Today, there are 7 million elders in our nation who need long- term services and supports and that number is expected to grow.

Often, the family caregivers who make it possible for their loved ones to remain independent – either at a distance, nearby, or living with their children – depend on home care workers to supplement their caregiving. It takes a team to help someone who is frail or struggling with one or more chronic diseases to remain in the home.

Women who are caregivers turn to home care workers to provide their loved ones long-term services and supports so that they can go to work, care for their children, and/or prevent the burnout that afflicts many family caregivers over time. It is a very tough job.

Home care workers — 90 percent are female – provide an array of critical services such as bathing, dressing, food shopping, meal preparation, medication management, and transportation to medical appointments. Yet these hardworking home care aides are undervalued. Half of them earn wages at or below200 percent of the federal poverty level and rely on public assistance like food stamps and Medicaid to take care of their own families.

Worse yet— home care workers are exempt from basic federal minimum wage and overtime protections that most workers in our nation enjoy under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 1974 when other domestic employees (housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs, gardeners) were granted minimum wage and overtime guarantees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Congress enacted what is known as the  “companionship exemption” —a rule that excludes workers who provide casual “companionship services” to the aged and infirm from these basic protections.

For the last three decades, the rule has been interpreted so broadly that almost all home care aides—nearly 2 million, according to the Department of Labor– regardless of the level of services they provide, have been subject to the exemption.  The result has been the growth of a vibrant $84 billion industry that relies on millions of workers living on the edge of poverty.

Comment on New Proposal to Extend Home Care Workers Basic Federal Labor Guarantees

Fortunately, the Obama administration has proposed new regulations to ensure that home care workers receive fair pay.  Between now and February 27, the U.S. Department of Labor is soliciting public comments on the new rule.

Now it is our turn to support home care workers.

Please tell the Department of Labor that home care workers deserve fair pay – as well as the dignity and respect that extending basic labor rights to this workforce will help to imply. Tell the Administration that home care workers should be treated like the professionals that they are. Explain how without the essential services that they provide, our parents, grandparents, and other loved ones would have to move to a nursing home at greater cost rather than stay at home as they prefer. Ironically, the workers who would provide the services they need in a nursing home have the minimum wage and overtime protections that their home care workers do not.
Your comments in support of these workers are critical and will make a difference.
We need to build a quality home care workforce to meet our nation’s need for quality long term services and supports. We must ensure that home care employers can attract and retain experienced home care workers instead of paying for costly recruitment and training for a revolving door of aides. That requires quality jobs—extending basic labor protections to these workers is a great place to start.
Visit the PHI Campaign for Fair Pay to learn more about the companionship exemption and why the home care industry can afford fair wages; see sample comments; and access the official public comment site.
PHI is a national, not-for profit organization that works to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care—and the lives of the workers who provide that care.

In California, CHIP is known as the Healthy Families Program and provides health coverage for more than 870,000 children. Healthy Families has meant that the Reick boys of Fresno can get the care they need to manage their asthma, and that the Skinner kids of Riverside can stay active in their extra-curricular sports programs. Healthy Families has provided a variety of needed care for the Magana children of Los Angeles, from immunizations and check-ups to the diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening thyroid cancer.

This success of CHIP nationally was in part boosted by federal CHIPRA incentive bonus payments for states that simplified the application process for children’s coverage and made significant progress in increasing the number of insured children. In December 2011, the federal government awarded nearly $300 million in CHIPRA performance bonuses to 23 states.

Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, California failed to qualify for a bonus, losing out on millions of dollars of federal funds that are desperately needed. While California has made efforts to streamline enrollment for children, and launched a new online enrollment tool for Healthy Families (available in English and Spanish at www.healtheapp.net), the state has not made significant enough strides at enrolling uninsured children into health coverage.

The state’s inadequate enrollment gains are made more stark by the fact that two out of every three uninsured children in California, close to 700,000 kids, are currently eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families but not enrolled.

