Chemicals

"Federal regulators urged manufacturers [last] Thursday to stop using hazardous flame retardants that are known to cause health problems."

"The Environmental Protection Agency confirms Harvey damaged a Harris County Superfund site. An environmental law expert helps us understand what it means."

"Monsanto’s flagship weed killer, Roundup, has had a tough year. And it could get worse."

"States could soon respond quicker to chemical accidents armed with information EPA has. But first, they’ll have to prove they can protect chemical makers’ trade secrets."

"State and federal environmental agencies report Harvey knocked out five drinking-water systems and seven sewage systems in the 58 Texas counties covered by Gov. Greg Abbott's disaster declaration."

"The Arkema chemical plant — already facing multiple lawsuits over explosions of a volatile chemical in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey — is under criminal investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, officials confirmed Friday."

"Cancer-causing dioxins leached from a Superfund site along a Texas river during Hurricane Harvey flooding, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, triggering calls on Friday for the toxic waste to be permanently moved."

"When disaster hits the chemical plants in Port Arthur, Texas, triggering fires like those that flared in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Hilton Kelley is the man fielding panicked calls from neighbors unsure whether they should evacuate their homes."

"The Environmental Protection Agency says it has recovered 517 containers of 'unidentified, potentially hazardous material' from highly contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas that flooded last month during Hurricane Harvey. The agency has not provided details about which Superfund sites the material came from, why the contaminants at issue have not been identified and whether there’s a threat to human health."

"When Jane Horton bought her dream 800-square-foot farmhouse in 1975, she thought little of the semiconductor manufacturing plant across the street. Even after the company’s buildings were demolished and a chain-link fence went up around the campus, she still had no knowledge of the toxic dangers lurking beneath her feet — let alone of the fact that they were invading her home."