It’s March, and in North Carolina, that means one thing… MARCH MADNESS!!! This March, Toxic Free NC is teaming up with HealthyStuff.org to look into the hazardous chemicals in our favorite University Themed products. We found some pretty nasty stuff in our favorite fan gear from UNC and Duke - that’s why we’re releasing our March Badness report today.
Check out our results and choose who should advance to the Shameful Sixteen. Don’t delay - Duke is on the bubble! The MTP brackets lay out the toxicity rating of common gear fans buy to support their team from t-shirts, lunch bags and foldable chairs to flags and banners. We were disappointed that a lot of the items available at the nations Top Ten Retailers were full of toxics! For example, the Michigan State University Seat Cushion we bought at Kroger, the University of North Carolina Lunch Bag and University of Central Florida Car Mat (both from Walmart) contained both lead and phthalates. We think the only unhealthy things college basketball fans should be exposed to are beer, pizza and Krzyzewskiville.
Yet, this popular college gear contains phthalates banned by Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) and levels of lead that exceed CPSC regulation in children’s products. The seat cushion you sit on, the jersey you wear and that koozie that keeps your drink cool might contain harmful chemicals that are linked to asthma, birth defects, learning disabilities, reproductive problems, liver toxicity, and cancer.
Many of the chemicals we found in the study contain chemicals of concern identified as Hazardous 100+ chemicals. HealthyStuff.org and our partners in the Mind the Store Campaign are asking the Top Ten Retailers to stop playing dirty by getting toxic chemicals out of the product on their store shelves. Join us in asking them to clean up their act.
If you’re interested in finding out where Duke, UNC and the top teams from around the nation stand in terms of toxic gear, check out HealthyStuff.org’s ranking here.
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