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Flying under the chemical radar When it comes to good health, the CancerSmart guide is your GPS

We’ve had Earth Hour and Earth Day. Then there was World Water Day. Daffodil Month for Cancer Awareness (April) has just ended. But Naturopathic Medicine and Mental Health weeks are about to take off.

If you’re confused, even exhausted, trying to keep yourself and the planet in tact, on stream sustainably and under the chemical radar, I have a simple solution. Declare the next 10 minutes Healthy, Sustainable Me and Everything Else time, go on-line to the LEAS web site at www.leas.ca and order yourself a copy of CancerSmart 3.0: The Consumer Guide .

This amazing little book, the result of efforts by the non-profit Labour Environmental Alliance Society (LEAS), now called Toxic Free Canada, will cost you 12 bucks, but it’s worth its weight in (fair trade) gold.

Written by Sean Griffin, who helped us out last week on the ins and outs of bisphenol A and polycarbonate plastics, this guide easily and quickly points you in the right direction as a consumer not only to be “smart” about cancer, but about so many other environmental issues that implicate life forms other than we short-sighted humans.

It’s long been touted by Mark Forsythe on CBC Radio One’s B.C. Almanac and by other media pundits, including those at the Georgia Straight , the North Shore News and the Toronto Star . More to the point, Toxic Free Canada’s executive director, Mae Burrows, was honoured earlier this month with a partnership award from the Canadian Cancer Society for her work improving the knowledge base of British Columbians and helping them create healthier homes and communities.

Finally, I’ve gotten round to ordering my own copy and have just received it by mail — the updated latest version, 3.0, which holds twice as much info as the original edition done in 2004. More than 25,000 copies have been sold across Canada, making it a huge best-seller. Now I get what all the fuss is about.

This is an amazingly straight-forward, comprehensive way of navigating the more than 80,000 chemicals that are in use in North America when — and here’s the kicker — barely 10 per cent of them have been fully tested for their health and environmental effects. Bonus: while the latest in information is drawn from a wide range, including the latest in what other jurisdictions are doing to regulate these chemicals or warn consumers about them, the products and practical details are totally Canadian-centric, talking about real products we can find on real store shelves.

The choice is ours. If Health Canada, Environment Canada and other agencies are asleep at the wheel in terms of protecting us and our environs, about all we can do is keep up the activism to get proper measures in place — such as right-to-know labelling like they already have in Europe and California — and, in the meantime, be responsible, smart consumers.

Want to know what nail products carry the nasty benzyl violet that is “known to cause or is suspected of causing cancer”? Why you should avoid parabens in your sunscreen and what you can buy that won’t have them?   How about a handful of good reasons not to use that Teflon fry pan or pot ever again? Ditto those ridiculous air fresheners that pump artificially scented petro-chemicals into your home (at the very least they degrade indoor air quality; at most the ingredients can combine with high levels of ozone in your home and form formaldehyde).

If you want to avoid cleaners such as Ajax with Bleach that contain silica, or want to understand why you should avoid silica in the first place — it’s made from finely ground quartz and is carcinogenic when it occurs as “fine respirable dust” — then this is the guide for you.

Clearly organized and concise throughout, it starts with the latest on cancer research and explains why you should be concerned about products you use and eat. Here’s the show-stopper from the Public Health Agency of Canada: in the 1970s one in five people had a lifetime probability of developing cancer. Today, one in 2.3 Canadian men and one in 2.6 Canadian women are expected to develop cancer in their lifetime. I did. So did my grandmother. And my father-in-law died of cancer.

Drawing on a wide range of sources (many are outlined in the end notes and resource list if you want to do your own investigations), the CancerSmart guide outlines the chemicals you want most to avoid, including tips on how to read labels and charts summarizing contents so you can make wise comparisons. Without getting into too much techno-speak, it clearly explains how these chemicals impact us and our surroundings.

Gardeners getting itchy green thumbs will be glad to see the section on pesticides to avoid and suggested alternatives that will be effective.

And if you haven’t been convinced already to go organic and healthy in your food choices, there’s a good chapter that will give you some impetus, including the following lists regarding conventional, commercial products, based on data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Most contaminated foods: peppers, leaf lettuce, strawberries, grapes, oranges, peaches, field tomatoes, nectarines, celery, potatoes, cucumbers, pears, apples, cherries, snow peas.

Least contaminated foods: arugala, blackberries, rhubarb, lychees, beets, bok choy, corn, cranberries, zucchini, bananas, kiwis, mangos, green onions, parsnips, eggplants.

After testing residues on selected imported and domestic agricultural products, CFIA also concluded that domestic carrots and tomatoes tend to be safer than imported ones — one more reason to “shop local”. (Almost 200 pesticides are used on foods sold in Canada for which CFIA has no practical testing method.)

So what are you waiting for? If you’re not on line, dial up Toxic Free Canada at 604-669-1921. Your copy will be in your mailbox in a few days, a perfect gift for loved ones, including those “moms” on your list for Mothers’ Day right around the corner.

 

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Good news from Brita: Their consumer services department has just sent me a nice letter saying that their Brita pitchers do not contain bisphenol A (BPA) because they aren’t made with polycarbonate plastics. If you want the nitty-gritty to do your own research, the pitcher lids and filter housings are made of polypropylene plastic. The reservoirs and pitchers are made either from NAS (a styrene based plastic) or SAN (styrene acrylonitrile). The soft-touch handles are made from an elastomer called santoprene (not to be confused with latex or neoprene). All their products are tested by the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) for safety. Unfortunately the pitcher materials are not recyclable so they don’t have a plastic recyclable number.

 

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer whose copy of the CancerSmart guide is already dog-eared.