Current Event 5/9/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/sipping-from-the-garden-hose-think-again/ The Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization, released a study talking about potentially hazardous chemicals in gardening tools. They tested around 200 gardening products, including hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and tools for lead, cadmium, bromine, chlorine, phthalates and bisphenol A. They found that two-thirds of the products tested had contained levels of one or more chemicals in the allowable amount for consumers. 30 percent of products tested contained lead exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s standard of 100 parts per million for children’s products. To show how chemicals can move from garden hoses to water, the researchers left a section of garden hose filled with water out in the sun over multiple days. When the water was tested after being out in the sun, it was found to exceed federal standards for safe drinking water for several chemicals, including four times the standard considered safe for phthalates, 18 times that for lead and 20 times that for BPA. THe link above includes the video discussing the study and results.