VOCs in paint

We needed to have our apartment painted and insisted on low-VOC paints. The contractor screwed up twice (hmmmm) and just used whatever crap he had that was lying around. The landlord tried to tell us that after speaking with the people at the paint store, that after 30 days, it's all offgassed anyway, no biggie.

We did a little research on our own and found that VOCs are terrible and persistent - and can offgas for years. We are gently insisting that the stuff be repainted (it will need primer in some places) even though it will undoubtedly annoy people. Apparently VOCs are so bad, you shouldn't even store your paint where there are humans.

Also, watch out for VOCs in your floor sealer!

From the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html

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Deaths tied to YAZ birth control pills:

This is pretty unnerving;

OTTAWA, Ontario — Health Canada records indicate that at least 23 deaths and 600 adverse reactions have been reported among women taking the birth-control pills (BCPs) Yaz and Yasmin (Bayer) in that country.

News of the reports was first reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and has been widely picked up by Canadian media [1].

Adverse-reactions reports, reviewed by heartwire , show that a total of 333 distinct cases, including 15 deaths, were collected for Yasmin and 267 for Yaz, including eight deaths.

The Health Canada database includes adverse reports collected between 2007 and February 28, 2013.

The most common categories of adverse reports for both products are nervous system, vascular, and respiratory/thoracic/mediastinal disorders, but cardiac disorders were not infrequently listed. For Yasmin, cardiac disorders are listed as the primary system organ class in 4.1% of cases; for Yaz, that number was 6.6%.

read more here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806286?nlid=31735_1441&src=wnl_edit_medn_obgy&uac=98206PV&spon=16

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Alert! FDA Warns agains migraine treatment drugs for pregnant women

Valproate and other drugs are linked to diminished mental function of babies and are now being warned about by the FDA. If you're pregnant, read this: http://hcp.obgyn.net/pregnancy-and-birth/content/article/1760982/2141651

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Stuff without carageenan

RE: my earlier post about the food additive carrageenan possibly causing inflammatory conditions like ulcerative colitis, here's a list of foods that normally have it but that you can get without it: http://www.cornucopia.org/shopping-guide-to-avoiding-organic-foods-with-carrageenan/

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Ditch your bra?

Over the years I've posted about the possibility of bras contributing to breast cancer, mostly because they impede lymph drainage. You can read about how the daughter of Olga (yes, that Olga of the bras) died of breast cancer herself and how her daughter was committed to making a "better" bra, which may be no-bra. 

Here is an article on how it seems like anatomically, a bra might not be doing you huge favors, either and may make things SAG EVER MORE. Read more here.

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Is Carrageenan bad for you?

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I'm a big seaweed lover, so I thought carrageenan was just another way to get seaweed. However, I'm hearing more and more about how this food additive (I think there's tons in McDonald's milkshakes) may cause gastro and BRAIN inflammation. I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Also, it's in INFANT formula, although in Europe they don't allow it. That tells you something.

My sadness is that the nut and soy milks I make are so watery, while the commercial stuff is so nice...because of carrageenan.

Supposedly carrageenan is about as natural a seaweed extract as high fructose corn syrup is to corn; i.e., they use terrible alkali and so forth to get it out. I'm getting rid of all my carrageenen products right now.

Read more here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-18/health/ct-met-carrageenan-0318-20130318_1_carrageenan-fda-scientists-food-additive-safety

and here: http://www.notmilk.com/carageenan.html

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Chemicals in perfume

You may have already suspected this, but most commercial perfumes contain chemicals, some petroleum based, many cancer-causing, and in the cases of synthetic musk, they may even affect your hormones.

Especially if you are trying to conceive, you might want to be aware of fragrance use both for yourself and "secondhand" fragrance, e.g., by your colleagues at works, etc., so you can avoid it.

The Environment Working Group helps lay out some of the risks:

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