Since you mentioned it here I just made the connection to that article and my daughter’s closet light being on while she sleep. She says she’s scared. Maybe I should make her reduce it to a small night light.

But, if we’re in what the FTC and the medical community calls an “obesity epidemic” and 50% of girls are starting their periods earlier, then it seems like there is an obvious connection between body weight and early puberty.

Like I said, I’m well aware of the weight connection. I just don’t know if the hormones in food and the chemicals in plastics (i.e. those found in baby bottles, that have received so much controversy) are a “drop in the bucket”. I totally get the 100 lbs part. I just don’t know if the hormones girls are ingesting are so insignificant as to be chalked up to “a drop in the bucket”.

I have seen presentations on PVC, phlatates (hormone disruptors found in some baby toys and teething rings) and the dangers of cooking food in plastic containers because the plastic actually leaches into the food (as do the chemicals from the plastics that have psuedo-estrogenic effects).

I’m not a statistician so I can’t speak to the 50% number you mentioned.

Here is a resource that may help with information:

Health Care Without Harm:

http://www.noharm.org/

(They have campaigned for IV bags made out of plastic to be converted the glass containers).

Also, there was a big controversy when baby food jars were switched from glass to plastic pretty much across the industry.

I've seen charts about which baby bottles are safer than others but I can't remember where. I know the big companies tend to use chemicals that no baby should ingest.

Here's another helpful site:

"Skin Deep" – You can check the relative safety of health & beauty products here (see which products contain endocrine disruptors, neurotoxins, carcinogens, etc.):

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/splash.php?URI=%2Findex.php

It's a fantastic database to check health & beauty products for safety.

Jeanne