Most recent 40 articles: Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity
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The (Legal) Way Congress Can Undo Federal Rules that Protect Us - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jun 04, 2024) |
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Jun 04, 2024 · We are seeing a lot of federal agency rules being finalized under the Biden administration regarding climate, clean energy, public health, and transportation. Rules based on science are important to ensure agencies are working to protect our environment and promote human health. However, once a rule is finalized, there is a congressional tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that allows Congress to override the rule. The CRA provides specific shortcuts that can reverse a rule and make it difficult for agencies to issue new protections, even if the rule is based on science and critical to the protection of public health and the environment. This post provides an overview of ... Read more ...
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Four Steps Federal Agencies Need to Take for Better Public Engagement - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (May 20, 2024) |
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May 20, 2024 · For years at the Center for Science and Democracy (CSD), we have championed the need for federal agencies to adopt clear and equitable practices for engaging with the public.
The public’s ability to weigh in on new rules and regulations proposed by agencies lies at the heart of a strong democracy. It offers a critical mechanism through which members of the public can have a direct say in the decisions our government is making. And it affords federal agencies the chance to consider the perspectives of people with diverse knowledge, backgrounds, and skillsets.
We at CSD recently sent the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a public comment outlining our top ... Read more ...
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EPA Strengthens Emissions Controls for Facilities Emitting Cancer-Causing Ethylene Oxide - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 18, 2024) |
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Mar 18, 2024 · Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized updated regulations for certain facilities that emit ethylene oxide (EtO), a colorless, cancer-causing gas. These long-awaited rules will require facilities using EtO to sterilize medical devices and some food products - known as commercial sterilizers - to significantly reduce their emissions of EtO, install additional control equipment, and improve monitoring.
Ethylene oxide is used in chemical manufacturing, as well as sterilization, due to its effectiveness at killing microbes. However, mounting evidence has shown its harms to both workers and community members. Short-term, elevated exposure by inhalation ... Read more ...
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The US Supreme Court is Operating Like a Rogue EPA - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 10, 2024) |
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Mar 10, 2024 · The US Supreme Court seems to have appointed itself as a rogue Environmental Protection Agency, seeking to protect polluters rather than the public.
The latest evidence comes in the arguments the court heard last month in the challenge by Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia to the Biden administration’s “good neighbor” plan. The plan cuts power plant and industrial ozone pollution that wafts from central parts of the nation into eastern states.
According to the American Lung Association, nearly 120 million people in the nation - one of every three - lives with unhealthy levels of particle and ozone pollution. The White House says its plan would decrease asthma symptoms for ... Read more ...
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EPA Finalizes Critical Chemical Disaster Prevention Rules - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 04, 2024) |
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Mar 04, 2024 · On Friday, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued long-awaited regulations to strengthen the Risk Management Program (RMP). The RMP requires roughly 12,000 industrial facilities that use or store extremely hazardous substances to develop Risk Management Plans that identify prevention and response measures for chemical releases. The new rule restores critical disaster planning and prevention protections under the program after it was gutted in 2019 under the Trump administration.
The RMP was first established in 1996 and in the nearly 30 years since, the program has been subject to political tug-of-war. After the Biden-Harris administration took office, the EPA ... Read more ...
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A New EPA Plan Offers a Roadmap on Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Feb 29, 2024) |
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Feb 29, 2024 · In a past blogpost, I described the concept of “cumulative impacts” as a doctor visit in which, rather than getting a quick screening of one issue, a patient receives a holistic assessment and treatment. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just released an updated 2023 Equity Action Plan explaining how the agency intends to “imbed equity, civil rights, and environmental justice” into all aspects of its work.
Part of this plan discusses the agency’s priorities on cumulative impacts, which it defines as “the totality of exposures to combinations of chemical and nonchemical stressors and their effects on health, well-being, and quality of life outcomes.” A close look can ... Read more ...
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For Real Environmental Justice, We Need Community Input into Federal Rules - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jan 24, 2024) |
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Jan 24, 2024 · With the 2024 election just months away, it’s hard not to reflect on what’s at stake: addressing the climate crisis, upholding democratic electoral processes, and healing the cracks in our social safety nets exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other pressing issues.
At the top of my mind are efforts to defend and advance environmental justice, the idea that all people have the right to equal protection under environmental laws and regulations, as defined by scholar and advocate Dr. Robert Bullard. I was heartened by the Biden-Harris administration’s sweeping executive order related to environmental justice (EO 14096), which was among the most explicit commitments to ... Read more ...
