"Scientists who served on a now-disbanded EPA advisory panel are again accusing the agency of slighting public health, this time in the pages of a top national medical publication."
"The EPA’s analysis of asbestos underestimates the extent to which people are exposed to the mineral and its potential to cause cancer and other diseases, an agency science advisory panel said."
Mishandling of vital information by the U.S. government worsened the COVID-19 pandemic, argues the latest WatchDog. The no-holds-barred opinion piece, which notes that coronavirus is as much an environmental story as a public health one, points the finger at the White House and the “Silent CDC,” sifts the wreckage of the testing program and speculates about the dearth of data as the nation reopens.
"An international team of scientists, including a prominent researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has analyzed all known coronaviruses in Chinese bats and used genetic analysis to trace the likely origin of the novel coronavirus to horseshoe bats."
"Scientists are examining whether the unique shifts in air pollution during the coronavirus pandemic could validate or challenge the public science used to regulate vehicle emissions."
"The EPA disagreed with a White House request to use current data when revising its rule on mercury air pollution, publicly available email exchanges show, which a law professor says could weaken the agency’s legal defense of the regulation."
"James Enstrom’s work on particle pollution’s health effects contradicts the findings of dozens of studies, but that hasn’t stopped the agency from relying on it."
"As the late afternoon sun hovers over the horizon in the Rwandan village of Mareba, about an hour from the capital of Kigali, Innocent Bizimana prepares for the mosquitos to arrive."
Regulations that sprang from cornerstone environmental laws in place for decades are now under attack by the Trump administration, per legal experts in a recent webinar co-sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists and Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Get key takeaways and resources from the event from SEJ’s Dale Willman. Plus, watch the full webinar video.
