Environmental Health

Chemical Shell Game: How DuPont Concealed Dangers of New Teflon Toxin

Some chemicals that are common in commercial products and processes are known to find their way into the environment and seriously (even fatally) harm human health. Yet current U.S. law makes it hard for EPA to keep companies from using them. Sometimes the chemicals used to replace them are just as bad, but the law does not even require those to be tested. A vast regime of secrecy based on unchallenged claims of "confidential business information" makes the danger to public health worse. Often, not even the EPA employees responsible for protecting people can access information about the toxic chemicals. The chemical reform bills now pending in Congress won't fix the problem.

Source: The Intercept, 03/04/2016

USDA Rejects Scientist's Claim It Tried To Hide His Pesticide Research

"Federal officials have rejected a complaint by an entomologist who charged that the government has tried to suppress negative research findings about a widely used pesticide, in a complex case involving monarch butterflies, scientific freedom and the safety of the nation’s food supply."

Source: Guardian, 03/01/2016

"Monsanto Given Legal Shield in a Chemical Safety Bill"

"Facing hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits, the giant biotechnology company Monsanto last year received a legislative gift from the House of Representatives, a one-paragraph addition to a sweeping chemical safety bill that could help shield it from legal liability for a toxic chemical only it made."

Source: NY Times, 03/01/2016

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Environmental Health