EHN Originals

Both in our personal lives and as a society, the consequences of dismissing warnings from science versus heeding them have been driven home by the Covid pandemic. But this is not a new phenomenon. In the 1970s and 1980s researchers clearly established that feeding pigs and chickens low-levels of antibiotics to promote faster growth was…

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Rainfall, storms, grasshoppers, wildfires, drought. We’ve got ’em all right now, folks, in biblical proportions. And yet climate change is still stuck back in the action queue. Here’s just a small taste of what we’re dealing with: Last month saw stunning new temperature records set in famously cool places like Portland, Oregon (116°F) and a…

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German chemical company Bayer A.G. announced Thursday that it would replace the herbicide glyphosate from all lawn and garden products sold in the United States by 2023. The move is part of a five-point plan to address future glyphosate litigation risk. As part of the plan, the company also said it would set aside $4.5…

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A record-setting fish was pulled from Hamilton Harbor at the western tip of Lake Ontario in 2015 and the world is learning about it just now. The fish, a brown bullhead, contained 915 particles—a mix of microplastics, synthetic materials containing flame retardants or plasticizers, dyed cellulose fibers, and more—in its body. It was the most…

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The microphone is turned today as host Brian Bienkowski joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss environmental justice reporting, how this podcast came together, and plans to grow the program. Bienkowski, senior editor at Environmental Health and editor of the Agents of Change program, talks about what he’s learned from the…

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Tis’ the season for summer travel — let’s take a look at four U.S. stops steeped in history and lingering pollution. Summitville gold The first gold rush in Summitville, Colorado, happened just after the Civil War, when claim jumpers overran a mountainside that belonged by treaty (and history) to the Southern Utes. A new treaty…

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Researchers have identified almost 300 chemicals in everything from hair dye to pesticides that can increase levels of breast cancer-contributing hormones. Of those chemicals, 219 had not been previously identified as potential carcinogens, Ruthann Rudel, director of research for the Silent Spring Institute and co-author of the new study, told EHN. The findings come in…

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I come from an island that basks under the watch of a life-giving sun. Her Sunday mornings shake in the wake of a boisterous chinchorreo, or quiver to the rhythmic chants of worship and prayer. It is an island prone to block parties and natural disasters. Summer afternoons are clouded with the ebb and flow…

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When the U.S. House of Representatives takes up the bipartisan PFAS Action Act this week, some members of Congress may contend that the bill would ban some uses of PFAS. In particular, some members of Congress may argue that designating PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Liability, and Compensation Act,…

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Juan Flores is a lifelong resident of Galena Park, an east Houston suburb, who has “smelled all kinds of chemicals” in the air from nearby industrial facilities. “I’m probably gonna get cancer when I get older just because I live out here,” Flores, Community Air Monitoring Program Manager of the non-profit organization, Air Alliance Houston,…

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