Since our last newsletter, we have been very busy at Real Green Goods selling lots of glass and stainless steel products due to the widespread national media coverage exposing the health hazards of bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is currently being used in enormous amounts to manufacture hard plastic water bottles and to make epoxy linings of metal food cans including those for canned infant formula. BPA has been used in consumer products for decades with assurances of safety from the industry. However, finally just last month in April 2008, the National Toxicology Program determined that BPA may pose risks to human development, raising concerns for early puberty, prostate effects, breast cancer, and behavioral impacts from early-life exposures.

BPA was invented over 100 years ago, and even back in 1930 when scientists first discovered that BPA was an artificial estrogen hormone, the chemical industries still began to use BPA in their plastics and for lining metal food cans and other products. For a chronological timeline highlighting the increased use of BPA leading up to April 2008 when Walmart and other retailers finally began pulling BPA products from their shelves, go to Timeline. Independent research has identified that canned baby formula, canned foods, Nalgene bottles, and other clear hard bottles leach BPA. Canada has already taken the bold step of removing products containing BPA from their shelves, which included Walmart removing Nalgene bottles immediately. (Nalgene is manufacturing a new bottle called Choice that replaces BPA with Tritan Copolyester, a chemical that has not been independently tested, which we will NOT be choosing to sell.) For more on "BPA found at unsafe levels in canned food" go to Unsafe Levels

The American Chemistry Council (a trade association of big companies like Dow, Exxon, and Monsanto) continues to say "Human exposure to BPA from can coatings is minimal and poses no known risk to human health." Conversely, The Environmental Working Group www.ewg.org, an independent research organization, tested canned food bought across the United States and found BPA in more than half of them at levels they call "200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals." There are no standards for BPA; it is allowed to be put in anything, and billions of pounds are produced each year. The research showing BPA's gender bending capabilities is shocking. Read more here Gender Benders

Like the philosophy of the European Union, Canada and Australia, our position here at Real Green Goods is simple: better safe than sorry. Until long term studies have been completed with regard to human and environmental safety, chemicals that are endocrine disruptors or show genetic alterations will be sidelined. The EU is continually raising their standards and is applying this better-safe-than-sorry standard to the cosmetics and food industry. Unfortunately, these very same chemicals that are banned in Europe remain in the U.S. market. The business-driven U.S. has a wait-and-see approach. Not only does RGG reject this approach because of environmental and health concerns, we reject this as a long term failing business model as well.

For an Amazing Wealth of Information - What one person can do: Read about Great Britain's first "Plastic-Free Town", an inspiring story of how one person can make a difference. This is one of the best and most comprehensive websites assembled with so many facts, images, and videos all in one site. Be forewarned that many images are not for the
faint-of-heart.

After scrolling down to the VERY bottom of the "Plastic Facts" page, (some of the images are very sad to see) be sure not to miss a humorous video clip with a serious message from the perspective of our friends in the animal kingdom who live in the ocean. Plastic Bag Free

Thank you for reading and for caring about the environment. And, as we say at Real Green Goods,

Have a Green Day!™ 
Sincerely,
All of us from Real Green Goods