"Boys exposed in the womb to high levels of a chemical found in vinyl products are born with slightly altered genital development, according to research published today."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to remove 72 chemicals form the list of substances that can be used as ingredients in pesticides."

"An order of French fries may be bad for your health in ways that extend well beyond the outsize calorie count. According to a new study by scientists at the University of Missouri, people who used hand sanitizer, touched a cash register receipt and then ate French fries were quickly exposed to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical widely used to coat receipt paper."

"Federal regulators on Friday unveiled a program to monitor air quality during the remaining cleanup at the Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River in Charleston, but they said their effort suffers from the same lack of data about potential health efforts of the chemical MCHM as did testing of the region’s drinking-water supply after the Jan. 9 leak."

"The U.S. government will soon begin receiving public suggestions on how federal regulators should update their oversight of toxic chemicals in the workplace."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture must set strict pathogen limits for poultry products with the highest contamination rates and find ways to measure a poultry plant’s success with these new standards, according to a government report released Thursday."

"Temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit froze the valve on the back of Greg Bish's frack truck. To thaw it, he fetched a blowtorch and put the 4-inch flame to the metal. The explosion blew him 75 feet, over a 7-foot-tall barbed-wire fence, and killed him."

"One accomplishment Scott singled out: making it easier than ever to obtain a permit for filling in wetlands, pumping water out of the aquifer or pouring pollutants into the water and air."

"Three widely cited state studies of air emissions at Marcellus Shale gas development sites in Pennsylvania omit measurements of key air toxics and calculate the health risks of just two of more than two dozen pollutants."

"Trucks hauling mounds of sand into the southern Minnesota town of Winona for delivery to drilling sites across the nation's shale regions are not spewing dangerous dust emissions into the air, preliminary data shows."