By Andrea Jonsson, Mom and PhD Candidate in French Literature at the University of Pittsburgh
This is adapted from her original blog post: Mama Phd: "This is for all the people who want to see how a PhD student in French Literature juggles life, baby, dog, cat, husband, and social life. Because what an adventure, right?"
I find myself on a mission. Yes, I am a mom on a mission. Since I have become a mother certain health issues suddenly seem more important. And as I prepare for the holiday season of shared meals and gift shopping the issue of toxic chemicals looms even larger.
When I became pregnant I started paying extra attention to the frequent articles and reports about toxic chemicals. The more I learn about what I buy, ingest, and subject myself to, the more I want to protect my 11-month-old. In researching and talking to people about how to live a more healthy life, I find myself teetering between two poles. Either I have to give up on trying to avoid unhealthy chemicals, or we have to go live in the woods and eat stone soup like total nut jobs.
Or do we? Isn’t there a way to make certain healthy and important choices without everyone rolling their eyes at you? Wouldn’t it be great if the U.S. government passed common sense limits on these toxic chemicals?
"Isn’t there a way to make certain healthy and important choices without everyone rolling their eyes at you? Wouldn’t it be great if the U.S. government passed common sense limits on these toxic chemicals?"
It is my understanding that the Safe Chemicals Act introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg would do just that. So I am joining thousands of parents across the country to call on this Congress to be our heroes and pass the Safe Chemicals Act. I live in Pennsylvania and have called and emailed Senator Casey, a champion of children’s health, to co-sponsor this legislation. Will you join me and call your Senator today?
I am no chemical policy expert, but I understand that Europe and other parts of the world have stronger regulations against toxic chemicals than we do in the U.S. I recently read an article in a well respected French news paper Le Monde (you can use the Google translate tool to read it in English) about how my daughter’s, and many other babies’, favorite teething toy “Sophie the Giraffe” has tested positive for potentially cancer causing nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are a known possible carcinogen that are illegal in baby bottles and pacifiers in Europe. In France this has caused a big debate about both journalism and marketing of non-toxic toys. Sophie is marketed as being one of the safest toys out there. If she has nitrosamines in her, that doesn't seem quite right.
Vulli, the company that has made Sophie the Giraffe for fifty years, quickly released a statement saying their toy was safe. The report was covered by another very reputable French newspaper Le Figaro.
So who is telling the truth? I’m not sure. But here’s the thing, I don’t want to take chances with my daughter’s health. I know that many plastics and chemicals are potentially dangerous to young children, and I also understand that there are safer alternatives for companies to use. It is my understanding that even though nitrosamines occur naturally they are still dangerous for babies to ingest.
In all of this, I am most frustrated by the impossibility of getting a straight answer from most companies about what chemicals were used to make their products. Again, this is something the Safe Chemicals Act would help with- U.S. companies would have to disclose the chemicals they use.
Being concerned about toxic chemicals isn’t an easy issue to be a ‘Mom on a Mission’ about. Often when I bring up conversation topics about preventable health concerns with people who aren’t new moms, I am often met with a response about something worse or there is nothing we can do about it anyway. “Smoking is worse! Pollution is worse! We’re all going to die of cancer anyway.”
People tend to respond with that kind of dismissive, nervous quip when they encounter information that is alarming. We can make jokes about how "we are all going to die someday" but the reality is that most parents will use whatever information they have to make the best choices they can to keep their kids safe and healthy. And when a parent learns that a product they once believed was safe is not and could have long-term health effects, parents have a right to be angry and alarmed.
"And when a parent learns that a product they once believed was safe is not and could have long-term health effects, parents have a right to be angry and alarmed."
No one is perfect. I've drunk from plastic water bottles and bought vinyl shower curtains. But basic information about what is safe and what is not allows me to make the best choices for my family.
So my question is, what choices can we focus on without drowning in scientific data that just makes us want to throw in the towel? To me Sophie the Giraffe is not the enemy. And I'm not the kind of mom that will only let my daughter play with strips of hemp. To me the dangers in Sophie are a symbol of a greater problem that so much of what we buy, both for our children and for ourselves, is potentially very dangerous.
I was lucky to have grown up in one of the most beautiful and cleanest places on the planet: Bozeman, Montana. We ate organic produce from my mom’s garden all summer and drank and ate gallons of Macintosh apple cider and applesauce from our apple tree year round. I want my daughter to grow up feeling just as safe as I did. I need to feel that my daughter is not growing up ingesting preventable carcinogens.
I need someone to trust on this. I would feel so much safer knowing the U.S. government has our back. Not just our backs now, but also have our backs 50 years from now. They should pass the Safe Chemicals Act to help keep this generation and those to come safer from toxic chemicals.
If the government won’t pass this legislation because it is too partisan or tough for the chemical companies, is it up to me and other parents to keep our children safe? This holiday season has been harder than ever as I wade through the seas of products to find only the safest and best for my family. Does it really make sense to leave it to parents like me to wade through thousands of contradictory scientific sources and wield our “power” as consumers to only buy what I think is safest for our children?
No, that is not the best answer. I need Congress to pass the Safe Chemicals Act because, see, I don’t have the time to be a toxic chemicals detective. I’m too busy kissing my adorable baby.
Comments
Wow! I'm so frustrated! I feel like nothing is safe. What a disappointment from Vuilli. Thanks for this great post.
Posted by: beth | Dec 15, 2011 5:04:59 AM
Wow! I'm so frustrated! I feel like nothing is safe. What a disappointment from Vuilli. Thanks for this great post.
