Really? More than 100 studies have been done by government scientists that link BPA to cancers, diabetes, behavioural discorders and more and yet, the FDA says there is no cause for concern. FDA has drafted a report to present at their September meeting. They agree that small amounts of BPA transfer from container to food, but feel that the amount is small enough to not cause harm.

BPA has been in use since the ’50s and some studies show that 93 percent of the population has some amount of it in their urine.

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Tags: General, Health, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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This Footprint Calculator is a short little animated quiz to determine how many Earths you need to support your lifestyle. It will ask a series of questions to determine your Ecological Footprint, how much productive land and sea is needed to support your activities. Once you finish, you’ll be met with some ideas for reducing your footprint.

As with any calculator, this one doesn’t address everything. It does not mention composting or cloth diapering, buying second hand. But, I think a calculator that does address all issues would be one long quiz to take! Regardless, I came up with needing about 3.9 Earths.

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Tags: General, Helpful Sites by Stephanie
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Save Wilted Veggies. Mix a teaspoon or two of white distilled vinegar with cold water and soak those veggies.

Add some Zest to your Canned Soup. Just add a teaspoon of red or white wine vinegar to your canned soup or sauce.

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Tags: General, Vinegar by Stephanie
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I have been way slow in posting this week, it’s been a busy week around here. Last night we sat down to watch a movie and one of the “previews” was this commercial from thetruth.com. The part where the sign is being held up that says “Tobacco kills 1200 a day”, just really got me thinking. If that many a day die from Tobacco, how many die per day? How many are born per day? It just seemed like a really high number. I never pay attention to population counts.

So off to Google I go. I came across the U.S. POPClock Projection. Wow! I really had no idea what the population was. At the time of this writing (Saturday, Aug 23, 1:17pm EST), the population is about 304,950,469. No doubt when you read it, it’s going to be higher. By the time I hit the publish button, it’ll be higher. Approximately one birth every 7 seconds. Approximately one death every 14 seconds. I’m getting about 12,300 babies born every DAY. Basically for every one death, there are two births.

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Tags: General, Helpful Sites by Stephanie
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Yay! Thank you Mr. President! On Thursday President Bush sign the Toy Safety Bill. I’m a little late in posting this, but wanted to spread the great news. It will take some time before the measures are put into place, but this is great news.  The US now has the toughest lead standards in the world. To throw some numbers out there, over 45,000 items for kids were recalled last year due to lead. CPSC estimates 28,000 deaths per year due to unsafe products. This law now prohibits lead beyond minute levels and phthalates from children’s toys.

I’ll still be avoiding China made items this holiday season, and most likely beyond, but I feel good knowing that soon, all toys bought in the US will be much, much safer than before.

Tags: General, Safe Things by Stephanie
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Medela is and always has been BPA-free. To help calm mom’s fears, they are offering one free BPA-free breastmilk bottle. All you need to do is join the Medela Community. The community offers you a free place to get to know other expectant and nursing moms! You can read more on the plastics that Medela uses on this page.

Tags: Free, General, Helpful Sites, Safe Things by Stephanie
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