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UCS Is Primed and Ready for this Election Year - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jan 22, 2024) |
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Jan 22, 2024 · Welcome to 2024! This month, I find myself shaking my head that we’re already headlong into another presidential election year. The focus and intensity of our work at USC provides one explanation for why it feels that time has flown, but behavioral science also provides a clue.
The bottom line is: here we are. And for those paying attention, it’s crystal clear that the election coming up in November has enormous implications for science and justice. Here at UCS, we know how closely scientific integrity and democracy are linked. And we’re hard at work every day, putting science and scientists at the heart of efforts to defend and advance democratic practices across the country. Read more ...
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State and Local Governments Across the Country are Sidelining Science. Here’s What’s Needed - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Nov 16, 2023) |
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Nov 16, 2023 · This blog post was co-authored by Martha Kinsella, former senior counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. It was originally published in the blog STAT on November 10, 2023.
In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought Texas rain that just wouldn’t stop. After four torrential days, 75 people had died, and Houston - America’s fourth largest city - was deep under water. But given that the area is home to Superfund sites, fossil fuel fired power plants, and other petrochemical hubs, this wasn’t ordinary rainwater. It was more like a toxic soup. Aerial photographs taken in the aftermath of the storm show the luminescent sheen of oil slicks and ... | By Jacob Carter and Martha Kinsella Read more ...
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The Best “I Voted” Stickers on the Internet: My Favorite Displays of Voting Energy, Diversity, and Pride - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Nov 06, 2023) |
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Nov 06, 2023 · Voting is an important part of maintaining our democracy – and it feels even better when we receive a sticker to do it.
While they might seem like a small token of participation, “I Voted” stickers help normalize voting as an expected social norm – political scientists have highlighted that people are more likely to vote when they think that others around them vote, too. Wearing your sticker with pride can lead a friend, family member, or colleague to cast their ballot!
As jurisdictions around the country announce “I Voted” sticker contests ahead of the 2024 elections, I took a look at some recent awesome designs (assuming, of course, that you already know of the ... Read more ...
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In a Blow to Public Health, EPA Delays Strengthening Ozone Standards - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Oct 12, 2023) |
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Oct 12, 2023 · Despite clear recommendations from its own science advisors, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced over the summer that it will delay its scheduled process to consider strengthening public health standards for ground-level ozone pollution. The announcement is the latest development in a long-running saga over this air pollutant, which is the main component of smog. As a result, the public will continue to be unnecessarily exposed to ozone levels that may be hazardous to their health for at least a few more years, an outcome especially harmful to communities currently overburdened by air pollution.
The decision to delay comes on the heels of draft ... Read more ...
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Protecting Science from Politics - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Sep 27, 2023) |
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Sep 27, 2023 · When state agencies manipulate or suppress scientific research, the burden falls unevenly on Latinos and Black Americans.
With a population that is more than 95 percent Hispanic, the city of Laredo, Texas, has one of the highest proportions of Latino residents in the United States. Another statistic, one that’s not so favorable: Laredo is among the top 20 locations for heightened cancer risk, thanks to a medical sterilization plant emitting a toxic pollutant that increases the risk of leukemia, particularly for children.
Emission levels adhere to state regulations that fly in the face of federal Environmental Protection Agency standards. Students of the elementary school ... Read more ...
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Creating Environmental Action by Changing our Message - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Aug 31, 2023) |
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Aug 31, 2023 · “Excuse me, what did they say?”
I don’t speak German, so I leaned over and asked my neighbor if he could translate the announcement that just played over the train’s PA system. His response, in short, was that we weren’t going anywhere for some time. Unfortunately, an expected four-hour train ride between Berlin and Munich ended up taking closer to eight last summer, as the German transit infrastructure experienced systematic failures during an unprecedented heatwave. Computers malfunctioned, equipment melted, and passengers could do little to cope with the increasingly warming train cars that lacked air conditioning. The temperature was 30 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than ... Read more ...
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Scientific Integrity Act Re-introduced in Congress to Protect Federal Science - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jul 25, 2023) |
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Jul 25, 2023 · Today, we received some welcome and exciting news from Capitol Hill: the Scientific Integrity Act is being re-introduced in the House by Representatives Paul Tonko, Zoe Lofgren, Haley Stevens, Suzanne Bonamici, Don Beyer, and Brian Fitzpatrick. This means that our congressional representatives will debate and discuss scientific integrity protections in committee and potentially even vote on the issue in coming months.
