PHW Executive Director Appears On “Hello Houston” To Discuss Petrochemical Investigation Jim Morris was interviewed on the Houston Public Media talk show February 12 about health threats associated with an infrastructure boom in Texas

Uninsured Rates, by State

San Jacinto Air and Water Town Halls San Jacinto: What’s in the Air and WaterTwo upcoming environmental town halls in East Harris County hosted by Public Health Watch  Register here! We want to hear from you! Public Health Watch will host two community town halls in early 2026 focused on…

The number of mental health providers in Bexar County, and San Antonio, has soared over the past five years, but the growth was heaviest in more affluent northern areas. publichealthwatch.org/2026/01/16/s...

San Antonio Area Sees a Boom in Mental Health Providers. But Not Where Scarcity Is Severe. The number of mental health providers in Bexar County has soared over the past five years, but the growth was heaviest in more affluent northern areas.

Untitled As more people are caught in the economic squeeze of rising cost of living, many are looking for ways to make extra money. A growing number are turning to selling their blood plasma - an essential ingredient in making many life saving medications. In a new series "Blood Work: Inside…

Blood Work: Crossing the Border to Sell Plasma As more people are caught in the economic squeeze of rising cost of living, many are looking for ways to make extra money. A growing number are turning to selling their blood plasma - an essential ingredient in making many life saving medications. In…

Blood Work: I Sold My Plasma in America’s Cash-for-Plasma System As more people are caught in the economic squeeze of rising cost of living, many are looking for ways to make extra money. A growing number are turning to selling their blood plasma - an essential ingredient in making many life…

As Trump pushed Mines to Increase Production, Protections for Black Lung Victims Stalled From federal rulemakers all the way down to Kentucky lawmakers, 2025 was full of regulatory wins for mining companies. Meanwhile, health researchers confirm that deaths from black lung disease are rampant in…

‘Fumed’ Found Problems With Houston’s Industrial Permitting Process. The City Changed its Policies.  Public Health Watch’s podcast highlighted residents’ lack of protection from industrial facilities moving into their neighborhoods — even when deed restrictions were in place. Three months later,…

Special report: Public Health Watch chronicles, in 13 scenes, a fossil-fuel infrastructure boom in Texas that could worsen air pollution in some areas and exacerbate climate change. publichealthwatch.org/2025/12/30/t...

The Loosely Regulated Petrochemical Barge Industry is Commandeering a Texas River People who live on the San Jacinto fear chemical releases and explosions from the vessels. It’s unclear who’s policing the buildup.

Texas Workers Keep Dying in the Heat Despite its blazing temperatures, Texas has no labor protections for heat. That leaves workers, especially immigrants, vulnerable on the job.

Public Health Watch, Univision 45 investigation Wins Regional Emmy Award Univision 45’s 10-minute report, “Bombarded by Benzene,” expanded on a 2024 Public Health Watch investigation based on previously uncovered data recorded in Channelview, a majority-Latino community outside Houston.

Texas Boosted Its Funding for Dementia Prevention, but Alzheimer’s Advocates Want More From State Leaders A state amendment addressing rising rates of dementia in Texas passed with overwhelming approval from voters last week, a key victory for Alzheimer’s advocates and the millions of Texans…

Austin Winery Happy Hour Benefiting Public Health Watch! Tuesday, Nov. 18 4:00 - 7:00 PMNovember 18, 2025Austin Winery 440 E St Elmo Rd A1, Austin, TX 78745 Join us on Tuesday, November 18 for a happy hour benefiting Public Health Watch at The Austin Winery! Come raise a glass with award-winning…

Growing Threat to Heat-Exposed Workers: Chronic Kidney Disease Some experts believe CKD is the first chronic illness directly linked to climate change.

With Medicaid cutbacks on the horizon, millions in the U.S. are expected to go uninsured. In the Mississippi Delta region — one of the poorest places in the U.S. — people are stressed and mad.

As Trump Works to Crush Climate Efforts, Local Projects Persevere at the Grassroots Just this week, the president froze billions in funding for renewable-energy projects in Democrat-led states amidst a wider government shutdown, demonstrating why grassroots climate initiatives are increasingly…

Decades of progress on children’s health coverage is being slowly erased, with the U.S. rate now at a 10-year high. Texas still has the highest rate of uninsured kids, with a total of over 1 million. publichealthwatch.org/2025/10/14/u...

A Community Burdened by Chemical Waste Is Demanding Cancer Data. Texas Health Officials Won’t Give It to Them.  Last year, state epidemiologists studied an industrialized region east of Houston. They reported finding high rates of cancer, but refused to release key geographic details — a decision…

Houston-Area Governments Allow Industrial Disaster Risks to Go Unaddressed Although Harris County has found that industrial air toxics and pipelines can pose a significant risk to residents, emergency management officials say no mitigation initiatives have been developed

What Extreme Heat Is Doing to Your Body As climate change intensifies, heat health risks from accelerated aging to bad decision-making grow worldwide. Here’s what you need to know.

A book on a workplace cancer epidemic by Public Health Watch founder Jim Morris has won the 2025 Science-in-Society award from the National Association of Science Writers. publichealthwatch.org/2025/09/30/c...

Public Health Watch Founder’s Book Wins Science Writing Award A book on a preventable workplace cancer epidemic by Public Health Watch founder and executive director Jim Morris has won the 2025 Science-in-Society award from the National Association of Science Writers. “The Cancer Factory,”…

The Public Health Watch serial podcast “Fumed” has won a Barlett and Steele national award for investigative business journalism. publichealthwatch.org/2025/09/30/f...

