February 5, 2010 – 3:52 pm
Alison Geering-Kline
Cadmium – if you slept through high school chemistry, you may have never heard of it.
But cadmium is all over the news suddenly, with AP reporting that two national retailers are pulling jewelry items contaminated with the carcinogenic crap. If you’re just tuning in, this all came about because CEH discovered the items in the stores and filed litigation in California to force the companies to address the health threat last week.
Both Saks outlet store, Off 5th, and Aeropostale have announced that they are removing the contaminated items from stores and offering refunds to customers who purchased the items. more »
February 4, 2010 – 8:17 am
Judy Levin
New electronic gadgets top the holiday shopping lists of millions of Americans every year. And this means that every year, more and more obsolete and highly toxic electronic waste piles up in our basements, garages, closets, and (worst of all) town dumps.
Here at the Center for Environmental Health, we just invited our staff to bring in their outdated electronics. Together our sixteen interns and staff members filled a Prius-sized bin with obsolete computers, printers, TVs, cellphones, monitors, batteries, chargers, cables, home phones, answering machines, etc. The recycler then took the bin to a facility where trained workers set some items aside to be refurbished, and they carefully dismantled the rest to separate the exceptionally hazardous chemicals — mercury, lead, cadmium, brominated flame retardants, arsenic, and hundreds more –- that live inside these gadgets. To protect people and the environment, it’s absolutely critical that these materials be handled with extreme care. That’s why we took pains to use a certified e-Steward recycler committed to the best practices in electronics recycling (more on e-Stewards below). more »
February 2, 2010 – 4:43 pm
Charles Margulis
Q: What did you find?
A: We purchased jewelry from four leading retailers, Saks, Justice, Catherines and Aeropostale, and found significant levels of cadmium. A child’s necklace from Justice and a pink ribbon “breast cancer awareness” women’s bracelet from Catherines each contain 18,000 times more cadmium than Washington State considers safe for children. more »
February 2, 2010 – 9:33 am
Peter Sullivan
by Guest Blogger Peter Sullivan
Toxins are a common and widespread problem that is even more inconvenient and has even more personal impact than global warming. The topic leaves most people feeling a mix of overwhelm, anger and hopelessness. But as you may have guessed from the title, “Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things” takes a different approach.
What started out as a funny joke and dare between friends actually became an amazing project that will empower consumers. Two Canadian environmentalists exposed themselves to everyday products and watched the toxin levels in their body’s skyrocket. Sadly, this experiment is something most of us do unknowingly every day. more »
February 1, 2010 – 10:26 am
Charles Margulis
In our ongoing series “There’s WHAT in My Food?”, we submit for your reading pleasure (though probably not while you’re eating) our comments on a stunning New York Times investigation that exposed how an ammonia-treated beef filler used in 50% of the nation’s ground beef (possibly up to 80%, according to one industry source) has repeatedly been found contaminated with deadly e. coli and salmonella, despite claims that the ammonia-bathed product would actually eliminate the harmful bacteria.
Meat maker Beef Products Inc (BPI) created a product the beef industry loves. Prior to BPI’s innovation, the slimiest, nastiest slaughterhouse scraps were used primarily for pet food (while the fatty bits were rendered for various oil-based food and non-food products). But in the late 1990’s, BPI began experimenting with ways to take these dirty, feces-stained scraps and turn them into, well, dirty, feces-contaminated burger filler.
In 2001, they came up with the answer. more »
January 29, 2010 – 4:12 pm
Alison Geering-Kline
This campaign is very important and still needs your voice! CEH ally Amazon Watch has launched a ChevronToxico Campaign, calling on Chevron’s new CEO to heed the indigenous and farming communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon and take responsibility for the Amazon Chernobyl that was so profitable for the company.
Please, take action and sign the petition to tell Chevron to clean up the mess they left in Ecuador.
January 27, 2010 – 4:47 pm
Sean Sullivan
The Center for Environmental Health has long been championing the importance of full disclosure about chemicals included in all products that could be harmful to everyone, but especially women of child bearing years. We’ve been leading the way to remove hazardous flame retardants which are linked to altering women’s fertility.
Thankfully the San Francisco Chronicle leads the way with a story today. more »
January 26, 2010 – 7:00 am
Caroline Cox
Take a close look at the fine print on a can of Raid, a bottle of Cutters, a jug of RoundUp, or virtually any pesticide on the market today, and you’ll see these words: “Inert ingredients.”
Inert ingredients are the pesticide industry’s best-kept secret.
The Bad News
There are thousands of chemicals used as inerts in pesticides, and over the years, we’ve discovered what some of them are. The truth is that many inert ingredients are neither chemically nor toxicologically inert. Some cause cancer, some cause genetic damage, some cause reproductive harm, and others cause a wide variety of other health problems. more »
January 25, 2010 – 2:22 pm
Ryan Berghoff
Last April, CEH announced finding high levels of lead in dozens of purses and handbags sold at several major retailers, including Target, Macy’s, WalMart and many others. Last week, a landmark legal agreement with four major companies established, for the first time, limits to end lead threats to women from purses, handbags, clutches and wallets. Friday’s agreement with Lerner NY (New York & Company), H&M, Tri-Coastal Designs and Haddad Accessories creates the country’s first legally binding rules to end high levels of lead in purses.
ABC national news reported on this story on Friday, highlighting the widespread use of lead in purses. Watch the video here. more »
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- Tagged ABC National News, cancer, faux leather plastics, H&M, Haddad Accessories, handbags, heart attacks, high blood pressure, infertility, Lead, lead in purses, legal agreement, Lerner NY, new lead standards, New York & Company, stroke, Tri-Coastal Designs, vinyl
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It's unbelievable: Target and Walmart, two of the nation's top retailers, are still profiting from products that expose your children to lead. It's time for the stores to hear from you. Take Action: 
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