Hello Monkies,
Did you hear Radiolab's podcast on Prairie dogs? It was really good and it was featured on NPR Morning Edition today. I like to listen to Morning Edition everyday. Anyways, Radiolab is fantastic. Several years ago I had a big sleeping problem, as in I didn't do it. So I would stay up and listen to 88.5 and at around 2am this weird little show out of NYC would come on called Radiolab. It's been one of my favorite storytelling shows ever since.
Edwin Edwards was released from prison a couple days ago. He spent 8 years in federal prison for a the usual Louisiana politician stuff. He is living at his daughter's house instead of the usual half-way house for the remainder of his sentence and just got a job as a consultant to the head of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Don't worry he isn't being paid by the state Democratic Party and he isn't getting the usual amount that they pay consultants doing this type of work. ok.
There are about 30 states that are taking action this year on chemical reform. The Environmental Defense Fund just posted this new blog what states are planning on doing.
Directly from the blog: "A summary of the types of bills introduced or soon to be introduced follows.
Comprehensive State Laws: Nine states, including Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Washington and Vermont, will be introducing or have introduced policies to change the way we regulate chemicals at the state level.
BPA Phase Outs: At least seventeen states will be introducing or have introduced policies to restrict the use of BPA in infant formula cans, receipt paper, baby bottles and/or sippy cups including: Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and the District of Columbia.
State TSCA Resolutions: At least eleven states will be calling on the 112th U.S. Congress to bring our federal chemicals policy into the 21st century: Alaska, California, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
Banning Cadmium in Children's Products: At least eight states will be introducing or have introduced policies to ban the use of cadmium in children's products, including: Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York.
Deca BDE (toxic flame retardant) Phase Outs: At least three states will be introducing or have introduced policies to reduce exposure to deca BDE, including: Alaska, Massachusetts, New York and the District of Columbia.
Legislation planned: Chemical safety legislation is also planned in South Dakota."
Ciao,
Renee Claire
Showing posts with label chemical reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chemical reform. Show all posts
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, July 19, 2010
Repost: Chemical Reform is the New Our Bodies Ourselves
A good friend and I are developing a joint project about the links between social and environmental justice and art in South America. I am particularly interested in how women and girls are empowering each other to control the path of their community and stop chemical pollution. I'm also in the process of expanding a blog I wrote for Momsrising earlier this year called "Chemical Reform is the New Our Bodies Ourselves, so I thought I would repost it here. I'm really interested in your thoughts on this subject. Feel free to shoot me an email and post comment if you feel inclined. Ciao. Renee Claire
Chemical Reform is the New Our Bodies Ourselves
Originally posted February 16, 2010
Recently, I’ve had some time to sink my teeth into some really good reading. Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenso, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Half the Sky by Nicolas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to name just a few. I don’t know about you, but many of the books I’ve read in my 30 years stand out as powerful moments in my life. I still remember receiving a book about the suffrage movement from my uncle when I was 9 years old. It was full of pictures including photos of women being arrested for their struggle for equal rights. (A possible origin of my own tendency for getting arrested for environmental and social justice throughout the years)
I also remember the day I first discovered Our Bodies Ourselves. A book that has empowered women to understand and care for their bodies, their health, and their community since it was first written in 1970 by the women at the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Forty years after Our Bodies Ourselves was first published, we are finally starting to see a larger societal understanding that to care for our girls and women is to directly nurture our community at large.
As we see a greater movement towards gender equality, we are also understanding that toxic chemicals are impacting our health, specifically our reproductive system, making this nurturing needlessly more difficult. Reproductive and developmental systems are extremely delicate and without a real commitment to the designing out of toxins, corporate interests are putting our daughter’s right to a healthy and safe future at risk.
This I believe is the next battle of the women’s rights movement. The right to not be poisoned by the things we buy for our homes, our children, and ourselves. And the right to live in our community without being regularly targeted by polluting companies. It is no secret that runaway corporate interests keeping toxic chemicals inside products we use everyday while convincing politicians to beat back regulation is creating serious environmental and health consequences, particularly to women and therefor our entire family.
With the fight to pass comprehensive and transparent federal chemical reform, we are seeing women and girls educate themselves and others on the importance of a toxic free future. Just take a look at your state’s initiatives to ban toxic chemicals and all the groups working to reform of the federal toxics laws. Moms and young women are attending community meetings and putting pressure on corporations to eliminate harmful chemicals, writing articles and talking to their friends and family members. This just isn’t a collection of environmental and health groups tackling the next big issue, this is my generation’s women’s right movement.
For a toxic free future,
Renee Claire
Chemical Reform is the New Our Bodies Ourselves
Originally posted February 16, 2010
Recently, I’ve had some time to sink my teeth into some really good reading. Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenso, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Half the Sky by Nicolas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to name just a few. I don’t know about you, but many of the books I’ve read in my 30 years stand out as powerful moments in my life. I still remember receiving a book about the suffrage movement from my uncle when I was 9 years old. It was full of pictures including photos of women being arrested for their struggle for equal rights. (A possible origin of my own tendency for getting arrested for environmental and social justice throughout the years)
I also remember the day I first discovered Our Bodies Ourselves. A book that has empowered women to understand and care for their bodies, their health, and their community since it was first written in 1970 by the women at the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Forty years after Our Bodies Ourselves was first published, we are finally starting to see a larger societal understanding that to care for our girls and women is to directly nurture our community at large.
As we see a greater movement towards gender equality, we are also understanding that toxic chemicals are impacting our health, specifically our reproductive system, making this nurturing needlessly more difficult. Reproductive and developmental systems are extremely delicate and without a real commitment to the designing out of toxins, corporate interests are putting our daughter’s right to a healthy and safe future at risk.
This I believe is the next battle of the women’s rights movement. The right to not be poisoned by the things we buy for our homes, our children, and ourselves. And the right to live in our community without being regularly targeted by polluting companies. It is no secret that runaway corporate interests keeping toxic chemicals inside products we use everyday while convincing politicians to beat back regulation is creating serious environmental and health consequences, particularly to women and therefor our entire family.
With the fight to pass comprehensive and transparent federal chemical reform, we are seeing women and girls educate themselves and others on the importance of a toxic free future. Just take a look at your state’s initiatives to ban toxic chemicals and all the groups working to reform of the federal toxics laws. Moms and young women are attending community meetings and putting pressure on corporations to eliminate harmful chemicals, writing articles and talking to their friends and family members. This just isn’t a collection of environmental and health groups tackling the next big issue, this is my generation’s women’s right movement.
For a toxic free future,
Renee Claire
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