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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

MASSPIRG releases 33rd anual toy safety report at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. This holiday season, watch out for dangerous and toxic toys. MASSPIRG’s 33rd annual Trouble in Toyland report found toxic amounts of boron in slime products and a failure by Amazon to appropriately label choking hazards. Boron can cause nausea, vomiting and other health issues.

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News Release | Transportation

Ditching diesel isn’t just good for public health and the environment -- it’s affordable

Getting rid of that black cloud of exhaust behind our buses, and the negative health and environmental effects that come along with it, is easier than it may seem. According to a new report from MASSPIRG Education Fund and Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center, electric buses are not only cleaner and healthier than diesel buses, but transit agencies and school districts have many affordable options at their disposal to adopt them.

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Paying for Electric Buses

Electric buses are here, and they are cleaner and healthier than their diesel counterparts. They save money over the long-run, but the purchase price of an electric bus is greater than that of a diesel bus. Many transit agencies and school districts want to make the switch, but struggle with overcoming the hurdle of the purchase price. This new report lays out funding and financing options that will help transit agencies and school districts ditch diesel and get us on the road to a cleaner, healthier world. 

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Public Health

MASSPIRG Releases 2nd annual “Back to School” Toolkit for Parents to Get The Lead out of Schools’ Drinking Water

In honor of National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, MASSPIRG released their second annual toolkit to Get The Lead Out of schools’ water.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Public Health

Chain Reaction report urges burger restaurants to beef up policies to eliminate routine use of antibiotics

Two growing burger chains, Shake Shack and BurgerFi, stand out from the herd when it comes to serving beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics in the burger industry. They were the only restaurants to earn an “A” on the fourth annual Chain Reaction scorecard released today by six major consumer and environmental organizations. The vast majority of hamburger chains — 22 of the top 25, including giants such as McDonald’s and Burger King — got an “F” grade because they lack established policies restricting antibiotic use in their beef supply chains.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Solid Waste

Plastic pollution: One day, three solutions

One day, three decisions -- all of which may have far-reaching effects on plastic pollution in the United States.

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News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Solid Waste

Groups Call for Zero Waste Master Plan

(Boston, MA) On the eve of the Commonwealth’s drafting of their next Solid Waste Master Plan, several organizations are calling for robust changes to that Plan, including a clear and enforceable commitment to policies that enact zero waste. “We cannot recycle our way out of the disposal problems in Massachusetts,” said Janet Domenitz, MASSPIRG Executive Director, who provided editorial support to a national report entitled Trash in America earlier this year.  “We need to turn the garbage truck around, and commit to a goal of zero waste.”

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Public Health

U.S. PIRG statement on $289 million verdict against RoundUp

Today, a jury ruled against the chemical company Monsanto, awarding $289 million in damages to Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who said he got terminal cancer from Monsanto’s best-selling weedkiller Roundup.

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News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Safe Shopping Guide for Back-to-School Supplies

Parents and teachers shopping for their students’ 2018-19 school supplies often look for a “non-toxic” label on the products, but many products don’t have that label. MASSPIRG Education Fund is releasing a guide that advises consumers which products are actually non-toxic and which to avoid.

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News Release | MASSPIRG Education Fnd | Public Health

MASSPIRG Calls on McDonald’s To Fulfill Promise To Cut Antibiotics from Meat Supply

MASSPIRG launches campaign to get MacDonald's to stop serving meat raised with routine antibiotics. 

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Back to School Kit

Our children need safe drinking water – especially at school where they go to learn and play each day.  Unfortunately, lead is contaminating drinking water at schools and pre-schools across the country and here in Massachusetts.

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

From Deceit to Transformation

Volkswagen (VW) perpetuated a fraud on the American people, deceiving consumers into believing that they were getting the best possible combination of performance and sustainability. But VW’s promises were nothing more than lies that significantly harmed our collective health and the health of our environment. As a result of the settlements that followed this fraud, an Environmental Mitigation Trust (EMT) was set up with $2.9 billion dollars to be distributed to states to reduce transportation emissions, with $75 million coming to Massachusetts. 

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection, Financial Reform

Protecting the People Who Protect US

How the CFPB protects and serves our military service members and their families.

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Medical Debt Malpractice

MASSPIRG, released the ninth in a series of reports that review complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  The latest report explores consumer complaints about medical debt, a major source of problems for consumers, since medical debt items on credit reports are often wrong or about the wrong consumer.  The report also demonstrates the need to defend the CFPB from partisan and special interest attacks.

