Lisa Frack
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December 20, 2011
Of course you don't serve your kids Twinkies or Chips Ahoy! cookies for breakfast. But many of us are serving our kids just as much - or more - sugar every day in the good ol' American cereal bowl. How much? See how bad it really is in Environmental Working Group's new report, Sugar in Children's Cereals . And even as they're busily adding sugar to their products, cereal makers are in Washington, lobbying hard to block proposed federal voluntary guidelines that would limit marketing of their cereals to kids. EWG thinks the guidelines don't go far enough. They propose a voluntary cap of 26...
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December 2, 2011
With Sonya Lunder There may be 12 days of Christmas and eight days of Hannukah, but EWG has boiled the shopping hullabaloo down to the number five: five ways to detox your holiday shopping. And, no, our list does not include a golden ring. (We're not keen on jewelry for kids.) Finding great gifts for the kids in your life should be fun. Yet there are toxic chemicals in children's toys that simply shouldn't be there and there's no guarantee that what's on the shelf is necessarily safe. We've seen progress in recent years (specifically the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which...
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November 8, 2011
We parents give a lot of orders. "Put your pajamas away. Clear the table, please. Don't pull the cat's tail!" But in her new book, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, it's Sandra Steingraber who gives the orders - to us parents. But she has just one, albeit a big one: Save the planet - for your kids' sake. Oh, OK, Sandra, I'll cross that one off my "to do" list next week! But seriously, she believes that we parents are the only ones who can and will do what it takes to turn things around for ol' Mother Earth - like fight for clean air, safe drinking...
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July 18, 2011
I’m a vegetarian. But my husband’s not. And – go figure – my kids aren’t either. Which is exactly why I care about the meat I buy. Yes, I buy meat. I’d rather not, but if it’s coming into the house – and into my kids’ bodies – then I need to know exactly what I’m buying. And I not only want to know how it’s affecting my family’s health, I also care deeply about how it’s affecting our family’s environmental footprint (including climate change). As do many parents. Enter Environmental Working Group’s new Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health . In it, EWG took a close look at how a...
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November 3, 2010
Ann Cooper isn't called "The Renegade Lunch Lady" for nothing. She calls it like it is, and she can because she's been there -- in the kitchens, in the schools, with the kids. Chef Ann, as she's called, was Nutrition Services Director for the Berkeley school district in California from 2005 to 2009. She's now School Nutrition Director for the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado. (I'm - not so - secretly hoping her next move is to Portland, Oregon, where I live.) And while I, too, am intimately connected to the subject of school lunches by virtue of my regular debates over the pros and...
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October 25, 2010
By Lisa Frack with Rebecca Sutton, PhD, Environmental Working Group Truth is, when my husband and I chose a childcare facility for our kids (way back in 2003), the question of environmental health didn't even cross our minds. Why not? Because what mattered more, at the time, was its affordability, its proximity to my office so I could breastfeed over lunch and get there quickly in an emergency, and, of course, the quality of care. (Plus, I didn't work at EWG back then!). But these days I want a daytime environment for my kids that's green and healthy - not bad for them. And while we can't all...
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February 8, 2010
It wasn't that long ago that my frustration over bad public policies was mostly heard by my husband (patient soul) and the 4 walls of my kitchen. Then I started blogging about it , any my audience expanded (and I felt better!). It never really crossed my mind back then that I'd wind up testifying in my state legislature. But testify I did. And while my main reason in writing today is to share my testimony, I'm also thrilled to report that a passionate mom with next to no political experience (that's me) can get in there and make a difference. The more mothers who let our state and federal...
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December 15, 2009
When I read that there are 100s of toxic chemicals in human cord blood (including BPA ), I feel a little sick. And when I read that there are 100s of toxic chemicals in pregnant women's blood , I feel a little sicker. Especially since many of the chemicals identified in the cord blood samples cause irreversible changes in the brains, reproductive systems and other vital organs of fetal and newborn test animals. Among the worst actors: ** Bisphenol A , a hormone-disrupting plastic chemical now under federal scrutiny for a possible ban in baby bottles, infant formula cans and other food...
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November 21, 2009
My usual approach to grassroots activism is to focus on making laws better: paid family leave, toxics, breastfeeding, you get the picture. Pretty much the usual issues that rightfully rile up today’s moms in the U.S. (that Moms Rising has thankfully plunked in the center of the proverbial “kitchen table”). But this time, I’m redirecting my efforts to where the rubber hits the road. Or, more to the point, where the mop hits the classroom floor . Baking soda, vinegar and plain soap are my cleaning supplies at home - plus a little elbow grease (ok, sometimes a lot if it’s been awhile). I don't...
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April 2, 2009
I'd love to feed my kids knowing that the food and water I give them are safe. You? But I can't. Why? Because the safeguards in this country are so weak that there's rocket fuel in infant formula. I mean, how bad can it get?
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February 13, 2009
February 10th was a big day if you’ve got toxics on the brain - as I do. Why? Because, as Ariana Kelly wrote here that day , it was the day the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) went into effect. And while this new law has some kinks to work out on the road to implementation, it is indeed something to celebrate.
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