Publication Items

Americans Can't Know Whether Chemicals in Products They Use Are Unsafe [1]

As Congress limps toward revisions of the badly broken Toxic Substances Control Act, it's clear that only a small fraction of the roughly 84,000 chemicals in commerce in the U.S. have actually been tested for health effects. Now an environmental health group has rated some household cleaning products firms.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [3]
Consumer [4]
Health [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Americans Can't Know Whether Chemicals in Products They Use Are Unsafe [1]
More Secret Reports from Congressional Research Service [7]

Nobody has ever explained why Congress refuses to release the tax-funded explainers produced by the Congressional Research Service. They are a gold standard for journalists needing quick background. Here are some recent CRS reports relevant to environmental journalists, helpfully released by the Federation of American Scientists.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [8]
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Government [11]
Health [5]
Natural Resources [12]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [13]
Water & Oceans [14]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about More Secret Reports from Congressional Research Service [7]
Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [15]

One way to deal with bad press is to make it illegal. Exposés of inhumane conditions at feedlots and slaughterhouses are being made illegal by state legislatures that pass "ag gag" laws. Now a case in Utah is challenging whether industrial agriculture's claims of secrecy trump the eating public's right to know. Image: Sows in 7'x2' Smithfield Foods gestation crates. By Humane Society of the US [CC], 2010. [16]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [17]
Agriculture [18]
Consumer [4]
Health [5]
Journalism & Media [19]
Laws & Regulations [20]
Pollution [21]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [22]
Northwest (OR WA) [23]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [15]
Decades of Petrochemical Industry Documents on Hiding Toxicity in Online Archive [24]

The Center for Public Integrity, Columbia University, and City University of New York have just published some 20,000 pages of hitherto unpublished letters, e-mails, presentations, and meeting minutes from the oil and chemical industries in a public database, called "Exposed: Decades of Denial on Poisons."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [3]
Consumer [4]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Health [5]
Pollution [21]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Decades of Petrochemical Industry Documents on Hiding Toxicity in Online Archive [24]
"Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster" [25]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Environmental Health [27]
Health [5]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [13]
People & Population [28]
Region:
National (U.S.) [29]
Asia [30]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about "Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster" [25]
"Eternal Harvest: The Legacy of American Bombs in Laos" [31]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Environmental Health [27]
Health [5]
Military [32]
People & Population [28]
Planning & Growth [33]
Pollution [21]
Region:
Asia [30]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about "Eternal Harvest: The Legacy of American Bombs in Laos" [31]
Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [34]

Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress), which does not release them to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [8]
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Health [5]
Laws & Regulations [20]
Military [32]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [13]
Science [35]
Transportation [36]
Wildlife [37]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [34]
Between the Lines: Rain of Steel — Covering the Environment, Health Fallout of Unexploded Ordnance [38]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Environmental Health [27]
Health [5]
Military [32]
People & Population [28]
Region:
Asia [30]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Between the Lines: Rain of Steel — Covering the Environment, Health Fallout of Unexploded Ordnance [38]
Will Fracking Disclosure Decisions Put Profits Above Health? [39]

Federal agencies are still grinding forward on decisions about disclosure of often-toxic ingredients pumped into the ground during "fracking" to produce gas and oil. Significant decisions may come eventually from the Interior Department, the EPA, and the Obama White House. But don't bet on any courageous decisions until after the November election.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [3]
Economy & Business [40]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Health [5]
Pollution [21]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Will Fracking Disclosure Decisions Put Profits Above Health? [39]
"The Science Beneath the Surface: A Very Short Guide to the Marcellus Shale" [41]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [26]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [8]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Environmental Health [27]
Health [5]
Pollution [21]
Science [35]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [42]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about "The Science Beneath the Surface: A Very Short Guide to the Marcellus Shale" [41]

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