Have you heard the rumor that there’s lead in lipstick? Did you delete a chain-letter warning people of high lead levels in lipstick and telling people to throw their lipsticks away immediately?

Turns out, this is a true story. Toxins are now appearing on your bathroom and kitchen shelves, in products with healthy, glowing names such as Herbal Essence. Some have been linked to cancer cancer-causing, others to reproductive health problems like increasing sterility and early puberty.

A few more facts about what we might be putting on, or in, our bodies:

“Germ-killing” soaps and toothpastes often contain triclosan, which can affect brain and hormonal development. Triclosan has been found in Florida’s bottle-nosed dolphins, causing huge numbers of them to die. Three-quarters of people tested in the United States have triclosan in their urine.

Some of Estee Lauder’s “fight breast cancer” products contained cancer-causing agents.

Baby shampoos should be the safest products—but some contain cancer-causing chemicals and other toxins.

Cosmetic companies have no law requiring them to list all of their ingredients. So how can we know what’s safe, and what can we do about it?

1. Check out Skin Deep. Skin Deep is a searchable database of thousands of shampoos, makeup, sunscreen and other personal products. Find out if your favorite care products are safe, and what alternatives to use if they’re not!

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

2. Join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics! Planned Parenthood is a partner in this campaign to increase awareness and change legislation to make products safe!

http://www.safecosmetics.org/index

3. Watch the Story of Cosmetics (by the “Story of Stuff” people) and spread the video!

http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/

4. Take Action!

Ask your representatives to support The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010! This will give the FDA the power to regulate toxins in cosmetics. Join the Facebook pages for Safe Cosmetics…and spread the word!

Safe Cosmetics Spread the Word!

For local connections check out the local Washington Toxics Coalition – partners with Planned Parenthood on reproductive health/environmental health issues.

Any child through 18 years of age may eat free breakfast or lunch at summer school locations through a federal Simplified Summer Food Program, sponsored by the Bellingham School District. Children do not have to be enrolled in summer school or attend a school to get free breakfast or lunch.

Free breakfast will be served at all three locations listed below from 8:30 to 9 a.m. Free lunch will be served at Roosevelt Elementary from 12 to 12:30 p.m. Times, dates and locations are as follows:

• 8:30 to 9 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, July 6-Aug. 5 at Alderwood Elementary, 3400 Hollywood Ave.
• 8:30 to 9 a.m. and 12 to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, June 21-Sept. 3 at
Roosevelt Elementary, 2900 Yew St.
• 8:30 to 9 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, July 6-29 at Sunnyland Elementary, 2800 James St.

A food service and nutrition specialist plans all meals in accordance with federal and district fitness and nutrition standards. The Bellingham School District’s food services program has received four United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Regional Excellence awards for its lunch programs and the Washington Food Policy Action Center Golden Milk Carton Award for its breakfast program.

The Burlington-Edison School District is offering free meals to all children 18 years and younger this summer. The program will begin on June 21st and run through August 31st, 2010, Monday through Friday. Meals will be served at West View Elementary, 515 W Victoria Avenue, Burlington. Breakfast runs from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. This program is NOT restricted to Burlington-Edison students only. It is for ALL children 18 years and younger.

Okay, who hasn’t seen the disturbing Dateline specials?   The show went to Anytown U.S.A. with an undercover sting operation.  They unearth pervert after pervert trying to hook up with underage victims via the web.  It is amazing that these men (mostly) haven’t caught on.  Many had seen the on-going exposé, yet still decide to show up at a random house with condoms and beer expecting to find a fourteen year old.   Unfortunately most on-line predators are not met by video cameras and the police.  Instead, they are welcomed by teens lured by promises, manipulation and just plain curiosity.  So how can we protect children and teens from Internet predators?  This answer is always the best policy: honesty.

If you start early (diapers, people) with your conversations about human sexuality, the Internet predator discussion is a snap.  Now, we’re not advocating explaining Internet porn to your infant who would use the mouse as a teething toy.  Simply start with correctly naming body parts for youngsters, followed by information about personal boundaries and private parts.  This will pave the way for later discussions about puberty, reproduction, then the range of human sexual behavior including healthy relationships, consent … and so on and so on.  This is called “age appropriate” information.  It should come in baby steps.  You will soon discover the more you talk openly with your kiddos, the easier it is to do.  Read the rest of this entry »

And May brings us National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month – something we should all support.  The rapid decline in teen pregnancy in the ‘90s has come to a halt, and rates are on the rise after an era of abstinence-only sex ed policies.  Teen pregnancy rates in Washington and the United States still remain among the highest in the industrialized world.  Come on everyone, are we Ameri-CANs or Ameri-CAN’Ts?  We can do better.

One way is to make sure we give all young folks accurate and honest info about their bodies, how to make responsible decisions, and how to avoid unwanted consequences.  Some think that simply engaging them in a medically accurate dialogue about sexuality will result in a teenage Caligula and that “Just Say No” is the way to go.   Not so!  On April 13, 2007 the long awaited Mathematica evaluation of abstinence only-until-marriage programs was finally published.  Its conclusion: Abstinence-only education does not work to change young people’s behavior.

This long term, scientific report, requested by Congress, should sound the death knell for these ineffective and dangerous programs.  More than ten state evaluations showed that abstinence-only programs failed to change young people’s behavior.  And the Government Accountability Office issued a report recently admonishing Health and Human Services for not better monitoring these programs for scientific accuracy.  And when the Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and every other mainstream medical organization supports a more comprehensive approach to sex education that includes information on both abstinence and contraception, don’tcha think we should listen?

Read the rest of this entry »

We get a lot of questions from people, whether they are young, old, single, dating or married, about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).  Most of the time they seem embarrassed or nervous to even be asking the question, so this month, in honor of the fact that April is STD Awareness Month, we thought we would share some information about this topic with you all. 

First things first – let’s make sure we’re all on the same page with the basics.  STDs are caused by bacteria, viruses or other infectious agents that are passed from one person to another during sexual contact.  These infections often do not cause any symptoms.  In the medical community an infection is referred to as a disease when it causes symptoms.  That is why STDs are also called “sexually transmitted infections” (STIs).  Don’t worry too much about deciding which term to use because STD and STI are generally understood to mean the same thing.

Read the rest of this entry »