Publication archives

Climate change made it easier for the mountain pine beetle to thrive in British Columbia, but logging and fire protection made it impossible for Interior forests to withstand the devastating pest, warns a new report.

A Minnesota-based consumer group says more than a third of the toys it tested contain significant amounts of toxic chemicals. Healthy Legacy and its public health partners in other states tested more than 1,500 toys for lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, chlorine and bromine. The results are posted on their website.

Holiday toy-shopping stress is sure to ratchet up with a new report on toxic toys issued today. Nearly one-third of the popular toys tested contain medium to high levels of lead, cadmium, mercury or other potentially dangerous chemicals, according to the Michigan-based Ecology Center. Toy jewelry figures prominently on the "Worst Toys List."

Last month, IATP published a study examining the role of excessive commodity speculation by multi-billion dollar index funds in the rapid rise and fall of global food prices in 2007 and 2008.

One of the most unfortunate outcomes of the steady effort to weaken U.S. regulatory agencies has been the proliferation of children's toys on the market that contain chemicals known to be harmful. Remarkably, U.S. agencies don't require full safety testing of chemicals before they are added to toys.

The credit crunch could boost the uptake of biodegradable plastics for packaging as firms start to look at how to do things differently, according to the chief executive of Natureworks has exclusively told Packaging News.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified food safety as one of the top 13 issues of urgent priority for the Obama administration.