Environmental Health

"U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, has introduced legislation that would ensure all cosmetics marketed to children are proven asbestos-free, or else they must carry warning labels."

"Toxic substances including arsenic may be leaking from unlined pits and contaminating groundwater at hundreds of coal ash storage facilities nationwide, according to an analysis by the environmental law organization Earthjustice."

"276 Michiganians were ushered or barred from homes and other sites due to possible cancerous fumes. People were relocated from sites in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Sturgis, according to the state."

"Governments are slowly advancing efforts to reduce climate and health impacts of soot."

"Governments are poised this week to begin discussing rules to curb black-carbon pollution from ships, after nearly seven years of preparation. The sooty emissions, which are produced by diesel engines, warm the climate and harm human health.

"Republican lawmakers are threatening to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization’s cancer research program over its finding that the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup is probably carcinogenic to humans."

"The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent a letter to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday, calling into question a dramatic decrease in grant funding awarded by the agency in the past year."

"Hospital plumbing is a “vast” reservoir of drug-resistant superbug germs, researchers reported Tuesday."

"Due to heavy fertilizer use, California's Central Valley is behind up to 41 percent of the state's emissions of nitrogen oxide — an air pollutant and climate-warming gas".

"A large proportion of California's nitrogen oxide—which can cause harmful ozone and a variety of health impacts—comes from heavy fertilizer use in the state's Central Valley, according to a new study.

"Monsanto Corp. faces a treble damages class action alleging that its pesticide Dicamba poses such a risk to farmers they are forced to purchase resistant seed — marketed under patent at high prices by Monsanto — to avoid catastrophic damage to their crops from pesticide drift."