Environmental news can be dreary — but let’s not lose sight of the progress and the people making it happen when it comes to our health and climate.
Here are five stories from our newsroom over the past year that give us hope.
1. Tracking down a poison: Getting the lead out of spices in Bangladesh and Georgia
Many low- and middle-income countries lack the resources to tackle lead poisoning. Here’s how two countries did it.
2. Toxic insecticides are vanishing from the atmosphere
Some once-common insecticides linked to harmful human health impacts are disappearing from the air in the Great Lakes region, according to research.
3. LISTEN: Dr. Beverly Wright on how to keep environmental justice momentum
Dr. Beverly Wright joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss her journey as an environmental justice pioneer and how to maintain momentum in the movement as administrations change.
4. REI to ban PFAS in outdoor clothing and cookware
Outdoor retailer REI will ban the group of chemicals known as PFAS in all textile products and cookware from its suppliers starting in fall 2024, according to an announcement in February.
5. LISTEN: Meet the teenager upending food and nutrition research
Maria Balhara, a South Florida teen and freshman at Vanderbilt University, joined EHN editor Brian Bienkowski to discuss the role of food and food chemicals on our health.