"A hydrofluoric acid leak from an oil refinery in Ohio last week sent a worker to the hospital and required the use of a 'water cannon' to disperse the poisonous gas, underscoring the potentially perilous nature of a chemical used at 50 refineries across the country."
"Polystyrene makes comeback in US Congress building after Republicans reverse green initiatives brought in by Democrats."
Some Iowa lawmakers are pushing a bill they say would protect children by removing from the market many plastic products containing BPA, which some scientists think harms health. Lobbyists for the chemical industry say that's premature.
A new coalition of clothing retailers, manufacturers, environmental groups, and academics is developing a database which they hope will eventually allow them to give every garment a sustainability score.
Refinery workers and nearby communities are endangered by lax regulation and neglect of safety by companies that find it more profitable to buy political influence than repair or maintain equipment.
As gas companies race to drill more wells that produce gas with a technique known as hydrofracking, the dangers of the toxic wastewater they discharge turn out to be greater than previously understood.
"Thousands of people living within four miles of the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute could have been exposed to potentially harmful levels of methyl isocyanate if the contents of an MIC tank located near an August 2008 explosion had been released, according to a government study obtained by the Gazette."
"As [Maine] Gov. Paul LePage continued to weather national fallout for recently saying women could develop 'little beards' if exposed to bisphenol-A, or BPA, questions continue to mount about the motives behind the governor's proposal to reverse a ban on the substance."
"The pesticide industry is applying extra doses of lobbying in an effort to eradicate federal requirements it considers harmful."
The debate in Maine and the US at large over BPA, an estrogen-disrupting chemical common in plastics, may be shaped by a comment of Maine's newly elected, Tea Party-backed GOP governor, Paul LePage. "The worst case is some women may have little beards," he said.
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