Posted by Nils Bruzelius | Executive Editor
Doing the Right Thing
It’s not news that getting anything substantive through Congress these days is like pushing very big rocks uphill, even when there is remarkable consensus on the topic.
That’s why a broad array of organizations that care about people’s health came together this week to thank Administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency for her principled and vigorous efforts to advance comprehensive reform of our broken system for regulating hazardous chemicals. In a letter dated March 10, they wrote:
We welcome the core principles you...
FDA on sunscreens — the undecider
Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
When life’s a beach – and also when it’s not – we all need a sunscreen that gets the job done. With skin cancer the most common of all malignancies and bogus claims and hype fogging the sun care products aisle, you’d think the federal Food and Drug Administration would step up the pace to issue sunscreen safety standards.
But you’d...
If it’s polluting people, stop it
Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
Would you take an airline that screened baggage for high explosives?
Sure.
But what if the airline stopped there and didn’t check for firearms, knives, grenades, combustible liquids, ignition devices, caustics and other dangerous devices? You’d find another way to get there, fast, and you’d also demand a Transportation Security Administration...
CNN’s Gupta focuses on Kid-Safe Chemicals Act
Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
CNN’s Sanjay Gupta reported this week that Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, intends to reintroduce the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act as the major vehicle for toxic chemicals policy reform “within the next month or so.”
In a segment called Chemicals, innocent or guilty, Gupta, a physician and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, said that Lautenberg’s...
Chemical Secrecy Keeps BPA in Food
Posted by Alex Formuzis | Director of Communications
Michael Potter, who runs a company that cans organic foods in Michigan, has a problem. He doesn’t want to sell Eden Food’s products in cans lined with epoxy resin containing bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen linked to a variety of potential health hazards.
But, as he told Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton, trying to find out what’s...
Coke, Pepsi court green cred but fudge on BPA
Posted by Elaine Shannon | Editor-in-chief, EWG
There’s a lot to like about Coca-Cola’s bid for green cred at the 2010 Winter Olympics. A key sponsor of the Vancouver games, the multinational maker of more than 3,000 beverages is boasting a no-waste, carbon-neutral presence, with coolers that don’t emit greenhouse gases, staff uniforms and café chairs of recycled materials, compostable...
US Senate Investigates Chemicals in People
Posted by Alex Formuzis | Director of Communications
From bisphenol A (BPA) to flame retardants and beyond, industrial chemicals that have troubling connections to a host of human health problems and are widely used in consumer products came under tough scrutiny before a U.S. Senate hearing this week (Feb. 4).
New Jersey Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D) called top government officials and national experts...
BPA: And Now the Placenta
Posted by Alex Formuzis | Director of Communications
Researchers in Canada have given the FDA something new to think about as it takes a fresh look at the risks of the ubiquitous plastics chemical bisphenol A, or BPA.
Their small lab study is quite different from any that’s been done before, because they tested the chemical directly on cells from human placentas, the organ that delivers nutrition from...
Death at DuPont
Posted by Alex Formuzis | Director of Communications
Phosgene, a widely used chemical that can be lethal at concentrations of less than 2 parts per million, killed a DuPont employee who died Sunday (Jan. 24) after inhaling the gas one day earlier in an accident at a West Virginia plant. The chemical is used in the production of various pesticides and herbicides as well as plastic water bottles made with...
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