Shannon Kelleher

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March 24, 2025

Dissolving EPA’s research arm may jeopardize toxic chemical protections

By Shannon Kelleher

The Trump administration’s plan to eliminate the entire research arm of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have devastating impacts on toxic chemical research, destabilizing infrastructure that forms the scientific backbone of regulations that protect people and the environment, according to former agency leaders.

The move to dissolve the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), first reported by The New York Times last week, would stagnate new environmental regulations for years to come, the former EPA officials claim.

The ORD, which employs more than 1,000 scientists, operates six research programs that work to inform policy making on a range of environmental issues, including air and water quality, climate concerns, and chemical safety. ORD research topics include chemicals such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, greenhouse gases and health-harming soot.

The administration reportedly plans to cut 75% of ORD’s staff and to relocate those left to other parts of the agency.

“What it means is that any child born in 2025 will grow up in an environment that has more contaminated air, more contaminated water, and more contaminated land than any previous generation that was born after the 1970s,” when Congress put in place major environmental statutes, said Betsy Southerland, a former EPA senior scientist and a director in the agency’s Office of Water. “Any new administration that comes in, it will take them years to rebuild that scientific expertise and capability,” she said.

If the Trump administration dismantles the EPA’s research office and rolls back existing environmental rules, it could force the nation into a fragmented, state-by-state regulatory approach reminiscent of a pre-1970s era when city air was thick with smog and oil-coated rivers caught fire, said Southerland.

March 20, 2025

Past greenhouse gas emissions may raise sea levels by nearly two feet, study finds

By Dana Drugmand

Heat-trapping emissions released over more than a century and a half by the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement producers are projected to cause global sea levels to rise about one to two feet through the year 2300, even if future emissions are drastically cut, according to new peer-reviewed research.

The study, published March 18 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, is the first to measure how past greenhouses gas emissions from fossil fuel companies may contribute to future long-term sea level rise, one of the consequences of human-caused climate change, according to the authors.

“This research contributes to the growing body of work that quantifies how fossil fuel producers’ past emissions will harm future generations,” Delta Merner, co-author of the study and associate director of the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Island and coastal communities will bear the disproportionate brunt of the impacts of sea level rise over time, including infrastructure damage, habitat loss, saltwater intrusion, increased flooding, economic burdens and forced displacements.”

The researchers also found that nearly half (37% to 58%) of present-day surface air temperature rise and about one-third (24% to 37%) of global mean sea level rise to date can be attributed to the historical emissions of the 122 biggest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers, known as the ‘Carbon Majors.’ The study builds on previous analyses examining how emissions stemming from these companies’ products contribute to climate change impacts including surface warming, sea level rise, and drying conditions that help fuel wildfires.

March 19, 2025

California bill aims to phase out harmful ultra-processed school foods

By Shannon Kelleher

As states across the country move to ban food dyes, California lawmakers on March 19 introduced the first bill in the nation that would phase out certain ultra-processed foods from school meals.

If signed into law, Assembly Bill 1264 would establish the first statutory definition of what qualifies as an ultra-processed food and would direct state scientists to work with university experts to identify particularly harmful products, which would then be removed from school cafeterias by 2032.

“We have not done enough to protect [children] from ultra-processed foods and beverages that have far more in common with a cigarette than they do a fruit or vegetable,” Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and director of the school’s Food Addiction Science & Treatment Lab, said on a March 19 press call.

AB 1264 is a “courageous step forward” towards treating ultra-processed foods like the serious health threats they are, said Gearhardt.

To identify which ultra-processed foods should be eliminated from school offerings, scientists will consider whether a product includes additives that are banned elsewhere, whether it has been linked to health harms, whether it has been show to contribute to food addiction, and whether it contains excessive fat, sugar or salt, California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill, said on the call.

The scientists will be required to publish a first report outlining this subcategory of especially harmful ultra-processed foods by July 1, 2026, said Gabriel, and will be required to update the list every two years as research on these foods evolves.

The bill was embraced by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, added Gabriel. “Protecting our kids from harm is, and always should be, a bipartisan issue,” he said

March 14, 2025

Decision to axe advisory groups could spell trouble for US food safety

By Shannon Kelleher

A Trump administration move to axe key food safety advisory committees could leave the public more vulnerable to food-borne illnesses, critics fear, particularly alongside current legislative efforts to undermine proposed safety regulations on food processors.

