Bruce Lanphear

We Trust the Bones, But Not the Bodies Why environmental health is held to a higher—and deadlier—standard of proof

We Trust the Bones, But Not the Bodies
When an exposure is widespread, persistent, and involuntary—and when studies repeatedly point in the same direction—waiting for perfect certainty is not scientific rigor. It is a policy decision. And history suggests it is usually the wrong one.

What If 600 Quadrillion Is Just the Beginning? The smallest airborne plastics evade measurement—and carry the biggest risks

What If 600 Quadrillion Is Just the Beginning? Plastic pollution feels uncomfortably similar. We are measuring what our tools can detect, drawing comfort from low numbers, and largely missing the smallest particles most likely to matter.

A Sign in the Window What Václav Havel can teach us about toxic chemicals and public health

A Sign in the Window
Mark Carney’s speech in Davos struck a chord for me—not only for what it said about geopolitics, but because it reminded me what Václav Havel can teach us about toxic chemicals, regulation, and public health.

Join the discussion about public health, the environment, and what really drives disease. With a subscription, you’ll receive two short essays each week—and an open invitation to add your voice. Free, no paywall. blanphear.substack.com

The Long Poisoning When Regulatory Delay becomes State-Sanctioned Suffering

The Long Poisoning Despite decades of evidence, only a small number of chemicals have ever been truly banned in the United States. This is a failure of governance—a regulatory system designed to tolerate harm until it becomes undeniable, rather than prevent it when the evidence first appears.

The Plume Across the River A faint chemical trail, a damaged landscape, and the mystery St. Louis overlooked

The Plume Across the River
Walking in St. Louis in 1969, a curious scientist noticed something uncanny: whole blocks of plants looked stricken. Leaves curled like closing hands, stems twisted, and redbuds and forsythias seemed frozen mid-grimace. It wasn’t random. It was directional—a warning.

The Quiet Chemistry of Childhood Every few months, a new fluoride study drops—another twist in a debate that has stretched across generations.

The Quiet Chemistry of Childhood
When you put all this together, the picture becomes clearer: one side of the ledger—the benefits—is thinner than we’ve long assumed. The other side—the risks—is thicker than many expected.

Fly the Leaded Skies Why Aviation Fuel Still Poisons Our Communities

The Unfinished Phase-Out of Leaded Fuel
How did the United States allow leaded aviation fuel to persist for so long when its harms were so clear? Why did it take until 2023—50 years after the phase-out of leaded car fuel began—for EPA to determine that leaded avgas poses a danger to public health?

The Smallest Victims of Arsenic How a Poison in Our Water Reveals a Missed Opportunity

The Smallest Victims of Arsenic
At lower doses, arsenic works slowly, quietly increasing the risk of lung cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. These aren’t rare outcomes; they touch nearly every family, often without anyone realizing that a poison in the water may have helped set them in motion.

Sweet Deception: The Framing of Fluoride How the Kellogg Foundation helped turn a dietary crisis into a chemical solution.

Sweet Deception: The Framing of Fluoride

The Kellogg Foundation held a controlling share of Kellogg Company stock. Throughout the mid-20th century, Kellogg’s commercial success—and thus the Foundation’s endowment—depended heavily on the sale of sugar-sweetened breakfast cereals.

The Toxic Truth Behind Heart Attacks How the Auto Industry Fueled the Heart Disease Epidemic

For 50 years, heart disease has killed more Americans than anything else. Our film traces how a pervasive toxic element—quietly woven into daily life—helped drive a national epidemic, and how pulling that toxic element back helped save hundreds of millions of lives.

How Big Sugar pushed fluoride — new study alleges a century of spin The sugar industry and companies that make sweet drinks and foods have spent nearly a century downplaying sugar’s role in health problems and distorting the science around fluoride — and the practice ...

In the 1940s, the sugar industry faced a crisis. Research was mounting that sugar was driving the epidemic of tooth decay, but reducing sugar consumption was unthinkable for an industry built on sales. So industry leaders pulled off a sleight of hand worthy of Big Tobacco.

THE FLUORIDE EXPERIMENT How the Sugar Industry Used Fluoridation as a Smokescreen

The Fluoride Experiment
For decades, Americans have been told that adding fluoride to our drinking water prevents tooth decay. But what if there’s another side to the story—one that involves corporate money, manipulated science, and a policy that may be doing more harm than good?

Breakthroughs in Medicine Seeing the World through an Environmental Lens

Breakthroughs in Medicine
We often think of medical breakthroughs as new drugs, devices, or diagnostic tests—things we can hold, prescribe, or patent. But revolutions in medicine often begin not with a new molecule, but with a new mindset. It’s not just what we see; it’s how we see it.

