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Blog Post

UPDATE: World Health Assembly considers making clinical trial costs transparent - and it should start with the U.S. | Patricia Kelmar

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Blog Post

UPDATE: Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbal supplements…OH MY! | Patricia Kelmar

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Blog Post | Antibiotics

McDonald’s needs to honor its promises | Matt Wellington

 U.S. PIRG Education Fund and PIRG’s affiliated mutual fund company Green Century Capital Management, have been pressuring McDonald’s about environmental and public health issues for several years. Now, we’re working to hold McDonald’s accountable to its promises to improve factory farming conditions and reduce antibiotic use in the beef it buys. 

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Blog Post

Donald Ross, 1943-2022 | Douglas H. Phelps

Donald Ross passed away on May 14 after a recent illness. He was 78 years old.

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Blog Post

Inflation, drug supply, or just plain greed? Why drug prices keep rising | Patricia Kelmar

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News Release | PIRG | COVID-19

Statement: 1 million Americans dead from COVID-19

President Biden is acknowledging the loss of 1 million American lives to COVID-19 on Thursday. The Administration marks the sad milestone as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have risen across the United States in recent weeks, most sharply in the Northeast. 

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News Release | U.S. PIRG & Environment America

Statement: Congress should pass legislation to protect drinking water from PFAS contamination

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire introduced the Clean Water Standards for PFAS 2.0 Act into the Senate and the House this week. The bill would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish limits on how much PFAS chemicals producers can dump into waterways and to set water quality criteria to protect human health.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund and NRDC

Consumer advocacy groups launch campaign to get Columbia Sportswear to phase out toxic ‘forever chemicals’

 

U.S. PIRG Education Fund and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) launched a campaign on Tuesday calling on outdoor gear and apparel brand Columbia Sportswear to phase out the use of PFAS in its products and supply chains. Last month, the company received low marks in a scorecard report released by the advocacy groups. The report found that Columbia Sportswear has failed to adopt policies that ban PFAS chemicals or provide up-to-date, publicly available information on any ongoing efforts to phase out these toxic chemicals from their products.

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News Release | US PIRG

Statement: Public health advocates applaud FDA’s proposed rules to end the sale of menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced proposed rules on Thursday that would end the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars nationwide. The FDA’s action comes after years of outcry from public health officials and advocates about the dangers of these tobacco products.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Transportation

Statement: Biden restores robust public and environmental review for infrastructure projects

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday stronger public and environmental review requirements under a bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The move reversed a rollback by the Trump administration of the requirements, which had limited public review of federal infrastructure projects in an effort to shove through the permitting of new freeways, fossil fuel power plants and pipelines.

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Result | Higher Ed

Protecting students from unfair bank fees

We helped win protections for students from unfair fees associated with campus bank accounts. The new rules, released by the U.S. Department of Education, ban some of the worst and most predatory fees that students encounter from banks.

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Pages

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund, NRDC and Fashion FWD

Going Out of Fashion

PFAS use in apparel and other consumer products is coming under increased scrutiny from lawmakers. However, apparel manufacturers and retail stores don’t need to wait for the law to catch up to the proliferation of toxic PFAS. They can get out in front of the regulatory curve and protect their customers and the planet from PFAS pollution by immediately adopting policies to end the use of PFAS in clothing, footwear, and accessories. Indeed, some already have. 

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Report | US PIRG | Consumer Tips

DARK PATTERNS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY ON YOUR PHONE

Dark patterns are one way that apps and websites steer consumers into making the choice that’s right for the app or website -- but wrong for the consumer.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Food

Food recalls: 2021 Trends and What They Mean for You

There were 270 food and beverage recalls in 2021 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That marked a 27 percent decrease from 2020. But fewer recalls doesn’t necessarily mean safer food. 

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Product Recalls: Often Too Little Too Late

2021 reminds us the system is broken. Federal laws favor corporations, not consumers, and it can take months or years for the public to be warned about dangerous products.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Progress Report: President Biden’s First Year

Following years of rollbacks, President Joe Biden began his term nearly a year ago amidst unprecedented environmental and public health challenges. Despite these obstacles, his administration has made significant strides toward restoring lost environmental protections and confronting daunting threats to our climate and public health, according to a new report by Environment America Research & Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund. 

