While EPA oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act programs, much of the daily responsibility is delegated to state agencies. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office says the states are under-reporting violations and contamination to EPA. Moreover, EPA has fallen behind in setting standards for known contaminants that may cause health problems.

Nearly 500 combined-plastic products tested induced estrogenic activity. Other plastic products did not, and would cost about the same to use in lieu of the EA-inducing products. But, there are other modes of toxicity besides EA, so product testing should include carcinogenicity, immune disruption, neurological damage, etc.

Wildfire, hurricanes, recreation, extreme heat, drought, electric brownouts, UV rays and sunscreen, insect-borne disease like West Nile virus, fishing, dead zones, and algal blooms — TipSheet can help you cover these local environmental stories.

The standards were initially scheduled to be released in August 2010, then October 2010, after EPA determined that the ones approved during the George W. Bush administration weren't grounded in science, didn't protect public health with an adequate margin of safety, and didn't protect the environment.

The more transparent Integrated Risk Information System would have shorter and clearer effects of hazard assessments and use more graphics and tables to present the data.

WONDER is a single portal for using a variety of databases related to public health that are maintained by CDC. Many are relevant to the environment beat, such as asthma and allergy prevalence, lung disease, cancer, agricultural safety, pesticides, occupational exposure, chemical hazards, waterborne disease, foodborne disease, and adverse vaccine events.