NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

American Dental Association: No Fluoride for Bottle-Fed Infants

In a little-noticed but dramatic turnaround, the nation's leading fluoride advocate, The American Dental Association (ADA), issued an alert on November 9th urging parents to avoid fluoridated water when reconstituting infant formula, warning that "Infants less than one year old may be getting more than the optimal amount of fluoride if their primary source of nutrition is powdered or liquid infant formula mixed with water containing fluoride."

The dentists are worried that fluoride exposure at this age will permanently damage teeth, not protect them. A growing body of research also links fluoride to weakened bones, reduced thyroid activity, and possibly bone cancer in boys.

The advice, however, has gone largely unheeded. Nursery Water, the nation's leading fluoridated water for babies still markets its product nationwide at Wal*Mart and other major retailers.

Help us stop this unsafe practice. Sign our letter to Wal*Mart, asking them to stop selling this product.

LINK: http://www.ewg.org/newsletter/20061129-fluoride/

Say No to Nano - We Made It!

Two weeks ago we asked our online community to help us reach our goal of 5,000 signatures that would be sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), demanding they test nanomaterials and require them to be labeled when used in personal care products.

Nanomaterials are super-tiny manmade chemicals that may pose extraordinary and unpredictable risks to public health. The FDA is concerned about these micro-sized ingredients because their toxicity may be very different, and potentially more severe than normal-sized chemical ingredients.

We were overwhelmed with the response - over 2,000 signatures in 24 hours! In total, we sent 5,700 signatures to the FDA. We'll keep you posted on whether they step up and take responsibility for assessing the safety of these materials before they find their way into our products, our bodies and the environment.

We thank you for urging FDA to do the right thing.

Wallet Guide Giveaway

At EWG, we often say that you can't shop your way out of toxic chemical exposure. But until the U.S. improves public health safeguards, you need data to make safer shopping choices. Download our popular wallet guides to Pesticides in Produce or Safe Cosmetics -- or both. Note: they fit nicely inside holiday cards.

Want a pre-printed cardstock guide? Request one at the link below and we'll mail a copy of each to you.

LINK: http://www.ewg.org/newsletter/20061129-guide/
 

Environmental Working Group Bulletin is a project of EWG and the EWG Action Fund.

The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to using the power of information to protect human health and the environment.

The EWG Action Fund is a legislative advocacy organization that uses EWG research to promote healthy and sustainable policies.

For products without fluoride or harmful chemicals

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