GoGreenNation.org

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., introduced legislation Tuesday that would toughen safety standards for cosmetics, including requiring regular government testing of products for hazardous ingredients.
via Product testing: Bill would require cosmetics to be tested for hidden hazards – chicagotribune.com.

If you live on the Gulf Coast, welcome to the real world of oil — and just know that you’re not alone. In the Niger Delta and the Ecuadorian Amazon, among other places, your emerging hell has been the living hell of local populations for decades.
via Paying the Price of Coexistence with Big Oil [...]

“We are continually exposed to a mélange of potentially toxic chemicals through the air we breathe, food and water we consume, and products that come in contact with our skin. Some of these chemicals are suspected of interfering with hormone function; causing cancer, asthma or other respiratory harm; damaging the brain and nervous system; and [...]

“I was in and out of the water until sunset, not getting home until dusk,” Shindo recalled. “I walked (to the beach) at a very brisk clip every morning, but my pace was much slower going home, taking me twice as long as in the morning … . The seas were my childhood itself.” This [...]

“…levels of methane — a particularly potent greenhouse gas — are now 100 times higher than normal, SRI scientists said. They can’;t say for sure it’s from BP, said SRI director Larry Langebrake, but “it is a sign that says there are things going on here that need to be researched.”
via Scientists from St. Petersburg [...]

GoGreenNation.org and the Gainesville Environmental Film and Arts Festival (Cinema Verde) are setting up as B Corporations… fair to consumers, workers and shareholders. This is our sustainable future:
“Those who believe the financial sector should serve rather than dominate the economy will welcome these reforms. They are radical and achievable. But they will demand determined idealism [...]

Oakland has many neighborhoods where social action has improved food access, in West Oakland in particular. But many people continue to live in areas that qualify as food deserts, where there are no outlets to purchase healthy food within walking distance. Even more, lack awareness of food justice as an organizing issue, and of food distribution networks, community gardens and urban food co-ops and farmers markets as ways to start to address these issues. Use our map to find resources–but also to note where they are lacking.

Hmmmm… hope this turns out to be a viral trend!
“The attendance of more than 600 people, including some from Pottstown, at last week’s state summit, “Building One Pennsylvania” was encouraging.
Those attending the summit last Friday in Lancaster displayed a commitment to progress and change that is desperately needed for the future and for the economy.”
via [...]

Environmental Health News study synopsis by Heather Stapleton:
“Another study raises concerns about e-waste recycling and its health effects after researchers report that pregnant women in China who live nearer the facilities have higher levels of toxic chemicals and depressed levels of thyroid hormones.”
via Chemicals higher, thyroid hormone lower in pregnant women near e-waste recycling. — [...]

“There has been a pervasive failure by the regulators to take the actions necessary to protect safety and the environment,” said Rep Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the chairman of the committee’s oversight and investigative subcommittee. “These failures to regulate happened at the same time as federal officials offered oil and gas companies new incentives to drill [...]

Lessons not learned…
“The strategy of continuing to exploit the economic opportunities of deep-water wells even as the hazards they represent becomes clearer is being pursued the world over.”
via Against backdrop of gulf spill, other nations move forward with deep-water drilling.

Although asbestos use in the U.S. plummeted from a peak of 803,000 metric tons in 1973 to just 1,460 metric tons in 2008, the nation’s epidemic is far from over. As many as 10,000 Americans still die of asbestos-related diseases each year; one expert estimates that 300,000 or so will die within the next three [...]

As gas drillers swarm to this lucrative Marcellus Shale region and blast into other shale reserves around the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking a new look at the controversial fracking technique, currently exempt from federal regulation. The $1.9 million study comes as the nation reels from the Deepwater Horizon environmental and economic [...]

Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing countries.
via BBC News – Dangers in the dust: Inside the global asbestos trade.