public health

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December 16, 2024

Scientists call on federal regulators to rid US agencies of corporate influence

By Shannon Kelleher

Scientists are calling for the incoming Trump administration to adopt a set of guidelines designed to ensure scientific integrity at federal agencies and loosen corporate influence on regulators charged with protecting Americans’ health.

The recommendations, published Dec. 16, state that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies must eliminate financial and political conflicts of interest from environmental health research, halt industry influence on advisory boards and use the best available science to identify the health risks of toxic chemicals, which are contributing to the rise in chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Conflicts of interest that undermine the scientific process have resulted in “weakened chemical regulations, increased exposure to harmful chemicals, and greater risks to the health of families, workers, and communities,” the authors concluded.

“Our recommendations will not only strengthen the scientific frameworks of regulatory agencies but also enhance their ability to identify and mitigate toxic chemical exposures, protecting the health of all people who live in the US – especially those who are most susceptible to harm,” Rashmi Joglekar, director of science and policy at the University of California San Francisco Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), said in a press release. PRHE issued the guidelines.

The proposal has been endorsed by at least 48 scientists and public health experts and14 health and environmental organizations. Longer recommendations will be available in early January, said a spokesperson for PRHE.

The EPA and FDA said they plan to review the guidelines.

October 24, 2024

Pesticides found in 80% of air samples from California farm communities

By Shannon Kelleher

Almost 80% of air samples collected last year in California’s four most agriculture-intensive communities contained pesticide residues, though the concentrations were “unlikely to be harmful to human health,” according to a recently released state regulatory report.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) collected 207 air samples at stations in Oxnard, Santa Maria, Shafter and Watsonville once a week throughout 2023, finding at least one of the 40 pesticides they tested for in 163 of the samples, according to the results.

The monitoring stations detected a total of 19 different pesticides in the air samples, including the herbicide pendimethalin and the fumigant 1,3-dichloropronene (Telone), which have both been linked to cancer.

These chemicals and others detected by CDPR have also been linked to nausea, shortness of breath, and eye and respiratory irritation.

Despite being banned in 34 countries, Telone is the third-most heavily used pesticide in California, and CDPR has been criticized for failing to implement regulations that adequately protect mostly Latino farmworkers from the chemical.

The samples were all collected on school grounds, raising concerns among environmental and health advocates about safety risks for children and other vulnerable community members.

“The latest air sampling results continue to show pesticides sprayed on fields drift off site and contaminate the air nearby, a serious concern for those who live, go to school or work near farm fields,” Alexis Temkin, a senior toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said in a press release.

August 22, 2024

Climate change may be driving extreme fires far ahead of schedule, study warns

By Dana Drugmand

Last year’s record-shattering Canadian wildfire season was directly linked to human-caused climate change, according to a new study, which warns that the climate crisis may be fueling extreme fires decades earlier than previously expected.

This is the largest assessment specifically of Canada’s 2023 fire season, which was unprecedented in its scope and intensity, and adds to a wider body of evidence showing that climate change is fueling dangerous fires around the world at a rapidly growing pace.

“What was unusual is the amount of activity across the country,” said Piyush Jain, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service and a lead author of the study, which published this week in the journal Nature Communications. “Already we saw a year which would be as extreme as what we would expect to see in 2050.”

Fires burned across much of Canada from April through October 2023, torching an area roughly the size of Illinois – seven times more land than has historically been burned during the country’s wildfire season, on average. The extent of last year’s fire activity, stretching from British Columbia all the way east to Nova Scotia in a single season, had not been anticipated until later this century under current climate projections, according to researchers.

The wildfires in Canada last June also affected major cities on the East Coast of the US, turning skies a hazy orange and bringing alarming air pollution levels to New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Toxic particulates carried on the wildfire smoke raised risks of premature death from North Carolina to California and threatened $36 billion in annual US economic losses, one study found.

Climate change more than doubled the chances for the extreme fire weather conditions that led to the 2023 blazes, according to an August 2023 study. Another study examining global wildfire activity in 2023, published last week, reported that climate change both increased the chance of “high fire weather” last year in Canada and increased the burned area by up to 40 percent.

February 13, 2024

EPA’s proposed lead pipe crackdown spurs debate

By Shannon Kelleher

Proposed revisions to a national drinking water regulation designed to reduce exposure to lead in US drinking water are drawing applause from many sectors, but also criticism as industry groups worry about how to meet the stricter standard and environmental and health advocates fear the proposed requirements don’t go far enough.

