"Lead levels high enough to potentially harm children have been found in artificial turf used at thousands of schools, playgrounds and day-care centers across the country, yet two federal agencies continue to promote the surfacing as safe, a USA TODAY analysis shows."

"A virulent strain of avian flu that has killed turkeys in the heart of the nation's poultry region has been found through molecular testing to be nearly identical to viruses isolated in migratory ducks."

"Displeased with legislation introduced earlier this week, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have drafted their own bill to reform the nation’s chemical laws."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has signed a bill lauded by the struggling coal industry and called dangerous by the miners’ union."

"Over the last year, federal authorities built what appeared to be a strong criminal case against Exide Technologies, the Vernon battery recycler that has long faced scrutiny for spewing lead and arsenic into neighborhoods in southeast Los Angeles County."

"Consumer advocate Erin Brockovich is calling legislation introduced Tuesday to reform the nation’s toxic chemical laws an industry bill. "

"The virus causing a second wave of bird flu across China has mutated frequently and 'should be considered as a major candidate to emerge as a pandemic strain in humans,' researchers reported Wednesday."

The sugar industry has been manipulating science about the health consequences of sugar for decades, newly released documents show.

"Turn on the faucet. Fill a glass with water. Drink it. Acts so commonplace you perform them without thinking twice. Flora Barraza cannot. Neither can José Garcia, nor the cooks at Los Pasteles Bakery No. 2, nor the elderly at the Epoca de Oro Adult Day Care. Along the Texas-Mexico border, nearly 90,000 people are believed to still live without running water. An untold number more — likely tens of thousands, but no one is sure — often have running water of such poor quality that they cannot know what poisons or diseases it might carry."

New Mexico's Democratic Senator Tom Udall, who has a reputation as an environmental champion, has surprised environmentalists by his alliance with the chemical industry on toxics reform.