Category: Current Events

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Current Events Health Household Parenting

End of Second-Hand Children’s Clothing & Toys?

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UPDATE- JANUARY 9, 2009

On January 8th, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety clarified this law in a press release, and stated: “Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.”

While this is good news for the second-hand shops, I still hope they clarify the position for home-made toys.  Thanks to Deb and AK who commented on this post and left the link to the revised information.  I would like to point out that I wrote this post on January 6, two days before the clarification was released.

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I buy most of Ryan and Cole’s clothes second-hand.  In the town I live in, there are a few really nice second-hand stores, as well as a semi-annual kids consignment clothing sale from Just Between Friends.  Most of my friends buy their children’s clothes second-hand as well. 

It makes great financial sense for several reasons.  When you factor in how much new clothes cost, and the fact that kids grow out of these clothes so fast, it doesn’t seem like you really get your money out of the clothes. If you are the parent of a boy, you know how fast they can wear holes through their pants. I remember buying Ryan a new pair of fleece pants last winter.  I think I paid $20 for them, and he had a hole in them the second time he wore them. 

I can usually go to the Just Between Friends Sale twice a year, and buy all the clothes the boys need, including pajamas, shoes, coats, and even find high quality toys too.  I spend less than if  I bought them just a few outfits brand new from some of the popular kids stores. However, it could be come illegal on February 10th, for second-hand children’s clothing and toys to be sold. 

A new federal law will go into effect on this date, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. It requires all products sold for children, including clothing, to be tested and certified as lead-free.  In theory this sounds like a great law- after all, we don’t want our kids exposed to lead, but in reality it is not practical for second-hand clothing and toys to be tested.     

Many business owners who sell second-hand children’s clothes, and charitable organizations such as The Salvation Army, are anticipating having to throw thousands and thousands of clothing items away.  Some businesses will have to close.  Parents who rely on stores to provide affordable clothing, would have to cut money elsewhere from their budgets.  None of the second-hand items will have the lead free certification, so selling them will be illegal. 

Handmade and second-hand toys, will also become illegal to sell, unless the creators can pay up to $4,000 per item to have each toy tested.  Obviously small business owners can not afford to pay this for every second-hand item they carry. 

I am all for making sure our children’s clothing and toys are lead free.  But this law seems to go too far for second-hand items, and has the potential to harm families, business owners, and the economy overall. I don’t want to see the wonderful second-hand stores in my town close.  They provide a very valuable service to the families in my community. 

Many shop owners are contacting their Congress representatives hoping to have the law amended to allow the sale of certain types of clothing and toys. I hope an amendment passes, otherwise, saving money on children’s clothes and toys, will be a thing of the past.

You can contact your Congress representatives to voice your opinion, and you can check out the Homemade Toy Alliance  for more information and petitions you can sign. 

I would love to hear your opinions on this issue.  Are you worried about lead in children’s second-hand clothing and toys, or do you think this law goes to far in banning these items?

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Current Events

Why Hasn’t Blagojevich Resigned?

By now I’m am sure almost everyone has heard the story behind Democratic Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich’s arrest for corruption for among other things, trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. 

The entire country is outraged at this- even the people of Illinois, where corrupt politicians are nothing new.  It certainly seems that Blago has brought a new all-time low to politics.  After reading more on the charges against him, the only word that came to mind for him is ‘thug.’  Who else but a thug would threaten to pull a grant from a children’s hospital if the hospital didn’t donate $50,000 to a political campaign?

It seems like Blago would not have been able to resign fast enough after his arrest, but it doesn’t appear he is going to.  ABC News is reporting that Blago has better things to do than worry about calls for his resignation.  They report he is upbeat and positive.  Blago is continuing with his duties, even signing an autism bill on Friday, as if these allegations against him do not matter.  Seems like strange behavior from a man whom the federal government arrested, and has a 78 page complaint against.

Here is my take on why Blago is so upbeat and positive, and has not resigned.  He knows WHOM he was talking to on all of those recordings the FBI has of him.  He knows those other voices he was talking to were probably recorded as well.  My guess he has a lot of dirt on a lot of people. 

