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| Founded | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Ken Cook, Richard Wiles [1] |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Environmentalism |
| Location | |
| Website | www |
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an American activist group that specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability. EWG is a nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)).
In 1993, the Environmental Working Group was founded by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles. [1] EWG is headquartered in Washington, D.C.. [2] Its lobbying organization, the EWG Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) organization) was founded in 2002. [3]
EWG partners with companies to certify their products. [4] Its reports are influential with the public, but it has been criticized for exaggerating the risks of chemicals. [4] [5] [6]
According to its co-founder Ken Cook, the EWG advocates for organic food and farming. [7] EWG receives funding from organic food manufacturers, and that funding source and its product safety warnings of purported health hazards have drawn criticism, [6] [8] [9] [10] [11] the warnings being labeled "alarmist", "scaremongering" and "misleading." [12] [13] [14] Brian Dunning of Skeptoid describes the EWG's activities as "a political lobbying group for the organic industry." [6]
According to a 2009 survey of 937 members of the Society of Toxicology conducted by George Mason University, 79% of respondents thought EWG overstated the risks of chemicals, while only 3% thought it underestimated them and 18% thought they were accurate. [5] [15] Quackwatch has included EWG in its list of "questionable organisations," [16] calling it as one of "[t]he key groups that have wrong things to say about cosmetic products". [17]
Environmental historian James McWilliams has described EWG warnings as fearmongering and misleading, and writes that there is little evidence to support its claims: [18] "The transparency of the USDA’s program in providing the detailed data is good because it reveals how insignificant these residues are from a health perspective. Unfortunately, the EWG misuses that transparency in a manipulative way to drive their fear-based, organic marketing agenda." [19]
According to Kavin Senapathy of Science Moms , the EWG "frightens consumers about chemicals and their safety, cloaking fear mongering in a clever disguise of caring and empowerment." His main criticisms are its use of "fundamentally flawed" methodologies for evaluating food, cosmetics, children’s products, and more, and that it is "largely funded by organic companies" that its shopping recommendations benefit. [9]
The EWG promotes an annual list ranking pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables called the "Dirty Dozen", though it does not give readers context on what amounts regulatory agencies consider safe. The list cautions consumers to avoid conventional produce and promotes organic foods. [20] [21]
Scientists have stated that the list significantly overstates the risk to consumers of the listed items and that the methodology employed in constructing it "lacks scientific credibility" and "may be intentionally misleading." [20] [22] A 2011 study showed that the items on the list had safe levels of chemical residue or none at all. [23] [20] A 2011 analysis of the USDA's PDP data [24] by Steve Savage found that 99.33% of the detectable residues were below EPA tolerance and half of the samples contained less than a hundredth those levels. [25]
Since the early 2000s, EWG has been advocating for increasing regulations on the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). [26] [27] [28] EWG has collaborated with the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI) at Northeastern University to publish a map showing detections of PFAS in water samples across the USA. [26] [27]
In July 2008, the EWG published an analysis of over 900 sunscreens. The report concluded that only 15% of the sunscreens met the group's criteria for safety and effectiveness. [29] It called on the FDA to require that manufacturers provide more detailed information about the level of sun protection provided for both UVA and UVB radiation. [29] Representatives of the sunscreen industry called the 2008 sunscreen report inaccurate. [29] Commenting on the 2010 sunscreen report, Zoe Draelos, a consulting professor at Duke University and Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, [30] said the group had made unfair "sweeping generalizations" about newer chemicals (such as oxybenzone) in its report and that its recommended products were based only on "very old technology" such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. [31]
In 2004, the EWG authored a report titled "Overloaded? New science, new insights about mercury and autism in children," promoting an unfounded link between mercury preservatives in vaccines and autism, [6] a purported link that had elicited much controversy, especially among anti-vaccination activists, [32] but which no evidence supported. [33]