In 2012, California must do better at connecting uninsured children with the quality, comprehensive, affordable health coverage they need to grow healthy and learn well. To that end, the 100% Campaign (a collaborative effort of The Children’s Partnership, Children Now, and Children’s Defense Fund-California) have developed a Healthy Child Checklist to remind parents of some easy ways to ensure their child stays healthy this year, including applying for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families coverage, which families can do at any time of the year, and with www.healtheapp.net, at any hour.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which President Obama signed in March 2010, further strengthens coverage for children by no longer allowing private insurers to deny coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition. Further, the ACA has already benefited children by requiring coverage of preventive services without co-payments, eliminating lifetime or annual limits, and prohibiting insurers from rescinding coverage.

Looking back on how much has changed for children’s coverage in the past three years, there is much to celebrate. More children have health insurance today than at any point in American history. The opportunity to improve children’s health will continue to grow as California moves forward with implementation of important provisions of CHIPRA and the ACA.

To make these opportunities most meaningful and successful for children in California, we need to focus now on enrolling eligible children and creating a “culture of coverage.” If we work together, we can ensure that more California children have the health coverage they need to grow up healthy.

California parents can learn more about children’s health coverage by calling

1-877-KIDS-NOW (1-877-543-7669) or apply for children’s health coverage directly online at www.healtheapp.net or www.benefitscal.org.

In their small town, there were no women’s health clinics. She did not have access to breast cancer screening. She found the lumps herself. By the time she was diagnosed, it was too late.

Yesterday, the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood.[1]

*Urge the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood–and tell them that regardless of where people stand on pro-choice/pro-life issues, breast cancer exams for low income women shouldn’t be a political football.

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/

Each year, millions of women are screened for breast cancer at Planned Parenthood health centers, and Susan G. Komen’s funding pays for about 170,000 of those screenings. [2]   These services are particularly important for women from under-served communities like my grandmother.

Now isn’t the time to cut funds to ANY entity that provides affordable breast cancer screenings.   In fact, more funds are needed for education, care, and screenings as a combination of these are necessary to save lives.

*Join us in urging the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood:

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/

Please forward this e-mail to your family, neighbors and friends–and post this action link on your Facebook page too.

Together, we are a powerful force for women and families.

[1] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/31/146160911/susan-g-komen-halts-grants-to-planned-parenthood

[2] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/31/susan-g-komen-drops-funding-for-planned-parenthood/

This was about a year after I went home sick from my job and then never went back. The whole experience still felt painfully raw. I was filled with shame for letting people down, for abandoning the career I’d worked so hard at. I didn’t know how to explain the fact that I was so completely burned out that it wasn’t a choice to stop working, it was a physical necessity. Like most professional women, I had always taken great pains to appear confident, together, in control, and I didn’t know where to begin with the truth. Instead I told people that I was “just really exhausted,” as if I needed a lot of sleep, not a year of medication and intense therapy.

During that year, in between the meds and the therapy, I did a lot of writing and reading and thinking. It became increasingly important, for reasons I will explain, that I share what I was writing about with others.

I thought about starting a blog, but realized all those people I worked with would probably find it. (Of course they would. They’re web consultants. They spend most of their time on the Internet.) They would lose any remaining respect for me. Or maybe even get angry, thinking my experience somehow reflected negatively on them.

And what about when I did start working again? What if potential new clients and coworkers read things I’d written and decided they didn’t want to work with me? I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get freelance work when I needed it.

By that time, I had realized that my nervous breakdown was not some isolated incident, or simply a flaw in my character. Trying to work full-time and raise three very young kids is terrifically hard for most people. The struggle to support a family and still have time to see them was the central angst of most of the women I knew.
I also knew, by then, that it doesn’t have to be this way. There are plenty of countries where women are guaranteed paid parental leave (actually, make that all developed countries except for the U.S.), and generous sick pay. There are many places where people are not expected to work punishingly long hours, where it’s the norm to take a month vacation in the summer, and where part time work is more abundant and less frowned upon than it is here.

But the biggest reason I decided to write about my experience is because I don’t think we can truly solve our problems until we understand them. What discussions of “work-life balance” usually leave out are the throbbing, chaotic, emotional realities of what life is like when you don’t have it.

I launched my blog in March 2010 and held my breath.

A few days later I got my first email from a former coworker. He thanked me for being so honest. He said that even though he didn’t have kids, he, too, was in an ongoing battle to keep work from kidnapping his life. Then I got a similar email from another former coworker. And then, one from a former client who told me he’d quit his job for the same reasons I had described.

Flash forward two years …

So far, 17 former coworkers or clients have contacted me through email, phone calls and blog comments to show their support for what I’m writing about. I can’t tell you how gratifying that is.

And so far, (knock on wood!), I’ve had a steady stream of freelance work coming in, which in this economy is something to be grateful for. If anyone has decided they don’t want to work with me because of the things I write about, well, I’ve been too busy to notice.

In fact, some of my more interesting job leads have come, not in spite of my blog, but because of it. One entrepreneur who runs a local agency practically stalked me with job offers after reading this Mother’s Day post. He, too, was struggling with how to keep work from swamping his life. Just the other day, I mentioned in a blog post that I was in between freelance contracts. Almost immediately, I got a Twitter message from someone I haven’t talked to in years. “I LOVE your blog!” she said. “I’m looking for freelancers. Interested?”

Career “experts” would tell you to never be as frank as I’ve been. They’d advise you to transform your nervous breakdown into a ‘sabbatical,’ or perhaps an ‘ethnographic study of the behavioral health care system’ — anything to hide the fact that you were not in complete control of your life at all times. But I didn’t follow that advice, and here’s what I’ve learned instead: When you speak open-heartedly, when you are authentic about your own experience, when you are honest about what went wrong, a lot of people will like you and want to work with you, even more than if you pretend to be floating sublimely above the messiness of your life.

I’ve worked at places that spent ridiculous sums on company retreats and internal “messaging campaigns” to get people to work together better. But imagine how workplace culture would be transformed if everyone decided to stop posturing, playing stupid turf wars, and desperately trying to look like flawless mannequins and instead inhabited their own humanity and the truth of their experience.

Last week I got a call from a recruiter. I frequently get calls from recruiters, so this one struck me as unusual. Instead of launching straight into his project pitch, he said something about being a new dad.

That’s odd, I thought, Recruiters never do that. But then he brought it up again a minute later.

It dawned on me that he’d been reading my blog. Rather than scaring him away, he was eager to find a way to work together. Soon we were deep in conversation about the sacrifices you make to be home with your kids.

You know what? That’s really cool. It’s really cool to be yourself in a job interview.

This is my career advice:

• Stop pretending to be bulletproof, invincible, and perfect.
• Stop pretending your personal time doesn’t matter.
• Know your limits, and be honest about them.
• Inhabit your own humanity at work, warts and all.

It will feel weird at first, but you will be giving permission for others to do the same. You might find that work becomes a healthier place to be.

* * *

Cross-posted from Working Moms Break and the Huffington Post

Find Katrina here: Email | RSS | Facebook | Twitter

Skip the cans: Limit the BPA in your game day snacks by limiting your canned ingredients, or choosing BPA free alternatives. Soak beans overnight and boil them the next day for baked beans or bean dip. If you’re making chili, avoid canned tomatoes or tomato paste and look for boxed or jarred alternatives. You can also replace canned tomatoes with cooked fresh tomatoes. For beverages, Healthy Child, Healthy World recommends choosing beer and soda in glass bottles instead of canned if possible.

Less packaging: Look for ways to reduce the amount of plastic and packaging you purchase for your party. Save money, and avoid packaging, by buying bulk snacks, sweets, and ingredients. Steer clear of overly packaged convenience produce, like prewashed lettuce, premade carrot sticks, or individually wrapped fruits or veggies. These items often carry a higher price tag. Look for loose produce at your supermarket, or use this tool to find a local farmer’s market. Skip plastic tubs or bags by using minimally packaged ingredients to make one of your favorite snack foods at home, like potato chips or salsa.

Smarter produce: Veggies may not seem like a big part of your Superbowl menu. But a lot of traditional game day foods feature a few pieces of produce: cut up veggies for all those dips, chopped onions and peppers to top off a bowl of chili, celery sticks cozied up next to chicken wings. Remember to rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Wash inedible peels; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife. For edible peels, peeling non-organic fruits and vegetables is an easy way to avoid the chemicals that are absorbed into the peel.

