The Trump administration has announced plans to roll back multiple environmental regulations, cut EPA spending and push back environmental justice programs. Christine Todd Whitman served as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush and she’s the only woman who has served as the governor of New Jersey. She joined Living on Earth’s host Steve Curwood and Paloma Beltran to discuss recent federal actions end her centrist approach on environmental regulation.

Plastics can contain thousands of chemicals like phthalates and PFAS which are harmful to human and animal health. A new study published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, found that higher exposure to disposable takeout containers, was linked to a higher risk of congestive heart failure in both humans and animals. Dr. Leonardo Trasande the director of the NYU Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards joined host Living on Earth Steve Curwood to review the study.

From abolitionist Harriet Tubman to novelist Louisa May Alcott, some of the country’s most important women trailblazers shared a connection with the natural world in their girlhood. According to author Tiya Miles in her book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, this time spent in the outdoors prepared these women to become pioneers in their fields. She joins Host Paloma Beltran for more.

Phthalates are a group of chemicals commonly found in plastics, to the extent that they’re often referred to as “everywhere chemicals” with a wide variety of health effects. Detailed statistical analysis conducted for a new study in the US finds that people aged 55-64 with documented phthalate exposure a decade earlier died at a rate of over 100,000 people a year, most commonly from cardiovascular disease. Persons in other age groups aren’t exempt from risk; indeed phthalates are considered by some to pose the greatest risk to children in the womb and during early years of development, though so far other studies have been more limited in scope. Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb talks to Dr. Leonardo Trasande of NYU, the lead researcher on the newly published study, about how to avoid unnecessary exposure to these chemicals that can sometimes seem unavoidable.

Hormone-disrupting chemicals in plastics take a yearly economic and health toll in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. alone, according to a recent study. Pediatrician Leonardo Trasande discusses the research with Host Steve Curwood and explains why PFAS, phthalates, BPA and flame retardants in plastics are so harmful to human health.