{"id":2697,"date":"2012-05-04T16:22:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2013-05-09T17:08:15","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T22:08:15","slug":"study-finds-that-home-gardening-tools-are-often-contaminated-with-lead-bpa-and-other-toxins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/05\/04\/study-finds-that-home-gardening-tools-are-often-contaminated-with-lead-bpa-and-other-toxins\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds that home gardening tools are often contaminated with lead, BPA and other toxins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Raised<\/a>If you eat foods you grow in a backyard garden, and you use ordinary gardening tools like water hoses, gloves, kneeling pads, and plastic tools, you may be unknowingly adding toxins to your food.\u00a0 But maybe you’ve already thought about this problem–you have a rain collector or\u00a0a whole house filter for all your water, and you check out your tools carefully, but this new study surprised me–I guess it shouldn’t have though.\u00a0 Manufacturers rarely consider health or safety for their products unless required to do so, and there is no regulation of any of this equipment.<\/p>\n

New Study Findings<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor-based environmental organization, has just completed testing<\/a> of\u00a0nearly 200 items used in home gardening for lead, cadmium, bromine (associated with brominated flame retardants); chlorine (indicating presence\u00a0of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC); phthalates; and bisphenol A.\u00a0 These chemicals have been linked to many adverse health effects, such as “birth defects, impaired learning,\u00a0liver toxicity, premature births, and early puberty in lab animals. . .”\u00a0 Two-thirds of the tested samples\u00a0contained significant levels of one or\u00a0more these toxins.\u00a0\u00a030% of items tested had over 100 ppm lead–100 ppm is the Consumer Product Safety Commission Standard (CPSC) for lead content in children’s products.\u00a0 100% of the garden hoses contained four phthalate plasticizers–currently banned in children’s products.\u00a0 Two of the hoses tested also contained a flame retardant.<\/p>\n

Hose Water Contaminants<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

New hoses left sitting in the sun for a few days had high amounts of lead, phthalates and BPA in the water.\u00a0 Bisphenol A (BPA) was found at 2.3 ppm, a level 20 time higher that level deemed safe (0.100 ppm) by the NSF.\u00a0 The level of phthalate DEHP was found at 0.025 ppm, which is 4 times higher than federal drinking water standards.<\/p>\n

What We Can Do<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HealthyStuff.org has several recommendations to minimize contaminating your home garden:<\/p>\n

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