Mom fights to ban toxins in school supplies

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – 5 hours ago

 

Lori Popkewitz Alper is petitioning Disney to stop using toxin in its school products …A recent study has found high levels of toxic chemicals in children's school supplies -- levels so high that, if they were toys instead of backpacks, lunchboxes, and raincoats, they'd be banned by the U.S. government. And one Massachusetts mom is fighting back with a petition to make these products safer.

The chemicals, called phthalates, are commonly used to soften plastic and make vinyl. They're in everything from food packaging to plastic bottles, and are also used to make household cleaners and soaps smell good longer. According to a 2012 study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, exposure to phthalates can change how the muscle cells in your heart function; exposure has also been linked to increased rates of asthma, early puberty, ADHD, diabetes, cancer, birth defects, and obesity. Children and pregnant women are especially at risk.

The study, "Hidden Hazards: Toxic Chemicals Inside Children's Vinyl Back-to-School Supplies, was conducted in August by the advocacy group The Center for Health, Environment & Justice. Though the group tested only 20 products, 75 percent of them were found to have high levels of phthalates -- and none of them had labels warning consumers about it. Of the products tested, one backpack, two lunch boxes, and three raincoats were made by Disney.

"They're all made from vinyl. And in order to use vinyl, they need to use phthalates," Lori Popkewitz Alper, who launched a petition on Change.org calling for Disney to stop using phthalates in their products, told Yahoo! Shine in an interview. "It was alarming to me when the study was released, showing that 75 percent of children's back-to-school supplies contain these high levels of phthalates. I felt a need to speak for people who may not have the awareness or the resources to know about this information."

Disney denies that their vinyl products are dangerous. “Producing safe and high quality products is our top priority and we meet or exceed all applicable safety standards set forth by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the FDA and numerous other safety organizations," they said in a statement. "We will continue to closely monitor health assessments and government recommendations on all materials used in our products.”

Unlike children's toys, from which phthalates have been banned since 2008, children's school supplies aren't regulated at all. According to the study, phthalates can migrate from inside the vinyl to the surface, where it can be released into the air or absorbed into other things. "Children may be exposed to elevated levels of these toxic substances by using these school supplies," the study pointed out. "Unfortunately, while phthalates have been banned in children's toys, similar safeguards do not yet exist to keep them out of lunchboxes, backpacks, binders, and other children's school supplies." That means the container in which your kid keeps her lunch could be leeching chemicals into her food -- and manufacturers don't even have to tell you about it.
The Center for Health, Environment & Justice sent 20 popular back-to-school items -- a mix of backpacks, raincoats, rainbows, three-ring binders, and lunch boxes -- to a New York lab for analysis. Six different kinds of phthalates -- DEP, DMP, DBP, DEHP, BBP, and DnOP -- and some heavy metals like lead and mercury were detected on the products.

"The Amazing Spider-Man Backpack contained an estimated 52,700 ppm (parts per million) and 14,900 ppm of DEHP in two different locations," researchers wrote. "If this product were a children's toy, it would be over 52 times the limit set by the Federal ban." Disney's Princess lunchbox contained an estimated 29,800 ppm of DEHP -- more than 29 times the limit if it had been a toy.

Parents can limit their children's exposure to phthalates by limiting the amount of vinyl and PVC plastic they use around the house, suggests Alper, an eco-wellness consultant and former lawyer who writes for and runs Groovy Green Livin', a green lifestyles blog.

"We really haven't had much vinyl in our house," she says. Reading about the study inspired the Bedford, Massachusetts mom of three to launch her petition, which has gathered about 55,000 signatures in less than three weeks. "I try to keep away from a lot of different plastics, especially when it's something that comes in contact with food."

