EPA proposes tighter standards to slash slaughterhouse pollution
By Shannon Kelleher
Following a legal challenge from environmental groups, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday proposed new standards aimed at reducing water pollution from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. The move is the agency’s first such effort in two decades.
“We can’t sit back” – Amid climbing cancer rates, Iowa health officials eye farm chemicals
Faced with a startlingly high cancer rate in the key US farm state of Iowa, public health leaders are taking the politically precarious step of acknowledging that preventing disease necessitates cutting exposure to potentially cancer-causing chemicals, including those used in agriculture.
Paraquat ties to Parkinson’s disease featured on Al Jazeera news
Evidence tying the popular weed killer paraquat to Parkinson’s disease is featured this week in an online news segment that includes fresh details about corporate influence over US regulators and suppression of scientific research.
Citing new science, groups petition EPA to suspend glyphosate weed killer
By Carey Gillam
Citing new scientific research, a coalition of farmworker, public health and environmental advocates on Wednesday filed a legal petition with US regulators demanding they immediately suspend authorization for the controversial weed killing chemical called glyphosate.
Ohio PFAS class action lawyers slam US judges; seek rehearing
By Shannon Kelleher
A federal appeals court should grant a rehearing in a class action lawsuit filed against the makers of toxic PFAS chemicals after a panel of three federal judges disregarded legal precedent and misstated crucial facts in rejecting claims of liability alleged against PFAS makers, according to a petition filed by plaintiffs’ lawyers in the closely watched legal battle.
“Sounding the alarm,” a new youth lawsuit seeks climate action by EPA
By Dana Drugmand
US environmental regulators have allowed “dangerous levels of climate pollution” to destabilize the climate system with horrific impacts that will worsen over time, according to allegations laid out in a federal lawsuit filed Sunday by a group of California youth.
PFAS may disrupt bone development in children and young adults, study finds
By Shannon Kelleher
Exposure to a widespread, toxic chemical called PFOS may interfere with bone development in children and young adults, potentially putting them at higher risk for osteoporosis and other bone problems later in life, according to a new study that focused mainly on Hispanic individuals from southern California.
EPA orders company to stop making plastic containers that leach toxic PFAS
By Shannon Kelleher
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered a major company to stop producing hundreds of millions of plastic containers each year that contain toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which leach into countless products.
“What is going on?” Pregnant women living near farm fields show increased weed killing chemical in their urine
By Carey Gillam
Pregnant women living near farm fields show “significantly” increased concentrations of glyphosate weed killer in their urine during seasonal periods when farmers are spraying their fields with the pesticide, according to a new scientific paper published Wednesday.
Chemical found widely in the environment causes cancer, global experts determine
By Shannon Kelleher
A group of global scientific cancer experts this week classified a widespread chemical known as PFOA as carcinogenic to humans, confirming decades of research, and building on concerns about human and animal exposure to that chemical and to the larger class of manmade substances that are commonly known as “forever” chemicals because of their persistence in the environment. Separately, the experts deemed a related chemical called PFOS as possibly carcinogenic to humans.