Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini debunks scare stories that chemicals in makeup and other household products cause cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects, and other health problems. The cardinal rule of toxicology is that the does makes the poison. That dose just isn’t there in cosmetics, no matter how loud the shouts of some activists. For more information, see the new CEI study, “The True Story of Cosmetics: Exposing the Risks of the Smear Campaign,” by Dana Joel Gattuso.
Angela Logomasini
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up for CEI Weekly, go to http://cei.org/newsletters.
CEI Weekly
December 31, 2010
>>Featured Story
Environmentalists are saying that certain man-made chemicals (dubbed “obesogens”) are causing people to gain wait. Now the Environmental Protection Agency wants to solve Americans’ weight problems by increasing environmental regulations. CEI Director of Risk and Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini had a column on FoxNews.com this week on why we shouldn’t make chemicals the scapegoat for obesity. Read “What Will Really Make Us Fat in the New Year” here.
>>Shaping the Debate
Union Snow Job
Vincent Vernuccio’s interview on “Varney & Co.”
Can the Tea Party Go Nuclear?
CEI’s citation in Politico
What’s Next for the FCC and Net Neutrality?
Ryan Radia’s citation in PC World
Jobs, Joblessness, and Obamanomics
Chris Horner’s op-ed in The Daily Caller
Warner’s Actions Sometimes Belie his Words
Greg Conko’s citation in The Richmond Times-Dispatch
>>Best of the Blogs
2010 Federal Register Is Third-Largest Ever
By Ryan Young
Driver Monitoring Increases Accuracy, Lowers Insurance Costs
By Michelle Minton
The College Diploma Fraud and Its Consequences
By Hans Bader
Paris Contemplates SUV Ban
By Brian McGraw
>> CEI Podcast: December 28, 2010: IRS as Tax Preparer?
Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young looks at the IRS’ proposal to save you time by doing your taxes for you. Because you would be liable for any of the IRS’ mistakes, you would still have to check over your return. This negates much of the time savings. It could also cost employers as much as $5 billion in increased reporting requirements. Then there is the conflict of interest between your collector also being your tax preparer.
“Plastics are the future,” a pushy relative told a young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Was he giving career advice — or a warning? After all, some environmental activists think that plastics are responsible for diseases ranging from attention deficit disorder to cancer.
The specific culprit of mankind’s impending doom is Bisphenol A. Called BPA for short, it is a chemical added to plastics to make them harder. BPA is a very common chemical. It’s in everything from laptop computers to CDs to pens.
Activists say that BPA “disrupts hormones and alters genes, programming a fetus or child for breast or prostate cancer, premature female puberty, attention deficit disorders and other reproductive or neurological disorders.”
They are calling for bans and other regulations to limit peoples’ BPA exposure.
Scary stuff. But there is a problem with this bed-wetting level of hysteria; there hasn’t exactly been a rash of death and disease attributable to BPA. In fact, breast cancer rates have actually been declining by 2 percent per year since 1999. The FDA notes that “current levels of exposure to BPA through food packaging do not pose an immediate health risk.”
Still, people do scare easily. The very word “chemical” sends chills down the spines of otherwise rational people. Activists can take advantage of these hot buttons to draw attention to their issues and increase their budgets. Scaring people is good for business.
There are ways to fight back. One is by reading my CEI colleague Angela Logomasini’s excellent work debunking the BPA scare. Another is to join a new Facebook group called “Hands Off My Plastic Stuff!!”
Your hosts Richard Morrison and Jeremy Lott welcome guests Gregory Conko and Garrett Peck to Episode 71 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with an update on the latest in the Climate-Gate scandal and the impact of nanny state policies in New York City, then move on to Monsanto’s antitrust worries and finish with an interview with Garrett Peck, the author of The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet (buy your copy here).
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