"I had fair warning that gathering data on blue-green algae toxins in California was going to be an uphill battle," writes reporter Stephanie Baer. Her effort started with records requests to each of the state's 58 counties.
In California, cyanotoxins have become more of a problem amid the drought. The same toxin that shut down Toledo, Ohio’s water supply in 2014 has been detected in lakes, reservoirs and streams across the state.
Reports of dogs dying after swimming in blue green algae-infested waters in California this summer have raised concerns about the health risks to humans who come into contact with harmful algal blooms. Just how safe are California's waters?
Before joining NAM, Viji Sundaram worked variously at India-West, a national weekly newspaper for the South Asian community in the U.S., the Cape Cod Times, the Providence Journal and the New Bedford Standard Times, covering topics ranging from health to immigration to crime to social issues.
Children breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults. They also spend more time outside and are more physically active, which further increases their exposure to air pollution.
Children in suburban Riverside and San Bernardino counties breathe what is arguably the worst air in America. Diesel soot and other harmful particles and lung-searing ozone build up in the region, not only from local sources but from polluters in coastal areas.
California's long-running campaign to reduce air pollution has indirectly helped create a new problem: its oil refineries now produce more greenhouse gas emissions than refineries anywhere else in the country.
How toxic air pollution threatens some of the poorest residents of Seattle… and maybe your town, too
Seattle’s only river is – officially – a toxic waste dump. The Duwamish River is one of the few Superfund sites anywhere in the country extending for miles through the heart of a city. Facing off across the Duwamish are the neighborhoods of South Park and Georgetown – some of Seattle’s poorest and most diverse communities.
In today's hyper-evolving social media world, it might seem quaint, if not downright foolish, to believe that old school journalism's low-tech and low-cost approaches — a pen, a pad, and shoe-leather investigation — could result in an article that ignites a global furor.
What is air pollution doing to our kids? If you live in L.A. County, and especially if you’ve driven back to the Los Angeles basin from somewhere else, you’ve seen it. A steely brown haze hangs over us for much of the year. We live in the smoggiest region in the United States (according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District), but for those raising children here it may not be top of mind. In some parts of the county, moms claw their way onto waiting lists for the “right” preschool while they are still pregnant. Concerns about finding the right neighborhood, the right school, about keeping kids away from gangs and drugs or getting them to turn off the Xbox and do some homework tend to take center stage. The air we breathe gets plenty of media coverage, but we tend to consider it more of an inconvenience than an emergency.
Yet at every stage of children’s lives – from their time in the womb until they’re ready to leave the nest – the pollution in the air impacts their health. 2010 California Health Journalism Fellow Christina Elston reports.
