Pollution

"Leo Garcia hadn't heard of trichloroethylene about four decades ago when he moved into his red-and-white house just west of Cheyenne."

"The US is set to ban personal care products that contain microbeads after the House of Representatives approved a bill that would phase out the environmentally-harmful items."

"The Obama administration is concerned that a subsidy of coal mine cleanup could leave taxpayers with multibillion-dollar liabilities, a U.S. Interior Department official said on Tuesday."

"FRESNO, Calif. — In a trailer park tucked among irrigated orchards that help make California's San Joaquin Valley the richest farm region in the world, 16-year-old Giselle Alvarez, one of the few English-speakers in the community of farmworkers, puzzles over the notices posted on front doors: There's a danger in their drinking water."

"Emission controls required on out-of-state power plants have yielded big reductions in mercury pollution in Western Maryland's air, a study has found. So far, however, the state's fish remain as contaminated with the toxic chemical as ever, researchers say."

"The Barnett Shale's emissions have been vastly underestimated, sweeping Environmental Defense Fund-backed study finds."

"MUSTAFABAD, India — Khushboo Kushwaha has a few years before she will have to squat in front of a filthy, smoking open stove three times a day to cook meals for her family, as her older sister and cousins do now.

Khushboo is 11, and the girls in her home usually take up cooking duties as teenagers. But the smoke that billows from the wood and dried dung they burn, stinging the older girls’ eyes and throats, already affects her.

"U.S. EPA's landmark air standards for mercury appear likely to survive an effort by industry and states to kill the rules in court."

"A Russian-flagged oil tanker has run aground off Nevelsk on the southwest coast of Sakhalin Island, spilling oil into the sea, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reports."

"The mine at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, once funneled silver to the Spanish crown. Today, it’s consuming the town—and poisoning children with lead."