Way Out West will be offline for the next week. We’re taking a little break for some journalism training through a California Endowment Health Reporting Fellowship that we received this winter. The fellowship will help us produce what we hope will be an in-depth and interesting package of stories about California’s green chemistry laws.
In 2007 California passed two historic laws to help control the types of chemicals used in commercial and consumer products as part of its Green Chemistry Initiative. The legislation made the state a pioneer in a nationwide problem–some 80,000 chemicals are used in US products whose effect on people and the environment have not been studied.
This year the regulations for implementing California’s laws are being hotly debated in Sacramento with labor and environmental groups pushing for rapid implementation due to health risks and industry arguing for a gradual introduction because of the sour economy.
We’ll be down in L.A. through the weekend honing our reporting skills, and crafting new ways to tell stories and to get them in front of the people the impact most. And then we’ll be taking a short spring break. Lots of exciting developments are afoot here at the website. We’re in the midst of a redesign; soon we’ll be hosting advertising; and this summer we have to crackerjack interns that will be combing the streets for green stories.
If you have any tips or insight into green chemistry in California, we’d love to hear from you.
