As cancer victims hold Monsanto accountable in court, our governor should act to ban Roundup unless and until it's proven safe.
As cancer victims hold Monsanto accountable in court, our governor should act to ban Roundup unless and until it's proven safe.
Solid Waste | U.S. PIRG
We want the right to repair our stuff
Companies make it hard to repair our phones and other electronics so more of us trash our old stuff and buy new stuff. The Federal Trade Commission can make it easier.
Solid Waste | U.S. PIRG
Let's move beyond plastic
Nothing we use for a few minutes should threaten our health and pollute our future for hundreds of years. One of the best ways to reduce the amount of trash headed to landfills is to ban items such as plastic foam cups and takeout containers.
Antibiotics | U.S. PIRG
Hold the Antibiotics Wendy’s
A recent estimate suggests that as many as 162,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections every year. We delivered a message to Wendy’s CEO and shareholders: Get antibiotics out of your beef supply chain.
Transportation | U.S. PIRG
Volkswagen settlement scorecard
Volkswagen was caught cheating emissions laws and settled with federal authorities. The settlement included nearly $3 billion for the Environmental Mitigation Trust. How well does our state rank on plans for investing VW mitigation trust funds in clean transportation projects?
We can't do it without you.
MASSPIRG is your advocate for the public interest, speaking out for healthier, safer, more secure lives for all of us.
News & Research
News Release | MASSPIRG
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
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.
Blog Post
In committee votes this week and last week, the House Financial Services Committee sent a package of credit reporting reforms on to the House floor. It's the first major Congressional action to rein in the so-called Big 3 credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and Trans Union - and other smaller, specialized bureaus and credit scoring companies, since 2003. The Big 3 national credit bureaus have been the most complained about financial firms to the CFPB for four years running, predating the massive Equifax data breach.
News Release | MASSPIRG
Lawmakers held a hearing today on legislation (S.1279/H.1902) that would prohibit the sale of any flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, in Massachusetts anywhere except for age-restricted amoking bars. The bill, An Act Regulating Flavored Tobacco Products, was filed by Representative Danielle Gregoire and Senator John Keenan and includes a bipartisan group of 69 co-sponsoring lawmakers. Consumer and public health advocates urged legislators to support the bill, citing the rampant rise of e-cigarette use among young people, and the role flavors play in hooking kids on the products.
News Release | MASSPIRG
Leading consumer advocates testified before the State House Joint Committee on Consumer Protection today against a bill that would drastically weaken state consumer protection laws by allowing car dealers to sell dangerous used cars with unrepaired safety recalls. The bill, which is part of a nationwide push by car dealers and their trade associations, allows car dealers to sell recalled used cars if they merely provide a “written disclosure” (in English only) “at the time of sale” that the vehicles have an unrepaired safety recall.
RESOURCE
Get consumer tips
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