Reports:

New
Health Tracking And Disease Clusters: The Lack Of Data On Chronic Disease Incidence And Its Impact On Cluster Investigations (9/5/02)
More than 1,000 calls are placed to state public health officials each year regarding suspected clusters of diseases ranging from childhood leukemia to multiple sclerosis. But disease cluster investigations are often delayed or deterred because most states lack adequate tracking for chronic diseases, according to a report released today by U.S. PIRG, a public interest advocacy organization.

Consider The Source (1/8/02)
Hundreds of thousands of women are at risk of having pregnancies end in miscarriage or having children with birth defects because of chemical byproducts that occur in drinking water as a result of chlorination, according to this report.

Brain Food: What women should know about mercury contamination in fish (4/12/01)
This ground-breaking report co-authored by U.S. PIRG and the Environmental Working Group compares and critiques the largely inadequate state fish consumption advisory systems in the United States.

Poisoning Our Water Report: map of state by state pollution: (2/17/00)
Nearly 30% of the nation's largest industrial, municipal, and federal facilities were in serious violation of the Clean Water Act at least once during a recent 15-month period. Poisoning Our Water: How the Government Permits Pollution also documents nearly 270 million pounds of toxic pollution released into U.S. waters in 1997.

Chlorine Byproducts In Tap Water Put 137,000 U.S. Pregnancies At Risk Of Miscarriage, Birth Defects: Government Not Tracking Health Impacts, Report Shows (1/8/02)
Hundreds of thousands of women are at risk of having pregnancies end in miscarriage or having children with birth defects because of chemical byproducts that occur in drinking water as a result of chlorination, according to a report released today by U.S. PIRG, a public interest advocacy organization, and the Environmental Working Group an environmental research organization. The study further reports that ten states and Washington, DC have no tracking systems for birth defects and no states track miscarriages to monitor where exposures cause health impacts.

Government Seafood Consumption Advice Could Expose 1 In 4 Newborns To Elevated Mercury Levels (4/12/01)
Government recommendations for fish consumption could expose more than one in four expectant mothers - 1 million women - to enough mercury to put the health of their fetuses at risk, according to a new computer investigation released today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). "Brain Food: What Women Should Know About Mercury Contamination of Fish," examines widespread mercury contamination in fish species caught and sold commercially.

First-Ever Government Report a "Wake-up Call"
on Toxic Exposure of Average Americans: Public Health Experts Troubled by Higher than Expected Levels of Mercury, Pesticides, and Phthalates (3/21/01)
Public health experts and representatives from some of the
nation's largest health, education, religious, environmental, children's, and women's organizations reacted with serious concern today to a government report confirming the presence of multiple toxic chemicals in the bodies of ordinary citizens. The report released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that chemicals commonly used by industry, in agriculture, and in some popular consumer products were present in the bodies of most of the 5,000 Americans tested.

Right-To-Know Rules Shed Light On Lead Pollution: EPA Requires 9,000 Industrial Facilities to Report Releases (1/8/01)
New rules issued today by the EPA will require the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of pounds of highly hazardous pollution that had previously gone unreported, according to analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The EPA announced today that facilities using 100 pounds of lead or lead compounds will be required to publicly report their pollution, a measure that will inform Americans about pollution that poses threats at even small levels.