Two generations ago, Rachel Carson woke us up, and her book and others sounded a clarion call that should have changed the country’s laissez faire attitude about inventing, using, and discarding chemicals into our air, water, and soil before we studied them to reassure ourselves that they were harmless. Read more »
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Energy is essential to our daily lives, and is the foundation of our modern, industrial society. But fossil fuels, which feed the energy appetite of our nation and that of most developed nations, cost our society dearly in terms of health, environmental, and economic impacts. Read more »

In the 1990s there was a shocking discovery. After more than 20 years of federal regulations aimed at reducing negative impacts of air pollution and clearing skies above American cities, two major studies found that the pollution that remained was still strongly associated with mortality. Read more »
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Since implementation of the Clear Air Act of 1970 people across the country breathe healthier air because of much lower concentrations of carbon monoxide, acidic gases of sulfur and nitrogen, lead, particulates, and ozone. Furthermore, ecosystems in the eastern United States are recovering from the effects of acidic precipitation. Why was it so successful? Read more »
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The Clean Air Act (CAA) is one of the most important and effective public health laws ever enacted. Read more »

Other essays this month will point to specific health-related outcomes that are attributable to the Clean Air Act (CAA) and its amendments. Here, I focus at the overall impact of the Act on our economy. Read more »

Adults breathe at a resting rate of approximately 12 breaths per minute, thus obtaining 3000 gallons of air per day. Exercise, stress, pregnancy, and many medical problems will increase the rate and amount. Read more »
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While there have been many achievements during the 40-year tenure of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) provided tremendous and tangible benefits at a few different levels. Read more »
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Living in Northwest Indiana, in the midst of a highly industrialized area, one of my favorite stories was told by Jean Sheppard, a humorist who came from Hammond, IN. Born in 1921, he grew up near a factory that produced insecticides. Read more »

I would use the phrase “food system” rather than food production system when discussing food and exposure to environmental toxicants. Read more »

I remember looking forward to May when I was a child -- strawberry season! I would go to a local farm with my grandmother to pick sweet red strawberries for jam, shortcake, and just plain eating. Read more »
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When Time magazine published their now infamous 2007 cover proclaiming “Forget Organic -- Eat Local,” a collective groan went up in the food reform community. Read more »
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The idea that American agriculture would one day be dominated by “moneyed corporations” would have been unthinkable to Thomas Jefferson – the man who, more than any other American, defined the nation’s farmers as the paragons of republican virtue. Read more »
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Human exposure to toxic chemicals and environmental degradation due to our food production system is linked to the ever expanding human population and chemicals developed during the last two world wars, to kill insects as well as humans. Read more »
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Consumer advisories warning the public to limit their intake of particular fish because they contain high levels of certain chemicals are ubiquitous. On the other hand, the medical community, nutritionists, and government agencies in this country prescribe frequent fish consumption for Omega-3 fatty acids and other positive health factors. Read more »
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Biblical locusts, medieval plague, and unrelenting malarial mosquitoes: humans have always lived in a pestiferous world. Ever ingenious, humans have devised myriad solutions over the centuries to eradicate insects and vermin. Read more »
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On a cold winter day in a Michigan supermarket I can find asparagus and mangoes from Peru, lettuce from California, tomatoes from Florida, and apples that have been in cold storage since the fall harvest. Read more »
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An historic crossover took place in North Carolina in 2010: the cost of electricity per kilowatt hour generated from photovoltaics (PV), after steadily falling for decades, rivaled that of nuclear power. After 2010, PV electricity is projected to be less expensive in the state than that of nuclear, with a trend of rapidly divergent costs between the two energy sources. Read more »

Policy making at the Federal level has been frustratingly bogged down with political agendas that have virtually halted the implementation of a progressive- and solutions-oriented clean and renewable energy bill. Read more »
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The physical evidence for climate change has been accumulating for decades. So has the scientific documentation. Why then do so many people not believe that climate change is real? Read more »
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