The EWG has made statements opposing the scientific consensus on the safety of genetically modified (GM) food alleging its long-term safety has not been proven. [34] [35] The group started a campaign supported by funding from the organic food industry to require labeling of GM food and promote organic food. [36] [37]
In 2005, from data compiled by "state environment and health agencies", [38] [39] the EWG released its Tap Water Database, [40] which contains data collected from approximately 48,500 water utilities across the US. [41] [42] [43] The city of Everett, Washington, described by the report as exceeding public health guidelines for drinking water, has criticized the report, contending that the EWG selectively chose the guidelines used to assess water quality. [44]
For the fiscal year ending December 2021, ProPublica 's Nonprofit Explorer Form 990 archive and Charity Navigator each reported that EWG had raised some $16.1 million and spent some $12.6 million. [45] [46] 84 cents out of every dollar EWG takes in go toward its program expenses. [46] President Ken Cook earned $317,423 in reportable income in 2021. [46]
Activist Facts reported, from ProPublica 's Nonprofit Explorer [47] Form 990 archive, [45] for the fiscal year ending December 2017, that EWG had raised more than $10.4 million and spent more than $9.3 million. [2]
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources: sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. Water pollution is either surface water pollution or groundwater pollution. This form of pollution can lead to many problems, such as the degradation of aquatic ecosystems or spreading water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation. Another problem is that water pollution reduces the ecosystem services that the water resource would otherwise provide.
A pesticide poisoning occurs when pesticides, chemicals intended to control a pest, affect non-target organisms such as humans, wildlife, plants, or bees. There are three types of pesticide poisoning. The first of the three is a single and short-term very high level of exposure which can be experienced by individuals who commit suicide, as well as pesticide formulators. The second type of poisoning is long-term high-level exposure, which can occur in pesticide formulators and manufacturers. The third type of poisoning is a long-term low-level exposure, which individuals are exposed to from sources such as pesticide residues in food as well as contact with pesticide residues in the air, water, soil, sediment, food materials, plants and animals.
Lindane, also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH), gammaxene, Gammallin and benzene hexachloride (BHC), is an organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide and as a pharmaceutical treatment for lice and scabies.
In organic chemistry, chlorpyrifos (CPS), also known as chlorpyrifos ethyl, is an organophosphate pesticide that has been used on crops, animals, and buildings, and in other settings, to kill several pests, including insects and worms. It acts on the nervous systems of insects by inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase enzyme. Chlorpyrifos was patented in 1966 by Dow Chemical Company.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a United States federal law that set up the basic U.S. system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. It is administered and regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the appropriate environmental agencies of the respective states. FIFRA has undergone several important amendments since its inception. A significant revision in 1972 by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) and several others have expanded EPA's present authority to oversee the sales and use of pesticides with emphasis on the preservation of human health and protection of the environment by "(1) strengthening the registration process by shifting the burden of proof to the chemical manufacturer, (2) enforcing compliance against banned and unregistered products, and (3) promulgating the regulatory framework missing from the original law".
Pesticide residue refers to the pesticides that may remain on or in food, after they are applied to food crops. The maximum allowable levels of these residues in foods are stipulated by regulatory bodies in many countries. Regulations such as pre-harvest intervals also prevent harvest of crop or livestock products if recently treated in order to allow residue concentrations to decrease over time to safe levels before harvest.
Bromodichloromethane is a trihalomethane with formula CHBrCl2.
Methoxychlor is a synthetic organochloride insecticide, now obsolete. Tradenames for methoxychlor include Chemform, Maralate, Methoxo, Methoxcide, Metox, and Moxie.
Cyhalothrin is the ISO common name for an organic compound that, in specific isomeric forms, is used as a pesticide. It is a pyrethroid, a class of synthetic insecticides that mimic the structure and properties of the naturally occurring insecticide pyrethrin which is present in the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium. Pyrethroids such as cyhalothrin are often preferred as an active ingredient in agricultural insecticides because they are more cost-effective and longer acting than natural pyrethrins. λ-and γ-cyhalothrin are now used to control insects and spider mites in crops including cotton, cereals, potatoes and vegetables.
