By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-939269.mp3
Albany, NY – The phrase "toxic assets" takes on a new meaning this holiday shopping season - Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
A new study out from the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition and New York's JustGreen Partnership , has revealed that things we touch everyday: money and cash register receipts, are laden with BPA - a hormone disrupting chemical linked to serious health problems such as cancer, infertility, and early puberty - Bobbie Chase-Wilding, with Clean New York says some samples of money and receipt paper tested during the study came from the Capital Region. Half of all receipts tested had BPA and were visually indistinguishable from the half that did not. Unlike BPA in plastic products, BPA on thermal paper isn't chemically bound in any way: researchers found that BPA does not stay on the paper, but easily transfers to skin and other items that it rubs against, making us all unwitting distributors of the toxin.
Advocates say the best way to minimize contact is to remind your legislator to support measures that would help remove BPA from the consumer product stream. The report recommends that the 112th Congress make reform of the failed Toxic Substances Control Act a top priority, and that the new law acts quickly to eliminate the worst chemicals, including BPA, from consumer products.