Marla Cone of the Los Angeles Times has writtten a brilliant (albeit disturbing) article on the many products for sale in the US which have been banned in most other countries as toxic. The piece leads with an example of formaldehyde-laden plywood, sold throughout the US, but illegal even in China, where it is manufactured.

A survey this month by Baltimore City Health Commisioner, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, found that 4 out of 17 samples of children's jewelry sold at area stores had dangerously high levels of lead.

The House votes today on a bill pitting giant food companies against the health and safety of American families—a measure that could nullify state laws warning consumers about mercury in fish, lead in candy, arsenic in bottled water, benzene in soft drinks and dozens of other dangers.

Lead acetate, an ingredient used in personal care products such as men's hair dye, has been banned in Canada over fears of cancer and reproductive toxicity. The chemical has been banned in Europe, and California considers it a carcinogen. Canadians' products must be free of the chemical by the end of 2006.

A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood

Environmental Working Group, July 14, 2005

The international mining giant, Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., is under fire for dangerously polluting Indonesian communities in violation of US environmental standards. Now, an Environmental Working Group (EWG) search of US government electronic records it has posted on its web site (www.ewg.org/mining/) shows the company holds more acres of mining claims on Western public land than any other metal mining company. Newmont holds 347,458 acres of claims in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Washington.

An estimated 19,000 children under age six in Ohio have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that identifies high-risk counties and neighborhoods across the state.

Guns can be hazardous to your health even if you don't get shot with one, according to a new study of the harm to people and the environment from lead pollution at shooting ranges in California and nationwide.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) and EWG release Poisonous Pastime: The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges and Lead to Children, Families and the Environment. The study documents how shooting ranges poisoning children and polluting the environment with lead, yet remain almost entirely unregulated-exempt from even the Bush Administration's new lead pollution reporting rules.