Category: Environmental health

Endocrine disruptors Environmental destruction Environmental health Environmental Justice Toxic Chemicals

Are we sleepwalking?

September 24, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

This morning I came across an excellent–though very disturbing–Mongabay article, part of a series: Novel chemical entities: Are we sleepwalking through a planetary boundary? The answer is unequivocal: YES Mongabay…

Environmental health

The under-reported role of toxic substance exposures in the COVID-19 pandemic

September 9, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

From the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (full article here or here) By Kostoff RN, Briggs MB, Porter AL, Hernández AF, Abdollahi M, Aschner M, Tsatsakis A. Abstract Coronavirus disease…

City of Madison Environmental health Environmental Justice Fish Advisory PFAS Poisoned Yahara Lakes Racial disparities

UPDATE: Yahara Lakes fish advisories reflect “two Madisons”

June 17, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Above: Eric Xiong from the Truax apartments fishing at Starkweather Creek where it enters Lake Monona in Olbrich Park (Photo, Maria Powell) This story has been updated from the previous…

Air National Guard City of Madison Dane County Department of Defense Environmental health PFCs or PFAS Starkweather Creek Truax Wisconsin DNR

Again, Madison and Dane County pass the buck to the military on cleaning up burn pits. Why?

May 26, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

The highly contaminated Darwin Road burn pit area at the Dane County Regional Airport was used by the city, county, and military from the 1950s-1980s. Above, the airport’s cell phone…

Air National Guard Department of Defense Environmental health Environmental Justice F-35 Fighter jets Military Racial Justice Truax

Fighter jets, environmental education, and social justice do not mix

May 12, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

On May 10, F-16s from Madison’s Air National Guard Truax Field took off while MEJO’s Touyeng Xiong was teaching kids from the East Madison Community Center about birds, trees, and…

City of Madison Corporate greenwashing Earth Day Environmental health Oscar Mayer Pesticides Toxic Chemicals Wastewater Treatment

Oscar Mayer’s Earth Day, 1970: Spray chemical perfumes on sewage stench!

May 10, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

In 1970, just before Madison’s first Earth Day, Oscar Mayer installed a mile-long system that misted artificial chemical perfumes around its sludge lagoons–after decades of neighborhood complaints about the sewage…

Air Pollution City of Madison Environmental health Environmental Justice Madison-Kipp Corp.

Government won’t test air pollution in the Madison-Kipp neighborhood, so citizens are doing it themselves

May 1, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Above: View of Madison-Kipp’s Fair Oaks factory from the low-income apartments across the street. Clean Air Madison, MEJO, and Kipp neighborhood activists tried for many, many years–to no avail–to convince…

Air Pollution City of Madison Environmental health Environmental Justice Madison Racial disparities WisDOT

In “green” Madison, air pollution ‘disproportionately and systematically’ harms people of color

April 29, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

(Photo above: Construction during the Madison Verona Rd-W. Beltline highway expansion) The Washington Post reported yesterday: “Deadly air pollutant ‘disproportionately and systematically’ harms Americans of color, study finds.” This finding…

City of Madison Development Environmental destruction Environmental health Over-consumption

Bigger is not better

April 28, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Citizen wisdom from the beginning of the “environmental decade” In 1970, a Madison citizen activist publicly questioned the idea that “growth is good.” He asked why people played a secondary…

City of Madison Environmental health Oscar Mayer Pesticides PFCs or PFAS Starkweather Creek

Pesticides and PFAS should be tested at Oscar Mayer, Burke & Starkweather Creek

April 3, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Oscar Mayer in 1947 (Wisconsin State Journal photo) In May 2020, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) contracted by the City of Madison, while it was preparing to purchase…

City of Madison Environmental health Environmental Justice Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District Oscar Mayer PCBs PFCs or PFAS Starkweather Creek Toxic Chemicals Wastewater Treatment Water Pollution Yahara Lakes

Oscar Mayer contamination must be fully investigated & remediated before redevelopment

March 21, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

For 100 years, Oscar Mayer & Co. and corporations that purchased it have polluted the land and groundwater beneath the site–as well as Starkweather Creek, Yahara River, and Lake Monona.…

Air National Guard Dane County Department of Defense Environmental health Environmental Justice F-35 PFCs or PFAS Racial Justice Toxic Chemicals Truax

Environmental group files new lawsuit over F-35 decision

March 11, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

By Catherine Capellaro, Wisconsin Examiner A group seeking to halt the siting of a squadron of F-35 fighter jets at Madison’s Truax Field filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S.…

Air National Guard City of Madison Environmental health Environmental Justice Fire fighting Madison Gas & Electric PFCs or PFAS Toxic Chemicals Water Pollution

PFAS from 2019 MGE fire continues to ooze, drain, and slosh into Lake Monona

March 1, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Firefighters spray PFAS-containing foam on exploded transformer at the Madison Gas & Electric Blount St. station in Madison, summer 2019 (Photo by Wisconsin State Journal) On July 19, 2019 an…

Endocrine disruptors Environmental health Fertility PCBs Toxic Chemicals

Male fertility has been plummeting for almost 100 years; Why are we pretending this is a “new” problem?

February 21, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Today’s New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof (pasted below for those who don’t have NYT subscriptions) raises alarms about declining sperm counts and fertility overall since the 70s, connected…

City of Madison City of Madison Parks Department Environmental health Pesticides Toxic Chemicals

Does anyone in Madison care about pesticide use? Whatever happened to ecology?

February 18, 2021 Maria C. Powell, PhD

Photo: City of Madison worker applying pesticides along curbs at the Warner Park Center parking lot A letter by Jim Powell to The Cap Times : In 2017, I wrote…