Chemicals

"The lead federal agency investigating the West Virginia chemical leak is one that most Americans have probably never heard of. The Chemical Safety Board is an independent body, modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates plane crashes and the like. But critics say that the Chemical Safety Board is understaffed, underfunded and takes too long to finish its investigations, and that its non-binding recommendations are often ignored anyway."

"The price of a Russell Wilson game jersey found on one website is about $20. A Broncos infant onesie on the same site sells for around $5. Too good to be true? Probably."

"In 2001, seven years after joining the biology faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Tyrone Hayes stopped talking about his research with people he didn’t trust."

"ALBANY — After four rounds of hearings, hundreds of thousands of public comments, two governors and a pair of voluminous draft reports, New York’s review of hydraulic fracturing is now taking place entirely behind closed doors."

"BRIGHTON, UK -- Controversial pesticides ingested by bumble bees can seriously impact the insects’ ability to collect food, even at very low levels of contamination, finds new research from the University of Sussex and the University of Stirling."

"SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – In a shallow arm of the bay, where Pacific tides cause hardly a ripple, hundreds of harbor seals lounge, mate and bear young. With placid expressions on bewhiskered faces and bulky bodies reclining on shorelines, the seals belie a disturbing burden they carry."

"Tests on the water supply in Charleston, W. Va., a week after a chemical spill tainted the city’s water system turned up traces of formaldehyde, suggesting that 'there’s a lot more we don’t know' about the consequences of the spill, an environmental expert told a state legislative committee on Wednesday."

"People with high levels of exposure to the banned insecticide DDT were four times more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease than people with low levels, according to a study of patients in Georgia and Texas published today. The research is among the first to report a connection between Alzheimer’s, which is the world’s most common neurodegenerative disease, and chemicals in the environment."

"This month's chemical spill in West Virginia reveals a weak web of rules on chemical use."