The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce environment and economy subcommittee had a hearing yesterday over the GOP-authored Chemicals in Commerce Act, proposed legislation that would, in theory, update and reform the painfully irrelevant Toxic Substances Control Act.
NPR covered the hearing in this article. The main take-away from the hearing is that the CiCA, if passed as written, would strip away state-level legislative powers regarding the regulation of toxic chemicals. As Massachusetts State Senator Michael Moore put it, "To strip states' residents of protections enacted by their elected officials would be a serious breach of state sovereignty and would leave everyone more susceptible to increased harm from toxic chemicals."
Anyone else sick to their stomach?
Sh*t's getting real, folks. This is where we see the federal legislative process work -- or not work. This is where we see whose interests get more attention, voters or corporations. Just exactly who's working for whom in the nation's capitol?
I poked around the web to see what other coverage came out of the hearing. Quite a bit. The Seattle Times published this editorial in Monday's paper. Plastics News has a predictable take here. TheHill.com reported on the hearing here.
Read up on the hearing, and the proposed bill. I'll try to form some intelligible opinion on the whole thing, but that may take a couple days.
Nearly speechless,
Jazzy
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Anniversary week
Hodor!
Has any other word in all of the seven kingdoms elicited as much emotion? If there's anyone in Westeros who does NOT deserve any of the sh*t raining down on him, it's Hodor. Man, Osha would skin those jerks faster than a rabbit if she knew how they were picking on her fave Big 'n' Tall.
But that's not why we're here, to imagine how Karma manifests itself in the highly dysfunctional world of Game of Thrones. We're celebrating this week at SMACK! One year already since the blog's launch -- WOW. One year of product reviews, industry analysis, news watching and more. One year of learning as we go that living more cleanly truly is a David v Goliath-style effort.
And the same way David wields his slingshot to take down Goliath, we consumers must wield our buying power to force the issue of safer, healthier personal products with retailers. Wherever our laws fall short, we can -- and should -- pressure retailers to adjust their inventories to stock products that do more good than harm. After all, doesn't the retailer carry liability for selling items whose intended use is actually hazardous to the consumer?
As always, I thank you for all your visits, page refreshes, feedback, comments, all of it. Keep it up! Seriously, this blogging thing doesn't work without readers, without the back-and-forth. A million thank yous for your interest and for giving precious moments from your day to this little thing we call SMACK!
Happy 1 Year!!!
-- Jazzy
Has any other word in all of the seven kingdoms elicited as much emotion? If there's anyone in Westeros who does NOT deserve any of the sh*t raining down on him, it's Hodor. Man, Osha would skin those jerks faster than a rabbit if she knew how they were picking on her fave Big 'n' Tall.
But that's not why we're here, to imagine how Karma manifests itself in the highly dysfunctional world of Game of Thrones. We're celebrating this week at SMACK! One year already since the blog's launch -- WOW. One year of product reviews, industry analysis, news watching and more. One year of learning as we go that living more cleanly truly is a David v Goliath-style effort.
And the same way David wields his slingshot to take down Goliath, we consumers must wield our buying power to force the issue of safer, healthier personal products with retailers. Wherever our laws fall short, we can -- and should -- pressure retailers to adjust their inventories to stock products that do more good than harm. After all, doesn't the retailer carry liability for selling items whose intended use is actually hazardous to the consumer?
As always, I thank you for all your visits, page refreshes, feedback, comments, all of it. Keep it up! Seriously, this blogging thing doesn't work without readers, without the back-and-forth. A million thank yous for your interest and for giving precious moments from your day to this little thing we call SMACK!
Happy 1 Year!!!
-- Jazzy
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Blurry
I'm suffering some confusion about the goings on in the movement to remove toxic chemicals from cosmetic and personal products.
See, last week I tried to put together some analysis of the one-day "Mind the Store" effort to get supporters their local brick-and-mortar Walgreens stores to speak up about the issue and return a varied number of products. Groups in nearly 50 different U.S. cities participated in what amounted to hometown publicity stunts.
While I thought the whole effort was pretty well played, I've been trying to track resulting perceptions. After all, we live in a world driven by the Internet and social media, making for The. Worst. EVER. games of 'telephone' since the game was invented. Did the grassroots effort have the intended impact on news coverage?
