Last week, a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced it found that ingredients in many baby foods are contaminated with heavy metals like arsenic, lead and cadmium. Through testing loopholes and lax regulation, multi-billion dollar companies are not being held accountable by our government and withhold information about whether their products potentially threaten the health of our children.
Consumer advocate nonprofit Center for Environmental Health (CEH) has announced it has reached legally binding agreements with seven fast-fashion companies to remove the toxic metal cadmium from jewelry sold in stores and online across the country. Independent testing commissioned by CEH had found jewelry items sold at major national retailers, mostly at Ross, contained high levels of cadmium; many had metal components that were over 90% cadmium.
A week ago, the entire University of California (UC) system became the first public university system in the nation to sign CEH’s Purchaser Pledge for healthier furniture. These standards restrict the use of five key toxic chemical classes (flame retardants, fluorinated stain treatments…
Before COVID-19, my job at CEH consisted of visiting malls to buy products, which I brought back to CEH’s lab to test for illegal toxic chemicals using our X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) machine. Most often, I tested fashion accessories for lead, a chemical that causes neurological damage, reproductive harm, and cancer.
