Chemicals

"The hole in the ozone layer that develops annually is “rather larger than usual” and is currently bigger than Antartica, say the scientists responsible for monitoring it."

"The U.S. subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Corporation will pay $2.85 million to settle civil charges it violated federal air pollution laws after a series of fires and explosions at its petrochemical manufacturing plant in Texas injured some of its workers, the Justice Department said on Monday."

"The US Environmental Protection Agency is failing to protect children by ignoring poisons in the environment and focusing on corporate interests, according to a top children’s health official who will testify this week that the agency tried to silence her because of her insistence on stronger preventions against lead poisoning."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that it will propose a rule to set the first-ever limits on the amount of chemicals called PFAS can be discharged."

"EPA plans to propose the nation’s strongest rules against methane emissions this month, escalating the Biden administration’s use of regulatory tools to reduce greenhouse gases from fossil fuel companies."

"Study finds agriculture and pesticide use threaten relatives of world’s most important crops, considered crucial to food security".

"Behind a playground littered with downed tree branches, Shell’s refinery in Norco, Louisiana spewed black smoke from its stacks. The smell of rotten eggs, the signature scent of sulphur emissions, lingered in the air. In an effort to burn off toxic chemicals before and after Hurricane Ida, many industrial facilities sent the gases through smoke stacks topped with flares."

"Federal and state agencies say they are responding to reports of oil and chemical spills resulting from Hurricane Ida following the publication of aerial photos by The Associated Press."