Carey Gillam

About Carey Gillam

Posts by Carey Gillam:

April 2, 2025

Postcard from California: Trump vs. the delta smelt

The most powerful man in the world is waging war on a tiny, almost extinct fish.

The fish is the minnow-like delta smelt, less than three inches long with a lifespan of only a year. Its sole natural habitat is the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta – a marshy maze of more than 1,100 miles of waterways, levees and islands where its namesake rivers intertwine.

The smelt is a federally protected threatened species, a state endangered species and a key indicator species for the overall health of the Delta, a crucial migration corridor for Pacific salmon and steelhead trout.

It is under attack by President Trump, who blames the “essentially worthless fish” for restrictions on the flow of water from the Delta to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities.

The smelt’s survival depends on keeping enough fresh river water in the Delta to balance the salty seawater drifting in from San Francisco Bay. Until it was declared endangered in 2009, triggering flow limits, few people other than California water wonks had heard of it.

It has become a flashpoint in the California water wars – the never-ending debate over the best use of a scarce resource in a state burdened with recurrent drought, wildfires, and the climate crisis.

Now Trump is seizing control of the debate – regulations and the truth be damned.

March 25, 2025

As EPA shutters environmental justice offices, rural Americans at risk

By Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder

Environmental justice efforts at the 10 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional offices have stopped and employees have been placed on administrative leave, per an announcement from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this month. Former EPA employees involved with environmental justice work across the country say rural communities will suffer as a result.

Before being shuttered in early March, the EPA’s environmental justice arm was aimed at making sure communities were being treated fairly and receiving their due protection under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Zealan Hoover, former senior advisor to the EPA administrator under the Biden administration, told the Daily Yonder that this work had big implications for rural places since there are pollution concerns in rural areas across the country.

“EPA was very focused on making sure that not just on the regulatory side, but also on the investment side, we were pushing resources into rural communities,” said Hoover.

According to Hoover, most of the pollution challenges the US faces are not new. He said that the employees—now on leave—who staffed the EPA’s regional environmental justice offices were deeply knowledgeable on the issues affecting communities in their regions; issues which can go on for decades. Hoover said he worries about recent changes to the agency under the Trump administration, which also include a series of deregulatory actions and a proposed 65% budget cut.

“I trust that the great folks at EPA who remain will still try valiantly to fill those gaps, but the reality is that this administration is pushing to cut EPA’s budget, pushing employees to leave, and that’s going to restrict EPA’s ability to help rural communities tackle their most significant pollution challenges,” Hoover said.

March 24, 2025

$2 billion Roundup jury verdict drives down Bayer shares as company seeks law change

By Carey Gillam

A Georgia jury verdict ordering Bayer AG to pay over $2 billion to a man suffering from cancer he blamed on his use of Roundup weed killer comes as that state’s governor weighs whether to sign into law a measure that would effectively bar such cases from going to trial in the future.

Friday’s verdict rocked Bayer investors, driving down the German company’s shares more than 8% on Monday. The Georgia jury found that Bayer, which bought Roundup maker Monsanto in 2018, failed to properly warn users of years of scientific evidence that exposure to Roundup could cause cancer, awarding plaintiff John Barnes $2 billion in punitive damages and $65 million in compensatory damages.

Barnes developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after using Roundup to spray weeds around his home in Dalton, Georgia, from 1999 to 2019, purchasing the herbicide from Home Depot stores. He was diagnosed with NHL in 2020 and has endured multiple rounds of treatment and one recurrence of the disease, though he currently is in remission, according to his lawyers. He is one of more than 100,000 people in the US who have filed lawsuits alleging they developed cancer due to use of Monsanto’s weed killers.

Barnes, a father, grandfather and former Marine, testified in the three-week trial that the disease and treatment have taken a lasting toll.

“With this cancer … there is no cure,” Barnes testified. He cried as he described persistent fear that his time with his family may be limited. “Every day is worry, not just for me but my family.”

March 24, 2025

10 ways the Trump administration is “making America toxic again”

By Susan Lamontagne (Republished from the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.)

