"The HHS secretary has fought mercury pollution for years. He’s now in an administration that wants to make it easier for industries to dump it into the air and water."
"The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology."
"In mid-February, Trump administration leaders received a desperate warning from their diplomats posted in Vietnam, one of the most important American partners in Asia. Workers were in the middle of cleaning up the site of an enormous chemical spill, the Bien Hoa air base, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly halted all foreign aid funding."
"A Trump administration move to axe key food safety advisory committees could leave the public more vulnerable to food-borne illnesses, critics fear, particularly alongside current legislative efforts to undermine proposed safety regulations on food processors."
"Democratic lawmakers and veterans’ groups are fuming over a provision in a stopgap federal spending bill passed by House Republicans this week that would cut a Department of Veteran Affairs fund meant to cover costs for illnesses linked to military burn pits and other chemical exposure."
"The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Ecuadorian government to protect Indigenous groups from oil operations and to leave oil in the ground underneath their lands."
"The destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam in June 2023 exposed lake bed sediment containing more than 90,000 tons of dangerous heavy metals, setting off what researchers say is a toxic “time bomb.”"
"At least 112 North American bird species have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years, according to a new report published Thursday. Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated this week that it will steer its environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies."
"Ingesting plastic is leaving seabird chicks with brain damage “akin to Alzheimer’s disease”, according to a new study – adding to growing evidence of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on marine wildlife."
