I just returned from a seaside vacation, where the leisure-time activities included swimming, hiking, and being environmentally incorrect.

On the very first day at our rented seashore home, I unpacked the cooler we had brought to the beach – and without even thinking about it I began to toss empty Diet Coke cans into the trash. In my real life I am a fairly rabid recycler and would never dream of doing this, but on that day, I did it casually and instinctively, egged on by a small voice in my head that whined, “You’re on vacation – give yourself a break.” As small voices go, this one was relatively benign – it’s not like it was telling me to hold up a convenience store, or wear white after Labor Day. But I was shocked at how quickly and easily I could put my values aside just because I was temporarily away from home. Are my beliefs really that lightly held, that disposable? Apparently so.

In my defense, this was my first real vacation in two years. It’s been kind of a difficult time, what with career changes, mid-life crises, and hauling my daughter cross-country to look at colleges. Faced with a cooler full of sandy cans, a childish and petulant part of my character took over, stomping its feet and insisting that I shouldn’t have to do anything that resembled drudgery – even something as non-taxing as recycling some beverage containers.

Feeling a slight but lingering shame, I went on with my vacation and returned to the beach the next day. My family always looks for seals near the shore line – most times without success – but they were out in record numbers that day, coming closer to the beach than we’d ever seen them. Clownish, whiskered and incredibly sweet-looking, they dove in and out of the water, doing the sidestroke and goofing around. One in particular came right up to the shore and looked me straight in the face for an eerily long time. We bonded. We made crazy cross-species eye contact and in that moment I felt mystically (some would say obsessively) connected to that seal. I named him Frank.

Clearly he was not just a seal – he was nature’s perfect lobbyist and he quickly had me rethinking my lazy, selfish ways. As I stood at the shore, I vaguely remembered reading that ocean litter was largely made up of beverage containers. I cringed then, thinking about the cans I hadn’t recycled, and made a fierce and somewhat crackpot vow to improve my eco efforts.

I spent the rest of the day guarding the shore, giving dirty looks to anyone who looked like they might be on the verge of littering. “Don’t even think about it,” I hissed to a little boy who had the glazed, anxious look of a child who’s about to pee in the ocean. For me, there would be no more throwing out soda cans; I was newly committed to a pristine planet. I was making the world a better place”¦for Frank.

My daughter seemed surprised (and a little annoyed) that neither she nor her brother had ever inspired me with that kind of environmental zeal. This was an excellent point, and one that I deftly sidestepped but could not ultimately explain.

Except to say that Frank was one hell of a cute seal.

Image: nhoulihan

The post Sealing the Deal appeared first on EcoSalon.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed its position on the safety of a chemical used especially in canned food and drink packaging, plastic and baby bottles – Bisphenol A.

Sounds like a jazz cover of a Radiohead album? It’s so much worse, if that’s possible.

Bisphenol A, also referred to as BPA, is harmful to human health, the FDA finally admitted if not wholeheartedly. With human adults, exposure to BPA has been associated with everything from erectile dysfunction to miscarriages. In animals, it has caused breast cancer and development problems.

While the Bush administration all but ignored previous studies, at least the FDA is beginning to change its course. Sadly, both the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are delaying an all out ban on this questionable-at-best chemical.

The feds have rallied on behalf of industry, though, promising to help manufacturers of baby bottles and sippy cups find BPA-free materials they can use, and to find new ways to line infant formula cans with research and dollars.

Our green blogosphere has been fiercely a-tweet and a-post about this toxic mixture of plastics and food, politics and science. Study up with the links below, and take action if inspired.

We think a BPA ban might remain a hot, green topic online for a while. Especially since health is priced at a premium here in the U.S. – and hopes for an affordable public option are likely dashed by the election of Republican Scott Brown, now Massachusetts senator-elect.

BASIC READING

“Recent research has linked BPA to disruptions in the endocrine system, an issue that can cause reproductive, neurological, and behavioral problems, causing a growing number of consumer and health advocates to push for greater regulation of the chemical’s use in food containers. In 2008, near the end of the Bush Administration, the FDA conducted a toxicology review of the chemical and maintained that foods containing low levels of the chemical were safe. New research and increased public concern has caused HHS and the FDA to reevaluate the safety of the chemical.” – From a news feature for FoodSafetyNews by Helena Bottemiller

“The FDA is going to punt, and spend $30 million on research over the next two years, while the industry scrambles to find some kind of affordable and effective substitute for BPA in cans. And they better find one, because I suspect that the studies will prove that feeding birth control pill hormones to babies has never been a particularly good idea.” – A Treehugger post by Lloyd Alter parsing the FDA’s press release, and its BPA “concerns.”

“While this announcement is an improvement from their previous conclusion that [BPA] was safe in our food supply – it is too little, too late”¦ The FDA [has] not acknowledged the impacts of BPA on adults. Biomonitoring data shows that babies are being born with BPA already in their blood, which means that they are being exposed through their mothers before they are born. Furthermore, BPA exposure in adults has been associated with miscarriage, erectile dysfunction, heart disease and diabetes.” – An article by scientist and writer Sarah Janssen for GreenAndSave.com

FURTHER RESOURCES

A blog feature by S.L. Baker for NaturalNews.com recounting various studies that link BPAs to heart disease, and other health problems

A blog post by Dr. Ari Brown that guides parents to products for babies that are free of or very low in BPAs, and discusses the harmful effects of BPAs on child development via WebMD

OMBWatch.org, a blog focused on “open government” looks into the regulatory issues surrounding the BPA controversy of Jan. 2010

An activist, Mary Olivella, writes for HuffingtonPost and calls for the immediate, all-out ban of BPAs in food and beverage containers

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image: Timlewisnm

The post EcoMeme: “Oh, THAT BPA?” appeared first on EcoSalon.