Deep Dives is a new blog that will offer our readers in-depth scientific analyses, hard data, and practical policy prescriptions from Environmental Defense Fund's (EDF) top environmental health experts.

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative Note: This is the first of three blogs in this series. Click here for Blog 2 or Blog 3. On January 24, 2023, FDA released draft action levels1 for lead in foods intended for babies and young toddlers.2 This proposal is a key step in implementing the agency’s […] The post Unleading Baby Food: FDA needs to tighten its proposed action levels first appeared on Deep Dives: Environmental Health Policy.

EDF’s Clean Beauty Justice Roadmap is a step-by-step guide that companies can use to develop chemical policies that ensure that everybody has access to safer products.

Water utilities are increasingly posting interactive maps online to help residents identify whether their homes are connected to lead service lines (LSLs). EDF's new blog series, Mapping Lead Pipes, will explore how utilities are approaching maps, evaluate which map features are most and least effective, and share best practices to help guide future efforts.

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.

FDA’s approach to setting draft action levels for lead in juice is based on ill-conceived presumptions.

Chemicals linked to infertility and birth defects also linked to preterm birth. EDF and its allies are calling on the FDA to withdraw its approval of the phthalates it allows in food handling equipment and food packaging.

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.

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 Toxic Substances Control Act.

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, […]

EDF’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) Framework illustrates how EPA can conceptualize and apply comprehensive cumulative risk evaluations in a way that is pragmatic and protective of public health, especially for those at greatest risk.

A new EDF map is making it easier to access information about the communities across the country who are impacted by pollution from small oil and gas wells with leak-prone equipment.

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.

In a new report released by EDF, scientists found that fine particle pollution, primarily generated by burning fossil fuels, is especially rampant — and deadly — in Black, Hispanic, and low-income communities. But there is a way for all of us to breathe easier. The Environmental Protection Agency could tighten its standard.

Black Americans 65 and older are three times more likely to die from exposure to fine particle air pollution than white Americans over 65, according to a report prepared by Industrial Economics, Inc. for EDF.

This week EDF published a new study that combines locations of active oil and gas wells with census tract data in a way that helps us better understand the characteristics of the communities living near them.

A legal loophole allows food and chemical manufacturers to include thousands of untested ingredients to be used in our foods and supplements. EDF and its allies are pressing the Food and Drug Administration to end this irresponsible and potentially dangerous state of affairs.

Truck pollution causes asthma in young children. Community groups like South Ward Environmental Action in Newark, New Jersey, are fighting for clean air and clean economic development. EDF is supporting their efforts.

Chemicals banned from children's toys are still found in food. The FDA must take action now, say environment and health organizations.

EDF and partners have combined a newly created online mapping tool — run on real-time, trusted scientific models — with air pollution and weather forecasting data to help users learn more about the air they’re breathing and allow them to see where it's coming from.

BJ Johnson transformed himself from athlete to an eco-entrepreneur working to transform the dirty fossil-fuel-based trucking industry. In this episode, he tells EDF's Degrees podcast why entrepreneurship is a viable planet-saving career and the challenges of being one of the few Black men in his field.

Interactive mapping tool shows how many power plants that emit high levels of dangerous smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx) pollution are near communities.

Interactive map from EDF shows the estimated percent of new childhood asthma cases resulting from exposure to air pollution in the Bay Area.

Analysis from EDF and George Washington University reveals how air pollution takes a massive toll on the Bay Area, magnifying health risks.