Health Tips

Triclosan is rapidly becoming the BPA of the consumer product world — troublesome and best avoided. Just as some companies have reformulated their cans and water bottles get rid of the endocrine-disrupting  BPA, others are beginning to phase out triclosan, a widely-used antimicrobial that has its own set of health issues.

But that doesn’t mean it’s gone from our shelves, or our the inside of our mouths. Colgate-Palmolive, for instance, is removing the chemical from their dish detergent, but it’s still the active ingredient in their Total Toothpaste.

It seems the company recognizes that the chemical has drawbacks, but continues to promote it: according to a recent article in Advertising Age, even as Colgate was introducing a triclosan-free version of  their Palmolive antibacterial dish detergent, they were significantly increasing their advertising expenditures for their triclosan-containing Total Toothpaste.

Although the Food and Drug Administration have approved triclosan for prevention of gingivitis, there are safer alternatives. Total’s main competitor, Crest ProHealth, doesn’t use triclosan for its gingivitis-fighting properties.

And the health effects of triclosan continue to mount. The FDA has already recognized that triclosan can lead to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, a huge problem plaguing hospitals and the medical establishments. As noted in a previous post, a recent study found that young people heavily exposed to triclosan have an increased incidence of developing allergies and hay fever. And in animals, it has shown to be a endocrine disruptor.

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One of Speaker of the House John Boehner’s more well-known personal traits, besides his unnatural orange glow, is his penchant for tearing up at the slightest provocation. Election night? Full-on waterworks. Sixty Minutes interview? Broke down, twice. Children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? A tearjerker. He’s even been known to cry when debating bills.

But one advocacy group is wondering if Boehner’s tears are more than just political theater. Will he, for instance, shed a tear upon hearing the personal stories of millions of American who are suffering and dying because they are uninsured or under-insured?

The group Healthcare-Now! hopes he will. They’ve launched the “Will You Cry For Me, John Boehner?” campaign, soliciting personal stories from the front lines of our broken health care system.

On January 24, a post entitled “He Had Worked Hard Since He Was 12″ shows how lack of insurance can lead to bankruptcy:

“My husband died in 2003 due to lack of care for diabetes and cancer after we lost our health insurance. There were times we couldn’t get insulin and no churches or private agencies could help either. We lost our home, our business and eventually him, because the only jobs I could get didn’t offer health insurance, but I made too much for him to qualify for Medicaid.”

Other posts tell of neighborhood fund raisers to pay for cancer treatment and having to go to Canada for healthcare.

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With the rising costs of health care and a population burdened with multiple chronic disease, you’d think most states would be doing all they can to prevent tobacco use. But not so. The American Lung Association recently found that most states are “failing miserably” when it comes to their anti-smoking efforts.

In their comprehensive State of Tobacco Control 2010 report, the ALA graded the federal government and individual states on their level of commitment to four key areas: cigarette taxes, which have been proven to prevent young people from picking up the habit; smoking bans, known to clear the air of pollutants and reduce emergency room admissions; tobacco-prevention spending, should come from tobacco taxes; and cessation coverage.

The federal government, which recently enacted some of the toughest tobacco control policies in history, received passing grades in all four categories. But 40 states and the District of Columbia earned grades of “F’ or lower in all the areas.

Only five states received passing grades — Arkansas, Montana, Main, Oklahoma and Vermont. Eight states, most of them clustered in the south, flunked all four categories, including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

“Most of our states are failing miserably when it comes to combating tobacco-caused disease,” Charles Connor, the American Lung Association’s president and chief executive officer, stated in a press release. “Despite collecting millions of dollars — and in some cases, billions — in tobacco settlement dollars and excise taxes, most states are investing only pennies on those same dollars to help smokers quit and keep kids from starting.”

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