The latest from EWG’s staff of experts

AP reports that University of North Carolina tests in 21 states found average mercury levels in tuna and swordfish at 1.1 parts per million, over the government's limit of 1 ppm. The samples came from supermarket chains, including Safeway and Whole Foods, and some groups are pushing for supermarkets to include warning signs with their seafood displays.

Key Issues: 

Mercury

Chemicals in Food

EPA's new human pesticide testing legislation prohibits intentional dosing of pregnant women and children, but will allow some human testing, subject to ethical standards and approval of a review board the agency plans to set up.

Key Issues: 

Pesticides

Read about an Irish executive, the Dutch Minister of Agriculture (who's appearing before Parliament on September 1 to explain) and get the full picture from the Wall Street Journal's European edition (subscription required).

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

Two Utah state agencies have denied a request for an independent testing program of mercury levels in fish in the Great Salt Lake Basin. In February the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the lake has the highest concentration of toxic mercury ever found in the environment.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Mercury

As the New York Times editorialized on August 17, Congress will soon debate how to trim the nation's agricultural budget by $3 billion dollars. EWG agrees with the Times that Congress should not cut closely-monitored food stamp programs, but instead chop widely-abused farm subsidy programs that mostly help corporate farms, not small family farms.

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

Asarco, a subsidiary of mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, leaving taxpayers holding the bag on an estimated $1 billion in environmental cleanups in a dozen states that the company has dragged its feet on for more than a decade. The copper mining company has also been implicated in 95,000 personal-injury asbestos lawsuits.

Key Issues: 

Asbestos

In the past week, activists have pressed Teflon maker DuPont to clean up its act on two fronts. Environmental groups demanded that the company monitor groundwater around its local plant, the only one in the US that makes this indestructible, cancer-causing chemical, and the steeworkers' union urged carpet and clothing retailers and fast food companies to warn consumers that their products may be coated with chemicals that break down into DuPont's toxic Teflon chemical.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Chemical Policy (TSCA)

PFAS Chemicals

Consumer Products

Cookware

Food Containers

Chemicals in Food

David Kirby, a New York Times reporter and author of "Evidence of Harm", and Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, discussed the possible link between the increase of mercury in vaccinations between 1988 and 1992, and the explosion of autism cases in the last 90s.

Key Issues: 

Mercury

The New York Times maps out that tiny fraction of U.S. lands still unscathed by mining, farming, logging and other human endeavors. We better enjoy it while we can -- trends suggest these pristine lands are about to go the way of the dinosaur.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Conservation