Environmental Health

"A foreign oil company convicted of polluting a Texas community's air with dangerous chemicals has gotten off easy in a criminal case that could undercut the prosecution of environmental crimes in the United States. The case revolves around Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum’s decade-long violation of the federal Clean Air Act at its refinery in Corpus Christi."

"Could pesticides - their use and abuse - increase levels of cancer and birth defects? It is a question asked across the vast belt of Argentina where GM crops are grown. In Chaco, the Minister of Public Health wants an independent commission to investigate a growing health crisis."

"U.S. children working in domestic tobacco fields regularly suffer from breathing problems, nausea and other ailments, an international rights group said in a report on Wednesday, urging the industry to develop tougher protections for its youngest workers."

"Smog could worsen across the United States in the coming decades as climate change boosts summer temperatures and makes ozone levels more difficult to control, a new study says."

"Chemicals in water from deep underground in hydraulic fracturing wells have caused problems as they get to water treatment plants in other states. It’s a potential problem to consider as North Carolina moves closer to allowing fracking."

"A draft letter from a U.S. EPA science advisory committee recommends a tight standard for how much ozone pollution can be in the air, recommending that the lower bound of the standard should be 60 parts per billion, much lower than the current standard. But the letter notes that committee members haven't made a decision on the upper bound of the ozone standard."

"The crisis-wracked School District of Philadelphia has quietly abandoned a federal agency’s plans for further study of environmental-health risks in its aging school buildings. An initial review found pervasive dampness, mold or water damage — conditions that may aggravate asthma and other respiratory ailments — but the District has refused to make the complete findings public."

"A new statistical review of stillbirths that occurred in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita show they occurred more frequently in areas suffering the worst damage to individual homes, including Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Vermilion parishes, according to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday (May 8)."

"The World Health Organization says air pollution in many of the world's cities is breaching its guidelines. Its survey of 1,600 cities in 91 countries revealed that nearly 90% of people in urban centres breathe air that fails to meet levels deemed safe."

"Teacher Billie Lane’s portable is a world apart from other classrooms at her school."