"In the first slate of nutritional recommendations it has issued since 2011, the federal government on Thursday gave health-conscious Americans the go-ahead to eat eggs and others foods rich in cholesterol, to drink as many as five cups of coffee daily, and to enjoy a range of fats long avoided by many."
Do consumers have a right to know where their food comes from? What if there is a federal law decreeing that they have that right? Not anymore. None of that matters. International trade treaties — nowadays often negotiated in secret — trump United States law aimed at protecting consumers.
"At least 600 million people, or 1 in 10 worldwide, fall ill from contaminated food each year and 420,000 die, many of them young children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday."
Reporters trying to get information from federal agencies find press offices stonewalling and running out the clock on their interview requests. "The public information model," one agency flak said, "is dead." The result: the public is uninformed, the government is unaccountable, and people's health is endangered.
"US regulators clear a viral melanoma therapy, paving the way for a promising field with a chequered past."
In the Summer 2015 cycle of the Fund for Environmental Journalism, SEJ awarded $43,683 in grants to 11 journalism projects in three reporting categories. Pictured: Gabriel Popkin, a freelance science and environmental writer based in Maryland.
Whether pesticides harm the birds and bees — or human health — matters a lot. One of the public's protections is the requirement for disclosure in the nation's pesticide laws. Three groups, represented by Earthjustice, argue that EPA has authority under current federal pesticide law to require disclosure of inert ingredients.
Donald Trump's statement, during the September 16, 2015, debate, that vaccinations cause autism contradicted science and endangered human lives, doctors say. Moreover, the idea (expressed by several candidates) that scheduling childhood vaccinations less frequently than pediatricians recommend also endangers the health of children.
"A rare, incurable brain disorder that resembles Parkinson's disease is caused by a misfolded brain protein called a prion, similar to the prions that cause mad cow disease, researchers reported on Monday."
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