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    More Brazilian States Opt for Smoke-Free Environments

    Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

    The push for smoke-free environments continues to march across Brazilian states — how long before federal legislators decide to extend such protections nationwide? Today the governors of the southern state of Paraná (PR) and the western state of Amazonas (AM) signed new tobacco control laws, joining Ceará (CE), Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and São Paulo […]

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    Uruguay Closer to Plastic Bag Law

    Saturday, September 19th, 2009

    This week Uruguay came one step closer to restricting the use of plastic carry bags in the nation’s retail establishments. On the 17th the Chamber of Deputies approved a law that would require all supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping centers, markets and stores in general to only use carry bags for their merchandise that is either degradable, […]

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    Ceará Limits Public Smoking

    Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

    Today Ceará (CE) became the latest Brazilian state (after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) to severely restrict smoking in public areas.  The governor signed a law that prohibits smoking any product, whether derived from tobacco or not, in “collective enclosures” except in segregated areas that have a physical barrier separating them from nonsmokers with […]

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    A Scorecard for Sustainable Palm Oil

    Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

    From 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 […]

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    Challenges to Sustainable Agriculture in LAC

    Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

    I am in New York attending the Seventh Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17). This Session is focused on the thematic cluster of agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa. As is the case with the opening day of most such international fora, today all too many opening speeches and […]

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    Pesticide Residue Levels in Brazilian Food

    Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

    Which fresh food sold in Brazil has been found most likely to present “irregular” pesticide residues — levels higher than those permitted by regulation, or even residues of pesticides banned or not authorized for use on the foodstuff it is found on? Peppers.  In 2008 more than 64% of the pepper samples analyzed by the […]

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    SEAM Proposes Supermarket Role in Changing Waste Management

    Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

    Paraguay’s Environment Minister José Luis Casaccia met with representatives of the Paraguayan Chamber of Supermarkets (CAPASU) to push for all supermarkets in the country to promote the use of reusable cloth bags for carrying away the products they buy, rather than polyethylene bags, which the Environment Secretariat (SEAM) considers a major sort of litter in […]

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    Rio Gets Supermarkets to Become Recycling Centers

    Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

    The President of Rio de Janeiro’s State Environment Institute (INEA) just signed a “letter of intent” with the Association of Supermarkets of Rio de Janeiro State (ASSERJ) and the Federation of Cooperatives of Recyclable Material Collectors (Febracom) to install selective collection centers in all the state’s supermarkets. The centers will allow consumers to return plastic […]

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    DR Authority Criticizes Deceptive Advertising by Stores

    Friday, March 20th, 2009

    When you move to a new country, you immediately start noticing how it differs from your former home.  Differences that perhaps you knew about intellectually and maybe even noticed in visits before you moved, but they just did not truly sink in before you were actually confronted by them in daily life.  When my family […]

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    Tienda Inglesa Helps Uruguay Eliminate Mercury Thermometers

    Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

    Last year I posted about Health Care Without Harm‘s (Coalición Salud Sin Daño) campaign to get the health care sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to get mercury-containing medical instruments [primarily thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors)] out of hospitals, clinics and homes.  At that time, they were primarily having success in Argentina. […]

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