public health

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals, have been identified in toilet paper from brands around the world in a new study. The research adds to a growing list of studies finding PFAS in everything from rainwater to tap water to even umbilical cord blood. The study, published in the journal […]

Your child could go to gym class on Monday morning and play soccer on a field that was sprayed over the weekend with 2,4-D, a toxic weedkiller that has been investigated as possibly causing cancer. Alternatively, the school grounds may have been treated with a lower-toxicity weedkiller. Or maybe the grounds were managed with safe, nontoxic products and techniques.

Two new studies highlight the vulnerability of California forests. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, has heated the atmosphere faster than conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains can adapt, shifting their ideal elevation 600 feet above where it was nearly a century ago, according to a study published in PNAS Nexus.

When wastewater from coal-fired plants is released into wider waterways, it can have serious consequences. Environmental toxins including mercury, arsenic, bromide and chloride can pollute drinking water and aquatic habitats, causing cancer and other ailments in humans and making it harder for wildlife to reproduce. That’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved on […]

The phenomenon known as red tide — caused by large amounts of the toxic algae Karenia brevis — has come earlier than usual to Florida this year, and in concentrations that are higher than normal. The harmful algae produce brevetoxins that can kill marine life and pose health problems for humans, reported BBC News. The […]

Only 0.001 percent of the world’s population breathed in air considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019.

A month and a day after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio — forcing evacuations as it spewed toxic chemicals into the surrounding community — another train from the same company derailed in the same state. The derailment, which took place Saturday, March 4 at around 4:45 p.m. local time near Springfield, […]

The U.S. filed a complaint last week against two companies behind a highly polluting petrochemical plant in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”  The Pontchartrain Works facility makes neoprene, a synthetic rubber used for everything from laptop covers to wetsuits. But to do this, it releases chloroprene, a likely carcinogen that is the main reason that the majority […]