Healthy Actions, Continued

This week we’ll talk about some more Healthy Actions – simple things you and your family can do to reduce contact with arsenic and lead – and other chemicals – in dirt. Last week we covered taking off shoes in the house, washing hands with plenty of soap and water, and eating a healthy diet. This week we’ll go over a couple of cleaning tips, and next week we’ll move outside the house.

*Mop, Dust, and Vacuum People and pets track in dirt or it can enter your home in the form of small dust particles through windows and doors. Dust and dirt settles on carpeting, throw rugs, curtains, and upholstered furniture, as well as windowsills and bookcases. If you’ve established a shoes-off policy, you are ahead of the game here, as you’re definitely stopping a lot of dust and dirt at your door. I can attest from personal experience, though, that even with shoes off you’ve probably still got a lot of dust hanging around the house! Weekly vacuuming with a HEPA-filtered vacuum or extra thick vacuum bags will keep dust levels down in your home. The Dirt Alert program used to recommend vacuuming a few times a week, and if you are one of the lucky ones who manages to do that, kudos! Once a week is much more realistic – though even that can be a struggle if you’ve got a kiddo, like I do, who’s still so bothered by the noise of the vacuum that the weekly task involves having him away from the house or, more recently, the use of a stocking cap and tissues wadded up over his ears. Mopping and dusting are also important tasks, but make sure you always use a damp-mop or a damp dusting cloth. Feather type dusters and dry cloths send more dust out in the air to land somewhere else than they pick up. If you live in the Soil Safety Project Area send me an email at dirtalert@tpchd.org and I’ll send you one of the Dirt Alert Program’s great reusable damp dusting cloths – quite like the Sham-Wow, according to several infomercial watchers I’ve talked to!

One more very important thing to note about dust in your home – by reducing the contact your children have with house dust, you’re not only reducing their exposure to arsenic and lead, but to loads of other chemicals that collect in house dust – toxic flame retardants from furniture and electronics, and pesticides to name a couple. If you’ve got kiddos crawling or playing on the floor, getting dust onto their hands, putting their hands in their mouths…best to keep the dust to a minimum and wash hands often to keep chemicals out of their little bodies.

*Keep Pets Clean Pets walk, roll, and lie down in dirt and soil. When pets come into the house, their fur and paws bring in soil and dust too. Pup can’t kick his shoes off at the door! Brush and bathe your pet regularly and wipe off all excess dirt and mud before your pet comes into the home. It might sound silly, but I’ve got a coworker whose dog knows when he comes inside to stop on the interior doormat, lift his front paws to be wiped, then his back paws. This works best, admittedly, when you’ve got older kiddos who are also well-trained that this needs to happen when pup comes inside, but it doesn’t add a whole lot of extra work, or laundry, to the day. It’s also a good idea to restrict your pet to parts of your home that are free of carpeting and upholstery, and to give pets their own bed in your home.

Next week we’ll move out into the yard. Talk to you then!

Healthy Actions

As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, arsenic and lead contaminate the dirt in many areas of Pierce County. If you’re not a local reader, stick with us – the simple steps I’m going to suggest are good for protecting your kids and yourself from a host of other chemicals – the pesticides on your neighbor’s lawn, for example, and bacteria from pet waste. We call them Healthy Actions – simple things you and your family can do to reduce contact with arsenic and lead (and other chemicals) in dirt. Even relatively small changes can help everyone to reduce their risk of contact with harmful chemicals. This week let’s cover three:

* Take off your shoes Dust, dirt, and chemicals are tracked into your home on shoes. Leave your shoes at the door to greatly reduce levels of chemicals in your home. Provide a shoe rack, basket, or designated area for shoes near your door. If your guests see a pile of shoes by the door they are likely to take off their shoes too! If you aren’t ready to move to a shoes-off policy, use a sturdy “wipe-off” mat at the door, and really use it. The Dirt Alert program has two styles of door hangers that remind your family and encourage your guests to remove shoes. If you’re in the Soil Safety Project Area and you’d like one, send me an email at dirtalert@tpchd.org.

* Wash hands with plenty of soap and water It is never too early to get your kids into the habit of washing hands with plenty of soap and water. Always wash hands well before eating and after playing or working outside. Use a scrub brush to clean dirt out from under your fingernails. Hand sanitizer DOES NOT remove arsenic, lead, and other chemicals from hands, and should only be used to kill germs when soap and water is not available. In addition to washing dirt off hands, wash children’s toys, bedding, and pacifiers frequently, and wash heavily soiled clothing separately from other laundry.

* Eat a healthy diet Iron, calcium, and vitamin C help to decrease the amount of lead our bodies absorb. Your family should eat foods rich with these nutrients, like broccoli, spinach, potatoes, dairy products and citrus fruits.

Even these small, simple changes (okay, maybe simple except for getting your kids to eat spinach ;-) can make a big difference in protecting your family from chemicals. More Healthy Actions next week!

Healthy Holidays?

If you’re like my family, even though you tried not to go “overboard” with gifts this holiday season, there are lots of new toys and doodads around your house. How do you know if they’re safe and healthy for your kids to play with? Here are a few web sites that can help you find out:
* www.cpsc.gov (or click here to get straight to the toys) lets you check to see if any of the new toys and games in your house have been recalled for safety reasons. Recently recalled toys include snap beads, workshop sets, and pirate action figures. You can also sign up for email notifications of recalled toys and children’s products at www.recalls.gov.
* www.HealthyToys.org has test results for loads of toys and children’s products that haven’t been recalled but might still have unsafe levels of chemicals that can harm kids. Chemicals tested include lead, mercury, and brominated flame retardants, among others. See this page for more in-depth information on the chemicals tested for and why they are worrisome (we’ll talk more about these chemicals in the coming months). This website also lets you nominate products for testing, and even check if there’s lead in a toy by sending a text message.
* www.zrecsguide.com lists well over 1,000 children’s products in its Guide to Safer Children’s Products. The guide is skewed towards baby products, so it’s a great spot to check on infant and toddler toys, baby bottles, and the like. A great one for expectant parents!
Bookmark these web sites, and others as we cover them, so you can check them out next year before gift-giving season arrives.