Posted by: beth | Dec 15, 2011 5:04:59 AM
I'm dumbstruck! I've been spending long hours and late nights trying to educate myself and my daughter, so that my 8 month old granddaughter will reap the benefits and live a healthier life. My daughter and I both bought Sophies with the understanding that the famous teether toy was made from rubber, and was "green." My daughter also bought a smaller teether Sophie, with the assumption that it too was a "safe" alternative to some of the other chemically laden toys and teethers on the market in our country. Have we all been sold a bill of goods??? Okay, the story is out. Now what? Do we pack up the Sophies that my granddaughter loves and that we thought were safe for her, and throw them into the toxic landfill??? I can visualize a huge mountain of tossed out toxic Sophies, left to die from toxic chemicals. Honestly, I'm disgruntled, disappointed, deceived, disgusted, and downright angry at the thought that we've been lied to, and my beautiful granddaughter is sucking and chewing on more toxins! Where does it end??? So...my impression was that Sophies were made in France from all natural rubber, using vegetable dyes, and sold to mommies and grandmas who trusted the company, who I now distrust for having given us a false sense of security it seems. The cat is out of the bag so to speak, or in this case, Sophie is out there with toxic chemicals inside her precious little body. Well, I don't want my granddaughter chewing on someone else's toxic chemicals when I trusted all of those neatly stacked boxes claiming Sophie to be "safe." Now that I think about it, I paid $15.00 for Sophie. My daughter paid $15.00 for Sophie. We each had $5.00 off coupons when Sophie was for sale last winter for $19.95. Well, guess what? Sophie's price just went up! It must be they decided to add to the price to pay for those secret toxins they've included in the sweet looking little giraffe that babies around the world have come to love. I'm certainly glad I didn't pay the current price of $23.95! I could toss a $15.00 Sophie a bit easier than I could a $23.95 one, and then feel guilty about toxic waste in the landfill. God must be shaking his fists at all of us. We're killing the world that He created for us to take care of and enjoy! If this article turns out to be true I am going to be one very angry consumer, and the company who makes dear little Sophie is going to be very unhappy when they hear from me. The war has just begun!
Posted by: Nancee Marchinowski | Dec 9, 2011 9:09:51 PM
This is absolutely untrue on so many different levels. I just posted links to testing results that prove I'm safe and pure just like when I was first produced 50 years ago.
Posted by: Sophie the Giraffe | Dec 9, 2011 3:18:58 PM
Nitrosamines are in lots of silicone bottle nipples and pacifiers here in the US. I had no idea about them until I saw that LifeFactory bottles advertise they have NO nitrosamines. I can't help but feel guilty about the year of bottle feeding my breastmilk to my son now. Why are we always so slow in this country to protect our children?? Obviously Europe is not perfect either, by come on!!! How many other toxic chemicals are there that aren't being disclosed anywhere???
Posted by: Ashley | Dec 9, 2011 9:51:44 AM
Well written. You took the words from my mouth. I'm tired of being a "Mom on a mission"! I hate having to do weeks of research before I buy something for my 9 month old. And I'm tired of spending double at the grocery store on organic produce!
Posted by: Naomi Jordan | Dec 9, 2011 7:41:31 AM
I hate how hard it is to find safe toys for my child. I was also looking forward to buying Sophie for my son when he started teething, thinking that it was one of the safer products on the market. It is hard to know who to trust and I will join you in the fight to see that we do something to regulate what these companies use.
Posted by: Kristin | Dec 9, 2011 5:23:05 AM
I completely agree with all of what you said, but the most frustrating thing to me is how our government has somehow become completely beholden to SO MANY INDUSTRIES. Chemical industries, Conventional ag interests, financial interests, I could go on and on. This election, as a frustrated mom, I am looking for the candidates with the LEAST Washington insider-ness, the VERY LEAST. I don't care if I agree with everything they say, but I want an honest candidate who's not going to fold the moment he/she is offered a trip to Bermuda in exchange for a vote. I am so angry at Washington to see where we are, we might as well be in a so-called "corrupt" country, the type we associate with the third world, because our government has become so utterly corrupt that there is little difference.
Posted by: Dawn | Dec 9, 2011 4:45:45 AM
I'm sure I sound like a crazy person on a rant. But why do we have so many gov't officers in positions of power, who came from the very companies who asked for the bailout, telling us we need a bailout and then giving out the bailout money to their old companies? Why are school lunches covered under the Department of Ag rather than Ed, and therefore subject to the lobbying of Ag industry? And why are chemicals in both Ag and Industry practically unregulated? We have agencies tasked with these safety issues. Why are they not actually conducting the chemical safety tests, why do independent orgs (and other gov'ts) have to conduct and publish the tests to get any attention to various chemicals? Why is (seemingly) everyone in our gov't afraid to give "industry" bad news?
"Mega-Bank, you failed. You just did. Poor management. Sorry."
"Monsanto, until it is determined otherwise, we have safety concerns about GMOs, and they will be heavily regulated. Sorry."
"Chemical company, you are going to have to prove that a new chemical is safe in publicly published testing before you can put it in that toy. No more sneaking in whatever toxic cocktail you like. Sorry."
Why won't the representatives of the gov't of the "most powerful country in the world" say these things? I may sound like a crazy anti-government person, but I'm not. I am just so disappointed in our government, I can hardly believe it. These folks in Washington are not representing me, they are representing themselves, and industries who promise to support them. That is NOT America.
