Does Your Child Own This Toy?

October 25, 2009 By

By Angie Smith
We all know about the recent publicity that toys imported from China have warranted…and it’s not good PR. The word this time though, is asbestos, not lead, found in a toy that was relatively popular this past holiday season: a forensic-type kit modeled after the popular TV series, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigators”.

Looks like someone didn’t do their homework. High levels of asbestos were found in the fingerprint dust that comes with the kit.

Here is an excerpt from a news article from www.ewg.org (the environmental working group):

“The tests were commissioned by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), which last month announced the results of it’s exhaustive 18-month scientific study testing hundreds of consumer products for deadly cancer-causing asbestos fibers. The findings were extremely troubling. One product, the popular children’s toy – Planet Toys CSI: Crime Scene Investigation™ Fingerprint Examination Kits– had high levels of asbestos in some samples of the fingerprint dust children put directly on their fingers and likely breathe into their lungs when the dust goes airborne. Children are directed to blow the asbestos contaminated dust to reveal the fingerprints.

“Major retailers stepped in when the federal government failed to act. They should be congratulated. Their actions will protect an untold number of children from the very real danger of asbestos-caused cancer later in life,” said Richard Wiles, Executive Director of Environmental Working Group. “Today’s action would not have been possible, without the courage of ADAO and Senator Murray in confronting the ongoing dangers posed by asbestos,” Wiles added.

“Given the grave health risks associated with asbestos exposure, ADAO acknowledges Planet Toys voluntarily issued a ‘stop sale’ this morning,” said Linda Reinstein, ADAO Executive Director and Co-Founder. “Once asbestos is inhaled or swallowed, the damage is irreversible. Prevention is the only cure.”

Particularly troubling about this toy is that children are directed to blow the asbestos contaminated powder after dusting for fingerprints, which makes it much more likely that children playing with this toy would actually inhale potentially lethal asbestos fibers. Any amount of asbestos fiber in a children’s toy, particularly in a powder that is certain to be inhaled, is unacceptable and unnecessary.

The type of asbestos detected in these kits, tremolite, is one the most lethal forms of asbestos, and a single day’s exposure is sufficient to cause lung cancer later in life.

Earlier this year Senator Murray’s bill to ban asbestos passed the Senate unanimously. Under the Murray bill the levels of asbestos found in this toy would have made this product illegal in the U.S.”

Folks, asbestos is a notorious toxin, in the proper (or improper, however you want to look at it) environment. You or your child would need a safe, complete detox after coming into contact with this known carcinogen. See my other articles for information on how liquid zeolite can do this!
Angie Smith is a Freelance Journalist who lives in Kentucky and has a keen interest in keeping her family in good health. Angie can be contacted by e-mail at angiesmith74@gmail.com and she will be glad to personally answer any questions you may have about liquid zeolite.

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Nurses At Much Higher Risk For Toxin Exposure, Study Says

October 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

by Angie Smith

WASHINGTON – A first ever national survey of nurses’ exposures to chemicals, pharmaceuticals and radiation on the job suggests there are links between serious health problems such as cancer, asthma, miscarriages and children’s birth defects and the duration and intensity of these exposures. The survey included 1,500 nurses from all 50 states

The results were released online at ewg.org/reports/nursesurvey by the Environmental Working Group, the American Nurses Association, Health Care Without Harm, the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. The survey was extremely detailed and is the first of its kind, but it was not a controlled, statistically designed study.

Every day, nurses confront low-level but repeated exposures to mixtures of hazardous materials that include residues from medications, anesthetic gases, sterilizing and disinfecting chemicals, radiation, latex, cleaning chemicals, hand and skin disinfection products, and even mercury escaping from broken medical equipment. There are no workplace safety standards to protect nurses from the combined effects of these exposures on their health.

“Nurses are exposed daily to scores of different toxic chemicals and other hazardous materials whose cumulative health risks have never been studied,” said Jane Houlihan, Vice President for Research at Environmental Working Group. “Nurses ingest, touch or breathe residues of any number of these potentially harmful substances as they care for patients, day after day and face potential but unstudied health problems as a result.”

“This survey is a call to action for nurses to demand the use of safer products and protective measures to control exposures to hazardous agents in the workplace,” said Anna Gilmore Hall, RN, executive director of Health Care Without Harm, an international coalition working to reduce the environmental impact of the health care sector.

The Centers for Disease Control proposed a National Occupational Exposure Survey for the health care industry in 2002. To date, no such survey has been initiated to better understand the range of potentially hazardous chemical exposure in the health care industry and related illnesses.

“For many of the toxic chemicals in hospitals there are safer alternative or safer processes. We must make these healthier choices for the sake of our patients, nurses and all hospital employees,” said Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Professor and Director of the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

“ANA is dedicated to ensuring the health and safety of nurses and their patients,” said Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR, President, American Nurses Association. “We are pleased to work with our partners to bring attention to the growing concern over chemical exposures in the workplace, and ANA will continue its efforts on behalf of the nursing profession to create healthier working environments.”

Angie Smith is a Freelance Journalist who lives in Kentucky and has a keen interest in keeping her family in good health. Angie can be contacted by e-mail at angiesmith74@gmail.com and she will be glad to personally answer any questions you may have about liquid zeolite. 

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