Southern Suburbs BM; Tuesday, 7th February 2012; Gymea NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Castle Hill; Monday, 13th February 2012; 4:30-6:30 pm read more

Hunter Valley BM; Monday, 13th February 2012; New Lambton NSW; 5:00 pm. read more

Northern Suburbs BM; Monday, 13th February 2012; Cammeray NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Metropolitan BM; Tuesday, 14th February 2012; Burwood NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Cyber Savvy - Dee Why; Wednesday 15 February 2012; 4:30-6:30 pm read more

South Coast BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Woonona NSW; 6:45 pm. read more

Penrith Blue Mountains BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Penrith NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Metropolitan East BM; Wednesday, 15th February 2012; Randwick NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Coast BM; Thursday, 16th February 2012; Gosford NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

IEU Reps Training Day - Tamworth; Friday 17 February 2012; 9:15-3:15pm read more

Mid North Coast BM; Friday, 17th February 2012; Nambucca Heads NSW; 6:00 pm. read more

South East Branch Meeting; Friday, 17th February 2012; Griffith NSW; 6:00 pm. read more

Riverina BM; Friday, 17th February 2012; Wagga Wagga NSW; 7:30 pm. read more

North West Branch Meeting; Friday, 17th February 2012; Tamworth NSW; 5:30 pm. read more

Principals BM; Saturday, 18th February 2012; IEU Office Parramatta; 10:00 am. read more

Cumberland BM; Monday, 20th February 2012; IEU Office Parramatta; 4:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Sydney City; Monday 20 February 2012; 4.30 - 6.30pm read more

Ku-ring-gai BM; Thursday, 21st February 2012; Hornsby NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

IEU Reps Training Day - Orange, Friday 24 Feb 2012; 9.15 to 3.15 read more

North Coast BM; Wednesday, 22nd February 2012; IEU Office Lismore; 5:00 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Revesby Heights; Wednesday 22 February 2012; 4:30-6:30pm read more

Monaro BM; Thursday, 23rd February 2012; Barton ACT; 4:15 pm. read more

Lansdowne BM; Thursday, 23rd February 2012; Fairfield NSW; 4:30 pm. read more

Central Western BM; Friday, 24th February 2012; Orange NSW; 7:30 pm. read more

PIP Maintenance of Accreditation - Forbes; Monday 27 February 2012; 4.30-6.30 read more

The Devious Duck

A rubber duck stopped being a rubber duck sometime in the 1970s and instead became a mix of chemicals toxic to children and adults, discovers Bedrock Journalist Suzanne KOWALSKI-ROTH in the August edition of Bedrock.

When Canadian environmental campaigners Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie holed up indoors for a week in a Toronto apartment and began using shampoos, soaps, antiperspirants, Teflon pans, plastics and eating tuna they didn’t raise too many eyebrows. After all this is not unusual behaviour in the western world.

What made their stint indoors notable was that the two men were conducting a scientific experiment - albeit one where they could watch a lot of TV and practice air guitar techniques — for their book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health.

The two men wanted to measure any fluctuations in the levels of key toxins in their bodies as a result of their activities.
They decided to do this after discovering that children and adults Canada wide carried levels of toxic chemicals in
their blood.

Organic granola no defence

‘It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for a living, how rich or poor you are, it doesn’t matter if you eat organic granola everyday of your life and only wear sandals to work, we’re all polluted and we all have these measurable levels,” says Rick.

“We’re talking about miniscule levels of exposure to hundreds and thousands of pollutants every day."

Bruce says they decided on this approach because the chemical industry would reply to concerns with a response like:
‘Sure, there are these chemicals in personal care products and plastics but the chemicals stay in there and they don’t get into your body and they don’t cause any harm.’

“We’ve proven quite dramatically that it’s not the case,” says Bruce. “These chemicals do very quickly get into your body.”
After talking to experts around the world the two men established a guiding principle.

The things we do for science

The pair shared the chemical exposure with Rick using half a dozen products containing phthalates. He measured his blood levels of the chemicals before and after. His levels increased 22 times over a 48-hour period.

“All I did was shampoo and condition my hair normally and I don’t have a lot of hair so it’s not a very lengthy activity, shaved and used antiperspirant normally and saw my levels increase 22 times — of a chemical linked to breast cancer and prostate cancer,” he says.

He also joked that he drank from his son’s baby bottle (reassuring the audience that it was minus the teat) to look at his BPA — Bisphenol A levels.

“You can’t buy a baby bottle with BPA in Canada, you can’t buy them in the United States, but they are still for sale here in Australia. I think it’s quite outrageous.”

“BPA is a very potent hormone disrupting chemical, strongly linked to breast cancer and other diseases. I’m a six foot guy and I only did this for two days and my levels of BPA increased 7.5 times. You can imagine what the BPA levels in an infant might look like if their sole source of nutrition for two and a half years was formula from a can lined with BPA,” says Rick.

Toothpaste terror

He was also tested for the registered pesticide Triclosan (currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration). It’s an ingredient found in Colgate’s Total toothpaste and in soaps and antibacterial products, antiperspirants and shaving gels. Rick saw his levels of this chemical increase by 2,900 times.

Bruce ate tuna and fried a tuna steak in a Teflon pan to see if his mercury levels would rise. He didn’t expect to find that his mercury levels tripled to well above what the US EPA considers to be safe after eating seven meals of tuna.

“You can have an absolutely miniscule amount of mercury and BPA introduced into the body of a developing child or foetus and it can cause significant and permanent harm to that child,” says Bruce.

Hormone disruption

He warns that the ability of hormone disrupting chemicals to mimic oestrogen is also leading to childhood health issues and epidemics in industrialised countries like autism, ADD, asthma and obesity. These are much more prevalent in industrialised countries and have become more dramatic in the last decade.

“For the first time now medical researchers are starting to link these childhood epidemics to the pervasive use of plastics and the hormone disrupting properties of the chemicals in the plastics,” he says.

“This is the really concerning message in the research that we did — that we are seeing these serious effects in children around the world.”

But there is hope and it’s a point the campaigners stress. Rick and Bruce say that your levels of these chemicals can be reduced dramatically by: eating organic food where possible; avoiding phthalates (don’t use PVC or air fresheners and use unscented body care products); don’t use non-stick materials (wrappers, furniture, clothing, pans) and stain repellants; begin gardening; not using flame retardants; eating fish in moderation (choose smaller fish); washing your hands with soap and water (not antibacterial products containing triclosan — alcohol is fine); not using BPA (canned food and microwaving in plastic); using vinegar and baking soda to clean and reading labels on everything — carefully.