ESGBERT/base_data · Datasets at Hugging Face

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The risks of PFAS have long been understood by regulators and scientists, but media coverage of our map of sites of known or suspected PFAS contamination has dramatically accelerated efforts to reduce and remediate PFAS pollution.
As more people have learned they are drinking PFAS-contaminated water, more state and federal legislators have chosen to act.
This includes efforts to ban the use of PFAS in firefighting foam and food packaging, and expanded efforts by lawmakers to restrict PFAS discharges into water supplies.
GLYPHOSATE Since we published our first report on laboratory tests of glyphosate residues on Cheerios and other oat-based cereals, in exposure to the chemical through food.
We chose this objective because exposure through food is largely preventable – it typically results when glyphosate, the active ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, is sprayed on grain crops just before they are mowed, to dry the grain and make it easier to harvest.
residues on food products, primarily oat cereals and snacks like granola bars.
This year, with your support, we conducted a study of glyphosate residues on legumes, including chickpeas and hummus.
As with PFAS, consumers, the media and lawmakers all sit up and pay attention when test results of food contamination are published, because the numbers don’t lie.
But under the Trump administration, the EPA has doubled down on its support of the probable carcinogen and the Bayer-Monsanto corporation.
So instead of presenting our findings and arguing our case in front of Congress, we took it to the court of public opinion: food consumers.
In early announce its commitment to stop using oats grown with glyphosate.
As we kept the consumer heat on Quaker Oats and General Mills to do the same, major oat buyers in Canada, where most leading U.S. food manufacturers source their oats, announced they would no longer accept oats sprayed with glyphosate pre-harvest.
This is a huge win and, again, unprecedented.
Now it appears that, in the wake of the pressure we have exerted, the market may solve the problem itself.
Our research, data analysis and consumer tools are put into action to bring about change in policy, consumer demand and market behavior.
These elements – research and action – are what make EWG such a powerful force in the environmental movement, with such an outsize return on investment.
Science Investigations: The backbone The Science Investigations program is the backbone of our work, generating the peer-reviewed research that guides all other elements of our standard-setting and leadership.
New laboratory tests commissioned by EWG found PFAS in the drinking water of dozens of U.S. cities, including major metropolitan areas.
This update of our interactive map documented PFAS pollution in public and private water systems.
The extent of American communities’ confirmed PFAS contamination continues to grow at an alarming rate.
As of July were known to be contaminated with PFAS.
In this latest food testing project, we found glyphosate, the notorious weedkiller linked to cancer, in more than samples, and detected at far lower levels in several organic versions.
HEALTHY LIVING SCIENCE: THE PEOPLE’S SOURCE EWG’s Healthy Living Science program is charged with one of the most integral and long-standing parts of our mission: educating consumers.
EWG’s databases and guides We make continuous updates and additions to the databases and resources our audiences rely on to make informed decisions, year after year.
• EWG’s searchable consumer databases: Skin Deep®, Tap Water Database, Guide to Healthy Cleaning and Food Scores.
Consumers rely on these databases to provide safety and toxicity information.
most comprehensive source of information in the country, so do manufacturers, researchers, policymakers and governmental agency scientists.
• EWG’s Healthy Living app, which gives consumers access to safety scores for food, personal care products and cleaning products with the simple scan of a barcode in the store.
The safety standards and restrictions used by the EWG VERIFIED program, providing science-based guidance for manufacturers and assurance for consumers that a product meets EWG’s standards for safety.
The second annual EWG CleanCon™ conference featured speakers and interviews with leaders advancing the clean-living movement, deeper information for consumers and opportunities to engage with and ask questions of EWG’s scientists.
Now we are successfully pushing huge numbers of manufacturers in the personal care product, baby care and household cleaning industries to eliminate chemicals of concern in their products and reformulate them to EWG’s strict safety standards. One of the most exciting outcomes of the clean-living movement and de facto regulator of the personal care product industry.
This is entirely thanks to the growth of the EWG VERIFIED and Reviewed for Science programs our supporters helped us build.
As projected, we ramped up these programs significantly in 2020.
At the close of the year there were more than including 140 baby products.
