EDF Health

Tom Neltner, J.D. is the Chemicals Policy Director. This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its “Closer to Zero” action plan to reduce exposure to heavy metals in foods for babies and young children. The plan, released in response to a recent House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform report and the introduction […]

Sam Lovell, Communications Manager.  “How many of you know, when you send your child to school, the fountain they’re drinking out of is not fed by a lead pipe?” That stark question was posed by President Biden in a briefing following the announcement of the American Jobs Plan. The President’s historic infrastructure package includes $45 […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 2 of a 2-part series (see Part 1 here) Last week’s announcement by EPA about improvements it is making to EPA’s reviews of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) indicated it will begin by reversing two of the most damaging policy changes the Trump […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1 of a 2-part series (see Part 2 here) With last week’s announcement by EPA that it intends to reverse two of the most damaging policy changes the Trump EPA made to EPA’s reviews of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), there is hope […]

Lindsay McCormick, Program Manager and Richard Denison, Ph.D., Lead Senior Scientist When Congress reformed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016, it authorized EPA to require companies to pay fees to help defray the agency’s costs of administering this extensive new law.  EPA finalized the first “fee rule” in 2018 to establish the payment […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 4 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 here This series of blog posts is looking ahead toward opportunities to advance a more robust and holistic vision for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as reformed in 2016. We discussed […]

Dr. Tamarra James-Todd’s interest in human health dates back to her childhood, when she would go into work with her mom, who was a microbiologist, on the odd weekend at the Kansas City VA Hospital. Now an epidemiologist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Dr. James-Todd has focused her career on understanding the […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 3 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4 here This series of blog posts is looking ahead toward opportunities to advance a more robust and holistic vision for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as reformed in 2016. In the […]

This post originally appeared on the EDF Global Clean Air Blog. Ananya Roy, Senior Health Scientist, and Maria Harris, Environmental Epidemiologist  The last several months have seen a wave of momentum in policies seeking toward advance environmental justice and equity through better data collection and mapping. In his first week in office, President Biden signed […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 2 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4 here After our look back in Part 1 of this series at the damage done over the past four years, the remainder of the series will look ahead and explore opportunities to advance […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1 of a 4-part series – see Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here It wasn’t that long ago, June 2016, when there was hope that our nation was at last embarking on the enormous task of reinvigorating and greatly strengthening our chemical safety system, 40 years […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is conducting a thorough review of its policies and procedures for assessing the safety of new chemicals prior to allowing their entry into commerce. EPA’s announcement flags two immediate changes it is making to restore and realign the program’s practices with […]

This post originally appeared on EDF+Business.  Alissa Sasso, Project Manager, EDF+Business. Anyone who’s recently purchased a personal care item knows how overwhelming the experience can be. From price and aesthetics to brands, there are many factors to consider. Now add the safety and impact of the ingredients, whether or not it’s  “clean”, and the decision becomes […]

Joanna Slaney, Legislative Director, and Sam Lovell, Project Manager. As Congress looks to various infrastructure priorities in the coming months to get the country back on track, funding replacement of lead pipes should be an essential part of that effort. Recent polling from Black Millennials for Flint, BlueGreen Alliance and EDF demonstrates that there is […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. You know how sometimes you know something is going on behind closed doors, but you just can’t prove it?  Well, this isn’t one of those cases. At numerous points in recent years, we heard tell of secret meetings that Trump EPA political appointees were holding with the chemical […]

Sam Lovell, Project Manager. Across the country, over 9 million homes still get their water through a lead pipe, called a lead service line (LSL). Fully replacing LSLs poses a myriad of challenges – cost chief amongst them – but replacement is critical to protecting the public from the harms posed by lead exposure. It […]

Tom Neltner, J.D. is the Chemicals Policy Director. Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy released an important report summarizing baby food testing data submitted by four companies (Beech-Nut, Gerber, Happy Family, and Earth’s Best), finding that “baby foods are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, […]

LaTricea Adams credits her background as an educator with motivating and shaping her community advocacy work. For five years, Adams taught Spanish to middle and high school students in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, she’s the Founder Chief Executive Officer and President of Black Millennials for Flint (BM4F) – a grassroots, environmental justice and civil rights organization […]

Tom Neltner, J.D. is the Chemicals Policy Director This is the second in a series of blogs evaluating various aspects of EPA’s December 2020 revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) and what they may mean for accelerating lead service line (LSL) replacements. The blogs cover: 1) new service line inventory; 2) three new […]

Tom Neltner, J.D. is the Chemicals Policy Director This is the first in a series of blogs evaluating various aspects of EPA’s December 2020 revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) and what they may mean for accelerating lead service line (LSL) replacements. The blogs cover: 1) the new service line inventory; 2) three […]