Bye Bye Tuna

"Consumers Union is urging pregnant women to avoid eating tuna altogether and advising small children to limit consumption after tests on dozens of cans and pouches of tuna found mercury in every sample. The tuna was bought in the New York metropolitan area and online.

“White” tuna generally contained more mercury than “light” tuna, but some light tuna contained enough that a woman of childbearing age eating less than a can a week would exceed federal recommendations for mercury consumption, the new Consumer Reports study says. The metal can affect fetal development.

The average amount of mercury found by Consumer Reports in white tuna samples was 0.427 parts per million, compared with the average 0.353 p.p.m. found in F.D.A. tests in 2002-04. The average in light tuna was 0.071 p.p.m., lower than the 0.118 p.p.m. found by the F.D.A.

Source: NYTimes

Toxic Metals in Children's Glasses (up to 1,000 times the allowable amount)

Interesting findings by the Associated Press released this morning: "Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz" exceed federal limits for lead in children's products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.
The decorative enamel on the superhero and Oz sets — made in China and purchased at a Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank — contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead. The federal limit on children's products is 0.03 percent.
The same glasses also contained relatively high levels of the even-more-dangerous cadmium, though there are no federal limits on that toxic metal in design surfaces.
In separate testing to recreate regular handling, other glasses shed small but notable amounts of lead or cadmium from their decorations. Federal regulators have worried that toxic metals rubbing onto children's hands can get into their mouths. Among the brands on those glasses: Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Burger King and McDonald's.

Click here for testing details

Source: Associated Press

Problems with Artificial Food Dyes

Halloween is just a week away, when unfortunately most kids eat a lot of cheap candy with loads of sugar and artificial dyes. Milton Stokes, M.P.H., R.D., wrote in the November/December issue of EatingWell Magazine about the potential health risks of synthetic food dyes.

• Preliminary evidence suggests that many children have a slight sensitivity to food dyes—and a smaller percentage are very sensitive. “We see reactions in sensitive individuals that include core ADHD symptoms, like difficulty sitting in a chair and interrupting conversations,” says David Schab, M.D., M.P.H., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and co-author of a 2004 meta-analysis that found food dyes promote hyperactive behavior in already hyperactive children.

• A U.S. study published in Science found that when children who scored high on a scale measuring hyperactivity consumed a food-dye blend they performed worse on tests that measured their ability to recall images than when they drank a placebo. 

• A 2007 British study found that children who consumed a mixture of common synthetic dyes displayed hyperactive behavior within an hour of consumption. (These children had not been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.)

• The three most widely used culprits—Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40—contain compounds, including benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl, that research has also linked with cancer.

There are several alternatives that kids will love just as much such as organic candies, cupcakes, chocolates, cookies, etc

Source: EatingWell 

In Case You Missed It...Inside Chicken Nuggets

In case you haven't seen it in the media yet, the image above (courtesy of Gizmodo.com and The Huffington Post) features mechanically separated chicken, or chicken and chicken bones that have been mechanically separated and churned into goop. Hardly the “white meat” we imagine, it can also contain bacteria, so after the process showcased above, it is soaked in ammonia, which, as you might imagine, changes the taste of the “meat” considerably. So, once the paste is formed into familiar shapes, it is dyed and artificially flavored to taste like chicken.Then it is served in fast food chains.....

Source: The Huffington Post

FDA Still in the Dark about Common Chemical Ingredients

The Washington Post published today a report about FDA's lack of control over thousands of chemicals used in the US market in everyday consumer products such as furniture, clothing, packaging and children's products.
According to the publication, federal regulators, who are charged with ensuring the safety of food and consumer products, are still in the dark about 2-methylnaphthalene, the chemical recently found in Kellog's cereals. "The Food and Drug Administration has no scientific data on its impact on human health. The Environmental Protection Agency also lacks basic health and safety data for 2-methylnaphthalene"


Click here to access the article from The Washington Post