This latest small study is a window into our everyday life. Women working to defend their environment were tested and toxins were found. Perfumes, air and car fresheners, soaps, softeners, waxes, scented plastics, and the manufacturing sites themselves should all be viewed suspiciously. Synthetic musk is one culprit. Bisphenol A, of course, was just recently “outed” as being an ingredient in some hard plastic baby bottles. Check your stamps on the plastic you use. It’s called the “Resin Identification Code”. Don’t buy products that pollute; especially those with codes 3 or 7. Then again, since the plastic formulas are proprietary, know that you are depending on the manufacturer to tell you the truth. Also, think about where your product might have been manufactured. Did that water bottle come from here, or China?
Do you live near a polluter? What are you doing about it?
The Cost of Progress
Jeff Chen | May 07, 2009 12:39 PM
The Environmental Working Group just released a two-year study focusing on the toxins found in five minority women at the forefront of environmental justice battles. Within each community, these women work tirelessly to protect citizens from various forms of pollution. And within each of these women, scientists found significantly higher amounts of toxins than other Americans who have been tested.
Here’s a look at the three Westerners in the study:
Is it a coincidence or the mysterious workings of the cosmos that the name “Awaken to Justice” is also a sub-title for one of the Anime “Transformers” Robots TV series? Maybe this community effort to assure fair working conditions will have some benefit.
Ethical labor seal introduced for U.S. kosher eateries
By LYNDA WADDINGTON 5/11/09 11:34 AM
[One year after revelations of exploitative and abusive work practices at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant made national headlines and shook the consciousness of the Jewish community, Uri L’Tzedek (Awaken to Justice), an Orthodox social justice movement, is publicly launching an ethical seal for kosher eating establishments….]
http://iowaindependent.com/14959/ethical-labor-seal-introduced-for-us-kosher-eateries
While horrible war news is coming from Sri Lanka, (Have you donated any money to UNICEF lately? Now’s the time!) Columbian women are beginning to speak out on one of the crimes of war.
In Colombia, rape now being prosecuted as weapon of war
In May 2007, only 12 cases of sexual violence were filed with prosecutors appointed to carry out Colombia’s special Justice and Peace Law. Today that number stands at 228.
By Sibylla Brodzinsky | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 11, 2009 edition
[BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – Amelia had spent years counseling a woman who was raped by a right-wing warlord and suffered an unwanted pregnancy. So when the woman called her for advice after the warlord threatened to return to take away the child, Amelia rushed to go see her. …]
Then, there is our war. What’s up with this? “Fresh thinking” with a special ops background, and shades of Pat Tillman’s ghost. If the war is going so well, who needs fresh thinking? Yep, it’s Obama’s war now.
US fires top general in Afghanistan as war worsens
By PAULINE JELINEK and ANNE GEARAN Associated Press Writers
POSTED: 05/11/2009 10:43:59 AM MDT
UPDATED: 05/11/2009 02:58:08 PM MDT
WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the commander of the Afghanistan war Monday, saying the Obama administration needed “fresh thinking” to turn around the war against a resurgent Taliban. Gen. David McKiernan was replaced after less than a year in the job. The new commander will be Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, also an Army officer but with experience as a leader of Special Forces. McKiernan has a more conventional background.
Grab and Keel 
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