Pien Huang
Pien Huang is a health reporter on the Science desk. She was NPR's first Reflect America Fellow, working with shows, desks and podcasts to bring more diverse voices to air and online.
She's a former producer for WBUR/NPR's On Point and was a 2018 Environmental Reporting Fellow with The GroundTruth Project at WCAI in Cape Cod, covering the human impact on climate change. As a freelance audio and digital reporter, Huang's stories on the environment, arts and culture have been featured on NPR, the BBC and PRI's The World.
Huang's experiences span categories and continents. She was executive producer of Data Made to Matter, a podcast from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and was also an adjunct instructor in podcasting and audio journalism at Northeastern University. She worked as a project manager for public artist Ralph Helmick to help plan and execute The Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi and with Stoltze Design to tell visual stories through graphic design. Huang has traveled with scientists looking for signs of environmental change in Cameroon's frogs, in Panama's plants and in the ocean water off the ice edge of Antarctica. She has a degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard.
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Tropical storm Helene caused 'catastrophic' damage to Asheville’s water treatment and distribution system, cutting off at least 70% of the city’s drinking water supply. -
Officials in Asheville say the city's water systems were "severely damaged" in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Precise assessments are hard, since roads have washed away.
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More Americans now use pot on a daily basis than alcohol. A sweeping new report says the federal government needs to better understand the risks to the public and get involved. -
Cannabis use has changed in recent years, as many states have legalized it. An influential group of scientists recommends policy changes to protect public health.
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Chemicals used in food packaging and linked with health problems have been detected in the human body. The chemicals can move from packaging into food. -
A new study finds more than 3,000 chemicals used in food packaging are getting into people's bodies. Some — including BPA, phthalates and PFAS — have clear health concerns; others are unstudied.
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A week after an unusual human case of H5 avian influenza was reported in Missouri, many questions remain. The latest on what's known -- and not known -- about the case, and why scientists are worried.
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Water utilities across the country will have to comply with EPA limits on "forever chemicals" in drinking water by 2029. Orange County, Calif., got a head start. -
Treatment plants that filter "forever chemicals" from drinking water in Orange County, Calif., are models for water systems across the country that will need to comply with EPA rules by 2029.
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It's the first outbreak of the deadly mosquito-borne disease they've seen in four years, and has prompted neighborhood spraying and the closure of public parks in affected areas.
