Create Better Breathing Space for Asthmatics

• Ventilation is crucial.
  
  "The building of tightly-sealed houses over the last two decades has made it much easier for moisture and dust to collect in homes," Harvard professor Dr. Douglas Dockery notes. Many vapors trapped indoors, from perfumes and air fresheners to formaldehyde from particleboard, irritate asthmatics. When it’s fresh or even cold outside, keep windows open a crack to circulate air. On hot days, close windows and use air conditioners to ventilate and filter out smog.

• Don’t harbor dust mites.
  
  Microscopic dust mites and their droppings are a potent allergen and asthma trigger. One of the best ways to limit the amount of dust mites in your homes are to encase mattresses with impermeable covers. For more tips, see How to Reduce Dust Mites in Your Home.

• Eradicate cockroaches and keep clutter to a minimum.
  
  Piles of dirty clothes make a growth environment for mildews and mites; piles of paper attract cockroaches. Remember, you can eliminate household pests without using toxic pesticides.

• Maintain humidity below 50 percent.
  
  "Dehumidifying is enormously important, as many asthmatics are highly allergic to mildews and molds," says Harriet Burge, Ph.D., associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health.

• Minimize pet dander.
  
  "Cat dander is everywhere, even if you wash the cat," Centers for Disease Control Dr. Ruth Etzel says. "The only real solution is not to have the cat." Or, wash the animal every two to three weeks, Los Angeles pediatrician Harvey Karp advises.

• No cigarette smoking in the home or car, or anywhere in asthmatics’ presence.
  
  Furnace and heating duct filters should be replaced periodically as they collect dust and molds. Some businesses provide duct-cleaning services.

• Keep asthmatics away from gas stoves.
  
  "Open the oven door and you get a blast of NO2," says University of British Columbia professor emeritus Dr. David Bates. "The asthmatic child should not sit in the kitchen doing homework if the oven is being used." Make sure that stoves are well-ventilated, too.

• Ask your pediatrician about allergenic foods.
  
  If there is a family tendency to allergy, Dr. Ruth Etzel from the Centers for Disease Control says, parents might limit foods associated with allergies, such as cow’s milk, from the child’s diet in the first two years. She and other pediatricians recommend that mothers try to breastfeed their infants for at least the first year.

• Check your local air quality index daily.
  
  Asthmatic children should not exert themselves outside in hot, smoggy weather, or when a dusty wind blows; smog counts tend to be highest between 3pm and 6pm. Air Now, a site provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, allows you to check your local air quality, get ozone maps and more.
  
  
• Try air cleaning and purifying machines.
  
  Consumer Reports says a good air cleaner can help those allergic to dust and mold spores, citing the fan/filter models as most effective in removing airborne dust. The machine will help most in the asthmatic’s bedroom; but keep it at least six feet from the bed (it creates draft), and don’t place on carpet (it can kick up dust). But, "They can only help if you’ve gotten rid of the risk factors first, like dust mites, mold and danders," Harvard School of Public Health associate professor Dr. Harriet Burge warns. Warning: many asthmatics experience irritation from the ozone type of air purifier.

If A Pregnant Woman Told You BPA Was Safe, Would You Believe Her?

Christopher Gavigan

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bisphenol-A (BPA), the endocrine disrupting chemical found in baby bottles and canned food, has been getting a lot of bad press over the past year. It's really no surprise given the growing list of studies linking it to health impacts ranging from cognitive problems and early puberty to increased fat cell production and miscarriage.

Industry thinks they're getting a bad rap. They think it's unfair that everyone keeps focusing on these studies and not the ones they funded that show no health impacts. Aww. Poor industry. Always getting picked on by the little guys.

They're not going to take it anymore though, and they formed a new club they're calling the BPA Joint Trade Association. In a meeting last week, they decided it would be awesome if they could get a pregnant woman to travel the country eating and drinking from packages and containers that had BPA in them and touting its safety with a big, nurturing smile. That'll show those doubters -- all those toxicologists, public health groups and parents poo-pooing BPA. If a pregnant woman paid by industry happily ingests this chemical, it must be safe. (But, they would make her sign a waiver releasing industry from any liability in case her fetus suffers any birth defects or other health impacts. Yep, best to not be liable for the experiment.)

Seriously. This is what they're stooping to.

Another brilliant idea to come out of that meeting is a scare tactic used last summer in California in order to stop a ban on BPA being reviewed by the legislature. The American Chemistry Council mailed flyers to people's homes claiming "Soon, many common, everyday products could disappear from grocery store shelves across California," and "Your favorite Products May Soon Disappear."

Yep. I guess all that will be left on the shelves at the grocery store will be the foods that are fresh or frozen or in boxes or jars or safer plastics -- oh, and cans that don't use BPA in their lining -- like Eden Foods. According to Eden, (who's still working on finding a replacement for lining cans of acidic foods like tomatoes) it costs the company 2 cents more per can to make them BPA-free.

Seriously? They're putting up this big of a fight over 2 cents a can?

The end is near, BPA industry, best put your money into R&D for a safer alternative instead of poorly thought out marketing plans. Major retailers have been pulling your products from their shelves. Consumers are refusing to buy them. New Jersey, Minnesota, and Chicago have passed BPA bans. Connecticut, California, and even Congress are considering BPA bans. It may be time to throw in the towel.

Those BPA proponents are pretty stubborn though. The California State Senate passed the Toxics-Free Babies and Toddlers Act on June 2, which will ban BPA from food and drink containers for children under three. Now it moves to the Assembly and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, recently revealed e-mails from the BPA Joint Trade Association outlined its strategy to deploy lobbyists in Sacramento for "befriending people that are able to manipulate the legislative process."

