News Releases

EPA Watchdog Slams Agency’s Failure to Address Asbestos in U.S. Schools

Monday, September 17, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency has failed to take the required and necessary steps under federal law to protect children from the dangers of asbestos exposure in the nation’s public and private schools, the agency’s internal watchdog said today.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Landmark BPA Study Finds Troubling Health Effects at FDA’s ‘Safe’ Levels

Friday, September 14, 2018

A groundbreaking new study, the first to test what happens in people immediately after they are exposed to bisphenol A, or BPA, shows that levels at which the federal government states is “safe” and should have no effect, in fact can alter insulin response, a key marker for metabolic diseases like diabetes.

Key Issues:

Will Hurricane Florence Flood N.C. Factory Farms and Manure Pits?

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

When Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina in 2016, it flooded more than 140 feces-strewn industrial-scale swine and poultry barns, more than a dozen open pits brimming with liquid hog waste and thousands of acres of manure-saturated fields.

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House GOP Seeks to Scuttle Playground Bans on Glyphosate

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

More than 50 city and county ordinances banning the use of the toxic weed killer glyphosate on local playgrounds, parks and school yards could be overturned by a provision championed by House Republicans in their version of the federal farm bill, an EWG analysis found.

Key Issues:

Calif. Lawmakers Send Gov. Brown Sweeping Blueprint to Protect Children and Workers from Lead Exposure

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

With overwhelming bipartisan support, state lawmakers have sent Gov. Jerry Brown a suite of landmark proposals to safeguard Californians, from preschool to the workplace, from lead.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

EPA Watchdog Blasts Former Agency Chief Scott Pruitt Over Spending on Security

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

oday, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general released a scathing account of the abuses of taxpayer money by former agency head Scott Pruitt, who resigned in disgrace after a scandal-ridden 18-month tenure.

Key Issues:

EWG Statement on the EPA Nomination of Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Friday, August 31, 2018

Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, issued the following statement today on the nomination of Alexandra Dapolito Dunn as the Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Key Issues:

EWG Seeks USDA Records on $12 Billion Payout for Farmers Hit by Trump’s Trade War

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Environmental Working Group has petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture for all records concerning its decision to pay up to $12 billion to farmers harmed by retaliatory tariffs levied on U.S. agribusiness by China and other nations in response to the Trump administration’s trade war.

Key Issues:

Due to His Own Trade War, Trump Gives Nearly $5 Billion in Taxpayer Money to Mega Farms

Monday, August 27, 2018

The Trump administration released details today on its emergency aide package in the form of direct payments for big farm operations, with the bulk of the taxpayer aid flowing to U.S. soybean farmers.

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New Bipartisan Senate Legislation Aims to Spur Federal Response to PFAS Crisis

Friday, August 24, 2018

The contamination of drinking water and groundwater by toxic fluorinated compounds, known as PFAS chemicals, is a national crisis demanding a national response.

Key Issues:

Nonstick Chemicals

Trump’s Scheme to Repeal Clean Power Plan Means More Kids with Asthma, More Early Deaths, Dirtier Air

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

President Trump’s plan to let states regulate air pollution from coal-fired power plants would mean more children suffering from asthma, more Americans dying early deaths, and only miniscule reduction of global warming pollution, warned Environmental Working Group.

Key Issues:

Renewable Energy

EWG Responds to General Mills and Quaker Oats: ‘Legal Is Not the Same as Safe’

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The Environmental Working Group is disappointed that General Mills and the Quaker Oats Company have brushed aside consumer health concerns raised by new research that found the cancer-causing weed killer glyphosate in Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, Quaker Dinosaur Egg Instant Oatmeal and Cheerios.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Roundup for Breakfast? Weed Killer in Landmark Cancer Verdict Found in Kids’ Cereals, Other Oat-Based Foods

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Popular oat cereals, oatmeal, granola and snack bars come with a hefty dose of the weed-killing poison in Monsanto’s Roundup, according to independent laboratory tests commissioned by EWG. These new findings come days after a California jury awarded $289 million to a school groundskeeper who claimed Roundup gave him lymphom

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Court Rebukes EPA, Orders Ban on Pesticide That Harms Kids’ Brains

Thursday, August 9, 2018

In a scathing opinion, today a federal court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to ban chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide linked to brain damage in children.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Johnson & Johnson Will Give Consumers More Information About Fragrance Ingredients

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Today Johnson & Johnson, one of the largest multinational manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, announced a new transparency initiative that will provide additional details on fragrance chemicals used in its Johnson’s baby products.

Key Issues:

Consumer Products

Sen. Udall Joins Citizens From Across U.S. to Denounce EPA Delay on TCE Bans

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., will join Americans impacted by the industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency carry out proposed bans on high-risk uses of the carcinogenic compound.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Notorious Cancer-Causing Solvent TCE Taints Tap Water for 14 Million Americans

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Tap water supplies for more than 14 million Americans are contaminated with a cancer-causing industrial solvent made notorious by the book and film “A Civil Action,” according to an Environmental Working Group investigation released today.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Chemical Policy (TSCA)

EPA Watchdog Slams Agency’s Response to Flint Tap Water Crisis

Thursday, July 19, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency failed to respond quickly and forcefully enough to the crisis of lead in the tap water of Flint, Mich., in 2014, the agency’s inspector general said in a report today. EWG said the report should push the Trump administration to take immediate steps to safeguard the nation’s drinking water from lead contamination and reduce children’s exposure to the potent neurotoxin.

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More Than 40 Percent of U.S. Schools Fail to Test for Lead in Drinking Water

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Despite heightened concern in recent years about lead in drinking water, a troubling new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that more than 40 percent of the nation’s schools failed to test for lead in 2016.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

Federal Watchdog: More Than a Third of Schools Tested Have ‘Elevated Levels’ of Lead in Drinking Water

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

A troubling new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that more than a third of the nation’s schools that tested their water for lead found “elevated levels” of the neurotoxin. But despite heightened concern in recent years about lead in drinking water, more than 40 percent of schools surveyed conducted no lead testing in 2016.

Key Issues:

Children's Health

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