New Posts

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

  UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement Resources

The safety standards on which we rely daily for our food, medicines and cars. The energy and climate policies needed to save our planet. The new financial regulations designed to prevent banks from gambling with our money and creating another crisis. These are policies that should be determined in open, democratic venues where we have a say. But a group of the largest U.S. and European banks and corporations want to rewrite these safeguards behind closed doors. For over a decade, they have pushed for a new U.S. "trade" deal with Europe – the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), which corporate proponents have branded the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a deal that would roll back consumer protections on both sides of the Atlantic.

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New Rules Will Make Your Thanksgiving Dinner Safer – in a Couple of Years

As you plan your Thanksgiving dinner menu, stop and give thanks for new rules issues by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 13th just in time for our uniquely American holiday dedicated to feasting. The rules mean the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011 has finally been implemented.

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EPA Tackles Highly Toxic Pesticide in Major Advance for Farming Areas in the U.S.

After years of pressure by public health and environmental advocates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally proposing to greatly restrict a dangerous, neurotoxic pesticide called chlorpyrifos. This chemical causes a variety of developmental problems and lowers IQs. The pesticide is especially dangerous to children and developing fetuses.

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Teflon in Your Makeup? Yes – and It’s Perfectly Legal.

This month, an Ohio woman won a $1.6 million settlement against DuPont for toxic exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8. The woman had developed kidney cancer (one of many diseases linked to PFOA exposure) after living near a DuPont manufacturing facility. For decades, DuPont had knowingly polluted nearby water sources.

What is PFOA, and what are the health concerns?

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Maryland County Protects Residents from Unnecessary Lawn Pesticides

On Oct. 6, Montgomery County, Maryland, located just outside Washington, DC, became the largest county in America to ban the unnecessary use of pesticides on lawns. Passed by a vote of 6-3, the new ordinance (Bill 52-14) prohibits pesticide use for purely cosmetic purposes. The policy firmly establishes the county government's role in protecting its residents from toxic lawn chemicals, including those that may cause cancer, neurological damage, or other health problems.

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It’s Time to Hold Major Corporate Executives Personally Accountable for Criminal Behavior

General Motors (GM) withheld information on defective ignition switches, Takata knowingly produced defective airbags, Toyota concealed information regarding unexpected vehicle acceleration, and Volkswagen (VW) deliberately violated clean air laws by undermining their vehicle pollution emission controls.  

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Creating a Monster? Proposed Monsanto Merger with Swiss Chemical Giant Raises Troubling Questions

Farmers and scientists intimidated. Groundwater contamination. Human health risks. The decimation of one of America's most iconic wildlife species. These are just some of the problems we've seen thanks to Monsanto, the world's dominant producer of genetically modified crops, and Syngenta, a Swiss chemical company that manufactures controversial agricultural poisons. As an NPR story noted on Aug. 17, Monsanto wants to merge the two companies, a proposal that raises troubling questions about industry influence and impacts on our health and natural resources.

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UPDATE: Freedom Industries Executives Plead Guilty to Criminal Charges for West Virginia Chemical Leak

Former Freedom Industries President Gary Southern and another former Freedom president and owner Dennis Farrell entered guilty pleas at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia today over their roles in the January 2014 chemical spill. Southern could face up to three years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. In addition to Southern and Farrell, four other former Freedom Industries former owners and senior officials have plead guilty to criminal charges and will also be sentenced in December to up to one year in prison.

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Industry Attacks Research Showing Risks from Pesticide Exposure

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer dropped a bombshell when it concluded the active ingredient in Roundup, a popular weed killer, probably causes cancer.

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Groups Say EPA Can Require the Pesticide Industry to Disclose All Hazardous Ingredients to Safeguard Our Health

A new lawsuit is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require pesticide companies to disclose all of the hazardous ingredients in each product. The case, filed by the Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, points out that the EPA already has the authority to require industry to disclose hazardous pesticide additives, even if they're not designated as the main, "active" ingredients in a product.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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