Cosmetics/Personal Care Products
Brazil Bans Sale of Formaldehyde
Friday, June 19th, 2009If you are a woman who goes frequently to a hair salon — and all latinas I know do –chances are very good that you have heard of, or have even had, the popular “Brazilian blowout,” also known as Brazilian keratin treatment or escova progressiva (progressive blow-dry). But did you know that many (if not […]
São Paulo Offers Packaging Bill for Public Comment
Friday, May 22nd, 2009The Environment Secretariat (SMA) of São Paulo (SP) today published for public comment on its website a draft bill for a law on post-consumer packaging. The bill would create a rather complex shared responsibility system to ensure that post-consumer packaging in SP is either recycled or reused. Anyone wishing to submit comments or suggested changes to the […]
A Scorecard for Sustainable Palm Oil
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009From the WWF: WWF to grade palm oil buyers Only one percent of the sustainable palm oil available on the market has been bought, according to new figures released by the WWF today. In a bid to speed up this “sluggish performance”, WWF will assess the world’s major users of palm oil over the next […]
Culmina armonización andina de requisitos para productos de higiene doméstica y absorbentes de higiene personal
Monday, April 20th, 2009Synopsis in English: The Andean Community (CAN) is putting the finishing touches on the new Community norm to harmonize member states’ (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) sanitary control regimes regarding household and personal hygiene products, such as soaps, detergents, fabric softeners, surface cleansers, stain removers, bleaches, air fresheners, sanitary towels, disposable diapers, tampons, towelettes, etc. To […]
Toward a Cosmetovigilance System for Latin America?
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008A key focus of the recent Tenth Meeting of Sanitary Authorities of the Americas in the Cosmetics, Personal Hygiene and Perfume Sector (Reunión de Autoridades Sanitarias de las Américas del Sector de Higiene Personal, Perfumería y Cosméticos – RASA) in São Paulo and the need for cosmetovigilance in the region. What is RASA and what […]
If You Can’t Find It Here, You May Not Find It
Friday, February 1st, 2008Quite a few Temas Blog readers noticed the absence of new posts for several weeks. I was fully occupied with work day-and-night on the final stages of the total revamp and re-launch of my main site, temasactuales.com Although work continues on the Spanish and Portuguese versions (coming soon!), the burden has lightened enough that I […]
Giving LAC’s First Plastic Packaging Law Teeth
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007An interesting thing happened over the last two weeks. Well, interesting to people like me who’ve been following the packaging waste debate for decades, at least. Environment enforcement officials for Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state “blitzed” supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro city — first on 19 October in the well-to-do Leblon section, then on 23 […]
A Huge Donation for Brazil’s Chief Consumer NGO / Uma donação grande para a ONG brasileira principal de defesa do consumidor / Una donación grande para la ONG brasileña principal de defensa del consumidor
Thursday, August 16th, 2007This grant from the MIF is a major coup for the Brazilian Consumer Defense Institute (IDEC), probably increasing their operating funds by 50% and cementing their lead as Latin America and the Caribbean’s (LAC) best funded consumer group. Parabéns, IDEC e Marliena Lazzarini (a Presidente do Instituto). To understand better the importance of IDEC and […]
PAC’ing Brazil II: Regulatory Agencies
Friday, March 2nd, 2007In Part I, I provided an overview of what the Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) proposed by President Lula is and why it matters to the issues I discuss in The Temas Blog. I also discussed its most direct impact on environment policy, the proposed changes in environmental licensing. […]