We also saw the first household cleaning products join the program and created standards for EWG VERIFIED diapers.
EWG’S The Reviewed for Science program was created as an offshoot of the EWG VERIFIED program, in response to major personal care product manufacturers seeking our expertise in creating products.
It now includes six major U.S. manufacturers seeking to create safer, cleaner products with EWG’s guidance.
They include Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Olay and three others under nondisclosure agreements.
We now expect to see the EWG VERIFIED mark on many major brands’ products across the U.S. within the next five years.
AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION: OUR ROOTS Since EWG’s inception in our Agriculture Program has worked to conserve agricultural land and water.
Today we use advanced geospatial mapping of satellite imagery and data analysis of farm subsidy payments and USDA conservation programs to affect local and national policy decisions on agriculture.
PRIORITY TAP WATER CONTAMINANTS As part of our broader, organization-wide effort to protect America’s tap water from health-harming contaminants, in and reporting on two pollutants that result from agricultural runoff: nitrate and cyanotoxins.
This water quality trend report found that in much of America’s farm country, nitrate contamination of drinking water poses a serious health risk.
The problem is largely caused by polluted runoff from crop fields, and it is getting worse.
Using water quality data from utilities with the most serious problems has grown steadily worse.
In California’s majority-Latino communities, contaminated with nitrate at levels at or above the federal limit, according to our analysis of state and federal data.
Nitrate contamination is widespread in California’s drinking water supply, but EWG’s analysis found that as nitrate levels rise, the likelihood that a community is majority-Latino also goes up – especially in the eightcounty San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s leading agricultural region.
Nitrate contamination of drinking water in Wisconsin may cause nearly year of colorectal and other cancers and increase the risk of very premature births, very low birth weight and birth defects.
In the spring, as algae outbreak season began, we started regular reporting and analysis of outbreaks, tracking news stories and using social media to draw attention to toxic algae across the country.
As Algae Season Ends, the Toll: More Than INDUSTRIAL ANIMAL AGRICULTURE In 2020 we doubled down on our work to reveal the threat presented by billions of pounds of phosphorus-laden manure – in terms of algae outbreaks and contaminated drinking water – and to press for more effective oversight of animal feeding operations.
• EWG Investigation: Manure Overload Threatens Water in Minnesota’s Farm Country – May Using innovative geospatial techniques, EWG mapped the likely application of 49 million tons of manure – produced each year by the state’s cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens – to cropland as fertilizer.
This is frequently on the same acreage where commercial fertilizer is also used.
We found that manure from Minnesota’s animal feedlots threatens to overload nearby cropland with chemicals that can pollute lakes, streams and aquifers, including drinking water sources.
The predominantly Black, Native American and Latino residents of three eastern North Carolina counties now live with years ago, according to our investigation, conducted with Waterkeeper Alliance.
report and map show that, from turkeys swelled from 83 million to 113 million, a 36 percent increase.
As the reckless and explosive growth of animal feeding operations continues across the U.S., the number of Americans potentially at risk continues to rise too.
This report details the serious health threats associated with living near animal feeding operations – whether swine, cattle or poultry.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND EWG’s Government Affairs programs are our boots on the ground, turning the recommendations and standards defined by our research staff into actionable information for policymakers and federal agencies.
PFAS In chemicals, and these “forever chemicals” finally got attention on Capitol Hill.
Throughout the year, we kept pressure on Congress to make PFAS regulation a priority with an organization-wide research and communications campaign.
We also leveraged consumer interest in glyphosate to capitalize on two opportunities: national legislation banning late-use harvesting and direct market pressure on major manufacturers like General Mills, owner of Cheerios, to discontinue the use of oats harvested with glyphosate.
We knew from our direct relationships with manufacturers about cracks in their resolve to continue using grains harvested with late-use glyphosate.
We saw the first domino fall in early company to announce its commitment to stop using oats grown with glyphosate.
EWG’S As we kept the consumer heat on Quaker Oats and General Mills to do the same, major oat buyers in Canada, the source of most major U.S. food manufacturers’ oats, announced they would no longer accept oats sprayed with glyphosate pre-harvest.
