EDF Health

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative What Happened: On November 2, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago held a meeting of more than 50 stakeholders interested in new strategies to fund and finance lead service line (LSL) replacements. I attended, representing the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative. Why It Matters: The meeting was an […]

The post Leveraging LSL replacement funding: Chicago Fed steps up first appeared on EDF Health.

Sarah Vogel, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities Cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest, most effective ways to stabilize the climate. It can also improve public health.    Today, 130 countries are committed to cutting methane emissions by 30% by 2030 as part of the Global Methane Pledge. As countries work to meet these […]

The post Another reason to reduce methane emissions: Saving lives  first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative and Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities Last year, the White House set a goal of eliminating lead service lines (LSLs) by 2032 and worked with Congress to enact the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)—also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—which included critical resources to help meet this […]

The post EPA should ensure federal funds do not support harmful partial LSL replacements first appeared on EDF Health.

By Lauren Ellis, MPH, Research Analyst, Safer Chemicals What’s New: A peer-reviewed study by Danish researchers found that a male fetus who is exposed to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—also known as “forever chemicals”) during early pregnancy is more likely to have lower sperm quality in early adulthood. It’s the first study to explore the […]

The post Sperm Concerns: Sons Affected by Mom’s Exposure to Forever Chemicals first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals This is the sixth in our Unleaded Juice blog series exploring how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets limits for toxic elements like lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food and the implications for the agency’s Closer To Zero program.  A core tenet of FDA’s Closer to Zero program […]

The post Unleaded Juice: FDA’s challenge of continuous improvement and compliance assurance first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals  This is the fifth in our Unleaded Juice blog series exploring how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets limits for toxic elements like lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food and its implications for the agency’s Closer To Zero program.  FDA’s approach to setting draft action levels for lead […]

The post Unleaded Juice: FDA needs to start with public health—not market impact first appeared on EDF Health.

Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities and Lindsay McCormick, Senior Manager, Safer Chemicals Denver Water has one of the most successful lead service line (LSL) replacement programs in the country. Since it began the program in 2020, the utility has replaced nearly 14,000 LSLs—prioritizing lines to buildings serving vulnerable populations, such as child-care facilities. Denver Water […]

The post Successful Denver Water Lead Reduction Program seeks 12-Year extension first appeared on EDF Health.

Maricel Maffini, consultant and Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director In May, FDA decided to allow continued use of nine ortho-phthalates in food packaging and processing equipment but punted on deciding whether or not using those phthalates is safe. We’ve written about the petitions that resulted in the decision, along with the agency’s decision to “abandon” […]

The post FDA Acknowledged Ortho-Phthalates Could Be Grouped Into Classes For Safety, Then Punted first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals For the eighth year in a row, consumers rated chemicals as their top food safety concern according to the annual industry survey of consumer perspectives on food issues. In the survey conducted in March 2022, 48% of consumers rated chemicals as their top category of food safety concern – […]

The post Consumers continue to rate chemicals in food as top food safety concern first appeared on EDF Health.

On Wednesday, September 7, 2022, Sarah Vogel, EDF’s Senior Vice President for Health, welcomed over 150 attendees to a webinar on EDF’s new Cumulative Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF). The event featured presentations by: Lariah Edwards, PhD, EDF post-doctoral fellow and Associate Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. […]

The post ICYMI: EDF Cumulative Risk Assessment Framework Webinar first appeared on EDF Health.

Maricel Maffini, EDF consultant and Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director This blog is the sixth in our Broken GRAS series where we explore the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) voluntary notification system for novel chemicals added to food. In May, FDA removed its approval for all uses of 19 ortho-phthalates […]

The post Broken GRAS: FDA must declare abandoned uses of ortho-phthalates are not GRAS. first appeared on EDF Health.

Maria Doa, PhD, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy Innovation may involve bringing a new chemical to market, but before the new chemical can be used or sold, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation’s primary chemical safety law, directs EPA to conduct a safety assessment. Specifically, EPA must affirmatively determine whether a new chemical may […]

The post Public deserves strong safety reviews for chemicals first appeared on EDF Health.

FDA has taken an important step by lowering the IRL for lead. It needs to use this IRL more strategically in establishing action levels for lead in juice and for other children’s foods. It should also use the 97.5th percentile of exposure in establishing IRLs for other toxic elements addressed in Closer to Zero.

The post Over 7 million children exceed FDA’s new daily maximum intake level of lead first appeared on EDF Health.

Cumulative Risk Assessment Framework: A Tool to Spur Improved TSCA Risk Evaluations Wednesday, September 7, 2022 1:00–2:00 p.m. (ET) Join the EDF Safer Chemicals team and our academic partners from the University of Maryland and the University of Rochester as we debut a new tool, the Cumulative Risk Assessment Framework, to support implementation of the […]

The post Upcoming EDF Webinar: Register Now! first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals and Maricel Maffini, EDF consultant This blog is the fifth in our Broken GRAS series where we explore the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) system for novel chemicals added to food. In the spring, folks who ordered from a company that sells pre-assembled smoothies […]

The post Tara Flour: A Reminder of the Real-Life Consequences of Broken GRAS first appeared on EDF Health.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals This is the third in our Unleaded Juice blog series exploring how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets limits for toxic elements like lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food and the implications for the agency’s Closer To Zero program. FDA’s move to establish action levels on lead in juice […]

Maria Doa, Ph.D., Senior Director, Chemicals Policy EPA has made the important and long-awaited decision to propose banning nearly all remaining uses of chrysotile asbestos in the United States. EDF submitted comments supporting this proposed ban (with some caveats) because of the high risk of cancer and fatal respiratory diseases for individuals who import, process, […]

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals; Maricel Maffini, Ph.D., Consultant On May 19, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced four incongruous actions in response to petitions submitted by EDF and others asking the agency to ban the use of more than two dozen ortho-phthalates (phthalates) in food packaging and processing equipment. We filed the petitions because we […]

EPA’s proposed TSCA rule to limit risks from chrysotile asbestos uses a higher “acceptable” cancer risk for workers than the rest of the population Maria Doa, Ph.D., Senior Director, Chemicals Policy When it comes to drawing the line on cancer risks, should workers be treated differently than the general population? Of course not. Unfortunately, EPA’s […]

Samantha Liskow, Lead Counsel, Healthy Communities; and Lauren Ellis, Research Analyst, Environmental Health EPA has committed to address the urgent issues presented by PFAS, a harmful class of human-made chemicals that are used widely in everyday products. Last July, as part of this effort, EPA called on companies to voluntarily withdraw some 600 PFAS that […]