Hasta La Ideas

The excellent website Good Guide, started by Dara O’Rourke (the UC Berkeley professor who first drew attention to Nike’s Asian sweatshops), helps readers cut through marketing B.S. to find out what’s actually in the products they buy. Click on a category under Food, Personal Care, Househould Chemicals or Toys and up pops a supply-chain analysis that shows you how green or healthy the product’s ingredients actually are, beyond the often outrageous claims listed on the packaging.

The “News” section of the site occasionally has information directly pertinent to industrial designers vis-a-vis materials. Two recent examples: A link pointing out that bisphenol A (a plastic ingredient found in baby bottles, CD cases and sunglasses) can raise the risk of heart disease in women, and another highlighting the dangers of silver nanoparticles, which appear in toys, eating utensils, refrigerators, and footwear.

They’ve also got an iPhone app that lets you use the camera’s phone to snap a product’s bar code and get info on it.

Here’s to hoping Good Guide expands their coverage to include consumer products like laptops, appliances and furniture.

sources: ny times, mail online, abc science

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