Instead of disposable baggies, plastic containers, and vinyl lunch boxes, her family uses reusable cloth bags and stainless steel containers for packed lunches. "It's not only safer, it's also cost effective," Alper points out. "Once you have that stuff up front, you can just throw it in the washing machine and it's really easy to just continuously reuse." While she says she hasn't figured out an alternative to vinyl three-ring binders, her kids -- who are 12, 10, and 8 -- don't care to wear character themed vinyl raincoats, boots, or backpacks.

"You just want to make sure that you're not buying things with PVC or vinyl in them," she advises. "Some things are labeled and some things are not, so you really do have to do a little bit of legwork to make sure you're purchasing something that's safe."


Copyright © 2012 Yahoo Inc.


 http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/mom-fights-to-ban-toxins-in-school-supplies.html



And here's more from another site........

Three Petitions You Might Want to Sign: Safer Lunch Boxes, Menu Labeling and Reducing Styrofoam Tray Use

by Bettina Elias Siegel on September 11, 2012

When it rains, it pours.  Yesterday not one but three Change.org petitions came across my computer screen for worthy causes that might be of interest to Lunch Tray readers.

Toxins in Disney Lunch Boxes?
The first petition comes from Lori Popkewitz Alper, founder and editor of Groovy Green Livin’.  Like many of us, Lori is concerned about a recent report from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice which found that many vinyl-based school supplies, including lunch boxes and backpacks, contain exceedingly high levels of phthalates — far more than allowed by law in plastic toys.  Phthalates have been linked to birth defects and asthma, and Lori’s petition asks the Walt Disney Company to stop using phthalates in their Spiderman and Princess lunch boxes.  She’s already garnered a whopping 52,000+ signatures, and you can add your name to the effort here.  (By the way, while the petition is only addressed to Disney, as I’ve written about in the past, where Disney goes, other companies often follow.)

No Exemptions from Menu Labeling
The second petition, regarding menu labeling, was started by my on-line friend and colleague Nancy Huenergarth, a respected food policy and advocacy consultant.  In 2010, a federal law was passed requiring food establishments to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards.  But now the pizza industry, along with the movie theater, supermarket and convenience store industries, are trying to exempt themselves from and/or weaken this labeling law.  Given how many people eat food from these establishments (not to mention how much pizza we consume as a nation), this would seriously hinder those who want to eat more healthfully but can’t do so without basic nutritional information.  You can find Nancy’s petition here.

A Local Effort to Reduce the Use of Styrofoam Lunch Trays
Finally, I wanted to mention a petition that isn’t going to garner any national headlines but has a laudable goal.  A concerned parent in Georgia, Roxanne Russell, is asking her local school board to to eliminate the use of styrofoam lunch trays in her district’s schools just once a week — Trayless Tuesdays — as a first step toward greater sustainability.   You can show support for Roxanne’s petition here.

Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join over 4,000 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page (or follow on Twitter) and you’ll get your Lunch delivered fresh daily, along with bonus commentary, interesting kid-and-food links, and stimulating discussion with other readers. You can also check out my virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest and find selected TLT posts on The Huffington Post.
 

September 11th. We'll never forget you.

Fatalities included the following:

• Everyone aboard the four hijacked planes.^[32] Including the hijackers, this includes 76 passengers and 11 crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 11; 49 passengers and 11 crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 175;^[33] 53 passengers and 6 crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 77; and 33 passengers and 7 crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93.^[34][35]
• 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground:^[2]
  
  • This includes 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, including one FDNY Fire Chaplain, Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge,^[36] 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers.^[37] Casualties of the 9/11 attacks also included 15 EMTs^[38] and 3 Court Officers. Approximately 2,000 first responders were also injured in the attacks.^[38]
  • 1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed (though a few people were pulled from the rubble, none of them were from above the impact zone).^[39]
  • As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above and in the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.
  • About 292 people were killed at street level by burning debris and falling bodies of those who had jumped from the World Trade Center's windows.
  • Of those who worked below the impact zones, 110 were among those killed in the attacks. The 9/11 Commission notes that this fact strongly indicates that evacuation below the impact zones was a success, allowing most to safely evacuate before the collapse of the World Trade Center.^[40]
  • A USA Today report estimated that approximately 200 people perished inside the elevators, while only 21 escaped the elevators. Many elevators did not plunge, but were destroyed due to the crash and subsequent fires, or were stranded in the shafts. A locking mechanism prevented escapees and rescuers, with the exception of one elevator, from opening the doors of some of the stranded elevators.^[41]
  • A bomb sniffing dog named Sirius^[42] (not included in above total).
• 125 in the Pentagon^[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks

