Consumer Products

Dell has a new program to plant a tree for each computer it sells, saying it could offset CO2 emissions from the machines. I’m not sure who did the math on that, but the program is commendable nonetheless. More impressive is Dell’s free recycling of all computers, monitors, printers, and other gadgets without requiring the purchase of a newer model.

On January 19, EPA will decide whether or not to allow unrestricted use of the potent human carcinogen chromium-6 in a wood preservative known as ACC (acid copper chromate), for lumber sold at the nation's hardware and home improvement stores.

Last week California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a bill to establish a state-wide biomonitoring program aimed at helping to identify populations at-risk from long-term chemical exposures as well as isolate the trends that put certain groups in harm’s way. According to Environmental Science & Technology, public health officials are gaining confidence in the importance of biomonitoring as the method has helped uncover hidden threats as it did with an arsenic-laden skin cream in New York City.

EWG submits comments to FDA on the need for a public process to identify and evaluate the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics. Recommendations to FDA include the need to identify nano-scale materials in personal care products and complete product safety evaluations in those cases.

It looks like Environmental Working Group aren’t the only ones that have a bone to pick with Harvard. At least 17 Harvard alumni, including several leading public health experts, have voiced serious concerns about the ethics inquiry of Dr. Chester Douglass by the university. Douglass has been accused of misrepresenting the research of one of his graduate students that linked fluoride to bone cancer in boys. Why might he do this? Douglass is an employee of Colgate toothpaste, a leading advocate of fluoride.

NPR is running two stories about antibiotics. One about scientists scraping the sea floor in search of new antibiotics that we have yet to develop resistance to. Researchers are finding that drug companies have little interest in financing the testing of their newly discovered anitbiotics, because they are more focused on drugs that people require daily for the rest of their lives, or performance-enhancing drugs.

This month McDonald's is giving away toy Hummers, 42 million of them, in eight models and colors, with every Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal. That's right: The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth is now selling future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military. In response, EWG has teamed up with Hybridcars.com to create the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic so you can tell us what you think of this misguided marriage of two icons of American excess.

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?

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."