EWG News Roundup (Oct. 28): Wastewater on California Crops, Children’s Health, Bogus ‘Organic’ Claims and Big Ag Myths

It’s another busy week at EWG. On Wednesday, we released a report spotlighting the use of oil field wastewater, possibly tainted with toxic chemicals, to irrigate food crops in California.  Some of the chemicals that could be in the water can cause cancer and reproductive harm. And considering California grows much of the foods millions of Americans eat, this situation should be of concern to all of us.

EWG also announced its upcoming Jonas Initiative for Children’s Environmental Health, in collaboration with The Jonas Family Fund, the initiative’s namesake, which will redouble EWG’s decades-long commitment to children’s environmental health with a bold new research and advocacy agenda for 2017 and beyond.

Media reported on both these projects, and on other EWG research. Here’s some news you can use from this week:

Oil and Gas Wastewater on California Crops:

E&E News: TOXICS:  Oil-field wastewater taints Calif. cropland — report

Farmers in California's fertile Central Valley have infused billions of gallons of oil-field wastewater — possibly laced with toxic compounds — into 95,000 acres of crops since 2014, according to a report released today by the Environmental Working Group.

Earth Island Journal: Oilfield Wastewater Used to Grow Food in California May Contain Toxins

Now a new report by the Environmental Working Group says that this wastewater is possibly tainted with toxic chemicals, including chemicals that can cause cancer and reproductive harm. Farmers in Kern County have irrigated some 95,000 acres of food crops with billions of gallons of oil field wastewater, according to the report, which is based on an analysis of state data.

Organic Authority: California Crops May Have Been Irrigated with Toxic Wastewater for 30 Years

Nearly 100,000 acres of California crops may have been irrigated with toxic wastewater over the past three decades, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis of state data.

EcoWatch: Why Are California Farmers Irrigating Crops With Oil Wastewater?

In the last three years, farmers in parts of California's Central Valley irrigated nearly 100,000 acres of food crops with billions of gallons of oil field wastewater possibly tainted with toxic chemicals, including chemicals that can cause cancer and reproductive harm, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of state data.

Jonas Initiative for Children’s Environmental Health:

E&E News: Campaign aims to shield children from toxins

The Environmental Working Group unveiled a program today that aims to bolster children's environmental health.

POLITICO: Green Group Launches New Children’s Health Program

The Environmental Working Group today launched a new program today that will develop model safety standards for a number of air, water and land pollutants. “Just because levels of carcinogens and neurotoxins found in drinking water, for example, are within the legal limits, doesn’t mean they are safe for children,” Olga V. Naidenko, leader of the new program, said in a statement.

Misleading ‘Organic’ Claims on Cosmetics Products:

Yahoo! Beauty: Bogus ‘Organic’ Claims Made on Thousands of Beauty Products

Beauty product companies make misleading organic claims on thousands of items, according to a new Environmental Working Group analysis, which studied its own vast product database for evidence. Its Oct. 20 release was timed with a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C, held jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on consumer perceptions of the term “organic” when used for nonagricultural products.

Huffington Post: Why You Shouldn’t Get Hung Up On Organic Makeup Yet

In reality, personal care products are mostly unregulated, according to the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group. EWG found that 20 percent of the products listed in its database of over 60,000 personal care products use the word “organic.”  Reprinted by Health Medicine Network.

Well+Good:  Why You Might Not Be Able to Trust a Beauty Product That Claims to be Organic

While there’s little doubt that the box of organic granola you’re reaching for at Whole Foods lives up to its claims, the FDA is not actually policing the label claims on many beauty products, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Ecouterre: “Organic” Cosmetics Industry Riddled With Bogus Claims, Says Report

A new study has found that many cosmetics labeled as “organic” may also carry unsafe toxins. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database is an analysis of 5,000 personal care products, grading each for its safety for consumers to use as a resource. A recent study by EWG found that cosmetics with an “organic” label may not be what consumers think- a whopping 20 percent of the products that use the word “organic” in their name contain harmful ingredients that score low evaluations on Skin Deep.

Factory Farm Pollution in Wake of Hurricane Matthew:

OZY: North Carolina's Pig Poo Problem

And as this aerial map, created by Waterkeeper Alliance and Environmental Working Group, clearly shows, the majority of these lagoons reside near people of color and low incomes. “It’s really just providing basic information to people about what’s happening in their neighborhoods that’s been behind a veil of secrecy,” says Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at EWG.