Rethink disposables: If you can lose the disposable silverware and plates, that’s great. If you can’t, what about losing one of them? Keep your disposable plates, but use regular silverware. Use the restaurant trick of keeping a bowl of hot water by the sink and dump used silverware in the bowl so it’s rinsed and ready for the dishwasher. Or add dishsoap to the water and give your soapy silverware a quick scrub and rinse when the party is over. Try bamboo or unbleached recycled paper products for dishes and napkins. Remember to make recycling obvious by clearly marking your recycling bin.

Lose the shoes: Lower your toxic chemical exposures by asking your guests to leave their shoes at the door. Lead-contaminated soil from the outside creates the majority of lead dust inside our homes. Leaving your shoes at the door can cut your lead dust levels by 60 percent, and also reduce your exposure to pesticides, dust mites, and more. Create a designated space for shoes by the door and make it obvious to your guests by putting up a sign, placing a mat in the space, or putting a few pairs of your own shoes there.

More Non-toxic Tips Tuesdays:

• Take BPA Off of Your Grocery List
• Five Tips for the Non-toxic Chef
• A Green Makeover for Your Cleaning Supplies

Do you have any green Super Bowl party tips or recipes? Leave them in the comments, or visit our Facebook page and share them with the MomsRising community.

After reading Gloria Pan’s blog post about Dragon Mothers, I find myself having the same argument – with different themes.  I very much saw my family described in Pan’s description of the dragon mother.  Not so much with the tiger mom.

When I first read Amy Chua’s now-famous tiger mother article in the Wall Street Journal last year, I was sitting at my kitchen table amidst the usual post-Christmas neutron bomb wreckage of our house, my feral children were off the hook, and I was only reading the newspaper because I was dawdling over an already-blown work deadline.

Suffice to say, the article was yet another thing that made me feel guilty – as though the balancing act of my life just wasn’t holding up and the people suffering most were my children. They weren’t playing Carnegie Hall. I couldn’t even get organized enough to get them interested in team sports.

But then I found myself helping my older son with his science homework and urging him on with “Matthew, the world NEEDS you. You’re smart, you’re talented and the world is in trouble. You don’t have the choice not to engage. The world needs all your talents to help face its many challenges.”

“WTF?” You might ask. “Why would an elementary school student even UNDERSTAND, much less be motivated by such a question?”

Well, meet the Dragon Mother, whose goal for her children is to raise WORLD CITIZENS and GAME CHANGERS.

We may not be earning varsity letters (or even doing super great with some of our grades at school), my children are active and engaged citizens.  And they have been since they were in Baby Bjorns.

Matthew helped me staff a non-profit booth at the Feminist Expo when he was just learning to walk. Andrew attended his first Rally for Women’s Lives in the stroller, while his older brother excitedly proclaimed: “if you don’t agree with the President in OUR country you can walk past his house and SHOUT at him.” That was about as good a summary of the first amendment right to free speech as I’ve heard – especially articulated by a toddler.

The boys help me organize moonbounce fundraisers – required entrance fee old books and a twenty dollar donation to a non-profit group with a literacy program for children with imprisoned fathers. I never realized they understood anything but the “moonbounce and cake” part until Matthew made these parties and fundraising for this non-profit  a centerpiece of his 5th grade candidacy for student government.  Not to mention, he put together world-class campaign materials.

And Election Day has always been a HUGE holiday in our house.  The boys pull the levers in the voting booths, then emerge from the precinct covered with “I voted” stickers.

Well, of course Election Day is as big as Christmas — we’ve typically built up to it by canvassing voters on various issues and anxiously scanning Google for articles about our issues and candidates.

In fact, in the last Presidential election cycle the children cheered Obama through every debate.  They threatened that if I voted for Hilary in the primary, I couldn’t come back home. In the general election, we knocked on so many doors for Obama in Virginia that we took photographs of our blistered feet.

