National (U.S.)

Both environmentalists and the chemical industry say they want Congress to overhaul the key law aimed at protecting Americans from toxic chemicals in the products they use.

"A judge says Juan Dominguez conspired with Nicaraguan workers, allegedly left sterile by exposure to DBCP on banana plantations, to file claims against Dole Food and Dow Chemical."

A new study finds that rural residents who drink water from private wells are much more likely to have Parkinson's disease, bolstering theories that farm pesticides may be partly to blame.

Lobbyists for the real estate industry convinced House leaders to remove from the recently passed climate bill a provision that would have indicated how much energy older houses use.

"One of the world's most common insect repellents [DEET] acts on the central nervous system in the same way as some insecticides and nerve gases, according to a study released on Wednesday."

"A total of 12 forged letters -- all appearing to come from local groups unhappy with a climate-change bill -- were sent to three congressional offices this summer by a Washington lobbying firm, according to the pro-coal group for which the firm was working."

The rise of cooking shows on TV results from deep interest in cooking. But the transformation of cooking into a spectator activity reflects a decline in actual cooking -- which has vast health and ecological consequences.

"LOS ANGELES -- Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch.'"

"In food safety bill, the House gives the FDA a deadline to prove Bisphenol A is safe, or restrict its use in products used by pregnant women, and young children."

A tangle of New Jersey lawsuits raises issues about what restrictions should be placed on builders seeking to develop farmland where pesticides were formerly used.