EHN Originals

In 2014, I started my doctorate with the intention of studying the health effects of high temperatures and different populations’ vulnerability to those effects. But the faculty member I was going to collaborate with left my institution. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, because another faculty member offered to work with me on…

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EHN reporter Kristina Marusic discussed her recent reporting on the surprising mental health impacts of contaminated drinking water on the public radio program Living on Earth. Listen below or visit Living on Earth for the full interview and transcript. Environmental Health News · The impact of lead pollution on mental health Banner photo credit: Andres…

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As surely as the swallows make their annual return to Capistrano, the politics of climate change and science always foreshadow the larger political world. Today, our headlines are positively rotten with denial-based news: January 6 denial. Election denial. Denying that mass shootings and gun deaths are problems. But some of these aren’t new. COVID vaccine…

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While bald eagle populations have slowly recovered since the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, toxic lead ammo has reduced population growth by 4% to 6% annually in the Northeast U.S., according to a new study. The study, published today in the Journal of Wildlife Management, bolsters evidence that spent lead ammunition left in the…

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About 82% of U.S. voters support stopping the sale of single-use plastics at national parks, according to a poll released today by the non-profit Oceana. U.S. national parks average 33 million visitors and nearly 70 million pounds of waste each year, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, so a ban on single-use plastics would…

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Nayamin Martinez joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss advocating for farmworker health and workplace protections in California’s Central Valley. Agents of Change fellow Rodrigo Alatriste-Diaz hosts the show, as Martinez, the director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network, talks about threats to farmworkers’ health, including extreme heat, ozone, COVID-19,…

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NEW YORK—On a crisp Thursday afternoon in October, the 300 block of East 12th Street in Manhattan’s East Village became loud. “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” Chants erupted. “Housing is a human right!” The roughly two dozen protesters were concerned with lead dust and other unsafe living conditions stirred up by ongoing construction. Holding homemade signs,…

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You’ve got to cut a break to the superb cast and an A-for-effort try on “Don’t Look Up.” The film’s failings are due to its subject matter: it’s that the real-life catastrophe of climate change would make an awful major motion picture. It already has. Twice. Before a few words on “Don’t Look Up,” let’s…

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For more than two decades, my mother has worked in poorly ventilated nail salons where she inhales toxic fumes that have caused new health issues. Similarly, my father works as a low-wage laborer in an old warehouse where smoke and dust pollute the air. Like many, my parents compromise their health for their livelihood. In…

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President Biden’s first year ends with a lump of coal in his stocking, courtesy of the Senior Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin. A lifelong Democrat, Manchin may have made himself a lifelong pariah in his own party by waylaying the centerpiece of Biden’s domestic policy, a trillion-dollar-plus “Build Back Better.” But is there any…

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