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	activism alerts november 2007

• Resource Highlights Good, Wholesome Toys for Holidays
  Cast Your Vote Now: The Falsie Awards
• Resource Highlights Good, Wholesome Toys for Holidays
• Click to Tell Your Senator to Support Product Safety
• Not in My Cart!

Cast Your Vote Now : The Falsie Awards

While fact-checking her editorial "Is Breastfeeding In Trouble?" for Mothering's September/October 2007 issue, Peggy O'Mara enlisted the aid of the leading media watchdog group, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). In helping to verify O'Mara's suspicion that several websites initially appearing to promote breastfeeding are actually "stealth" mouthpieces for the formula industry, the CMD became informed—not only of the shrewd, dishonest and manipulative tactics of the International Formula Council, but of Mothering's decades-long history of reporting on the topic.

Now, the CMD is honoring O'Mara and Mothering's enduring investigative journalism by presenting the story in their fourth annual Falsies Awards. The awards seek to uncover and rank (via reader voting) the year's worst cases of corporate forces and their efforts to misinform. Mothering's coverage of the formula industry's ongoing and myriad tactics to undermine breastfeeding is credited and highlighted in the Falsie entry "Impeding Breast Feeding."

We are thrilled by this recognition from the CMD, and are affirmed that this vital topic—on which we have so diligently reported—is gaining traction.

Further, three of the other Falsies nominated address other topics Mothering has previously reported on: Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil; mercury in seafood and changing guidelines for its consumption by pregnant or nursing women and children; and transparency in scientific research.

Read all ten entries and vote by November 30th for the Falsie you find most egregious.

Resource Highlights Good, Wholesome Toys for Holidays

The Toy Action Guide is an invaluable resource—particularly at this time of year—for parents, teachers, or anyone concerned about the commercialization of children's play. It contains information on how to select toys that promote positive play and reduce the influence of harmful toys on children. There is a list of TRUCE's 2007-2008 recommendations for "Toys for Healthy & Creative Play." You will also find a list of "Toys and Toy Trends to Avoid," such as toys that lead children to spend more time with TV or other media, and/or let the screen take control of their play.

The guide also includes tips for making toys more environmentally friendly; resources for anyone with concerns about the toy recalls; and suggestions for "Shoe Box Gifts," an alternative gift idea that promotes play around themes with common objects often found around the house.

Download your free copy of the TRUCE Toy Action Guide today!

Click to Tell Your Senator to Support Product Safety

A spate of high profile recalls over the summer has drawn an unprecedented amount of attention to flaws in our product safety system. Now the possibility of meaningful change has arrived with the Consumer Safety Product Commission (CPSC) Reform Act of 2007 (S.2045)—the most comprehensive consumer safety legislation to come before the Senate in decades. This bill will give the CPSC the tools and resources it so badly needs to protect children and families from dangerous products. It has already unanimously passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Senate leaders have pledged to vote on the bill by the end of the year.

Provisions in S.2045 include:

• Making it illegal to sell recalled products
• Limiting the levels of lead in children's products
• Improving CPSC's ability to disclose safety information to the public, and raising the cap on the agency's penalties from $1.83 million to $100 million
• Requiring children's products to be tested by independent labs and to be certified to meet safety standards
• Giving state Attorneys General the ability to enforce CPSC regulations and including protections for individuals in companies and safety agencies who blow the whistle on wrongdoing

• Requiring Internet and catalogue warning labels
• Mandating product registration cards to improve recall effectiveness
• Making ASTM toy safety standards mandatory
• Improving whistleblower protections

Not in My Cart!

The holiday shopping season will begin in just a few weeks, yet consumers still have a long way to go before they can trust the safety of the products on stores' shelves. Hazardous products continue to flood the American marketplace. First it was poisoned pet food, then contaminated catfish, and a host of lead-laden toys including Elmo and Dora the Explorer dolls, Thomas the Tank engines, and Winnie the Pooh play sets.

More than 20 million children's toys have been recalled this year, alone. Many more dangerous, imported products may be sitting on store shelves around the country right now. The dangerous combination of lax safety regulations, a lack of enforcement, and a shortage of federal inspectors can only result in more recalls.

That's why Consumer Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, is launching NotInMyCart.org, a new campaign to protect all of us from toxic food and hazardous consumer products.

Click here to join them in sending a message urging Congress to keep Americans safe this holiday season.