The Toxic Sandbox

From pesticides to PCBs-what's a threat, what's not, and what to do about it. Mercury. Lead. Pesticides. Plastics. Air pollution. PCBs. How can parents sort through the hype, propaganda, and misinformation-and find out what is and isn't a threat to children's health? Investigative journalist, advocate, and concerned parent Libby McDonald separates the facts from the alarmist myths. Based on the latest research along with interviews with top medical, toxicological, and environmental experts, The Toxic Sandbox covers a wide range of essential concerns, including: - How can kids be protected from mercury poisoning? - What are the sources of lead poisoning, and how can they be avoided? - What pesticides are children ingesting, and does eating organic keep them safe? - Which teenage beauty products contain carcinogenic phthalates? - What are PCBs and PBDEs and why are they found in breast milk? - What can be done to stop the childhood asthma epidemic? Delivering reliable, up-to-date information, this indispensable resource will empower parents to protect their kids-and raise awareness for the greater good.

Every child is born a billionaire. After all, they come into the world with over one hundred billion brain cells! So how can we, as parents, help our children fully develop all those brain cells, live up to their full potential, and enjoy a rich, happy life? Jennifer Luc and Dr. Stéphane Provencher combine personal experiences and insights, medical research, and expert advice from around the world to share unique, tested, and proven billionaire parenting strategies intended to help today's parents make informed choices for their children. With a focus on fostering productive, enthusiastic, and joyful children, Luc and Dr. Provencher instruct parents on a variety of topics that include pre-natal care and pregnancy, the design of a child's brain and the stages of its development, food choices and their effects on the body, and Whole-Listic methods that help nurture emotional needs of children. Included are methods parents can utilize to promote compassion, encourage gratitude, and teach the art of forgiveness to their children. Billionaire Parenting shares practical tips and global wisdom designed to empower parents with innovative and Whole-Listic methods to nurture emotional needs while guiding you to find their inner strengths.

This latest version of Information Resources in Toxicology (IRT) continues a tradition established in 1982 with the publication of the first edition in presenting an extensive itemization, review, and commentary on the information infrastructure of the field. This book is a unique wide-ranging, international, annotated bibliography and compendium of major resources in toxicology and allied fields such as environmental and occupational health, chemical safety, and risk assessment. Thoroughly updated, the current edition analyzes technological changes and is rife with online tools and links to Web sites. IRT-IV is highly structured, providing easy access to its information. Among the “hot topics covered are Disaster Preparedness and Management, Nanotechnology, Omics, the Precautionary Principle, Risk Assessment, and Biological, Chemical and Radioactive Terrorism and Warfare are among the designated. • International in scope, with contributions from over 30 countries • Numerous key references and relevant Web links • Concise narratives about toxicologic sub-disciplines • Valuable appendices such as the IUPAC Glossary of Terms in Toxicology • Authored by experts in their respective sub-disciplines within toxicology

Chemicals found in homes, schools, and workplaces are having devastating consequences on human health and the environment. Our Chemical Selves examines the gender dynamics associated with these everyday toxic exposures. Written by leading researchers in science, law, and public policy, the chapters in Our Chemical Selves reveal that while exposures to chemicals are pervasive and widespread, people from low-income, racialized, and Indigenous communities face a far greater risk of exposure. At the same time, the risks associated with these exposures (and the burdens of managing them) rest disproportionately on the shoulders of women. This collection hones in on the “political economy of pollution” by critically examining the system that manufactures the chemicals and the social, political, and gender relations that enable harmful chemicals to continue being produced and consumed. It also demonstrates the urgent need to revise existing approaches to the regulation of toxics, including Canada’s current Chemicals Management Plan.

Exploring the links between GM foods, glyphosate, and gut health With chronic disorders among American children reaching epidemic levels, hundreds of thousands of parents are desperately seeking solutions to their children’s declining health, often with little medical guidance from the experts. What’s Making Our Children Sick? convincingly explains how agrochemical industrial production and genetic modification of foods is a culprit in this epidemic. Is it the only culprit? No. Most chronic health disorders have multiple causes and require careful disentanglement and complex treatments. But what if toxicants in our foods are a major culprit, one that, if corrected, could lead to tangible results and increased health? Using patient accounts of their clinical experiences and new medical insights about pathogenesis of chronic pediatric disorders—taking us into gut dysfunction and the microbiome, as well as the politics of food science—this book connects the dots to explain our kids’ ailing health. What’s Making Our Children Sick? explores the frightening links between our efforts to create higher-yield, cost-efficient foods and an explosion of childhood morbidity, but it also offers hope and a path to effecting change. The predicament we now face is simple. Agroindustrial “innovation” in a previous era hoped to prevent the ecosystem disaster of DDT predicted in Rachel Carson’s seminal book in 1962, Silent Spring. However, this industrial agriculture movement has created a worse disaster: a toxic environment and, consequently, a toxic food supply. Pesticide use is at an all-time high, despite the fact that biotechnologies aimed to reduce the need for them in the first place. Today these chemicals find their way into our livestock and food crop industries and ultimately onto our plates. Many of these pesticides are the modern day equivalent of DDT. However, scant research exists on the chemical soup of poisons that our children consume on a daily basis. As our food supply environment reels under the pressures of industrialization via agrochemicals, our kids have become the walking evidence of this failed experiment. What’s Making Our Children Sick? exposes our current predicament and offers insight on the medical responses that are available, both to heal our kids and to reverse the compromised health of our food supply.

The Urgency of Climate Change addresses a pivotal challenge for the sustainability of our planet. This topic was selected for the inaugural conference in 2015 of an annual series on the Integrity of Creation. The essays in this collection were selected in a peer-reviewed manner and appeal to a general audience. The chapters move from general to more specific points of view, with a discussion at the end of each section addressing the global impact of climate change. The first section sets the Context for the discussion, explaining that the climate is an indispensable common good. The part on Science emphasises that empirical reality must guide any analysis of the climate as a matter of basic knowledge and comprehension. A crucial implication is whether the climate is sufficiently robust for the Earth to flourish for millennia ahead, as discussed in the part on Sustainability. In turn, these sections raise pivotal questions, regarding Ethics about social obligations for the planet to flourish and regarding Religion to foster global stewardship. Finally, this alignment of Ethics and Religion around the problems related to Science and Sustainability leads to the final section on Law that considers policy possibilities to effectively engage Climate Change.