This is me sometime in the 70's. See those Fisher Price stacking rings? Cliff gave them to me when he was 4 years old!Back then we didn't worry about the toy being filled with toxic chemicals. Shoot, that wooden thing had exposed metal springs on it!
Ah, the good old days. The Free to Be You & Me days... At this point, I wasn't even worried about "red dye #5."
Seriously though, I subscribe to a news ring called Moms Rising.Org and I have learned of a bill to ban phthalates in children's toys.
Right now a House Conference Committee is deciding whether to include a ban on phthalates, a toxic chemical, in children's toys and childcare articles in the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act. You can go here to tell undecided Committee members that our kids' health must come first and you're counting on their leadership to ban phthalates from children's toys!
The Breast Cancer Fund. Org has an even clearer explanation of the measures.
As if the price of gas wasn't bad enough, now Exxon Mobil is aggressively lobbying to defeat efforts to ban phthalates, a toxic chemical, from kids' toys. Could profit possibly be their motivation?
I can understand why so many parents are paranoid these days because it seems like every day there's something new to be worried about. I'm not an overly paranoid person, but I know it's going to be a challenge when I hit motherhood. Things were definitely different back in the 70s!
ReplyDeleteprofit? oil companies? NEVER! ;)
ReplyDeletei'm worried too, just like nutsycoco. boy and i are planning to start a family not long after the wedding and in addition to all of the usual stuff new moms have to worry about, we've got stuff like toxins in our toys and hormones in our milk and mercury in our vaccines and have you noticed that even BREATHING is suspect lately?
It always amazes me that things like this come down to money and politics. These chemicals effect everyone's children.
ReplyDeleteEven if the decision makers don't have kids of their own, they probably have nieces, nephews, god-children or friends with children. How can profit be more important than the health and safety of our children? How can there be a question about the right thing to do?
I'm off to write my Congressperson!