Environmental Health

"The record-breaking temperatures this week are a weather emergency, scientists and health care experts say, with heat responsible for more deaths in the U.S. than all other natural disasters combined. With more frequent and intense heat waves likely because of climate change and the worst drought in modern history, they say communities must better protect the vulnerable, like homeless people and those who live in ethnically and racially diverse low-income neighborhoods."

"The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he has fully reinstated one of two key advisory boards he dismantled earlier this year in a push for “scientific integrity” at the agency."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put another delay on a Trump-era update to a rule governing lead and copper in drinking water, according to a new federal register notice."

"Much of the western United States baked for a third day on Wednesday under a punishing heat wave that has set temperature records, prompted health warnings and strained power grids."

"A retired special education teacher from Louisiana who led a successful grassroots campaign to stop construction of a toxic plastics plant in America’s Cancer Alley has won the 2021 Goldman prize for environmental defenders."

"More than half the cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada are awash with a toxic industrial compound associated with serious health conditions, including cancer and reduced birth weight, according to a new study."

"Two new reports draw attention to the scant laws safeguarding farmworkers’ health, including from worsening extreme heat."

"A massive fire broke out at a suburban chemical plant on Monday morning, sending a towering plume of smoke into the air and forcing evacuations of residents who live near the plant."

"In Houston and Corpus Christi, the impacted communities are predominantly Black and Latino. Scientists say the dangers of benzene, a carcinogen, are not well understood."