"When a [California] bill to ban a common plastic additive in feeding products for young children passed the Assembly on July 1, it marked a milestone in state legislative efforts to regulate bisphenol A."

"Detroit's  anti-lead program -- beset with alleged shakedowns and bogus treatments, missing files, incompetence and mismanagement -- was upended last year after such scorching claims were reported in state and federal investigations." But efforts to reform it have left many lead-poisoned kids untreated and permanently damaged.

"Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide’s health risks, records  of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show. Many of these industry-funded studies, which largely support atrazine’s safety, have never been published or subjected to an independent scientific peer review."

"TXI will permanently shut down its four oldest, highest-polluting cement kilns in Midlothian and will stop burning hazardous waste as fuel, the Dallas-based company said Tuesday."

"The use of roxarsone and other arsenic-based additives in poultry and swine feed is at the center of a national controversy."

"The Minnesota Department of Health on Thursday released a list of hundreds of chemicals that pose a potential health risk. The state's list includes 1,755 substances, among them lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. But it also includes many other organic chemicals that include pesticides, flame retardants, dyes and other chemicals used in industry or found in consumer products."

"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."