Environmental Working Group

News Releases

National Academy of Sciences: Formaldehyde Causes Cancer

Friday, April 8, 2011

Congress, at the request of industry, has managed to delay efforts by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to classify formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen, a significant step for public health protection that other U.S. and international scientific and public health agencies have already taken.

Key Issues:

Toxics

Cosmetics

GOP Proposes To Cut Farm Payments

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

In a time of robust farm income and tight budgets, the House Republican budget resolution takes a small but welcome step toward a more equitable and sensible support structure for American farmers.

Key Issues:

Subsidies

Utilities Knew Of Chrome-6 Contamination For Years

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Some water utility representatives have protested Environmental Working Group’s report of laboratory tests that found worrisome levels of chromium -6, a suspected carcinogen, in the drinking water of 31 cities across the country. Yet the tap water industry was worried enough about the contaminant to conduct its own extensive survey in 2004 that found clear evidence of widespread chromium-6 pollution in untreated source water. The survey, conducted by the Awwa Research Foundation (since renamed the Water Research Foundation), an offshoot of the American Water Works Association , obtained data on 341 source water samples from 189 utilities in 41 states. The conclusion: chromium-6 is common in American groundwater.

Key Issues:

Chromium-6

Tap Water

EPA Airs Plan to Unveil Secret Chemicals

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Spurred by an Environmental Working Group investigation about government and corporate secrecy that cloaks the very identity of many industrial chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to allow unjustified secrecy claims to sunset. In a notice published last...

Key Issues:

Chemical Policy

DuPont to pay $8.3 Million

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The DuPont company has agreed to pay $8.3 million to install water filters in nearly 5,000 southern New Jersey homes whose tap water is polluted with the toxic industrial chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8.

Key Issues:

FRAC act to close oil, gas drilling safety loopholes

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, first introduced in 2009 and dropped in the hopper Tuesday (March 15) by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Senator Bob Casey (D- Pa.), would require oil and gas drillers to obtain a permit under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act before they engage in the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing.

Key Issues:

Fracking

Water

FCC Softened Advisory on Cell Phone Radiation

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that wireless industry representatives were granted a number of high-level meetings with top Federal Communications Commission officials last year to discuss state and local efforts to require retailers to post the radiation levels of the cell phones they sell.

Key Issues:

Consumer Products

Cell Phones

EPA to require tap water tests for unregulated contaminants

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a nationwide plan to require water utilities to test drinking water for 28 contaminants currently unregulated by federal law, including six perfluorinated chemicals, a family of toxic industrial chemicals found widely in consumer products.

Key Issues:

Water

Tap Water

New Map Reveals Hot Spots in Emerging Global Food Crisis

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Volatile food markets and food insecurity contributed to the civic unrest that recently brought down Egypt’s president. To better understand the unfolding reality of global food price volatility, ActionAid and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) today released an interactive map showing which countries are at highest risk of a food crisis due to recent food price hikes.

Key Issues:

EWG Fans More Than One Million Strong

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Since 2006, Environmental Working Group has been building an email list of engaged consumers who sign up to get regular alerts about our latest research and practical tips to help them keep their families safe, healthy and informed.

Key Issues:

Seasoned Capitol Hill Reporter Joins EWG Public Affairs Staff

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Environmental Working Group is pleased to announce the arrival of Sara Sciammacco as the newest member of its public affairs team as a press secretary.

Obama Would Cut Subsidies to Wealthy Farms

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Obama administration’s proposed 2012 federal budget released today targets several wasteful agriculture programs, including cutting $4.25 billion over 10 years from subsidies to large farm operations, wealthy landowners and the crop insurance program. Continuing these subsidies is completely unjustified at a time when growers are profiting from years of record-setting income and commodity crop prices are skyrocketing.

Key Issues:

Subsidies

House Republican Plan for EPA would Hurt Public Health

Monday, February 14, 2011

Environmental Working Group (EWG) reaction to both the House Republican and Obama administration budget proposals for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Key Issues:

Toxics

Cities Confirm EWG Tap Water Tests

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Testing by four municipal drinking water suppliers has confirmed the results of a study by the Environmental Working Group that detected widespread contamination by chromium-6, a suspected toxic carcinogen.

Key Issues:

EPA Regulates Rocket Fuel in Tap Water

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Perchlorate, a common ingredient in rocket fuel and a potent thyroid toxin, will finally be regulated in drinking water, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced today.

Key Issues:

Congress Confirms Drillers Fracked with Diesel

Monday, January 31, 2011

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) commends the important investigation of hydraulic fracturing released today (Jan. 31) by U.S. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). Their disturbing findings show that 1) oil and natural gas drilling companies injected more than 32 million gallons of diesel fuel or fluids containing diesel fuel in hydraulically fractured wells in 19 states between 2005 and 2009; and 2) no state and federal regulators have issued the required permits for this use of diesel fuel, an apparent violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Key Issues:

Fracking

Oil & Gas Drilling

NIH panel links Vitamin A in sunscreen to skin tumors

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A key independent science advisory panel has voted to confirm federal researchers' conclusion that retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A found in two-fifths of U.S. sunscreens, speeds the development of skin tumors and lesions when applied to the skin in the presence of sunlight.

Key Issues:

Consumer Products

Sunscreens

Obama Speech Misfired on Ethanol, Ag Policy

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

President Barak Obama’s call to “stop subsidizing yesterday’s energy” in his State of the Union speech last night was welcome, but the President missed an opportunity to focus attention on the misguided federal subsidies that prop up the corn ethanol industry and the equally expensive and wasteful subsidies paid to farmers.

Key Issues:

Energy

Biofuels

EPA Unveils Plan to Help Identify ‘Brockovich’ Chemical in Drinking Water

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promised to help local water utilities address public concerns over the possible presence of hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) in drinking water, and today it delivered.

Key Issues:

EPA to Bar Fluoride-Based Pesticide

Monday, January 10, 2011

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed to grant three environmental groups’ petition to end the use of sulfuryl fluoride, an insecticide and food fumigant manufactured by Dow AgroSciences.

Key Issues:

Toxics