PROTECTING ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

News in Brief

What Cannot Be Seen in Oily Gulf Worries Federal Wildlife Experts (Financial Times)

There is currently uncertainty among the scientific community about the long-term effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. At the moment, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chief of Environmental Quality is calling the impact of the oil spill, which affects wildlife, the surrounding ecosystem, exposed workers, and the food web, "'a giant experiment.'"

(04 Jun 2010)

Government-Approved Pesticide Levels Are Linked to Health Problems (CNN)

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently published "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Clean Fifteen," lists of produce with the highest and lowest pesticide concentrations, after reviewing 100,000 pesticide reports from the USDA and the FDA. Studies have found associations between pesticides and health problems even when consumed in low amounts approved by the FDA and EPA. According to EWG's Amy Rosenthal, "It's critical people know what they are consuming."

(04 Jun 2010)

Research Links Pesticide Ingestion to ADHD in Children (Los Angeles Times)

Researches recently reported that children with high levels of the pesticide malathion in their urine are at greater risk of contracting Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. Epidemiologist Marc G. Weisskopf of Harvard University's School of Public Health and his colleagues studied data on 1,139 children from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey over a four-year period. Weisskopf suggests that similar studies "'should raise eyebrows and get people concerned enough to want to follow up intensively.'"

(04 Jun 2010)

Toxic Chemicals Finding Their Way Into The Womb (CNN)

"A growing number of studies are finding hundreds of toxic chemicals in mothers' and, subsequently, their babies' bodies when they are born."

(04 Jun 2010)

Last Week to Comment On Expansion Of TRI

The EPA has proposed adding 16 carcinogens to the list of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals. Public comments on this proposal are due by Monday, June 7, 2010. Comments may be submitted electronically here.

(02 Jun 2010)

Media Claim Access To Spill Site Has Been Limited (Associated Press)

Media organizations say they are being allowed only limited access to areas impacted by the Gulf oil spill through restrictions on plane and boat traffic that are making it difficult to document the worst spill in U.S. history. Media photographers have been blocked from the spill area by BP and the U.S. government.

(02 Jun 2010)

New Estimates of Oil Spill Much Greater Than Original (USGS)

According to an expert panel, "the independent analysis of the Flow Rate Technical Group has determined that the overall best initial estimate for the lower and upper boundaries of flow rates of oil is in the range of 12,000 and 19,000 barrels per day." Accurate information on the BP spill has been hard to come by, as shown by the initial estimates that 5,000 barrels per day were spewing into the Gulf.

(27 May 2010)

CNN Investigates Toxic Town (Center for Health, Environment & Justice)

"On June 2nd, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be airing an hour-long investigative story into the environmental health and justice problems plaguing the community of Mossville, Louisiana. Nestled amidst an alarming cluster of chemical plants, Mossville is home to more PVC chemical plants than anywhere else in the entire country, and has been dubbed the Vinyl Manufacturing Capital of America."

(27 May 2010)

More Attention for USDA’s Lack of Transparency (Environmental Working Group)

"There is increasing attention on the restriction of access to government records on taxpayer funded farm subsidies reported by the Environmental Working Group...It’s crucial for government to truly be accountable by identifying the farm subsidy recipients who use a maze of co-ops, paper farms and corporate entity shell games to maximize their haul of taxpayer dollars."

(26 May 2010)

EPA Expands Public Participation on Hazardous Waste Cleanup (U.S. EPA)

The EPA has launched an initiative to help communities more effectively participate in government decisions related to land cleanup, emergency preparedness and response, and the management of hazardous substances and waste. The Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) plan lays out steps to provide communities with information and opportunities to influence decisions on environmental cleanups. Read the plan.

(21 May 2010)

EPA and DHS Order BP to Stop Hiding Oil Spill Information (OMB Watch)

Today the EPA and Homeland Security took steps to increase the transparency of the response to BP's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil company's actions have been criticized for failing to disclose or monitor important information about the spill, including the quantity of oil erupting into the Gulf, the potential health impacts of the oil and the chemicals used to disperse it, and water and air quality information.

(20 May 2010)

EPA Demands Less-Toxic Dispersant

According to the Washington Post, the EPA "informed BP officials...that the company has 24 hours to choose a less-toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico...and must apply the new form of dispersants within 72 hours of submitting the list of alternatives." Of course, there's still a lot of information we don't know about these chemicals...

(20 May 2010)

How Toxic Are Dispersants Being Used In Gulf Oil Spill? (USA Today)

The two "dispersants" now being dumped onto the Gulf oil spill are banned in the UK; and more effective and less toxic alternatives exist. Information on the toxicitiy, ingredients, and health impacts of the dispersants is either unkown or being kept secret.

(20 May 2010)

On Pesticides: Canadian Bylaws and American Lawn Flags (Environmental Working Group)

"The Canadian and U.S. governments have the same scientific evidence available to them... So why have so many jurisdictions in one nation chosen, as a response to that data, abolition of cosmetic pesticides while jurisdictions in the other rely on dinky yellow flags?"

(20 May 2010)

BP Withholds Oil Spill Facts — And Government Lets It (McClatchy Newspapers)

BP has not publicly divulged the results of tests on the extent of workers' exposure to evaporating oil or from the burning of crude over the gulf, even though researchers say those data are crucial to determining whether the conditions are safe; plus the company is not monitoring the extent of the spill.

(19 May 2010)

Long-Delayed Senate Climate Bill Considers Need for Transparency (OMB Watch)

The new Senate climate and energy bill includes several provisions calling for transparent and participatory policies, especially relating to measures that would create new financial markets for buying and selling the right to pollute. How well such transparency would be implemented is a major question.

(18 May 2010)

EPA Puts More Environment Online (OMB Watch)

Several new online tools developed by the EPA are now available to provide the public with a variety of environmental information collected by the agency.

(18 May 2010)

Emissions Often Underestimated, EPA Standards Old (Associated Press)

An AP investigation suggests "pollution from petrochemical plants is at least 10 times greater than what is reported to the government and the public." The formulas and equipment EPA and facilities use to track emissions are old and unreliable.

(14 May 2010)

BP Chooses More Toxic Alternative for Dispersing Oil Spill

Despite the availability of better, less toxic alternatives, the NY Times reports that BP is sticking with dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic "dispersants" on the company's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Plus, we still do not know what exactly is in the dispersants.

(14 May 2010)

Gulf Oil Spill Health Hazards

Learn more about the possible human health impacts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with this factsheet.

(13 May 2010)