Are we alarmists?  We hope so, because the medical research is alarming and we are only its messengers.

We’re getting used to being called “alarmists.”  We’re also getting used to being vindicated by science and the facts. Almost since our inception, UPHE has been told our warnings are “alarmist.” But every time, science has proven us right.

When we first compared Utah’s air pollution health impacts to smoking several cigarettes a day, state employees tried to discredit the analogy. But as more research emerged, our comparison became widely accepted. The same pattern emerged when we told the state Stericycle’s medical waste incinerator was harming residents of North Salt Lake.  It took nine years but we finally got it shut down. When we warned the state Vernal’s neonatal mortality rate was six times the national average and almost certainly due to pollution from the oil and gas industry it became a national scandal. The VOC pollution was measured by the U. of Colorado and was found to be off the charts, vindicating our concerns. We told the public autopsies were revealing that pollution particles were found in every brain examined.  Now we know they are in every critical organ of virtually every person on earth.  Everyone should find that truly alarming.State and federal governments have a long and tragic history of protecting regulators, industry and the status quo at the public’s expense.  They are routinely far too slow to protect us from environmental hazards and industry mistakes, and millions of people suffer and die needlessly as a result.  

Leaded paint and gasoline, asbestos, numerous pesticides like DDT, cigarettes,  oxycontin, PFAS, BPA, and radiation are just a few examples. No one knows this painful story better than Utahns, tens of thousands of whom became downwinder victims of nuclear radiation after being lied to about its toxicity. Utahns deserve better. We deserve honesty, transparency, and the full truth about the health consequences of air pollution, environmental toxins, and the climate crisis.

If we can protect Utah families by sounding the alarm before harm becomes widespread and irreversible, then that is our responsibility, and we will never apologize for fulfilling it. We will always stand on science, empirical experience, common sense, and the people we serve. Always.

We are now raising the alarm about the disappearing Great Salt Lake. The reality is that the lake’s decline is perhaps the clearest environmental and public health emergency in Utah’s history.

We already have more than enough research to conclude that allowing the lake to continue shrinking endangers the 2.7 million residents of Northern Utah. Yet the state’s position is that they have the right to drain the lake dry if they so choose. Waiting for ever more data and downplaying the risks will not make the crisis disappear, it will only exacerbate, expand, and prolong the consequences.

That’s what UPHE provides, and why we will continue to speak up, clearly and unapologetically, dictated by science and committed to protecting your family’s health.