Chemicals

"ATHENS, TX -- Investigators spent all day Sunday sifting through the remains of an Athens Fertilizer Storage Facility that burned down Thursday. The fire broke out just before 6 o'clock Thursday night at the East Texas Ag Supply Storage building on Larkin Street. Fire officials said they always investigate this type of incident as suspicious. Investigators said they still don't know what caused the fire, but said they won't stop until they've found all of the answers."

"The largest source of chromium contamination near the Columbia River at Hanford has been removed after workers dug up contaminated soil down to groundwater 85 feet deep."

"After years of challenges to federal environmental officials, the maker of d-Con rat traps has agreed to discontinue a consumer line of poison-laced baits that have accidentally harmed children, wildlife and pets."

"Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require the National Institutes of Health to research whether menstrual hygiene products that contain chemical additives like chlorine and fragrances are health risks. The Robin Danielson Act of 2014 would ask the Federal Drug Administration to monitor and publish information on the presence of these contaminants in a broad range of products such as pads, liners, cups and sponges used by millions of American women."

"A group of mothers, scientists and environmentalists met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulators on Tuesday over concerns that residues of Roundup, the world's most popular herbicide, had been found in breast milk."

"When 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled into North Carolina's Dan River in February, it grabbed national headlines and raised the ire of environmentalists. But by sheer numbers, the 14 coal ash ponds spread across North Carolina pale in comparison to the nearly 3,000 various waste sites across the state. That includes decommissioned industrial facilities, abandoned dry cleaners and old landfills."

"It's widely used nationwide as a germ-killing ingredient in soaps, deodorants and even toothpaste, but it's being banned in Minnesota."

"The government has no way of fully knowing which U.S. chemical facilities stock ammonium nitrate, the substance that exploded last year at a Texas fertilizer plant and killed 14 people, congressional investigators say. Outdated federal policies, poor information sharing with states and a raft of industry exemptions point to scant federal oversight, says a new report obtained by The Associated Press."

"When a mile-wide tornado roared through Joplin, Mo., it killed 158 people and injured thousands. And it also kicked up toxic remnants from the city’s industrial past that are still haunting its residents on the third anniversary of the disaster."

"People who disclose confidential information about hydraulic fracturing chemicals in North Carolina would be subject to criminal penalties and civil damages, under a bill in the state Legislature."