Sarah Vogel
Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities
Work
Areas of expertise:
Environmental health, chemical safety, endocrine disruptors
Description
Sarah is the Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities, at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). She joined EDF in 2012 and leads a team of scientists, attorneys and policy experts to protect health by reducing exposure to toxic chemicals and air pollution.
Recent achievements of the program include: bipartisan passage of major reforms to the nation’s chemical safety law in 2016; and leadership commitments by Walmart to reduce its chemical footprint in 2013 and 2017. The current portfolio of work that Sarah oversees includes: defending strong implementation of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act; working with leading companies to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals along the supply chain; reducing lead exposures from drinking water and food; and catalyzing the use of hyperlocal air pollution information to drive innovative policy solutions for clean air.
Background
Sarah has frequently written and spoken to diverse audiences about the controversy over the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, and the impact of new emerging science on regulatory policy. She is the author of the forthcoming book “Is It Safe: BPA and the Struggle to Define the Safety of Chemicals”, published by the University of California Press in December 2012.
Education
Sarah received a Ph.D from Columbia University’s Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health and Medicine at the Mailman school of Public Health. She also holds a Master of Public Health and Master Environmental management from Yale University, and a BA from the University of Virginia.
Publications
Books
Vogel, Sarah. “Is It Safe?: BPA and struggle to define the safety of chemicals”, University of California Press, release date, December 20, 2012.
Book Chapters
Vogel, Sarah. “Of Baby Bottles and BPA” in Controversies in Science and Technology, 4th volume. (under contract with Oxford University Press).
Schug, T, Vogel, SA, Vandenberg L, Braun J, Hauser R, Taylor J, vom Saal F, and Heindel JJ. “Bisphenol A” in Dioxins and Health: Including Other Persistent Organic Pollutants and Endocrine Disruptors, 3rd Edition. Arnold Schector, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012.
Peer-reviewed journals
Sutton P, Vogel S, Bero L, and Woodruff T. “Conrad and Becker’s “10 Criteria” Fall Short of Addressing Conflicts of Interest in Chemical Safety Studies.” Environmental Health Perspectives, 2011 Dec;119(12):A506-7.
Vogel S and Roberts J. “Why The Toxic Substances Control Act Needs An Overhaul, And How To Strengthen Oversight of Chemicals In The Interim,” Health Affairs 2011 May; 30(5): 898-905.
Vogel S. “The Politics of Plastics: The Making and Unmaking of Bisphenol A Safety,” American Journal of Public Health 2009 Nov; 99 Suppl 3: S559-66.
Myers JP et al.,(including Vogel S), “Why Public Health Agencies Cannot Depend upon ‘Good Laboratory Practices’ as a Criterion for Selecting Data: The Case of Bisphenol A,” Environmental Health Perspectives 2009 Mar; 117(3): 309-15.
Vogel S. “From the ‘Dose Makes the Poison’ to the ‘Timing Makes the Poison’: Conceptualizing Risk in the Synthetic Age.” Environmental History 2008 Oct; 13: 667-673.
Latest pieces
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Another reason to reduce methane emissions: saving lives
Health Blog, November 13, 2022 -
Why now is the moment for cities around the world to act decisively on air pollution
EDF Health, July 30, 2020 -
Protect and Defend the Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Defense Fund, November 15, 2017 -
Finally, a safer chemical law
Source, June 27, 2016 -
Is your food safe?
Source, October 20, 2015 -
Reducing Our Exposure to Toxic Chemicals and Pollution
YouTube, June 15, 2015 -
Reducing our exposure to toxic chemicals
YouTube, April 15, 2015
Press materials
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EPA Bans Most Uses of Toxic Methylene Chloride
April 30, 2024 -
EDF Unveils Lead Pipe Replacement Programs Map at White House Water Summit
April 23, 2024 -
EDF Applauds EPA’s Proposed Rule to Eliminate Lead Pipes in U.S. Drinking Water Systems
November 30, 2023 -
New Proposal Would Expand Air Quality Monitoring
June 20, 2023 -
$53m in New Funding for Community-level Air Quality Monitoring Projects to Support Local Efforts to Measure Air Pollution
November 3, 2022 -
Markey Bill Provides Tools to Better Understand Local Sources of Air Pollution and Protect Health
January 14, 2022 -
Environmental Justice Air Quality Monitoring Act is a Step Toward Helping Communities Tackle Longstanding Inequities
July 27, 2021 -
Air Pollution as Cause of Young Girl's Death Underscores Need for Urgent Action
December 16, 2020