SACRAMENTO, Calif. - September 30 - On the same day Gov. Schwarzenegger touted himself as the leader of a comprehensive chemical reform program, he vetoed a bill that would have made California the first state to ban toxic chemicals known as PFCs - a family of compounds including Teflon - from food packaging.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 1313, by Sen. Ellen Corbett, which was sponsored by Environmental Working Group (EWG). It would have banned, starting in 2010, the perfluorinated chemicals PFOS and PFOA from fast-food sandwich wrappers, french-fry bags, pizza boxes and other food packaging.

WASHINGTON - September 30 - Hundreds of companies located in 37 of the 50 United States produce or import hundreds of chemicals designated as dangerous by the European Union (EU). As a result, these companies will be directly affected by controls imposed under the EU's new chemicals regulation, concludes Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in a report released today, Across the Pond: Assessing REACH's First Big Impact on U.S. Companies and Chemicals. 

JOHANNESBURG/BRUSSELS - September 30 - In a new report launched today, the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said many more lives can be saved if newer effective strategies to tackle malaria are more widely implemented. The report, titled "Full Prescription; better malaria treatment for more people, MSF's experience,"describes the organization's work in Sierra Leone, Chad and Mali, and shows that unnecessary deaths can be avoided with simple, affordable treatment and diagnostic tools available today.