"A state board votes to bar the chemical from baby products' containers. The Legislature has the final say."

"New research suggests the chemicals are playing a significant and previously unknown role in the global decline of amphibians."

"A new federal report finds toxic contamination remains widespread in the Chesapeake Bay, with severe impacts in some places, which health and environmental advocates say lends support to their push in Annapolis for legislative action on pesticides and other hazardous chemicals."

"An antibiotic widely used in soaps and cosmetics that mostly goes down the drain is slowly converting to toxins at the bottom of many of Minnesota's lakes and rivers."

"Serving hot food on melamine tableware could increase your exposure to melamine, a study released Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine suggests."

"Diet and exercise are seen as the key factors that cause obesity, but new research suggests that certain chemicals called obesogens contribute to the global weight problem. Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology at the University of California at Irvine tells host Steve Curwood that the effects of an obesogenic chemical he studied seem to persist for several generations."

"GENEVA -- A new and legally binding international treaty to reduce harmful emissions of mercury was adopted Saturday by more than 140 nations, capping four years of difficult negotiations but stopping short of some of the tougher measures that proponents had envisioned."

"Crisis-weary developed countries' reluctance to help finance a ground-breaking international treaty to rein in the use of health-hazardous mercury is threatening the accord, UN officials warned Thursday."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that total toxic air releases in 2011 declined 8 percent from 2010. In the mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania and Delaware, the agency recorded a decline of 13.8 percent or 32.5 million pounds. Among the hazardous air pollutants showing declines were hydrochloric acid and mercury, which EPA attributed to improved pollution control technologies at coal-fired power plants and a shift to other fuel sources."

"Citgo Petroleum Corp. reached an agreement with New Hampshire to be dismissed from an $816 million trial over groundwater contamination while a settlement is completed, as a witness testified that 2 percent of the state’s private wells are polluted with hazardous levels of the chemical MTBE."