mercury

Brazil and Colombia Destroy Illegal Gold Mines in Amazon Rainforest

Brazil and Colombia Destroy Illegal Gold Mines in Amazon Rainforest

Brazil and Colombia have blown up 19 illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon rainforest. Colombia’s armed forces said the mines were producing about $1.5 million worth of the rare metal every month and polluting the rainforest’s rivers with mercury, reported the BBC and Reuters. The unlawful activity was producing 50.71 pounds of gold a […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    EPA to Adopt Big Tobacco’s ‘Secret Science’ Rule

    EPA to Adopt Big Tobacco’s ‘Secret Science’ Rule

    Former coal lobbyist and current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to announce on Tuesday a rule tobacco consultants devised as an “explicit procedural hurdle” to protecting public health. The rule — sometimes called the ‘Secret Science’ rule — will require EPA to give less credence to scientific studies that take […]

    Should You Rent, Not Buy, Electronics?

    Should You Rent, Not Buy, Electronics?

    By Doug Johnson Laptops, phones and tablets come out in new, flashier upgrades each year, and consumers lap them up, eager to own the latest desirable models with the most cutting-edge features. But with every upgrade, older models mount up in landfills around the world. In 2019, we generated a record 53.6 million metric tons […]

    Trump’s Latest EPA Rollback Lets Polluters Spew More Lead, Arsenic, Mercury

    Trump’s Latest EPA Rollback Lets Polluters Spew More Lead, Arsenic, Mercury

    Trump‘s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has weakened yet another safeguard against air pollution in the midst of a respiratory pandemic. The agency finalized a rollback Thursday of the Clinton-era “once in, always in” policy that required major polluters like industrial plants and refineries to maintain the highest possible levels of pollution controls as long as […]

    California Becomes First State to Ban 24 Toxic Chemicals From Cosmetics

    California Becomes First State to Ban 24 Toxic Chemicals From Cosmetics

    California became the first state in the nation to ban two dozen toxic chemicals from cosmetics Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to that effect into law. The Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act, or Assembly Bill 2762, targets 24 toxic chemicals including mercury and formaldehyde that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption […]

    New York Attorney General Files Suit to Dismantle the NRA

    New York Attorney General Files Suit to Dismantle the NRA

    New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that she will attempt to dismantle the National Rifle Association (NRA), arguing that years of corruption and mismanagement warrant the dissolution of the activist organization, as CNN reported. The lawsuit specifically names the organization’s top brass as corrupt and inept, accusing them of failing to follow […]

    Reducing Air Pollution Has Helped Children in Northeast U.S., Study Finds

    Reducing Air Pollution Has Helped Children in Northeast U.S., Study Finds

    States in the Northeastern U.S. have made a considerable effort to make their air cleaner by reducing toxic mercury, sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases emitted by the region’s power plants. New research has found that those efforts have had an ancillary benefit of improving the health of children in the area, preventing hundreds of childhood […]

    Mercury Pollution Found in Deepest Part of Ocean

    Mercury Pollution Found in Deepest Part of Ocean

    Plastic isn’t the only human pollutant infiltrating the deepest corners of the ocean. Two separate studies presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference this week found mercury in fish and crustaceans living 11,000 meters (approximately 36,000 feet) under the sea in the Mariana Trench. “This is a surprise,” Dr. Ruoyu Sun, a scientist from Tianjin University […]