As we reported in December, Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-partisan research organization,  made public a study of unbilical cord blood of American babies. The test found nearly 300 chemicals, including many present in plastic objects such as Bisphenol A (BPA), flame retardants, lead, and PCBs.

Sign the petition to safeguard our children

These chemicals are increasingly linked to serious long-term health effects, such as, cancer, autism, Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disorders, infertility, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Our children must get the healthy start they deserve. We all can help by joining the thousands of other Americans demanding a real federal toxics law that will make consumer products safe for kids.

Environmental Working Group has created an online petition to support the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act, which would require that all chemicals be proven safe for children before they can be sold.

Lawmakers in Washington need to know that you want them to reform our broken toxics law.  Click here to add your voice to the petition.

An article in Sierra Club Green Home highlights a recent study by the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill linking behavioral problems in children from women that were exposed to plastics containing bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy.

The study, published Oct. 6, (download full report PDF) suggests that if a woman is exposed to plastics that leach BPA during her pregnancy,  the baby’s nervous system might be adversely affected.  Consequences include aggressive behavior and hyperactivity.

This is the first study ever to examine if there is a link between prenatal BPA exposure and these neurological problems in children.  Until now all studies had been performed on animals, not on humans, even though this concern has been expressed by scientists for years.

Other public health disasters, such as obesity, diabetes, breast cancer and infertility are also linked to bisphenol A (BPA) exposure.

Governments have a responsibility to intervene immediately and protect the public from exposure to BPA and other toxic chemicals leached by plastics, especially when scientific investigation has already established a more than plausible risk to human health. In some legal systems, as in the law of the European Union, the precautionary principle is a general and compulsory principle of the law.  Unfortunately, this is not the case in the US.

In the face of governmental apathy, and collusion with the plastic industry lobbyists, time has come for us citizens to raise awareness and start a social movement to demand legislation to ban BPA.

Watch this video by Dr. Frederick vom Saal, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri and an expert in the study of the effects of BPA.