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You might want to reconsider what you're cleaning with. A new study has found that chemicals in certain cleaning products have led to reproductive problems in mice. According to newswise.com, Virginia Tech researchers who were using a disinfectant when handling mice have discovered that two active ingredients in it cause declines in mouse reproduction. Although the chemicals responsible for the declines are common in household cleaning products and disinfectants used in medical and food preparation settings, including hand sanitizers, academic scientists have never published a rigorous study, until now, on their safety or toxicity. “If these chemicals are toxic to humans, they could also be contributing to the decline in human fertility seen in recent decades, as well as the increased need for assistive reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization,” said Dr. Terry Hrubec, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Patho...

When I was a kid and you went near a flame with your pajamas, you were, well. toast. But now it's turning out that the flame retardants put in everything from pajamas to furniture to the very ice floes penguins stand on in the Arctic, are so toxic -- and everywhere -- they may give us all cancer. According to Deborah Blum at The New York Times, scientists are now finding traces of these chemicals in breast milk. It appeared that the compounds were carried into the milk from fat in the mothers’ bodies. “The route wasn’t a surprise,” she quotes Dr. Arnold Schecter, a public health researcher and a professor of environmental health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas. Breast milk is rich in fat, and the compounds he was looking at linger in fat.  How did they get into women’s bodies in the first place?  Flame retardants are now in butter and peanut butter, bacon, salmon, chili with beans, sliced lunch meat and more.  They are pre...

Depends how much you want to be depressed on Memorial Day Weekend, but want to know the foods and things that can really hurt you? According to Leah Zerbe at rodalenews.com, the biggest is microwave popcorn. Now, we've all heard the scare stories about how it will give you lung cancer and stop you from growing (made that one up).  But they're out there, and so are the ones that say it can harm your immune system. Foodbabe.com reports that the bag almost all microwave popcorn varieties come in is lined with a chemical, the same toxic stuff found in teflon pots and pans. It can stay in the environment and in the human body for long periods of time. This chemical when heated has been linked to infertility, cancer and other diseases in lab animals. No long term studies have been conducted on humans, but the EPA lists this substance as a carcinogen. Zerbe goes further, claiming that what's in the bags of this popcorn (that I and my son can't wait to eat a bag of...

At least, without scrubbing it.  Did you know that apples have the most pesticide residue of any fruit?  That's right.  Each time you eat even a washed and peeled apple -- and don't even think about eating one that's not -- pesticides are seeping into your body.  Almost 100% (92%) of apples test positive for one or two pesticides , according to USA Today. While the government claims the level is not enough to kill anyone, who wants to eat even a smidgen of Round Up?   Pesticides are known to be toxic to the nervous system, cause cancer, disrupt hormones and cause brain damage in children, USA Today reports. Pregnant women are advised to avoid foods containing pesticides.  A study by  Harvard School of Public Health  found children exposed to pesticides had a higher risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And "produce washes"?  Forget about it. Washing with them is unlikely to help remove pesticides because they're...

This really depressed me.  One of my favorite foods is one of the three you should never eat, according to a new study . It's microwave popcorn.  Apparently, there's some chemical in it that causes respiratory problems, along with other distressing illnesses.  " Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) lines the popcorn bag and is part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans,  according to a UCLA study . In animal testing, the chemicals caused liver, testicular and pancreatic cancer – and once the popcorn is microwaved, the chemicals can get into the popcorn," yahoo.com reports.  But it's the fumes from the bag that are most toxic.  A man who loved to inhale the steam rising from the bag after popping the stuff developed a rare but serious lung condition -- after doing it twice a day for 20 years!  He even earned a new disease name -- " popcorn lung ," according to the Huffington Post.   Supposedly, if you don't inhale ...

Tuna. Caffeine. Canned foods.  Did you know these can be toxic to pregnant women? A new study has found that such common foods can cause developmental delays in fetuses.  I remember craving tuna while I was pregnant with my son and ate it almost every day, only to find out that tuna, along with some other fish, is not recommended during pregnancies because the mercury in it can harm brain function. Ttuna, salmon, canned foods, tap water, caffeine, alcohol and over-the-counter medications can contain substances known to cause birth defects. “Unlike alcohol and nicotine, which carry a certain stigma along with surgeon general warnings on the packaging, tuna, canned foods, caffeine, and a handful of other foods and beverages with associated developmental effects are not typically thought of as unsafe,” Sarah Santiago, a Ph.D. student in psychology at UCR, and part of the study, said at newswise.com. “Consumption of tuna, salmon, canned goods, sugary desserts, fast fo...

A shocking new study has found that children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to grow up to be aggressive and antisocial, according to newswise.com. This, despite whether their mothers smoked during pregnancy or either parent had a history of antisocial behavior. “Secondhand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40% of children worldwide are exposed to it," Linda Pagani, of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine hospital, told newswire.com. It's especially damaging if a child is exposed to secondhand smoke when young when his brain is still developing, she noted in the article. Pagani went on to tell newswire.com that 40% of children worldwide are exposed to it, a very frightening statistic when you think that some of those kids may grow up to be Adam Lanza. The Web site reports that although no causal factor has been definitively established, "The statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smok...

I love chicken.  My favorite meal is a plate of dark meat chicken thighs, mayonnaise (an odd but old family tradition), rice and peas.  But a story in The New York Times this morning got me thinking I may need to switch to pralines and cream (my other favorite) instead. According to Sabrina Tavernise, researchers have found that chicken contains levels of arsenic that, while not toxic in the small amounts they appear in, over time could lead to cancer.  Last year high levels of arsenic were also found in rice. Bummer.  Big time.  Roxarsone, and a chemically similar drug, nitarsone, remain the last federally approved uses of arsenic in food production, Keeve Nachman, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and the chicken study’s main author, told Tavernise. "Roxarsone, known by its brand name 3-Nitro, kills intestinal parasites, promotes growth and makes meat look pinker,' Tavernise reports. "It contains organic arsenic, which is...

I've never been an adventurous eater.  To me, trying tilapia was about as far as I was willing to go (hey, it has a weird name). But The New York Times every week has all these exotic recipes calling for things like tofu fingers, pancakes made with spinach, ice cream with eggs. Pork with lemon, ginger, citronelle (isn't that for mosquitoes? Oh wait, that's citronell a .) But in China this week, gourmet eaters may have gotten the biggest surprise of their lives when they found out the lamb they thought they were eating was . . .well, rat. But China didn't take this sitting down (at least, to a meal of rat). "... China's top court on Friday issued guidelines calling for harsher punishment for making and selling  unsafe food products  in the latest response to  tainted food scandals  that have angered the public," the AP reported, according to the NYT. "The Supreme People's Court said the guidelines will list as crimes specific acts such as th...