Chemical Week and lead sponsor SRI Consulting unveiled a new website, which provides "authoritative information on sustainability and greenhouse gas issues for the chemical industry" according to a press release. It is the first purpose-built resource for chemical industry leaders informing them of the latest data, trends, market information, innovations, and business news relating to chemicals and the environment.

New Society Publishers recently released Green Building Products: The GreenSpec Guide to Residential Building Materials. The book is edited by Alex Wilson, president of Building-Green, a source for information on environmentally responsible design and construction, which also publishes Environmental Building News. The table of contents specifies the variety of some 1,600 environmentally preferably products and materials covered, which include doors and windows, flooring and floor coverings, interior finish and trim, paints and coatings, and plumbing, electrical and lighting.

Huddlers recently launched a new product and review website, which will focus on green products for the home. The site encourages consumers to submit reviews of things such as ‘green’ appliances, lighting, plumbing fixtures, cleaning products, to cars, paint, or any other household product. There is also a discussion forum section for green products, as well as a wiki section.

The Sierra Club, an environmental group, has expelled the leaders of its Florida chapter weeks after the local activists accused the group's directors of selling out in a corporate endorsement deal with a bleach manufacturer. The Sierra Club says the Floridians were ousted after a national inquiry found that their was chapter paralyzed by infighting. But the expelled activists believe they were silenced after criticizing Sierra's controversial agreement with US bleach maker Clorox to endorse a new line of green household cleaners.

Seattle is reportedly considering enacting a comprehensive ban on polystyrene foam packaging items commonly used in food packaging. The proposed ban would also enact a twenty cent fee on both paper and plastic bags. If passed the polystyrene foam ban would outlaw items including plates, trays, clamshells, cups, meat trays and egg cartons at stores and restaurants.

There have been numerous requests recently for OEHHA to provide more guidance concerning acceptable methods for providing warnings to consumers for exposures to listed chemicals in foods purchased at retail stores. Guidance currently provided by regulations concerning the range of possible options for providing Proposition 65 warnings for exposures from foods in the retail context is considered very limited according to OEHHA.

A recent analysis by the Pesticide Action Network Europe has uncovered substantial evidence that wines on sale in the European Union may contain residues of a large number of pesticides. The analysis revealed 24 different pesticide contaminants, including five classified as being carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic or endocrine disrupting by the European Union. The announcement follows an NGO investigation of 40 bottles of wine purchased inside the EU – including wines made by world famous vineyards.

A US health-advocacy group has warned that pregnant women should reduce their exposure to packaging that contains bisphenol A to avoid passing the controversial chemical to their unborn children. The warning, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), will serve as yet more negative publicity for packaging companies, many of which use BPA when manufacturing polycarbonates for water bottles, canned soups and drinks, and baby food bottles.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found that an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program is not assessing the dangers of chemicals to children, despite claims to the contrary. The program, which relies on chemical companies to report on the safety of the chemicals that they make, ran out of funding last year. Chemical companies presented data that was misleading and incomplete, and panels were disproportionately filled with scientists who had financial ties to the chemical industry, according to the report.

Health advocates in Maryland are decrying what they say is an industry-sponsored weakening of legislation that would ban jewelry, toys or other children's products containing toxic lead. The legislation was originally proposed as emergency legislation, and has since been amended by the Senate Finance Committee, delaying any action for more than a year, to July 1 2009.

According to a recent study from the New England Journal of Medicine, new drugs that are rushed through the approval process to meet government-imposed deadlines in the United States are much more likely to be the subject of recalls and safety problems. The study found that working within rigid deadlines may put too much pressure on health regulators, compromising their ability to focus adequate attention on the safety and efficacy of the drug, as well as the quality of clinical data submitted by the pharmaceutical company.