Chemicals

"A new study released Monday shows that exposure to a common ingredient in plastic bottles and packaging can cause male mice to act like females. The lead author of the study discusses its significance for humans."

"The Canadian delegation at an international summit admitted Thursday it agrees with the work of a United Nations scientific panel that wants limits placed on the export of chrysotile asbestos, but Canada still won't back the move."

"Researchers report that certain bacteria convert BPA into compounds more deadly to fish than BPA itself."

"In a win for the coal industry, a House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would prevent federal regulation of coal ash as hazardous waste."

"Exposure to chemicals early in life may alter how breast tissue develops and raise the risks of breast cancer and lactation problems later in life, scientists concluded in a report published Wednesday. The scientists are urging federal officials to add new tests for industrial chemicals and pesticides to identify ones that might disrupt breast development."

"In Japan it is known as detergent suicide, a near-instant death achieved by mixing common household chemicals into a poisonous cloud of gas. By some counts, more than 2,000 people there have taken their own lives, inhaling the gas — in most cases hydrogen sulfide — in cars, closets or other enclosed spaces. The police now say they are seeing an increasing number of similar suicides in the United States."

"Gastroschisis, a birth defect in which the intestines grow outside the body, is more common among babies conceived in the spring when the levels of the herbicide atrazine in water are highest, researchers from Indiana reported."

EPA chief Lisa Jackson told the Senate Environment Committee Wednesday that American Electric Power's recent narrative about job loss resulting from EPA's mercury regulations was were "misleading at best and scare tactics at worst."