Seasonal spikes of atrazine–a weed killer that can disrupt hormones and harm developing fetuses–contaminate drinking water in corn-growing areas of the Midwest and beyond, according to an analysis of federal records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data show that in some Corn Belt communities, atrazine levels can spike three […]
A first-of-its-kind study has reviewed the data and concluded that an entire class of pesticides should be banned because of its impact on children’s health, The Huffington Post reported. The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine on Wednesday, said that even low-levels of organophosphate exposure can cause brain damage in children. The news comes […]
An environmental advocacy group has discovered yet more traces of a potentially cancer-causing chemical in popular oat breakfast and snack food marketed to children. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) announced Wednesday that tests it commissioned found glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto‘s Roundup weed killer, in nearly 30 General Mills and Quaker brand products made […]
The White House’s just-released list of planned environmental and public health rollbacks includes letting high-school-age kids spray brain-damaging pesticides on commercial farms. The plan would drop the age of workers permitted to spray restricted-use pesticides on crops from 18 to 16. Minors would be allowed to apply dangerous chemicals such as chlorpyrifos, which U.S. Environmental […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed the head of the Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave Tuesday in a move that those close to the agency suspect is intended to sideline the office’s work, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Dr. Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who joined the EPA in […]
House and Senate leaders included a provision in legislation to fund the Federal Aviation Administration and strengthen disaster programs that will give commercial airports the option to switch to firefighting foams that do not include the highly toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS. Under current law, airports are required to use firefighting foams that contain […]
By Sarah Graddy and Robert Coleman This summer, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is tracking outbreaks of potentially toxic algae across the U.S. We have been startled to find that these outbreaks are erupting everywhere: from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Though outbreaks of […]
Researchers have found the first evidence that soot from polluted air can travel from a pregnant woman’s lungs and reach the placenta via the bloodstream, according to a press release from Queen Mary University of London. The study examined the placentas of five women living in London after they gave birth. The women were all […]
The first U.S. study of the effect on people of exposure to a hormone-disrupting chemical widely used in food packaging showed that levels the Food and Drug Administration deems “safe” can alter insulin response, a key marker for diabetes. The groundbreaking study, published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, administered low doses of bisphenol […]