EHN Originals

People who closely follow an environmentally conscious plant-heavy diet that also includes modest portions of meat and dairy, dubbed the Planetary Health Diet, have a 30% lower risk of premature death from common causes such as cancer and heart disease, according to new research. The study, led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…

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Announcing recently that the world broke a record by generating 30% of all electricity from renewable sources in 2023, the British think tank Ember said the data proves we are in a “new era” of energy in which a permanent decline in fossil fuels is “inevitable.” The new era would be even more inevitable if…

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Jose Ramon Becerra Vera joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss arming residents in his native Inland Empire region of California with air pollution data to advocate for their health and community. Becerra Vera, a current Agents of Change fellow and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue…

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In January 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rolling Stone published an investigative report on widespread radioactive contamination from the oil and gas industry. Justin Nobel, the journalist responsible for the investigation, recently published a book on the same topic, “Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It.”…

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More than 37 million Americans have kidney disease, leading to severe swelling, fatigue, back pain, urination issues, shortness of breath and more. Of those, roughly 808,000 Americans have subsequently developed kidney failure, after the disease progresses to the inability of filtering out waste products from blood and producing urine. These patients can become very sick…

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Our romance with plastic commenced just over a century ago. For much of this history, plastic was thought harmless: An almost infinitely malleable material that could be manipulated to do miraculous things without danger to humans, wildlife or the environment. Indeed, that belief still persists in some quarters. For example, a delegate from a major…

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going through a major reorganization to improve efficiency and protect public health. A recent hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability concluded that the agency stumbles from crisis to crisis, including drug shortages, tainted food and illicit tobacco scandals in recent years. Although…

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This week, the court overseeing a lawsuit for the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, gave preliminary approval for a $600 million settlement to be paid by Norfolk Southern Railway, lead attorneys in the class action lawsuit said in a press release. The lawsuit stems from the disaster last year in which a…

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Liliana Sierra Castillo joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss the concept of blue justice and how the expansion of aquaculture impacts small-scale fishery communities. Sierra Castillo, a current Agents of Change fellow and Ph.D. candidate at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa…

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PITTSBURGH — Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first federal regulations for “forever chemicals” in drinking water. The chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, are linked to kidney and testicular cancer, liver and thyroid problems, reproductive problems, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, low birthweight and increased risk of birth…

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