Greening the Store Shelves

It use to be when you wanted eco-friendly cleaning supplies you had to go to a specialty store or order online. Now we have the first line of natural cleaners developed by a major consumer products company. Clorox has just come out with a line of cleaning supplies called Green Works and they have formed an alliance with Sierra Club to focus on environmental conservation and sustainability.

I hope this is just the beginning and other companies join a growing trend of more natural products.

Toxins in the Environment

After listening to an interview with Mark Schapiro, I have added his latest book, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power, to my reading list.

Mr. Schapiro points out that in 1970's the United States was the world environmental leader. The Environmental Protection Agency was the first of it's kind. Unfortunately, that is not true today. The European Union and other countries are moving ahead of the United States on initiatives to ban toxic chemicals in cosmetics, electronics, toys, automobiles, etc. Europe uses the "precautionary principle" and tries to prevent harm before it happens. In contrast, the U. S. has been setting up more and more obstacles in the regulatory process that makes banning a chemical nearly impossible.

Companies are actually reformulating products and removing banned chemicals for the European market but still selling the older products in the U.S. market.

I think everyone needs to become knowledgeable of material in this book.