I think Blago is probably more in the driver’s seat right now than many realize.  If Blago is forced to resign- he starts talking, starts naming names, and taking people down with him-perhaps even someone in our President-elect’s office, which could very likely lead right back to Obama himself.  There is a lot of speculation right now who Blago was talking with- the only people who know for sure: Blago, the other parties, and possibly the FBI. 

Quite frankly, Blago probably has a lot to be upbeat and positive about. He is not going to go down by himself.  A thug never goes down without taking others down with him, and he probably has the means to do just this.  Blago can name names- that is one thing.  If he can prove it, that takes the stakes up a notch. If he has a name in the President-elect’s office, well- that would be just as big, or a bigger scandal than Blago’s.  What better way to take the attention off of yourself. 

Blago certainly is acting like he doesn’t have a care in the world-and not as a man who is going to resign.  If Blago has information that could be damaging to other politicians and officials, and I think he does, I’d say he has ’em right where he wants ’em.  And that is why he hasn’t resigned.  This should be very interesting to see how it plays out.

UPDATE: I just came across a blog post on American Thinker on why Blagojevich should not resign– if you are interested in all of this, check out this post from a Cornell Law Professor.

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Current Events Holidays

Socks with no Holes for Christmas- UPDATE (& Call to Alex)

My sister is so grateful she has been receiving donations for her kids in her class- she wanted me to thank everyone who has been able to make a donation.  If you missed the original post, you can read it here. 

She asked me to put out a special call to Alex from Buckley Air Force Base.  She received your message, but she could not make out your number, so she can’t call you back.  She did catch that you heard about this on A Mama’s Blog.  She thanks you for calling her, and hopes you will call her back.  The number at the school is: 303.853.5716, and my sister is Mara Corzine.  Or you can e-mail me, with your contact information, and I’ll be sure she receives it.

My sister asked me if I would like to come along shopping next week with her, to pick out gifts for the kids, and of course I said YES!  I should be able to post pictures of all the donations and the gifts for the kids, and my sister will send pictures to me I can post once the kids receive the gifts.  The first picture she is going to take is of the little boy with his new socks.  🙂

Thank you again for all your generous donations.  This really is a highlight to know these kids are going to have Christmas gifts this year.

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Current Events

What Defines a Recession?

I think this question is on most people’s minds these days.  On December 1, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), declared that we are, and it in fact started in December, 2007. 

You can read the entire report at the above link, but I thought it was interesting that the NBER does not use the definition of a recession that I learned defined a recession, which is a decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year.

The NBER report acknowledges at the end of their report in the FAQ’s, that “As of the date of the committee’s meeting, the economy had not yet experienced two consecutive quarters of decline.”  But they also point out that the recession in 2001, did not have two consecutive quarters of negative growth.  They say “Most of the recessions identified by our procedures do consist of two or more quarters of declining real GDP, but not all of them.”

I found a great blog post from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which explains how and why it is important for economists to study a variety of factors to determine if there is a recession.  It points out it is very common to have quarterly declines in a recession, but it is still possible to have positive GDP too. They have a chart, which shows Real Gross Domestic Product: Level and Growth Rate for the last 40 years or so.  It shows overall, the GDP has followed a strong, upward trend, but the GDP does tend to dip or flatten out during a recession.

All this talk aside, there is no doubt to me that the economy has slowed in a variety of ways.  From the chart I mentioned above, it looks like there have been four recessions in my life-time, but I don’t remember much about three of them.  I was only a baby, a kid, and a teenager.  Money was tight in my family growing up, so I never noticed my parents spending or having a lot of money, and then having to cut back because of the recessions.  In the recession of 2001, I don’t remember any drastic changes we made-but it was a very short recession.

So this current economic downturn, is very concerning and interesting to me.  Notice that I have not used the word recession-yet.  I am still a bit unsure what actually defines a recession.  It seems there are different ways to define a recession depending on your perspective, background, and personal circumstances. 

