Environmental Health

"The number of women infected with the Zika virus during their pregnancies in the continental United States has risen to 234, health officials said on Thursday."

"Pregnant women who become infected with the Zika virus are at risk of having babies with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, regardless of whether they have symptoms of the disease, according to a new report."

"A water testing company that worked with Range Resources to evaluate whether or not residential water supplies were contaminated is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims the company allowed the gas driller to alter a print out of the test results, which Range then submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP used the altered results, in part, to conclude that the Washington County residents’ drinking water was safe...."

Over many decades, the DuPont company accumulated liability for numerous chemical waste disposal activities. Now a reorganization as the company merges with Dow “may be an attempt to extinguish DuPont’s liability”, plaintiff's lawyers fear.

"In Sanders, Arizona, residents drank uranium-contaminated water for years."

"There has been a lot of discussion lately about the chemicals that get added to our food and sprayed on or around it while it’s growing. But science shows that even if we removed the pesticides and additives, we’re all eating and drinking a number of other chemicals with unintended consequences every day."

"Many states and Medicaid rules require blood lead tests for young children, but millions are falling through this safety net, leaving them vulnerable to poisoning – and showing lead worries extend beyond Flint, Michigan".

A new map from the Centers for Disease Control pictures a more limited extent in the U.S. for the Aedes aegypti mosquitos thought to be the main culprit in spreading the Zika virus. Still, it highlights some surprising areas of risk -- like Washington, DC."

Dust and emissions from an Idaho smelter left a legacy of lead poisoning among a generation of children near what is now a Superfund site.

"Sixteen years ago, a presidential task force mapped a plan for the United States to eliminate childhood lead poisoning by 2010. It never happened."