Chemicals

"Russian boys exposed to unusually high levels of environmental pollutants are smaller than their peers, a new study reports."
 

"Federal authorities are urging schools across the U.S. to replace the electrical components in older light fixtures to reduce the threat of contamination from potentially cancer-causing chemicals."

"In the face of withering media coverage in LA Weekly and elsewhere, the Schwarzenegger Administration has pulled an about-face on the gutting of new chemical regulations by the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control."

Alarm bells are being set off by a new study of the families of California farm workers exposed to pesticides. It finds much higher levels of pervasive developmental disorder among children of mothers exposed to higher levels of neurotoxicant organophosphate pesticides.

"The Environmental Protection Agency is suggesting that water utilities nationwide test their drinking water for hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen, after an independent survey released earlier this week found the chemical in tap water drawn from 31 cities."

A California state appeals court ruled that an organic farmer can seek damages from a pesticide company whose product was applied to neighboring fields and contaminated the organic farmer's fields by volatilization rather than spray drift.

"Congress on Friday sent President Barack Obama a bill that would significantly reduce exposures to lead in drinking water."

"As the rates of learning disabilities, autism and related conditions rise, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to release a roster of the pollutants likely to contribute to these or other disorders, American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop has learned."

"The Obama administration is looking to the Cowboy State as a model for fracturing disclosure on federal lands in the West. Interior Department officials figure it would be hard to argue against an approach developed in petroleum-friendly Wyoming."