Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Toxic Algae Blooms: What You Should Know
By Iris Myers and Sarah Graddy, Environmental Working Group Toxic algae blooms are a growing epidemic, polluting lakes and other waterways across the U.S., as a 2018 EWG report revealed. They can occur any time, but they thrive when water is warmer, usually from May through October. Toxic algae blooms occur when bacteria-laden fertilizer and manure from farms […]
Will the Trump USDA Deliver on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans? Our New Report Shows What’s at Stake
By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists Sixty percent of adults the United States are now living with one or more chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. That’s 150 million people—not counting millions of children and young adults—whose daily lives are disrupted by poor health. These chronic conditions are the leading causes […]
Understanding the New Restrictions on Fetal Tissue Research, and Attacks on the Scientists Who Use It
By Michael Halperin, Union of Concerned Scientists Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has announced new restrictions on the use of fetal tissue in research. Fetal tissue research has led to profound progress in understanding and treating countless diseases and public health threats, including chicken pox, HIV, Alzheimer’s, Zika, and Parkinson’s disease. If you want […]
Wheeler’s Breathtaking Ignorance of Science, in One Comment
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists Yesterday at the EPA’s Science Advisory Board meeting, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler made comments on the agency’s proposed Restricting Science Rule that raised eyebrows for anyone who understands the basics of health studies. In his defense of the rule (which the scientific community agrees will severely hamstring the agency’s ability to rely on the […]
“Big Food” Companies Spend Big Money in Hopes of Shaping the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
By Karen Perry Stillerman, Union of Concerned Scientists The maker of Snickers, M&Ms, and Skittles has built a global conglomerate on sugar. The privately held Mars Incorporated let it be known earlier this year that it hopes to double its $35 billion annual revenue over the next decade, reportedly through expansion in pet food and other areas. […]
Climate Change and Human Health – The Win-Win of Tackling Air Pollution
By Rachel Licker, Union of Concerned Scientists The World Health Organization estimates that an alarming 7 million people die prematurely each year as a result of air pollution. To help tackle this issue, this year’s World Environment Day (June 5) is shining a spotlight on this environmental threat and the multiple benefits derived from tackling it. To learn more, […]
Who’s Leading the Fight Against Offshore Drilling
By Alexandra Adams, Natural Resources Defense Council Is Your Member of Congress Doing Enough to Oppose Trump’s Reckless Effort? If you are planning a beach vacation in the U.S. this summer, you probably aren’t envisioning that beautiful ocean horizon dotted with massive industrial oil rigs. But the Trump administration is working on a plan that could forever […]
What’s Killing the Whales?
By Paul Rauber, Sierra Club The vultures circling overhead signaled that something was amiss on Limantour beach at Northern California’s Point Reyes National Seashore. First we saw a hunk of baleen the size of an ice chest. Further up the beach, the carrion eaters scattered as we came upon the carcass of a small, much […]
Put Them in Coach: Why Sidelining the EPA’s Science Advisory Board Is a Disservice to Us All
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists The EPA’s key scientific sounding board, the Science Advisory Board (SAB), will be holding its first full public meeting of 2019 this week. And as Administrator Wheeler’s EPA continues to roll back policies that were informed by science or devise new strategies to restrict the way that science is used […]
FDA Tests Confirm Suspicions About PFAS Chemicals in Food
By Colin O’Neil and David Andrews, Environmental Working Group A recent investigation by the Food and Drug Administration found toxic per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in food, including meat, seafood and dairy products; sweet potatoes; pineapples; leafy greens, and chocolate cake with icing. FDA has yet to make the results of its tests public. But our colleagues at […]
Getting Ready for Conference on Regulation as Social Justice
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Next Wednesday, June 5, CPR is hosting a first-of-its-kind conference on Regulation as Social Justice: Empowering People Through Public Protections, which will bring together a diverse group of several dozen advocates working to advance social justice to serve as a wellspring for the development of a progressive vision for […]
Trump Continues His Assault on the Transgender Community with More Backward Policies
By Tori Slatton, People For the American Way Related PFAW Joins Coalition of Activists on Capitol Hill to Rally Against the Transgender Military Ban Since the 2016 election, President Trump and his administration have systematically targeted our most vulnerable populations to score political points with his political base. In addition to broader attacks on LGBTQ+ […]
World No Tobacco Day Should Include E-Cigarettes
By American Lung Association Today—World No Tobacco Day on May 31—is an annual reminder about the dangers of tobacco, the world’s leading cause of preventable death and disease. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, and smokers are at greater risk for lung disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease and cancer almost […]
It’s National Heat Awareness Day—Let’s Protect Farmworkers from Extreme Heat
By Rafter Ferguson, Union of Concerned Scientists The last Friday in May is National Heat Awareness Day. For those of us in parts of the country where summer has already arrived like a sack of bricks, you might be thinking “Don’t remind me!” I know that here in DC, my short morning commute is starting to […]
Why We Need the Inclusive Prosperity Act
By Lane Hagar, Public Citizen When the reckless and greedy practices of Wall Street financial institutions brought the economy crashing down in 2008, it was the American middle class that bailed them out. Wall Street is not only surviving now; it is thriving after costing Americans over 19 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, real working wages for the […]
A Red Herring on Privacy: Big Tech Wants a Federal Law That Sinks State Protections
By Griet Van Acker, Public Citizen Big tech companies are in hot water over their handling of users’ personal information. More than 91 percent of Americans “agree” or “strongly agree” that people have lost control over how personal information is collected by and used by companies. State legislators have started stepping in and passing laws to […]
Trump Administration Puts Offshore Oil Rig Workers’ Lives at Risk
By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump administration is failing to consider scientific evidence in rolling back a rule intended to keep lives of offshore oil rig workers safe. These are the very workers that the Trump administration claims to care so much about. But evidence suggest that this rollback on worker safety has been a long […]
No More Poisons on Pets: The EPA Must Act
By Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC goes back to court today to protect kids from toxic pesticide residue on their pets. Despite finding unacceptable risk from flea control products containing the brain-harming pesticide tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump has allowed these products to remain on the market. Our children can’t […]
Trump Administration and EPA Anti-Science Work Will Cost Lives
By Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club It’s a wonder how the Trump Administration and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Andrew Wheeler can get anything done, what with their heads buried so far in the sand. But unfortunately, the work they’re doing to ignore science and public health will cost lives. Recently the New York Times revealed that […]
You Can’t Ignore the Future: 5 Reasons Climate Science Looks Beyond 2040
By Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists Yesterday it was reported that the Trump administration is redoubling its efforts to undermine climate science. James Reilly, head of the US Geological Survey, reportedly instructed scientists in the office to limit projections of climate impacts to just 2040. Studies typically project out to 2100. It is nearly the end […]