Waking up from the Cinderella sleep

I am reading the book "Exposed" by Mark Schapiro. He says that the United States does not regulate toxicity in products very well. Now that the European Union is gaining clout, it is causing much of the rest of the world to go along with its regulations. The products US companies sell outside of the United States follow those regulations, but those same products (same color, same bells, same whistles) here at home still contain toxic substances that have already been eliminated other places. How could that be? Are we so sheepish to buy products that have the potential to poison our children? Obviously we are. We are blinded by the mistaken belief that things are always better here. Let's wake up from our Cinderella sleep! We are falling behind, and some of the results can be seen in the birth defects of our children. How long can we ignore that the shoe does not fit? I have been naive, too. But there is no excuse for me any longer.