As a gynecologist, I really value the service that the Environmental Working Group provides for me and my patients. Several years back, they even worked directly with me to create a patient information sheet with how women can reduce their exposure risk to harmful chemicals when women are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive. With diseases like Autism Spectrum Disorder and Cancer on the rise, and a poorly regulated chemical industry where harm must be shown before a chemical is taken out of public use, the importance of the work they do cannot be overstated to a public that is often left finding ways to protect itself. In situations like these, grassroots is the only way. This is why I am voluntarily supporting them without their solicitation and hope you will too. They have a great database called Skindeep where you can check out the health risks of the beauty products you use everyday. They also have databases on keeping a healthy home, healthy cleaning products and and sunscreen guide. Having a food database will be that much better for those of us want to know what we are putting into our bodies. After all, you are what you eat.
You can check out their website at EWG.org
Or donate $10 here to support the completion of the database:
https://donate.ewg.org/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7631&track=201409FDB3NG&utm_source=201409FDB3NG&utm_medium=email&utm_content=first-link&utm_campaign=fund
Here is the patient information they gave me for protecting my pregnant patients as well if you want to use it for yourself or your patients:
The Environmental Working Group
Tips to Reduce Chemical Exposure in Pregnancy
Pollutants in a pregnant woman’s food, air, water or consumer products
can cross the placenta from her body to her child at the most vulnerable time of life. Follow these tips to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.
Eat Right
Fruits and veggies – Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Buy organic when you can to reduce your pesticide consumption. Check out EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, especially the Dirty Dozen list of high-pesticide fruits and vegetables. http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Meat and dairy – Eat low-fat dairy, lean meat, and meatless protein-rich foods to reduce exposures to pollutants that build up in animal fat. Choose brands without added antibiotics and growth hormones when possible.
Ditch the can – Choose fresh food over canned, packaged and processed food to avoid bisphenol A, a synthetic estrogen, and other artificial additives and package coatings that can leach into food. Read labels to find foods with natural ingredients and lower sugar, sodium and trans fats.
Safe seafood – Choose low-mercury fish such as salmon, tilapia and pollock, rather than higher-mercury tuna and swordfish. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can damage the developing brain and nervous system.
Iodine – Use iodized salt for home cooking. It counters perchlorate and other chemicals that can disrupt the thyroid’s growth hormones critical to a baby’s development.
Storing and cooking – Store food in glass containers. Don’t microwave in plastic, since plastics additives can migrate into your food.
Drink plenty of SAFE water
What’s in your water – Get your water quality report from EWG.org or your local utility. Test your water for lead.
The District of Columbia and Maryland have some of the highest levels of trihalomethanes in the country. This has been linked to miscarriages and birth defects – such as low birth weight, small body length, small head circumference and neural tube defects. This can be removed by using a carbon filter or by boiling your water.
Filtered tap water – Skip bottled water, which costs more and isn’t necessarily better. Filter your tap water instead.
Filter choices – Choose a filter that’s certified to take out your water’s pollutants. Carbon filters are affordable and remove lead and toxic chemicals created by treatment processes at municipal water utilities. Reverse osmosis filters cost more but take out substances that carbon can’t, like arsenic, chromium and perchlorate.
Reuseable Containers – Drink from stainless steel or BPA-free plastic containers when you’re on the go, and check out EWG’s Safe Drinking Water Guide for more tips. http://www.ewg.org/BottledWater/Bottled-Water-Quality-Investigation/Safe-Drinking-Water-Guide
Choose Better Products, Avoid Chemical Heavy Chores
Cosmetics – Cut out non-essential personal care products. Choose fragrance-free productswith the fewest ingredients possible. Find safer products in EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Clothing – Wash maternity clothes before wearing. Clothing is often coated in the factory with chemical treatments.
Green cleaning – Leave shoes at the door to avoid tracking dirt and dust-bound pollutants into your house. Clean with fragrance-free brands. Don’t use unneeded, harsh and caustic products, such as bleach discs for toilet bowls, air fresheners (open a window instead), harsh oven cleaner (use baking soda) or drain cleaners (use a drain snake). Use a wet mop and a HEPA-filter vacuum cleaner to avoid breathing in dust.
remodeling – Avoid remodeling if your house was built before 1978, when lead house paint was banned. Dust from sanding old paint is a common source of lead exposure. If others do the work, make sure they wet-sand chipped areas.
Pumping gas – Don’t breathe gasoline fumes. Ask your partner to fill the gas tank, or use full service.
For more information visit:
Regina Zopf, MD, FACOG, ABIHM 