The decision to cut the committees, which brought together academics, industry researchers and consumer advocates to advise agencies on food safety, comes after hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses more than doubled last year, with most illnesses attributed to the same harmful pathogens that the groups were working to address. And it comes less than a month after Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would block the implementation of a proposed new regulatory framework for reducing Salmonella contamination in raw poultry that was introduced under former President Joe Biden.

“It doesn’t appear that this administration at the highest level seems to care about food safety,” said Michael Hansen, a senior staff scientist for the group Consumer Reports who was serving on the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF).

The USDA announced March 6 that it was terminating NACMCF, which provided scientific advice and recommendations to the USDA, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a broad range of issues related to pathogens and public health. The USDA said all work should stop immediately, citing President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order to pare down the federal bureaucracy.

The agency also terminated the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI), which advised the USDA on the safety of meat and poultry inspection programs.

Elaine Scallan Walter, the co-director of the Colorado Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence at the Colorado School of Public Health who has not served on either committee, said she was “dismayed” by the decision to eliminate them.

March 11, 2025

Microplastics boost antibiotic resistance in E. coli, lab study suggests

By Shannon Kelleher

Co-mingling of tiny pieces of plastic with certain harmful bacteria can make the bacteria harder to fight with several common antibiotics, according to a new study that adds to global concerns about antibiotic resistance.

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, found that when Escherichia coli (E. coli) MG1655 bacteria, a widely-used laboratory strain, were cultured with microplastics (plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size), the bacteria became five times more resistant to four common antibiotics than when they were cultivated without the plastic particles.

The findings may be particularly relevant for understanding links between waste management and disease, the study suggests. Municipal wastewater plants contain both microplastics and antibiotics, making them “hot spots” that fuel the spread of antibiotic resistance.

“The fact that there are microplastics all around us …. is a striking part of this observation,” study co-author and Boston University professor Muhammad Zaman said in a press release. “There is certainly a concern that this could present a higher risk in communities that are disadvantaged, and only underscores the need for more vigilance and a deeper insight into [microplastic and bacterial] interactions.”

Many types of bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, largely due to their overuse. Over 2.8 million infections resistant to these medications occur in the US alone each year, killing 35,000 people annually, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Resistance in E.coli is a concern because even though the bacteria usually live harmlessly in the guts of humans and animals, some strains can cause severe illness. And there are multiple types of dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which often causes infections in hospitals, and Clostridium difficile (C.diff), which causes diarrhea.

February 26, 2025

House hearing probes Biden climate spending as Zeldin threatens clawback

By Shannon Kelleher

A Republican-led House committee on Wednesday held a hearing that scrutinized the Biden administration’s spending on energy and environmental projects, amid concerns about possible conflicts of interest and the fast pace of funds appropriated in the former president’s final months in office.

“Our concern is when you have such a large volume of money getting out the door with such tight statutory deadlines, what processes and internal controls were in place for that money going out?” Nicole Murley, Acting Inspector General for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said in the Feb. 26 House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing. “That’s always what we would call a ‘situation of risk.’”

Democrats blasted the hearing as “out of touch,” saying the real problems at hand are conflicts of interest within the Trump administration and moves to freeze federal funding and fire large numbers of government employees, including the Inspectors General of both the EPA and the US Department of Energy (DOE).

“With all the fires and chaos that Trump and Musk are intentionally starting in these agencies, it’s ridiculous that this is what Republicans are choosing to conduct oversight on today,” said US Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey. “This hearing is not about oversight or accountability. Instead, it’s another effort by Republicans to justify stealing investments from American communities in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.”

The EPA and DOE each received billions of dollars through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which was signed in 2021, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed in 2022. Funding made available through the laws has been appropriated for a wide range of projects, including clean energy grants, drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects, environmental cleanup programs, clean school buses, and programs to reduce air pollution.

February 24, 2025

USDA’s climate webpage purge breaks laws and hurts farmers, lawsuit alleges

By Shannon Kelleher and Carey Gillam

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) broke the law when it purged government websites of climate-related information and disabled access to key datasets, making it hard for farmers to access information on climate adaptation strategies and financial assistance, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by a coalition of advocacy groups.

The “vital resources” were stripped from various USDA websites on Jan.30, shortly after President Donald Trump took office, erasing public access to information about climate-smart agriculture, forest conservation, climate change adaptation, investment in clean energy projects and other “essential information about USDA programs and policies,” the lawsuit alleges.

The case against the agency was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group.

The plaintiffs allege that the USDA broke the law by not providing legally required notice before removing the webpages, violating the Freedom of Information Act, and by not giving “reasoned decision-making” to the harm caused to farmers and others by the removal of the information.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment, instead referring questions to the US Department of Justice, which declined to comment.

