mercury

Trump’s EPA Weakens Justification for Life-Saving Mercury Pollution Rule

Trump’s EPA Weakens Justification for Life-Saving Mercury Pollution Rule

As many Americans fight for their lives in the midst of a respiratory pandemic, the Trump administration Thursday axed the justification for a mercury pollution rule that saves more than 10,000 lives and prevents as many as 130,000 asthma attacks each year. The new rollback leaves mercury emission standards in place for now, but changes […]

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    Toxic Metals Found in 95 Percent of Baby Foods

    Toxic Metals Found in 95 Percent of Baby Foods

    Heavy metals that may damage a developing brain are present in 95 percent of baby foods on the market, according to new research from the advocacy organization Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), which bills itself as an alliance of scientists, nonprofit organizations and donors trying to reduce exposures to neurotoxic chemicals during the first three […]

    Climate Change and Overfishing Could Lead to More Toxic Seafood

    Climate Change and Overfishing Could Lead to More Toxic Seafood

    Scientists continue to uncover more ways climate change poses a threat to our health, such as the spread of tropical diseases northward and the loss of crucial nutrients in crops. Now, researchers at Harvard have added another risk to that list: increased neurotoxins in seafood. According to a new study, published in the journal Nature, […]

    Windborne Microplastics Are Everywhere

    Windborne Microplastics Are Everywhere

    By Jordan Davidson Plastic gets around. Previously, researchers had discovered fragments of microplastics in the world’s most remote locations, like the depths of the Marianas Trench and Antarctica. New research has shown that microplastics rain down on the pristine peaks of the Pyrenees mountains. The researchers found a daily rate of plastic pollution falling from […]

    EPA Bows to Coal Industry, Moves to Weaken Mercury & Air Toxics Standards

    EPA Bows to Coal Industry, Moves to Weaken Mercury & Air Toxics Standards

    In its latest attack on clean air protections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its new proposal to weaken the Obama-era Mercury & Air Toxics Standards (MATS), putting public health at risk from more than 80 dangerous pollutants, some of which are known to cause brain damage in children. “This is an unconscionable rollback […]

    Unprecedented New Map Unveils Illegal Mining Destroying Amazon

    Unprecedented New Map Unveils Illegal Mining Destroying Amazon

    A first-of-its-kind map has unveiled widespread environmental damage and contamination of the Amazon rainforest caused by the rise illegal mining. The survey, released Monday by the Amazon Socio-Environmental Geo-Referenced Information Project (RAISG), identifies at least 2,312 sites and 245 areas of prospecting or extraction of minerals such as gold, diamonds and coltan in six Amazonian […]

    EPA Wants Coal Plants to Emit More Toxic Mercury

    EPA Wants Coal Plants to Emit More Toxic Mercury

    The Trump administration is proposing to significantly weaken a rule that limits the amount of mercury and other toxic emissions from coal plants, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and acting administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has drafted a plan that would undermine the 2011 […]

    Baby Food Tests Find 68 Percent Contain ‘Worrisome’ Levels of Heavy Metals

    Baby Food Tests Find 68 Percent Contain ‘Worrisome’ Levels of Heavy Metals

    Testing published by Consumer Reports (CR) Thursday found “concerning levels” of toxic metals in popular U.S. baby and toddler food. The consumer advocacy group tested 50 nationally-distributed, packaged foods designed for toddlers and babies for mercury, cadmium, arsenic and lead. They found that every product they tested had measurable amounts of cadmium, inorganic arsenic or […]