U.S. Right to Know articles

A CIA whistleblower testified that agency management suppressed internal findings suggesting COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak, alleging obstruction and influence from high-ranking health officials like Anthony Fauci.

E-cigarettes can quickly lodge toxic metals deep into the lungs, where they may damage tissue, according to new research that provides detailed evidence about risks of vaping.

Switching from conventional personal care products to nontoxic alternatives can rapidly and significantly reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.

The indictment Tuesday of a top adviser to former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci on charges of conspiring against the United States casts a spotlight on years of efforts to subvert public records laws and conceal key COVID-era communications from the public.

The Modern Ag Alliance, launched by Bayer in 2024, enables the company to lobby and campaign through an entity that looks like a coalition of farm organizations, not a single giant chemical corporation. 

Solitary screen time on TVs, phones or tablets may worsen behavioral and emotional challenges in young children who struggle with language skills, a new study reports.

Ultra-processed foods, now a dominant part of the American diet, may raise the risk of serious pregnancy complications, including preterm birth and blood pressure problems, according to a large U.S. study.

Sham clinical studies, slush funds, luxury gifts, and shell companies: A new review shows how pharma firms allegedly bribed their way to drug approvals and sales.

Powerful institutions are using covert tactics to shape how they are portrayed online.

Five federal transparency failings – FOIA shortcomings, weak congressional oversight, dark money in elections, inadequate lobbying disclosure and secrecy in court – harm our health.

Emails reveal Wuhan virologist Zhengli Shi asked a U.S. collaborator to hand-carry antibodies to China, bypassing formal shipping protocols.

Documents show scientists across multiple U.S.-funded projects proposed altering spike proteins and cleavage sites in bat viruses — work that echoed ideas later floated in the controversial DEFUSE proposal

The Trump administration yesterday handed Bayer another win, urging the Supreme Court in a new brief to side with the German pesticide company in a high-stakes legal case that could wipe out thousands of cancer lawsuits. Three out of nine U.S. officials who signed the brief previously worked for law firms that have represented Bayer.

A study reveals that early 2000s air pollution exposure significantly impaired older adults' memory by 2011, equating to years of cognitive aging, regardless of subsequent air quality improvements.

Our review of Bayer’s access in Washington found 16 key administration officials with ties to Bayer’s lobbying or legal network. Bayer and its lobbyists have access to people in power at the White House, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and even those in high level positions closest to Trump.

Here we list Bayer's 13 lobbying firms and the company’s in-house lobbyists.

A single exposure to a toxic agricultural fungicide during pregnancy can echo through 20 generations — with inherited disease risks from kidney disease to infertility not fading, but worsening over time, according to groundbreaking study reports.

Chemicals increasingly used to replace the controversial plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) may disrupt fertility, fetal development, and reproductive health through many of the same biological mechanisms, according to a narrative review of human, animal and laboratory studies.

Internal documents suggest the Department of Energy's reported shift on COVID-19 origins was a clarification of misconstrued data rather than a new analytical pivot, revealing deep internal scientific disputes.

Tiny pieces of plastic, widely found in food, water, and air, can harm the development and function of specialized brain cells that regulate reproduction, new research reports. 

More than six years after COVID-19 emerged in China and killed millions worldwide, newly released intelligence records show that the Defense Intelligence Agency was evaluating a detailed lab-origin scenario as early as March 2020 — weeks into the pandemic and well before the issue became a subject of public debate.

Pacifiers can release bisphenol A, a chemical linked to hormone disruption and developmental problems, with the highest levels found in one marketed as “BPA-free,” a new study shows. 

A growing wave of peer-reviewed studies supports the same troubling conclusion: When private equity incentives collide with clinical care, patients—especially those who are sicker, poorer, or harder to treat—are more likely to be killed or harmed.

Flame-retardant chemicals widely used in sofas, mattresses, electronics, textiles, and other products are increasingly linked to cardiovascular disease risk and other serious health problems, according to a sweeping scientific review.

Researchers are getting closer to solving the riddle of how ultra-processed foods harm metabolic, reproductive, and immune health in ways that can't be explained by calories or poor nutrient profile alone.

Kennedy promotes MAHA while discussing a national food standard that could override state bans on ultra-processed ingredients, raising concerns about federal preemption and Big Food’s influence.

