Pesticide makers continue quest for immunity from lawsuits by sick farmers
LA MOTTE, Iowa — Ray Bickel spent over a decade driving a truck through giant corn and soybean fields in Clinton County, Iowa, applying pesticides. He says it was good work, while it lasted. In 2017, he had a heart attack. The doctors ran tests to find out what caused it and found something else.
The FDA needs to go beyond synthetic dyes to make food safer
By R. Thomas Zoeller
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently targeted synthetic dyes in food, calling on food companies to eliminate their use. But dyes are not the only harmful petroleum-based chemicals in our food.
Q&A: A look at the “turf war” over regenerative agriculture
By Carey Gillam
Consumers looking for healthy foods grown without the use of chemicals have long been able to shop grocery aisle for products carrying an “organic” label, a designation associated with natural processes that focus on soil health, animal well-being, and protections of delicate ecosystems.
Chemical exposure from ultra-processed foods may contribute to health issues
By Shannon Kelleher
Toxic synthetic chemicals that migrate into ultra-processed foods from packaging, processing equipment and other sources may explain why these foods are so bad for our health, according to a new review article.
WOTUS: A narrowing EPA definition is reshaping the Clean Water Act
By Brian Bienkowski
Debra Shankland was a kid when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969. “I saw the dead fish, I smelled it,” the retired biologist and environmental educator told a room of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) representatives on Wednesday. Shankland was one of many speakers at the latest listening session led by the EPA as the agency crafts a new definition for the long controversial language “waters of the United States” contained in the Clean Water Act.
EPA dropping drinking water limits on four toxic PFAS
By Shannon Kelleher
US regulators said Wednesday they will do away with limits on certain types of toxic chemicals in US drinking water, a move that critics warn could expose millions of Americans to dangerous contaminants.
FDA approves three natural food dyes amid push to eliminate synthetics
By Brian Bienkowski
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three new natural food dyes, making good on a promise to push for a phaseout of synthetic dyes in food.
Even long after close of polluting paper mill, study finds area residents with high levels of toxins in their blood
By Carey Gillam
Residents of a Michigan community whose drinking water was polluted with toxic chemicals from a long-shuttered paper mill continue to have high levels of the compounds in their bodies, even years after the community switched to alternate water supplies, according to a new study.
Maryland residents demand Perdue stop discharging PFAS that pollutes their water
By Shannon Kelleher
Residents of a Maryland community afflicted with contamination from harmful chemicals are demanding that a local soybean processing plant immediately stop releasing toxic PFAS into their drinking and groundwater, violating a federal law that governs the disposal of hazardous waste.
Is there PFAS in your pint?
By Brian Bienkowski
Many popular beers — from both small breweries to large domestic and international ones — contain types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) linked to cancer and other health problems, according to a new study published in Environmental Science and Technology that looked at PFAS in 94 samples of beer.