EHN Originals

Six women in Congress are demanding federal regulators take steps to remove phthalates and other hormone-hijacking chemicals from medical products, especially IV bags. The U.S. has made “minimal progress” in reducing harmful exposures in the United States over the past 20 years—even as alternatives become available and other jurisdictions, notably Europe and California, take steps…

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Disinfectant use has exploded during the coronavirus pandemic as people try to keep their hands and surfaces clean. But one family of cleaning chemicals is receiving scrutiny for potential health concerns. Quats, or quaternary ammonium compounds, are charged molecules that can kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Quats are effective disinfectants, but some researchers are raising…

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A century since the 1918 flu claimed an estimated 675,000 lives in the United States, COVID-19 is about to claim its 500,000th life in the nation. According to February 12 projections from the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), we’re on track for 614,000 deaths by June. With no drastic action,…

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“Young people are recognizing that the issues that we’re inheriting are ours now. Like, the inheritance process just got significantly shorter because of COVID.” Prin, a college student and food justice advocate, tells me this as we sit on a bright orange bench at Sankofa Community Farm in Philadelphia. She says the work she does…

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BOSTON—Standing at a lab bench, Tanya Shirman eyes her creation: a tiny glass vial filled with an iridescent, sand-like material. Holding it between her thumb and forefinger, she gives the vial a gentle shake, and the material inside turns from shimmering blues to greens. “This is what happens in butterfly wings,” the petite Shirman, lifting…

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The American environmental movement, and environmental politics in general, are in middle age. So is a major environmental crisis that never seems to move toward resolution: Locating the nation’s worst waste sites and polluting factories in or near poor and minority communities. Nearly 40 years after its debut as a national issue, will environmental justice…

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Gina McCarthy, President Biden’s Director of the Office of Domestic Climate Policy, has her work cut out for her. Her job is to implement the president’s new climate Executive Order and put the United States on a path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “I’m the dude who’s supposed to deliver this in…

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Appalachia’s fracking boom has failed to deliver on promises of jobs and benefits to local economies, according to a new study. The study, published today by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit think tank, revealed that while economic output in Appalachian fracking counties grew by 60 percent from 2008-2019, the counties’ share of the…

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Some suggestions for President Biden’s climate czar.

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COVID-19 is having disproportionate impacts on our nation’s two million farmworkers, who as essential workers continue to toil in the fields despite numerous deadly outbreaks and no federal COVID-related workplace protections. COVID-19 has pulled back the veil on the strikingly poor workplace conditions of these essential workers, built by decades of insufficient farmworker health and…

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