Phthalates Ban to take effect in 6 months...

Mark it down, friends. I agree with Dianne Feinstein about something.
Washington Post reported yesterday:

Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found
in children's products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts
who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from
toys.

Senator Feinstein is sponsoring the legislation that would ban three different types of phthalates from children's products and restrict three additional types.

I started cleaning out our products with phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) last year when I read about this study of human babies with elevated phthalates levels. Phthalates evidently act as estrogenic and decrease anogenital distance and impair testicular function. Yikes! I want grandchildren, people!!

They are everywhere. Basically if a vinyl or plastic is flexible and doesn't say PVC-free and phthalate-free on the label, it's toxic. So here were a couple of the primary culprits in our house...

teethers, bath toys,

vinyl books, cute little turtles,
vinyl bibs,


and, *sniff, sniff*, nail polish.

That's right. I have to officially withdraw my endorsement of my favorite nail protein. Months ago I went to Target and stocked up on phthalate-free nail polish and it's been okay, not great--it does chip pretty fast. I guess I didn't think (or want to think) that--duh!--my two week nail treatment would be poison too.

It doesn't stop with flexible plastics. Most cosmetics and soaps that have that catch-all ingredient "fragrance" contain phthalates. So let's clean house!