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Report | MASSPIRG EDUCATION FUND | Public Health

Get the Lead Out

New report highlights public health threats from drinking water in schools.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Yahoo Data Breach: Another Reason for Free Credit Freeze | Deirdre Cummings

Yahoo data breach affects more than 1 billion consumers. We must have better solutions. 

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Testimony in favor of Banning Plastic Bags in Boston | Janet Domenitz

MASSPIRG urges Boston City Council to support the bag ban. Single use plastic bags are the shameful hallmark of a society that has become over dependent on things we don’t need. Nothing we use for five minutes should end up polluting our environment for hundreds of years.

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Blog Post | Public Health

Calling for Big Action on Antibiotics in the Big Apple | Steve Blackledge

Last week, we were in New York City, where the United Nations General Assembly spent an entire day discussing antibiotic resistance, “the biggest threat to modern medicine.” Experts estimate that more than 700,000 people worldwide die from antibiotic-resistant infections each year, including 23,000 in the United States—a number that could grow to 10 million globally by 2050.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Consumers Count: Five years of the CFPB standing up for consumers | Kathryn Lee

This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau turns five years old! As part of our efforts to tell more people about the CFPB, we're cross-posting this video blog and comments written by Zixta Q. Martinez of the CFPB (check out the infographic at the end, too!).

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Blog Post | Democracy

Statement from the Election Modernization Coalition Praising Boston's Early Voting Efforts | Janet Domenitz

In an election year that promises to have record turnout, access to the polls will be more important than ever. That is why the Election Modernization Coalition is pleased that the City of Boston has released today a citizen’s survey to inform their early voting plan for this fall. 

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News Release | U.S. PIRG

Largest bank hack ever, of Capital One, exposes 100 million to identity theft

Everyone should assume that their social security number has been exposed between this breach and breaches of other major companies’ databases, such as Equifax’s. With that in mind, U.S. PIRG recommends all Americans should use their right by law to freeze their credit reports for free

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Equifax penalty is a “sweetheart deal” that leaves consumers at risk

Our response to Equifax paying a $650 million penalty for exposing the social security numbers of 148 million Americans to identity theft.

News Release | MASSPIRG

New Report shows what Bay Staters are trying to fix

BOSTON -- While New Englanders’ thriftiness is alive and well, a new report released today by the MASSPIRG Education Fund, “What are Bay Staters Trying to Fix?” chronicles some big obstacles in their way. The report analyzes data from the popular repair website iFixit.com and looks at what items people in Massachusetts are trying to fix, and why that can be harder than it should be.

Report | MASSPIRG

What are Bay Staters Fixing?

Here in Massachusetts, we want to fix our stuff.

Something breaks, or doesn’t work right. You could throw it away, but you don’t want to be wasteful so you try to figure out how to get it fixed.

 

According to a review of data from iFixit, a self-described “repair guide for everything, written by everyone,” 1.6 million unique users from Massachusetts went onto their website www.ifixit.com to look up how to repair something in 2018. That’s about 23 percent, nearly 1 in 4 Massachusetts residents.

Looking more closely into that data from iFixit, the top ten device types that Bay Staters attempted to fix were cell phones, laptops, automobiles, desktop computers, gaming consoles, tablets, clothing, watches, wireless speakers and iPods. Cell phone repair guides were by far the most popular, receiving 26 percent of all the page views.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Salmonella outbreak affects papayas in Northeastern US

As summer begins, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) told consumers in six states to stop eating papayas after a fast-moving outbreak was tied to papaya fruit in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

  • Trouble In Toyland
    Our report highlights the toys that have been recently recalled, explains the hazards they pose, and shines a spotlight on those that may still be available for sale online.
    Get the tips
  • Why are health experts alarmed?
    More and more fast food chains are going antibiotic-free, but if we want to protect our lifesaving medicines, we need all big chains to do their part.
    Learn More
  • PROTECT YOURSELF
    We've created consumer tips to help protect you from unfair bank fees, identity theft, loan rip-offs and more.
    Get The Tips
  • NO CAR? NO PROBLEM.
    Technology is making it ever easier to live a full and engaged life without owning a car. We ranked 70 large U.S. cities on just how easy it is. How did your city do?
    GET THE REPORT

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