Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) head Nancy Nord said a new federal standard limiting lead in toys and other children’s products “might prove to be overly broad.” Nord, an appointee of President Bush and former lobbyist for corporate interests, has long been criticized for seeming to be disinterested in ensuring the CPSC fulfills its mission of protecting the public. The limit on lead is part of a product safety bill currently under Congressional consideration and would require the CPSC to set a standard limiting lead in children’s products. In 2007, the CPSC announced 106 recalls of lead-contaminated children’s products totaling 17,126,810 individual items representing a 500 percent increase from 2006.

U.S. Representative Ed Whitfield has been tapped to serve on an exclusive conference committee which will produce the final version of legislation aimed at improving consumer safety and reforming the commission which is charged with protecting the public from potentially harmful or hazardous products. Whitfield was selected to be one of 15 lawmakers who will determine the final version of H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. These Senators and Representatives will determine the content of the final bill.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has submitted comments to the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) requesting the office withdraw its proposed regulatory language on Proposition 65 warnings for chemicals that are both “beneficial to human health” and known by the state of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. AHPA’s comments also encourage OEHHA to include the level at which any listed chemical is identified as a carcinogen or reproductive toxin within any future listing.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty turned back legislation that would have banned the sale of two chemicals: the fire retardant DECA, and phthalates, a plasticizer used to soften vinyl. Pawlenty said he is willing to consider limits or bans on the chemicals in the future, "but such steps should be based on sound science." Backers of the bill say the evidence already points to a variety of health ailments connected to phthalates and DECA.

California's Senate passed a bill that would prevent the sale of plastic baby bottles, training cups and formula cans if they contain detectable levels of bisphenol A. If the measure becomes law, California would be the first state in the nation to ban the plastics ingredient bisphenol A in any consumer product.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official told a Senate committee that it's possible there will be no standard set for the amount of perchlorate allowed in drinking water. State officials and water suppliers across the US have been waiting for the EPA to set a standard for several years because perchlorate has contaminated the water supplies of at least 11 million people. Last year, California, impatient with the EPA's indecision, set its own standard.Studies have shown that the chemical blocks iodide and suppresses thyroid hormones.

New analysis by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) indicates that a set of mostly voluntary initiatives recently announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify and manage the risks of thousands of chemicals “will provide far less protection than the more comprehensive approach taken under the European Union’s new REACH Regulation”. EDF presented its latest critique of EPA’s Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP) at a meeting held by EPA to receive input on its initiatives.

Wal-Mart Canada announced that it will phase out all PVC plastic packaging in the energy saving light bulb category and replace it with more environmentally preferable cardboard packaging. The change will eliminate an estimated 150,000 pounds of PVC plastic waste each year, according to a Wal-Mart press release. Wal-Mart has a goal to reduce the packaging on the products sold in its stores by five per cent by 2013.

Amidst growing interest in bio-based and biodegradable packaging, a leading supplier of the materials says the industry must address sourcing issues if it is to flourish in the future. Biodegradable plastics, which are often produced from renewable sources, are being increasingly sought after by food and consumer goods processors as part of a solution to environmental concerns over waste and use of fossil fuels. Andy Sweetman, market development manager of Innovia said that imposing restrictions on bio-packaging, for example by preventing processors from using packaging materials sourced from food crops or requiring them to use 100 per cent renewable materials, would only setback innovation.