Given the major role federal science plays in upholding public health and environmental safeguards - such as protecting the public from air pollution, toxic chemicals, climate change impacts, unsafe working conditions, foodborne illnesses, and infectious diseases ... Read more ...
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EPA Must Protect Communities from Sterilizer Plants’ Carcinogenic Emissions - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jun 27, 2023) |
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Jun 27, 2023 · A few months ago, I was reviewing the findings of a study my organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, just concluded on facilities that use ethylene oxide (EtO), a carcinogenic gas, to sterilize medical equipment, spices and dried food, as well as manufacture other chemicals.
I came to a sudden halt when I came across the listing of two spice sterilizing facilities–of four plants located in Maryland–that are only two and a half miles from my house. Alarmed, I spent the following two weeks learning as much as a could about EtO and driving around the Jessup and Hanover plants to try to figure out how far EtO “fugitive emissions” leaking from the buildings could travel. ... Read more ...
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Bridge to Troubled Waters: US Supreme Court Guts Wetlands Protections - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jun 06, 2023) |
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Jun 06, 2023 · The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling undermining wetlands protections in Sackett v. EPA could not have come at a worse time for our streams, rivers, and lakes. Now, only a week after the high court removed tens of millions of acres of wetlands from federal protection, a major study in the journal Nature found that human activities on Earth are breaching ecological limits for a host of vital systems.
One key system is water.
According to the study by more than 40 researchers for the Earth Commission, less than half the world’s population now benefits from easy access to free flowing rivers that sustain biodiversity and nourish healthy fisheries, which in turn support ... Read more ...
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EPA: Don’t Delay Strong Rules to Help Prevent Chemical Disasters - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (May 31, 2023) |
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May 31, 2023 · Last year, hundreds of community members, regulatory agencies, and advocates (including UCS) weighed in on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed standards to strengthen the Risk Management Program (RMP). The RMP requires nearly 12,000 highly hazardous chemical facilities to develop risk management plans to prepare for and prevent catastrophic disasters. In recent years, the RMP has been subject to a political tug-of-war: partially strengthened under the Obama administration and then promptly rolled back under the Trump administration. However, the proposals to date have all lacked strong measures to prevent chemical disasters and the latest iteration of the rule, ... Read more ...
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A Toxic Tour Helps Convey What Fenceline Communities Experience - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (May 19, 2023) |
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May 19, 2023 · Three colleagues and I from the Union of Concerned Scientists were invited to participate in a Toxics Tour in Kansas City. The experience was extremely valuable and I recommend it, especially if you are someone like me who works on environmental justice issues but doesn’t live in a frontline community. Reading articles and books, or mapping environmental inequities are useful of course, but there is nothing like in-person, trust building experiences to really bring home the realities of living right next to heavily polluting industries, distribution warehouses, busy highways, huge scrapyards, and fossil fuel generating plants.
I acknowledge that I don’t have this lived ... Read more ...
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Why Congress Should Pass the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (May 02, 2023) |
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May 02, 2023 · In March, one of the most comprehensive bills for advancing environmental justice was reintroduced in the US House and Senate: the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act (EJ for All Act). The bill, introduced in the House by Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Barbara Lee, and Sens. Cory Booker and Tammy Duckworth on the Senate side, is named in honor of the late Rep. Donald McEachin, who co-led the inception of this legislation starting in 2018 and was a fierce champion for environmental justice all his life.
Rep. McEachin, who passed away last November, was a lifelong advocate for social and environmental justice in my home state of Virginia. I had a small glimpse into ... Read more ...
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Two Arizona Ethylene Oxide-Emitting Facilities Impact Community Health - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Apr 24, 2023) |
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Apr 24, 2023 · Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment and to fumigate food products. It is also used as the initial component for making other chemicals, especially ethylene glycol (antifreeze), but also for making textiles, detergents, polyurethane foam, solvents, medicine, adhesives, plastics, and resins. Ethylene oxide was first described in 1859. However, it was not massively produced until World War I when fuel demand increased and ethylene oxide derived from petroleum was used to make antifreeze, mustard gas, and explosives.
