The true facts about our babies and their supplies
The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that babies have 12.5 times more BPA exposure than adults, and EWG is concerned that FDA has seriously underestimates exposures for many babies.
Of all toys purchased in the US, 80% are made overseas, and 71% are mad in China, where environmental laws are weak.
Americans buy 3.6 billion toys per year, and in some cases the packaging volume for a single toy can be more than 10 times the size of the actual toy.
Disposable Diapers are the third largest consumer product in landfills, only behind newspapers and bottles.
Damage our baby supplies are causing
Children’s bath products are often marketed as safe and gentle. However, laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found these products are commonly contaminated with formaldehyde or 1,4-dioxane – and, in many cases, both. These two chemicals, linked to cancer and skin allergies, are anything but safe and gentle and are completely unregulated in children’s bath products.
If all the waste generated from used disposable diapers in the United States were put on barges (each holding 3,000 tons), there would be over 1,352 full barges of garbage every year! That’s 26 barges each WEEK!
Many plastic toys are made from PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, the manufacture of which contaminates our air and water with potent carcinogens called dioxins [2], or phthalates, which also pose risks to the environment and children’s health.
What can we do about this?
Use glass bottles; avoid clear, hard plastic bottles marked with a 7 or “PC.”
Do not use plastic bottle liners. The soft plastic liners may leach chemicals into formula and breast milk, especially when heated.
Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for babies, and contains essential fatty acids that help bolster babies' bodies against the impacts of toxic chemicals.
Choose bottle nipples made from silicon.
Choose cloth diapers (preferably organic) over plastic.
What are the benefits in changing my ways?
If every year just 1% of if baby food jars were saved and reused, the weight saved in glass would be around 680,000 pounds, about as much as a Boeing 747!
If cloth diapers were used by just an additional 1% of parents, the reduction in waste would be as if 14,200 households completely stopped producing garbage for an entire year.
If every child born in the US today received a single stroller that could work throughout toddlerhood, the money saved could run 25,625 night-lights for 50 years.
If every child under 12 received just one alternative-to-plastic birthday gift this year, not only could an estimated 25 million pounds of plastic toys be diverted from landfills, but the total energy savings could bake 31 million birthday cakes.