Speaking of Christmas, one year Matt asked Santa for an end to global warming.

Because of all this engagement, they aren’t afraid to ask tough political questions at the dinner table. Sometimes it’s like a mini-focus group, as when number one son queried “what’s going on with those hippies raping people on Wall Street”. That lead to an interesting discussion on “spin”.

More than civic engagement, however, my new identifications as a “Dragon” mother (vs Amy Chua’s “Tiger”) is that I’m not interested in my children’s achievement just for the sake of achievement.

Their development is for something – to give their gifts back to a world which has already so gifted them. Not everyone gets economic security and access to education and a loving home and a king’s ransom worth of toys on holidays. I strive to teach them how privileged they are – and that to whom much is given, much is expected.

This isn’t all, though. A parent learns that a child’s talents and views may not be the same as their own. So my boys are gifted at mathematics and chess and science and computers, whereas I never met a book I didn’t like or an algebraic equation that didn’t make me want to break out in hives. And one of my sons perhaps voted Republican once too often for my taste in the voting booth with his father as he is more than willing to argue back at times.

But this is what parenting is all about. Not about creating mini-me’s, but about nurturing their strengths and passions so they can be the best they can be. So computer camps and science camps and after school chess club, bring it on.

And when Matt programmed his own video game and started getting his vast network of fellow gamers to play it online he set up a pay wall to raise money for the aforementioned charity.

To me, that’s better than Carnegie Hall.

Last week Michelle Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Rachael Ray announced new nutrition standards for school lunches, the first major change in school meals in over 15 years.

The program allots an additional six cents per school lunch—the first real increase in 30 years.  The new standards call for more whole grains and produce, as well as less sodium and fat, and are the first to be enacted as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign, which was signed into law last year by President Obama. It will affect the nearly 32 million kids who participate in subsidized school lunch programs each day—many of whom get half their daily calories from these meals.

What’s different? Milk goes low- or no-fat, portion sizes shrink to limit calories, and fresh fruits and vegetables are offered every day, among other recommendations echoed in the Eat Healthy section of our 5 Easy Steps.

What’s not? Potatoes are unlimited—although now the majority will be baked, rather than fried—and tomato sauce still makes pizza a vegetable. “It was a bit unfortunate that some groups had powerful friends in Congress and basically tried…create some confusion with these standards,” Vilsack said in a virtual press conference that I attended. “Our response was to set up minimum requirements. You have to have a minimum level of dark green vegetables, you’ve got to have a minimum level of red or orange or yellow vegetables.”

“OK, so Congress left pizza a vegetable,” Ray said. “But we are changing the game today. That [lunch] tray is going to have leafy greens and colorful fruit on it. If one of the other vegetables happens to be pizza or French fries in some schools that day, it doesn’t negate the fact that on the tray there…will include vegetables and fruits.” (For more specifics, check out WebMD’s excellent breakdown of the new standards.)

Regarding organics, Secretary Vilsack said they encourage organics but will leave the decision about integrating to the individual school districts. But he responded to my question about Genetically Engineered foods by saying they would leave this up to “consumer choice.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask him how we can have a choice, given the fact that GEs are not required to be identified on labels—yet are now in 80% of processed foods.

Or to ask if he was aware that 93% of Americans now say they want GE foods to be labeled. (Are you one of them? Sign the Just Label It petition today!)

Sigh. I guess we have to start somewhere. And these new standards are definitely better for our kids.

Hopefully that pizza will have a whole-wheat crust.

P.S. Congratulations from all of us at Healthy Child Healthy World to Mr. Wells’ 4th grade class at the Park School in Brookline, Massachusetts for changing Universal Pictures’ mind about eliminating green content from “The Lorax” movie. As our founder Nancy Chuda wrote last week, when the kids saw the trailer, they realized that the environmental themes–which, as any parent who’s read this story at bedtime knows, are the bedrock of the story–were largely missing. To restore the original meaning to the film, Mr. Wells’ class put together a video and petitioned Universal to add more environmental messaging to their website. And this week, after more than 57,000 people signed their petition,  the Universal webpage was updated to reflect the students’ requests. Dr. Seuss once wrote, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” We’re inspired by these kids, who cared enough to make it better. A lot.

