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The Latest on Consumer Products
On Sunday, the New York Times ran a piece on PZEV’s, or Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles. PZEV’s are poorly marketed versions of the most popular cars on the road. The difference? They have better pollution-control systems than their identical counterparts—so much better that PZEV’s are 70 percent cleaner than vehicles that already meet “low emissions” standards. Sounds a little strange?
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The City Gas Guzzler, which we linked to last week, is drawing lots of comments on the Autoblog.
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Check out this FDA Centennial Anthem, written in honor of the big milestone: "One century past, a people's hope fulfilled By an act conceived for safe medicine and food Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed To life and liberty, to happiness pursued."
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Dell is expanding its services to include free recycling of any of their computers, regardless of whether its being replaced by a new Dell product. This goes one step beyond the policy of rival manufacturers'--Apple and Hewlett-Packard--policies, which generally leave the burden of shipping (about $30.00) on the customer.
Read MoreWho'da thunk. Tossing some vinegar into your washer's rinse cycle whiten your whites without making your clothes smell like a salad. Throwing in some baking soda can strengthen your laundry detergent so you can use less of it. And hydrogen peroxide?
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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, surveys last year in the Bay area found detecable levels of ibuprofen, DEET and other chemicals, Prozac, and a handful of antibiotics in streams and rivers.
Read MoreEarlier this week it was eco-furniture -- now here's a green house to put it in. And like the furniture, the new green building is going beyond energy conservation and land use to focus mainly on building materials.
Read MoreCheck out the New York Times for a rundown of the impressive environmental initiatives the nation's largest retailer is undertaking. Wal-Mart plans to double fuel economy on its delivery trucks, reduce energy use in its stores and minimize packaging.
Read MoreAn Oakland group found lead in 27 soft vinyl lunchboxes in a recent study, a quarter of the products tested. The lead was on the surface of the plastic, where it could easily leach onto children's hands or food.
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In the past week, activists have pressed Teflon maker DuPont to clean up its act on two fronts. Environmental groups demanded that the company monitor groundwater around its local plant, the only one in the US that makes this indestructible, cancer-causing chemical, and the steeworkers' union urged carpet and clothing retailers and fast food companies to warn consumers that their products may be coated with chemicals that break down into DuPont's toxic Teflon chemical.
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Commissioner Thomas Moore of the federal government's Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) shares Environmental Working Group's (EWG) concern that children playing on decks, play sets and other structures made of arsenic-treated lumber may develop cancer later in life from arsenic that rubs off the wood and sticks to children's skin.
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As the Detroit News reports, Ford Motor Co. has again withheld evidence of safety problems with its SUVs and other vehicles. For Ford, it’s hardly an isolated incident.
Read MoreIn the first nationwide tests for brominated fire retardants in house dust, EWG found unexpectedly high levels of these neurotoxic chemicals in every home sampled.
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A new study presented at a meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists links the Teflon chemical C8 [also known as PFOA] to elevated cancer rates. Researchers found higher levels of prostate cancer in men and cervical and uterine cancer in women exposed to C8 than in the general population.
Read MoreThe US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released the most comprehensive study to date of the health risks of arsenic-treated wood, which has been used for decades to build decks, playsets and other outdoor structures in backyards and parks nationwide.
Read MorePFOA is used to make PTFE, the Teflon in pans. However, scientific evidence points to fluorotelomers as the main source of the PFOA and other perfluorinated chemicals in Americans' blood. That fluorotelomers on coated paper food packaging break down into PFOA and other chemicals is a separate problem from PTFE and cookware. This source of PFOA is one that DuPont cannot control by reducing emissions or impurities in its products.
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously today to deny a petition to ban the use of chromated copper arsenate (CCA) pressuretreated wood in playground equipment.
Read MoreEWG asks the CEOs of nine major fast food corporations to disclose the use of toxic nonstick chemicals in their packaging.
Read MoreA series of studies published beginning in the 1950s shows that DuPont has known for at least 50 years that Teflon fumes at relatively low temperatures can cause an acute illness known as polymer fume fever. In several studies DuPont recruited human volunteers and intentionally exposed them to Teflon fumes to the point of illness. The results of these studies suggest that people cooking on Teflon and other non-stick pans may be at risk.
Read MoreTelfon-coated cookware poses a hazard when it is heated to high temperatures. EWG tests show that in 2 to 5 minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown number of human illnesses each year.
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