I was born and raised in the part of North Carolina that often boasts the highest number of PhDs in the country – so no small town roots for me. From a young age, my parents took us all around traveling, so we got many different experiences – from bouncing around pristine mountains in the Pacific Northwest to spending days in Taipei and blowing black stuff out of our noses. It was these major contrasts that opened my eyes to the things that we were doing and are doing to our environment. Working every day to help clean up our environment from the onslaught of toxic chemicals simply is the best job I could imagine.
Posted October 6, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Lobsters are dying off in the Long Island Sound, as reported in today's local Connecticut news. The local lobster fishers attribute the late-season die-off to New York's use of a pesticide to kill mosquitos in their storm sewer catch basins....continued→
Posted October 3, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Nod if you think your drinking water utility should focus on providing you with clean and safe tap water. Now nod if you think your drinking water utility shouldn’t delay efforts to keep cancer causing chemicals out of your tap...continued→
Posted September 19, 2011 by Mae Wu in Health and the Environment
After a long fight, the end is near for one of the nastiest pesticides still on the market: dichlorvos. This chemical was developed from nerve warfare agents after World War II, and has been used in the United States to...continued→
Posted August 21, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
This just in from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: “Keep waiting.” I was on the FDA website the other day, and it seems the FDA has quietly made a small change to a webpage that has big implications for...continued→
Posted July 13, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Five months ago, we heralded the Obama Administration’s decision to regulate perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, in drinking water. Up until then, perchlorate had been contaminating drinking water all around the country without any sign of relief. The science...continued→
Posted June 21, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
As feared, today the Senate Agriculture Committee sided with the pesticide industry and against our health and the health of our waters by eliminating all Clean Water Act protections of our rivers, lakes and streams against pesticide pollution. To add...continued→
Posted June 20, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Like many people, Sue Eisenfeld once assumed that the government would protect her and her family from dangerous pesticides, in large part because of the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). But that was before last year when she...continued→
Posted May 23, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
What do Michigan, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New York, Indiana and Georgia all have in common? Answer: Every state has at least one waterbody that is impaired by pesticides and at least one senator on the Senate Agriculture...continued→
Posted May 11, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
David Bianco’s rose farm in Selma, Oregon sits next to a private forest whose owners plan to conduct aerial spraying of herbicides. Lake Selmac, a popular recreational lake and campground, sits just half a mile from the forest. David, along...continued→
Posted March 26, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
When I was growing up, we had a creek (pronounced “crick” where I’m from) running through our backyard that my little sister and I would play in all spring and summer long. We would be soaked head to toe by...continued→
Posted February 14, 2011 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
As I’m writing this blog, there is news of a water main break in Asheville, NC that threatens the main feed for the nice folks up in the Appalachians. People in Richmond, VA were notified to boil their water after...continued→
Posted February 10, 2011 by Mae Wu in Health and the Environment
Our house was hit with a bit of food poisoning last week that served as a timely reminder of why we want to keep our food supply as clean as possible. Luckily, the only real inconvenience was that my husband...continued→
Posted February 1, 2011 by Mae Wu in Health and the Environment
Huge news coming out of EPA’s Office of Water today. After a decade of pushing by NRDC, EPA announced that it has decided to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. While this might not sound like much, it took a lot to get...continued→
Posted December 22, 2010 by Mae Wu in Health and the Environment
‘Tis the season. Our house has been hit with the baby’s first cold. For 5 days, we have been managing the crying and whining (his and mine), but today he seems much better and has started smiling and laughing again. ...continued→
Posted September 15, 2010 by Mae Wu in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
No one wants to smell bad when they’re playing sports or camping, so everyone should go out and buy antibacterial, odor-fighting clothes. At least that’s what companies like HeiQ Materials Ag are betting on, by making antibacterial clothes and other...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.
