Chemicals

"Cleaning up and protecting U.S. drinking water from a class of toxic chemicals used in many household items could cost in the tens of billions of dollars nationally, including $2 billion for the Department of Defense alone, witnesses testified Wednesday before a House panel urging the federal government to move more quickly on the cleanup."

"In Richmond late last month, the James River flooded to more than 16 feet, its highest since 2010. The state health department closed sections to shellfish harvesting because floodwaters likely contained disease-causing bacteria and viruses."

"New Mexico on Tuesday sued the U.S. Air Force over groundwater contamination at two bases, saying the federal government has a responsibility to clean up plumes of toxic chemicals left behind by past military firefighting activities."

"A top government watchdog reported that political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency delayed reviews of toxic chemicals like formaldehyde for months last year during a review to see if the agency’s work met the leadership’s priorities."

"EPA's action plan on toxic chemicals found in drinking water did not satisfy several states that plan to push forward with their own policies."

"Eric Perez and his wife, Mari, live with their five children in the Wenatchee Valley in central Washington state. Their house is just feet from an orchard. A couple of years ago, the kids were having an Easter egg hunt in the yard when they smelled something 'plasticky,' Perez remembers — like 'rotten eggs.'"

"The EPA allowed a new ingredient for wood panel glues to be sold in December despite the potential that the compound might cause cancer."

"More than 60 drinking water systems in Michigan sampled last year had measurable levels of a class of long-lasting and highly toxic chemicals linked to cancer and a variety of other illnesses, state officials said Monday."

"The EPA’s bungled response to an air pollution crisis exposes a toxic racial divide".

"The 1939 World’s Fair was a testament to cork’s primacy in consumer packaging. But a little-known substance called plastic was waiting in the wings."

"In the closing months of World War II, Americans talked nonstop about how and when the war would end, and about how life was about to change. Germany would fall soon, people agreed on that. Opinions varied on how much longer the war in the Pacific would go on.