Author Archives: Caroline Cox

Caroline leads CEH’s research on toxic exposures, identifying, analyzing and substantiating the scientific bases for our work to eliminate threats to children and others exposed to dangerous chemicals in consumer products. Previously, she worked for sixteen years as staff scientist at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) in Oregon. She was also editor of NCAP’s Journal of Pesticide Reform and has co-authored numerous papers in scientific journals. Caroline represents CEH on the Steering Committee of Californians for Pesticide Reform and currently serves as a public interest representative to the U.S. EPA’s Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Beyond Pesticides. She writes and speaks regularly as a national expert on the toxicity of and alternatives to pesticides. Caroline has a master’s degree in entomology from Oregon State University and is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

Eco-Tip: Why You Shouldn’t Use RoundUp (or Trust Its Labels)

At the risk of sounding like the geek that I really am, I’ll make this confession: I’ve been reading the fine print on the back (and front) of Roundup bottles for a couple of decades. The Roundup I’m talking about here is not cowboys chasing down straggling cattle or horses. Roundup, along with other brand [...]

Eco-Tip of the Week: My Favorite Un-Recipes

This week, CEH’s Research Director Caroline Cox follow-ups on our Culinary Month tips to tell us about how she likes to grow, shop for, and prepare the organic food she loves. Unrecipe #1:  Every meal Ingredients: 1. Your neighborhood farmers market 2. A few minutes of your time to sample what’s for sale and talk [...]

Eco-Tip: Mosquitoes at Home and in the Wild

My co-worker Ali just came back from a beautiful, inspiring, and mosquito-filled camping trip at Lake Tahoe. She watched her friends liberally dousing themselves with various common repellents, mostly containing that nasty-sounding chemical DEET, and decided she’d rather be bitten and itchy than covered with DEET. You probably haven’t had the opportunity to meet Ali, [...]

Eco-Tip of the Week: Yellow Jackets and Ants, Oh My!

Summer is here, and with it comes many of our favorite warm weather outdoor activities.  But those activities can be interrupted by the summer insects that come out in hot weather.  Yellow jackets swarm around the burgers, grilled salmon or lemonade at our weekend picnics.  And ants find any possible way to get into our [...]

California’s Strawberry Field Poison Gets National Attention

You may have heard “methyl iodide” in the news over the weekend. It’s the name of the newest frighteningly toxic chemical — one that causes cancer and miscarriages — that California regulators are on the verge of approving for use on strawberry fields. Last week California Senator Dean Florez held a hearing to give the [...]

Field of Nightmares: Keep Cancer-Causing Pesticide Out of California’s Strawberry Fields

More than 20 years ago, my sister died of cancer when she was a young mother of two kids under eight.  I still live with that pain, and I know  that I’m not alone –all of you also have the same kind of stories about this common disease. With cancer so wide-spread, it should be [...]

Californians: Take Action to Stop Pesticide Secrets

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last December that it wanted to consider greater disclosure of the so-called inert ingredients in pesticides, it may not have known how many people cared the issue. (“Inert” ingredients in pesticides are the mostly secret, mostly untested chemicals that can cause illnesses, despite their misleading name.)

We’re not Cockroaches, EPA. Tell Us What’s in that Toxic Spray!

Take a close look at the fine print on a can of Raid, a bottle of Cutters, a jug of RoundUp, or virtually any pesticide on the market today, and you’ll see these words:  “Inert ingredients.” Inert ingredients are the pesticide industry’s best-kept secret. The Bad News There are thousands of chemicals used as inerts [...]

Check your Holiday Lights for Lead

Toxic chemicals don’t go well with snowflakes, gingerbread men, and carols around the fire. I hate to even bring them up at this time of year, but they have a way of intruding in celebrations of all kinds. When I was a kid we hung the same lights on our tree every year, and when [...]

A Kerfuffle About Mr. Squiggles

No, it’s not the title of an unpublished Dr. Seuss book. According to the Good Guide, the hottest toy of the holiday shopping season, the Zhu Zhu, may have illegal levels of antimony, a chemical linked to headaches, nausea, wheezing, and damage to the kidneys, liver, and heart. But the company that makes the toy [...]