By David Reichmuth, Union of Concerned Scientists Air pollution has significant impacts to public health and the cars, trucks, and buses on America’s roads contribute to this problem. While we are all exposed to this pollution, there are significant differences in the average exposure to this air pollution by different racial groups in the U.S. […]
By Melanie Benesh and Jared Hayes, Environmental Working Group Designating the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS as “hazardous substances” is critical to cleaning up legacy contamination of a chemical linked to cancer. But some PFAS polluters – and their supporters in Congress – have implied that designating PFAS as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund […]
By Erik D. Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council It is expected that EPA will soon be proposing changes to its obsolete Lead and Copper Rule or LCR. This is the agency’s regulation for how to control lead levels in drinking water. The LCR, issued in 1991, is a highly complex rule that has failed to ensure […]
By Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists HUZZAH! Score one for workers. It appears that the Trump administration has come to its senses and reconsidered its dangerous plan to roll back safety protections for construction and shipyard workers exposed to beryllium. As reported by Reuters and in a bulletin issued last week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration […]
By Jared Hayes and David Andrews, Environmental Working Group Many of the nation’s highest levels of groundwater contamination with PFAS – highly toxic fluorinated chemicals linked to increased risk of cancer and other diseases – have been found at military sites, according to federal data obtained and analyzed by EWG. Of the PFAS-contaminated military sites […]
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists I spent Thursday and Friday of last week at the National Academies of Science Environmental Health Matters Initiatives (EHMI) workshop, “Identifying Opportunities to Understand, Control, and Prevent Exposure to PFAS” which brought together scientists, community members, NGOs, regulators, and industry representatives to think about some of the challenges and potential […]
By Matt Wellington, U.S. PIRG Nicotine use was a big part of American culture until the past few decades, when society started holding tobacco companies accountable for the deadly addiction they promoted. But nicotine is back in a big way as the drug of choice for a new generation using a new delivery method — […]
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists When you encounter chemicals in the normal course of your life—while eating food, drinking water, playing in the backyard, or breathing air—do you want the assurance that these chemicals have been deemed safe using the most rigorous scientific methods available? Of course you want that! But the Environmental […]
By Elliot Mincberg, People For the American Way In West Virginia Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis (CWP) Fund v. Bell, decided in August, Trump 4th Circuit judge Julius Richardson wrote a 2-1 decision that reversed the Department of Labor Benefits Review Board (BRB) and reinstated an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decision that denied black lung benefits to a […]
By Vijay Limaye and Kim Knowlton, Natural Resources Defense Council We’re used to hearing about the effects of climate change on our environment and natural systems: how it’s raising sea levels, intensifying hurricane storm surges, worsening droughts, and prolonging wildfire seasons. And we’ve also come to understand how these shifts are, in turn, fueling so much human misery—causing displacement, illness, famine, water […]
By Ketura Persellin, Environmental Working Group This year’s defense spending bill – the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA – now being considered by Congress, is an unprecedented chance to regulate the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS, which have contaminated hundreds of public water systems nationwide. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill include […]
By Gabriela Salas, National Women’s Health Network Last month, the Trump administration finalized a radical new rule as part of their larger attack on immigrant communities. Known as the “public charge” rule, it’s a particularly cruel and short-sighted example of the administration’s on-going attempt to limit immigration of poor brown communities, primarily from Latin America […]