By the American Lung Association In 2014, Chris Lim, M.S. set out to understand long-term effects of climate change—specifically, temperature variability and air pollution—on health. At the time, short-term effects had been studied extensively, but not much was known about long-term exposure and adverse health outcomes. As a lung health dissertation fellow at New York University […]
By Ricardo Salvador, Union of Concerned Scientists The pattern is clear: by consistently requesting that Congress cut budgets for science, and by decreeing that all federal executive agencies arbitrarily terminate “at least one third” of their advisory committees, the Trump administration is in an all-out war against science—against the premise that evidence and analysis should inform policy-making. This agenda […]
By Sharon Anglin Treat, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy With 34 chapters, 13 Annex agreements, 14 side letters and nearly 2,000 pages of text, you wouldn’t think there could be a consistent theme across the entirety of the New NAFTA, also known in the U.S. as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). But a major […]
By the American Lung Association Ten years ago, we won a major victory against Big Tobacco. In 2009, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law, for the first time giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to oversee all tobacco products. The FDA hit the ground running by […]
By Sally Greenberg, National Consumers League Every day, thousands of consumers in the United States—including those with rare diseases or allergies to commercially available drugs—rely on specially and individually made medicines known as compounded drugs. Compounding is critically important for patients but, if done improperly, this process can pose significant risks to patients and healthcare workers […]
By Jared Hayes, Scott Faber, Dave Andrews and Audrey Lothspeich, Environmental Working Group At least 475 industrial facilities across the nation could be discharging the toxic fluorinated compounds known as PFAS into the air and water, according to an EWG analysis of government data. EWG analyzed two online databases from the Environmental Protection Agency, as […]
By Rebecca Boehm, Union of Concerned Scientists In a recent interview by the North Carolina News and Observer, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue discussed the current proposal to relocate the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) outside Washington DC. When asked if he was worried about employee backlash he replied, […]
By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists Sixty percent of adults the United States are now living with one or more chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. That’s 150 million people—not counting millions of children and young adults—whose daily lives are disrupted by poor health. These chronic conditions are the leading causes […]
By Karen Perry Stillerman, Union of Concerned Scientists The maker of Snickers, M&Ms, and Skittles has built a global conglomerate on sugar. The privately held Mars Incorporated let it be known earlier this year that it hopes to double its $35 billion annual revenue over the next decade, reportedly through expansion in pet food and other areas. […]
By Colin O’Neil and David Andrews, Environmental Working Group A recent investigation by the Food and Drug Administration found toxic per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in food, including meat, seafood and dairy products; sweet potatoes; pineapples; leafy greens, and chocolate cake with icing. FDA has yet to make the results of its tests public. But our colleagues at […]
By Sandy Aylesworth, Natural Resources Defense Council U.S. consumers face difficult decisions at the seafood counter these days. We’ve now learned that some seafood is caught by forced or trafficked labor—repugnant practices no moral person would wittingly throw their money behind. We know that some seafood is fraudulent or not what it claims to be. […]
By Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy How difficult can it be to trade contracts based on the cash value of wheat, crude oil, unroasted coffee beans and other raw materials? Sure, there are future risks, physical and financial, but they can be usually managed with the help of trading exchanges, standardized data […]