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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/why-the-bpa-free-label-on-your-kids-lunch-box-isnt-a-safety-guarantee/article26092776/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/why-the-bpa-free-label-on-your-kids-lunch-box-isnt-a-safety-guarantee/article26092776/</a></span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="220" height="123" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt=" (iStock)"></span></font><font color="black"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext"> </span></font><b><font size="6" color="black"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:24.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">Why
the ‘BPA-free’ label on your kid’s lunch box isn’t a safety guarantee <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">ADRIANA BARTON
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">The Globe and Mail<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Published Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 1:39PM EDT
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 2:50PM EDT
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:windowtext;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/why-the-bpa-free-label-on-your-kids-lunch-box-isnt-a-safety-guarantee/article26092776/comments/" title="Go to the comments page"><font color="blue"><span style="color:blue">Comments</span></font></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="color:windowtext;mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
<font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Lunch boxes are like socks. Even if you try to keep tabs on them, the lids and containers end up being mismatched
and grungy by the time school is out. By now, many parents are in the market for a new one, and back-to-school sales are full of sparkling plastic lunch boxes in candy colours – all marked “BPA-free.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">The label means that the product does not contain bisphenol A, a synthetic compound associated with a litany of health
problems, from cardiovascular disease to poor brain development and an increased risk for certain cancers. BPA is among the most widely used chemicals in the plastics industry, found in everything from dental sealants to cash-register receipts and the lining
of tin cans.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">But growing evidence suggests that BPA-free products are no safer than the hard plastics they replaced. In fact,
some chemical alternatives may be more potent than BPA.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">In 2008, Health Canada made global headlines by banning the sale of polycarbonate baby bottles containing bisphenol
A. Canada went a step further in 2010, declaring BPA a toxin (the designation allows the government to develop regulations around a chemical’s use).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Despite this move, the agency has maintained ever since that “current dietary exposure to BPA through food packaging
uses is not expected to pose a health risk to the general population, including newborns and infants.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">But manufacturers realized that no consumer would touch a food container made with a recognized toxin with a 10-foot
pole. Before long, BPA-free became the consumer products industry standard.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Now, it turns out that chemicals used instead of BPA, including bisphenol S and F, may act in similar ways to BPA.
In rats and mice, BPA is known to disrupt the endocrine system, the network of glands that produce hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, brain function and reproduction.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">An analysis published in March in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives evaluated 32 studies on how bisphenol
S and F behaved in Petri dishes and living organisms. Based on existing research, the authors wrote, “BPS and BPF are as hormonally active as BPA, and they have endocrine-disrupting effects.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Deborah Kurrasch, an assistant professor of medical genetics at the University of Calgary, found that zebrafish exposed
to both BPA and BPS showed an overgrowth of nervous tissue, and signs of hyperactivity. Trace amounts of BPS increased neuron cell growth in zebrafish by 240 per cent.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">“Our results show that BPA-free products are not necessarily safer,” concluded her study, published in January in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">George Bittner, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, has been testing plastic containers for synthetic
estrogens (which are believed to disrupt the endocrine system) for more than a decade. “If what you substitute for BPA has estrogenic activity, you haven’t solved a thing except a marketing problem,” says Bittner, who set up his lab using a grant from the
U.S. National Institutes of Health.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">BPA-free is not a safety standard. Federal authorities in Canada and the United States do not test plastics, nor
do they require chemical companies to test the toxicity of new materials, including BPA replacements, before they hit the market.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">What’s more, manufacturers do not have to reveal the chemical formulations of plastics that come in contact with
food. “We have no idea what’s in these products,” said Frederick vom Saal, a specialist in endocrine disruption at the University of Missouri at Columbia who has done extensive research on BPA.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Hundreds of studies have demonstrated BPA’s toxicity in rodents. But as of yet, scientists have been unable to prove
without a doubt that BPA and similar chemicals cause disease in humans. Researchers cannot dose human sub1jects with BPA for ethical reasons. Nearly 100 epidemiological studies have shown a link between BPA in humans and an increased risk for diabetes, reproductive
problems and developmental effects, but studies like these can only identify correlations, not causes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Some researchers have challenged whether BPA at current levels poses a public health threat.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">In a study published in April in the journal Pediatrics, a team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
noted that the vast majority of U.S. newborns had been exposed to BPA. But after analyzing the form of BPA found in urine samples, the researchers suggested that infants can rid their bodies of the chemical.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Vom Saal called the study’s conclusion “inane.” He pointed out that a basic assumption in pharmacokinetics – the
study of how drugs move in, through and out of the body – is that one can evaluate the presence of a drug or chemical in the body only “based on measuring blood,” not urine.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">He believes that many studies on BPA are funded by the chemical industry, which has a vested interest in promoting
the idea that BPA and BPA alternatives are safe at low levels. In 2006, vom Saal did an analysis of BPA-related studies and found that 11 out of 11 industry-funded studies determined the chemical to be relatively safe, while 109 of 119 studies that had no
