Startling Study: 91% Canadians have BPA in their Urine

August 19th, 2010. By Hunter West

It may be the title and a line from a romantic Peter Frampton song, but in this context it is anything but endearing. 

I’m In You… 

In this case, you’d rather the suitor not—especially Canadians who learned on Monday that according to a national survey through the analysis of thousands of representative samples, 91 percent of the population of Canada is found to have bisphenol A (BPA) in their urine. 

The good news is that BPA is excreted from the body after about six hours. But here’s the bad news: such a high percentage suggests that Canadians are exposed to BPA on a regular basis and from a variety of sources. What’s more, according to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the findings mirror those of other international studies. 

So it’s something we all have to fret about. 

BPA was banned from baby bottles some time ago—and therein lay the most serious concern over the man-made substance. Some studies on animals suggest that low levels of exposure to BPA very early in life can affect brain development and behavior, but scientists are unsure how these findings might be relevant to human health, according to Statistics Canada. 

But baby bottles aside, BPA lurks in a lot of other stuff, too: water bottles and Read the rest of this entry »

Parent Alert: Guard Your Children’s Social Security Numbers

August 18th, 2010. By AbiK

Every parent knows that in the midst of all the anticipation of that joyous little bundle…that new addition to the family…there’s someone at the hospital pushing papers in front of you that you’ll need to sign in order to secure a social security number for your not-even-born-yet child. They sort of tell you it’s a “convenience”—that it’ll save you the hassle of applying for a social security number for your child later. And you think, “Wow, that’s great how they just handle everything at the hospital!”

And it is. Until you read the latest news on a growing identity theft tactic that targets children’s social security numbers.

At first, it seems a bit odd—why go after a child’s social security number? After all, there isn’t even any credit history associated with it. But that’s just the point…it’s got super-clean credit. And it’s also unlikely to be used or needed for quite a few years. So why not “borrow” it?

See, it used to be that credit and identity thieves would try things like applying for credit with a Read the rest of this entry »

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Video – Real Issues or Just Hype?

August 17th, 2010. By AbiK

Ok, it’s now big enough and viral enough that Cosmetics Design has even reported on it…

The Story of Stuff’s latest video on youtube.com, “The Story of Cosmetics” (above, and yes, it’s eight minutes long), has already gotten over 203,000 views. It’s not only timely because it was released on July 21st, but also because it basically rides on the coattails of the recently introduced in Congress Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. The Act states that it will give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to ensure that personal care products are free of harmful ingredients.

A long time coming, yes. Heck, no one wants to put questionable ingredients or suspected carcinogens on their faces or the skin of their loved ones (I’m talking infants here, not massage lotions).

But while cosmetics industry groups—such as the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC)—have also called for more stringent controls on cosmetic ingredients, the PCPC has dubbed “The Story of Cosmetics” a “shockumentary”.

What do you make of it?

Tortelicious: How to Rack up a $1 Million Speeding Ticket

August 17th, 2010. By LucyC

Welcome to Totally Tortelicious—a review of some of the more bizarre legal stories making news—and there’s certainly no shortage of them.  

Don’t get caught speeding in Switzerland! A Swedish millionaire has just done his bit to increase the Swiss GDP. He took his Mercedes-Benz Gullwing super car for a bit a ride—on the highway—and ended up with a $1 million speeding ticket.

He was clocked driving the $250,000 vehicle at 180 miles per hour—so fast that he got by two traffic cameras (couldn’t have been Swiss technology) because the sensors could only register speeds of up to 125 mph—first gear for this guy.

Apparently the ticket is the largest in Swiss history. Why so high? Traffic fines in the country that invented the cuckoo clock are based on a violator’s net worth, which has been somewhat reduced by this little joyride…I wonder how he explained that to his wife… 

No, That’s not what “Ride Free” Really Means… Continuing on with the theme of speed—a motorcyclist in Ontario, Canada attracted a little police attention of his own this week, for Read the rest of this entry »

How New Overdraft Protection Rules Don’t Protect You

August 16th, 2010. By Kristine B

So as of August 15, new banking regulations went into effect for overdraft protection—meaning you are no longer automatically opted-in for overdraft protection. That’s good news, because it could save you some money. The bad news is that the protection doesn’t extend to ALL overdraft transactions. Making matters worse, some banks (okay, many banks) are trying to convince customers to sign up for overdraft protection. Because this is the first week for the new overdraft protection regulations, this week’s Pleading Ignorance looks at the new regulations, how they affect you and why banks still want you to sign up.

First, though, what is overdraft protection? Overdraft protection is a way of allowing a customer’s transaction to proceed even if the customer doesn’t have enough money in his account for that transaction. If you buy a $10 lunch but only have $5 in your account, without overdraft protection that transaction will be denied. But if you have overdraft protection, the bank will authorize the payment.

The catch, though, is that overdraft protection can be expensive—up to $35 per transaction. So, that $10 lunch winds up costing you $45. Worse, you may not realize you were enrolled in overdraft protection. Some banks automatically enroll customers in the program. So you might have expected that the transaction would be denied (hopefully, you have a back-up plan for payment) but it was approved—complete with fees.

Making matters worse is that the banks have been accused of reordering Read the rest of this entry »