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« My new year's resolution? Parent power. | Main | Dear George - Don't go away mad. Just go away. »
Breakthrough 2008 to blow-out 2009
Our new year's resolution: build on the accomplishments of 2008 to make 2009 the year we turn the corner on crucial environmental issues facing our society. We scored breakthroughs on a range of problems last year. Among them:
Advancing the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act.
EWG's work on toxic chemicals spurred the reintroduction of the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act and its requirement of mandatory biomonitoring of industrial chemicals in people. EWG briefed Congressional staff members on the legislation, that aims to replace the weak Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. In the next Congress, EWG plans to organize briefings and push for hearings and passage of the bill.
Progressing toward a ban of toxic plastic chemical BPA.
On October 31, the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a stinging rebuke to the agency and embraced EWG arguments that bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen used to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin may be a threat to human health. The panel forced FDA to retreat from its stance that trace levels of BPA are safe in food packaging, including infant formula cans and baby bottles. EWG scientists testified, wrote comments and served on the expert panel for the Science Board.
In September, the National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program (NTP)declared that BPA, shown in laboratory tests to disrupt the endocrine system, may alter brain development, cause behavioral problems and damage the prostate glands in fetuses, infants and young children.
In 2009, EWG will work with Congressional leaders and the Obama administration to press for a federal ban of BPA in food packaging and other products that expose children and pregnant women to the chemical.
With strong advocacy by EWG's California office, the California assembly office came close to passing the first state-level BPA ban. In 2009, 13 state legislatures are expected to consider similar measures.
Blowing the whistle on FDA plan to push mercury-laced seafood.
On December 12, the Environmental Working Group made public internal government documents disclosing the Food and Drug Administration's secret plans to reverse federal warnings that pregnant women and children limit their fish intake to avoid mercury, a neurotoxin especially dangerous to the fetus and infants. EWG obtained both the FDA plan, stamped "CLOSE HOLD," and memos by senior Environmental Protection Agency scientists attacking FDA's rationale. The Washington Post broke the story, and other national stories followed.
Reaction from Capitol Hill was swift and sharp. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., denounced FDA: "Now, in the administration's 11th hour, they are quietly trying to water down advisories for women and children about the dangers of mercury in fish, disregarding sound science on this issue....This backroom bouquet for special interests should be stopped in its tracks. If they slip this through, I will work with the incoming Obama Administration to restore science-based decisions on mercury."
Winning the debate (just not the vote) on farm subsidy fairness.
EWG's campaign for equity in farm payment programs triggered 475 editorials from U.S. newspapers clamoring for reform of the farm subsidy system and changed the debate on government supports. President-elect Obama has indicated that he intends to halt farm subsidies to multi-millionaires.
EWG's farm subsidy database, with over 124 million searches since 2004, is used daily by policy makers, opinion leaders and advocates who continue to push for an overhaul of our misguided farm policy.
Calling Congress to account for proposing to cut conservation funding
by $285 million -- only 29 days after passing the 2008 farm bill with promises to increase conservation spending. EWG issued two hard-hitting reports detailing the conservation programs slated for the chopping block and analyzing how much conservation funding states would lose if Congress went through with their proposed cuts.
Pushing back on the ethanol industry's lobbying
for billions more in subsidies and bailouts to keep expanding production of corn ethanol with all its unresolved environmental and social problems. EWG, working with the Clean Air Task Force, Friends of the Earth, and the Network for New Energy Choices, developed a detailed agenda for overhauling ethanol and biofuel subsidies and mandates as part of a comprehensive energy policy for the United States.
Fighting for New York's water supply.
On September 10 and December 12, senior mining analyst Dusty Horwitt testified before the New York City Council Environmental Protection Committee on proposed natural gas drilling in the New York City watershed. Natural gas companies want to use a process called hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting water laced with toxic chemicals into the ground. The technique threatens environmental health and the safety of public drinking water, not to mention New York's bakers, who attribute their unsurpassed pizza and bagels to the purity of New York City water. EWG agreed with committee chairman James Gennaro that no gas drilling be allowed in the city's watershed.
Protecting national treasures from mining.
In June, after EWG exposed a surge in uranium and other mining claims near the Grand Canyon, Congress invoked its rarely-used emergency authority to ban mining on more than 1 million acres around the canyon, but the Bush administration defied the legally bindng resolution.
In 2009, EWG will press the Obama administration and Congress to protect the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River that flows through it. EWG will also work with the new Congress to pass comprehensive mining reform, following on House passage in 2007 of the first update of the nation's hardrock mining law since 1872. The Senate did not act on the bill, which bans mining activity that would impact around national parks and monuments and imposes the first-ever royalties on minerals taken from public lands.
Sounding the alarm over rocket fuel in drinking water.
EWG worked intensely to press EPA to crack down on pollution of perchlorate, a rocket fuel component and thyroid toxin, in drinking water. Agency leaders refused and were widely denounced by newspaper editorials and environmentalists.
On May 6, EWG Executive Director Richard Wiles testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at a hearing on legislation by committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to set national safety standards for perchlorate in drinking water.
Leached from military bases and manufacturing plants into water supplies, the chemical has contaminated the drinking water of 40 million people in nearly 30 states. Research shows it disrupts the production of thyroid hormones, essential for brain development. In 2001 EWG put perchlorate on the map by exposing an unethical human experiment: defense contractor Lockheed Martin was giving the chemical to people in a failed attempt to show it was safe.
California officials announced they would reassess their public health goal for perchlorate after EWG and other advocacy groups petitioned them to do so.
Fighting to ban Teflon-related compounds.
In August, in response to an intensive education campaign by EWG, the California state assembly passed a bill banning two Teflon-related chemicals -- perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluoroctanic acid (PFOA) -- from use in food packaging such as burger wrapping and pizza boxes. The chemicals have been linked to cancer and developmental problems in chidren. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. EWG will renew its efforts to see it passed in 2009.
Pioneering a new approach to assessing chemical risks.
EWG testified twice in front of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies about the dangers of phthalates, industrial plasticizers that disrupt the endocrine system and have been shown to cause developmental malformations in male reproductive systems. Phthalates are banned in Europe for use in cosmetics.
On Dec. 18, in response to EWG and other environmental health advocates, the NRC recommended that EPA adopt a drastically different, and potentially faster and more definitive, method of assessing the risks of industrial chemicals like phthalates. Instead of studying each chemical (and similarly structured chemicals) in isolation, NRC said, EPA should conduct cumulative, real-world risk assessments for chemicals that cause similar health effects. NRC said EPA must recognize that humans are exposed to multiple chemical and that exposure levels change over time.
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