Chemicals

"In a study published last year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers put five San Francisco families on a three-day diet of food that hadn't been in contact with plastic. When they compared urine samples before and after the diet, the scientists were stunned to see what a difference a few days could make: The participants' levels of bisphenol A (BPA), which is used to harden polycarbonate plastic, plunged — by two-thirds, on average — while those of the phthalate DEHP, which imparts flexibility to plastics, dropped by more than half."

"VIENNA, W.Va. -- A team of experts revealed Monday that it has found a "probable link" between C8 and human cancers, rebuffing DuPont Co.'s longstanding contention that exposure to the chemical is harmless."

"Residents waiting to learn whether their property was contaminated by an insecticide manufacturing plant in their Park Hill neighborhood want to know why it took officials about 25 years to begin testing the soil in and near what has become the city's newest Superfund toxic waste site."

"Wading into a decade-old controversy, former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman has urged current EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to close loopholes in a 2006 chemical security law 'before a tragedy of historic proportions occurs.'"

After 18 months of resistance from the White House Office of Management and Budget, the US EPA has withdrawn proposed guidelines for cleaning up dioxin-contaminated soil at polluted sites. EPA says other guidelines issued in the meanwhile made them unnecessesary. Environmental groups condemned the move and the chemical industry applauded it.

"SAN FRANCISCO — Some nail polishes commonly found in California salons and advertised as free of a so-called 'toxic trio' of chemicals actually have high levels of agents known to cause birth defects, according to state chemical regulators.

A Department of Toxic Substances Control report to be released Tuesday determined that the mislabeled nail products have the potential to harm thousands of women who work in more than 48,000 nail salons in California, and their customers.

"Maryland is about to become the first state to ban the use of additives containing arsenic in chicken feed, a practice already prohibited by Canada and the European Union."

"In an announcement that stunned scientists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled grant applications for what was supposed to be a $20-million, four-year green chemistry program."

"LEIPZIG, Germany — For 800 years, the St. Thomas Boys Choir has been filling churches with pure, young voices. Now it’s confronting a confounding phenomenon: Every year, those voices are cracking with teenage angst just a little earlier than before."