Testing Testing Gleeful Frugalistas
Good News for People Help to Make Ends Meet
and Animals
These days, online browsing turns up an abundance of
The Environmental Protection Agency
websites and blogs showing people how to make the most
has announced that it is reducing its
of what they have, rather than bemoan what they had. Some
reliance on animal testing to assess hu-
examples are Dollar Stretcher at Stretcher.com,
man risk of chemical toxicity. Instead,
AllThingsFrugal.com and FrugalMom.net. Tips range
the EPA will focus more heavily on
from refinancing a mortgage to gas and grocery
new tools available through advances
shopping to frugal fashion. Many are based on
in molecular biology, genomics and
good old common sense—backyard gardening, line-drying
computational modeling.
laundry, clipping coupons and borrowing movies from the
It’s part of the agency’s move to
library. But, original new ideas can surprise even veteran
use better, cheaper and faster ways
budgeters—such as swapping clothes and furniture, as
to screen thousands of chemicals
well as DVDs. Local frugal living groups, too, are growing
for human risk,
in popularity.
including the im-
“I recently heard a phrase: ‘Never waste a crisis,’” says Kellee Sikes, of
pact of long-term
Kirkwood, Missouri, who was interviewed for a New York Times story about the
exposure. Former
trend. She now uses organic cloth napkins until they get threadbare, become
testing costs that
cleaning rags, and then end up in a composter. “I love it,” she adds. “This is a
could be in the
chance for us to reexamine what’s important.”
hundreds
of thousands of
dollars will now
drop
to about $20,000.
This will facilitate,
for example, screening individual
food-use pesticides for endocrine dis-
ruption, as may be required by the end
of this year. Also, “For people who are
developing green chemistry, this may
allow them to look for an alternative
chemical and profile that chemical,” at
a doable cost, advises Robert Kavlock,
director of the EPA’s computational
toxicology program.
Kavlock believes that useful appli-
cations will be active within two years.
He notes that animal testing will still be
used for some things for the foreseeable
future, but in smarter ways.
Source: GreenBiz.com
There shall be eternal
summer in the
grateful heart.
- Celia Thaxter
June 2009 9
9
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32