Consumer

"The Environmental Protection Agency is about to issue strict limits on lead dust, which poses a threat to millions of children across the United States."

"Steven Haller remembers the look of fear on people’s faces when toxic algae in Lake Erie made it into his community’s water supply 10 years ago, shutting it down for two days."

"The mortality rate among H5N1 infected dairy cows has been much higher than anticipated. Since early August, outbreaks have been reported in 124 California dairy herds. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current public health risk is low."

"The world’s food supply is under threat because so much of what we eat is concentrated in so few countries, and many of those countries are increasingly facing a water shortage. That’s the conclusion of three independent studies published this week.'

"Residents of Imperial Beach in southern San Diego County filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the operators of an international wastewater treatment plant — alleging that the site has failed to contain a cross-border crisis that has long contaminated their community."

"In 2023, Alabama settled a civil rights complaint alleging that the state was discriminating against Black residents by not providing adequate sewage treatment in a poor, rural county. A year later, slow progress is being made to close the gap."

"North Carolina officials are still scrambling to restore water in areas pummeled by Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago."

"About a decade after the Flint water crisis, the Biden administration is requiring the removal of most of the nation’s lead-contaminated water pipes within 10 years."

"When he was just 18 years old, Emmanuel Akatire traveled about 500 miles from his home in Zorko, Ghana, to Accra, the nation’s capital, to find the only work he could — sifting through vast piles of discarded electronics to find valuable scrap metal. A week’s worth of painstaking, often dangerous work, earns him the equivalent of about 60 U.S. dollars."

"Though utilities’ mission is to provide clean water, their trade groups for decades have often fiercely opposed initiatives to improve quality"