I have not talked to one person who isn’t concerned about the economy, but aren’t most people always concerned with the economy more or less?  Jobs are another huge issue.  The company my husband works for started laying people off and downsizing about 18 months ago.  There is also the issue of the sub-prime mortgage failure that cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, and contributed in a major way to the economy we have right now.  The auto companies that are in trouble, have been downsizing, and laying workers off for years.  Perhaps these were all signs that a recession was coming, and the signs went unnoticed for the most part.

Every paper, or news report I read or hear, paints a very bad picture of our economy.  I am not denying that it is bad, but I also think some of these reports are a little premature.  Black Friday sales results were much higher then expected by these same media outlets.  The New York Times reports sales from Friday and Saturday were up nearly 2 percent from last year.  Internet sales were up 11.8 percent from last year.

This doesn’t mean everything is A-OK, but if we were in a deep recession as bad as the media says, would people be spending what little money they had on stuff? In my own town, I stopped into a Kohls on Friday, to get some sheets for Ryan’s twin bed.  The line for the registers started at the back of the store at the customer service counter!  I had never seen that many people in any store before. 

I looked at what they were buying- Nike shoes, stacks of sweaters, toys, housewares, Christmas ornaments- basically everything Kohls sells, people were buying.  They may have been looking for sales, but I had never seen a store this crowded, even when there was no talk of the economy being in a recession.

I have had friends living in Denver tell me they can’t get into the restaurants they want to go to on the weekends, because they are so crowded.  The sport team games in Denver are usually still sold out as well, and the tickets are not cheap.

If you are a regular blog reader of mine, you know we bought a different house in October, and have been fixing it up somewhat before we move in.  Every vendor we have called to have work done, has told me they are booked at least three to four weeks in advance.  We bought our carpet three weeks ago, and they are finally able to install it today.  Our painter told us at the beginning of November that his only opening would be after Thanksgiving.  There was one day, where the weather was cold, he was able to work us in, since he could not work outside.  A few of the co-workers at work are having some work done at their houses, and they also say it is hard to get someone who isn’t booked a few weeks in advance.  It seems like a lot of homeowners in my area, are having remodeling work done on their homes.

The New York Times ran this story a week ago, pointing out the only way mothers can afford Christmas presents for their kids is by depriving themselves of designer jeans!  Is this really the best example the New York Times could find on how the economic downturn is affecting families? 

The economy is struggling, and people are having to cut back on spending-my family included. But what are we cutting back on?  Designer jeans?  Gifts for adults at Christmas?  Only giving our children a few toys this year, or less expensive ones? Vacations? New home purchases? New cars?

It seems like there is some contradiction in what we are being told, and the actual reality that I see for the most part. Yes, there are impoverished people in every town, and in every state. That doesn’t go away, even when the economy thriving.  There is no doubt many have lost jobs and are trying to find new ones.

My family is watching our spending more than we have had to do-ever.  The times are uncertain, but at the same time we are trying to keep a positive attitude and keep in mind that economies do go through ups and downs.  We are trying not to get into a ‘gloom and doom’ frame of mind.  Considering all the bailouts, and other strains on the economy, it seems like things could be a lot worse. 

What do you think?  Do you think we are in a recession, or do you think the media is painting a bleaker picture in general than how things are?

Categories
Current Events Health

Melamine in US Infant Formula- UPDATE

In a previous post, I wrote that trace amounts of melamine had been found in US infant formula.  Melamine is the same harmful chemical that was found in Chinese infant formula, which killed three babies, and sickened as many as 50,000.

Last month, the FDA said they were unable to determine any level of melamine exposure that is safe. But on Friday, they determined that threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula is safe, provided a related chemical is not present. This conclusion was drawn with no new studies done, and with only 74 samples being tested.

Melamine becomes harmful when combined with Cyanuric acid.  I wonder if the FDA knows that cyanuric acid is a byproduct of melamine, which means there is a good chance the two chemicals will be found together.  Yet, the FDA insists formula is safe.  When members of Congress and the Illinois attorney general, demanded a national recall of formula,  the FDA said it made no sense because there was no evidence the formula would be harmful for babies at the level of contamination found.   

