Chemicals

"Worker and consumer safety advocates are vastly outgunned by lobbyists for pesticide manufacturers."

"An effort in Congress to modernize a patchwork system of state and federal laws governing chemical safety is generating debate between a bipartisan group of state legislators who say the update would rob states of the ability to regulate sometimes toxic substances within their own borders and businesses who say they need regulatory certainty to grow jobs and the economy."

The Wyoming Supreme Court is telling a lower court to reconsider whether the public has the right to know the ingredients in the chemical products used to facilitate hydraulic fracturing."

"Scientists have found four new ozone-destroying gases in the atmosphere, most likely put there by humans in the last 50 years, despite a ban on these dangerous compounds."

"Since the 1990s, a vast body of research has linked BPA and other chemicals found in plastics to serious health problems, ranging from cancer to infertility. But the industry—often using tactics pioneered by Big Tobacco as it sought to bury evidence about the health risks of smoking—has managed to shield these substances from federal regulation. How did Big Plastic bring regulators to heel?"

"Three environmental and public health groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, seeking to press it to move forward with rules that would require public disclosure of certain pesticide ingredients."

Environmentalists may have won a victory convincing manufacturers to remove the estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from products like babies' sippy cups -- but lab results are showing that the chemicals replacing them are as bad or worse.

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia inspectors have discovered 600 more above-ground chemical storage tanks located near public drinking-water supplies, pushing their current inventory to more than 1,600 such tanks, according to data made public Thursday."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As a House committee introduced a fourth version of a sprawling bill to regulate chemical storage tanks and drinking water in West Virginia, more than a quarter of House of Delegates members want a special legislative session to give them more time to consider the bill."