English retail adviser Mary Portas is launching her first charity shop in Edinburgh on the 21st November.  The store will stock a wide range of designer and high street clothes with proceeds going to charity Save the Children.Mary began working with Save the Children this year as she overhauled their shop in Orpington, Kent as a three part TV series ‘Mary Queen of Charity Shops’.  The programme culminated in a designer ‘pop-up charity shop’ in Westfield Shopping Centre in London, which raised £190,000 for the charity in three weeks.Mary Portas said, “This is a shop for everyone and we want it to be a place that will inspire Edinburgh to give.  The designer bargains in our charity shop will be fantastic and the store has potential to attract people from across the whole of Scotland.  We want to create a real buzz around second hand shopping and make old fashioned charity shops a thing of the past.  It may seem crazy to sell such quality goods at reasonable prices, but the money raised will be well spent as it costs as little as £5 to save a child’s life.”

Action against forced child labour in the cotton industry.Uzbekistan is the world’s fifth largest producer of cotton and the second largest exporter, heralding itself as one of the leading participants on the world cotton market.  It is the second largest exporter of cotton to Germany, at around 10,000 tonnes.  However, it’s cotton production is plagued by consistent reports of environmental and human rights abuses.  In response to investigations by EJF and others, many leading international retailers have now banned Uzbek cotton in their supply chains.  C&A, Marks and Spencer, ASDA-Walmart and Tesco are amongst the names saying ‘no’ to Uzbek cotton.

End of the road for Endosulfan.A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation has been published which details the environmental and human impacts of one of the world’s most dangerous and pervasive pesticides ‘endosulfan’.  The report highlights why it should be banned globally, as a known killer and toxic to the environment, endosulfan remains a serious health hazard.  Despite being banned in 62 countries, its production and use continues to poison people and the environment as a handful of countries, led by India, stand in the way of a global ban.Endosulfan is readily absorbed by humans via the stomach, lungs and through the skin and exposure to it has been linked to congenital physical disorders, cancer and even death.  As a POP, endosulfan degrades slowly and can travel great distances from where it has been applied.Traces of this pollutant have been found in remote regions such as the Arctic, Antarctic, Alps and the Himalayas.Download the free report and support EJF’s work to push for a global ban on this deadly pesticide.http://www.ejfoundation.org/page251.html