Recall on organic baby food - sold at local Target stores

Just in case you've got some pouches of HappyBaby or HappyTot organic food in your pantry (purchased only at Target stores in the following locations: Redmond, Issaquah, Northgate Way Seattle, and Marysville), thought you should know:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 13, 2010 - New York – Nurture, Inc., is voluntarily recalling selected varieties and date codes of HAPPYTOT Stage 4 and HAPPYBABY Stage 1 and Stage 2 pouch meals with date codes expiring between November 2010 and January 2011. These products are being recalled due to a packaging defect that potentially could cause the pouches to swell or leak. Swollen or leaking pouches could indicate that the products may contain bacteria that could potentially cause illness.

No illness has been reported. The products were sold at less than 300 retail locations nationwide.

Potentially affected varieties include:

Green bean, pear & peas, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00127 9;
Sweet potato, carrot, apple & cinnamon, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00128 6;
Spinach, mango & pear, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00129 3;
Butternut squash & apple, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00130 9;
Banana, peach, coconut & prunes, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00131 6;
Banana, peach & mango, NET WT. 4.22 OZ. (120g), UPC 8 52697 00132 3
Mango, NET WT. 3.5 OZ. (99g), UPC 8 52697 00134 7
Spinach Mango Pear, NET WT. 3.5 OZ. (99g), UPC 8 52697 00139 2
Apricot Sweet Potato, NET WT. 3.5 OZ. (99g), UPC 8 52697 00136 1

The above meals are packaged in plastic pouches with plastic caps.

To determine if a specific product is part of this voluntary recall, consumers should examine product packaging for expiration date codes between November 2010 and January 2011. These dates are printed as the first seven characters of a 15-character string, as illustrated in the accompanying illustration.

Less than half of one percent of the products sold to date is affected by this packaging defect; no other products sold by the company are affected. As standard practice for Nurture, all products sold are sent to a laboratory for food safety testing prior to market release and no harmful bacteria have been detected in damaged packages to date.

One consumer complaint was received regarding swollen and leaking pouches, and no illnesses have been reported. The company has worked quickly with the manufacturer to identify the cause of the malfunction and the issue has been resolved.

"We are committed to ensuring our organic foods are not only delicious, convenient, and as healthy as possible, but also delivered in the highest quality, dependable package for our youngest consumers," says Shazi Visram, Nurture, Inc.'s Founder and CEO. "As a mother-to-be expecting my first child to arrive any day now, I know firsthand how critical it is for parents to have complete confidence in the foods they serve their children. We stand behind our mission to provide only the very best, which is why we have taken the measure to voluntarily recall these products."

Nurture has worked with the contract manufacturer and the US Food and Drug Administration to resolve the matter.

While no illness has been reported, consumers who have purchased affected products should not consume or serve any swollen or leaky pouches and may return them to their place of purchase for a full refund or contact Nurture Inc directly for a full refund or exchange. Consumers with questions and would like more detailed information are encouraged to contact Nurture, Inc. at 212-374-2779, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The Dirt on Kids' Health

Welcome to the blog! This first post will give you an idea of why we’re starting The Dirt on Kids’ Health. Local readers have likely heard of the ASARCO copper smelter. It operated in Ruston, Washington for almost 100 years before closing in 1986. Seven years later the “stack” was imploded. Built in 1917, the 562 foot tall smoke stack spewed lead and arsenic as byproducts of the copper smelting process. This lead and arsenic was carried by the wind and deposited on the ground throughout Pierce and King Counties and even into the northern portion of Thurston County (check out maps here). The Pierce County Communities most affected are Ruston, North and West Tacoma, Northeast Tacoma, University Place, Fircrest, Lakewood , Steilacoom, and parts of Gig Harbor, Fox Island, Anderson Island, Fort Lewis, and Dupont. Lead and arsenic remain in the dirt in these areas, and exposure poses health risks - especially for young children.

* Lead is linked to developmental disabilities in children and can lower I.Q.
* Arsenic can contribute to cancer later in life and may also contribute to heart disease.

Contaminated dust can be inhaled and is eaten when it gets on food, hands, or anything we put into our mouths. Kids under the age of 6 are at the greatest risk because they still put lots of things in their mouths and may not always remember to wash their hands before eating.

Scary, huh? None of us want our kids or ourselves exposed to toxins. But not quite as scary when you find out there are a lot of really simple things you can do to greatly reduce your family’s contact with arsenic and lead contaminated dirt. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s Dirt Alert program works with parents and childcare providers to help you protect kids from contaminated dirt by taking some simple steps we call Healthy Actions. We’ll go into these Healthy Actions in the weeks coming up, or you can visit our website right now to learn more.

What else can you expect to find here in The Dirt? Besides information on the Dirt Alert program and ways you can specifically protect your family from arsenic and lead contaminated dirt, we’ll cover lots of other ways you can protect your kids from toxins in our environment – from safer water bottle choices, to greener (and cheaper!) ways to clean your house, from the best art supplies for kiddos, to ideas for family outings to your local farmers’ market. Check in with us once a week or so, and if you have specific questions about the Dirt Alert Program, drop me a line at dirtalert@tpchd.org.