Environmental Health

"President Trump’s political feud with California has spread collateral damage across more than a dozen other states, which have seen their regulatory authority curtailed and their autonomy threatened by a Trump administration intent on weakening the environmental statutes of the country’s most populous state."

"The US Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog is investigating EPA activity on a consent order controlling the manufacture of two fluoroethers. The 2009 order initially applied to DuPont and now affects its Chemours spin-off."

"Environmental advocates Oct. 2 claimed that EPA’s coal ash proposals are illegal because companies may be allowed to reuse this material without proper monitoring and public protections."

"The White House refused to meet with two groups of air pollution regulators regarding its rollback of clean car standards, despite holding several meetings with industry advocates."

"A panel of appeals court judges scrapped a Trump-era rule yesterday that it said did not set strong enough restrictions on downwind states' exposure to smog-forming air pollutants produced by upwind neighbors."

"Sterigenics U.S. LLC announced Sept. 30 it will permanently shut its Willowbrook, Ill., medical sterilization facility after a bitter fight with Illinois residents and lawmakers over the plant’s ethylene oxide emissions."

"Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns that these foods are linked to heart disease, cancer and other ills. But on Monday, in a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice, a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence."

"Legislation that would require the EPA to designate all PFAS as hazardous substances within one year isn’t feasible, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said Sept. 26."

"Almost a year after they were fired by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, 20 scientists are regrouping to continue their work on a high-stakes review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter."

"The Senate urged its negotiators Sept. 25 to back language banning the Pentagon’s use of firefighting foam containing potentially hazardous nonstick chemicals known as PFAS, as House-Senate talks continue toward a single Defense Department reauthorization bill."