Green Living Workshop update week 13 2008

Sustainable Works Green Living Workshops,

There are 3 workshops currently running:

Saturdays 1-2:30pm
Virginia Avenue Park
2200 Virginia Avenue

Tuesdays 8-9:30pm
Patagonia
2936 Main Street

Wednesdays 7-8:30pm
Santa Monica Public Library
601 Santa Monica Blvd.

Week 4 CHEMICALS 3/22, 3/25, 3/26
Next Week TRANSPORTATION & TRAVEL 3/29, 4/1, 4/2

Homework:
read TRANSPORTATION & TRAVEL
3 CHEMICALS Solutions
LIFE STYLE SURVEYS!!! (The After SW Columns)

CHEMICALS

Skin Deep
Take a look at the best resource available for finding out the safety of your daily hygiene products. The Environmental Working Group, who put together the Skin Deep website, is a terrific resource for information regarding environmental health.

www.ewg.org

DIY Cleaning Products

Consumer Reports' GreenerChoices.org lists several simple recipes for making cleaners at home using familiar household ingredients. See all the recipes.

Alternative Household Product Recipes

Common chemicals are linked to breast cancer

PVC

PVC Poison Plastic

List of Companies Phasing out PVC

Toxic toys
PBS web video documenting the Phthalates issue as an example of the safer EU standards versus the more dangerous US standards.

Center for Investigative Reporting: About the book "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power "

A test of eight green bathroom-cleaning products from Grist.org

1,4-Dioxane

Carcinogenic 1,4-Dioxane Found in Leading "Organic" Brand Personal Care Products from Organic Consumers Association

Press Release in PDF format

1,4-Dioxane Alert with full product testing results (2-page PDF)

1,4-Dioxane Fact Sheet (PDF)

Popular 'green' products test positive for toxicant
LA Times article interviewing corporate representatives regarding the 1,4-dioxane

from the Organic Consumers Association
MYTH
Cosmetics are carefully regulated by the FDA

FACTS
▶ The FDA does not conduct or require independent pre-market
safety testing of new products or chemicals. The cosmetics
and personal care products industry must provide
its own safety testing.
▶ Companies are industry allowed to provide data to the FDA
regarding the safety of their own product ingredients by
funding scientific review boards comprised of doctors and
toxicologists which they select. In this way, companies seeking
to profit from products may influence the selection of
.study results submitted to the FDA submits.
▶ Once a product is on the market, the burden of legal proof
required for its removal is extremely high.
▶ Since cancer and birth defects are often latent occurrences,
it is difficult if not impossible to prove causation in the judicial
system. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to remove a
potentially dangerous product.