Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today the Economist reported on new proposed legislation in the European Union that will shift the regulation of pesticides from an assumption of "innocent until proven guilty", to a precautionary requirement that manufacturers provide data that their products can be...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in EXXON SHIPPING CO. ET AL. v. BAKER ET AL., regarding Exxon's 1989 Valdez oil spill off coastal Alaska, which spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the surrounding environment....
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
The dangerous pesticide endosulfan was in the news this week, as the presence of 22,000 pounds of it on a capsized ferry in the Philippines has prevented divers from recovering some 800 bodies from the vessel. Although the presence...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Honeybees make the world go round. Really! They contribute approximately $15 Billion..with a 'B'..billion dollars to the U.S. economy annually through their free services to pollinate over 130 cash crops, including 1/3 of the foods of the human diet. No...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today, the headline blares to the world: "The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted a first resolution on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials at its recent Executive Committee meeting. The key demand: the precautionary principle must apply to nanotechnologies.". What does this...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes cause asbestos-like damage in test mice. That is what a new study is just out today in Nature Nanotechology is reporting, titled: Carbon nanotubes introduced into the abdominal cavity of mice show asbestos-like pathogenicity in a pilot...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
A coalition of public interest groups including NRDC, the Center for Food Safety, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and The Organic Center came together to protest budget cuts that will kill the collection and public reporting of pesticide use...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
To commemorate Workers Memorial Day, April 28, 2008, many worker and community health advocacy groups including the Environmental Justice Foundation, Pesticides Action Network Europe (PAN Europe), and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today the very prominent Dr. Ronald Herberman, one of the worlds most prominent cancer researchers and Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute joined with NRDC and over fifty-five prominent international scientists, medical doctors, nurses, and other health professionals...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will host oversight hearings on EPA Toxic Chemical Policies. Discussions will include new revisions that will delay and weaken the process EPA uses to update the Integrated Risk Information System...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Kudos to Senators Boxer and Lautenberg, and the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on transportation, infrastructure, security, and water quality (Chairman Lautenberg and Ranking Member Vitter). I am very pleased to testify at hearings entitled:...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today, NRDC and a coalition of public interest science organizations sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protesting the removal of Dr. Deborah Rice as Chair of the scientific panel reviewing safe exposure limits for the toxic...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
The Nanowerk News reported that this week the US Environmental Protection Agency fined a nanotech company, ATEN Technology, a whopping $208,000 because its subsidiary, IOGEAR, is selling nanosilver as an unregistered pesticide. Under the pesticide regulation laws (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
A scientific committee of the European Union just issued a report concluding that current approaches to assess the potential risks of nanomaterials in cosmetics, including sunscreens, are inadequate. After a thorough review of current risk assessment approaches, the committee concluded...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
I just came back from a meeting in Boston (Hahvahd St.) where activists like me got together with chemists and other smart techy-types to talk about our vision of a chemical future. Certainly we don’t want it to look...
