Chemicals

A chronic array of mysterious health problems among public housing residents in East Chicago, Indiana, was finally traced to soil contaminated with lead and arsenic by decades of industrial activity. Authorities from various government agencies had kept residents in the dark about the threat.

"The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is joining the investigation into the Friday night fire at Sunoco Logistics in which seven contract workers were injured, including four who were critically burned." The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is already investigating.

"As locally acquired cases of Zika continue to gradually grow in Miami, officials are still hamstrung in deploying a promising technology to fight the mosquitoes that transmit the virus, Aedes aegypti. There are 22 locally acquired cases in Florida, 19 primarily in the Wynwood area of Miami, two in Broward County, and a new case in Palm Beach County."

"We may be in the clear when it comes to heat domes, but it’s still really hot. More than half the country could see temperatures in the 90s by the end of the week, and if that forecast comes true, you may find relief in the cool, crisp breeze of an air-conditioner. But in the next few years, the way air-conditioners work could change."

"Drinking water supplies serving more than six million Americans contain unsafe levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked to potentially serious health problems, according to a new study from Harvard University researchers."

"When Tom Barber, a scientist at the University of Arkansas who studies weeds, drives the country roads of eastern Arkansas this summer, his trained eye can spot the damage: soybean leaves contorted into cup-like shapes."

"The agricultural unit of German chemicals company Bayer AG will halt future U.S. sales of an insecticide that can be used on more than 200 crops after losing a fight with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company said on Friday."

"Atrazine has been a dirty word among environmentalists for decades. Now state and federal agencies are coming down on the weed killer, amid troubling evidence that it disrupts hormones and contributes to birth defects."

"In the first update to the state’s water quality standards in 24 years, the state moved to allow more toxic substances to enter the water. Environmentalists decry, and businesses support, the proposal."

"A mysterious green residue started coating golfers’ shoes last spring at Rye Golf Club. Players joked about wiping the  gunk off, but angry questions mounted as the lush course transformed into a field of dustbowls."