Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
Safe Cosmetics Bill — Get the facts
As everyone pressing for non-toxic personal care products is probably aware, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., dropped the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 in the hopper last month.
Now begins the hard work of moving the bill through Congress. It won’t be easy. Powerful forces are arrayed against changing the status quo, which is, essentially, no regulation.
Posted by Jane Houlihan | Senior Vice President for Research
Closing the Gap on Cosmetics Safety
EWG strongly supports cosmetics companies that strive to make the safest possible products. Unfortunately, with major gaps in current cosmetics law, some manufacturers don't always choose the safest ingredients. The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 would help close these gaps.
Current law requires a company to post a warning on any product whose safety has not been substantiated. But the law does not define safety or require that companies document their (highly variable) decisions on what is safe enough to sell.
What Will We Learn from the Deepwater Horizon Disaster?
Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
By David Andrews, EWG Senior Scientist, and Nils Bruzelius, Executive Editor
One hundred and six days later, it finally appears that the gusher in the Gulf has been tamed, plugged at the top and soon to be plugged at the bottom. Today (Aug. 5), the government says that three-fourths of the unprecedented discharge of crude oil is gone from the rich,...
House Members, Witnesses Clash Over Chemicals Regulation
Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
photo by Lindsay Talley
At a packed hearing before a key House subcommittee, Environmental Working Group President and co-founder Ken Cook called on Congress yesterday (July 29) to pass tough new legislation to repair a “broken toxic chemicals policy” that is currently so weak “the American public has lost confidence that the products they are...
Series Exposes Insidious Water Contamination Threat
Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
Every few days, a piece of journalism comes along that reminds us of what is possible when a newspaper or other news organization is willing and able to devote a significant amount of time, money and effort to an important public policy issue.
That’s been the case in recent days with The Washington Post’s two-year effort on the growth of Top Secret...
A Little BPA Along with Your Change?
Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
You stand in line with your latte, your tube of toothpaste or your cart of groceries, you hand over your cash or credit card to the cashier, and he hands you back the receipt. You check that the amount looks right, then stuff it in your pocket or purse. Maybe you pull it out later to make a record of your purchase and then toss it in the wastebasket...
Your Drinking Water: EPA’s New Framework for Contaminants
Posted by Olga Naidenko | EWG Senior Scientist
This week, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Drinking Water Advisory Council met for a three-day meeting (July 21-23) reviewing the new drinking water strategy proposed by EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
EPA’s visionary plan includes four principles to provide greater protection of drinking water:
Address contaminants as groups rather...
At Last! Cosmetics Bill Introduced in the House
Posted by Jane Houlihan | Senior Vice President for Research
Over the past decade, Environmental Working Group has uncovered either hazardous or untested cosmetics ingredients everywhere our research has taken us — in product tests, in ingredient label surveys and even in people.
In our biomonitoring studies, we sent blood and urine samples from 20 teenage girls from across the country to the laboratory. ...
Senators Decry Lack of Data on Oil Dispersants’ Effects, Safety
Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
Members of a powerful Senate Appropriations subcommittee said Thursday (July 15) that the lack of research on BP’s use of vast quantities of dispersants to break up the oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico leaves open the possibility that the chemicals could make the disaster worse, not better.
In an unusual bipartisan consensus, subcommittee members pressed...
EPA Mulls Dioxin Safety — for 30 Years?
Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
Waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the public against dioxin is a lot like waiting for Godot. You keep thinking he’s about to show up… and then nothing happens.
But at least he’s fictional.
Dioxin is all too real. EPA’s own timeline of its labors to establish a safety standard for human exposure to dioxins dates...
