chlorine and be swimming in crystal clear water that exceeds EPA standards for drinking water.

Mineral Pure uses copper and silver ionization, a safe non-toxic alternative to chlorine, to kill cryptosporidium, E-Coli, V. Cholera, Legionnaires Disease, and many other types of bacteria and viruses.

The Mineral Pure Pool Purification System is easy to use and inexpensive to operate and is backed by a 5 Year warranty. Protect your family from the risks of chlorination today.