Toxic Nation | Pollution. It's In You.

We have some good news to report regarding the designation of bisphenol A (BPA) as “toxic” under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The federal government is moving forward on its commitment to designate it as such, having stated that this will occur within the next 8-10 weeks. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the reason for the 2-year "toxic" designation delay is because a formal notice of objection was filed.

Last October, we posted a blog titled, Beware of BPA When Buying? about the average cash register using BPA-receipt technology (not all cash registers do) having 60 - 100 mg of the substance available and ready for uptake. This may occur through the skin or by being transferred onto food and ingested.

The sun’s rays can cause premature skin aging, eye damage, sunburn, and of course, skin cancer (the most common of all cancers) as the UV radiation can damage the DNA of skin cells.

Canada took the international lead on BPA action back in 2008. With last week’s announcement that France has suspended the sale of baby bottles containing BPA (French), and news that New York State is well on its way to doing so, Canada’s early action is being justified by growing global BPA action.

It’s happened – the proposed Canada Consumer Product Safety Act was reintroduced into the House of Commons for the 3rd time on June 9, 2010. It was first known as Bill C-52 (which was dropped when the federal election was called in 2008) and then Bill C-6 (which was dropped when Parliament prorogued in March 2010), but is currently known as Bill C-36.

Keep track of those cosmetic and consumer product (e.g., toys) problems and let Health Canada know about them. In fact, Health Canada’s recently sent out an email requesting people to report health and safety complaints, or injuries due to a product you use.

Photo from www.stockvault.net On the heels of releasing the report “Not So Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance” and kicking-off of our “Just Beautiful” campaign comes this month’s personal care product-related tip: Try to choose personal care products that don’t contain “parfum” or “fragrance” on the label.