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Pages

Blog Post

UPDATE: World Health Assembly considers making clinical trial costs transparent - and it should start with the U.S. | Patricia Kelmar

> Keep Reading
Blog Post

UPDATE: Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbal supplements…OH MY! | Patricia Kelmar

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Antibiotics

McDonald’s needs to honor its promises | Matt Wellington

 U.S. PIRG Education Fund and PIRG’s affiliated mutual fund company Green Century Capital Management, have been pressuring McDonald’s about environmental and public health issues for several years. Now, we’re working to hold McDonald’s accountable to its promises to improve factory farming conditions and reduce antibiotic use in the beef it buys. 

> Keep Reading
Blog Post

Donald Ross, 1943-2022 | Douglas H. Phelps

Donald Ross passed away on May 14 after a recent illness. He was 78 years old.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post

Inflation, drug supply, or just plain greed? Why drug prices keep rising | Patricia Kelmar

> Keep Reading

Pages

Blog Post

House Oversight Committee finds Juul targeting kids

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi got right to the point as he opened a House committee's first hearing on the role of Juul in the teen vaping epidemic.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Antibiotics

Taco Bell the latest chain to reduce antibiotics in its meat supply

You might know Taco Bell for silly ads asking you to "think outside the bun." But the company is getting serious about at least one thing: reducing the overuse of antibiotics.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Public Health

Amazon: Take responsibility for unsafe products

Most of us expect that the products we buy in stores are safe to use. It turns out that's not always the case with Amazon. 

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Blog Post

Rather than require warning labels for Roundup, Trump administration moves to prohibit them

Does the public have a right to know that researchers for the World Health Organization say the widely used herbicide Roundup is a probable carcinogen?

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

In the wake of the Capital One data breach, Ed Mierzwinski and Adam Garber explain how to protect your credit

Were you affected by the Capital One breach, one of the largest thefts of data from any bank to date?

> Keep Reading

Pages

Blog Post

UPDATE: Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbal supplements…OH MY!

Blog Post

UPDATE: World Health Assembly considers making clinical trial costs transparent - and it should start with the U.S.

Blog Post

McDonald’s needs to honor its promises

 U.S. PIRG Education Fund and PIRG’s affiliated mutual fund company Green Century Capital Management, have been pressuring McDonald’s about environmental and public health issues for several years. Now, we’re working to hold McDonald’s accountable to its promises to improve factory farming conditions and reduce antibiotic use in the beef it buys. 

Blog Post

Donald Ross, 1943-2022

Donald Ross passed away on May 14 after a recent illness. He was 78 years old.

Blog Post

Inflation, drug supply, or just plain greed? Why drug prices keep rising

Consumer Protection

GM heeds consumer groups' advocacy, commits to not sell used cars with safety issues

We commend General Motors for its new commitment not to sell used vehicles with unrepaired safety recall defects on its soon-to-be-launched used car platform, CarBravo.

 

Health Care

Victory: Medical debt to be scrubbed from consumers' credit reports

One in 5 American households report having medical debt. Now, new credit industry policies will help keep that debt from hurting their credit.

 

Safe Energy

Report: Electric school buses are a win for our kids and our energy grid

What if we could keep pollution out of our air, help stave of climate disaster, and move toward a cleaner energy grid — all by investing in electric school buses for our kids?

 

Consumer Tips

In the market for a new phone or laptop? This scorecard will tell you which popular products are built to last.

Products that carry unnecessary restrictions on access to repair tools lead you to spend money replacing your devices instead of repairing them. And they harm our planet by contributing to our rapidly growing electronic waste problem.

 
  • STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS
    The World Health Organization has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the top 10 global health threats. That's why reducing antibiotic overuse in food production is so important.
    TAKE ACTION
  • How safe is our food?
    Nationwide recalls ranging from romaine lettuce to millions of pounds of beef to Ritz and Goldfish crackers underscore that there’s a growing public health crisis we need to address.
    Find out
  • WATCH OUT FOR UNSAFE TOYS
    Our “Trouble in Toyland” report found boron in slime, choking hazards without the proper warning labels, “connected” toys that pose a privacy risk and more.
    GET THE FACTS
  • HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?
    One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.
    TAKE ACTION

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