It seems every few months, we discover microplastics in a new part of the body. We have found them in our livers, kidneys, lungs and guts. They have even shown up in human breast milk and blood. Last week, they turned up again in eight people’s olfactory bulbs, a brain structure crucial for smell.
A group of academic scientists and clinicians is calling for EPA to strengthen its draft TSCA analyses of a pair of widely used dichloroethane chemicals, charging that the agency is understating their risks and appears to be inconsistently applying its non-cancer risk approach and what it deems unreasonable risk.
Health experts have long warned that pollutants like hexavalent chromium, PFAS and arsenic in drinking water are harmful to human health, even at low levels. While efforts to impose stricter drinking water contaminant limits in California, however, are repeatedly stymied by vested interests like polluters and utility groups, it’s the state’s low-income communities and people of color who bear the brunt of lax standards.
EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of the phthalate known as DINP maintains a relatively lenient approach to cancer risk analysis that drew criticism from California regulators and scientists but praise from industry earlier this year, leaving it unclear how the agency will respond to those concerns.
On a Southern California spring morning in 1973, a tanker truck driver jackknifed his rig and dumped the agricultural fumigant he was transporting onto a city street. A Los Angeles Fire Department emergency response team spent four hours cleaning up the chemical, 1,3-dichloropropene, or 1,3-D, a fumigant sold as Telone that farmers use to kill nematodes and other soil-dwelling organisms before planting.
For the first time in 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken emergency action to ban the use of a pesticide linked to serious health problems for fetuses.
Microplastics have been found in the ocean and the air, in our food and water. They have been found in a wide range of body tissues, including the heart, liver, kidneys and even testicles.
California regulators and a group of academic scientists are pressing EPA to substantially strengthen its approach to pending TSCA evaluations for a pair of phthalates, arguing that draft analyses for the chemicals underestimate health risks, fail to use the best available science and violate the agency’s just-finalized rule governing such reviews.
Plastics and the long-lasting chemicals they're made of are accumulating in our oceans, leaching into our farm fields and piling up in landfills. Plastic is floating in the air and falling from the sky. It's also turning up in remote, isolated caves … so even if you have been living under a rock, you might have cause for concern.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably picked up on a growing anxiety around plastic pollution. Plastics and the long-lasting chemicals they’re made of are accumulating in our oceans, leaching into our farm fields and piling up in landfills. Plastic is floating in the air and falling from the sky. It’s also turning up in remote, isolated caves … so even if you have been living under a rock, you might have cause for concern.
Pregnancy doesn't always leave you glowing, especially when it comes to your skin. Thanks to your changing hormones and increased hydration needs, pregnancy can lead to things like melasma (dark patches on the face), eczema, acne, and increased skin sensitivity, not to mention a belly that's itchy and developing stretch marks.
Male infertility remains a global issue, with its causes often not well understood. Given the growing evidence of microplastics infiltrating various biological systems, such as blood and lungs, researchers are now exploring their potential effects on reproductive systems.
Matthew Campen, a toxicologist at the University of New Mexico, wasn’t surprised when his team found microplastics in human testicles during a new study. The tiny particles had already been found in human breast milk, lungs and blood. At this point, Dr. Campen said, he expects to find them in every part of the body.
Microplastics have been found on the top of Mount Everest, at the bottom of the ocean and now in human semen. Scientists discovered eight types of the tiny, cancer-causing plastics in all 36 men tested in the new study - including those used in Styrofoam and pipes. Semen samples found with particles used in piping had less mobile sperm, which the team suggested may link microplastics to the global decrease in fertility rates.