Ethylene oxide is a chemical that is massively produced by fossil fuel industries. In 1931, the process of making ethylene oxide from ethylene was ... Read more ...
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Lawmakers Cherry-pick Outdated EPA Data in Effort to Undermine Environmental Justice Grant Programs - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 30, 2023) |
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Mar 30, 2023 · Last year, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which authorizes sweeping investments and policies to tackle the climate crisis and advance environmental justice. This historic bill invests nearly $3 billion in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate and Environmental Justice Block Grants, expanding funding for existing environmental justice grant programs and creating new opportunities.
Now, several conservative lawmakers are attempting to create roadblocks by using outdated EPA data to try to sow doubt and suspicion about these programs.
Broadly, these grants will support projects that aim to reduce harms to public health and the environment from ... Read more ...
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Minnesota Needs Environmental Protections for Cumulative Impacts. Your State Does Too. - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 16, 2023) |
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Mar 16, 2023 · On March 14, 2023, I testified before the Minnesota House of Representatives Environment and Natural Resources Committee in support of a cumulative impacts bill. Should it become statute, this bill would give additional regulatory authority to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (the state regulatory agency) to limit or deny an environmental permit if the proposal would result in significant additions to the cumulative environmental and public health stressors around the facility. This legislation, like other attempts to increase environmental protections for under-resourced communities, has been the long work of environmental justice groups in Minnesota including COPAL, ... Read more ...
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Minnesota Can Do More to Protect People from Ethylene Oxide Emissions - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Mar 01, 2023) |
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Mar 01, 2023 · Lately, I have been writing a lot about cumulative impacts from environmental hazards. Meanwhile, the Union of Concern Scientists just published an important report on the potential threat posed by emissions of ethylene oxide from facilities that use the cancer-causing gas to sterilize medical equipment and other products. The report includes case studies of hotspots for ethylene oxide emissions (including in Minnesota) and an interactive map. This analysis is strong and important work. And, as I’ll try to show, these two subjects have a lot in common.
The state of Minnesota uses EPA’s ethylene oxide emissions standards, which haven’t been updated since 2006. These standards ... Read more ...
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Ohio Train Wreck Shows: EPA Needs to Strengthen Disaster Prevention Rules - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Feb 27, 2023) |
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Feb 27, 2023 · Earlier this month, a 149-car train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed from the tracks near the 4,700-person town of East Palestine, Ohio. Some of the cars contained flammable hazardous substances, including vinyl chloride, which ignited upon derailing and burned for days.
Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas that is primarily used to make PVC plastic, often a component of building materials. Exposure to vinyl chloride is associated with an increased risk of cancer, as well as liver damage and central nervous system disfunction. (Vinyl chloride is produced from ethylene, which is also used to make ethylene oxide, another toxic gas that is polluting communities across the US). ... Read more ...
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EPA Can Save Lives with Tighter Protections on Fine Particulate Pollution - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Feb 03, 2023) |
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Feb 03, 2023 · Given the deadly risks of soot, especially to communities assaulted by polluting industries and vehicle exhaust from highways and heavy trucking, there’s nothing fine about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recent proposal to clamp down on fine-particulate pollution.
You don’t have to be a scientist to understand why.
The soot particles in question are known as PM 2.5 for particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller. This fine particulate often comprises a toxic brew of carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide created by several sources, including combustion in fossil fuel power plants, factories, and from car and truck emissions.
It is both ... Read more ...
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Roundup: Congress Acts on Clean Energy But Has Much More to Do - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jan 03, 2023) |
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Jan 03, 2023 · This post is part of a series of quarterly roundups on scientific integrity.
During the third quarter of 2022, Congress passed major legislation to subsidize clean energy but failed to authorize new funding for the COVID-19 response or strengthen requirements for evidence in Food and Drug Administration user fee programs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weakened guidance for preventing COVID-19 transmission while EPA proposed new rules to protect communities from hazardous chemicals.
Over the past few months, Congress has passed several science-informed laws. Most notable is the Inflation Reduction Act, which responds to the evidence about global warming ... Read more ...
