PFAS

Senior Counsel

Jeff serves as Senior Counsel to PEER, where he specializes in civil service, scientific integrity, and whistleblower protection issues. Jeff was PEER’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2019 and its Pacific Director from 2019 to 2025. Previously, he was the Policy Director and a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblowers from both the public and private sectors. Before coming to DC, Jeff worked in California state government for 17 years, mostly in the State Legislature as counsel to various committees where he drafted hundreds of laws on topics ranging from energy conservation to the rights of employed inventors. Jeff served stints as a deputy district attorney and an appellate court clerk. He is a graduate of the California Correctional Officers Academy.

BLOG | EPA’s Bad Chemistry Is Killing Us 

by Jeff Ruch | February 25, 2021
We cannot afford to wait for EPA to finally become a 21st century regulator of harmful chemicals that find our way into food, water, and air ...

PEER Requests Florida Take Immediate Action 

by PEER | January 26, 2021
To Stop Leaching of Toxic Chemicals into Consumer Products ...

EPA Confirms PFAS in Aerial Pesticides  

by PEER | January 14, 2021
Regulatory Loopholes Allow Massive Spread of Toxic “Forever Chemicals ...

PEERMail: We Need a Radical Departure on Pesticides

by Susan Sargent | December 15, 2020
The federal law that provides for  regulation of pesticides has proven utterly inadequate and we need a radical depature from current policy ...

Beyond 2020: Pesticides

by Paula Dinerstein | December 11, 2020
Recommendations to Congress and the EPA to protect the environment and public health from the dangers of pesticides ...