We are all looking forward to the Oscars this weekend, but this week Hollywood played host to another awards ceremony: The Toxies.

This tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony hosted by Citizens for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE) was created to bring attention to the "bad actors" of toxics and the place that they play in our lives.

California has a Green Chemistry Initiative, a program that was announced in 2008 with a goal of creating a list of chemicals of concern and replacing them with greener, safer alternatives where possible.

Good news out of California as they begin the slow march toward removing Bisphenol-A (BPA) from the lives of Californians.

Proposition 65 is a law that was passed by California voters in 1986. Under this law, the government must publish a list of chemicals that causer cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Businesses must then alert citizens if they are exposed to significant amounts of these chemicals.

It was announced last week that the California Environmental Protection Agency has started the process to add BPA to the list of chemicals.

Officials from thirteen states joined forces today to dictate a set of eight guiding principles to be used for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA -- a law from 1976 which provides the EPA with the authority to regulate toxic chemicals.

The Obama Administration and Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, recently acknowledged that a major overhaul of this decades-old law is imperative for public safety.

There is concern, however, about the way that the Administration is setting out to reform TSCA. As Laurie Valeriano, policy director of the Washington Toxics Coalition wrote recently, "the changes are modeled after an approach that will result in endless government studies and gridlock when what we really need is action."

The California state Assembly failed to pass SB 797, a bill which would have banned the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from use in children's food and drink products.

SB 797 failed to secure the necessary votes despite overwhelming support in favor of the ban because well-funded BPA industry lobbyists were successful in targeting legislators, swaying the vote against protecting California's children.

BPA industry meeting notes leaked in May revealed plans to "befriend people that are able to manipulate the legislative process." These tactics appear to have been successful —at least for now, as the bill could be taken up again by the Assembly as early as January 2010.

Read more at www.changecalifornia.org.

The nation's largest association of physicians and medical students has resolved to advocate for improved chemical policy and environmental health practices in the United States. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommended restructuring of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to help federal and state agencies to efficiently assess “the human and environmental health hazards of industrial chemicals and reduce the use of those of greatest concern.”

The AMA is calling on government to “implement a national modern, comprehensive chemicals policy that is in line with current scientific knowledge on human and environmental health, and that requires a full evaluation of the health impacts of both newly developed and industrial chemicals now in use.”

Read more at www.changecalifornia.org.

A California Environmental Protection Agency committee yesterday voted against placing bisphenol A on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause developmental or reproductive harm.

For the scientists, advocates and mothers who urged the committee to consider the substantial scientific evidence on BPA's effects, the decision won't derail their efforts.

“I’m disappointed the state let the opportunity to protect Californians from this terribly harmful chemical slip away,” said Nancy Bellen from Santa Rosa, Calif., who testified yesterday. “I’m heartened, though, that efforts to limit BPA exposure are moving forward nationally and internationally.”

California will today consider adding bisphenol A to its Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to be reproductive and developmental toxicants.

An audiocast of the California Environmental Protection Agency hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. PST, will be available here.

Adding BPA to the list would mean warning labels on products that contain the chemical, and could also be critical in California's fight to ban BPA. As comments submitted jointly by 32 environmental health organizations stated:

"The science is in and the evidence is clear. Public health, particularly the health of fetuses, infants and children is compromised by exposure to BPA."

Two key pieces of legislation in California's fight against flame retardants and bisphenol A  moved forward yesterday.   

The state's proposed BPA ban (Senate Bill 779) and legislation that would help remove flame retardants from children's products (Senate Bill 772) passed out of July 7 committee hearings.

 “The chemical industry put on a full court press and Assembly Health Committee members got an earful from industry lobbyists," said Gretchen Lee Salter of the Breast Cancer Fund. "Ultimately, legislators saw that the science against BPA is just too strong, and that kids had to come before high-priced lobbyists."

High-profile state legislation plus the Food and Drug Administration’s promised examination of bisphenol A  (BPA) health effects could equal big strides toward banning BPA. 

The California State Senate on June 2 passed a ban on BPA in food and drink containers for children under 3. The state's legislation has blazed trails on the national level before - its 2007 phthalates ban was the nation’s first, and it’s credited with creating critical mass for the 2008 national ban.  

"The case [against BPA] has grown more compelling, [and] when California does something, it tends to spread across the nation," Mary Lynne Vellinga, spokeswoman for bill co-sponsor Sen. Fran Pavley (D) told the Christian Science Monitor in June.

Concern about the health effects of bisphenol A (BPA) is growing in the scientific community, with a new study linking the toxic chemical to heart disease and a scientific group meeting in Washington D.C. last week recommending people protect themselves by reducing their exposure to BPA.

A new scientific study has linked BPA to a worrisome health effect: heart arrhythmias in women.

According to a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, a team of scientists at the University of Cincinnati found that normal levels of BPA exposure in lab mice and rats lead to significant increases in heart arrhythmias in the females.