Chemicals

"EPA on Thursday announced new regulations to slash releases of a cancer-causing compound used by dozens of medical equipment sterilization plants, often located in heavily populated and marginalized communities." "The rule would cut ethylene oxide releases at sterilization facilities by more than 90 percent."

"The city of Flint has been found in civil contempt by a federal judge for its handling of its lead pipe replacement program."

"EPA’s rule to limit methane emissions from the oil and gas sector may be the latest battleground over whether the agency is exceeding its authority to regulate planet-warming emissions."

"Within a year of moving to Cherry Hill, a majority Black neighborhood on Baltimore’s southern tip, Shanae Thomas noticed her asthma—a health problem she was born with—had gradually worsened."

"New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste."

"Uganda’s Nyamwamba river, in the Rwenzori Mountains, has begun to flood catastrophically in recent years, partly due to climate change. Along the river are copper tailings pools from an old Canadian mining operation, which are becoming increasingly eroded by the flooding."

"Leisa Glenn spent decades living in the Fifth Ward, a historically Black neighborhood in Houston, known for having one of the city’s best views of downtown. Every July 4th, Glenn, 65, and her neighbors would stream out of their houses into the summer heat and crowd onto front porches to watch the fireworks display."

"A California man was arrested and charged Monday with allegedly smuggling potent, planet-heating greenhouse gases from Mexico, marking the first such prosecution in the US, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California."

"Plastic food packaging contains chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system — and that can leach into food, a new study has found."

"With a presidential election looming, a wave of state-level legislation circulating, an international plastics treaty taking form and fights brewing over proposed facilities, 2024 is set to shape the regulatory future of chemical recycling in the U.S."