Charles Margulis, Author at Center for Environmental Health

Lead in Toys? Today We Told Congress, No

Apr 7, 2011Charles MargulisChildren's Health, Laws & Regulations

Right now, our Congress is debating how much lead is okay to expose children to. Really. To Tea Partiers and the billionaires who profit from the anti-regulatory rhetoric those Tea Partiers spout, corporate profits are far more important than children’s health. On...

Oakland: Cracking Down on Farming?

Mar 31, 2011Charles MargulisEnvironmental Justice, Tips

According to police statistics, Oakland has the highest crime rate and slowest police response time of any major California city. In fact, the rate of violent crime in Oakland is more than twice the average rate of the top ten other California cities. So naturally,...

Yuck! One Food I Will Never Eat

Mar 21, 2011Charles MargulisFood, Tips

After I wrote about some of the highly questionable practices in the beef industry, a colleague asked me if my kids eat fast food burgers. No, they don’t, I answered; in fact, I don’t think either of them (then ages three and eight) have ever had a hamburger, period....

Sham “Organic” Shampoo – Dubious Labels on Personal Care Products

Mar 8, 2011Charles MargulisChildren's Health, Legal Action, Tips

The tremendous growth of the organic market has unfortunately fostered the growth of some fishy organic claims. In the organic food sector, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has strict standards, and organic certifiers are generally good about validating...

Safer Bounce Houses on the Horizon

Feb 24, 2011Charles MargulisChildren's Health, Legal Action

In the news last week was this item: a bounce house caught a gust of wind, and took off, carrying two kids, one of whom was injured when the bounce house landed on a neighbors’ roof. We can’t stop the wind, but bounce house makers can eliminate risks to children from...

McDonald’s: Not Your Friendly, Neighborhood Restaurant

Feb 7, 2011Charles MargulisFood, Tips

There’s a new little mac n cheese restaurant opening next week in my neighborhood. It’s called Homeroom, and it plans to highlight several mouth-watering sounding varieties of that great American comfort food. Now I don’t usually write about the local food scene, but...

For Lead Testing, Corporate Front-Group is in the Bag

Feb 2, 2011Charles MargulisChemical Industry, Children's Health

CEH recently made news with our findings of high levels of lead in Disney reusable plastic bags sold at Safeway stores. Our concern is that the lead-tainted, children’s-brand bags violate California and federal lead safety standards. Coincidentally, following our...

Power Imbalance: The Emperor’s New Bracelet

Jan 24, 2011Charles MargulisChildren's Health, General Insights

“Here are Your Majesty’s trousers,” said one. “This is Your Majesty’s mantle,” said the other. “The whole suit is as light as a spider’s web. Why, you might almost feel as if you had nothing on, but that is just the...

Is Your Computer Designed for the Dump?

Nov 9, 2010Charles MargulisGeneral Insights, Tips

Have you seen the Story of Stuff? Millions of people have viewed Annie Leonard’s viral web video highlighting the health and environmental impacts of our consumer culture. Now, Annie returns with the Story of Electronics, a new video questioning the “designed for the...

Monsanto’s Superweeds Come Home to Roost

Oct 26, 2010Charles MargulisFood

There’s been much recent news about Monsanto paying farmers to use its competitors’ herbicides, in what many see as a last ditch effort to address the spread of superweeds created by the company’s “Roundup Ready” (RR) GMO crops. Environmental scientists warned even...