Residents in communities like LA's Wilmington have long paid the price for our dependence on fossil fuels with their health and lives. Many grew up thinking it was normal to gasp for air, to lose so many friends and loved ones to cancer. A 🧵insideclimatenews.org/news/03052024/… But community members no longer believe oil industry talking points that drilling boosts jobs and the local economy. They're tired of having asthma, nosebleeds, headaches and losing family members to cancer. And they're fighting back.

It's no secret that chemical regulation in the U.S. is broken. My latest reports on a study from @SilentSpringIns that flagged >900 chemicals, most in widespread use, as likely to increase #breastcancer risk. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. 🧵insideclimatenews.org/news/10012024/… A fraction of the 47,000-plus chemicals in use have been tested for safety. But even those have been tested only for effects that have screening methods, the lead researcher told me. There's no est'd way to screen for progesterone activation, e.g., a breast cancer risk factor.

ICYMI, over the holiday break, @insideclimate published the results of a months-long investigation of potential heat-related deaths in California, which has one of the toughest heat standards in the nation. Here’s what @paldhous and I found. A🧵insideclimatenews.org/news/31122023/… Cal/OSHA reported last year that two California farmworkers died from heat exposure between 2018 and 2022. But our review of federal farmworker death records, along with temperature and air pollution data, suggests the numbers may be much higher.

An @insideclimate analysis of data collected by CA oil & gas regulators shows 100s of millions of gallons of freshwater that could supply cities and farms is being used to extract #FossilFuels—which exacerbate #drought. New from @paldhous and me. 1/7 insideclimatenews.org/news/18092022/… But that figure may be higher. A 2014 CA law aimed to overhaul the oil & gas industry’s water-use reporting to keep tabs on excessive use. But as @paldhous' analysis found [code here bit.ly/3QVDJkj], the data is too error-strewn to do what the law intended. 2/7

In a new @insideclimate investigation, @paldhous and I show oil companies are diverting high-quality water from CA domestic and agricultural supplies to extract heavy crude from some of the world’s most climate-polluting oilfields. bit.ly/3SfeIlq 1/8 CA is in the third year of another severe drought, the driest two decades in 1,200 years, yet water officials have no authority to curtail the oil industry’s use of the state's increasingly scarce freshwater supplies. 2/8

SO grateful to @erikvance for the chance to craft a series on #toxic #chemicals and kids for @NYTParenting. First, we looked at #phthalates' effects on #fertility, with the help of @KaciAitchison, @drlorashahine, @TraceyJWoodruff, Jodi Flaws, Pat Hunt nyti.ms/3m5ifD1 1/4 Next, we looked at how #PFAS harm children in the womb, with the help of Philippe Grandjean, @BrucePLanphear, @leotrasande, @aynumazi and tireless community activists @pfoaprojectny1 and @mleleigh nyti.ms/3fCdiiM 2/4