Chemicals

"This week, in a first, firefighters are demanding independent testing for cancer-linked chemicals known as PFAS in their gear and that their union drop sponsorships from chemical and equipment makers."

"Every day at work for 15 years, Sean Mitchell, a captain in the Nantucket Fire Department, has put on the bulky suit that protects him from the heat and flames he faces on the job. But last year, he and his team came across unsettling research: Toxic chemicals on the very equipment meant to protect their lives could instead be making them gravely ill.

"On a former Cold War missile base perched high above the Golden Gate Bridge, in what is now the largest marine mammal hospital in the world, Frances Gulland still remembers the shock she felt when she first started working here as a veterinarian 26 years ago."

"An audit found that the time it takes the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to issue penalties to polluters has doubled. Some companies that have been known to violate air quality rules were able to keep at it for years, or even decades."

"DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Chemours Co. agreed to a $4 billion settlement of a dispute over environmental liabilities shifted to Chemours after it was spun off in 2015. The accord, which also includes DuPont’s former seed business Corteva Inc., covers payments for liabilities tied to a class of chemicals known as PFAS, the companies said in a statement on Friday."

"Environmental and civil rights groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a new lead rule critics argue doesn't do enough to remove the lead pipes that contaminate drinking water."

"The Navajo Nation’s Department of Justice announced Wednesday it has settled with mining companies to resolve claims stemming from a 2015 spill that resulted in rivers in three western states being fouled with a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals."

"Thousands of public housing residents live near the most polluted places in the nation — and the government has done little to protect them."

"A string of explosions involving little-regulated petroleum and chemical storage tanks have lawmakers and regulators talking about new rules as the Legislature prepares to convene this month."