Category: Other Developments
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Maine Activists Champion BPA Ban in Baby Food, Canned Foods
Environmental health activists in Maine are reportedly campaigning to extend the state’s current ban on bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable food containers to all food containers within three years. Spearheaded by the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, the effort follows a chemical analysis funded by the group that…
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Oxford Academic Wants WHO to Adopt Framework Convention on Alcohol Control
A university lecturer in global health politics at the University of Oxford has called for the World Health Organization (WHO) to use a “vastly underused” mechanism, a legally binding framework convention requiring just a two-thirds vote, to address the health burdens and mortality purportedly attributed to alcohol consumption. In the February 16, 2012, issue of…
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CSPI to Present “Sugary Drinks Summit” in June 2012
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has announced“a national advocacy conference to motivate and strengthen national, state, and local initiatives, both public and private, to reduce sugary-drink consumption in the United States.” Scheduled for June 7-8, 2012, in Washington, D.C., the meeting is apparently designed for “researchers, government officials, state and local…
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ISAAA Reports 2011 Growth in GM Crop Acreage
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) has released its annual report on the global status of genetically modified (GM) crops, claiming that in 2011 “a record of 16.7 million farmers, up 1.3 million or 8 percent from 2010, grew biotech crops.” According to ISAAA, these gains reflected increased plantings by developing…
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UCSF Researchers Continue Crusade Likening Sugar to Alcohol and Tobacco
Anti-sugar crusader Robert Lustig has joined University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) colleagues Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis to co-author commentary in the February 2, 2012, edition of Nature that advocates regulating fructose like alcohol and tobacco. A specialist in neuroendocrinology at the UCSF School of Medicine, Lustig has garnered attention in national venues such…
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ANA Advertising Law & Public Policy Conference Slated for March in D.C.
The Association of National Advertisers’ 2012 Advertising Law & Public Policy Conference will reportedly target how best “to navigate today’s complex marketing landscape and remain on the cutting edge in an ever-challenging legal and regulatory environment.” Slated for March 28-29, 2012, in Washington, D.C., the conference will include sessions on (i) global views of online behavioral…
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Advocacy Group Publishes BPA Action Plan for Federal Agencies
The Center for Progressive Reform has issued a paper titled “Protecting the Public from BPA: An Action Plan for Federal Agencies.” Contending that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which is used extensively in food contact materials, has negative health effects in low doses and that federal agencies have failed, to date, to regulate it, the…
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NRC Calls for Coordinated Effort to Address Nanomaterial Safety
A National Academies National Research Council panel has issued a report acknowledging the progress made by the National Nanotechnology Initiative in researching the environmental and potential health effects of engineered nanomaterials (ENM), but criticizing an overall failure to link research with strategies to prevent and manage risks. Headed by Jonathan Samet, who teaches at the…