Chemicals

"China is attracting American scientific talent, especially in STEM fields, partly due to funding cuts and immigration restrictions under President Donald Trump."

"In line with its plan to continue pesticide approvals despite the government shutdown, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this week that it will register a new weedkiller for use in corn, soybean, wheat, and canola fields."

"Mounting scientific evidence links the pesticide paraquat to Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating and deadly brain disease on the rise in the US. Syngenta, the longtime international maker of the weed-killing chemical, knew of this link decades ago but spent the intervening years questioning and undermining research, internal corporate records obtained by The New Lede show. Now the company is facing thousands of lawsuits brought by people blaming the weed killer for causing Parkinson’s disease."

"Overtourism and heavy maritime traffic across the Mediterranean are contributing to a rise in pollution in Greece's azure waters, say Greek scientists who have deployed thousands of mussels on the seafloor to help detect microplastics."

"Communities around Louisiana, in a bid to get more information about the environmental and health impacts of industrial pollution, are taking data collection into their own hands — despite a law restricting how their research findings can be used to enforce state regulations. "

"With Trump propelling the U.S. LNG industry into a massive expansion, companies are flouting landmark environmental laws."

"Oil companies have polluted groundwater and the environment by injecting oil field waste deep into the earth at pressures high enough to violate Oklahoma law. ... The regulatory agency says it ... has not fined any company for wastewater leaks in the last five years."

"Even though it delivers airtight data and analysis essential for understanding and managing the risks industrial societies pose to water, land, and health, the U.S. Geological Survey is a federal science agency that rarely attracts public notice."

"Sludge and septage are spread across around half a million acres statewide, but most of it has never been tested for PFAS"

"Municipal sewage sludge was used as fertilizer in the project that began decades ago in Palmerton, where PFAS now taint soil and water."