I grew up in the Canadian prairies where I learned to love open spaces, wild places, big skies, long summer nights, cozy cold winters, and the comfort of good friends. I came to the US as a post-doctoral student of toxicology and environmental health. After about a dozen successful years as a bench scientist conducting basic medical research, I wanted to transition into policy work. I joined NRDC in 2001 to work towards strengthening the regulation of toxic chemicals. When not in the office I like to hike, bike, white water kayak, and walk my dog.
Posted May 2, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
I am very pleased to present this blog from NRDC's James Meinert, 'guest blogging' from the exciting meeting he attended this week... The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science recently convened a roundtable on Fracking and Health...continued→
Posted April 24, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
The government is now under attack for listing chemicals that cause cancer. Apparently it’s bad for business. Keep in mind that chemicals that cause cancer will keep on doing so whether the government lists them or not. But, without getting...continued→
Posted March 9, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
The federal scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)have now finished their review of some studies from the prestigious and beautiful Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy, whose data was used to support some important US government hazard...continued→
Posted February 27, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment, The Media and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Last week the Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch issued a new report dragging a lot of Syngenta's dirty laundry out into the sunlight of public scrutiny. Syngenta is the mega-corporate manufacture of agrichemicals including atrazine, the herbicide now...continued→
Posted February 22, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Today NRDC and the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN) together released an issue paper that identifies four key areas where the risk assessment of toxic chemicals could be meaningfully and relatively easily improved. The paper is titled, "Strengthening Toxic Chemical...continued→
Posted February 13, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
Today in Turin, Italy, a criminal court issued its a guilty verdict in the criminal trial of Stephan Schmidheiny and Belgian baron Louis de Cartier for creating an environmental disaster that has claimed over 3,000 lives. The prosecutor had asked the...continued→
Posted February 1, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
EPA made a public promise to complete its assessment of the highly toxic chemical Dioxin by the end of January - yesterday. Deadline missed. Why does it matter? We, the people, need the federal government - our government - to...continued→
Posted January 26, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Today we filed a federal lawsuit to block nanosilver, a potent antimicrobial pesticide, from market access. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conditionally registered nanosilver for use in textiles including such things as clothing, baby blankets, and pillow cases. The "conditional" part...continued→
Posted January 25, 2012 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
Never heard of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)? They're used in many of the most common consumer products, including non-stick coatings, waterproofing chemicals, and stain-resistent coatings on clothing, furniture, food packaging, non-stick pans, shiny coatings in pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags, etc. They get...continued→
Posted October 18, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Big business chemical industries have repeatedly blocked the Environmental Protection Agency and other government bodies from assessing the harms of hazardous chemicals. NRDC provides a meticulous accounting of the evidence behind this in The Delay Game. This new report, released...continued→
Posted October 7, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
As my NRDC colleague Andrew Wetzler has noted, on October 5 "the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would not protect the northern leopard frog under the Endangered Species Act. Hidden in that announcement was the admission, however,...continued→
Posted October 3, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Chrome looks pretty sweet on car parts and motorcycles. Not so much in your drinking water. At least, that what the new science from the US National Toxicology Program indicates, when the rats drinking hexavalent chromium (Cr6) over a lifetime...continued→
Posted September 28, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Today EPA took an important step towards protecting the public and wildlife from trichloroethylene (TCE), a very hazardous mutagenic cancer-causing chemical that pollutes the nation’s water and air. TCE is also the culprit involved in the Woburn, MA cancer cluster of...continued→
Posted August 28, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
My colleagues and friends at Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) have just published a series of short commentaries titled, "How does our nation’s reliance on pesticides affect the health of those who plant and harvest our food?" Among the excellent...continued→
Posted June 10, 2011 by Jennifer Sass in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
Today the government released its 12th Report on Carcinogens (RoC) - naming styrene and formaldehyde as among the chemicals that are known (formaldehyde) or reasonably anticipated (styrene) to cause cancer in humans (see the media announcement here). This is a really big...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