That's the thing -- the news wasn't easy to find. Especially not when I inadvertently searched for the events using the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics instead of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families. Oops.
But wait -- it seems that both groups were involved in last week's 'Mind the Store' thing. Naturally my next question is how the groups are related, how they came to work together. I'm determined to find out, if for no other reason than to reduce the headache of keeping them all straight when I browse my newsfeed.
I'm still trying to track down all the media coverage from the Walgreens events. Doesn't help that the SCHF website has been down since last week. I think what I find most curious is that the group selfies posted on Facebook may very well have more value or impact here than the actual real news coverage.
Not much by way of analysis, is it? Third time's a charm?
-- Jazzy
See, last week I tried to put together some analysis of the one-day "Mind the Store" effort to get supporters their local brick-and-mortar Walgreens stores to speak up about the issue and return a varied number of products. Groups in nearly 50 different U.S. cities participated in what amounted to hometown publicity stunts.
While I thought the whole effort was pretty well played, I've been trying to track resulting perceptions. After all, we live in a world driven by the Internet and social media, making for The. Worst. EVER. games of 'telephone' since the game was invented. Did the grassroots effort have the intended impact on news coverage?
That's the thing -- the news wasn't easy to find. Especially not when I inadvertently searched for the events using the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics instead of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families. Oops.
But wait -- it seems that both groups were involved in last week's 'Mind the Store' thing. Naturally my next question is how the groups are related, how they came to work together. I'm determined to find out, if for no other reason than to reduce the headache of keeping them all straight when I browse my newsfeed.
I'm still trying to track down all the media coverage from the Walgreens events. Doesn't help that the SCHF website has been down since last week. I think what I find most curious is that the group selfies posted on Facebook may very well have more value or impact here than the actual real news coverage.
Not much by way of analysis, is it? Third time's a charm?
-- Jazzy
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
My mother, my self
Mother's Day is a huge retail thing. Seriously. It's second only to Christmas -- which is now considered 'Holiday' to encompass a full six-week period off spending like there's no tomorrow -- and we never hear from fine cosmetic and fragrance lines as much as we do in the weeks before Mother's Day. Make her beautiful! Make her smell good! Pamper her with toxic products for facials and poisonous nail polish!
I know, I know, I'm getting acerbic in my old age. But if there's one thing I want to accomplish here, it's challenging the status quo. Which, if we're to believe the marketing, asserts that women in their motherhood years get this over-abundance of special attention on the given day in the form of beauty and personal products. Also, if you buy in to the hype, there seems to be a correlation between the amount you spend and the amount you love your mother. ???
So ya, I'm going to be acerbic. Even though I myself love a good pedicure as much as the next lady. I had mani/pedis regularly through chemo treatment, and it was the perfect indulgence to keep me from feeling like myself.
Back to Mother's Day. And some options. I mean, hammering down the mainstream, traditional product lines is worthless if I haven't shown you how to get safer, non-toxic alternatives, right?
Well+Good NYC has a roundup of fragrances here. YouBeauty.com has its guide to non-toxic fragrance here, including a gallery of different products. The Chalkboard Mag gives its take on safer perfumes here, with a link to their 5 favorite natural perfumes here.
We'll keep talking about fragrance, the industry and finding perfumes that aren't endangering your health. It's one point in the larger discussion as to why women are made to feel like they need products like cosmetics and perfumes in the first place.
Smell nice but stay healthy,
Jazzy
I know, I know, I'm getting acerbic in my old age. But if there's one thing I want to accomplish here, it's challenging the status quo. Which, if we're to believe the marketing, asserts that women in their motherhood years get this over-abundance of special attention on the given day in the form of beauty and personal products. Also, if you buy in to the hype, there seems to be a correlation between the amount you spend and the amount you love your mother. ???
So ya, I'm going to be acerbic. Even though I myself love a good pedicure as much as the next lady. I had mani/pedis regularly through chemo treatment, and it was the perfect indulgence to keep me from feeling like myself.
Back to Mother's Day. And some options. I mean, hammering down the mainstream, traditional product lines is worthless if I haven't shown you how to get safer, non-toxic alternatives, right?
