Healthy Children Project is a project of LDA America. 

LDASC is an affiliate of the Healthy Children Project Coalition.

Steps to a Healthy Home

Take steps to minimize your family’s risks of toxic chemical exposures

Cleaning your home and family

• Buy or make non-toxic cleaning products.
• Dust and vacuum regularly; remove shoes when entering your home; minimize use of carpets.
• Do not use anti-bacterial soap; it contains a pesticide (triclosan) that may promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria and disrupt the endocrine system. Regular soap works fine.
• Look for non-toxic personal care products, such as shampoos, soaps, lotions and cosmetics. Avoid products containing lead, mercury and phthalates (often listed as "fragrance"). For more information, see The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website.

Make non-toxic cleaning products

It’s easy and inexpensive to keep your family healthy and your house clean using products such as baking soda, club soda, lemon juice, baby oil, and water.

• Clean windows and mirrors: Use one-fourth cup vinegar mixed with one quart water, or use club soda. Wipe with newspaper.
• Clean drains: Use a half cup baking soda and half cup vinegar. Pour baking soda followed by vinegar down drain, flush with hot water.
• Remove spots from carpet: Use club soda and salt, or a 3-to-1 mixture of vinegar and water. Pour onto stains. Allow to bubble, and dab dry.
• Clean wood furniture or wooden, tile, and linoleum floors : Mix a few drops of vinegar and a capful of baby oil in a bucket of water.
• Plastics: Never use plastic containers or plastic wrap in the microwave. Minimize use of plastics with food and drink. Do NOT use polycarbonate (7), polyvinyl chloride (3) or polystyrene(6) with food or drink; they can leach toxic chemicals. Safer plastics are PETE (1), HDPE (2), LDPE (4) and polypropylene (5). Avoid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (3) in toys, teethers, building materials, shower curtains, and other items. Avoid use of polycarbonate plastic (7), especially with food and drink. Use glass or non-polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, and stainless steel or non-polycarbonate sippy cups.
• Food: Buy organic and/or locally grown food when possible. Farmers markets can be a good source of inexpensive, local, and organic produce. Eat a diet low in animal fats, with lots of fruits and vegetables. Some toxic chemicals accumulate in fatty tissues of animals and then in people. Some fish contain high levels of mercury, PCBs and other toxic chemicals. Choose fish low in mercury and salmon that is wild or canned rather than farm-raised. For guidance see the Natural Resources Defense Council’s website on mercury contamination.
• Teflon and non-stick pans: Avoid using non-stick (Teflon and other trademarks) pots and pans. Dispose of non-stick pans when the coating is peeling, cracked, or flaking.
• Pesticides: Minimize, or avoid all together any use of pesticides in your home and garden or on your lawn. For help, advice, and alternatives, see the Beyond Pesticides website.
• Testing: Get children tested for lead levels at ages one and two. Test water supplies for lead. Test private wells for arsenic and other contaminants on a regular basis.

Denied Accommodations on College Entrance Exams...

ASHA Seeking Members With High School Students Who Have Been Denied Accommodations on College Entrance Exams

ASHA is looking for members whose high school students have been denied accommodations on college entrance exams, such as the ACT and SAT.  ASHA believes that students with communication disorders are often denied accommodations on these exams despite having long standing accommodations on their IEP.  ASHA believes testing organizations that refuse to allow accommodations for students with communication disorders deny them access to support and services required under the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA ).  ASHA is in continuing dialogue about this issue with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with the ADA .

  

ASHA is reaching out to ASHA members to identify families willing to write to Congress to tell their stories.  ASHA will supply a template letter to use for developing this letter.  If you are an ASHA member and are interested in participating, please contact Janet Deppe, ASHA's Director of State Advocacy, at jdeppe@asha.org by Monday, April 25, 2016.

It's Time to Ditch Toxic BPA!

All families deserve access to safe and healthy food, free of toxic chemicals.

A new report showed that

67% of nearly 200 cans tested had Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting chemical linked to learning and attention problems, breast and prostate cancer, infertility, type-2 diabetes, obesity, and asthma.

BPA can disrupt brain development even at low levels of exposure. BPA is linked to learning, attention, and behavior challenges. Studies have shown BPA can migrate out of cans, get into the food our families eat, and make its way into our bodies.   

Please join the Learning Disabilities Association of America of South Carolina (LDASC) in urging food companies and grocery and dollar stores to take swift action to protect consumers from toxic BPA. This hazardous chemical should not be in cans or other food packaging. But it is not enough to just get BPA out. We need companies to replace toxic BPA with a proven, safer alternative, and that means sharing their safety data on chemical replacements.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Campbells, Kroger, and Dollar Stores that it is Time to Ditch Toxic BPA!

I think we can all agree this brain-disrupting chemical doesn't belong in the food our families eat. Will you take a second to join LDASC and help get BPA out of canned foods?

 

LDASC helps Mind the Store

The Learning Disabilities Association of America and several local LDA state affiliates, including LDA South Carolina, have joined a national effort to urge the country's top retailers to help get toxic chemicals out of the products they sell. LDA is asking retailers to "Mind the Store" as part of a campaign launched by the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition, of which LDA is a founding member.

Top retailers such as WalMart, Target, Walgreens and Best Buy have enormous power to determine what chemicals and materials their suppliers use in the consumer products they provide for store shelves. In part as a result of pressure from the "Mind the Store" campaign, WalMart recently announced that it has listed an initial 10 toxic chemicals that suppliers should stop using. Target also recently announced plans to evaluate suppliers in part based on their adherence to non-toxic chemicals and materials.LDA is helping to spearhead coalition efforts to engage ten major retailers in taking steps to reduce toxic chemicals in the products these retailers sell, especially those chemicals known to harm brain development. Cleaning products, toys and baby products, cosmetics and personal care products are among the items that can contain chemicals linked to cancers, endocrine disruption and learning and developmental disabilities. Chemicals of greatest concern include flame retardant chemicals, phthalates, lead, solvents such as toluene and endocrine disrupting chemicals like Bisphenol-A.

Look for action alerts, Facebook and Twitter posts, blog reports, and store events as LDA asks retailers to "Mind the Store" and make products safer and healthier for everyone, especially children! We hope every parent, teacher and consumer will join us in taking action.