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Fighting for Science and Democracy: Lessons in Advocacy from the Classroom to the Street - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Dec 19, 2022) |
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Dec 19, 2022 · It’s the first day of Introduction to Engineering and Design. I introduce myself to my students, listing my academic credentials, describing my research interests in sustainable engineering, education, and science policy. I pull up a photo of myself at the most recent March for Science in New York City, and I tell the students as an engineering educator, my goal is to train socially just engineers. As the words leave my mouth, I’m surprised at how nervous I feel saying this. I’ve introduced myself this way countless times to audiences including students before, but somehow in front of my own class I felt uncertain about sharing my work in advocacy.
I wondered to myself: had my ... Read more ...
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Cumulative Impacts: Why Environmental Protections Need to Take Them into Account - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Nov 22, 2022) |
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Nov 22, 2022 · When I began working as a state government scientist in Minnesota, I was motivated to advance environmental protections that prevent against pollutants from crossing from one environmental medium to another, such as from the air to water. But I had no idea I’d have the hands-on opportunity to combine cross media and social justice concepts to help implement a policy aimed at advancing environmental justice (EJ) and more inclusive decisionmaking.
In 2009, I was assigned to develop a method to implement a Minnesota statute and was fortunate to experience directly what imperfect but still more holistic and community-informed regulatory protections could look like. I learned ... Read more ...
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How’s EPA Doing on Air Pollution Science? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Oct 26, 2022) |
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Oct 26, 2022 · Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report that will likely have major effects on how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects people from dangerous air pollutants.
At issue is the EPA’s process of compiling what the agency calls an “integrated science assessment.” The focus might sound esoteric, but the stakes could not be higher, especially given the fact that a large and growing body of evidence links air pollution to death and illness, particularly cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory problems. For instance, particulate matter air pollution is one of the leading causes of death around the world and it can ... Read more ...
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Academic Institutions Have a Strong Role to Play in Disaster Response - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Oct 20, 2022) |
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Oct 20, 2022 · In a recent piece, University of Albany’s President, Dr. Havidán Rodriguez, stated that, “higher education can and should play a critical role in enhancing our understanding of disaster vulnerability, resiliency, mitigation, response, and recovery, and how to address these issues in order to mitigate the impacts of these events on communities across the world.” He is echoing the lessons learned during the RISE Conference held on his campus in 2019, where more than five hundred academics, community members and government officials met to discuss the role of universities in disasters. Since then, RISE has become an interdisciplinary and interuniversity collaborative network that ... Read more ...
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The Supreme Court Has Unleashed a New Tool to Hamstring Federal Agencies. Congress Must Act. - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Oct 06, 2022) |
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Oct 06, 2022 · The West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision the US Supreme Court handed down in June curtailed strategies EPA can use to slow climate change, but its problematic implications stretch far beyond greenhouse gas reduction. In a new report, experts from the Center for Progressive Reform, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, and the Union of Concerned Scientists explain the decision and its implications for the effective functioning of the US regulatory system and recommend steps that the executive branch and Congress can take to preserve our government’s ability to address challenges to public health and ... Read more ...
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Strengthening EPA’s Rule to Prevent Chemical Disasters - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Sep 29, 2022) |
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Sep 29, 2022 · Yesterday evening, I provided testimony to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a public hearing on the proposed rule on the Risk Management Program (RMP). The RMP requires the roughly 12,000 facilities across the United States that use extremely hazardous substances to develop Risk Management Plans that identify prevention and response measures for chemical disasters. The program was gutted in 2019 under the Trump administration and, following a series of listening sessions in 2021, the EPA under Michael Regan’s leadership proposed the “Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention” rule. The proposal partially restores some prevention and response measures, but we ... Read more ...
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EPA’s Chemical Safety Rule Tests the Biden Administration’s Commitment to Environmental Justice - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Sep 28, 2022) |
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Sep 28, 2022 · In christening a new office of environmental justice, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan proclaimed Saturday that “underserved and overburdened communities are at the forefront of our work.”
A stern test of that proclamation began just two days later. On Monday, the EPA held the first of three virtual listening sessions on the Biden administration’s proposal to strengthen its chemical disaster rule. Many safety measures were gutted by the Trump administration’s EPA, which was run by coal and chemical industry lobbyists. During the Trump administration, polluters were relieved of the need to tell the public what chemicals they store, to conduct analyses ... Read more ...
