Category: HEAL in the News

Below you’ll find news in which HEAL itself, our staff, or our campaigns are mentioned.

Park Record

Williams, a former physician who has been working on fighting exposure to radioactivity for the past 20 years, said radiation finds its way into communities through insidious ways.

“I went to medical school with someone who developed thyroid cancer, and all of his siblings developed thyroid cancer,” he said. “They lived in Salt Lake City but got their milk delivered from a dairy that was in Washington County. And that’s where the radiation found its way into the population.”

The most common way radiation spreads is through the air, said Williams

Salt Lake Tribune

“We should be listening to the EPA,” said Vielleux. “The EPA has the best available science. All that ozone is crossing state borders, and it’s polluting other places. If those plants need to be shut down by the EPA, we’re going to take their word for it. Instead of spending $2 million on a lawsuit, maybe they should be spending $2 million thinking about where those jobs are going to be when the coal plants start shutting down. We’re just lighting money on fire for what purpose?”

KRCL 90.9

Legislative Priorities with HEAL Utah’s Lexi Tuddenham and Dr. Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

HEAL Utah Bill Tracker, newsletter, action alerts and more
HEAL Utah Community Lobbying Training, every Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30a-12:30p, during the Legislative Session
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment newsletter

Salt Lake Tribune

Before embarking on projects like an auto mall, Gonzalez said, cities should answer: Would auto malls stay afloat in the next decades? How much parking would it require in the future? Is there enough room for green spaces in the city? And is this kind of development the best for the community?

Deseret News

“We want to know when dust is coming in, where it’s hitting communities, how to install monitors in the best places,” said Alex Veilleux, a policy associate with HEAL Utah.

HEAL plans to lobby lawmakers to do a comprehensive study of dust pollution, including sources beyond the lake. And it’s a concept that might receive support — Cox has requested $160,000 to study the lakebed dust issue.

St George News

With many Southern Utahns partaking in holiday travel and shopping, Valdez told St. George News that they should consider “chaining (their) adventures.”

“So that means that when you need to go grocery shopping, hit up the bank, go see Mom and Dad – try to do those things in one run instead of going to one, going back home and then heading to the others,” she said.

Salt Lake Tribune

Whether you’re a fan of Utah’s so-called Greatest Snow on Earth or not, winter is here, and so are the Wasatch Front’s famous inversions.

Every year almost without fail, we are hit with inversions as we prepare for the busy holiday season. But what are inversions? And what can we do collectively to clean our air?

Fox 13 News

Lexi Tuddenham, the executive director of HEAL Utah, was glad to see the pilot project proposed. Her group has worked with the legislature to fund free fares on days when Utah’s air quality is at its worst.

“Demonstrating the numbers and the air pollution savings that we will certainly see from this year of free fare is an excellent way to move forwards towards cleaning up our air along the Wasatch Front,”

Salt Lake Tribune

“Baseload is important but nuclear is certainly not the only way to meet that need — in addition to demand-side management, efficiency upgrades, and smart grids,” she said. “Battery storage technology of many types is at a stage where it can provide the reliable and dispatchable energy needed to pair with intermittent sources like wind and solar. In fact, it is better and far more efficient at load-following than nuclear, which becomes even less cost-effective when it is switched on and off.” – Lexi Tuddenham, Executive Director of HEAL Utah