Chemicals

"An international group of researchers is renewing its call for a global ban on the mining and use of asbestos, a known cause of cancer they say is unsafe in any form."

"The first round of government tests of the chemical dispersants that are being used to break up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico found they aren't overly damaging to shrimp and small fish, but more tests are needed to determine what happens when they're mixed with oil."

"California pesticide regulators plan to approve a new agricultural chemical called methyl iodide for the state's coastal strawberry fields, allowing levels of exposure that the state's own experts say will put farmworkers and bystanders at risk."

"A leading environmental group filed a court challenge today to the Food and Drug Administration's handling of bisphenol A, aiming to force the agency to act on a 20-month-old request to bar the controversial chemical from food packaging."

"Compounds associated with neurological problems, cancer and other serious health effects are among the chemicals being used to drill natural gas wells in Pennsylvania, although state and industry officials said Monday the practice is not polluting drinking water."

"Scientists say methyl bromide threatens the ozone layer, and its alternative, methyl iodide, is a threat to workers and their families."

"Federal rules governing pesticide experiments using people as test subjects must be rewritten and issued for public comment under a new agreement reached between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and public health groups, farm worker advocates and environmental organizations."

"In the intense but inscrutable debate about the chemicals that drillers inject underground to flush out natural gas, this much can be said: Everyone is for disclosure."