In response to all of this questionable activity, the House of Representatives Committee of Energy and Commerce, which has been investigating the safety of BPA, issued a letter to the Chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance (NAMPA -- a core member of the BPA Joint Trade Association). They would like to know exactly what's been said and what's being planned and have requested all of the documents, minutes, emails and communications relating to meetings of the BPA Joint Trade Association, a list of all attendees at meetings, and a list of all members of the BPA Joint Trade Association.

Simultaneously, they wrote FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg asking the agency to examine its relationship with industry groups. What relationship with industry you ask? The one that prompted the FDA to rely on two industry reports instead of 153 independent studies in order to assess the safety of BPA. They also want the FDA to reconsider its assessment that the chemical is safe. And, surprise, instead of dragging it's feet like so many times during the Bush years, the FDA quickly replied that they would re-assess BPA and that they would get it done ASAP. As in weeks, instead of months.

The times they are a-changing. But, the BPA battle is not over yet.

If you live in California, contact your state representatives and urge them to support the Toxics-Free Babies and Toddlers Act.

If your congressional representative is on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, contact him or her with your support in the effort to investigate the safety of BPA. Also, urge them to support the Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2009.

You can also give big business a piece of your mind. Visit the Environmental Working Group to find phone numbers and a sample script for when you call.

And, if you're a pregnant woman looking for a job, don't answer the BPA want-ad.

Immunization-Related Problems

© Janet Zand L.Ac., O.M.D.
(Excerpted with permission from Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child
Published by Avery Publishing Group)

An immunization, or vaccination, is an injection of weakened or killed bacteria, viruses, or, in some cases, deactivated toxins that is given to protect against or reduce the effects of certain infectious diseases. When your child receives an injection of, for example, a small amount of tetanus toxoid, her immune system produces antibodies to fight this foreign substance. Should your child later be exposed to tetanus, her body's defense system will remember and rapidly form antibodies against the bacteria, thus preventing the disease from gaining a hold within the body.

The following vaccinations are among those most commonly recommended for children.

• DPT, or diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus, is designed to protect against three different diseases: diphtheria, a rare but potentially fatal disease that affects the upper respiratory tract, the heart, and kidneys; pertussis, or whooping cough, a disease that is particularly dangerous for children under one year of age and can lead to pneumonia, seizures, and other complications; and tetanus, a potentially deadly infection of the central nervous system.
• DT, or diphtheria/tetanus, is an alternative to DPT, without the pertussis vaccine. It is designed to protect against diphtheria and tetanus only.
• Hemophilus influenzae (H. flu.) meningitis type B vaccine, or Hib vaccine, protects against a common bacterial infection that can lead to meningitis, a potentially fatal brain disease. Complications of H. flu. meningitis include pneumonia, hearing loss, and possible learning disabilities. There is now a combination DPT and Hib vaccine available that reduces the number of injections a child must receive to be immunized against all of these diseases.
• The hepatitis B vaccine, the most recent addition to the list of routinely administered vaccines, protects against one of the more serious forms of hepatitis, hepatitis B. This is an infection of the liver that, while not highly contagious, can lead to chronic liver disease or even liver cancer. This vaccine is now being recommended for all children, starting a day or two after birth. Parents are also being encouraged to arrange for the vaccination of unimmunized older children and adolescents.
• MMR-or measles/mumps/rubella also works to prevent three different diseases: measles, a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and rash, whose danger lies in the possibility of such serious complications as pneumonia, strep infections, and encephalitis; mumps, a contagious viral disease that causes fever and swollen glands around the neck and throat (and, rarely, the testicles); and rubella, or German measles, a viral disease involving fever and a mild rash that causes relatively little discomfort to the affected child, but that can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or birth defects if a woman is exposed to the virus during pregnancy. Because there have been outbreaks of measles among previously vaccinated college students in the past few years, it is now recommended that children receive a total of two MMR injections, the first at fifteen months and the second either before entering school or at the age of eleven or twelve years.
• The polio vaccine is designed to protect against poliomyelitis, an acute viral infection that can lead to paralysis and death. Vaccination against polio involves a more complicated set of decisions than other vaccinations do. Immunization against polio may be accomplished either by an injection of inactivated, dead vaccine, or by live vaccine, which is taken by mouth. The live vaccine present in the oral form appears to give somewhat better immunity than the injectible form does, and has therefore been generally recommended in the United States. However, it also poses a higher risk of complications. An estimated six or seven children come down with polio every year as a result of receiving this vaccine. For this reason, this form of polio vaccine is specifically not recommended for a child with a compromised immune system. Also, it is possible for an unimmunized person to contract polio from a child who has been given the live vaccine, even if the child has no noticeable reaction to it. This poses a particular danger if a child has friends or family members who have not been vaccinated, or who have impaired immune function. In such cases, the injectible, inactivated form is recommended. A newer, more potent form of the injectible vaccine now appears to give better immunity than the original one did, while still avoiding the risk of a child (or others with whom she comes in contact) getting the disease as a result of the immunization. Some doctors who recommend the oral, live vaccine take other measures to reduce the chance of a child contracting the virus from it, such as giving the injectible version for the first dose, then switching to the oral form for the additional doses.
• Immunization against rubella may be recommended if your child is a girl between thirteen and sixteen years old who has not received the MMR vaccine (see above) or had German measles.
• The tetanus toxoid vaccine protects against tetanus, an infection of the central nervous system that can be fatal. It is usually given to children in the form of a DPT or DT immunization (see above), but it can be administered individually.

Other immunizations, or changes in the conventional immunization schedule may be recommended for special reasons, such as illness or travel.