Here is Dena’s wrap up of the series:

Toxin A Day Wrap Up

By Dena Fleno, CT Working Moms Blogger

Whew… that was exhausting!  I’m sure you are thinking right about now that this is completely overwhelming, so many things to remember, look for, learn about.

I felt, and still feel the same way.

It is sad, scary, and a tad mind-boggling that we have to spend so much time, energy, and brain power trying to make informed decisions about the simplest of things… like soap.  There are so many questions that come up?

Why are companies putting these chemicals in our products?

Why are they so reluctant to take them out?

Why can I not just trust that the product on the shelf is safe and doesn’t have the potential to harm me or those I love?

Simple answer… because they can.

The regulating agencies can say that certain ingredients can or cannot be in certain products, but there is absolutely no oversight to make sure that these regulations are followed through on.

It’s like handing your kids a pint of ice cream and an apple to choose from, walking away and hoping they make a healthy decision.

They have highly paid, powerful lobbyists who make sure that legislation continues to go their way.  But we have power too, the kind that also comes also with money. It’s called purchasing power.  We can say we are not going to buy their products unless they clean up their act.

In the end…

What I want readers to come away with from this series is a bit more knowledge and the spark to make some changes in the way we look at the things we use.  You don’t have to completely overhaul your life and have a panic attack every time you walk in the store to buy shampoo.  Small changes can do a wonder in the long-term.

Believe me, I am the first to tell you that I am not perfect when it comes to Cleaner Living everywhere possible.  I do not compost, I eat junk food more than my waistline would like, I REALLY like red lipstick, I use disposable diapers, I get manis and pedis, and my kids have had McDonald’s enough times for them to recognize the golden arches from afar.

But I am trying to make small changes in our lives that we can stick to and feel better about.  I can take some of the worst offenders and eliminate them or dramatically decrease them from our every day use.  I can send a message to manufacturers that I want safe products for my family.

And you can too.

I said I would compile a list of all of the ingredients we talked about to look out for so here it is in alphabetical order.  The toxin is in parentheses next to it:

• _eth_ such as sodium laureth sulfate (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• 1,4 Dioxane (carcinogen)
• 2 Bromo-2 nitropane- 1,3 Diol (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• 5-Bromo-5-Nitro-1,3 Dioxane (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Anti-bacterial products (can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• BHA (Butylated hydroxyanisole- carcinogen)
• Butylated hydroxyanisole (carcinogen)
• butylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• ceteareth (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Coal Tar (carcinogen)
• DEP (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• diethyl phthalate (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• DMDM Hydantoin (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• ethylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• formaldehyde (carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Fragrance (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• Hydroquinone (carcinogen, skin irritant)
• Methenamine (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• methylene glycol (formaldehyde+water- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• methylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• oleth (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Oxybenzone (carcinogen)
• oxynol (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• PEG’s (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Phthalate derivatives (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• polyethylene (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyethylene glycol (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyoxyethylene (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyurethane foam with a label reading TB117 (Tris fire retardant- cancer, hormone disruptor, neurotoxin)
• propylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• quaternium-15 (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Retinol (Retinyl palmitate- carcinogen)
• Retinyl palmitate (Retinyl palmitate- carcinogen)
• Sodium Nitrite (nitrosamines in foods- carcinogen)
• Toco- roots (may contain hydroquinone impurity- carcinogen, skin irritant)
• Triclocarban (hormone disruptor, can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• Triclosan (hormone disruptor, can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• Urea (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Vitamin A (carcinogen)

I hope that this has been helpful to some of you, and that you can take at least one thing from this series and make a few changes for a healthier tomorrow.

Read all of her posts here.

The 18 months since the robosigning scandal first broke have not been kind to Hispanic homeowners or the housing market in general. Latinos have lost 66% of their wealth thanks to the foreclosure crisis; this will leave lasting effects on their retirement and ability to finance their children’s education. Home values have dropped by as much as a third since 2006 and more than ten million families owe more than their home is worth. Most of the federal efforts to stave off foreclosures have come up short, largely because participation was voluntary for banks and servicers. A strong AG settlement is critical for those homeowners who sought relief, played by the rules, but still fell through the cracks of servicer bureaucracy.

