It’s supposed to help us keep things and ourselves clean. It is found in almost every household cleaning product from soaps to mouthwash, from toothpaste to deodorant, and from kitchen detergent to toilet cleaners. Yet this wide-spectrum anti-bacterial, anti-fungal agent may actually pose some health and environmental risks. I am talking about triclosan, a rather ubiquitous but controversial compound.

Here are some of the possible harmful effects of triclosan:

• Triclosan may lead to the development of resistant bacterial strains.
• It may be an endocrine disruptor, a substance which mimics certain types of hormones. Triclosan mimics the thyroid hormone, thus disrupting the metabolism of this hormone and the functioning of the thyroid gland. It has been shown to be harmful to certain aquatic animals.
• Triclosan combines with the chlorine in our tap water to produce the gas chloroform which can be toxic and carcinogenic.
• Triclosan finds its way into your breast milk and can be ingested by little babies.

On the other side of the coin, triclosan doesn’t seem to bring much benefit to the products where it is found, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). A soap, detergent or toothpaste with triclosan don’t seem to be any better in cleaning than those without. In addition to cleaning products, triclosan is also found in other products from countertops to toys and fabrics.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a safety study on triclosan but the EWG feels that the EPA assessment may be biased towards the industries using triclosan. EWG especially expressed concerns over exposure of babies to triclosan – e.g. baby care products, toys, blankets, – and breast milk.

An EWG testing of triclosan showed the following results:

• Breast milk – 97% of samples collected (60 out of 62) tested positive.
• Urine in people older than 6 – 75%
• Cord blood – 47%
• Rivers and streams – 58%

Based on these results and arguments, the EWG recommends the following:

• Consumers should avoid triclosan-containing products. Check your product labels!
• Manufacturers should not use triclosan in manufacturing their products.
• Triclosan should be banned from personal care products.
• The EPA should conduct a full, unbiased assessment.

It seems the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, who ate a poisonous apple, is closer to reality than we may have realized. Apples ranked second, right behind peaches, on the Environmental Working Group’s updated “Dirty Dozen,” the list of 12 foods shown to contain the highest amounts of pesticides.

Click here to download the complete Dirty Dozen list, along with its counterpart, the “Clean 15,” fruits and vegetables found to contain the lowest amount of pesticides.

According to the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide, if you regularly eat the 12 most contaminated foods, you’ll be subjecting your body to 10 different pesticides each day. The EWG tells us we can lower our pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding (or buying organic versions of) the top 12 most-contaminated fruits and vegetables.

I’m happy to say that for the past year-and-a-half (around the time I found out I was expecting my first child) I’ve been buying mostly organic foods. It can get expensive, though, especially if you don’t live near farm stands or a food collective, where you can get locally-grown, organic fruits and vegetables at low prices.

This list can help you decide what foods you should absolutely buy organic, and what areas you may be able to cut corners. And because pesticide amounts change frequently, the EWG’s updated list is a huge help. For instance, spinach, which ranked number one on the previous list, moved down to a modest number 14, just ahead of potatoes at 15. But where do you draw the line of when to buy organic?

It’s a personal decision, so you may want to study the entire list of 47 fruits and vegetables when you make your shopping list. For instance, if you consume a lot of a certain food that is halfway down the list, it might make sense for you to buy an organic version of that food. You can save money by looking for sales at your store, stocking up, and even freezing quantities of certain vegetables when they are on sale.

Learning about the methodology behind the study will also help you make informed decisions about buying produce. For instance, you’ll find out that pineapple, mango and avocado are largely pesticide-free, with fewer than 10 percent of the samples found with any detectable pesticides on them at all. Fewer than one percent of those fruits were found to contain residue from more than one pesticide.

Buying fruits and vegetables free of pesticides is even more important when you are feeding children. According to the EWG report, even small doses of pesticides can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Their smaller size means the amount of pesticides they ingest can do even more damage to their tiny systems.

Since I started feeding my infant daughter solid foods, mostly homemade, I buy even more organic produce. I’m happy to see two of her favorite foods, sweet potatoes and avocado, near the bottom of the list.

Even so, I’ll be printing out the EWG shopper’s guide and putting it in my OnTray (www.ontray2go.com) along with my weekly coupons, so I can refer to it as I navigate the produce aisle of my local grocery store.

Last week, attorney generals from the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware wrote letters to 11 manufacturers asking them to eliminate bisphenol A (BPA) from milk formula packaging as well from baby bottles. This is to avoid BPA getting into our babies’ diet. So far, I haven’t heard anything about the manufacturers’ response. For a recap of the health issues of BPA, check previous posts.

As earlier as October and November last year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) already looked into this issue. EWG tested several well-known formula brands and detected BPA in almost all of them. EWG also surveyed leading manufacturers of milk formulas, including Nestl?, Similac and PBM, about their packaging. Most of the manufacturers admitted that BPA is present in their packaging. A few denied it but provided no documentation to support their claims. Powdered formula sold by Similac are probably reduced-risk choices, according to EWG, because only the metal tops but not the cardboard sides are lined with BPA-based plastic.

Here are some recommendations by EWG:

• If you don’t know whether your formula is packaged with BPA, ask the manufacturer and demand a straight answer.
• Go for powdered formulas instead of liquid formulas. EWG estimates that babies drinking reconstituted powdered formula are exposed to 8 to 20 times less BPA than those who drink liquid formula in metal cans.
• If you have to have liquid formula, then go for those sold in plastic containers or purchase concentrated and the not ready-to-eat brands. Dilution with water of concentrated formula reduces the amount of BPA in the baby’s diet.
• If possible, breastfeed your baby. Breast milk is still the safest diet for small babies.

For more details, check out EWG’s Guide to Infant Formula and Baby Bottles.