Category: EHN Originals

On March 29, Eric, the most prominent lay leader at my church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, perished from COVID-19. He was one of 685 people across the United States and one of 15 in Massachusetts to die from the disease that day. On April 6, Eric’s mother Elmo also died from the coronavirus, one of 907...

I hope like me you’re counting the hours till this Thursday, April 22, the 52nd observance of Earth Day. An American invention largely credited to U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and student activist Denis Hayes, Earth Day’s 1970 debut drew millions of people to rallies and events in big cities and small towns; grade schools, and...

John Bowden, an assistant professor at University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine, wasn’t a fan of paper straws when they first gained popularity. “They broke down in drinks really quickly,” Bowden told EHN. “They fell apart in your mouth.” But then the biodegradable market—plant- and paper-based straws—expanded, giving people more structurally sound plastic straw...

A woman’s exposure to the pesticide DDT during pregnancy can increase her granddaughter’s risk for breast cancer decades later, according to a new study. Published today in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, the study found a significant association between DDT in grandmothers’ blood during pregnancy, and obesity and early first menstrual periods in their granddaughters—factors...

To prevent pipes from freezing, set the thermostat in your house no lower than 55°F, an article tells me. I set the temperature to 55°F, and scratch the last item on my to-do list, finally ready to leave for the holidays. As I am about to step out, I turn around and raise the temperature...

One month after publication of EHN.org‘s groundbreaking “Fractured” investigation, lawmakers, civic groups and journalists are pulling our findings into news coverage, community actions, and calls for policy change. The series has drawn local, national, and international media coverage, and prompted action from readers, activists, and legislators. Here’s a sampling of the impacts so far, and...

Lawyers suing Swiss chemical company Syngenta are asking a U.S. judicial panel to consolidate more than a dozen similar lawsuits under the oversight of a federal judge in California. The move is a telling sign of the expansion of litigation that alleges the company’s weed killing products cause Parkinson’s Disease. According to the motion, filed...

Virginia Wasserberg is a lifelong Republican, a deeply conservative home-schooling mom from Southeast Virginia. Once a month, she logs onto Zoom to join an unlikely crew: there’s a community organizer from Austin, Texas; a grandmother from rural Missouri; and an environmental justice activist from Port Arthur, Texas. Wasserberg and her Zoom companions are members of...

I’ve been a member of a worthy non-profit, The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), since one year after its 1991 founding. Every once in a while, I pester its 1,200 members to consider a special award for I-told-you-so reporting—honoring an environment reporter who shouts into the winds of political clout or simple indifference to a...

Systemic racism and inequity has always run as a powerful undercurrent through environmental and climate change impacts. But it’s taken a global pandemic and shifting political winds in the U.S. to connect environmental impacts with environmental justice in such a mainstream, widespread way. That’s according to three journalists at the frontlines of climate and environmental...