Environmental Health

"Despite an injection of funding, the agency still has not recovered from an exodus of scientists and policy experts, both insiders and critics say."

"WASHINGTON — The nation’s top environmental agency is still reeling from the exodus of more than 1,200 scientists and policy experts during the Trump administration. The chemicals chief said her staff can’t keep up with a mounting workload. The enforcement unit is prosecuting fewer polluters than at any time in the past two decades.

"This week, the period underwear brand Thinx made public that it had reached a settlement in a 3-year-long class action lawsuit claiming its products contain harmful chemicals. The news of the settlement brought renewed focus on the chemical compounds at the center of the lawsuit — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — and highlighted the broader issue of toxic ingredients in period products as a whole."

"A chaotic start to the new Republican-led House may spell trouble for the 2023 farm bill."

"The EPA will begin a rulemaking aiming to reduce PFAS in landfill leachate discharges and will expand or begin studies on PFAS pollution from textile manufacturers and sewage treatment plants, the agency said."

"There’s now more than just smoke hanging around the site of an underground landfill fire near Birmingham. In the two days since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed up to take control of the scene, the area has been abuzz with EPA trucks, bulldozers and excavators moving in to begin putting out the fire."

"Racist beauty standards are driving the use of beauty products that are often contaminated with chemicals that alter the human endocrine system, cause organ damage, and spur cancer in communities of color, according to new research."

"Industry is pursuing various technologies to help solve the global plastic waste problem, but environmentalists say new recycling techniques only make environmental problems worse."

"Natural disasters displaced more than 3 million Americans in 2022, including nearly 1 million in Florida alone, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau."

"An underground fire at an Alabama landfill has continued to pollute the air in eastern parts of the Birmingham region more than 50 days after a fire began underground, according to air quality monitors."