Environmental Health

"A group of environmental advocates filed a joint lawsuit against EPA on Thursday challenging the agency’s finalized June Dust-Lead Hazard Standards that the group says are too lax to protect families."

"Just as utilities have begun making costly plans to move toxic coal ash out of fragile storage ponds to protect waterways and aquifers, the Trump administration may be about to give them a cheaper alternative: Letting them use unlimited amounts of ash at certain construction sites."

"21 state attorneys general sent a letter urging Congress to pass legislation addressing public health threats from PFAS."

"More than half a million Russians have demanded the authorities do more to tackle vast wildfires in Siberia that environmentalists have dubbed an ecological catastrophe, but which officials have said would be “pointless” to put out."

"The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed scrapping restrictions on arsenic-laden waste from coal-fired power plants."

"The expert panel advising EPA on particulate pollution doesn't include a representative from the discipline responsible for most of the scientific evidence that soot is a public health hazard."

"Welcome to the coldest capital city on earth — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — where the temperature can drop to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit at night. The city's population has nearly tripled since 1989. Without infrastructure to service all 1.4 million people, residents off the electric grid are burning raw coal to stay warm. The result? Winters with extreme air pollution."

"Senate Democrats are concerned about lead-based paint in public schools after auditors found that only 12% of districts inspected their campuses for the toxins during the 2016-17 school year."

"EPA leaders are pushing forward with an overhaul of the way the agency evaluates the dangers of environmental contaminants after a brief consultation with outside scientists — a process that environmentalists claim was rushed and could be misused."