Protecting Public Health
Environmental and health specialists are heartsick over the malfeasance of their agencies in failing to protect the health of children, workers and the public at large. We expose information about the effects of environmental toxins on public health, challenge industry capture of our regulatory agencies, and fight for an effective safety net to protect us from dangerous toxins.
Coronavirus
In response to the novel coronavirus, PEER is stepping up its efforts to ensure that public health experts have the capacity and the legal backing to speak truth to power and that government agencies continue their essential functions.
Artificial Turf
Human health risks from toxic chemicals and known carcinogens found in synthetic sports fields and playgrounds made from shredded tires remain largely unstudied
PFAS
The EPA is failing to protect the public from the health risks of this new class of chemicals.
Toxic Cleanups
EPA and state governments often fail to clean up some of the most dangerous toxic sites.
Chemical Safety
The US Chemical Safety Board is failing in its duty to monitor, investigate and report on chemical safety accidents in the U.S.
Sick Schools
Contaminated soil, air born pollutants and toxic building materials should have no place in our schools.
Coal Combustion Waste
Toxic coal ash is in a growing stream of consumer, agricultural and commercial products without oversight
NEWS FROM PEER
BLOG: COVID-19 Power Grab
Last week, President Trump signed the $2 trillion coronavirus bill meant to help Americans get through the COVID-19 crisis. From hospitals to small businesses to working Americans, the bill appropriated billions to different sectors of America that have been decimated...
PEERMail: 100,000 and Counting – A Grim Milestone
As America passes a grim mortality milestone of 100,000 and counting for the COVID-19 pandemic, this immense and mounting death toll highlights the distressing extent of our national incapacity. Three aspects of our current situation stand out to me – Our inability to...
Orlando Chronic Sewage Breakdowns Fester
Spills Risk COVID Exposure Yet No Abatement or Enforcement
BLOG: EPA Creating A “Pandemic of Pollution” Since COVID-19 Crisis
Despite the connection between exposure to air pollution and adverse outcomes from COVID-19, EPA continues to accelerate its efforts to gut important air quality protections, unleashing what a new staff report by U.S. Senator Carper calls a “pandemic of pollution.”...
PFAS in Colorado: Fact Sheet
PFAS are a man-made chemical that are used in the manufacture of consumer goods including cookware, flame-retardants, waterproofing, furniture and take out containers.
Sewage Spills Pose COVID-19 Risks
Overflows into Drinking Water Sources May Create New Infection Vectors
EPA COVID-19 Guidance Sows Employee Confusion
Superfund Inspectors Unsure about PPE and Other Key Health Issues
PEERMail: Losing Our Voices
Yesterday we published an anonymous blog, Losing Our Voice, from an agency scientist who writes, “In the flurry of activity to respond to the pandemic, public health officials and scientists have lost our voices.” The writer observes that scientists have been slowly...
PEER During the Pandemic (Updated Apr 10, 2020)
The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be enormous and irreversible. For us at PEER, there will be some big changes, while some things we are already doing will continue and expand. Here are some examples: Public Health Impacts PEER is currently representing...
Losing Our Voice: The Attack on Public Health Science
In the flurry of activity to respond to the pandemic, public health officials and scientists have lost our voice. Many may not realize it, but our current pandemic may be the first in U.S. history that has been led, not by scientists, but by non-scientists in Offices...
Can National Parks Practice Social Distancing?
The still unfolding pandemic has underlined the public health risks that national parks and refuges pose both to the visiting public and their own employees. Over the past few weeks, more than 140 park units have shuttered with more closing every day. For the very...
EPA Not on Emergency Footing
Extraneous Activities Undercut “Primary Mission Essential Function”
National Parks Epitomize Trump COVID Inconsistency
As more than 100 national park units have closed, hundreds more remain open in unevenly evolving situation that is confusing, at best. Unfortunately for all of us, this same stop-start approach is also characteristic of the Trump White House’s overall response to the...
BLOG: COVID-19 Power Grab
Last week, President Trump signed the $2 trillion coronavirus bill meant to help Americans get through the COVID-19 crisis. From hospitals to small businesses to working Americans, the bill appropriated billions to different sectors of America that have been decimated...
NRC Stages Swift Sweeping Rollback During Pandemic
Vast Amounts of Rad Waste Slated for Disposal by Unlicensed Operators
PEERMail: Anti-Science Agenda Getting a Green Light
Much of the world is shocked by the botched response of the United States to the coronavirus outbreak. Responsibility for this fiasco lies with President Trump and politicians like Senate leader Mitch McConnell who have a long history working feverishly to gut funding...
BLOG: How Mitch McConnell Gutted the Pandemic Response
On March 23, Sen. Mitch McConnell took the Senate floor to excoriate opponents who were trying to amend the COVID-19 bill to include accountability and transparency measures, including an independent oversight board, and an elimination of a provision in the bill that...
PEER Letter to Suspend Action During Coronavirus Crisis
A coalition of more than 90 conservation groups issued a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Monday, March 23, 2020, urging the department to "suspend major policy changes, changes to regulations, oil and gas lease sales and public comment periods." This...
BLOG: Self-Dealing, COVID-19 and the Public Trust
Reports that U.S. Senators sold millions of dollars in stock after receiving non-public information during Congressional briefings in January and February on the coronavirus threat should come as no surprise given the endemic self-dealing by government leaders. These...
Coronavirus Leaves National Parks in Leaderless Limbo
Park Entrance Fees Waived as Visitor Centers Shuttered and Staff Telework
ALERT: Pandemic Perspective
As the novel coronavirus spreads across the country, many people have asked how we plan to continue to our work. The global impact of the coronavirus is bringing dramatic changes to how we live, many of which we have already begun to feel around the nation.