This removed one of the biggest sources of this toxic chemical in our food supply.
COMMUNICATIONS: OUR VOICE EWG’s Communications program is key to our success in reaching consumers, bending the ear of policymakers, and influencing manufacturers to change their practices and formulations.
With your support, we will continue this successful strategy, harnessing consumer and media engagement to create an urgent, unified voice for change at key moments.
Photo by Jonathon Alonzo Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight.
↘ Bats are vital to healthy ecosystems around the globe.
BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL Is making vital and significant achievements to save bats and their habitats.
BATS & COVID-19 While the exact chain of transmission that resulted in COVID-19 may never be established, what we know is this: ↘ The conservation of bats and their habitats helps create a healthier, safer world.
↘ Bat conservation is important for global communities.
↘ Research regarding bats provides significant value for scientific discovery.
batcon.org/covid 04 http://www.batcon.org/bats-covid-19-updates/ Worldwide, more than 200 bat species in over 60 countries are currently threatened with extinction.
world — and in most of the world, these threats are getting worse, not better.
progress to save the world’s most imperiled species.
In this report, you’ll see our work to save vital habitat, our actionable plans to safeguard highly endangered bat species, our cutting-edge use of science and technology, and our dedication to raising awareness of the absolute importance of bats.
In Fiji, we purchased the final only known maternity roost for globally endangered Fijian Free-tailed Bats.
We also worked together with local villagers, the National Trust of Fiji, and other partners to develop a management plan to protect the area in the future.
In the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico, we planted more than critical roosts for the endangered Mexican Long-nosed Bat and Lesser Long-nosed Bat to ensure these pollinating bats have the food they need along their migratory corridor.
We continued our groundbreaking science to address the tragic loss of millions of bats to White-nose Syndrome, including implementing the first phase of the largest intervention ever conceived to help bats survive the devastating disease.
And as COVID-importance of bats and the critical need for global bat conservation going forward.
While the origin of COVID-destruction of natural habitats make it more likely for viruses to spill over into humans.
That’s why protection of nature is such a critical part of the solution, especially in areas that are important for bats.
Protecting nature for bats not only helps ensure we keep intact the delicate web of life on our planet, it also means a safer, healthier world for all of us.
Together, with your continued and increasing support, we are leading the charge to ensure the worldwide survival of bats and making the world a healthier place for wildlife and people.
Habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and illegal wildlife trade are among the reasons many bat species face extinction — and what drives our mission to end bat extinctions.
Species Interventions Fiji Archipelago in the South Pacific.
bat species in Jamaica The Jamaican Flower Bat (Phyllonycteris aphylla ) was, until extinct.
A small colony now roosts in a single cave.
The bats face steep survival challenges including nearby habitat destruction where bats must forage and the threat of feral cats that roam the cave.
Prevented irreparable damage to Jamaica’s St. Clair Cave — which supports the critically endangered Jamaican Greater Funnel-eared Bat (Natalus jamaicensis) — by working closely with Jamaican authorities and local communities.
Searching Rwanda rainforest Bat Conservation International is on a mission to find and protect the critically endangered Hill’s Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hilli ) in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park.
The bat has not been seen since 1981.
Bat Conservation International and Nyungwe Park Rangers set up bat detectors.
http://www.batcon.org/our-work/endangered-species-interventions/jamaican-flower-bat-and-jamaican-greater-funnel-eared-bat/ Saving the rarest bat in the United States The rarest bat in the United States — the federally endangered Florida Bonneted Bat (Eumops floridanus ) — suffers from habitat loss due to rapid land development and the consequences of climate change.
Only six natural roosts are known to remain in southern Florida.
Collaborated with Zoo Miami and the Florida Power & Light Company to open a lab at the zoo to better understand how the federally endangered species can be sustained in urban settings.
Informed of the bats’ plight during a meeting with Florida partners, Bat Conservation International scientists quickly responded to the emergency.
Bat Conservation International research fellow monitors bat houses built for endangered species.

The risks of PFAS have long been understood by regulators and scientists, but media coverage of our map of sites of known or suspected PFAS contamination has dramatically accelerated efforts to reduce and remediate PFAS pollution.

As more people have learned they are drinking PFAS-contaminated water, more state and federal legislators have chosen to act.

This includes efforts to ban the use of PFAS in firefighting foam and food packaging, and expanded efforts by lawmakers to restrict PFAS discharges into water supplies.

GLYPHOSATE Since we published our first report on laboratory tests of glyphosate residues on Cheerios and other oat-based cereals, in exposure to the chemical through food.

We chose this objective because exposure through food is largely preventable – it typically results when glyphosate, the active ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, is sprayed on grain crops just before they are mowed, to dry the grain and make it easier to harvest.

residues on food products, primarily oat cereals and snacks like granola bars.

This year, with your support, we conducted a study of glyphosate residues on legumes, including chickpeas and hummus.

As with PFAS, consumers, the media and lawmakers all sit up and pay attention when test results of food contamination are published, because the numbers don’t lie.

But under the Trump administration, the EPA has doubled down on its support of the probable carcinogen and the Bayer-Monsanto corporation.

So instead of presenting our findings and arguing our case in front of Congress, we took it to the court of public opinion: food consumers.

In early announce its commitment to stop using oats grown with glyphosate.

As we kept the consumer heat on Quaker Oats and General Mills to do the same, major oat buyers in Canada, where most leading U.S. food manufacturers source their oats, announced they would no longer accept oats sprayed with glyphosate pre-harvest.

This is a huge win and, again, unprecedented.

Now it appears that, in the wake of the pressure we have exerted, the market may solve the problem itself.

Our research, data analysis and consumer tools are put into action to bring about change in policy, consumer demand and market behavior.

These elements – research and action – are what make EWG such a powerful force in the environmental movement, with such an outsize return on investment.

Science Investigations: The backbone The Science Investigations program is the backbone of our work, generating the peer-reviewed research that guides all other elements of our standard-setting and leadership.

New laboratory tests commissioned by EWG found PFAS in the drinking water of dozens of U.S. cities, including major metropolitan areas.

This update of our interactive map documented PFAS pollution in public and private water systems.

The extent of American communities’ confirmed PFAS contamination continues to grow at an alarming rate.

As of July were known to be contaminated with PFAS.

In this latest food testing project, we found glyphosate, the notorious weedkiller linked to cancer, in more than samples, and detected at far lower levels in several organic versions.

HEALTHY LIVING SCIENCE: THE PEOPLE’S SOURCE EWG’s Healthy Living Science program is charged with one of the most integral and long-standing parts of our mission: educating consumers.

EWG’s databases and guides We make continuous updates and additions to the databases and resources our audiences rely on to make informed decisions, year after year.

• EWG’s searchable consumer databases: Skin Deep®, Tap Water Database, Guide to Healthy Cleaning and Food Scores.

Consumers rely on these databases to provide safety and toxicity information.

most comprehensive source of information in the country, so do manufacturers, researchers, policymakers and governmental agency scientists.

• EWG’s Healthy Living app, which gives consumers access to safety scores for food, personal care products and cleaning products with the simple scan of a barcode in the store.

The safety standards and restrictions used by the EWG VERIFIED program, providing science-based guidance for manufacturers and assurance for consumers that a product meets EWG’s standards for safety.

The second annual EWG CleanCon™ conference featured speakers and interviews with leaders advancing the clean-living movement, deeper information for consumers and opportunities to engage with and ask questions of EWG’s scientists.

Now we are successfully pushing huge numbers of manufacturers in the personal care product, baby care and household cleaning industries to eliminate chemicals of concern in their products and reformulate them to EWG’s strict safety standards. One of the most exciting outcomes of the clean-living movement and de facto regulator of the personal care product industry.

This is entirely thanks to the growth of the EWG VERIFIED and Reviewed for Science programs our supporters helped us build.

As projected, we ramped up these programs significantly in 2020.

At the close of the year there were more than including 140 baby products.

We also saw the first household cleaning products join the program and created standards for EWG VERIFIED diapers.

EWG’S The Reviewed for Science program was created as an offshoot of the EWG VERIFIED program, in response to major personal care product manufacturers seeking our expertise in creating products.

It now includes six major U.S. manufacturers seeking to create safer, cleaner products with EWG’s guidance.

They include Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Olay and three others under nondisclosure agreements.

We now expect to see the EWG VERIFIED mark on many major brands’ products across the U.S. within the next five years.

AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION: OUR ROOTS Since EWG’s inception in our Agriculture Program has worked to conserve agricultural land and water.

Today we use advanced geospatial mapping of satellite imagery and data analysis of farm subsidy payments and USDA conservation programs to affect local and national policy decisions on agriculture.

PRIORITY TAP WATER CONTAMINANTS As part of our broader, organization-wide effort to protect America’s tap water from health-harming contaminants, in and reporting on two pollutants that result from agricultural runoff: nitrate and cyanotoxins.

This water quality trend report found that in much of America’s farm country, nitrate contamination of drinking water poses a serious health risk.

The problem is largely caused by polluted runoff from crop fields, and it is getting worse.

Using water quality data from utilities with the most serious problems has grown steadily worse.

In California’s majority-Latino communities, contaminated with nitrate at levels at or above the federal limit, according to our analysis of state and federal data.

Nitrate contamination is widespread in California’s drinking water supply, but EWG’s analysis found that as nitrate levels rise, the likelihood that a community is majority-Latino also goes up – especially in the eightcounty San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s leading agricultural region.

Nitrate contamination of drinking water in Wisconsin may cause nearly year of colorectal and other cancers and increase the risk of very premature births, very low birth weight and birth defects.

In the spring, as algae outbreak season began, we started regular reporting and analysis of outbreaks, tracking news stories and using social media to draw attention to toxic algae across the country.

As Algae Season Ends, the Toll: More Than INDUSTRIAL ANIMAL AGRICULTURE In 2020 we doubled down on our work to reveal the threat presented by billions of pounds of phosphorus-laden manure – in terms of algae outbreaks and contaminated drinking water – and to press for more effective oversight of animal feeding operations.

• EWG Investigation: Manure Overload Threatens Water in Minnesota’s Farm Country – May Using innovative geospatial techniques, EWG mapped the likely application of 49 million tons of manure – produced each year by the state’s cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens – to cropland as fertilizer.

This is frequently on the same acreage where commercial fertilizer is also used.

We found that manure from Minnesota’s animal feedlots threatens to overload nearby cropland with chemicals that can pollute lakes, streams and aquifers, including drinking water sources.

The predominantly Black, Native American and Latino residents of three eastern North Carolina counties now live with years ago, according to our investigation, conducted with Waterkeeper Alliance.

report and map show that, from turkeys swelled from 83 million to 113 million, a 36 percent increase.

As the reckless and explosive growth of animal feeding operations continues across the U.S., the number of Americans potentially at risk continues to rise too.

This report details the serious health threats associated with living near animal feeding operations – whether swine, cattle or poultry.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND EWG’s Government Affairs programs are our boots on the ground, turning the recommendations and standards defined by our research staff into actionable information for policymakers and federal agencies.

PFAS In chemicals, and these “forever chemicals” finally got attention on Capitol Hill.

Throughout the year, we kept pressure on Congress to make PFAS regulation a priority with an organization-wide research and communications campaign.

We also leveraged consumer interest in glyphosate to capitalize on two opportunities: national legislation banning late-use harvesting and direct market pressure on major manufacturers like General Mills, owner of Cheerios, to discontinue the use of oats harvested with glyphosate.

We knew from our direct relationships with manufacturers about cracks in their resolve to continue using grains harvested with late-use glyphosate.

We saw the first domino fall in early company to announce its commitment to stop using oats grown with glyphosate.

EWG’S As we kept the consumer heat on Quaker Oats and General Mills to do the same, major oat buyers in Canada, the source of most major U.S. food manufacturers’ oats, announced they would no longer accept oats sprayed with glyphosate pre-harvest.

