(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 14, 2008. Starting February 10, 2009, the law bans the sale or resale of products for children age 12 or under that have not been tested to show they contain less than 600ppm of lead and less than 0.1% of certain phthalates (a plastic softener). The law includes plans to move to a 100ppm limit later and force vendors to accept returns of products sold after February 10, 2009, that did not meet the future lower limits.
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(Click here for more coverage of preventing canker sores.)
What are Canker Sores?
Painful is what they are! Canker sores are round or irregular breaks in the mucous membranes in the mouth, tongue, or throat. They typically vary in size from a couple millimeters in width to more than 10 millimeters in width. (For Americans, think 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch.) They tend to be very painful, especially when irritated through contact with a toothbrush and acidic foods. Often they take weeks to heal. Fortunately, they are not contagious.
For whatever reason, canker sores seem to be more common in women than men. About 10% or more of the population suffers from them on a regular basis. If your parents or siblings have them, you are more likely to have them, too. So there’s probably some genetic reason for susceptibility, but nobody knows what it is yet.
My Personal Misery and My “Secret Cure”
I used to get canker sores often, generally more than once per month. Often I had two or three of them at a time. Sometimes my mouth would be so painful that it was hard to eat. Even more embarrassing, sometimes the pain would be bad enough that I’d talk strangely and people would ask what was wrong with me. I can recall being like this for more than two decades from my childhood onward. My triggers for them were stress and lack of sleep. It was really obvious that if I got less than 6 hours sleep, I’d almost be sure to have one or more canker sores within a day or two.
Today, I don’t have those problems any more. That’s true even when I can’t sleep at all for a day, something that used to trigger multiple canker sores. What’s the secret to the improvement? My dentist suggested that I take lysine.
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