Today in History!! Wilma Rudolph ... American hero

She was born today - June 23, 1940

Wilma Rudolph

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic medalist
Medal record
Women's athletics
Gold	1960 Rome	100 m
Gold	1960 Rome	200 m
Gold	1960 Rome	4 x 100 m relay
Bronze	1956 Melbourne	4 x 100 m relay

Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940 – November 12, 1994) was an American athlete. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, in 1956 and in 1960.

In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games.^[1] A track and field champion, she elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. She is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. Along with other 1960 Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, Rudolph became an international star due to the first international television coverage of the Olympics that year.^[2]
The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics as "The Tornado," the fastest woman on earth.^[3] The Italians nicknamed her La Gazzella Negra ("The Black Gazelle"); to the French she was La Perle Noire ("The Black Pearl").^[4][5] She is one of the most famous Tennessee State University Tigerbelles, the name of the TSU women's track and field program.

Biography

 

Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely at 4.5 lbs., the 20th of 22 siblings; her father Ed was a railway porter and her mother Blanche a maid.^[6] Rudolph contracted infantile paralysis (caused by the polio virus) at age four. She recovered, but wore a brace on her left leg and foot (which had become twisted as a result) until she was nine. She was required to wear an orthopaedic shoe for support of her foot for another two years. Her family travelled regularly from segregated Clarksville, Tennessee, to Fisk University's black medical college hospital in Nashville, Tennessee for treatments for her twisted leg. In addition, by the time she was twelve years old she had also survived bouts of scarlet fever, whooping cough, chickenpox, and measles. ^[6]

Wilma Rudolph at the finish line during 50 yard dash at track meet in Madison Square Garden, 1961

 

In 1952, 12-year-old Rudolph finally achieved her dream of shedding her handicap and becoming like other children. Her older sister was on a basketball team, and Wilma vowed to follow in her footsteps. While in high school, Rudolph was on the basketball team when she was spotted by Tennessee State track and field coach Ed Temple. Being discovered by Temple was a major break for a young athlete. The day he saw the tenth grader for the first time, he knew he had found a natural athlete. Rudolph had already gained some track experience on Burt High School's track team two years before, mostly as a way to keep busy between basketball seasons.^[7]

While attending Burt High School, Rudolph became a basketball star setting state records for scoring and leading her team to the state championship. She also joined Temple's summer program at Tennessee State and trained regularly and raced with his Tigerbelles for two years.^[6] By the time she was 16, she earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic track and field team and came home from the 1956 Melbourne Games with an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 100 m relay to show her high school classmates.^[6]

At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome she won three Olympic titles: the 100 m, 200 m and the 4 x 100 m relay. As the temperature climbed toward 110 degrees, 80,000 spectators jammed the Stadio Olimpico. Rudolph ran the 100-meter dash in an impressive 11 seconds flat. However the time was not credited as a world record, because it was wind-aided. She also won the 200-meter dash in 23.2 seconds, a new Olympic record. After these wins, she was being hailed throughout the world as "the fastest woman in history". Finally, on September 11, 1960, she combined with Tennessee State teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones to win the 400-meter relay in 44.5 seconds, setting a world record.^[6] Rudolph had a special, personal reason to hope for victory—to pay tribute to Jesse Owens, the celebrated American athlete who had been her inspiration, also the star of the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany.^[8]
Following post-games European tour by the American team Rudolph returned home to Clarksville. At her wishes, her homecoming parade and banquet were the first fully integrated municipal events in the city's history. ^[6]

 
Rudolph retired from track competition in 1962 at age 22 after winning two races at a U.S.–Soviet meet.
In 1963, Wilma married her high school sweetheart, Robert Eldridge, with whom she had four children: Yolanda (1958), Djuanna (1964), Robert Jr. (1965), and Xurry (1971). They later divorced.

