Category: News Archive

Any scientist whose research might conceivably threaten the bottom line of powerful corporate interests risks facing an orchestrated campaign to destroy their reputation.
That’s the message of a commentary, published May 17 in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, that spins a cautionary tale about the fragility of scientific integrity by drawing on the disturbing history of a popular weed killer.
The piece focuses on atrazine, explained author Jason Rohr, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, because it’s “one of the most commonly used, well studied, and controversial pesticides on the planet.”
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Photo Credit: Earl Neikirk

When North Dakota directed more than $66 million in federal pandemic relief funds to clean up old oil and gas wells last year, it seemed like the type of program everyone could get behind. The money would plug hundreds of abandoned wells and restore the often-polluted land surrounding them, and in the process would employ oilfield workers who had been furloughed after prices crashed.
The program largely accomplished those goals. But some environmental advocates say it achieved another they didn’t expect: It bailed out dozens of small to mid-sized oil companies, relieving them of their responsibility to pay for cleaning up their own wells by using taxpayer money instead.
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Photo Credit: Daryl Peterson

The Keystone Sanitary Landfill is under investigation by the state attorney general’s office, a
spokeswoman said Thursday.
Although she could not comment on the nature of the investigation, press secretary Molly Stieber
confirmed in an email that the office is investigating the Louis and Dominick DeNaples-owned landfill in
Dunmore and Throop.
Scranton resident Samantha Maloney, who is one of three locals working with the attorney general’s
office in its investigation, said the investigation appears to be about leachate, which is the liquid that
percolates through trash piles. The other individuals declined to be identified.
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Photo Credit: The Times-Tribune

A new bill, that could drastically limit where future schools can be built throughout the state, cleared a major hurdle in the California legislature on Thursday and is now headed for a full vote in the Assembly in the coming weeks.  The legislation would force private and charter schools to comply with tougher environmental standards – the very same regulations that are already in place for public schools – in hopes of preventing classrooms from being constructed near potentially toxic sites.
Whatever school you send your child to, you should know well that they are not going to be in danger,” said Assemblyman Alex Lee, who authored the legislation, Assembly Bill 762.  “The problem right now is that private and charter schools can be [built] on top of or even really close to toxic and hazardous sites and there’s no law preventing that.”
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Photo Credit: Sean Myers/NBC Bay Area

St. Croix residents are demanding answers from a U.S. Virgin Islands oil refinery, and from the officials regulating it, in the wake of a series of recent accidents that they worry have exposed them to toxic chemicals and endangered their health.
Since restarting operations in February, the Limetree Bay oil refinery has experienced at least three accidents that have directly affected the neighborhoods surrounding it. That includes a chemical release that occurred during maintenance on the plant last week that produced a nauseating odor, forcing schools to shut down and send children home for the second time in less than a month.
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Photo Credit: Marcia Bruno/National Guard

Living among fracking wells is linked to higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths due to heart attacks, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Environmental Research, compared heart attack rates in Pennsylvania counties with fracking to demographically similar counties in New York where fracking is banned.

“There’s a large body of literature linking air pollution with poor cardiovascular health and heart attacks, but this is really the first study to look at this from a population level related to fracking,” Elaine Hill, a researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center and one of the study’s co-authors, told EHN.
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“We all had to deal with it. I know at least every person I grew up with within this area,” Kashmere Garden’s resident Nakia Osbourne said. “I’m 44 right now, almost 45. Half of them have a child that has a disability.”
Osbourne’s son, Charlie, was one of them. He was born with autism and severe intellectual disabilities. He died in 2014 at the age of 13 from a burn accident, but Osbourne said his life proves what everyone already knows. Creosote, once used at the Union Pacific facility, hit the community hard.
“They destroyed a lot of people’s lives,” Osburne said. “Because people were dying from cancer. Mothers were dying from cancer like crazy. And now the kids. Now it’s trickling down to the kids. The great-grandkids.”
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Photo Credit: Lucio Vasquez/Houston Public Media

Chemical giants DuPont and Daikin knew the dangers of a PFAS compound widely used in food packaging since 2010, but hid them from the public and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), company studies obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The chemicals, called 6:2 FTOH, are now linked to a range of serious health issues, and Americans are still being exposed to them in greaseproof pizza boxes, carryout containers, fast-food wrappers, and paperboard packaging.

The companies initially told the FDA that the compounds were safer and less likely to accumulate in humans than older types of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals” and submitted internal studies to support that claim.
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Photo Credit: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

Some of the biggest natural gas companies are moving to brand their product as low-emissions — a plan that could transform the industry even as it spurs accusations of green washing.
The gas producers and exporters are turning to third-party companies to prove their products release less methane and other pollutants than competitors, partly in an effort to stand out in a market that prioritizes environmentally conscious investments.
Environmentalists say, though, that certifying a portion of the industry’s production won’t solve the overall problem of methane pollution from oil and gas activity. And new research shows that cutting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is a key strategy to battling the climate crisis.
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Photo Credit: Brett Carlsen/REUTERS/Newscom