A new report recommends several improvements the California Department of Pesticide Regulation could make to ensure its human health risk assessments for pesticides adhere to best practices.

Gain-of-function research aims to improve understanding of disease pathways by modifying the ability of an infectious agent to cause disease. The potential benefits of such modifications are to help find targets for vaccines and drugs as well as provide information that can help in surveillance for potentially pandemic strains. But concerns about biosafety and biosecurity risks are also part of current debates over GOF research on the potentially pandemic viruses that cause influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

This report offers a framework for assessing the health, environmental, social, and economic effects of proposed changes to the nation's food system.

This report presents a framework to guide the assessment of potentially safer chemical alternatives in terms of human health and ecological risks.

Economic losses from coastal storms have increased substantially over the past century. This report examines coastal risk reduction strategies for the East and Gulf Coasts and principles to guide future investments. Learn more in this new video featuring the chair of the report's authoring committee.