‘Fumed’ Wins National Business Investigative Reporting Award The Public Health Watch serial podcast “Fumed,” which profiles two politically conservative residents of a Texas community besieged by pollution, has won a Barlett and Steele award for investigative business journalism. The award is…

Insurance Coverage for Obesity Treatment Is Long Overdue Legislation pending in Congress would eliminate discriminatory rules that bar anti-obesity medications from the same coverage afforded treatments of other chronic diseases. But its fate is uncertain.

Video: Telling the Stories of the Uninsured Reporter Kim Krisberg talks about what she found in reporting a story about low-income Texans who have epilepsy but lack health insurance.

A shortage of mental-health providers and other barriers to proving a disabliity can make qualifying for benefits especially challenging. Federal funding cuts could worsen the picture. publichealthwatch.org/2025/09/22/m...

For People With Mental Illness, the Path to Disability Benefits Can Be Long and Difficult A shortage of mental-health providers and other barriers to proving a disabling condition can make qualifying for benefits especially challenging. Federal funding cuts could worsen the picture.

Having Epilepsy and No Health Insurance Can Exact a Heavy Toll. The Plight Is Likely More Common in Texas. Nearly 300,000 people in Texas have the life-threatening, life-altering disease. It’s expensive to treat, so health insurance is crucial, though often out of reach.

Will Texas Finally Address the Alzheimer’s Crisis in The Rio Grande Valley? The Rio Grande Valley of Texas is engulfed in an Alzheimer’s crisis. That disease -- and other forms of dementia -- is afflicting the Valley’s mostly Latino residents and taxing their caregivers. As Public Health Watch…

Ruminations on PHW’s 4th Birthday Four years ago yesterday – August 17, 2021 – Public Health Watch went live. That first year was a heavy lift; COVID-19 was still among us, and a new variant of the disease, Delta, was surging. The economy was stirring, but people were struggling with inflation and…

El Paso Struggles to Keep Up With Toll of Extreme Heat Officials in one of the fastest warming cities in the U.S. don’t track heat-related illnesses and count on an unfunded task force to provide services. Heat deaths hit record highs in 2023 and 2024.

Texas leaders are hoping to boost research funding for Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases. But doctors and caregivers in the chronically underfunded Rio Grande Valley worry they are being left behind. publichealthwatch.org/2025/08/07/a...

Alzheimer’s Continues to Afflict Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. Experts Say State Leaders Still Aren’t Doing Enough. Texas leaders are hoping to boost research funding for Alzheimer's and other Dementia-related diseases. But doctors and family caregivers in the chronically underfunded Rio Grande…

The Trump Administration Just Let Some Of America’s Biggest Polluters Off The Hook Last year, the EPA issued a rule aimed at reducing cancer-causing emissions from 218 chemical plants around the U.S. On July 17, however, Donald Trump exempted 49 of those plants—including the biggest emitters of…

Public Health Watch rarely covers breaking news, but its investigative reporting is often tied to the news — and sometimes foreshadows it. A case in point: the push to slash health coverage for the poor. publichealthwatch.org/2025/07/10/w...

We’ve been here all along Public Health Watch rarely covers breaking news, but its investigative reporting is often tied to it — and sometimes, as in the case of a Medicaid crisis, foreshadows it.

Community paramedics play a vital role in providing care and assistance that can keep people out of crisis and stabilize their lives. Rural areas struggle to fund the non-emergency positions. publichealthwatch.org/2025/07/09/c...

Community Paramedics Bring Mental Health Support to Rural Texas, but Funding Is a Challenge About a year after Blanco County launched its community health paramedicine program in 2022, paramedic Wesley Patton was referred to a patient in the local jail. The man had been arrested on terroristic…

Via @chatlanis.bsky.social, Kim Krisberg & @stateline.org: In Louisiana, where almost half of residents depended on Medicaid in 2023, Medicaid cuts could cost the state up to $35 billion in federal Medicaid support over the next decade, according to KFF, a health policy research group.

Many people in the Delta region of the Deep South say Medicaid work requirements and other provisions in the "big, beautiful" bill ignore the reality of living in poorer rural communities. Part of “Uninsured in America,” a project led by @pubhealthwatch.bsky.social stateline.org/2025/07/03/m...

Medicaid Cuts Could Be Devastating for the Delta and the Rest of Rural America The "big, beautiful bill" would cause 11.8 million more Americans to become uninsured by 2034.

"For me this place represents violence. Deep, deep, violation." Analysis shows EPA rollbacks of the HON rule would put overburdened communities at risk and benefit chemical plants that frequently violate their permits.

Methodology: Understanding HON facilities and the communities around them In March, the Trump administration announced it would reconsider the Biden-era standards for hazardous air pollutants and invited polluters to request exemptions from the rules while they were under review. Two lobbying…

For people who were incarcerated, wellness is critical to avoid a return to prison. But they often reenter society without health insurance or medicine for chronic conditions. publichealthwatch.org/2025/06/26/m...

Formerly Incarcerated People Face Steep Hurdles to Get Reliable Health Care Wellness is vital for people released from prison to avoid reincarceration. But they often reenter society without health insurance or medicine for chronic conditions.

Seven Federal Policy Changes That Will Hurt Polluted Communities  Neighborhoods in industry-friendly states are particularly vulnerable.