The female employees at the DuPont chemical company’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, W. Va., were not given much of an explanation in 1981 when they were all abruptly moved away from any part of the factory that produced a category of chemicals then known as C8. They certainly were not told about their eight recently pregnant coworkers who had worked with C8 and given birth that year—one of them to a baby with eye defects and just a single nostril; another to a baby who had eye and tear duct defects; and a third with C8 in its cord blood.
As early as the late 1950s, tobacco companies knew that smoking could cause cancer, but they still spent decades funding scientific research to obfuscate that fact. Back in 1979, Exxon knew that fossil fuels were linked to global warming, but the oil industry disputed climate science for years. And now, a new report reveals that as early as the 1960s, the chemical industry knew that PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, had adverse health effects—and they went on to suppress that knowledge.
The water you drink has been poisoned. The same goes for the air you breathe, the soil where your vegetables grow, and the lakes where you fish. In fact, there’s likely a good amount of the poison in your body right now, making its way through your system, and the damage of which you might not see for many years.
Makers of PFAS, a class of chemicals used in everything from cookware to food containers and makeup, had evidence the substances were toxic as early as the 1970s and obscured the danger, according to a new study based on industry archives held at the University of California.
June 01, 2023Press Release
Widely Used in Clothing, Household Products and Food, They Resist Breaking Down in the Environment
The unpleasant reality facing the anti-abortion movement is that most Americans don’t actually want to ban abortion. This explains why the pro-life summer of triumph, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a season of such demoralizing political outcomes. Voters in Montana, Kansas, and Kentucky in November rejected ballot measures to make abortion illegal; just last month, in Wisconsin, voters elected an abortion-rights supporter to the state supreme court.
An EPA spokesperson says the agency’s long-awaited final approach to systematic review in TSCA chemical evaluations is still “at least six month[s] to a year away,” signaling that it will continue to review its current round of existing chemicals under a draft model that peer reviewers said last year requires dozens of changes despite experts’ push for “urgent” reforms to the method.
Environmentalists and academics who support strict chemical rules are calling on Congress to boost oversight of the TSCA program to ensure the agency is using updated and protective scientific approaches to risk assessment, mirroring industry calls for tougher scrutiny of EPA’s toxics work from the GOP-led House. During a March 29 Capitol Hill briefing organized by the University of California San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE), speakers from that office and allied environmental groups urged lawmakers and their staff to raise pressure on EPA for stronger Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) implementation, while also voicing support for budget and staffing increases.
In an attempt to unpack their effects and to influence government policy, a team led by University of California researchers has conducted the first rapid review into the health effects of microplastics, looking at studies on animals.
On a late February evening in East Palestine, Ohio, Melissa Mays came in from out of town — from Flint, Mich. She had driven 300 miles, and she had a message for residents: You’re not alone.
High exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during pregnancy may be associated with lower birthweights, according to a new study funded by Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) at the National Institutes of Health.
California researchers who worked on a recent report on microplastics see EPA’s draft principles for considering cumulative risk under TSCA as an “important opportunity” to evaluate and regulate dangers the ubiquitous contaminants pose to human health and the environment, as they often include a wide range of toxic chemicals.
Bookieboo LLC claims to be the largest wellness consulting firm targeting moms on social media in the world. There is no basis provided for that claim, and when you see the kind of anti-science conspiracy gibberish they promote, you have to wonder if anything they say is true.
Growing plastic pollution not only poses a threat to wildlife and the environment, but increasingly also to human health due to pervasive microscopic plastic particles that people are ingesting through their diet, according to a research report released Monday.