Chemicals

"The EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is significantly reorganizing at the end of the month to respond to the department’s changing work, agency leaders said Tuesday."

"U.S. Gulf Coast communities got no assurance from the EPA that the agency’s second round of chemical risk evaluations will examine whether the groups’ particularly high exposures put them at high risk for asthma, cancer, or other diseases."

"For the communities of the Amazon, a land defined by its rivers, fish has always been an important part of the diet. ... But small-scale gold mining has turned these fish into an often deadly health hazard."

"An advocacy group on Thursday sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its decision not to regulate a chemical that has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage."

"Federal, state and tribal officials are hailing the completion of a more than $1 billion cleanup of contaminated sediments in the Lower Fox River. The cleanup is considered one of the largest and most expensive in the nation."

"Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Pennsylvania on Monday sharply refuted claims from President Trump that he plans to ban fracking, a key drilling method for oil producers in the swing state."

"Researchers say that more microplastics pollution is getting into farm soil than oceans—and these tiny bits are showing up in our fruits, veggies, and bodies."

"EPA is relaxing Obama-era regulations for wastewater coming from coal-fired power plants, discharges that can contain high levels of toxic chemicals like mercury, arsenic, nitrogen and selenium."

"Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash."

"Hurricane Laura rolled over a coast studded with refineries and chemical plants. Other storms have caused the release of toxic substances, often affecting poorer or minority communities."