Sharon Lerner
I cover health and the environment and the agencies that govern them, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
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What I Cover
My beat is health and the environment. Specifically, I cover the Environmental Protection Agency, charting its handling of pesticides, plastic-based fuels and other chemicals. I have reported on EPA whistleblowers who were pressured to downplay the harms posed by new chemicals, as well as on plastic, greenwashing and biosafety.
I have also written extensively about PFAS, a family of industrial pollutants linked to cancer, infertility, developmental harm and immune dysfunction. My reporting has focused on corporate irresponsibility and on the knowledge that PFAS manufacturers 3M and DuPont had of the chemicals’ harms.
My Background
I joined ProPublica in 2022 after seven years as an investigative reporter at The Intercept.
I’ve received numerous local and national awards for my reporting, including being honored by the Society of Environmental Journalists 12 times and by the Newswomen’s Club of New York, which named me its journalist of the year in 2021.
Why the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals
From a powerful chemical industry that helped write the toxic substances law to an underfunded EPA lacking in resolve, the flaws in the American chemical regulatory apparatus run deep.