Areas of Expertise
- Chemical risk assessment
- Food additives
- Lead
- Pesticides
- Tap water
Press Contact
To schedule an interview with Olga Naidenko, contact:
- Sarah Graddy
- [email protected]
- (202) 939-9141
Education
- Ph.D., Molecular Biology and Immunology, University of California, Los Angeles
- B.A., Molecular Biology, Colgate University
About
Olga Naidenko leads EWG’s research efforts on children’s environmental health. In her doctoral studies, she focused on the molecular basis of immune defense. Naidenko formerly held a prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science policy fellowship, during which she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency, focusing on climate change and water quality standards.
In the News
“The concern about glyphosate is for long-term exposure. As most health agencies would say, a single portion would not cause deleterious effects. But think about eating popular foods such as oatmeal every day or almost every day – that's when, according to scientific assessments, such amounts of glyphosate might pose health harm.”
- Olga Naidenko

August 15, 2018
“Nitrate contamination of drinking water is a serious problem, and especially severe in the nation's farm country.”
- Olga Naidenko

June 11, 2019
“That does not mean, ‘Stop eating this bowl of Cheerios right now!’ But then when you think about how people eat these oats, that’s when those numbers start to come into concern.”
- Olga Naidenko

August 15, 2018
“In EWG’s view, it is important for companies to start removing chemicals associated with health risks, so that shoppers don’t have to have a chemistry degree in order to decipher food labels.”
- Olga Naidenko

May 28, 2019
“The relationship between social and economic indicators and water quality is well established. Poor people always have the short end of the stick.”
- Olga Naidenko

October 27, 2019
“Most radioactive elements in tap water come from natural sources, but that doesn’t take away the need to protect people through stronger standards and better water treatment.”
- Olga Naidenko

January 11, 2018
“We look at how EPA has been approving pesticides and setting those tolerances and find again and again that the agency’s not taking into account children’s heightened susceptibility to pesticides.”
- Olga Naidenko

March 21, 2019
“The vast majority of community water systems meet legal standards. Yet the latest research shows that contaminants present in the water at those concentrations – perfectly legal – can still harm human health. We need to prioritize source water protection, to make sure that these contaminants don’t get into the drinking water supplies to begin with.”
- Olga Naidenko

September 20, 2019
EWG Publications
February 10, 2020
September 01, 2019
September 2019
February 14, 2018
May 29, 2019