Mercola: Hurricane Floodwaters Cause CAFO Waste Lagoons to Overflow

It's hard to imagine the magnitude of waste being produced by North Carolina CAFOs, but this may help — the state's pig CAFOs alone produce nearly 10 billion gallons of fecal waste annually, which is enough to fill more than 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to an analysis of maps and data of the state's CAFOs by the Environmental Working Group

‘Brockovich’ Chemical in Drinking Water:

Winston-Salem Journal: Our view: NC and Duke Energy have to do better when it comes to coal ash

The publicity has brought Erin Brockovich and the Washington-based Environmental Working Group to our state. A state representative and conservation activists have called for an independent investigation by either the state or federal justice departments. It’s galling that Duke Energy wasn’t required to clean its coal ash sites more rapidly, when the problems first arose.

Columbia Missourian: Is Columbia's water safe to drink?

Residents have a say in that Chromium-6 and chlorine-chloramine disinfection cycles have been making news lately due to a report by the Environmental Working Group, which called for stricter chromium-6 regulations, and a widely circulated September Facebook post by environmental activist Erin Brockovich that named Columbia as a city with dangerously high levels of trihalomethane because of its use of chlorine for disinfecting drinking water.

NJ.com: Chromium dangers to be topic at Raritan Headwaters meeting

In September, the national nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a study asserting that chromium-6 contaminates the drinking water of over 200 million Americans, including public drinking water supplies in at least 138 New Jersey communities.

Prince George’s Sentinel: Unknown chemicals may pose water supply risk

One of the contaminants, Chromium-6, made national headlines when the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental nonprofit based in Washington D.C., published a report saying the chemical could be found in the majority of American’s tap water.

Chemicals in Cleaning Products

NBC12: KPNX: Life hacks to save money in the home

Now let’s talk dirty dishes. Those dishwasher tabs are convenient, but not cheap. Also, some brand-name detergents get “F” ratings from environmental groups, like the Environmental Working Group. Reprinted 29 times.

EWG’s New Conservation Database:

The Public Opinion: We should stop and ask: ‘Why?’

Why is it that 70 percent to 80 percent of our lakes and streams are polluted beyond federal levels? This is what the Environmental Working Group found when studying federal conservation programs. “Conservation dollars and results are spread too thinly to make an impact on water, soil and air quality.”

High Plains Journal: Ken Cook-led group now out to take on conservation programs

Americans are “seeing the price of farm pollution firsthand in contaminated drinking water, toxic algal blooms and pesticide-laden foods,” Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, said in a blog post introducing EWG’s new Conservation Database.

Debunking Agribusiness Claims it “Feeds the World”:

The Pilot Independent: Guebert: We feed the world is 'not a harmless myth'

On Oct. 5, EWG fired a powerful, well-documented volley at the most sacred tenet in American agriculture, “We Feed The World,” and hit it smack in the face. It must have hit right on the mouth because no one in the reflexively sensitive American ag community was either able or willing to respond to EWG’s key finding: We cannot feed the world when, in fact, “Less than 1 percent of American agricultural exports go to the 19 countries with the highest levels of undernourishment.”

Food Consumer: Trust the Feds? Are they Kidding?

The latest group to take on Big Biotech’s Big Lie? The Environmental Working Group in its new report – “Feeding the World: Think U.S. Agriculture Will End Word Hunger? Think Again.” EWG analyzed U.S. food exports from the United States  to countries whose citizens can afford to pay for them

EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Buzzfeed: Only Someone Who Really Knows Food Could Pass This Quiz
You probably don’t need to buy organic eggplants. Eggplants are on Environmental Working Group’s list of foods least likely to have pesticides, aka the Clean Fifteen. Studies done by the USDA detected little to no pesticides on the produce on this list.

Money Magazine: These Foods Aren’t Worth Buying Organic

On the other hand, experts advise eating organic versions of vegetables without peels, as well as those with soft exteriors. Many of these foods are listed on the Environmental Working Group’s 2016 “Dirty Dozen” list, which includes celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.

Modern Farmer: New Wave: Synthetic-Pesticide Detectors Will Soon Be Here

Agriculture production in the U.S. uses nearly 700 million pounds of pesticides every year, according to Consumer Reports, and nearly three-fourths of the 6,953 produce samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2014 contained pesticide residues, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that works to protect human health and the environment.

What’s Exactly in Halloween Candy?

Reno Gazette Journal: Diet Detective: What's in your kid’s favorite Halloween candy?

According to the Environmental Working Group: “The Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavors as substances derived from animals or plants and artificial flavors are those that are not. Reprinted by The Intelligencer.

The Science Explorer: Halloween Candy Deconstructed: The Ingredients in Popular Halloween Candies

According to the Environmental Working Group: "The Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavors as substances derived from animals or plants and artificial flavors are those that are not."

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