Environmental Health

"In the DRC’s copper belt, pollution from the mining of cobalt and copper, critical minerals for the energy transition, is on the rise and polluters are ignoring their legal obligations to clean it up. Cases of pollution have caused deaths, health problems in babies, the destruction of crops, contaminated water and the relocation of homes or an entire village, residents and community organizations say."

"An unusual surge in flu viruses detected at wastewater treatment plants in California and other parts of the country is raising concerns among some experts that H5N1 bird flu may be spreading farther and faster than health officers initially thought."

"Beyond a chain-link fence topped with spiraled barbed wire, swaying coastal grasses conceal a cache of buried radioactive waste and toxic pesticides from a bygone chemical plant."

"The U.S. government has a specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors that officials brag is always ready to deploy within an hour of any kind of chemical disaster. But the plane didn’t fly over eastern Ohio until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment there last year."

"Maryland’s Brandon Shores can’t close down — even though its owners want it to. The coal plant is a poster child for how poor grid planning stalls climate progress."

"Fifty countries are meeting in France on Tuesday to discuss the lack of access to clean cooking methods worldwide which causes millions of deaths every year and fuels global warming."

"An industry-backed bill to regulate how data from community air monitors is used was given final legislative approval Monday over objections from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and activists seeking to reduce pollution."

"The Food and Drug Administration has missed its own deadline to propose a ban on the use of formaldehyde as an ingredient in hair relaxers and hair straighteners on the market in the United States."

"It emerged as a powerful tool for public health officers during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was used to gauge the prevalence of coronavirus in communities across the nation. But wastewater surveillance — the testing of sewage for signs of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, poliovirus and mpox virus — has yet to be employed in the tracking of H5N1 bird flu virus."

"In one Chicago suburb, people have been waiting for relief for years."