EDF Health

Coalition for Chemical Safety throws first member under the bus

By / Published: December 18, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Mr. Joe Householder, Executive Director of the chemical industry front group, the Coalition for Chemical Safety, posted a comment the day before yesterday responding to my last blog post about a local Montana chapter of the coalition.  Here’s my reply:

Mr. Householder:  It certainly seems you want to have your cake and eat it, too.  The Coalition obviously has launched a concerted effort to sign up small businesses, and it continues to purport that it’s open to anyone – all in an effort to claim, as it does on its website, that it’s comprised of “people like you.”  The Montana small businesswoman quoted in the radio story is a Coalition member and was handing out Coalition literature at a Coalition-sponsored event at the time she was interviewed.

Yet as soon as she (or, I presume, any one of your other members) speaks up and says something at odds with the chemical industry line, you quickly disavow her, saying she is not an “official spokesperson.”
Read More »

Posted in Health policy, Industry influence, TSCA reform / Tagged | Read 2 Responses

Immaculate deception, part 2: Chemical industry front group calls for ban on bisphenol A

By / Published: December 15, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I’ll bet that got your attention.  Surely I jest, you’re thinking.  Well, on December 2, Montana Public Radio’s Evening Edition included a segment in which a spokesperson for the new chemical industry front group, the Coalition for Chemical Safety about which I blogged a few weeks ago, publicly calls for an all-out ban on the controversial endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA).  Here’s the clip (5 MB mp3 file). Read More »

Posted in Health policy, Industry influence, TSCA reform / Tagged , , , , , | Authors: / Read 3 Responses

Toxic Ignorance is Not Bliss

By / Published: December 7, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I’m excited to point you to a column, “Toxic Ignorance is Not Bliss,” just posted on our website.  The column is written by Dominique Browning, formerly the longtime editor-in-chief of House & Garden, who is partnering with EDF via a monthly column.

The subtitle of the column is “Why I’m Outraged About BPA and Other Chemicals, and What We Can Do.”  Here’s a sample to get you to read more:

We should be worried about what amounts to a huge, uncontrolled human testing experiment. Without agreeing to it, without understanding it, without even knowing it, we have become the chemical industry’s guinea pigs.

Click here to keep reading.

Posted in Health policy, Health science / Tagged , , , | Read 2 Responses

A big day for chemicals

By / Published: December 2, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Today is a big day in building momentum towards achieving fundamental reform of our nation’s policies intended to ensure the safety of the chemicals we use and to which we are exposed every day.

Here’s a sample of what’s going on: Read More »

Posted in Health policy, TSCA reform / Tagged , , , | Authors: / Read 1 Response

Bottom lines: Stating the business case for chemicals policy reform

By / Published: December 1, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

This week’s issue of Business Week has an intriguing cover story titled “Look Who’s Stalking Wal-Mart,” with a cute cover graphic.  It’s all about the latest retail trend in downmarketing.  But in the same issue is another piece that might well be titled “Look Who Retailers are Stalking” – with the “who” being the chemical industry and the why being the need for meaningful chemical policy reform. Read More »

Posted in Health policy, TSCA reform / Tagged , | Read 2 Responses

How to turn a “quick start” into a choke point

By / Published: November 18, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Over the last few months, I was heartened to hear a number of industry stakeholders in the debate over TSCA reform embrace the idea of designating in TSCA reform legislation a “jump-start” or “quick-start” list of chemicals of high concern or priority.  The idea was to allow EPA to hit the ground running, by having an agreed-to list of chemicals on which it could immediately initiate action.  Well, it now appears many in industry actually have something far slower and far more cumbersome in mind. Read More »

Posted in Health policy, TSCA reform / Tagged , , , , , , | Authors: / Read 2 Responses