Details of a $25 billion robosigning settlement have begun to emerge and if the reported details are accurate, there is much to celebrate. One of the most important aspects of the settlement is the approximately $17 billion for principal reductions. Writing down principal has long been recognized as being one of the most effective tools for keeping families in their homes. When compared with the costs of foreclosure, property maintenance, and a sheriff’s sale for pennies on the dollar, it’s a win for banks, neighborhoods, and families alike. Yet servicers have not made it a priority. Not only could the settlement compel them to embrace principal reduction, but when coupled with Friday’s announcement of major incentives to servicers—including loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—it may be just what we need to break the logjam on write downs.

Reportedly the settlement also allots $2–$3 billion to the states for housing counseling, legal aid, and victim’s assistance. Housing counseling has been one of the most successful foreclosure prevention programs to date, but inexplicably Congress eliminated its funding for 2011. Approximately $45 million was reinstated for fiscal year 2012, but the demand for service far exceeds this amount. Housing counseling is available free of charge to any family facing foreclosure. This invaluable service gives families a real alternative to scam artists peddling false promises to the tune of $5,000 or more.

Clearly, $25 billion is not enough to repair all of the damage done to our homes and the economy, but that is why the robosigning settlement is only part of the solution. One of the most important deals struck in the negotiation is on the releasing of future legal claims. This means that the AGs and the Department of Justice can continue to pursue civil rights, origination, and securitization claims. In fact, the financial crimes task force, investigations underway by AGs in California, Nevada, and Massachusetts, and the Department of Justice’s landmark settlement with Countrywide give us every reason to believe that the march toward accountability is off to a good start. The robosigning settlement should be the next step. It is time to deliver the first installment of relief for homeowners that have not a moment to lose.

Photo by flickr user Mananetwork

Earlier this week, Thao Nguyen covered some important improvements that will make the future brighter for all American dragon babies.  Significantly, dragon babies can not be denied insurance due to preexisting conditions under President Obama’s health care reform law.

Yet, for Asian American mothers, this lucky year may be more dangerous than fortunate. Certain health barriers pose serious hazards for many Asian Americans mothers and their dragon babies. Here are some trends that may fire you up:

Higher HBV Infection Rate for Babies

Hepatitis B (HBV), which attacks the liver, is one of the most common infectious diseases in the United States and can be transmitted from moms to babies at birth. Nationally, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders account for less than 6% of the U.S. population, but more than 50% of chronic HBV cases. Up to 10,000 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander women who have HBV infection give birth in the U.S. each year, and babies infected at birth have a 90% chance of developing chronic HBV infection. Thankfully, there is an effective vaccine, but uptake is far from universal. This year, let’s make sure that all babies at risk for HBV infection have the opportunity to receive this lifesaving preventive care.

Higher Rate of C-Sections

According to research, the rate of cesarean section for first time Asian and Pacific Islander moms increased by 70% between 1991 and 2008. C-section rates for these women are also 19% higher than the cesarean rate for first time mothers who are white. In addition, some studies indicate that Asian American moms who have white partners are more likely to give birth by cesarean.  It’s unclear why there’s a disparity in this important health outcome, or what information Asian American mothers are receiving about this increased risk. However, what is clear is that improving the quality of health care through cultural competency trainings, increased language access and the development of a diverse workforce is critical to improving the care that moms and babies receive.

Higher Risk of Gestational Diabetes

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) women are more likely to suffer from gestational diabetes. Yet, health care providers do not yet fully understand why there are significant differences between ethnic subgroups. For example, among AA and NHPI moms who develop gestational diabetes, Native Hawaiian and Filipino women are more likely to suffer poor outcomes related to the condition.

More Data Please

While there’s predictability in the movement of the stars and the cycle of our calendar, some Asian American health issues remain mysterious. It’s clear we need more data concerning Asian American moms and their babies. Let’s make some progress in data collection in the Year of the Dragon 2012!