Category: News

In 2015, a major toxic bloom of algae shut down the Dungeness crab and razor clam fisheries along the U.S. West Coast for up to 5 months. Commercial landings of Dungeness crab were down $97.5 million compared to the previous year and the fishery failures resulted in disaster declarations. In collaboration with the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the University of Washington, NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center…

Continue reading “Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms in the U.S.”

Many consumer products, including electronics, contain flame-retardant chemicals that slow or prevent fire from starting or growing. In the workplace, employees may be exposed while manufacturing or recycling consumer products that contain flame-retardant chemicals. Monitoring and preventing exposure is critical since workplace exposure to some of these chemicals is linked to an increased risk for hormonal, immune, and reproductive disorders. Read more about JPB Senior Fellow Diana Ceballos‘s research and…

Continue reading “Flame-retardant Monitoring May Require Repeated Tests”

Recent evidence suggests that higher levels of residential greenness may contribute to better mental health. Despite this, few studies have considered its impact on depression, and most are cross-sectional. The objective of this study was to examine surrounding residential greenness and depression risk prospectively in the Nurses’ Health Study. Read more. 

JPB Senior Fellow Dr. Diana Ceballos talks about an article she and her colleagues from NIOSH published about methylene chloride. Methylene chloride is a chemical used in paint strippers that is bad for the environment and very toxic — it can even kill you. Methylene chloride is dangerous for workers and consumers and we need safer strippers- but my new research shows the dark side of making a substitution without a careful…

Continue reading “Paint strippers need informed solutions, not regrettable substitution”

A new study by JPB Fellow Lara Cushing, a San Francisco State University Assistant Professor of Health Education,  and colleagues at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine shows that satellite data can be used to effectively track the potentially harmful, underreported oil and gas industry practice known as “flaring.” Read more.

NIOSH, Wiki Education Foundation, and Harvard University Work Together to Make Occupational Safety and Health Content Accessible to All Find out how JPB Senior Fellow Diana Ceballos used the Wiki Education Foundation platform during two of the years she taught the graduate course EH262, Introduction to the Work Environment, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Read more here.

Here’s how the government shutdown could affect your health The United States is rolling into the third week with a partially shutdown government, with no signs of a re-opening any time soon. Thousands of federal employees are working without pay, thousands more are furloughed and waiting at home, and dozens of federal programs are on pause. And some of those interruptions are affecting people’s health. “The impact of the government…

Continue reading “Native Communities lost health care services”

Latest publication by JPB Fellow Matthew Cutler Research indicates that Latinos have particularly strong pro-environmental attitudes and support for policies to reduce climate change. This study explores differences in climate change activism (i.e., contacting government officials) between Latino and non-Latino White citizens in the United States, and the individual and social factors that predict engagement. Read more.