EHN Originals

OK, let’s start with the bad news: a new report from Mamavation found evidence of PFAS chemicals in food packaging including a McDonald’s filet-o-fish carton, a Starbucks’ sandwich wrapper and a KFC bucket of fried chicken. That’s not good. But many of these fast-food and fast-casual restaurants have announced plans to ban the “forever chemicals”…

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Laila Gad, a summer intern for the Agents of Change program, and Neeshad Shafi, a climate change advocate and the co-founder of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar, discuss climate change in the Arab world and the harms of Western media’s reporting on climate change and energy in the Middle East. The Agents of Change…

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Our exposure to a common plastic additive linked to breast cancer and obesity likely exceeds health thresholds set by governments worldwide. The European Environment Agency, citing updated research data, said the new findings raise “significant health concerns” for the entire European population – and, by extension, anyone who comes into frequent contact with plastic. The…

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I held her as she wept into my shirt while my lab mate ran across the coffee field to get tissues. We were standing on a coffee farm 7,500 feet above sea level in the middle of the Jamaican Blue Mountains. Before she broke down, the woman was telling us about her life as a…

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This month Science Magazine explores research into disturbing ways that THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, binds to cannabinoid receptors abundant in the brain, including in fetal brains while still in the mother’s womb. Serious, adverse impacts can ensue, disrupting the brain’s normal development. Because the brain keeps developing into person’s 20s, adolescents and…

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Dr. Bruce Lanphear, an expert on early childhood health and exposure to toxics, joined EHN to discuss his resignation from a Health Canada pesticide advisory committee and how regulators are failing to protect the public from agricultural “poisons.” Lanphear, a professor and researcher at Simon Fraser University, also talks about why small exposures to environmental…

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Dr. Robbie Parks joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast for a bonus episode to discuss how hurricanes have become deadlier in recent years and how we can better protect vulnerable communities. Parks, a senior Agents of Change fellow and assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public…

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Fellows Marissa Chan and Dr. Denise Moreno Ramírez are joined by Melissa Cordero and Tatiana Diva Blanco on the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss racialized beauty ideals and how to confront them. They also discuss personal experiences with beauty standards, what they do in the face of these standards, and how…

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Según el Greater Houston Partnership, Houston aporta el 45.3% del petróleo a nivel estatal y el 14.3% del crudo a nivel nacional. La Agencia de Protección Ambiental dice que la industria de petróleo y gas es la fuente industrial más grande de compuestos orgánicos volátiles, VOCs por las siglas en inglés. Los VOCs son tóxicos…

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HOUSTON — The city of Houston’s nearly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act aims to assess the levels of many volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The EPA states that the oil and gas industry is the largest industrial source of VOCs, which are air toxics that can…

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