Environmental Health Sciences

Environmental Health Sciences is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002 to increase public understanding of the scientific links between environmental factors and human health.

EHS partners with two organizations, the Science Communication Network and Advancing Green Chemistry, to oversee the Science Communication Fellows program. Every year since 2007, the program hosts 10 outstanding researchers to develop the skills needed to present and communicate the complexities of environmental health to the public.

In partnership with Advancing Green Chemistry, EHS is developing tools and protocols that will help chemists reduce the likelihood that new chemicals they are bringing to market will be hazardous.

From its base in Charlottesville, Virginia, EHS also publishes two websites, Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate. Edited by a team of experienced, award-winning journalists and environmental health experts, EHN and TDC offer original reporting and compile news stories from around the world to give a comprehensive daily look at the vital issues in science, environment and health.

Current News

Environmental Health News: Despite health warnings, some who fish undeterred about eating their catch. To scientists, routinely eating one’s catch is the health equivalent of smoking and sunbathing — an anachronistic practice to be discouraged. Yet on waterways around Philadelphia, the practice persists due to skepticism, generational and cultural differences, and, for poorer families, the lure of virtually free food. May 20, 2012; India's illegal sand mining fuels boom, ravages rivers. India’s rivers and creeks continue to be ravaged for sand to fuel a boom in construction and a massive urban transition. The result, analysts warn, is an impending environmental disaster. May 20, 2012; Near Tokyo, water supply cut off over formaldehyde. Five water-purification plants halted some filtration operations Friday and Saturday after hazardous formaldehyde was detected, stirring fears the contamination came from the upstream part of a major river system of the Kanto region. May 20, 2012; Shanghai's reservoirs closed following oil leak. Reservoirs supplying the majority of Shanghai's water have been closed after a fuel ship sank at the mouth of the Yangtze River on Friday night, the city government said yesterday. May 20, 2012; Cruising for a major oil spill in Alaskan waters, academic warns. One of Canada's top experts on Arctic issues is warning of the "near-inevitability" of an Exxon Valdez-scale oil spill at a fragile choke point in Alaskan waters if Canada ends up shipping oilsands fuel to China via pipeline terminals on the British Columbia coast. May 20, 2012; More…

The Daily Climate: More people contracting equine disease say Massachusetts officials. The number of people in Massachusetts who have contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus, has grown in recent years. State health officials said nine people have contracted it since 2006. May 20, 2012; Owner of solar-powered home fights neighbor's trees, gains little ground. Last summer, Largo homeowner Mike Zwalley put a $65,000 solar energy system on his roof, cutting his monthly electric bill from $400 to $20. Two months later, his neighbor planted three cypress trees, capable of growing 100 feet tall, along his property line. May 20, 2012; Geoengineering: Implicit promises. Though the environmental effects of geoengineering experiments may be nugatory, their effects on the way people think could be more profound, and much less easily contained. May 20, 2012; Cargo ship risk to Barrier Reef. Emergency tugs have been sent to rescue a cargo ship that has broken down on the Great Barrier Reef after its engine lost power yesterday. Greens said the breakdown, which could cause "significant environmental damage", should prompt the government to halt plans to increase shipping for fossil fuel exports throughout the Great Barrier Reef. May 20, 2012; Why our famous Welsh sheep could disappear because of climate change. They have forever been seen as a symbol of Wales – for better or worse. But now, the humble Welsh sheep has been issued a stark warning in the face of climate change: "Adapt or die." May 20, 2012; More…