Center for Health, Environment & Justice
Donate

Lisa Jackson Steps Down at EPA

The public is loosing a key ally in the fight for clean air, water and environmental justice. Lisa Jackson is resigning as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the end of January. Jackson’s legacy will be her dogged commitment to protecting the environment and supporting environmental justice advocates in the face an incredibly hostile Congress and emboldened industrial lobby. The move is not surprising as few agency administrators stay on during a second presidential term. She will be sorely missed. Jackson‘s ascendency to the as the head of

Read More »
December 28, 2012

Today’s Rachel Carson

Today’s Rachel Carson is a woman I know, admire and love, Dr. Beverly Paigen. I was reminded of how important Dr. Paigen is when asked to present her with an award from the Maine Environmental Health Strategies Center. When I began to think about what I would say about Dr. Paigen I realized how groundbreaking her research was back in 1978 at Love Canal. How when she presented her theories and her research findings around the Love Canal chemicals and adverse health problems she was dismissed, ridiculed, and harassed by

Read More »
December 21, 2012

Train Derailment in NJ: More of the Same – No Cause for Alarm

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] How many times have we heard the same refrain from government leaders and scientists involved in community wide exposures such as the recent train derailment in Paulsboro, NJ that released 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride into the air? “There’s no cause for alarm, we have everything under control.” If only this were true. Instead, many of the hundreds of people in the 27 block area that

Read More »
December 14, 2012

Poisoned Wells

Federal officials have given energy and mining companies permission to pollute aquifers in more than 1,500 places across the country, releasing toxic material into underground reservoirs that help supply more than half of the nation’s drinking water, according to a ProPublica 12/12/12 article. “In many cases, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted these so-called aquifer exemptions in Western states now stricken by drought and increasingly desperate for water. EPA records show that portions of at least 100 drinking water aquifers have been written off because exemptions have allowed them to

Read More »
December 12, 2012

Ohio citizens beat the ODNR at their attempt to play the old control game of divide and conquer.

We all know the tactic where an agency sets up separate tables in large banquet or meeting rooms to break a meeting up into small discussion groups. This effectively keeps valuable information that would otherwise be revealed in the general discussion from being heard by the larger group, which would have enhanced communal brainstorming and questioning of the process or problem that is the citizens concern. This suppresses any controversial discussions that doesn’t fit the agency agenda, and inhibits networking or brainstorming on the issue. Over 100 Athens County citizens

Read More »
December 5, 2012

If People Were Treated like Corporate Profits – Maybe We’d Be Safer

Today families, school children, hundreds of residents were evacuated again from the area around the train derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which sent a cloud of vinyl chloride into the air early Friday. This event is yet another example of how our federal and state governmental agencies fail to respond in a health protective way. They failed to gather enough data to clearly, scientifically and honestly say to families it is safe to go home. They shot from the hip—said it was safe and they were wrong. Imagine on Friday all

Read More »
December 3, 2012
Blog Roll
Greenpeace’s The Witness
Grist
Groovy Green
Healthy Child Healthy World
Inside Prevention
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Moms Rising
Pharos
Safe Mama
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families
The Soft Landing
Treehugger
Zero Waste World