News

March 30, 2025

Federal hearing to take up hotly debated issue of wetlands protections

By Shannon Kelleher

In a court hearing that could have implications for the fate of federal protections for US wetlands, lawyers for an Iowa farmland owner will face off on Monday against the federal government and environmental advocates over the constitutionality of the Farm Bill’s hotly debated “Swampbuster” law.

The hearing in the case pits CTM Holdings LLC against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and several organizations that intervened in the case in support of USDA, and addresses a provision of the US Farm Bill dealing with wetlands management.

First introduced by Congress in 1985 after more than half of all US wetlands had been drained or filled, the provision prohibits farmers from using designated wetlands on their property if they want to be eligible for crop insurance subsidies, farm loans and other federal benefits.

The measures aims to prevent farmers from draining, filling in or otherwise altering wetlands, which provide critical habitats for fish and waterfowl, help mitigate flooding and sequester carbon. The provision currently protects about three-quarters of remaining wetlands in the contiguous US – at least 78 million acres.

CTM and supporting organizations are challenging Swampbuster, arguing that the provision violates farmers’ Fifth Amendment rights because it amounts to a taking of private property without just compensation and exceeds the federal government’s authority.

CTM owns a 71-acre parcel of land that includes 9 acres deemed wetlands by the government, but argues that the land in question is dry and not connected to any water source. Regardless, CTM is not allowed to farm the land in question without putting USDA benefits at risk, the plaintiffs argue.

March 28, 2025

Utah becomes first state to ban water fluoridation

By Douglas Main

Utah has become the first US state to ban the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the new law on Thursday, prohibiting fluoridation starting May 7. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the practice, which started in the 1940s as a strategy to help people prevent cavities and reduce tooth decay.

Though more than 70% of the US population receives fluoridated public water supplies and many medical professionals support the practice, opposition has been growing due to studies suggesting fluoride may have neurotoxic effects on fetuses and young children.

Newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years.

Some professional bodies remain ardent supporters of the practice, however. The American Dental Association issued a statement on Friday accusing Utah lawmakers and the governor of showing “wanton disregard for the oral health and well-being” of state residents.

March 25, 2025

Chewing gum releases microplastics into saliva, study finds

By Douglas Main

Chewing gum made from either synthetic polymers or tree-based resins sheds significant quantities of tiny plastic particles into saliva, according to a study currently undergoing peer review that was presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers found that chewing gum, on average, releases over 600 particles of microplastics per gram, with the average stick of gum weighing between two and six grams, according to the study, in which researchers chewed 10 different types of leading gum brands and then sampled their saliva at various time points.

“We need to be aware that these gums are releasing plastics into our body,” said Sanjay Mohanty, study co-author, a professor at University of California Los Angeles.

Synthetic gum is made up of plastic polymers, a fact that most people are not aware of, said study lead author Lisa Lowe, a graduate student in Mohanty’s lab. It didn’t come as a shock to the researchers, then, that gum released microplastics.

The scientists were surprised, however, that “natural” gums that use plant resins as a base had similar levels of microplastics, which must be getting there somehow during the manufacturing process, they said.

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

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 19, 2025

US baby formulas often contain contaminants, study finds

By Douglas Main

A new investigation that tested 41 types of powdered baby formula sold in the US found that about half of the products contained concerning levels of contaminants, including lead, arsenic, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenol A (BPA) and acrylamide.

“Millions of parents rely on infant formula during the first important months of their babies’ lives and deserve access to safe, healthy and nutritious products,” said James Rogers, director of product safety testing at Consumer Reports, the nonprofit organization that performed the investigation, in a statement.

Apparently in response to the report, the FDA announced Tuesday that the agency would be “taking steps to enhance its efforts to ensure the ongoing quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience of the domestic infant formula supply.”

“The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” said Health and Human Services secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., in the statement.

That announcement follows the Trump administration’s recent decision to disband two food safety advisory committees that provided scientific advice and recommendations to the FDA and other federal agencies. One of the committees, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), had been preparing to release a report prompted by a bacterial outbreak in powdered infant formula from September 2021 to February 2022, with recommendations on how to avoid future outbreaks.

Arsenic, a carcinogen, was one of the contaminants most commonly found in the products tested by Consumer Reports. The investigation found the highest inorganic arsenic level in Abbott Nutrition’s EleCare Hypoallergenic, at 19.7 parts per billion (ppb), and the second highest in Similac Alimentum at 15.1 ppb, also made by Abbott, one of the top companies in the infant formula market.

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.