"Hundreds of people are suing New York City over cancer diagnoses they received after working at ground zero. A judge last week rejected a $575 million legal settlement for thousands of sick 9/11 responders in part because he thought it should contain more money for cancer victims."

Parallel investigations into clusters of cancer cases near Pratt & Whitney plants in Connecticut and Florida raise questions about industrial chemicals that have been in use for decades.

Bad water kills more people than wars or earthquakes, UN officials declared, as they prepared to celebrate World Water Week next week.

"During the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency's commitment to keeping children safe from toxic chemicals has lapsed, and top officials routinely ignored scores of recommendations by the agency's own children's health advisory committee, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office."

"Anti-asbestos activists from around the world called in Italy Tuesday for a worldwide ban on the hazardous building material and for companies that use it to be brought to justice."

A dramatic decline in male births among indigenous American peoples -- both in the Arctic and elsewhere -- has been linked to toxic industrial pollution. "Toxic pollutants travel from industrialized countries and accumulate in the marine food chain of the Arctic region, and in the traditional diet of indigenous peoples."

"A toxic fire -- the third in three years -- broke out Wednesday at a Santa Clara recycling plant, prompting an order for residents to stay inside and close their windows while firefighters put out the flames."

"A long-awaited study by the International Agency for Cancer Research -- an arm of the World Health Organization -- will attempt to give the world's billions of cellphone users a better informed perspective" on whether the phones cause brain tumors or present other health risks.

Four households in the West Palm Beach neighborhood called The Acreage, the site of an alleged cancer cluster, have filed suit blaming it on pollution from a nearby Pratt & Whitney plant.

"Outrage erupted among residents and politicians Wednesday after state health officials announced they don't plan to search for an environmental cause of [Palm Beach County community] The Acreage’s cancer cluster -- and instead will mount a campaign to raise 'awareness' about childhood brain cancer."

"The study that first suggested a link between vaccines and autism and spurred a long-running, acrimonious debate over the safety of vaccines has been retracted by the British medical journal that published it. The withdrawal supports the scientific evidence that vaccinations don't cause autism, but isn't likely to persuade advocacy groups that believe in a link."

CDC has increased 10-fold the number of contaminants it tracks in people since starting its biomonitoring program in 2001. But the agency is hitting limits that likely will slow future growth, and no one else is picking up the slack, leaving us ignorant for years to come about more than 99% of the possible toxics in our bodies.

"Why is a child born in northwest Los Angeles four times as likely to be diagnosed with autism as a child born elsewhere in California?"

"Some residents blame a nearby toxic waste dump for health problems. U.S. says the study shows the Obama administration's commitment to environmental justice."

"[New Jersey] State and federal environmental officials said Monday night that they will take a more active role in the DuPont cleanup in Pompton Lakes, while urging residents to install mitigation systems in their homes as soon as possible."