Pacbell to Remove Toxic Underwater Cable from Lake Tahoe’s Waters 63 Tons of Lead in Long-Abandoned Telecom Lines OAKLAND, CA – AT&T’s PacBell subsidiary will pull eight miles of decrepit telephone cable out of Lake Tahoe, where it has been leaching toxic lead into the lake’s water for decades, under a settlement agreement finalized last week in federal court in Sacramento. Local divers discovered the abandoned cables years ago while removing other trash from the lake bottom, and the non-profit California Sportfishing Protection…

When communities are threatened by toxic substances in our air, water, or the products we use in our homes, environmental watch groups utilize Proposition 65 as a tool to pressure manufacturers to take accountability for our exposure to hazardous chemicals. Public health advocates like the Environmental Health Coalition use Prop 65 to obtain justice for historically marginalized groups who have been disproportionately exposed to dangerous chemicals in their environments for decades. For the Environmental Health Coalition, the fight began with…

Center for Environmental Health (CEH) finds cancer-causing chemical in Swim Cap UPDATE, July 2024: Good news for swimmers! As a result of CEH’s legal action, Speedo has agreed to reformulate its swim caps to remove NDEA – a cancer-causing chemical – from its swim caps. CEH’s court-enforceable agreement with Speedo can be found here. While Speedo could have opted to apply Proposition 65 warnings on its products to inform consumers of NDEA, the swimwear company agreed to remove the chemical from its…

[UPDATED] By Lily Moser Are you working towards better health, well-being, or major muscle gains? If so, you’re most likely acquainted with workout bands: the light-weight, easy-to-use, strength-building workout tool. But what many people might not know is that there are hidden toxic chemicals in some of these bands that could harm your health as you use these products to up your fitness game. The Center for Environmental Health’s (CEH) testing has shown that popular workout brands such as Adidas,…

Poor air quality is the biggest environmental health risk in America. But not every neighborhood is created equal. Across the country, communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of carcinogens, fine particulate matter, and chemicals in the air they breathe every day. For decades, the predominantly Latinx community of Paramount, California was exposed to the heavy metal hex chrome in their own neighborhood. Hex chrome is a chemical known to cause cancer, birth defects, and damage to virtually any vital…