The Latest from EnviroBlog

In a story in the Contra Costa Times, two people separately coin the term "Pombo-ize" to refer to that California Republican congressman's unsuccessful effort last fall to auction off our public lands.

Key Issues: 

Environment

The New York Times has a great profile on parents who don't care how safe the chemical companies say their products are -- they want toxics-free kids, and they'll protect them as best they can by choosing the greenest products available.

Key Issues: 

Children’s Products

If you're looking for couches with wood from sustainable forests, fabric free of flame retardants and finished off with non-toxic dyes, stains and glues, Q Collection makes them not just green, but also good-looking.

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Chromium-6

Fire Retardants

The Hill reports that two staffers who work for the Department of Interior have spent almost three years pushing Rep. Richard Pombo's agenda, including controversial provisions for off shore drilling and selling off public lands. Problem is, there are laws designed to keep the government's branches separate, including one that limits this kind of crossover to one year.

Key Issues: 

Environment

Tomato giant Ag-Mart couldn't be in bigger trouble in North Carolina for alleged pesticide violations that may have caused birth defects in three field workers' children, but the state ag department says it's powerless to ensure that the company shapes up.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Chemical Policy

Pesticides

The Associated Press reported that Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine testified in a court case over lead paint that swallowing a chip of lead paint just half the size of his (Landrigan's) fingernail could send a child into a coma or convulsions.

Key Issues: 

Lead

Whether or not you agree with the Bush Administration on energy policy, one thing is clear: when a President brings up the need to become energy independent in a State of the Union address, public debate increases. And as Martha Stewart says, "that's a good thing."

Key Issues: 

Energy

The people who know DuPont best – its workers – have launched a website that pulls no punches about the company’s health and safety practices. “Throughout its history, DuPont has ignored scientific evidence whenever it threatens to hurt company profits,” reads the home page.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

A study of CDC employees designed to test new methods of looking for the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate in humans stumbled upon unusually high levels of perchlorate in its subjects. Since Atlanta's water has extremely low levels of the chemical, and all 62 subjects' urine tested higher than the water, CDC scientists suspect that perchlorate is getting into people through their diets at higher levels than previously believed.

Key Issues: 

Perchlorate