Thanks to everyone who organized events, attended, spread the word and cheered us on for the ‘Not Just a Pretty Face’ Book Tour. Over the past eight months (drum roll please…) we’ve held 44 book-reading events in 13 states attended by 3,142 people!

There have been so many inspiring stories along the way – from moms organizing their communities, activists winning political change, entrepreneurs creating the next generation of green products, and so many of you who are writing books, making films, launching websites and starting businesses. To all of you: Keep Going and Keep Believing! Here are a few of my favorite signs of divine inspiration that things are going our way:

The political winds are shifting: Nine states introduced legislation in 2008 to regulate toxic chemicals in personal care products, and Democrats in the US Congress are pushing to strengthen cosmetics regulations at the federal level.

Skin Deep tops 59 million searches! EWG’s Skin Deep is now getting 5 million searches per month and growing – proving that once people start asking questions about their favorite personal care products, they don’t want to stop!

Natural products raise the bar: The rush is on to create standards for “natural” and “organic” personal care products. While there is still no single industry standard, the upshot is that products are actually getting safer. Example: In order to meet Whole Foods’ new Premium Body Care standard, companies have been quietly removing synthetic fragrance, toxic surfactants and other undesirables.

The good word is spreading: “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry,” the book that tells the inside story of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, is now in its second printing with more than 10,000 copies sold. The book recently won a 2008 Silver Medal IPPY award!

And best of all…

Babies are getting safer: Years ago, I heard Pete Myers, co-author of “Our Stolen Future,” say that the single most important thing a person can do to avoid toxic exposure is to stop using #7 plastic bottles made with bisphenol-A (BPA). This freaked me out because I spent years in Colorado where the Holy Grail of water bottles were the fashionable (and toxic) #7 Nalgene bottles. Nalgene finally agreed to reformulate (which should have happened years ago), and now even the New York Times is advising parents to avoid BPA-containing bottles.

Congratulations to everyone who exposed the ridiculously risky practice of making baby and water bottles out of estrogenic chemicals. Who ever thought that was a good idea to begin with??

There is still much to be done to raise public consciousness about the toxic chemical soup that is modern industrial society. But back to the good news: millions of you are working to change that every day by supporting and developing the new green economy. Cheers to you all! –Stacy Malkan