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Logo Motion Sued in June 2005 by Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and the Organic Consumers Association, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has backed off of its decision to prohibit skin creams, shampoos, lip balms and other nonfood items from carrying the "USDA Organic" logo. Last April, the USDA decided that its National Organics Program (NOP) doesn't cover personal care products. In late August, only one day before it had to respond to the lawsuit, the agency reversed itself, effectively agreeing with the plaintiffs. If a product is manufactured with ingredients raised without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, "What difference does it make if you brush your teeth with it or eat it?" concluded Barbara Robinson, head of the NOP.

Tragic Trade-Off The commercial demand for palm oil--increasingly popular because it's free of trans fat--threatens to drive the orangutan to extinction in 12 years, warns Friends of the Earth International in a study released in September 2005. Almost 90 percent of the world's palm oil is produced on plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, which are also home to about 90 percent of all orangutans. Palm oil demand is expected to increase by 50 percent over the next decade, which will mean further destruction of the orangutans' rapidly dwindling habitat. Palm oil is used not only in foods to improve texture and extend shelf life, but also in personal care products, candles and crayons.

Deadly Vapors British children whose mothers lived within one kilometer about two-thirds of a mile--of oil refineries, airfields, bus stations, auto repair shops and other gas-emission "hot spots" are two to four times more likely than other kids to die from leukemia or some other form of cancer by their adolescent years. In the study of 22,500 children who died of cancer between 1966 and 1980, George Knox of the University of Birmingham blamed the increased risk on prenatal exposure to carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and 1,3-butadiene, a gas made when petroleum is processed. The risk of cancer diminishes with distance, Knox writes in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Two Apples a Day Not surprisingly, exposure to cigarette smoke in childhood left 35,000 Singaporeans twice as likely to suffer from chronic dry cough and other respiratory problems later in life. The real news from the study--the largest yet of the effects of secondhand smoke on later respiratory disease--was that eating fiber from either fruit, vegetables or soy during adulthood protected people against some of those problems. The research, conducted by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and published in the August 30, 2005 online edition of Thorax, determined that eating only 7.5 grams of fiber per day--the equivalent of about two apples--protected against respiratory problems. "Fiber may have beneficial effects on the lung," says lead researcher Stephanie London, MD, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. London tells VT that the researchers didn't measure the effect of grain--another source of fiber--simply because Singaporeans eat little of it.

Worse Than We Thought Destruction of the Amazon rain forest is taking place twice as fast as scientists previously believed, according to a new study done with extra-sensitive satellites. For decades, loggers have been secretly removing trees one by one, which most satellites have been unable to detect because they could not penetrate the forest's canopy of leaves. For that reason, the only destruction reported was dear-cutting. The new technology, developed by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, is able to take a closer look, revealing smaller gaps in the rain forest resulting from selective logging. Published in the October 21, 2005 issue of Science, the new data reveals that selective logging destroyed up to 7,650 square miles of forest per year from 1999 to 2002, drying out patches of the rain forest and contributing to a recent rash of devastating forest fires.

The All-You-Can-Eat Diet Women on a vegan diet that allowed them to eat as much as they wanted not only lost weight, they burned calories faster than their meat-eating counterparts and improved their insulin sensitivity--a key to preventing diabetes and obesity. The vegan eaters were compared to a group that followed a low-fat diet based on National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines. "The vegan dieters enjoyed unlimited servings of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other healthful foods, which enabled them to lose weight without feeling hungry," says lead researcher Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and VT contributing editor. The study was done at Georgetown University Hospital and was reported in the September 2005 issue of The American Journal of Medicine. Although the research focused on postmenopausal women, "these results apply to everyone," Barnard tells VT. "People of both genders and all ages burn calories more efficiently and are able to maintain or reach a healthy weight when eating a diet based on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans."