Lead in my Purse?

The Center for Environmental Health just released a new study today. They looked at the lead contents of purses being sold in the United States, and found that some of them had 90 times higher lead content than is legal under the federal laws. Many states have more strict laws than that, so imagine how far over they are in those states...

Lead can be found in both the vinyl (any faux leather product) as well as dyes and paints. This means that canvas bags are not safe either!

Lead poisoning has been attributed to lower cognitive ability than would be otherwise and learning disorders. (hm, is our obsession with cheap fashion responsible for the growing numbers of learning disorder diagnosis's in the U.S.?)

Below is a list of the retailers selling the contaminated purses, and a list of the brands that are contaminated.

The retailers found selling bags that contain high levels of lead include:
Kohl's
Target
Macy's
JCPenney
H&M
Wal-Mart
Aldos
Ross
Forever 21
New York and Co.
Ashley Stewart
5-7-9
Bakers Shoes
Sears
DSW
Anchor Blue
Bloomingdale's
Express
French Connection
Lane Bryant
Pacsun
Sanrio
Tumi
United Colors of Benetton
Victoria's Secret

The brands of bags found that contain high levels of lead include:
Fluff
Aldo US
Ashley Stewart
Urban Brands (Ashley Stewart)
Bakers
Chinese Laundry
Lulu NYC
Forever 21
Relic
Haddad Accessories
H&M
St. John's Bay
Worthington
Nine & Co.
Nine West
Apt. 9
Daisy Fuentes
Liz & Co. (by Liz Claiborne)
Dana Buchman (by Liz Claiborne)
Roxy (by Quicksilver, Inc.)
Rosetti
Cul-de-sac (Sears)
Steve Madden
Xhiliration (Target house brand)
Urban Expressions
No Boundaries (Wal-Mart house brand)
Fossil

All of the information here was found on the CEH website, and Wikipedia (which IS a source!!)

Kiva Stats

Today I learned where the stats to my Kiva lending practices can be found. This just gives me an overview of who I've been loaning to, and what sectors they belong to. So far, my four loans have gone to four different countries. Three of them to women, and 2 of them to the health sector. I'm thinking I want to focus my efforts in the health and education sectors because health and education are world wide issues that I tend to get behind quite easily. However, if someone in retail or food services pulls on my heart strings just the right way, I'll of course lend to them :)


Gender
Male 25.0%
Female 75.0%

Country
Nigeria 25.0%
Pakistan 25.0%
Togo 25.0%
United States 25.0%

Sector
Construction 25.0%
Retail 25.0%
Health 50.0%

Kiva Payments

Today marks an exciting day in my lending practices at Kiva. I got my first payments back!! I'm so excited to have $3.00 in credit to apply towards July's loan. Plus I believe I have one more payment coming July 1 so I should have a little over $3 to put towards my next loan. Eventually I hope to have enough people paying me back that it will be a self funded endevour, and will only cost me the 15% donation to Kiva each month. Of course, this is going to take a bout two years to reach given my current rate of lending. Maybe I'll have to bump it up to two loans per month :) I know I've already done two this month, but I was so excited today when I found a loan to give in the 'health' sector. Those seem to be few and far in between so I try to catch them when I can. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for her) this loan won't be available come July, but hopefully there will be more!

Kiva Launches in the US

Today marks a huge day in the world of micro lending. Kiva has opened up residents of both New York and California to receive micro loans. So many small business owners would love to expand, but can't because they cant get the funding necessary to do so. Thanks to Kiva, now there is a way. By the time I got out to Kiva.org today the lending was well underway! According to Kiva's twitter feed, today 866 loans have been made to US borrowers totaling $29,700. It is amazing to see how generous people can be when in our daily lives we don't see these things in the people around us. Perhaps that is just people being modest and not bragging about their philanthropic ventures. But no matter, every now and then I come across some fact or figure that suggests that there is more good in the world than I would have previously thought.

Anyway...

As I have already made my Kiva loan for the month, I had no intentions to actually make a loan until I started looking at who was out there. I'd estimate that half of who I looked at were people in the Bay Area. Many of them are fundraising for money to grow their child care businesses, which I absolutely support. Decent child care is so difficult for so many people to find and afford that allowing these small businesses to grow only seems like the right thing to do. However, the one person who struck a cord with me was a woman named Serena. She lives in Mountain View, she attends SJSU, and she teaches yoga. I love yoga. She needed a micro loan to finish her schooling to get her certification so that she can expand her services to include more expansive personal fitness training. So she got my second loan for the month. I may or may not have shed a tear. To impact someones life who lives half way around the world is a wonderful thing to do, and such a small amount of money can make a huge difference. Yet to help someone who lives in my own back yard improve herself and the community that we share is an entirely different experience.

Here is a short video (8 minutes) that does a great job describing the purpose and mission of Kiva. It's a little old (pre US launch) but entirely relevant in every way.