EHN Originals

Unlike downpours, droughts, hurricanes, typhoons and more calamities, there isn’t a clear, undebatable link between climate change and tornadoes. But last week’s horrific twisters—and hurricane-force winds in a mid-week system—added on to an unprecedented weather year. Let’s rewind to February. Polar vortex and extreme heat  The polar vortex brought the Jet Stream and its Arctic…

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European regulators on Thursday took sharp aim at the common plastic additive BPA, slashing the recommended daily dose by 100,000 and all but ensuring the chemical cannot be used in any product coming into contact with food. The decision, if it stands, promises to revolutionize the food contact materials industry—particularly food packaging and processing equipment—and…

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Gavin Rienne joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss what children’s health can tell us about a community’s natural disaster preparedness. Rienne, an epidemiology and biostatistics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and current Agents of Change fellow, also talks about his time in the service…

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The refusal of the United States and fellow rich nations to compensate developing countries for the devastation wrought by air pollution and climate change smacks of a kind of modern colonialism at its worst. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland known as COP26 came and went with no firm financial commitment…

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Pete Myers, the founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, visits Living on Earth to discuss a new study that found DEHP, a phthalate chemical used in plastic hospital intravenous bags and medical tubing, may interfere with breast cancer treatment. “We’ve got to systematically rethink, which of those plastics are important? How can we…

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Mounting scientific evidence reveals that environmental pollution and the stress of climate change not only anguish our physical health, but also impact our mental health. Last month EHN and The Allegheny Front highlighted the mental health impacts of environmental pollution in western Pennsylvania, revealing links between certain air pollutants, lead in drinking water, and climate…

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Last year, I wrote about a few of the many, truly bad environmentally themed movies that have been dumped, flushed, and sprayed on an all-too-willing public. But there are inspiring ones just sitting there, waiting to be made. Here are some of the environmental movement’s heroes—and a few of its villains—ready for the big screen…

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John Beard, 18 years a city councilman for the Texas fenceline community of Port Arthur, almost gave up and walked away. Love Sanchez, a Karankawa Kadla mom from the Texas Gulf Coast, lived in the background, shy and voiceless. Veronica Coptis, growing up amid Pennsylvania’s coal, oil and gas fields, was “angry and yelling a…

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On Dec. 6 we published a 2-part series on lead ammunition on how the issue of lead ammunition and fishing gear is an under-recognized science denial problem. The series called into question tactics from major firearm groups that are waging misinformation campaigns out of the Big Tobacco playbook. After combing through hundreds of claims from…

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EHN reporter Kristina Marusic discussed her recent reporting on the surprising mental health impacts of air pollution on the public radio program Living on Earth. “Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what happens in brains that are exposed to air pollution that affects mental health and cognition, but a lot of them think…

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