This removed one of the biggest sources of this toxic chemical in our food supply.

COMMUNICATIONS: OUR VOICE EWG’s Communications program is key to our success in reaching consumers, bending the ear of policymakers, and influencing manufacturers to change their practices and formulations.

With your support, we will continue this successful strategy, harnessing consumer and media engagement to create an urgent, unified voice for change at key moments.

Photo by Jonathon Alonzo Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight.

↘ Bats are vital to healthy ecosystems around the globe.

BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL Is making vital and significant achievements to save bats and their habitats.

BATS & COVID-19 While the exact chain of transmission that resulted in COVID-19 may never be established, what we know is this: ↘ The conservation of bats and their habitats helps create a healthier, safer world.

↘ Bat conservation is important for global communities.

↘ Research regarding bats provides significant value for scientific discovery.

batcon.org/covid 04 http://www.batcon.org/bats-covid-19-updates/ Worldwide, more than 200 bat species in over 60 countries are currently threatened with extinction.

world — and in most of the world, these threats are getting worse, not better.

progress to save the world’s most imperiled species.

In this report, you’ll see our work to save vital habitat, our actionable plans to safeguard highly endangered bat species, our cutting-edge use of science and technology, and our dedication to raising awareness of the absolute importance of bats.

In Fiji, we purchased the final only known maternity roost for globally endangered Fijian Free-tailed Bats.

We also worked together with local villagers, the National Trust of Fiji, and other partners to develop a management plan to protect the area in the future.

In the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico, we planted more than critical roosts for the endangered Mexican Long-nosed Bat and Lesser Long-nosed Bat to ensure these pollinating bats have the food they need along their migratory corridor.

We continued our groundbreaking science to address the tragic loss of millions of bats to White-nose Syndrome, including implementing the first phase of the largest intervention ever conceived to help bats survive the devastating disease.

And as COVID-importance of bats and the critical need for global bat conservation going forward.

While the origin of COVID-destruction of natural habitats make it more likely for viruses to spill over into humans.

That’s why protection of nature is such a critical part of the solution, especially in areas that are important for bats.

Protecting nature for bats not only helps ensure we keep intact the delicate web of life on our planet, it also means a safer, healthier world for all of us.

Together, with your continued and increasing support, we are leading the charge to ensure the worldwide survival of bats and making the world a healthier place for wildlife and people.

Habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and illegal wildlife trade are among the reasons many bat species face extinction — and what drives our mission to end bat extinctions.

Species Interventions Fiji Archipelago in the South Pacific.

bat species in Jamaica The Jamaican Flower Bat (Phyllonycteris aphylla ) was, until extinct.

A small colony now roosts in a single cave.

The bats face steep survival challenges including nearby habitat destruction where bats must forage and the threat of feral cats that roam the cave.

Prevented irreparable damage to Jamaica’s St. Clair Cave — which supports the critically endangered Jamaican Greater Funnel-eared Bat (Natalus jamaicensis) — by working closely with Jamaican authorities and local communities.

Searching Rwanda rainforest Bat Conservation International is on a mission to find and protect the critically endangered Hill’s Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hilli ) in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park.

The bat has not been seen since 1981.

Bat Conservation International and Nyungwe Park Rangers set up bat detectors.

http://www.batcon.org/our-work/endangered-species-interventions/jamaican-flower-bat-and-jamaican-greater-funnel-eared-bat/ Saving the rarest bat in the United States The rarest bat in the United States — the federally endangered Florida Bonneted Bat (Eumops floridanus ) — suffers from habitat loss due to rapid land development and the consequences of climate change.

Only six natural roosts are known to remain in southern Florida.

Collaborated with Zoo Miami and the Florida Power & Light Company to open a lab at the zoo to better understand how the federally endangered species can be sustained in urban settings.

Informed of the bats’ plight during a meeting with Florida partners, Bat Conservation International scientists quickly responded to the emergency.

Bat Conservation International research fellow monitors bat houses built for endangered species.