“Our goal is to get toxins out of the environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong.” – President Trump during his State of the Union address, March 4, 2025

We agree. This is a goal we have been working toward since our inception. However, while this administration says removing toxics from the environment and keeping children healthy is their goal, many of their actions are doing the opposite.

10 ways the new administration will expose children to more chemicals that will make them sick:

#1: Put chemical industry lobbyists in charge at EPA, including one who worked for Dupont, a leading manufacturer of PFAS that have now contaminated drinking water supplies around the world. The number two in charge at the Agency fought against banning asbestos. And another EPA appointee lobbied on behalf of cancer-causing and asthma-inducing formaldehyde. And now she’s in charge of regulating…formaldehyde.

#2: Taking steps to roll back a Biden initiative to reduce lead in drinking water. There is no safe level of lead, especially for children.

#3: Announced a delay of a new rule to regulate trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning that is harmful to children’s brains.

March 21, 2025

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

Editor’s note: This op-ed was written by a group of current and former employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who have asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about retaliation. It was originally published by Environmental Health News and is republished with permission.

The Trump administration is making accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse associated with federal environmental justice programs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as justification for firing federal workers and defunding critical environmental programs. But the real waste, fraud, and abuse would be to strip away these funds from the American people.

As current and former employees at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who developed and implemented the agency’s environmental justice funding and grant programs, we want to offer our first-hand insights about the efficiency and importance of this work. This is not about defending our paychecks. This is about protecting the health of our communities.

IRA funding is often described as a “once-in-a-generation investment,” putting billions of dollars toward improving the lives of American families in red, blue, and purple states. Working with communities, we’ve been placing these resources directly into their hands, supporting people to better protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land where we live, learn, work, play, and grow — including key protections from natural disasters.

As civil servants, we took an oath to protect and invest in the American public. We are committed to providing effective programs and being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and there are many policies in place to ensure our accountability. But despite our careful planning and oversight, the new administration is halting programs Americans depend on for their health and wellbeing.

We should work together to demand that the Trump administration restore this critical funding back to the people.

March 14, 2025

Americans to face more disease and death due to Trump’s air quality rollbacks, health experts warn

By Dana Drugmand

American families will face increasing rates of environmental-related illnesses and premature deaths, including lung and cardiovascular diseases, due to the Trump administration’s sweeping rollbacks of air quality regulations, health professionals warn.

The moves to slash roughly two dozen environmental and public health protections weaken rules dealing with a range of health threats, including mercury emissions from power plants and tailpipe pollution from vehicles.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced March 12 what the agency is labeling the biggest and greatest deregulatory push in US history.

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US and more,” Zeldin said in the announcement.

Industry trade groups applauded the EPA actions. The American Petroleum Institute said the Trump administration is “answering the call” for more “affordable, reliable and secure American energy,” while the American Chemistry Council said EPA’s plan to revisit soot standards will help “foster continued industry growth.”

Public health and environmental experts, however, said the Trump administration is ignoring the enormous health and economic benefits that clean air and climate protections provide.

“If Zeldin’s deregulatory jihad succeeds, he will leave America a sicker and poorer place,” Joseph Goff, former assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said in a statement.

March 12, 2025

“Chaos and panic” as US slashes funds for small farmers and food assistance

By Carey Gillam

Farmers and food assistance groups around the country are reeling this week amid a series of moves by the Trump administration to cut funding for programs that support small and disadvantaged farmers and provide food for low-income families.

The loss of funding, which totals more than $1 billion, was sending shock waves through a system set up to provide reliable markets and consistent income for farmers who supply healthy, unprocessed, locally grown fruits and vegetables and other foods to hunger assistance organizations and public schools.

Funding was spread through every US state but some of the largest amounts of program money were earmarked for farmers in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Georgia.

“This is a huge deal for small farmers,” said Ellee Igoe, co-owner of Solidarity Farm in southern California and director of operations for Foodshed, a San Diego County network of regenerative and organic farms supplying food to families in need.

“We’re growing healthy food and providing it to local communities. And they are cancelling contracts without real reason. Out here, it feels like it is very politically motivated.”

