Chemicals

"Lawmakers have been laying the groundwork for months to come up with solutions to a growing headache for water providers in all corners of the U.S.

House members are meeting today to discuss a strategy for moving through Congress over a dozen bills on pollution from poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—chemicals linked to thyroid and liver problems, cancer, and immune system deficiencies.

The problem is enormous.

EPA employees try to find and make safe the orphaned containers filled with industrial chemicals, pesticides, and diesel fuel left among the debris after flooding in Iowa.

"A jury in Oakland, Calif., ordered Monsanto on Monday to pay a couple more than $2 billion in damages after finding that its Roundup weed killer caused their cancer — the third jury to conclude that the company failed to warn consumers of its flagship product’s dangers."

"Chemours Co., 3M Co. and DuPont are taking a stand against what one company called an “unprecedented” New Jersey order, saying they won’t pay for a statewide investigation of fluorinated chemical contamination."

"From 1962 to 1971, the American military sprayed vast areas of Vietnam with Agent Orange, leaving dioxin contamination that has severely affected the health of three generations of Vietnamese. Now, the U.S. and Vietnamese governments have joined together in a massive cleanup project."

"House Democrats hope to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a bill that would ban asbestos within a year."

"A 3M environmental specialist, in a scathing resignation letter, accused company officials of being 'unethical' and more 'concerned with markets, legal defensibility and image over environmental safety' when it came to PFAS, the emerging contaminant causing a potential crisis throughout Michigan and the country."

"The nation’s most productive agricultural state moved Wednesday to ban a controversial pesticide widely used to control a range of insects but blamed for harming brain development in babies."

"Senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos, according to two internal memos."