The Iran Deal
Learn about the historic plan developed by the U.S. and the international community that will block all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon.
The Iran Nuclear Deal … Whitehouse.gov
Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in 98 Shampoos and Soaps
a repost
By Shawn Radcliffe
Sat, Aug 31, 2013Tests ordered by an environmental watchdog group revealed the presence of a cancer-causing chemical in dozens of personal care products that lack a warning label required by California law.
The compound, a chemically modified form of coconut oil—cocamide diethanolamine (cocamide DEA)—is used as a foaming agent or thickener in soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and similar products.
Carcinogenic Ingredients in Your Personal Care Products?
No Warning Labels
An independent laboratory commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) tested the products to determine how much cocamide DEA was present. CEH purchased these products after June 2013 from online and local California retailers, such as Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Kohl’s, and Babies R Us.
Many of the products tested contained more than 10,000 parts per million (ppm) of cocamide DEA. In all, CEH identified 98 products with cocamide DEA among the ingredients, none of which carried the warning required by state law.
“The state has not set a [safety] level specific to cocamide DEA,” says Charles Margulis, Communications Director and Food Program Director of CEH, “but the levels we found exceed levels typical for carcinogens.”
What’s in Your Beauty Products?
To comply with California’s Proposition 65, companies are still required to provide a “clear and reasonable” warning to consumers when products they sell or produce contain chemicals listed by the state as harmful. This includes compounds known to cause cancer or birth defects.
Cocamide DEA was added to the California list of harmful chemicals in 2012 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published its review of the chemical’s safety, which was based upon skin exposure tests in animals. “There is sufficient evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of coconut oil diethanolamine condensate,” the agency writes.
Environmental Group Files Lawsuit
In response to the laboratory results, the CEH filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against four companies—Walgreens, Lake Consumer Products, Ultimark Products, and Todd Christopher International.
“Our demand is that companies reformulate their products, without cocamide DEA,” says Margulis. “There are many similar shampoos and soaps on the market made without the chemical, so it is obviously possible to make the products safer.”
The CEH also sent legal letters advising more than 100 other companies producing or selling products containing the chemical that their products violate Proposition 65.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in California Superior Court in Alameda County, the CEH accuses the companies of “knowingly and intentionally exposing individuals to cocamide DEA without first giving clear and reasonable warnings to such individuals regarding the carcinogenicity of cocamide DEA.”
Dangerous Ingredients to Watch Out For in Cosmetics
The lawsuit asks the court to fine the companies $2,500 a day for each violation and prevent them from selling products containing cocamide DEA in California without a clear warning label.
The CEH hopes these short-term actions, along with their continuing efforts, will have an even wider effect.
“Under the law, companies can simply label,” says Margulis, “but we’ve had hundreds of Prop 65 cases over 17 years of doing this work, and in over 95 percent of these cases, we have won legally binding agreements that require companies to reformulate their products. We expect the same in these cases.”
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A New Vision for Child Care
Child care costs are out of reach for many American families. Here’s a solution.
The high cost of child care is squeezing many middle-class families and preventing low-income families from reaching the middle class. Across the country, millions of working families struggle to find affordable, high-quality child care. For most of those families, child care is an economic necessity: 65 percent of children under 6 years old have all of their available parents in the labor force.
But child care is out of reach for the families who need it. The average annual cost of center-based child care now exceeds $10,000. Worse yet, the cost of care is rising while wages remain stagnant. In a majority of states the annual cost of center-based child care exceeds annual tuition and fees for a public four year university. And the U.S is falling behind its competitors with the third-highest child care costs among developed countries, leading to lower earnings for families and less economic growth.
A new report from the Center for American Progress wants to change this by revamping the child care system to better support working families. Existing programs designed to help families afford child care, including the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, reach only a small portion of families and do not reflect the actual cost of center-based child care.
The Center for American Progress proposes a High-Quality Child Care Tax Credit to support economic security for low-income and middle class families and improve access to high-quality child care by:
- Providing up to $14,000 per child to accurately reflect the cost of high quality child care. The credit would be paid directly to providers on a monthly basis to help families afford child care.
- Asking families to contribute no more than 12% of their income. Family contribution would be determined on a sliding scale, with contribution capped at 12 percent of income.
- Supporting quality child care. The credit would go to providers offering high-quality care. Parents would be able to choose the one that best meets their needs.
- Complementing universal, voluntary preschool for all 3-and 4-year-olds. The High-Quality Child Care Tax Credit would complement CAP’s call for call for universal, voluntary preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, thus creating access to high-quality early learning programs from birth to kindergarten entry.
BOTTOM LINE: A lack of affordable, high-quality child care hampers economic growth by keeping parents from participating fully in the workforce. Our future workforce—today’s children—suffers when they are in low-quality, unstable child care. It’s time for the United States to follow the lead of other countries that have invested in child care to grow their economies and supports families with young children. The High-Quality Child Care Tax Credit will do just that.
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Breaking News: Victory for Pregnant Workers at Supreme Court
ABB’s Elizabeth Gedmark MC’ing the rally in support of pregnant workers before the Supreme Court.
Photo Credit Jeffrey Martin
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Peggy Young, a pregnant worker, in the Young v. UPS case today.
Today marks a significant victory for Peggy Young and for the principle that pregnant women cannot be treated worse than many of their peers in the workplace. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirmed the intent of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, as we argued in our amicus brief this fall.
Peggy’s case is still alive, and will return to the lower court to determine, as the Court put it, “why, when the employer accommodated so many, could it not accomodate pregnant women as well?”
While we celebrate the Court’s opinion, pregnant workers seeking accommodations still face an uphill battle, in many instances. Today’s decision leaves much uncertainty surrounding their rights, especially when they have no way to know how other comparable workers are being treated.
Now that the Court has weighed in, it’s time for Congress to step up.
Please send an urgent message to Washington in support of pregnant workers.
Urge your representatives to support and co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would ensure that all workers with medical needs arising out of pregnancy have a right to accommodations—just as workers with disabilities do. States and cities across the country have passed similar laws and now Congress must act so that all women have the same right.
Today’s families rely on women’s salaries to make ends meet. They need the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act–they simply cannot afford anything less.
Thank you for all that you do to support women and families,
The A Better Balance Team,
Sherry, Dina, Phoebe, Jared, Elizabeth, Risha, Morenike, Rachel, Jake, Molly & Lynn
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