Chemicals

"Syngenta says it will stop selling paraquat in Australia after new regulations on chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease"

"Pregnant women who are exposed to glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, may face an increased risk of preterm births, according to one of the largest studies to date examining the link."

"The pesticide industry has spent decades building a highly effective influence operation in Washington D.C., shaping how pesticides are regulated and how American agriculture operates."

"States have joined a growing legal fight against EPA’s May rule pushing back deadlines for the food industry to start buying climate-friendly refrigeration systems."

"The Trump administration is moving closer to opening up U.S. waters for deep-sea mining—a contentious and largely untested industry focused on extracting mineral-rich deposits from the ocean floor containing cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese." "If the sale moves forward, mining activities could begin in federal waters near American Samoa. The proposed site is directly adjacent to a national wildlife refuge."

"Recent studies show that microplastics are already present in a variety of Amazonian environments: Major rivers such as the Amazon, urban streams, floodplain areas and mangroves in the Amazon’s Mouth."

"Approximately a billion tiny plastic nurdles have entered the River Tyne after a “devastating spill”, with the pellets thought to have spread much further than first thought."

"More than twice the amount of swimming pool chemicals as planned were improperly stored at a Georgia plant, setting conditions for a fire in 2024 that sent a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the sky and forced residents to shelter in place, a federal agency report concluded."

"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin promised to deliver for the coal industry Tuesday, as part of a broader push to reverse the sector’s fate. “Many of the items that were on your wish list are now done,” Zeldin told members of the National Coal Council gathered at the Willard hotel in Washington."

"Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of the Northern Hemisphere as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the human body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show."