Igoe said she and others believe the cuts are related in part to President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate programs that carry “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) objectives because when applying for program funding under the Biden administration, applicants were asked to list how the funding would help minority/disadvantaged farmers.

kateryna-hliznitsova-o1PLHK394tE-unsplash

March 11, 2025

The growing cancer crisis in young adults and a call to action

By Dr. Raphael Cuomo

Over the past several decades, cancer has been predominantly viewed as a disease of aging. Conventional wisdom suggests that the longer we live, the more opportunities our cells have to accumulate genetic mutations that can eventually lead to malignancies. Yet, this paradigm is being upended by a disturbing trend: Cancer is increasingly striking younger adults.

Recent data show that rates of early-onset cancers—those diagnosed in individuals under 50—are rising across multiple cancer types, with colorectal, breast, pancreatic, and esophageal cancers showing some of the most dramatic increases. This shift is prompting urgent questions about what could be fueling the trend. While genetics plays a role, the rapid nature of this rise suggests that environmental and lifestyle factors, including changes in diet and the gut microbiome, may be contributing in ways we are only beginning to understand.

Historically, colorectal cancer was considered a disease of older adults, and screening guidelines reflected this assumption. However, in 2021, the US Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age for colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 in response to mounting evidence of rising incidence in younger populations. Similar concerns are emerging for other malignancies, including breast and pancreatic cancer, which are also appearing at increasing rates in adults under 50.

While some researchers have suggested that improvements in early detection may be responsible for part of the increase, this explanation does not fully account for the trend. The data reveal a true rise in incidence, not merely better detection. Moreover, these cancers are often more aggressive when they appear in younger adults, leading to worse prognoses. This makes understanding the underlying risk factors an urgent priority.

March 7, 2025

Amid lack of faith in FDA, US states rush to ban food dyes

Call it a MAHA moment. At least a dozen US states – from traditionally conservative Oklahoma to liberal-leaning New York – are rushing to pass laws outlawing commonly used dyes and other chemical additives in foods, citing a need to protect public health.

In one of the most far-reaching efforts, West Virginia on Wednesday advanced a sweeping ban on a range of common food dyes that have been linked to health problems, particularly for children, with overwhelming support from both Republicans and Democrats.

The new law prohibits the sale of any food product containing certain yellow, blue, green and red dyes often found in candies, snacks and other foods and drinks, and goes much further than any other state in moving to eliminate the chemicals from store shelves.

The West Virginia measure has passed both legislative chambers and is expected to receive final clearance within the next week to move to the governor’s desk for signing.

Public health advocates have been lobbying for state and federal action for years, pointing to research that links food dyes and other chemical additives to a range of health risks, including neurobehavioral problems and cancers.

Food industry advocates have protested efforts to ban the additives, citing what they say is a lack of proof that the chemicals are harmful to people, and arguing such laws will make food more expensive.

But supporters of the measures say the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement associated with newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving fresh momentum to the efforts. Kennedy has long warned about chemical additives in food and vowed in his confirmation hearing before Congress to “scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply.”

“There is a lot of support for these measures now for a few reasons. The most obvious one is the MAHA movement,” said Laura Wakim Chapman, chair of the West Virginia Senate Health and Human Resources Committee. “Viral videos and social media content is informing the public about the dangers of unnecessary food additives. I am a mother of two and care deeply about their health. I think most parents do.”

March 4, 2025

Postcard from California: Chemical warning labels are everywhere – and they’re working

By Bill Walker

A driver entering an enclosed parking garage in California is greeted by a 20-by-20-inch sign declaring in 72-point type:

WARNING: Breathing the air in this parking garage can expose you to chemicals including carbon monoxide and gasoline or diesel engine exhaust, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

The signs are known as Prop. 65 warnings, after the ballot proposition number of the state Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which in 1986 was approved by almost two-thirds of California voters.

The law established a registry that is regularly updated with substances that include hazardous chemicals found in common household products, electronics, pesticides, food, drugs, dyes, additives, construction materials and automobiles. All must carry warning labels if they contain threshold levels of a listed chemical. The law also prohibits the discharge of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water.

In the most recent update, the Prop. 65 registry, which is maintained by scientists at the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), has grown to 874 chemicals and compounds. Chemicals are added only after exhaustive reviews by independent expert panels of studies from authoritative national and international public health agencies.