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.
Covid-19 Pandemic
In response to Covid-10 global pandemic, 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
More PFAS Found in Maryland Water and Seafood
Maryland Must Set Health Standards for Toxic “Forever Chemical”
BLOG: National Forests and COVID-19. What’s Happening?
National Forests receive less attention than parks during COVID-19, but overcrowding, lack of resources, and risk to gateway communities are the same.
EPA Failing CDC Criteria for Re-Opening Offices
No Regional Office Meets “Gating Criteria” or Ensures CDC Safeguards
EPA Halts Re-Opening New England Office
Data Shows Infections Still Exceed CDC “Gating Criteria” for Phase One
PEERMail: 100,000 and Counting – A Grim Milestone
As we pass a grim mortality milestone for the COVID-19 pandemic, this immense death toll highlights the distressing extent of our national incapacity.
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
The Federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic is largely lead by non-scientists in the Offices of Public Affairs with public health officials used as props
PEER During the Pandemic (Updated Apr 10, 2020)
During the pandemic, PEER continues to support government whistleblowers, protect public employees, and represent epidemiologists at both the CDC and EPA.
Losing Our Voice: The Attack on Public Health Science
Politicians are leading our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts and scienists, sidelined and ignored, have lost their voices.
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. How can national parks dedicated to attracting crowds operate in a new era of social distancing?
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 an uneven handling of COVID-19 by the Trump administration.
BLOG: COVID-19 Power Grab
Buried deep in the $2 trillion coronavirus bill, was a change in the tax code that “could result in $170 billion in tax breaks for real estate investors.”
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
Failure to address the pandemic lies with Trump and politicians like Mitch McConnell who have a long history gutting funding of our public health agencies and ignoring the advice of scientists and health advocates.
BLOG: How Mitch McConnell Gutted the Pandemic Response
While he has been the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell has led efforts to cut $1.6 trillion in critical funding for CDC and NIH research. And now, as our public health services are begging for resources to save lives from the pandemic, Americans are living the policy result of Sen. McConnell’s efforts.
PEER Letter to Suspend Action During Coronavirus Crisis
A coalition of more than 90 conservation groups issued a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging the department to “suspend major policy changes, changes to regulations, oil and gas lease sales and public comment periods.”
