Environmental Health

"Fourteen oil and gas companies are funding a website that attacks scientists and undermines their work."

"Facing public pressure to rein in its pollution, a Japanese chemical manufacturer has instead launched an aggressive, years-long campaign to undermine the science showing that its compounds could cause cancer, according to newly released documents reviewed by the Guardian."

"EPA today proposed new restrictions on the use of the weedkiller atrazine, a widely used agricultural chemical. But environmentalists say EPA's plan weakens protections and would allow 50% more of the endocrine-disrupting herbicide linked to birth defects and cancer to end up in waterways."

"Congress is providing a little more budgetary heft to EPA's inspector general, which has been fighting with the agency's leadership over access to staff and information."

"The EPA would get $9.06 billion in the current fiscal year ending next September under a spending bill that Congress will vote on this week.

The agency would receive $208 million more in fiscal 2020 than the current $8.8 billion budget. That’s nearly $3 billion more than President Donald Trump’s budget request, but less than the $9.53 billion offered in the House bill that passed the chamber in June. It’s similar to the levels in the Senate-passed bill."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General found that state and federal environmental regulators didn't start monitoring air quality soon enough during the monster storm, which brought a spike in hazardous emissions from industrial facilities."

"Massachusetts state regulators have issued new standards for toxic compounds in drinking water."

"The private corporations that control almost all family housing on American military bases have every incentive to skimp on maintenance, critics say." The result is a common collection of environmental health problems for families.

"People living near Medline Industries in north suburban Waukegan had higher levels of the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide in their bloodstream than others who live farther away, according to test results from a federally funded study."

"One of the companies responsible for polluting an 80-mile (129-kilometer) stretch of river and floodplains in southwestern Michigan with toxic chemicals will pay at least $245.2 million to advance a cleanup effort that began more than 20 years ago, federal officials said Wednesday."