The lawsuit comes amid a flurry of actions taken by the Trump administration in the last few weeks to overhaul federal agencies and rollback or otherwise reverse many moves made by the Biden administration, including Biden-era policies aimed at mitigating harmful climate change.

February 21, 2025

States move to cement PFAS protections amid fears of federal rollbacks

By Shannon Kelleher

Concerns are growing about the fate of a Biden-era rule to limit toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water, with some states moving to introduce laws that would lock in place PFAS protections that could survive any potential rollback by the Trump Administration.

California introduced legislation on Wednesday that would direct the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt regulations at least as protective as those in the federal rule. If California’s bill passes, it will require state regulators to set new regulations by January 1, 2026 that would mirror the Biden Administration rule that set a limit on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water.

The legislation specifically calls for adopting the requirements in place on a federal level as of the day prior to President Donald Trump’s January 20th inauguration.

“We think there’s a case here for folks to act with urgency given the developments in Washington, given the threat to public health and public safety that these chemicals pose,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-CA), who introduced the bill, said on a February 19 press call. “We are going to do this so we can protect our communities irrespective of what happens at the federal level.”

Lawmakers in multiple other states are making similar moves, including in Pennsylvania, Maine and Connecticut.

“It’s not unreasonable to be concerned that there would be a rollback of these policies here,” said Steve Hvozdovich, Pennsylvania Campaigns Director for the group Clean Water Action. “I think the quicker we can move the better.”

February 13, 2025

Illnesses and deaths from food outbreaks skyrocketed in 2024, report finds

By Shannon Kelleher

Hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses more than doubled in 2024 over the prior year, with most people sickened in a small number of high-profile outbreaks involving lunch meat, eggs, cucumbers and other commonly consumed foods, according to a report published Thursday.

The report comes as some US lawmakers are pushing legislation that would bar the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing a new regulatory framework proposed under former President Joe Biden aimed at addressing Salmonella contamination in raw poultry.

A total of 1,392 were sickened from contaminated food in 2024, up from 1,1118 people in 2023, and the health impacts of the outbreaks was more severe, with 487 people hospitalized last year compared to 230 the previous year. Nineteen people died after eating contaminated food in 2024, compared to eight in 2023, according to the report.

Across 13 total outbreaks in 2024, almost all of the illnesses were caused by E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella bacteria, including a large outbreak of illnesses tied to E. coli contaminated onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers. A large outbreak that landed 60 people in the hospital was linked to listeria-contaminated products traced back to a now-shuttered Boar’s Head plant in Virginia. The number of food recalls because of Listeria, Salmonella or E. coli increased significantly in 2024, representing 39% of all recalls.

“This report serves as an important reminder that there cannot be any cuts to food safety funding or rollbacks in regulations,” said Brian Ronholm, the director of food policy for the nonprofit Consumer Reports who was not involved in the study. “Industry, regulators and consumers must be constantly vigilant about food safety and the data in this report shows that there is still much work to be done and improvements to be made.”

February 10, 2025

High-stakes hearing to debate state law limiting PCB injury claims

By Shannon Kelleher

Lawyers for three teachers in Washington state will face off against attorneys for the former Monsanto company in a key court hearing on Tuesday over alleged PCB-related injuries that could impact similar cases nationwide.

The teachers won a $185 million verdict in 2021 against Monsanto-owner Bayer AG for health problems they said were caused by their exposure to toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fluorescent lighting in the school where they worked. They alleged Monsanto concealed the dangers of PCBs to elevate company profits.

An appeals court overturned the verdict, then last year the plaintiffs asked the Washington Supreme Court to review the case on three issues, including whether or not a state statute that gives plaintiffs only 12 years to bring product liability claims is constitutional.

Each side will have 30 minutes to argue their positions to Washington Supreme Court panel of justices. The court is also expected to hear competing arguments over whether the plaintiffs should have been able to seek punitive damages and if testimony from a plaintiff’s exposure expert should have been excluded.

More than 200 other teachers, students and family members have sued Bayer alleging brain damage from exposure to PCBs at the same school.

The rest of these cases are “all kind of waiting in the wings behind this appeal,” said Deepak Gupta, an attorney for the plaintiffs with the Gupta Wessler law firm. “If Bayer were to win the statute of repose issue, the rest of the cases from the Washington state school would “just vanish,” he said. “It’s a complete immunity. So, the stakes are really high.”