When people ask whether modern synthetics are damaging their health and endangering future generations, Topic A is nearly always bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen, an integral component of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins and one of the highest volume industrial chemicals in existence. Now...

By Dave Andrews, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Environmental Working Group Poking around the kitchen of our new house, Lena and I discovered a flat piece of synthetic something-or-other under the oven’s lower burner. Our landlord proudly explained that it was a Betty Crocker non-stick oven liner, a great...

As a key deadline approaches, scientists and environmental health advocates are ramping up pressure on the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rein in food contamination from bisphenol A (BPA), a plastic component and synthetic estrogen  detected in the bodies of 93 percent of Americans tested. During...

Laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) have found lead, a potent neurotoxin, in 100 percent of 10 popular children’s face paints. The amounts were low – but, as CSC points out, there’s no safe level of lead exposure, which is why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...

Patagonia is PO’d, and in corporate America there’s no worse brand to get dissed by if you’re trying to sell in the green space. Patagonia is the gold standard for environmentally responsible business. And at the company’s insistence, it’s recycled gold. The Ventura, CA...

SIGG Switzerland AG’s roster of stars who tote and tout its aluminum-and-synthetic water bottles reads like a A-list party at Cannes. Cameron Diaz, Scarlett Johansson, Zac Effron , Lucy Liu, Tobey Maguire, Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum, Jessica Alba – and more. How long will the company hang...

SIGG CEO Steve Wasik called earlier today to discuss EWG’s response to his recent announcement that SIGG water bottles did in fact contain the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their liners until August 2008. Wasik’s announcement has caused an uproar because the company led consumers and...

Last week, Steve Wasik, chief executive officer of SIGG Switzerland, made an astonishing admission: the company’s aluminum water bottles manufactured before August 2008 had been made with epoxy resin that contains bisphenol A (BPA). “The primary reason that I am writing this letter today is...

Remember the 1993 film Groundhog Day? Bill Murray’s TV weatherman found himself trapped in a time warp in a turgid little town and despaired, “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” That locked-in-place feeling...

Wherever scientists have looked – in the pristine Arctic or comfortable Marin County – they have found people and wildlife polluted with perfluorochemicals (PFCs).  PFCs are the most indestructible chemicals ever made by man, and they are all around us.  Among the most worrisome PFCs: Perfluorooctanoic...