toxics

Toxic Chemicals at School? 8 Important Questions to Ask

Toxic Chemicals at School? 8 Important Questions to Ask

By Nicole Ferox When my daughter was in preschool, she told me that instead of washing hands before lunch, the children used hand sanitizer. The thinking behind this was probably that hand sanitizer kills bacteria and viruses and therefore — presto! — problem solved. Hands are clean, and it’s so much quicker. But hand sanitizer […]

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    EPA Announces 20 Toxic Chemicals It Won’t Protect Us From

    EPA Announces 20 Toxic Chemicals It Won’t Protect Us From

    On Wednesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first 20 chemicals it plans to prioritize as “high priority” for assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Given the EPA’s record of malfeasance on chemicals policy over the past two years, it is clear that these are chemicals that EPA is prioritizing to ensure […]

    Rat Poison Linked to Several Deaths of San Francisco’s Iconic Parrots

    Rat Poison Linked to Several Deaths of San Francisco’s Iconic Parrots

    Ask any resident of San Francisco about the waterfront parrots, and they will surely tell you a story of red-faced conures squawking or dive-bombing between building peaks. Ask a team of researchers from the University of Georgia, however, and they will tell you of a mysterious string of neurological poisonings impacting the naturalized flock for […]

    One Pennsylvania Town Shows How to Properly ‘Zone’ Fracking

    One Pennsylvania Town Shows How to Properly ‘Zone’ Fracking

    By Peter Hart Pennsylvania is home to more than 10,000 fracking wells, which forces communities to live with air pollution, water contamination and an array of health problems linked to drilling. The frackers want to drill more wells, and the state’s Democratic governor is not going to do anything to slow it down. But local […]

    Trump EPA OKs ‘Emergency’ to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres

    Trump EPA OKs ‘Emergency’ to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last week that in 2018 it issued so-called “emergency” approvals to spray sulfoxaflor—an insecticide the agency considers “very highly toxic” to bees—on more than 16 million acres of crops known to attract bees. Of the 18 states where the approvals were granted for sorghum and cotton crops, 12 […]

    EPA Delays Action on Toxic Nonstick Chemicals, Sets No Limit

    EPA Delays Action on Toxic Nonstick Chemicals, Sets No Limit

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose a regulatory determination on highly toxic nonstick chemicals “by the end of this year,” a timeline that’s been criticized as too slow to take on the notorious drinking water contaminants. At a press conference on Thursday in Philadelphia, EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a “comprehensive cross-agency […]

    EPA Decision on PFAS Coming Soon as Pressure Mounts

    EPA Decision on PFAS Coming Soon as Pressure Mounts

    Under mounting public pressure, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may finally set a national limit on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS, concentrations in drinking water. “A decision is expected soon,” the Associated Press reported Monday. PFAS are a class of man-made chemicals found in a wide range of products, from non-stick cookware to […]

    Chemicals in Cosmetics Linked to Lung Damage in Children, New Study Finds

    Chemicals in Cosmetics Linked to Lung Damage in Children, New Study Finds

    Children exposed to chemicals commonly found in personal care products may be at a higher risk of suffering from lung damage later in life, according to a new European study. The longitudinal study published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal, conducted by a team of European scientists, found that babies exposed in utero and shortly […]