Research

Meat and Dairy Alternatives

Pesticides

Chlormequat

EWG investigation: Dangerous agricultural chemical chlormequat found in popular oat-based products

A new EWG investigation finds for the first time troubling concentrations of the toxic agricultural chemical chlormequat in oat-based products sold in the U.S., including everyday brands marketed to...

January 31, 2023

All Research

Displaying 169 - 192 of 526

EWG Investigates: Scott Pruitt and Poultry Pollution

January 14, 2017

As Oklahoma's attorney general, Scott Pruitt rolled back efforts to protect the waters of his home state from the poultry industry and other polluters.

Chemical Policy

Under New Safety Law, EPA Picks First 10 Chemicals for Review

December 7, 2016

The safety reviews could lead to bans or restrictions on a number of hazardous chemicals in consumer products and workplaces, including asbestos, paint strippers

Cosmetics

Big Market for Black Cosmetics, but Less-Hazardous Choices Limited

December 6, 2016

EWG's Skin Deep® adds more than 1,000 products marketed to Black women

Factory Farms

North Carolina

Exposing Fields of Filth

November 4, 2016

When high water breaches animal barns, waste lagoons or fields with applied manure, the nearby surface water becomes toxic.

California

Federal & State Energy Policy

Toxic Chemicals May Contaminate Oil Field Wastewater Used to Grow Calif. Crops

October 26, 2016

In the last three years, farmers have irrigated 95,000 acres of food crops with billions of gallons of oil field wastewater possibly tainted with toxic chemicals.

Conservation

Conservation Database

October 13, 2016

View the guide

USDA's conservation programs are the single largest investment of federal taxpayer's dollars to encourage farmers to adopt practices that improve natural resources and the environment...

Feeding The World

October 5, 2016

The key to ending world hunger while protecting the environment is to help small farmers in the developing world increase their productivity and income.

Dangerous Monsanto Chemical Remains in Thousands of Schools

October 5, 2016

Schools serving up to 14 million students may be contaminated with unsafe concentrations of PCBs leaching from caulks, sealants, and other aging building materials.

Chromium-6

'Erin Brockovich' Carcinogen in Tap Water of More than 200 Million Americans

September 20, 2016

In the film "Erin Brockovich," the environmental crusader confronts the lawyer of a power company that polluted the tap water of Hinkley, Calif., with a carcinogenic chemical called chromium-6. When...

Chemical Policy

Under New Safety Law, 20 Toxic Chemicals EPA Should Act On Now

July 21, 2016

The vast catalogue of chemicals that have never been evaluated for safety makes it urgent for the EPA move quickly to tackle the backlog

Flame Retardants

Women's Health

California Policy Linked to Higher Flame Retardant Exposures

July 11, 2016

The new study by EWG and Duke University researchers shows that the exposures to the two chemicals were higher in Calif. than in a similar study done earlier in N.J.

Meat and Dairy Alternatives

Factory Farms

North Carolina

Exposing Fields of Filth in North Carolina

June 21, 2016

North Carolina boasts the nation's second biggest hog farming industry, worth $3 billion in hog and pig sales in 2012 alone, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It ranks third among the...

BPA

Food

Food Chemicals

BPA Bombshell

June 17, 2016

Exposure to BPA has been linked to cancer, infertility, brain, nervous system and cardiovascular abnormalities, diabetes, obesity and other serious disorders.

The Pollution in People

June 14, 2016

More than 1,400 chemicals and chemical groups are known or likely carcinogens. Through industrial applications, consumer products and food, water and air, Americans are exposed daily to these cancer...

The "Farm Crisis" Myth

May 17, 2016

There's a lot of doom and gloom in the air about the state of the farm economy. As commodity prices continue to fall from the historic highs of the last few years, advocates for the agriculture...

Chemical Policy

Off the Books II: More Secret Chemicals

May 9, 2016

Code names for untested chemicals, secret production amounts reported by unnamed companies, discharges of undisclosed amounts of pollutants – these occurrences are not the fantastical inventions of...

Mercury

Food

Mercury in Seafood

March 16, 2016

In 2014, federal agencies issued draft recommendations that women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or might become pregnant and young children eat more fish that is lower in mercury. Their advice is...

Food

Food Lobby Spends $101 Million in 2015 to Avert GMO Labeling

February 25, 2016

Big food and biotechnology companies and trade associations seeking to block labeling of food with genetically modified organisms through a rider in the end-of-the year federal spending bill have...

Crop Insurance Lottery

February 10, 2016

It's a complete misnomer even to call the federal crop insurance program “insurance.” It works nothing like the private insurance market because taxpayers pay about 60 percent of the premiums, all the...

Conservation

Fooling Ourselves

February 7, 2016

Drinking water, lakes and rivers in Iowa and across the Corn Belt are in serious trouble because of polluted farm runoff. To tackle the problem, for decades we've taken the approach favored by...

Conservation

Cutting the Fat

December 3, 2015

The cost to taxpayers of providing crop insurance to farmers has more than tripled since 2001, rising from an average of about $3 billion a year in 2001-2003 to more than $10 billion a year in 2012...

Crying Wolf

November 16, 2015

The congressional budget deal signed by President Obama in early November includes a cost-saving measure that trims the profits taxpayers guarantee the crop insurance industry. The guaranteed rate of...

Crop Insurance

November 5, 2015

The federal crop insurance program has come under attack for its increasing cost, environmental impacts and secrecy. But the farm lobby, the crop insurance industry and their political patrons...

Federal & State Energy Policy

Better Biofuels Ahead

November 3, 2015

Biofuels produced from switchgrass and post-harvest corn waste could significantly reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, according to an analysis by EWG and University of California...

Expert Spotlight

Chemical companies provide quarterly reports on production and sales figures to shareholders. Why shouldn’t the public and EPA receive similar reports every year about commonly used chemicals, some of which could pose a serious health risk?”

David Andrews, Ph.D.

Chief Science Officer

All Experts

News & Insights

Food

Ultra-Processed Foods

Food Chemicals

Safe food depends on the states

July 20, 2026

The recent outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a food-borne illness, has shown we can’t count on the federal government to make sure our food is safe.

States have always played a central role in the safety of...

Map of the United States with states highlighted in green.

Food

Food Chemicals

California

Interactive map: Tracking state food chemical regulation in the U.S.

July 20, 2026

Thousands of chemicals are allowed for use in food sold in this country. And while most of these are likely safe to eat, some have been linked to serious health harms.