Food Chemicals

Chemical companies aren't required to test chemicals for safety before they go on the market. We offer resources to help you make better, safer decisions.

A known human carcinogen, arsenic is a common contaminant in food and water. It was also used in virtually all pressure-treated wood products before EWG helped get it off the market.

10,000 Americans die each year of asbestos-related diseases. We unearthed evidence that for decades corporate executives covered up the dangers of this deadly fiber.

The plastics chemical BPA is a synthetic estrogen that can disrupt the boy’s natural hormones. We show you how to avoid it in household items you use every day.

Explore EWG’s work to ensure that government policies and standards protect public health.

EWG scientists have uncovered a dangerous new pesticide lurking in our food supply, chlormequat. Chlormequat has been linked to harm to fetal growth and the reproductive and nervous systems and was found in nearly every oat-based food we tested.

EWG found cancer-causing chromium-6 in tap water from 31 of 35 cities it tested. Americans deserve the protection of official safety standards to protect our water and health. Learn more.

EWG found cancer-causing dioxin and related chemicals in the blood of every American it tested, including cord blood from 20 newborns that came into the world “pre-polluted.”

For decades, furniture, baby products and electronics have been loaded with needless flame retardants linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and childhood development problems. The U.S. has banned the worst, but they’ve been replaced by poorly-studied substitutes.

Mercury exposure from eating fish carries serious health risks, especially for developing fetuses. Learn how to avoid the dangers by using EWG’s Consumer Guide to Seafood.

Glyphosate, a widely used toxic pesticide, is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. It is sprayed on oats right before harvest, so it ends up in many oat-based products, like cereals and breakfast bars.

Chronic exposure to lead is a well-known threat to health, especially for children, but it’s still a persistent problem. EWG’s research continues to track and uncover lead’s hazards.

These vanishingly small particles are turning up in thousands of new products, including cosmetics. EWG is pressing for more thorough research, because the health effects are still poorly understood.

Paraquat is banned in more than 60 countries, but millions of pounds of paraquat are sprayed in the US every year. Paraquat threatens the people who apply the chemical, those who work on farms, and others who live nearby.

EWG has worked for more than a decade to get government to set a national drinking water standard for this component of rocket fuel, which can affect thyroid hormone levels.

Millions of people rely on EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce to reduce their exposure to toxic synthetic pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. The alternative is buy organic.

DuPont’s Teflon changed our lives, but also polluted our bodies. Today, Teflon-like compounds called PFAS are found in the blood of almost all Americans. These “forever chemicals” pollute water, don’t break down, and remain in the environment and people for decades.

These endocrine-disrupting “plasticizer” chemicals are everywhere. EWG helped get several of them banned in children’s toys, but they are still widely used chemicals that pollute almost everyone’s bodies.

Consumer products containing this antibacterial pesticide don’t protect you from germs or disease, but they do expose you to a hormone-disrupting chemical. EWG shows how to avoid it.

This herbicide is a toxic chemical that has been linked to serious health problems, including Parkinson’s disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.