Electronics makers are lucky that WALL-E units are cleaning Africa's coasts of discarded products.

African children are being exposed to hazardous chemicals in the discarded electronics products of first world countries, Greenpeace warned.

Luckily, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth) units are on the job. But if those cute little rascals ever stop working, Africans could find themselves in danger.

takepart by buying a WALL-E unit from Disney and shipping it to Africa. Or takepart by educating yourself on which electronics makers are the greenest.

Another Mother’s Day has passed (I hope you had a good one) but luckily for you the Top 10 Movie Moms are available all year round - here’s the final Top 10 - including 2 new ones not yet profiled! Keep in mind these Moms may not be the most typical (they’re all actually pretty unique) , but they are definitely the most dynamic and interesting to watch on the screen.

10. Carol White in Todd Haynes’ Safe

A disturbing and eeery portrait of a California housewife and step-mom that suddenly turns sick from the chemicals in the air is in part an attack of suburban culture and in part a more general metaphor for the AIDS epidemic. But these social critiques aside, Julianne Moore’s turn as Carol White is a fascinating look at a woman who wants more that to run a house. The scene of Carol at a pals baby shower, when a young child is sitting on her lap as she starts to experience an attack will sit with you for some time… As will the last moment of the film. It’s a true testament to the side our mother’s keep to themselves…

And even though Carol may have had other problems, to ensure we all have clean air to breathe!

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Since his unconventional Bob Dylan biopic came onto the scene, a lot more folks know who Todd Haynes is. Hopefully this means that a lot more know about his film Safe - but just to be “safe” I’m going write a bit about it.

Haynes’ 1995 film starring Julianne Moore as Carol White, is on the surface a slow, strange horror film where the bad guy isn’t a ghost, monster or a man in a mask, but is in fact the chemicals that surround all of us.

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The Detroit River’s been one of the not-so-great waterways of the Great Lakes in recent decades, a contaminated cauldron of raw sewage, fertilizer runoff, oil pollution and chemicals from heavy industry. The pollution took a toll on the fishy and feathered residents of the river, with thousands of ducks and geese getting coated with oil and dying, and fish full of DDT and PCBs.

But a concerted effort to clean up the river proves that we can tackle pollution and make serious progress if we make it a priority. As John Harding, manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, told the Detroit Free Press, “We have one of the most dramatic ecological recoveries in North America.”

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By Kerry Trueman

When it comes to consumer safety, Europe’s leaving the U.S. behind in a cloud of toxic dust, as investigative reporter Mark Shapiro told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross on Monday. We don’t ask our manufacturers to try to minimize the use of harmful chemicals in their products, and we don’t even require them to list potentially harmful ingredients to give consumers the option of making an informed choice.

Shapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, and What’s at Stake for American Power, compares the European Union’s proactive approach to keeping dubious chemicals out of consumer goods to our own laissez faire, let-them-eat-lead policies.

Of course, much of this stuff is made in China, which, according to Shapiro, is perfectly happy to cater to the EU’s more stringent, consumer-friendly specifications on the one hand, while still cranking out stuff for American companies using inferior materials suspected of posing a hazard to consumers.

But American manufacturers’ decision to use potential toxins in their products doesn’t just threaten our own health. It harms our economy, too, as consumers here and abroad increasingly opt to buy goods from countries who hold their manufacturers to higher standards. We’re getting a reputation, globally, for being the toxin-tolerant nation. It’s truly sickening.

You can learn more about what to look out for–and who’s looking out for you–at the Environmental Working Group’s website.