EHN Originals

Here’s a secret about single-use foodware: brands and manufacturers don’t have to tell what’s in it, and in some cases, they don’t even know. This presents a challenge for safety-conscious consumers of takeout containers, disposable cups, and similar materials who are hoping to avoid chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenols, phthalates, and other…

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Looted Items likely taken by Russia from Chernobyl could cause radiation burns, sickness, and irreversible processes in the body, a Ukraine agency said.

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The environmental beat can be a real downer and we often focus on the problems—but there are signs of progress in our fight against climate change and pollution. From renewable projects to plastic treaties, here are some dashes of hope for our planet. Changing energy winds  More than a decade ago the North American environmental…

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A new Washington state bill, signed into law last Thursday by Gov. Jay Inslee, aims to phase out PFAS in select consumer products by 2025. It’s the “fastest timeline in the nation,” Laurie Valeriano, executive director of advocacy group Toxic-Free Future, told EHN. PFAS, which refers to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, are often used in…

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Rodrigo Alatriste-Diaz joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss environmental justice and labor rights in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Alatriste-Diaz, a former fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Development Sociology at Cornell University and researcher at UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, talks about his winding path to higher education, and what…

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Whether in entertainment, sports, or schools, the U.S. is finally coming to the realization that mental health struggles are as real and ubiquitous as any other illnesses. While this progress is welcomed, scientists, health advocates, and doctors need to further understand and probe one of the insidious triggers of mental illness: environmental pollution. Last fall…

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Youtuber Russell Brand brings his 5.4 million viewers news about toxics and Covid that we’ve been warning about for the past 24 months: Toxic chemicals in food packaging – particularly fast food wrappers – weaken your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to diseases like Covid-19. Brand, whose videos regularly get 1 million views or…

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This past Thursday was an important anniversary in our stormy marriage to fossil fuels. Lest we think that only Republicans are beholden to Big Oil: On March 31, 2010, President Obama announced an ambitious expansion of offshore oil and gas development, saying oil rigs “generally don’t cause spills.” Three weeks later, the Deepwater Horizon explosion…

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One million US deaths from COVID-19. Catatonic politics on climate change. Communities suffocating from environmental injustice. All these issues are tragically linked by the hardening divisions in the United States over our acceptance or rejection of expertise in science, public health, and environmental protection. Nearly six decades ago, in 1963, US President John F. Kennedy…

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Starbucks earlier this month announced its first commitment to eliminate harmful PFAS chemicals in its food packaging in both the U.S. and abroad, joining other large companies in banning the toxics. The Starbucks PFAS ban—announced March 15—pledges to rid all U.S. packaging of the chemicals by the end of the year, and internationally by the…

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