Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
For our new 2010 report on atrazine water contamination, I have reviewed the studies on the environmental impacts and health effects of atrazine and many other agriculture chemicals. The findings confirm our 2009 report that showed widespread water contamination, but also provide...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today is the day that we honor those among us that have died on the job, some by preventable accidents, some by preventable occupational diseases. This week the government released the new statistics on work-related deaths and injuries among youth workers, 15-24...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
On Thursday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will put into force its long-overdue lead-safe workpractices rule, called the Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP) Rule. Yay! This rule will go a long long way towards protecting homeowners, their families, and renovators...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Are you sitting down? Good. Because a new study by Berkeley Professor Tyrone Hayes is reporting that 10% (N=4) of male frogs raised in atrazine-laced water (2.5 ppb) not only have female sex characteristics, including eggs, but they will attract and successfully...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Kudos to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) for its announcement this week that its pesticide assessments will now start to consider the high risks to under-age farmworkers, 12-17 yrs old, and young children that are taken into...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
I won't bury the lead: last week the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the most prestigious international body for cancer assessment in the world, determined that sufficient evidence exists to link formaldehyde with leukemia, a cancer of the blood...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Under the leadership of the Obama Administration, and with Administrator Lisa Jackson at the helm of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) all sorts of good things have been happening to increase public transparency, scientific integrity, and health protections. Many of...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the use of carbaryl, a highly toxic pesticide, in pet collars will be withdrawn! In 2005 NRDC filed a petition to cancel carbaryl. We asked that EPA cancel uses of carbaryl in pet flea collars...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
With the colder weather coming, beekeepers all over the country are getting their hives winter-ready. The experienced beekeepers are harvesting the honey as well, but new-bees like me (get it? newbies? lame, I know) won't be taking any honey this...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
My friend Rich Liroff runs an organization called Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) that encourages companies to reduce or eliminate toxic chemicals from their product lines. Smart. IEHN uses shareholder resolutions along with direct meetings with companies to encourage them...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
In today's new NRDC atrazine report we analyzed a mountain of data showing widespread water contamination from atrazine, a toxic herbicide. The data was mostly, but not all, generated by Syngenta, the main manufacturer of atrazine. Are you drinking atrazine in your...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
A study from Chinese scientists just out today reports on seven workers in a paint factory that were exposed to nanoparticles along with many other hazardous chemicals during their toxic workday. Two have already died of their diseases. All suffered shortness...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
I was out inspecting my bee hive this weekend. Yep, i've become a hobby beekeeper...its all the rage, dontcha know. Even though on most days my bees love me, yesterday one little rascal had a bad thought about me, culminating...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today, I released a new report on the need for scientific journals to enforce strict and effective conflict disclosure policies for authors, peer reviewers, and even journal editors. The report, titled, Effective and Practical Disclosure Policies: NRDC Paper on Workshop to...
Posted by Jennifer Sass in Health and the Environment
Today the new EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, announced a new process for assessing toxic chemicals under the IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System) program, in addition to $5 million and 10 new employees for the IRIS program. The new process puts...