Children and teens who spend hours scrolling social media are far more likely to smoke or vape than their peers, with the highest risks seen among girls and heavy users, according to new research.

Breast milk from mothers around the world contains a wide range of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) – such as bisphenols, perfluorinated chemicals, pesticides, flame retardants, and plasticizers – that can disrupt hormones and potentially harm development, a new study finds. The researchers note that human milk is still the best recommended nutrition for infants.

A scientific study that regulators around the world relied on for decades to justify continued approval of glyphosate was quietly retracted last Friday over serious ethical issues including secret authorship by Monsanto employees – raising questions about the pesticide-approval process in the U.S. and globally.  

Critics say the Gates Foundation's push to expand chemical-intensive monocrop farming in Africa is exacerbating hunger, worsening inequality and entrenching corporate power in the world’s hungriest region.

The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency has classified atrazine – the second most widely used herbicide in the United States – as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” adding to growing concerns about toxic exposures in the nation’s farm belt. 

Children who spend more time on mobile phones, TVs, and video games may face a higher risk of developing attention problems as they grow, according to a first-of-its kind study.

Atrazine is the second-most widely used weed killer in the U.S., with more than 70 million pounds applied across the nation each year. It is an endocrine disruptor and also linked to various cancers, premature birth and birth defects. It has been banned for use in the European Union since 2004.

Neonicotinoid pesticides, the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, are linked to male reproductive toxicity in lab animals, especially at higher doses, according to a new scientific review of two decades of evidence.

Instead of listening to their customers, the world’s largest food and beverage companies have launched a “transparency” campaign – fronted by a longtime tobacco industry ally – and they are betting their old, tired political playbook will allow them to keep profiting from unhealthy foods. 

Women who live in areas with more air pollution may face a higher risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new, large-scale study of more than 400,000 women across the United States.

Americans for Ingredient Transparency is funded by large ultra-processed food and beverage companies, including General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo, and more than a dozen food industry trade associations. 

Propylparaben, a widely used preservative found in shampoos, lotions, packaged foods, and pharmaceuticals, may harm ovarian function and reduce fertility across generations, according to new research.

Infant clothing may expose babies to hundreds of different chemicals used in everything from plastics to pesticides -- including some known to be toxic, a new scientific investigation shows.

Chemicals found in everyday products—from plastics and pesticides to cosmetics and non-stick cookware — interfere with the body’s hormone systems in ways that may increase the risk and severity of prostate cancer, according to a new report.

Ultra-processed foods are industrially formulated with added sugar, artificial sweeteners, additives and flavorings to be highly rewarding and even addictive.

Recently obtained emails for the first time lay bare the NIH "gain-of-function" review committee's informal vetting of a controversial project in Wuhan, demonstrating the agency’s weak oversight of the potentially dangerous research it funded at the lab where some critics believe the pandemic started.

Even extremely small amounts of the herbicide glyphosate can harm gut health, disrupt metabolism, and change behavior in mice, scientists say. The effects aren't limited to the exposed animals—they pass on to their children and grandchildren.

Comprehensive review linking widespread glyphosate exposure to cancer, liver/kidney disease, endocrine and neurotoxicity, reproductive harm, microbiome disruption and regulatory controversy worldwide.

A sweeping new review warns that chemicals in common plastics pose serious and lasting health risks to children, from before birth through adulthood.

Urgent action is needed to protect public health from alcohol industry influence and to curb alcohol-related disease and death, according to international researchers.  

A leading molecular geneticist explains how his research challenges claims that GMOs are “substantially equivalent” to non-GMOs — the foundation of U.S. regulations for GMOs — and how regulators are ignoring modern scientific tests and methods that can help us better understand health risks of GMOs and pesticides.

Investigation shows the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics accepts funding, investments, and leadership ties to ultra-processed food, pesticide and pharma industries, raising conflicts that may harm public health.

Pesticides banned years ago in the European Union are drifting through the skies and turning up in clouds above France, raising concerns about how long these toxins persist and how far they can travel, with potentially harmful global health impacts, according to a pathbreaking new study.

Professor Michael Antoniou, head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group at King’s College London, describes how regulators are ignoring the health risks of stacked-trait GMOs and the combined toxicity of pesticide mixtures.