The Latest from EnviroBlog

A new report for the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child contends that protection from toxic pollution should be considered a basic human right.
 

Key Issues: 

Children's Health

Toxics

Children’s Products

The Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this month that it will finally ban the use of triclosan, a toxic chemical associated with hormone disruption in people, in antibacterial hand soaps. The FDA determined there wasn’t enough information to prove that triclosan was safe and effective.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Triclosan

Many companies across the nation have complied with California’s 2014 flammability standard that allows furniture manufacturers not to use flame retardant chemicals in polyurethane foam.
 

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Fire Retardants

Consumer Products

I keep a bottle of Banana Boat Sport SPF 100 on my desk. But I am not convinced it deserves more than a SPF 15, or maybe 30, rating. A chemist specializing in sunscreen chemicals, I run a sunscreen model that estimates, based on the active ingredients in the bottle, what a sunscreen product’s Sunburn Protection Factor ought to show.

Key Issues: 

Consumer Products

Sunscreens

Panera Bread’s Kids Meal Promise – a children’s menu free of artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners and colors – challenges the rest of the fast and fast-casual food industry to get serious about kids’ health. If it works, American kids and everybody else will win.

Key Issues: 

Food

Healthy Eating

On Aug. 3, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Food Quality Protection Act, a landmark law that required the EPA to show that all exposures to pesticides in food were safe for infants and children. In the 20 years since its passage, the EPA has banned or reduced the use of many of the most harmful pesticides, and federal testing confirms that amounts of pesticide residue in baby food have dramatically decreased.
 

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Pesticides

Food

Chemicals in Food