industry funding did see negative effects on health.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">While the health effects of long-term exposure to BPA and BPA alternatives are uncertain, there is little doubt that
the plastics we use every day are leaching synthetic estrogens.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">In a 2014 study, Bittner’s lab in Austin, Tex., tested 50 BPA-free products from companies including Camelback, Nalgene
and Lock&Lock. The study found that almost all leached estrogenic chemicals, regardless of whether the plastics were exposed to heat, steam pressure or ultraviolet rays, conditions known to increase the release of chemical compounds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Plastics considered more chemically inert, such as polypropylene used in yogurt containers, or the polyethylene used
to make plastic bags, may also release harmful chemicals, depending on how they are formulated. Even the colours added to plastics may increase estrogenic activity, Bittner said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Some researchers question why BPA and BPA alternatives are being singled out, considering the array of chemicals
that enter our water supply, including synthetic estrogens from hormonal contraceptives as well as antidepressants and other pharmaceutical drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">The relative harm from different sources of synthetic estrogens “really is unknown,” Bittner said. One reason to
focus on estrogenic chemicals in plastics is that the problem could be easily solved. “It’s a simple matter of using certain chemicals and not others in the manufacturing process, and then testing the products to see if they release chemicals with estrogenic
activity,” he said. “It’s not expensive.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">As it stands, glass or stainless-steel food containers are considered safer than plastic or silicone. But even if
parents use only non-plastic lunch boxes, more often than not, the breads, cheeses, carrots and snacks they pack for their kids were purchased in soft plastic bags, or from hard plastic bulk bins. All are manufactured using an array of chemicals that may –
or may not – be harmful.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">Plastics-free alternatives<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Parents are increasingly concerned that there are no safe plastics, says Manda Aufochs Gillespie, author of
<i><span style="font-style:italic">Green Mama: Giving Your Child a Healthy Start and a Greener Future</span></i>. To meet growing demand for products that do not release harmful chemicals, numerous companies have come out with stylish food containers made of
truly inert materials such as glass, stainless steel, cotton and beeswax. Here are Gillespie’s top picks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="450" height="300" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/article26092773.ece/BINARY/w940/image.jpg"></span></font><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">Onyx Containers</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Durable lunch wares from this Vancouver-based company include stainless-steel drinking straws and double-walled insulated
tiffins, perfect for keeping leftovers hot. <i><span style="font-style:italic"><a href="http://onyxcontainers.com/"><font color="red"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">onyxcontainers.com</span></font></a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="425" height="484" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/article26092772.ece/BINARY/w940/image.jpg"></span></font><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">LunchBots</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Stainless-steel bento boxes with brightly coloured lids come with one, two or three compartments. The thermal container
for hot liquids has a wide mouth to help children spoon out soups without spilling.
<i><span style="font-style:italic"><a href="http://lunchbots.com/"><font color="red"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">lunchbots.com</span></font></a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="418" height="209" id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/article26092774.ece/BINARY/w940/image.jpg"></span></font><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">PlanetBox</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">This range of stainless-steel lunch kits has a cult following thanks to its tiny snack compartments, insulated carrying
cases and cute little magnets to stick on the front. <i><span style="font-style:italic"><a href="http://planetbox.com/"><font color="red"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">planetbox.com</span></font></a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="343" height="229" id="Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/article26092770.ece/BINARY/w940/image.jpg"></span></font><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">GoGo Bags</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">These washable cotton bags in fun prints come in different sizes; GoGo says snacks such as apple slices end up tasting
fresher than those stored in plastic bags. <i><span style="font-style:italic"><a href="http://gogobags.ca/"><font color="red"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">gogobags.ca</span></font></a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><img border="0" width="467" height="312" id="Picture_x0020_7" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D0E01C.21000560" alt="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/article26092769.ece/BINARY/w940/image.jpg"></span></font><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<b><font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:bold">Abeego</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<font size="3" color="black" face="Helvetica"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:windowtext">Made of canvas coated in beeswax, this flexible, washable material is a lovely alternative to plastic wrap, and can
be reused for up to a year. Great for wrapping sandwiches, cheese slices and other nibbles.
<i><span style="font-style:italic"><a href="http://abeego.com/"><font color="red"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">abeego.com</span></font></a></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><font size="3" color="black" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Follow Adriana Barton on Twitter:
<a href="https://twitter.com/@AdrianaBarton" target="_blank"><font color="blue"><span style="color:blue">@AdrianaBarton</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Deborah L. DeBiasi</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold">Email: Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></font></b><b><i><font size="2" color="red"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic"><br>
</span></font></i></b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">WEB site address:
<a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/">www.deq.virginia.gov</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Virginia Department of Environmental Quality</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Office of Water Permits
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx">http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
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