News Releases

Showdown for DuPont: EPA Starts Review of Teflon Chemical Now in Human Blood

Friday, June 6, 2003

EWG testifies at a EPA public meeting on teflon contamination, and charges DuPont repeatedly downplayed questions of the Teflon chemical’s toxicity.

Key Issues:

PFAS Chemicals

Cookware

Follow Up to Utility Industry-Funded Study Leads to Finding that Mercury in Fish No Problem, Scores of Independent Studies Suggest

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

In an effort to divert building efforts to warn American women about the dangers of mercury-contaminated tuna fish, seafood industry lobbyists are hyping a study originally funded by the mercury-polluting utility industry showing that children in a remote Indian Ocean island nation were not harmed by mercury pollution in the seafood their mothers ate when pregnant.

Key Issues:

Mercury

Capps Bill Would Curb Toxic Perchlorate Contamination Chemical Found in California Water, Agriculture Products

Monday, April 28, 2003

Congresswoman Lois Capps today introduced legislation to protect Americans from perchlorate, a chemical contaminate that has seeped into underground water supplies and has recently been detected in agricultural products such as lettuce. The Preventing Perchlorate Pollution Act would accelerate the establishment of an EPA standard for perchlorate, and require the enhanced access to community "right to know" information about perchlorate contamination.

Key Issues:

Perchlorate

Senator Boxer's letter to FDA

Monday, April 28, 2003

Correspondence regarding perchlorate contamination in food growth in the United States

Key Issues:

Perchlorate

Chemicals in Food

Suspect Salads: Toxic Rocket Fuel Found in Samples of Winter Lettuce

Monday, April 28, 2003

Lettuce grown in the fall and winter months in Southern California or Arizona may contain higher levels of toxic rocket fuel than is considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to independent laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).

Key Issues:

Chemicals in Food

Tap Water

EWG TSCA 8(e) Petition: EPA probes DuPont birth defect study

Friday, April 11, 2003

EWG alleged today that the DuPont chemical company has violated federal law by withholding from the government for the last 22 years a company study that detected a toxic, Teflon-related chemical in the umbilical cord blood of one infant born to a company worker, and in the blood of another worker’s baby.

Key Issues:

Environmental Working Group calls for Immediate Recall of Arsenic-Treated Playsets and Reimbursement for Consumers

Monday, March 17, 2003

The Environmental Working Group today asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban the use of arsenic-treated wood in outdoor play structures and to order consumer refunds for millions of playsets nationwide, based on a new round of laboratory tests that found high levels of arsenic contamination even on older pressure-treated wooden structures.

Key Issues:

Arsenic

Ford Caught Lying - Again

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Ford has been the subject of some strong charges by our organization about its veracity with customers and the public about the safety of its Bronco II-Explorer model line.

Key Issues:

Ford Hid SUV Rollover Evidence For Decades

Monday, March 10, 2003

Like other car companies, Ford has consistently fought mandatory increases in fuel economy for SUVs and other vehicles by invoking fears that higher mileage requirements would result in smaller, more dangerous vehicles.

Key Issues:

SEN. BOXER INTRODUCES BILL TO SET SAFETY STANDARD

Monday, March 3, 2003

Environmental Working Group (EWG) applauded Sen. Barbara Boxer’s introduction today of a bill to set a national safety standard for rocket fuel waste in drinking water, and released exclusive up-to-date data on all known or suspected occurrences of the contaminant in hundreds of locations in 43 states.

Key Issues:

Perchlorate

Tap Water

BOXER INTRODUCES BILL TO REGULATE PERCHLORATE

Monday, March 3, 2003

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today introduced legislation to protect drinking water from contamination by the toxic chemical perchlorate.

Key Issues:

Arsenic Lobbyists Coming Out of Woodwork

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

For decades, they made the world safe for skyrocketing sales of arsenic-soaked wood, and dangerous for the millions of Americans who were exposed to the material, and are still exposed today. But faced with overwhelming scientific evidence that resulted in a regulatory ban and prompted a flood of lawsuits, the American Wood Preservers Institute of Gainesville, FL, has closed its doors for good.

Key Issues:

NAS Committee Meets on Testing of Pesticides, Toxic Chemicals on Humans

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel, requested by the Bush Administration, will meet January 8-9, 2003 to begin its review of the ethics of chemical companies using humans in laboratory tests in order to loosen environmental safeguards on pesticides and other toxic chemicals.

Key Issues:

EWG Files Legal Challenge to FDA Mercury Health Advisory

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Today EWG filed a legal challenge seeking to block the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from issuing a weak proposed health advisory for mercury in seafood. New analyses contained within the filing show that FDA's advice fails to meet the standards for accuracy and scientific integrity of the Data Quality Act, a law passed in 2000.

Key Issues:

Mercury

EWG's Response to Glacier's Letter

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

On Dec. 10 the Environmental Working Group and the Environmental Law Foundation released the results of tests on water purchased from 274 Glacier vending machines in California. Analysis of the samples found that water from more than a third of the machines failed California standards for trihalomethanes (THMs) in vended water.

Key Issues:

Water

Press Release: Is Vended Water Really Chemical Free?

OAKLAND, Dec. 10 - Glacier Water Services, the largest seller in California and the U.S. of filtered water from vending machines, claims its machines dispense chemical-free drinking water. But the first statewide tests of vended water for chemical contaminants found that one-third of Glacier...

Glacier's Press Release

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Statement by Brian McInerney, President and CEO of Glacier Water Services, Inc.

Key Issues: