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Nothing, it seems, is safe any more. First it was lead paint on toys, then toxins in baby bottles, and then toxins in everything, and so, really, what's an anxious mother to do but PANIC, like, ALL THE TIME?
And then panic some more when she sees headlines like this: Is Your Playground Toxic?
Once the playgrounds are deemed poisonous, isn't it safe to say that we should all run screaming from so-called civilized society and rear our children in the backwoods where they can swing on tree branches and poke bears for fun?
The story, from Mother Nature News:
A recently leaked memo from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that agency scientists have begun to question whether there's stuff in the crumb rubber (used as play surfaces in many playgrounds) that could be toxic to kids. "What's known is very very little. They list, I think it's 30 toxic chemicals in one of the memos. And so far work has only been done on two of them," said Jeff Ruch, head of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, in an interview with The Environment Report. An EPA spokesman says the agency is doing a preliminary study of four playgrounds to test for toxins such as lead and volatile organic compounds. The results aren't in yet.
"Results aren't in yet," which for many parents translates into "don't bring your kids anywhere near this stuff."
MNN notes that the Rubber Manufacturers Association says that "there are more than 100 studies showing scrap tires are safe in playgrounds and that environmental groups are over hyping the concerns" But they also point out that arsenic treated wood was once defended as safe. And remember all those creosote-coated railway ties that were once a staple of yards and play areas? You wouldn't want your baby licking that stuff, right? So why risk him stuffing possibly toxic crumb rubber into his mouth?Or even just rubbing it all over his sticky little hands?
I just don't know anymore. On the one hand, I want to protect my children against anything that could possibly harm them in any way. On the other, I feel like I'm living in something of a culture of paranoia where panicking about our children's well-being has become an entirely mockable way of life.
So I'm trying to keep this in perspective. In the meantime, however, I'm going to stick to playgrounds with sand or cedar chips. Not because I'm paranoid, of course. Just, you know, because.
Catherine Connors blogs at Her Bad Mother and Their Bad Mother and everywhere in between. When she's not indulging in parental paranoia, she worries about God and death and Walt Disney. You know, the usual.
