Nanotechnology. Human gene doping. Cloned meat. Fire Retardants. Gene patents. Emerging technologies and harmful chemicals are appearing in consumer products and in our communities, and they have serious impacts on people and our environment. Corporations often seek profit from scientific developments, with little regard for human health.
Friends of the Earth is a fierce advocate of scientific progress, but people must be put before profits, and we must take precaution to ensure new technologies don’t do more harm than good.
Read the latest news and updates from our Health and Environment campaigns:
Coal ash is a toxic solid waste generated by coal-burning power plants. It's shockingly unregulated, and it's piling up at more than 600 dump sites across the country.
The EPA is considering the first-ever federal safeguards for coal ash disposal and Friends of the Earth activists are speaking out to make sure the rules put in place will keep our drinking water, our rivers and our communities safe from coal ash contamination.
Our biotechnology campaigner, Eric Hoffman, was recently interviewed on the Free Speech TV show "Whistle Where You Work" to discuss the dangers of genetically engineered (GE) salmon. If GE salmon were to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first genetically engineered animal to be approved for human consumption. Watch the video of Eric's interview and check out his article on the GE salmon decision currently before the FDA to learn more.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will hold public hearings on the approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon created by the biotechnology company AquaBounty Technologies. If approved, these fish would be the first genetically engineered animals to be approved for human consumption.
A recent article from the BBC has shown that genetically engineered (GE) plants have become established in the wild. Researchers from the University of Arkansas studied wild canola plants in the countryside of North Dakota and found that 80% of the wild plants were contaminated with transgenes. This study confirms what environmentalists and public health advocates have been concerned about for years – that GE plants will cross-breed with their natural counterparts and forever contaminate our wildlife with patented transgenes.
What are all those chemicals in your shampoo? Your lipstick? Your aftershave? And what do they have to do with asthma, breast cancer and learning disabilities?
As a founding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Friends of the Earth has worked tirelessly for the past seven years in a coalition focused on educating the public about serious toxins in cosmetics and personal care products.
All this work has resulted in the introduction of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010!
By Scott Baumgartner and Ian Illuminato
Since the explosion of Deepwater Horizon, BP has been using dispersants as part of the cleanup efforts. But there are several problems with these chemicals. For one, they don’t actually clean up the oil. Instead, they break the oil down into tiny particles that sink below the surface of the water. And though not much scientific research has been done on dispersants, the research that has been done points to the conclusion that dispersants are toxic.
Products with nanoparticles remain unlabeled and unregulated by our government. In 2009 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a case study on nanoscale titanium dioxide used in sunscreens, but this study did very little to generate regulations and protections for consumers. The EPA’s study was a first step towards regulating nanoparticles, however, much more needs to urgently be done in order to protect public and environmental health.
A corporation has asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve one of their products containing manufactured nanoparticles for oil clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico. We sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson demanding this risky experiment not be allowed, citing the many health concerns posed by manufactured nanoparticles. The letter was signed by 17 public-interest organizations from the U.S., Canada, and South America. (See an excellent article about our letter in AOL News.)
On May 20, 2010, the J. Craig Venter Institute announced the creation of the first living organism with an entirely synthetic genome. Venter's lab inserted computer-created synthetic DNA based on the organism's natural DNA into the organism. This organism is now able to self-replicate. Much of the hype around this announcement proclaims that life has been made from scratch, but Venter only created a copy of what nature has created over billions of years.
The European Parliament nearly unanimously voted to regulate nanofoods via the Novel Foods Directive. The law would require nanofoods be labeled and would prohibit the sale of these products until additional human and environmental safety testing has been conducted. The European Council still needs to give the go ahead and is scheduled to vote on the legislation in June 2010.
