Environment & Climate

Looking for story leads on the underlying factors driving health in your community? The 2018 County Health Rankings offer a wealth of datapoints on what influences a community’s health.

It’s hard to imagine a more urgent time than this one, when it comes to supporting great journalism on the health challenges facing Californians.

The Clean Air Act’s impact has been greatest on those who live next to industry and highways, where toxic emissions are highest. Such “fence-line communities” typically harbor poorer people and minorities.

We recently spoke with Brenda Woods-Placky, director of the Climate Matters program at Climate Central, to discuss how journalists can best report on the science and health impact of climate change.

When it comes to local communities, zip codes are rarely a good way to look for geographic differences, and can cloud whatever relationships a researcher might be looking for. Consider what happened in Flint.

More than 50 farmworkers were exposed to the pesticide near Bakersfield, California, last spring.

"I knew that in order to make a policy story work on the airwaves, I would need to find stories of the people whose lives it would affect –– and I would need to do it fast," writes reporter Marissa Ortega-Welch.

Earlier this year, the EPA rejected a long-running petition to ban chlorpyrifos, which poses serious health risks to young children. But the health threats go way beyond chlorpyrifos, a leading researcher says.

Native organizations and advocates across the United States are seeking to get young Native people to switch from drinking sugary beverages, such as soda and energy drinks, to water.

Are California regulators in denial about the dangers of lead? The state's response to previous lead-poisoning crises raise plenty of doubts.