The regulatory move comes after public outcry in response to recognition that communities around the country could be at risk of the type of contamination that occurred in Flint, Michigan in 2014 when the town’s drinking water became contaminated with lead from corroded pipes. The toxic metal, which is a known health hazard, particularly to children, has also been found in the tap water of Chicago residents.

“Now, there’s a new proposed rule, there’s lots of money, and there is a deadline, so now people are mobilizing to implement,” said Alfredo Gomez, director of Natural Resources and Environment at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). But, he said, “some folks are supportive of the proposed rule, and others are concerned.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s proposed changes would require water systems to replace lead service lines within 10 years of the rule going into effect. An estimated 9.2 million water service lines provide water to communities across the nation. The agency would also compel utilities to take stronger measures to prevent lead in the pipes from entering the water through corrosion by reducing the level at which utilities are required to take mitigation action for lead from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb. The EPA action builds on revised regulations introduced in 2021.

The new move to address lead in drinking water, which the EPA proposed in late November, is among a host of actions the agency has recently taken to crack down on a wide range of harmful environmental pollutants. The agency issued an enforcement alert in late 2023 calling out “widespread noncompliance” with the first US regulation on toxic coal ash, and earlier this month it announced a proposal that would help ensure cleanups of pervasive chemicals known as PFAS at hazardous waste facilities. Last week, the EPA finalized stronger air quality standards to reduce soot pollution.

September 19, 2023

Use of “green” cleaning products may improve indoor air quality, study says

Consumers can slash their exposure to certain types of indoor air pollution by using “green” labeled cleaning products, according to new research.

In a study published this month in the journal Chemosphere, researchers detected nearly 200 hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in common household cleaning products — some at levels that could pose a risk to human health. Products that were labeled “green” or “fragrance-free” were less likely to contain VOCs, they found.

Many VOCs have both immediate health impacts, such as eye or throat irritation, and long-term impacts, such as nervous system damage or cancer.

“This study is a wake-up call for consumers, researchers and regulators to be more aware of the potential risks associated with the numerous chemicals entering our indoor air,” said Alexis Temkin, an author of the study and senior toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research and consumer advocacy organization.

April 17, 2023

Battle lines being drawn as Farm Bill looms

With the upcoming expiration of the US Farm Bill in September, lawmakers are drawing battle lines over numerous issues that impact the lives of millions of people, from food assistance to farm subsidies and more.

As in past years, the debates are shaping up with a focus on programs aimed at helping provide nutrition to needy families, but some environmental and public health advocates say the bill also offers an opportunity to tackle concerns about harmful pesticides used in agriculture and farmworkers health issues — an opportunity they hope lawmakers won’t miss.

“There’s never been any attention on pesticides and farmworker health,” said Margaret Reeves, a senior scientist at the advocacy group Pesticide Action Network (PAN). “So if we get any, that’ll be progress.”

Hunger and “hypocrisy”
Much of the debate over the upcoming Farm Bill is expected to target questions about whether to expand, reform, or cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), an anti-hunger program that helps low-income families purchase food. SNAP makes up about 80% of funding in the current Farm Bill.

“In this current Congress, that’s going to get a lot of airtime,” Reeves said.

The debate heated up last month, when House Agriculture Committee member Dusty Johnson (R-SD), along with 23 other House Republicans, proposed legislation for the upcoming bill that would strengthen the eligibility requirements for SNAP. The measure, dubbed the America Works Act of 2023, would expand the number of people subject to SNAP’s work requirements, potentially jeopardizing food benefits for more than 10 million people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Republican Study Committee’s 2023 proposed budget seeks to remove SNAP benefits from the Farm Bill altogether.

November 7, 2022

New PFAS exposure scoring method could speed research on health effects

Researchers have developed a new statistical tool they say could speed up research on the health effects of exposures to toxic “forever chemicals” that are commonly found in an array of consumer products.

In a study published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers from the Mount Sinai Medical Center and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health presented a new tool that offers PFAS researchers a way to compare total exposures to PFAS across scientific studies. The tool may provide researchers a more effective method to study these persistent toxins.

PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of thousands of chemicals commonly used in non-stick cookware, food packaging, and waterproof clothing. The chemicals have been linked to certain cancers and reproductive issues.

Studying chemical mixtures is crucial to public health research, since people are exposed to many chemicals—including many types of PFAS—at once in their daily lives. But most studies that focus on toxic chemical mixtures only study those effects in relation to specific health outcomes; for example, a study might determine a chemical’s effect on blood pressure, or heart disease. Additionally, studies might measure different types of PFAS chemicals. That makes it hard for environmental health researchers to compare data.