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Ethylene Oxide at the Intersection of Climate, Environment, and Social Justice - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Sep 14, 2022) |
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Sep 14, 2022 · There are a few fundamental chemicals that are the building blocks to most thing that we use, and one of them is ethylene oxide (EtO). EtO is used to make plastics, glycols, detergents, solvents, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. It is also used by commercial sterilization companies to render medical devices free of germs, and as a pesticide to fumigate spices. Unfortunately, EtO is also a highly volatile chemical, and a known carcinogen. The reliance on EtO means that its ubiquity is disastrous.
EtO is made from petroleum or methane. This makes it a relatively cheap building block. Oil companies want to ensure endless demand for their products and byproducts, including teaming ... Read more ...
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New UCS Survey Asks Federal Scientists: How are You Faring in the Biden Administration? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Sep 07, 2022) |
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Sep 07, 2022 · Starting next week, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) will distribute an online survey to tens of thousands of federal scientists across seven agencies. The purpose of this survey is to assess the state of science in federal agencies, and how the many issues we’re asking about affect the ability of science-based agencies to carry out their missions to protect public health and the environment.
We all rely on federal agencies to use unfettered, impartial science and data in their decisionmaking processes. After all, these agencies actions often have a direct impact on how well the public is protected from threats such as climate change impacts, natural disasters, unsafe ... Read more ...
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Will the Biden Administration’s Chemical Disaster Rule Finally Make Communities Safer? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Aug 19, 2022) |
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Aug 19, 2022 · Today, EPA Administrator Michael Regan proposed the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule. This policy includes long-awaited reforms to the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, often called the Chemical Disaster Rule. It pertains to 12,000 facilities across the country that contain highly hazardous substances, and requires companies to develop plans for responding to a worst-case incident such as a major fire or explosion that might release toxic chemical pollution into the surrounding community. The consequences of such disasters are far from hypothetical - a long list of them have occurred across the country in recent decades. That’s why preventing chemical ... Read more ...
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Children Will Suffer the Consequences of Recent Supreme Court Rulings - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jul 01, 2022) |
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Jul 01, 2022 · It appears to be of no concern to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ultraconservative majority how children are collateral damage in its monumental rulings to close the 2021-22 term.
First, the conservatives struck down New York’s requirement for gun owners to prove why they should be allowed to pack heat in public. The ruling ignored, among many practical realities, that bullets are now the top killer of children.
Then, in overturning Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to an abortion, they not only denied a pregnant person’s right to their own body, but they also ignored the fact that children born to mothers who are denied abortions face a 3-in-4 chance of being raised in ... Read more ...
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How the American Legislative Exchange Council Turns Disinformation into Law - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jun 29, 2022) |
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Jun 29, 2022 · In June 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill banning the state from contracting with or investing in businesses that divest from coal, oil or natural gas companies. For Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian - one of the state’s top energy regulators - the message was clear: “Boycott Texas, and we’ll boycott you.”
Since the beginning of this year, lawmakers in Indiana, Oklahoma and West Virginia have introduced bills that read a lot like the Texas anti-divestment law, and legislators in a dozen other states have also expressed support for the legislation’s objective.
Mere coincidence? Not at all. The template for the bill, titled the Energy ... Read more ...
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Healthcare Professionals Ask EPA to Protect Frontline Communities - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Jun 28, 2022) |
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Jun 28, 2022 · The Sunday after Thanksgiving is usually quiet, but for those who live along Route 9 in New Castle, Delaware, it’s hard to forget the harrowing events that unfolded in November 2018. A local chemical manufacturer had an ethylene oxide leak, with nearly 3,000 pounds of the chemical released into the community. The risk of explosion ultimately shut down the Delaware Memorial Bridge to traffic, and residents were told to shelter in place as the flammable chemical leaked from the plant. In the aftermath, OSHA fined the facility, but also pointed out that the accident was preventable.
This event was hardly unique. In 2011, a raccoon found its way into some electrical equipment at ... Read more ...
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Restoring Public Interest to the National Environmental Policy Act Process - Union of Concerned Scientists - Scientific Integrity (Apr 20, 2022) |
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Apr 20, 2022 · On Monday, the Biden administration announced changes to the guidelines for federal agencies’ compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That’s the law requiring an evaluation of impacts on the human and natural environment before all “federal actions” can proceed. While it is often thought to apply primarily to construction projects, NEPA actually covers federal permitting of all types, and actions under many other statutes, such as the Clean Water Act, land and ocean management, and pretty much everything the federal government does that may affect the environment.
The new changes reverse some, but not all, decisions by the Trump administration which had ... Read more ...
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