Environmental toxicology is a multidisciplinary field of science concerned with the study of the harmful effects of various chemical, biological and physical agents on living organisms. Ecotoxicology is a subdiscipline of environmental toxicology concerned with studying the harmful effects of toxicants at the population and ecosystem levels.
The environmental effects of pesticides describe the broad series of consequences of using pesticides. The unintended consequences of pesticides is one of the main drivers of the negative impact of modern industrial agriculture on the environment. Pesticides, because they are toxic chemicals meant to kill pest species, can affect non-target species, such as plants, animals and humans. Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, because they are sprayed or spread across entire agricultural fields. Other agrochemicals, such as fertilizers, can also have negative effects on the environment.
Organic food, ecological food, or biological food are foods and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Organizations regulating organic products may restrict the use of certain pesticides and fertilizers in the farming methods used to produce such products. Organic foods are typically not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or synthetic food additives.
Clothianidin is an insecticide developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer AG. Similar to thiamethoxam and imidacloprid, it is a neonicotinoid. Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides that are chemically similar to nicotine, which has been used as a pesticide since the late 1700s. Clothianidin and other neonicotinoids act on the central nervous system of insects as an agonist of nAChR, the same receptor as acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that stimulates and activating post-synaptic acetylcholine receptors but not inhibiting AChE. Clothianidin and other neonicotinoids were developed to last longer than nicotine, which is more toxic and which breaks down too quickly in the environment.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS or PFASs) are a group of synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain. An early definition, from 2011, required that they contain at least one perfluoroalkyl moiety, –CnF2n+1–. Beginning in 2021, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expanded their terminology, stating that "PFASs are defined as fluorinated substances that contain at least one fully fluorinated methyl or methylene carbon atom (without any H/Cl/Br/I atom attached to it), i.e., with a few noted exceptions, any chemical with at least a perfluorinated methyl group (–CF3) or a perfluorinated methylene group (–CF2–) is a PFAS."
The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Though some pastoralism is environmentally positive, modern animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation, also known as DPR or CDPR, is one of six boards and departments of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).
A pesticide, also called Plant Protection Product (PPP), which is a term used in regulatory documents, consists of several different components. The active ingredient in a pesticide is called “active substance” and these active substances either consist of chemicals or micro-organisms. The aims of these active substances are to specifically take action against organisms that are harmful to plants. In other words, active substances are the active components against pests and plant diseases.
Pesticide incidents in the San Joaquin Valley is a topic covering the justice and health issues of people living in the San Joaquin Valley resulting from the use of pesticides in the region. Pesticide use in the San Joaquin Valley began in the 1880s when certain insects were known to be causing harm in the region, much of whose economy is still based on the successful agriculture and farming of many different kinds of crops. Pesticides illnesses were reported sporadically during that time frame, but was not focused as a major issue until the post World War II agricultural boom in the late 1940s when pesticide poisonings became more widely publicized. Though Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the use of chemicals in weapons during the Vietnam War led the federal government to pass restrictions on pesticide use, residents, primarily of low-income, have struggled with health impacts of pesticide use due to persistent over-spraying by agriculture companies working for profit.
A Certified Organic Sunscreen, also known as Petrochemical-Free Sunscreen, is a third party certified sunscreen product consisting of certified and approved organic ingredients, with typically zinc oxide acting as the photo-protector. An organic sunscreen is verified and approved by a certifier to international or national organic standards, such as NSF/ANSI 305 and USDA organic, which define production and labelling requirements for personal care products containing organic ingredients. These standards are complemented by existing sunscreen regulatory bodies such as the FDA that regulate the efficacy of the sunscreen, safety and permitted ingredients. Generally speaking, sunscreen has photo-protective properties that reduce the risk of skin cancer and ageing with relation to the SPF value and proper application.
The short answer is that the United States government mandates that vast amounts of water data is made publicly available. MyTapWater.org downloads that data, warehouses it, and finally makes it available on this website.
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