Children's Health

A twice-aired 20/20 report falsely maligning organic foods prompts EWG to respond. ABC news reprimands John Stossel and suspends show's producer.

According to a recent study from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), state officials are falling down on the job of enforcing basic environmental laws. In the 1980s many governors asked for environmental enforcement responsibility to be shifted from the federal government to the states, but a months-long computer investigation by EWG shows that rather than cleaning up the nation's air and water the states are passing on the most basic of enforcement activities - inspecting the worst known polluters.

Despite a 1991 lawsuit settlement promise, California has failed to identify or provide care for an estimated 200,000 lead-poisoned children since 1992 .

The tap water of more than 1 million Californians, mostly in the Central Valley, is contaminated with a banned pesticide that is one of the most potent carcinogens known.

Coal-burning power plants are the single largest source of mercury pollution, and the only major source the government does not regulate.

A massive government review has concluded that the most widely used insecticide in the United States poses excessive safety risks to millions of Americans each year.

Ten years after the consumer revolt that led to the ban of the carcinogen Alar, children are no better protected from pesticides in the nation's food supply, according to government data on the pesticides most often found in kids' favorite foods.