"U.S. children working in domestic tobacco fields regularly suffer from breathing problems, nausea and other ailments, an international rights group said in a report on Wednesday, urging the industry to develop tougher protections for its youngest workers."
"Smog could worsen across the United States in the coming decades as climate change boosts summer temperatures and makes ozone levels more difficult to control, a new study says."
"Chemicals in water from deep underground in hydraulic fracturing wells have caused problems as they get to water treatment plants in other states. It’s a potential problem to consider as North Carolina moves closer to allowing fracking."
"A draft letter from a U.S. EPA science advisory committee recommends a tight standard for how much ozone pollution can be in the air, recommending that the lower bound of the standard should be 60 parts per billion, much lower than the current standard. But the letter notes that committee members haven't made a decision on the upper bound of the ozone standard."
"The crisis-wracked School District of Philadelphia has quietly abandoned a federal agency’s plans for further study of environmental-health risks in its aging school buildings. An initial review found pervasive dampness, mold or water damage — conditions that may aggravate asthma and other respiratory ailments — but the District has refused to make the complete findings public."
"A new statistical review of stillbirths that occurred in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita show they occurred more frequently in areas suffering the worst damage to individual homes, including Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Vermilion parishes, according to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday (May 8)."
"The World Health Organization says air pollution in many of the world's cities is breaching its guidelines. Its survey of 1,600 cities in 91 countries revealed that nearly 90% of people in urban centres breathe air that fails to meet levels deemed safe."
"Teacher Billie Lane’s portable is a world apart from other classrooms at her school."
"VATICAN CITY — For four long days, several dozen physical, environmental and social scientists hunkered here with theologians, philosophers, economists and a poverty campaigner to explore ways to balance human ambitions with the planet’s limits. The rare joint meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences — “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility” — helped demarcate where science leaves off and the rest of society, including organized religion, plays a role in shaping the quality of human life and environmental conditions in this century."
"How broken is the nation's chemical-safety system? Of the 80,000 or so chemicals currently used in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has only tested 200 since Congress gave the agency its marching orders nearly four decades ago. And of the 200 tested chemicals, only five have been banned or regulated."
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