Chemicals

"When nearly 200 countries agreed last October to dramatically reduce their reliance on climate change-polluting chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in air conditioning and refrigeration, the hunt for alternatives was already underway. Now, a new study in the journal Nature Communications that comprehensively explored pure liquid options found only 27 candidates, and problems with all of them."

"On the day before President Trump's inauguration, the outgoing Obama administration passed a last-minute directive, banning the use of lead ammunition and fishing sinkers on federal land."

"Legislation that would require the disclosure of or restriction of chemicals in hydraulic fracturing fluids, cosmetics and other products had been introduced in 16 states as of Feb. 10."

"DuPont and Chemours Co have agreed to pay $671 million in cash to settle thousands of lawsuits involving a leak of a toxic chemical used to make Teflon, the companies said on Monday."

"Hundreds of people with bullet fragments lodged in their bodies have suffered lead poisoning from the slugs, including several people who have extremely elevated levels of the highly toxic metal in their blood, health authorities reported Thursday."

"A 2015 explosion at the company's refinery near Los Angeles came frighteningly close to releasing a lethal gas into a neighborhood; a ban may result".

The National Response Center, run by the Coast Guard, takes reports of toxic spills and is supposed to keep a database on spill incidents. But a new study shows that it does nothing of the sort -- putting the public at risk by keeping them in the dark.

"In the final weeks and months of the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs issued a flurry of reports on some of the country’s most widely used pesticides. Decisions made on the basis of these environmental and health assessments will likely determine the level of pesticide residue allowed on the food we eat. They will affect children’s neurological health and development, particularly in agricultural communities. They will determine how farmworkers are protected from pesticide exposures. And they will affect the fate of threatened and endangered species across the country."

"For years, when spring rolled around in St. Louis, Mich., songbirds dropped to the ground, dead."