Environmental Toxins Archive for The Checkup

FDA Rules Mercury Amalgam Fillings Safe

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's long-awaited final regulation on the use of mercury amalgam for dental fillings issued Tuesday deems the material safe, while at the same time moving the material from the Class I (low risk) medical-device category to Class II (moderate risk). This allows for tighter control...

Perspective: Mercury in High-Fructose Corn Syrup

I don't want mercury in any food I feed my family. But the news that two studies have found mercury in high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a good headline-grabber -- but perhaps more alarmist than need be. In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health, a hunch-following team...

Testing Children's Books for Lead

A federal law requiring all products for kids 12 and under to be tested for lead content has publishers of children's books on high alert, Publisher's Weekly reports. The law was enacted last August, and the first deadline for demonstrating conformity to new standards comes on February 10 -- even...

Mercury Fillings Revisited

With little fanfare, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this week acknowledged on its Web site that mercury amalgam fillings -- the silvery material used for decades to plug cavities -- could be harmful. This admission, which came after the FDA settled a lawsuit with several consumer advocacy groups,...

Breathe At Your Own Risk

Spring is in the air. And so, apparently, is a lot of soot. As was reported yesterday, the D.C./Baltimore/Northern Virginia area again has scored a spot in the American Lung Association's annual list of the top-10 cities with the filthiest air. Here's the full assessment. On the bright side, the...

Know Your Poisons -- And How to Get Rid of Them

Last month's worries about contaminated tap water and this week's concerns about bisphenol A (BPA) leaching out of the everyday plastic items we use have prompted understandable hand-wringing online. Are we being poisoned by our environment? Worse still, are we poisoning our babies? Thinking about those questions raised others: Isn't...