Awards and honors

Rudolph was United Press Athlete of the Year 1960 and Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year for 1960 and 1961. Also in 1961, the year of her father's death, Rudolph won the James E. Sullivan Award, an award for the top amateur athlete in the United States, and visited President John F. Kennedy.^[9]
She was voted into the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1973^[10] and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974.^[11]

 
She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, honored with the National Sports Award in 1993, and inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.^[12]

In 1994, the portion of U. S. Route 79 in Clarksville, Tennessee between the Interstate 24 exit 4 in Clarksville to the Red River (Lynnwood-Tarpley) bridge near the Kraft Street intersection was renamed to honor Wilma Rudolph.

Career and family

In 1963, Rudolph was granted a full scholarship to Tennessee State University where she received her bachelor's degree in elementary education. After her athletic career, Rudolph worked as a teacher at Cobb Elementary School, coaching track at Burt High School, and became a sports commentator on national television.

She married her high school sweetheart Robert Eldridge in 1963, and had four children: Yolanda (b. 1958), Djuanna (b. 1964), Robert Jr. (b. 1965) and Xurry (b. 1971). Rudolph and Eldridge later divorced.

Death

In July 1994, shortly after her mother’s death, Rudolph was diagnosed with brain cancer. On November 12, 1994, at age 54, she died of cancer in her home in Nashville. At the time of her death, she had four children, eight grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.^[13] Thousands of mourners filled Tennessee State University's Kean Hall on November 17, 1994, for the memorial service in her honor. Others attended the funeral at Clarksville's First Baptist Church. Across Tennessee, the state flag flew at half-mast.
Nine months after Rudolph's death, Tennessee State University, on August 11, 1995, dedicated its new six-story dormitory the "Wilma G. Rudolph Residence Center." A black marble marker was placed on her grave in Clarksville's Foster Memorial Garden Cemetery by the Wilma Rudolph Memorial Commission on November 21, 1995. In 1997, Governor Don Sundquist proclaimed that June 23 be known as "Wilma Rudolph Day" in Tennessee.^[14]
 

Legacy

In 1994, Wilma Rudolph Boulevard was the name given to the portion of U.S. Route 79 in Clarksville, Tennessee.

The Woman's Sports Foundation Wilma Rudolph Courage Award is presented to a female athlete who exhibits extraordinary courage in her athletic performance, demonstrates the ability to overcome adversity, makes significant contributions to sports and serves as an inspiration and role model to those who face challenges, overcomes them and strives for success at all levels. This award was first given in 1996 to Jackie Joyner-Kersee.^[15]

A life-size bronze statue of Rudolph stands at the southern end of the Cumberland River Walk at the base of the Pedestrian Overpass, College Street and Riverside Drive, in Clarksville.^[16]

In 2000 Sports Illustrated magazine ranked Rudolph as number one in its listing of the top fifty greatest sports figures in twentieth-century Tennessee.^[17]

Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Berlin in 1994, Berlin American High School (BAHS) was turned over to the people of Berlin and became the "Gesamtschule Am Hegewinkel." The school was renamed the "Wilma Rudolph Oberschule" in her honor in the summer 2000.^[18]

On July 14, 2004, the United States Postal Service issued a 23 cent Distinguished Americans series postage stamp in recognition of her accomplishments.
 


In 1977 a made-for-TV docudrama titled Wilma (also known as The Story of Wilma Rudolph) was produced by Bud Greenspan; it starred Shirley Jo Finney, Cicely Tyson, Jason Bernard and Denzel Washington in one of his first roles.