The main treatise of this book is not so much about what's poisoning us in our everyday lives, although that is mentioned, it is that the US no longer controls industry standards because the EU has taken the lead in banishing toxins from multiple industries including electronics, cosmetics, and children's toys as well as banning genetically engineered foods. It has also led the way in demanding that manufacturers take back products at the end of its lifecycle. All this is significant because the EU is also influencing China and India and other emerging economies. This sidestepping of the Bush administration's resistance to change has caused us to remain the guinea pigs for not only our own industry, but also serving as a dumping ground for products that cannot be sold in the EU and other regulated countries. The book describes the historical precedence that has laid the way for this parting of the ways with the EU. The US chose to monitor dangerous products by allowing citizens to sue for damages when they are hurt by products. This litigious climate of consumer protection is a process that industry has, of course, worked to erode. Meanwhile in Europe, lawsuits were not much tolerated and settlements were small, but citizens had a political climate that demanded that the government protect them from dangerous products in the first place, thus was born the precautionary principle. The difference between the two is that, with the cautionary principle, the burden of proof is on the manufacturer to prove that their product is safe while our approach puts the burden of proof on the consumer to prove that a product is unsafe. In other words our brand of capitalism allowed business to flourish at the risk of consumers while their democracy put citizen safety first and let industry operate within those parameters. (In reality they fight over this just as much as we do, but the base from which they begin is different.) I also took note that the generic brands are the most likely to fall to the bottom of the regulations heirarchy since the "white box" stores that sell these products always seek the path of least resistance, ie cheapest, easiest to make and least likely to object customer. This is politically interesting because activists are always going after the name brands, but nothing is ever done about the off off off Broadway brands. The most interesting implication of this shift in power towards the EU is that it has reversed the "race to the bottom" that globalization forced upon us and has used it to leverage up the lax standards of US industry. If this writer had used more inflammatory language such as "race to the bottom" this book would have been much more exciting to read instead of the dry as dust slog it was. I might also add that the implications of this shift points to how free market capitalism is trumped by heavily regulated capitalism (formally socialized democracy). So there.

Background to the series the girl in pink and the green blob are from: A young girl, the red-haired Doremi, wants to become a witch so she can use magic to confess her feelings to the boy she likes. She wanders into a magic trinkets shop run by the majo (witch), Rika. When Doremi realizes Rika is a witch, she calls her on it. This causes a witch to transform into a Witch Frog. The only way Majo Rika can become a witch again is for Doremi to train as a witch, and pass nine trials in the witch world, so her magic will become strong enough. For this collection of photos, Doremi is still in training, and tries to transform Majo Rika back...but she meets with mishap along the way. I actually planned this out differently, but I forgot to bring my "angry" Majo Rika figure. The original storyboard went along the lines of: Scene 1) Happy Majo Rika: "Soon I'll be myself again!" Scene 2) Happy Doremi: "I hope this works right. I haven't practiced it or anything. Piirika pirirara poporina peeperuto!" Scene 3) Angry Majo Rika: "Haven't practiced?!" Doremi (off screen): "Transform Majo Rika into..." Angry Majo Rika: "What I am, a guinea pig?" Doremi (off screen): "A guinea pig?" Scenes 4 and 5: Same as 3 and four here. Scene 6: Hamster Rika: (dialogue undecided) The original idea fits more with Majo Rika's cynical (of Doremi's ability as a witch) and angry personality. When she gets excited, her cold, heartless exterior gives way to an excitable inner Rika, though, so maybe she might actually make a pun in such a situation as about to become her true self again? ...and now that I'm home and looking at the figures, it turns out the figure I thought was an angry Rika is actually Majo Ruka! Hm, I think I can make use of this in a different way...