I ran across this article on CNN today. Maybe you saw it too. After reading it, I did a little searching on atrazine and was not all that pleased with what I read. Yeah, so what else is new?! Are pesticides affecting humans? Are pesticides to blame for infertility and other issues? I read so many articles linking pesticides and chemicals to defects and such that I just don’t question it anymore. We need to remove the chemicals from our lives or at least study them more before they become so widely used.

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide in the US, mostly for corn, sorghum and sugarcane.

In 2004, the European Union banned atrazine due to it’s groundwater contamination.

In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey found atrazine in 75 percent of stream water and 40 percent of groundwater samples from areas tested between 1992 and 2001.

In 2002, a study found that atrazine was causing male frogs to develop female parts. These frogs were then able to reproduce as females.

Now, a group in Washington state is linking atrazine to birth defects.

It saddens me that the EPA refuses to see the signs. They just ignore the studies and let these things continue to exist and affect us all. This is just one more reason to go as organic as I possibly can for my family.

Tags: Health, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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It took long enough. FDA has finally come forward to say you should take pre-caution with BPA. Did you know that Japan phased out BPA over 10 years ago? Why can’t we do that here?

FDA Says Bisphenol A (BPA) Exposure Is of ‘Some Concern’ for Infants and Children

Tags: General, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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I read an article this morning over at Natural News regarding ammonia in hamburger meat. It seems as though one of the wonderful beef companies is taking the leftover cow meat, usually intended to be used for dog food, injecting it with ammonia and selling it to fast food restaurants and SCHOOLS. Sadly, the USDA approves this practice!

Why are we poisoning our children? According to the National Institute of Health, just breathing ammonia can poison you!

A company called Beef Products, Inc has been injecting ammonia into leftover beef to kill the e.coli. School lunch programs used 5.5 million pounds of this chemical laden beef in 2008. Sadly the ammonia does not always kill the e.coli and salmonella.

The USDA exempted this company’s beef from testing. They just assumed the injection process made the beef so safe that testing wasn’t needed! How many pounds of e.coli beef have they shipped out? How many times in the past year have you heard of a beef recall? How much more would have been recalled had this company’s beef also been tested. It’s sad they are allowed to do this, but even more so that our government is allowing them to poision our children. No company producing edible products that normally get tested should ever be exempt for any reason.

If there weren’t already enough reasons to give up fast food, maybe this will be the reason enough for you. As a homeschooling mom, I don’t have to worry about the school lunch aspect, but I guarantee you I’d be packing a lunch for my kids today and everyday!

Tags: General, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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Believe it or not, I’m really not anti-vax. I’m actually “pro-inform yourself”. The more I inform myself, the less I feel that vaccines are the best thing to put into our children. I’ve never really been on the “must get the Gardasil” train and after reading this article, I’m very much against it. I think this vaccine is doing more harm than good and my girls will not be getting this one.

Basically, this vaccine has caused more problems than it will ever prevent. Cervical cancer rates are already declining. Cervical cancer is one of the most treatable forms of cancer. This vaccine was never tested in girls younger than 15 so there is no reason at all to be giving it to anyone younger than 15. It’s suspected that a booster would be needed if a girl were to get her first vax at 15, however no one seems to know just when that booster should be given!

Here’s a few articles for your reading pleasure:

• Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out
• Merck Researcher Admits: Gardasil Guards Against Almost Nothing
• Natural News: Who Got to Dr. Dianne Harper

Tags: General, Health, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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I am deeply saddened. I love my Sigg bottle. I use it constantly. Each of family members own a Sigg (except for the little one that lost hers). When the dangers of BPA hit the airwaves, Sigg and Kleen Kanteen were touted to be the best, safest water bottles. I invested in Sigg believing I was doing the right thing.

Basically, Sigg is saying that they never claimed to not contain BPA, but only that no BPA was leached from their bottles. The truth is that no one could ever get Sigg to admit whether or not they used BPA, they were always very careful in the wording they used, we trusted that they did not. Since their liner was “proprietary” information, they were not forced to disclose to us just what they used. Their liner did not leach nearly as much BPA as other bottles, but those tests seem to have been done on NEW bottles. I wonder how dented bottles would have held up to the testing. How does age affect the testing?

In 2006 Sigg began developing a new BPA free liner. So now they can claim loudly to be BPA Free. How do you know which liner you have? Check in inside of your bottle. Pale yellow means you have the new EcoCare BPA free liner. Shiny copper bronze indicates the old liner.

So, let’s look at some dates. Sigg began using it’s new liner in August of 2008. It is only now, a year later, that they are finally admitting to the use of BPA in the old liner. There are tons of bottles with that old liner still sitting on shelves and still be shipped by online retailers. Wouldn’t it have been great of Sigg to pull them from retailers a year ago?! Wouldn’t it be great if you could order a Sigg and be certain you’re getting the newer, safer liner? It would be, but it’s not.

In addition to that, Zrecommends has gotten information from one of their readers who owns a new bottle that has the liner flaking off. How safe could that possibly be? This new liner might be safe, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be holding up.

The bottom line is that the trust that Sigg once had is now broken. They lied to us. They now seem to have an inferior product that they claim to be safer. I simply can not support a company after learning all of this. The Sigg bottles will be replaced, but NOT with newer BPA free Siggs.

Tags: General, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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The Corn Refiners Association would like you to believe the High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is perfectly fine. A new study has found that nearly half of all samples tested contained Mercury. Mercury is not good for you in any amount! Once you add up all that HFCS you consume, that relates to a lot of Mercury!

HFCS is used in many different items from bread, cereals, and lunchmeats to soups and condiments. It is the cheapest and easiest way for manufacturers to sweeten their foods. Some of the items that were detected to contain mercury include: Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Market Pantry Grape Jelly, Frosted Blueberry Poptarts, Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup and Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt.

Mercury is used to make caustic soda which is then used to make HFCS. While that is outdated technology, that particular process is still being used in a few places.

We’ve gotten mercury mostly eliminated from vaccines. Hopefully with this finding hitting the news, the manufacturers that are still using mercury will stop. Maybe a new study can be done and we’ll have mercury eliminated from HFCS.

With or without mercury, HFCS has been linked to obesity and therefore should be limited from your child’s diet. Moderation is the key to everything!

Tags: Health, Unsafe Things by Stephanie
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