CREDO helps you tell Procter & Gamble to remove carcinogens from all of its products. Why Procter & Gamble? Partly because you have to start somewhere, and partly because P&G have been promoting breast cancer awareness all month without labeling any P&G product ingredients that might be helping to cause that cancer, like ingredients that release formaldehyde in many of their hair and makeup products. But mainly we ask Procter & Gamble because Procter & Gamble, a name I've heard since I've been watching TV, has such an outsized share of the market -- Tide, CoverGirl, and Pantene are just three of their brands. Of course we also ask because our government has done very little about the matter -- getting chemical safety legislation has proven to be a Herculean task, and though Rep. Schakowsky (D-IL) has thrice introduced legislation allowing the FDA to regulate cosmetic products, Congress hasn't moved on it. (No, not even when Democrats controlled both houses.) We'll have to demand action from Congress in time -- but no power can stop us from demanding action from corporations until then.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Club helps you tell the EPA to tighten the rules that cover air pollution when energy plants start up, shut down, or experience a malfunction. Essentially, the EPA wants to stop giving plants a free pass when their startups and shutdowns (but not malfunctions, though surely energy corporations can find people who can design plants that malfunction less) put them over emissions limits. Let me guess: big energy corporations claim their plants won't be able to start if the EPA gets its way. Well, that's not very big-boy of them, is it? Surely, as the best and brightest people in America, they can figure out how to start up and shut down plants so that the good folks downwind don't get asthma and cancer as much? Or are they only good at stealing money from people who work? What about the folks who have to breathe that air, anyway? Are their needs worth nothing? Because big energy corporations, whenever they dismiss regulations that clean our air, sure do act like other folks' needs are worth nothing. If they wonder why we get that impression, they may need to look in the mirror more often.
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