Environmental Health

"For the first time, a study in humans suggests that a controversial, estrogen-like chemical in plastic may be related to conditions that reduce men's fertility."

"People living near a steel factory or another source of high manganese emissions are at higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease, suggests a new study."

"SAINT MARC, Haiti -- Officials warn that Haiti's cholera epidemic that has claimed almost 300 lives has yet to peak, and that authorities should prepare for the disease to spread to the capital and its squalid tent cities."

"Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida."

Kelly Gant told school board members that ever since gas drilling began near Argyle High School, her daughter has experienced asthma and headaches.

"A cholera epidemic in Haiti has killed more than 250 people, the government said on Sunday, but it added the outbreak which has sickened more than 3,000 may be stabilizing with fewer deaths and new cases reported over the last 24 hours."

"The U.S. federal prison industry that recycled computers and other electronics violated health, safety and environmental laws, according to a scathing report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General released Thursday."

The alumina dust that coats a Texas Gulf Coast town is a sign of risks like those in the Hungarian villages recently buried in a spill of toxic red sludge.

"A high-priority Obama administration push to unclog a backlog of contested mine safety citations is backfiring. After a West Virginia coal mine explosion in April exposed a weak link in a system designed to identify safety violations, the government has spent $23 million to reform the system. ... Instead, the list of unresolved safety appeals has grown to 18,100 cases, from 16,600 at the time of the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine."

"A coalition of elected officials and unions called on Thursday for faster action from the city and federal government to monitor and, if necessary, remove hazardous chemicals known as PCBs from as many as 700 city schools, calling the problem a 'serious health threat.'"