The Science of Delay Why we wait until millions are harmed by toxic chemicals before we act

The Science of Delay
The lesson of PFAS is the same lesson we should have learned from lead, asbestos, and air pollution: if we wait until the evidence is definitive, we’ve waited too long.

Which Side Are You On? Finding Common Ground in an Age of Tribalism

Which Side Are You On?
The line I draw is with scientists who pretend to be independent while secretly cashing checks from the industries they defend. They don’t just betray themselves—they corrode trust in science itself.

The Chronicles of Lead Toxicity A History Cast in Fire, Frozen in Ice

The Chronicles of Lead Toxicity
We know what is typical in a world saturated with lead. But true normal—of health, behavior, intelligence—may have slipped away long ago, buried in the layers of ice, etched into tree rings, and written in our bones.

A Thousand Thanks Six months, 1000 readers and a community that matters

A Thousand Thanks
One of the unexpected thrills of Substack has been the conversations it sparks. Some of you write thoughtful comments, others send quiet emails, and some simply open and read each post. All of it matters. Writing can be solitary, but this space has never felt lonely.

There’s a reason Eric Topol stands at the forefront of modern medicine: he combines a critical eye for solid evidence with an uncommon openness to new ideas.

Chronic Lead Exposure, a Risk Factor for Heart Disease Plus: My Recommendations for Reducing Risk of Heart Disease

Things you might not know about chronic, low-level lead exposure and heart disease, including the lead-estrogen hypothesis
"In 2019, a total of 5.5 million deaths from cardiovascular disease were attributed to lead exposure"
Learn from @blanphear.bsky.social
erictopol.substack.com/p/is-chronic...

“Follow the Science”— or Just the Convenient Parts? We Keep Ignoring the Warnings at the Cost of Lives—and Trust

When science that threatens powerful interests is ignored, the public notices—even if they don’t know the details. The irony is that ignoring inconvenient science doesn’t just harm public health—it erodes the very trust needed to mobilize public health measures in the future.

YouTube video by Physicians & Scientists for Global Responsibility Bruce Lanphear Chemical Exposures & Risks. Making Sense of Science, Public Health & Economic Benefit

🔥HUGE 🔥🔥 interview with @blanphear.bsky.social public health physician & paediatric epidemiologist.

Chemical Exposures & the Toxic Risks. Making Sense of Science, Public Health, & Economic Benefit.

#DoHaD #lead #pesticides #fluoride #pollution #babies #brains
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgB9...

Industry loves to say, ‘The dose makes the poison.’ But what if that’s a lie that’s been poisoning policy for decades? Ken Cook talks with Dr. Bruce Lanphear about how a 500-year-old mantra still shields polluters—and why tiny doses can cause massive harm."

Industry loves to say, ‘The dose makes the poison.’ But what if that’s a lie that’s been poisoning policy for decades?

YouTube video by Plagues, Pollution & Poverty EWG's Ken Cook interviews Dr. Bruce Lanphear

Bruce talks with EWG's Ken Cook to take apart the lingering myth that “the dose makes the poison” – a chemical industry claim that there can be safe levels of toxic exposure. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIGF...

The ADHD Epidemic We Choose to Ignore A Preventable Epidemic of Staggering Proportions

The ADHD Epidemic We Choose to Ignore
We found that 8.7% of children had ADHD in a national study. That was striking enough. We also attributed one in three cases of ADHD in US children to two toxic chemicals. These weren’t obscure exposures, this was everyday life in America.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ken Cook of EWG. Few people have done more to expose the dangers of toxic chemicals. We dug into the old adage “the dose makes the poison”—and why it doesn’t always hold up. Please listen while you walk around the park or enjoy a beverage before dinner.

YouTube video by Environmental Working Group (EWG) “The dose makes the poison” is outdated

EWG scientists work to identify potential health harms from chemical exposure in everyday products so that consumers can make safer choices—and to debunk the myth that “the dose makes the poison.” Dr. Bruce Lanphear and I discuss why even low-level exposures can be harmful. @blanphear.bsky.social

Rally: Sound Science Saves Lives · Mobilize Science and public research are under attack in this country. Indiscriminate cuts to federal research agencies and political interference are causing research studies to be paused, programs halted, an...

I won't be able to attend Indivisible Georgia Coalition's event, “Rally: Sound Science Saves Lives” in Atlanta, Goergia—but I wholeheartedly support it.

THE CANCER EXPRESS The Hidden Cost of India’s Green Revolution

THE CANCER EXPRESS
They are not going to New Delhi to visit family or conduct business. They are going to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences—to be treated for cancer. This train has a name. The locals call it the Cancer Express.

The Most Honorable Kind of Work On legacy, humility, and the quiet power of doing good work

The Most Honorable Kind of Work
The most honorable contributions are those offered without the expectation of recognition, status, or repayment. They are made for the sake of truth, justice, or human progress—regardless of whether anyone notices.