Well+Good NYC has a roundup of fragrances here. YouBeauty.com has its guide to non-toxic fragrance here, including a gallery of different products. The Chalkboard Mag gives its take on safer perfumes here, with a link to their 5 favorite natural perfumes here.
We'll keep talking about fragrance, the industry and finding perfumes that aren't endangering your health. It's one point in the larger discussion as to why women are made to feel like they need products like cosmetics and perfumes in the first place.
Smell nice but stay healthy,
Jazzy
Monday, April 21, 2014
Thinking Dirty
I follow the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in my FB newsfeed, and I've noticed a bunch of plugs for the mobile app Think Dirty, which lets consumers scan product bar codes to find ingredients and toxicity ratings. Looking into it, I saw that the Campaign has, on three separate occasions in the same week, promoted the Think Dirty app.
Huh. I only bring it up because Environmental Working Group, which as we all know operates its own Skin Deep database of personal products, is a founding member of the Campaign.
So why the extra love for another, competing rating system? Not sure. Has me wondering what the relationship between all the companies is, though.
I have both apps downloaded to me phone, and I remember when they were first available having difficulty finding products. The data just wasn't robust enough, and didn't anywhere compare to the 80,000 products listed in Skin Deep's full online database. I haven't used with app in a while, but maybe it's worth a revisit.
I'll also keep my eyes peeled for anything indicating why the Campaign would be pushing one mobile app over another, rather than just encouraging consumers to get in the habit of using their smart phones to make smarter, healthier purchases from the beauty aisle.
Yours in investigative blogging,
Jazzy
Huh. I only bring it up because Environmental Working Group, which as we all know operates its own Skin Deep database of personal products, is a founding member of the Campaign.
So why the extra love for another, competing rating system? Not sure. Has me wondering what the relationship between all the companies is, though.
I have both apps downloaded to me phone, and I remember when they were first available having difficulty finding products. The data just wasn't robust enough, and didn't anywhere compare to the 80,000 products listed in Skin Deep's full online database. I haven't used with app in a while, but maybe it's worth a revisit.
I'll also keep my eyes peeled for anything indicating why the Campaign would be pushing one mobile app over another, rather than just encouraging consumers to get in the habit of using their smart phones to make smarter, healthier purchases from the beauty aisle.
Yours in investigative blogging,
Jazzy
Friday, April 18, 2014
Walgreens vs the everyman
I had some great critical analysis planned for the grassroots events at Walgreens stores nationwide that Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families organized for earlier this week, but some reason the organization's website is down. Coincidence?
In all honesty, it's hard to make a point about anything without any reference material. It makes me a bad writer, and does nothing for you as a reader, so we'll table this until I can get on their site and check things out.
Stay tuned,
Jazzy
In all honesty, it's hard to make a point about anything without any reference material. It makes me a bad writer, and does nothing for you as a reader, so we'll table this until I can get on their site and check things out.
Stay tuned,
Jazzy
Week ending
Well, I've really dropped the ball this week, huh? Last week was chock full of content and this week, just one piddly post and one silly Game of Thrones reference. C'mon Jazzy, you can do better than that!
You're damn right I can.
I'm giving Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families another post about their efforts to pressure Walgreens. Highlights, for sure, but also some analysis. After all, this is the Internet Age and nothing is as it seems.
Can I also drop a whole paragraph just for GoT? Anyone else re-watch the last episode of Season 3 to get caught up? Who's Blackfish (apparently he escaped the slaughter at Frey's, er, party)? And can we talk about how Arya has been on the lam for 2 entire seasons? When will that poor girl get a bath? And get to hook up with Gendry?
"Look! The pie!"
-- Jazzy
You're damn right I can.
I'm giving Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families another post about their efforts to pressure Walgreens. Highlights, for sure, but also some analysis. After all, this is the Internet Age and nothing is as it seems.
Can I also drop a whole paragraph just for GoT? Anyone else re-watch the last episode of Season 3 to get caught up? Who's Blackfish (apparently he escaped the slaughter at Frey's, er, party)? And can we talk about how Arya has been on the lam for 2 entire seasons? When will that poor girl get a bath? And get to hook up with Gendry?
"Look! The pie!"
-- Jazzy
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