From an AP article on this issue: A scientist for a national consumer group said it was irresponsible of FDA to assure the public that infant formula is safe based on tests of only 74 samples, especially since cyanuric acid is a byproduct of melamine, making it likely that they will be found together.

“This is a slippery slope of rationalization by FDA,” said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union in New York. “FDA needs to get a handle on how widespread the problem is and, most important, if both these chemicals are occurring in any products. They just haven’t tested enough to know that yet.”

The 1 part per million that the FDA has said is safe, is the same standard public health officials have set in Canada and China, but it is 20 times higher than the most stringent level in Taiwan.

On Wednesday, the FDA posted these results on melamine found in US infant formula producers: Mead Johnson’s Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron found melamine at levels of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million. Three tests of Nestle’s Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid.

The third major formula maker – Abbott Laboratories, whose brands include Similac – told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula. Those levels were below what FDA found in the other formulas, an Abbott spokesman said, and below any national safety guidelines.

This seems totally irresponsible of the FDA.  They are completely ignoring the risks that melamine can post to infants. Babies have underdeveloped systems, and there are not enough studies that have been done to determine what levels any exposure to melamine can pose to a baby.  What about babies who are born pre-mature, or may be sick-what affect does exposure to melamine have on these babies?  What are the long-term risks to babies who are exposed daily to melamine?  What steps and quality control issues are formula companies taking to assure parents their formulas are safe, and will not have any melamine in them?

Sadly, it seems like this declaration from the FDA creates more questions than answers.  Jenna, a mother of an infant who is fed Similac from Abbott Laboratories, received this letter from Abbott, in response to her concerns about her baby’s formula:

Hello Jenna,

Thank you for contacting Abbott Nutrition.

Abbott infant formulas are completely safe and we stand behind them.

Melamine is not an ingredient or additive in our formula.

The type of melamine found in trace amounts in infant formula is
approved for food contact and is used in all sorts of food packaging
including some infant formula containers. These trace amounts of
melamine have not been shown to cause health problems.

By contrast, the tainted milk in China that caused children to become
sick was due to intentional adulteration.  That is, unscrupulous farmers
and milk producers deliberately contaminated their milk with melamine in
order to cheat on quality tests.  That situation is entirely different
from what we have found in the United States.  The Chinese milk that
made babies sick contained up to 10,000 times the amount of melamine
that has been found here in the US.

Out of an abundance of caution, we confirmed that no milk or milk
proteins that we use come from China. For extra safety precautions,
Abbott Nutrition conducted extensive testing of all our ingredients to
confirm no presence of melamine in the ingredients used to make our
infant formulas. There was no melamine detected in our powdered or
liquid formulas over the standard 1 part per million.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition stated “[moms] should not be changing the diet. If
they’ve been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed
that product.  That’s in the best interest of the baby.”

We are committed to meeting and exceeding your expectations for the
formula that helps your child grow strong and healthy.

Kind regards,

Consumer Relations
Abbott Nutrition

This letter doesn’t answer HOW Abbott is going to ensure no melamine will be found in their formula.  I don’t use formula, but I did not find this letter, nor the response from the FDA reassuring or informative at all.  It seems like a scramble to get some type of reassurance out to parents (whether it is true or not) and a case of CYA at best. 

Just because the FDA says an amount of a harmful and toxic chemical is “safe” it doesn’t mean it is good for you.  I could accidently swallow a “safe” amount of bleach, or gasoline.  It doesn’t mean that I won’t have any side affects, or that it won’t harm me.

Babies are the most vulnerable, and it does not seem logical that the FDA would be so quick to assure parents exposure to melamine won’t harm their babies.  I find it very interesting that the FDA accepted the levels of melamine found in the US formulas as the safe level.  Why not err on the side of caution and adapt the most stringent level of “safe” melamine, like Taiwan has done?

I posted in my last post, the contact information to the formula companies, and it may be worth it to contact your local Congress representatives, and your state’s attorney general.  In addition, if you wish to contact the FDA, here is their contact information:

FDA Comment (food section-you have to hit the link on this page in the second paragraph which says to leave a comment): https://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qa-top.html