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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced stronger rules to limit toxic pollution from petrochemical plants. The new rules include vital measures to protect the health and safety of communities on the fenceline of this pollution.

A new interactive map can help you identify potential chemical exposures in your neighborhood.

By Maricel Maffini, PhD, Consultant, and Tom Neltner, Executive Director, Unleaded Kids What’s Happening? On February 9, 2024, the European Commission published a proposed regulation [PDF, 502KB] that would ban most uses of bisphenol A (BPA) in materials that contact food—including plastic and coatings applied to metal cans—and restrict other uses. Interested parties can comment …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today took important steps to strengthen safeguards intended to prevent toxic chemical disasters at thousands of industrial facilities across the country.

What’s New Today, we are excited to introduce the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) latest initiative—the Chemical Exposure Action Map. This tool is designed to spur the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to transform the assessment of risks posed by toxic chemicals in our communities. Our map focuses on multiple high-priority chemicals—making visible the urgent and long-overdue …

EDF's map offers tools to encourage EPA to do better risk assessments of chemicals. Use this tool to see where facilities are polluting toxic chemicals into our air, water and land and how it’s putting our health at risk, then encourage EPA to take action.

EDF launched a new tool designed to help visualize health harms from multiple chemical exposures and encourage EPA to consider the fuller picture of those harms when assessing risks.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is encouraged that EPA final fee rule will bring in an estimated $36.7 million in resources each year to help EPA implement TSCA.

What’s New Earlier this week EDF submitted comments that urged EPA to finalize the strongest possible improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCRI). An estimated 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) are still connected to homes and buildings throughout the country. EPA’s proposal is a critical step to protect Americans from the harmful of …

By Liora Fiksel, Project Manager, Healthy Communities, and Lisa Lefferts, Environmental Health Consultant What’s Happening? On December 21, 2023, FDA filed a food-additive petition and a color-additive petition submitted by EDF and partners that asks FDA to revoke its approval for four carcinogenic chemicals approved for use in food. There is broad agreement that benzene,

One year after the catastrophic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the EPA is considering phasing out vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical the train was carrying.

By Maricel Maffini, PhD, Consultant, and Tom Neltner, JD What Happened In December 2023, FDA’s scientists published a new study showing that when pregnant rats ingest a form of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substance (PFAS) called 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (6:2 FTOH) their bodies break it down into other PFAS that reach the fetuses and biopersist …

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published an announcement that it filed food-additive and color-additive petitions from EDF and partners that call on the agency to rescind its approvals for four carcinogens in food.

In our previous blogs in this multipart series, we have focused on some of the major changes we believe EPA needs to make in its review process for new chemicals—and how EPA could propose regulations to make those reviews safer. In this post, we want to walk you through why EPA must set rules that …

Lead exposure is dangerous, especially for children. Here are the most common places to find — and remove — the lead from your home.

Getting lead out of gasoline was a major public health victory. Yet half of American children under 6 tested between 2018 and 2020 still have detectable levels of lead in their blood, underscoring the need to get lead out of everything. 

What’s New? EPA has proposed improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) to reduce lead in drinking water. The proposed rule would require utilities to eliminate the nation’s roughly 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) at an estimated cost of $2.1 to $2.9 billion per year.1 The socioeconomic benefits from the rule vastly outweigh …

Statement of Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities

Version incorporates critical context for procurement professionals seeking more sustainable food packaging.

Amid growing concerns about the environmental impact of single-use plastics, consumers have increasingly sought out alternatives made with renewable materials—as demonstrated by the rise in popularity of the paper straw. Unfortunately, this summer many eco-conscious consumers were devastated to learn of a recent analysis of drinking straws that detected PFAS in paper straws.1    These …

NOTE: This blog was originally published on our Deep Dives blog on April 13, 2023. It predates the recent reorganization efforts at FDA. What Happened? FDA estimates that, each year, food companies designate 82 new food chemicals as “GRAS” (Generally Recognized as Safe) for use in food. On average, FDA reviews only 64 of those …

 We only have until December 15, 2023, to show EPA we support a full and rapid ban of all uses of TCE. Take Action: Tell EPA–Ban TCE Now What Happened? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently taken a significant step in safeguarding public health by proposing new regulations under our nation’s primary chemicals …

What’s Happening? The North Carolina Departments of Health & Human Services and Agriculture & Consumer Services identified WanaBana cinnamon applesauce pouches as a source for elevated blood lead levels in multiple children. They found extraordinarily high concentrations of lead (1,900- 5,100 ppb) in the products, leading to the identification of at least 34 cases of …

What Happened? Last month, FDA’s scientists published the toxicological reference value (TRV) for exposure to cadmium in the diet. This value is the amount of a chemical—in this case cadmium—a person can consume in their daily diet that would not be expected to cause adverse health effects and can be used for food safety decision-making.

NOTE: This is the fifth in a series about EPA’s regulation of new chemicals. See below under Go Deeper for links to the other blogs in the series. What Happened? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new regulations for its safety reviews of new chemicals under our nation’s primary chemicals law, the Toxic Substances …