Sipping From the Garden Hose? Think Again.

[Javaman]

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/sipping-from-the-garden-hose-think-again/

snip...

Last week the Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that reviews consumer products, released a study at the Web site HealthyStuff.org on potentially hazardous chemicals in gardening tools.

The group tested nearly 200 gardening products, including hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and tools, for lead, cadmium, bromine, chlorine, phthalates and bisphenol A. Over all, they found that two-thirds of the products tested contained levels of one or more chemicals in excess of standards set for other consumer products.

For example, 30 percent of all products tested contained lead exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s standard of 100 parts per million for children’s products.

“Hoses and garden tools are obviously not classified as children’s products,” said Jeff Gearhart, who led the research for the Ecology Center. “But kids are still going to be playing with them. I know I drank out of a hose all summer when I was growing up. What kid doesn’t?”

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