Environmental Groups Sue EPA to Force Ban of Pesticide Linked to Autism
When EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed the agency’s decision to ban chlorpyrifos, he talked about businesses rather than children.
Sharon Lerner
Sharon Lerner was an investigative reporter at The Intercept, where she covered health, science, and the environment since 2015. Her work shines a light on corporate malfeasance and lapses in government oversight. In particular, she has covered how failures of the environmental regulatory process affect ordinary Americans. She also reported extensively on the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies as well as the lack of biosafety protections on U.S.-funded research.
Lerner’s first work for The Intercept, a three-part series about the chemical PFOA called “The Teflon Toxin,” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and featured in the documentary “The Devil We Know.” She went on to cover PFAS, the class of chemicals to which PFOA belongs, in extraordinary depth in her ongoing series “Bad Chemistry. Lerner has helped reveal the disproportionate burden of pollution faced by the poor and people of color, including those living near facilities that emit carcinogens into the air and those impacted by chemicals in soil and water.
Lerner’s stories on interference with the EPA’s chemical approval process helped lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the matter, and her work has also been cited in other congressional hearings. She was the first to write that firefighting foam used by the military contained PFAS and broke the story that GenX, DuPont’s replacement for PFOA, causes cancer. Her reporting helped lead the U.S. Air Force to discontinue the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, was cited in the Stockholm Convention’s decision to limit the international use of PFOA, and paved the way for a public reckoning over GenX water pollution in North Carolina. Her in-depth investigation of chlorpyrifos was the first to lay out how the Trump administration might reverse a long-awaited ban of the pesticide. And her reporting on National Institutes of Health-funded research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, has helped inform the discussion of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lerner has received seven awards from the Society for Environmental Journalists and five from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, which named her journalist of the year in 2021. She has also received awards from the Park Center for Independent Media, the American Public Health Association, the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and the Women & Politics Institute, among other organizations.
Prior to joining The Intercept, Lerner worked for the Village Voice, the public radio show “The Infinite Mind,” and the New School, where she taught journalism. Her stories have also appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Nation, and the Washington Post. She is the author of “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation,” a book about the lack of public support for families in the U.S.
Lerner lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
Lerner’s first work for The Intercept, a three-part series about the chemical PFOA called “The Teflon Toxin,” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and featured in the documentary “The Devil We Know.” She went on to cover PFAS, the class of chemicals to which PFOA belongs, in extraordinary depth in her ongoing series “Bad Chemistry. Lerner has helped reveal the disproportionate burden of pollution faced by the poor and people of color, including those living near facilities that emit carcinogens into the air and those impacted by chemicals in soil and water.
Lerner’s stories on interference with the EPA’s chemical approval process helped lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the matter, and her work has also been cited in other congressional hearings. She was the first to write that firefighting foam used by the military contained PFAS and broke the story that GenX, DuPont’s replacement for PFOA, causes cancer. Her reporting helped lead the U.S. Air Force to discontinue the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, was cited in the Stockholm Convention’s decision to limit the international use of PFOA, and paved the way for a public reckoning over GenX water pollution in North Carolina. Her in-depth investigation of chlorpyrifos was the first to lay out how the Trump administration might reverse a long-awaited ban of the pesticide. And her reporting on National Institutes of Health-funded research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, has helped inform the discussion of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lerner has received seven awards from the Society for Environmental Journalists and five from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, which named her journalist of the year in 2021. She has also received awards from the Park Center for Independent Media, the American Public Health Association, the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and the Women & Politics Institute, among other organizations.
Prior to joining The Intercept, Lerner worked for the Village Voice, the public radio show “The Infinite Mind,” and the New School, where she taught journalism. Her stories have also appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Nation, and the Washington Post. She is the author of “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation,” a book about the lack of public support for families in the U.S.
Lerner lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
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House Republicans Launch a New Assault on the EPA
In the last two days, House Republicans have passed two bills that would severely damage the ability of U.S. agencies to conduct scientific research.
A Louisiana Town Plagued by Pollution Shows Why Cuts to the EPA Will Be Measured in Illnesses and Deaths
For the people living next to the neoprene plant in St. John the Baptist Parish, the lifetime risk of cancer from air pollution is more than 800 times the national average.
Emails Reveal EPA Chief Scott Pruitt's Dirty Dealings With Oil and Gas Industry
Newly released documents reveal another example of industry operatives drafting and editing text the former Oklahoma attorney general submitted to a federal agency.
As Senate Rushes to Install Scott Pruitt at EPA, Exiled Climate Scientists Survey the Damage
While the Senate was holding votes on Scott Pruitt, climate scientists gathered in Atlanta to defy the Trump administration's climate denialism.
Financial Backers of EPA Pick Scott Pruitt Have Faced Hundreds of Pollution Actions
At least 15 companies with financial ties to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt have faced hundreds of EPA enforcement actions.
Republicans Are Using Big Tobacco's Secret Science Playbook to Gut Health Rules
The House Committee on Science wants to undermine health regulations using a strategy cooked up by tobacco industry strategists two decades ago.
Government Scientists at U.S. Climate Conference Terrified to Speak with the Press
The responses I received from federal employees working on climate reminded me of interviewing scientists in China. My presence inspired fear.
EPA Under Scott Pruitt Could Cost the U.S. Billions in Additional Health Care Costs
As Oklahoma's attorney general, Scott Pruitt tried to kill an EPA pollution rule that has saved thousands of lives and many billions in health costs.
Dow Chemical Wants Farmers to Keep Using a Pesticide Linked to Autism and ADHD
After decades of study, the EPA was finally ready to ban chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide linked to autism and ADHD. Then Trump was elected president.