Chemicals

"More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color."

"Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against Robeson County to stop a landfill from contaminating drinking water with pollutants. 

The Robeson County Landfill is infiltrating the county’s public water system with PFAS, or forever chemicals, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. 

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has allowed the landfill to expand over the years, so it now takes up 537 acres near the town of St. Pauls. 

"In January 2025, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting."

"For days, workers have been trying to rid the Reflecting Pool of algae after a more than $14 million renovation that President Donald Trump said was “done properly” and “could last for 100 years.” But now workers have another problem to contend with: peeling paint."

"A federal judge has rejected efforts to slow the progress of a $7.25 billion class action settlement in the nationwide Roundup cancer litigation, notching a win for Roundup maker Bayer but frustrating a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys who claim the deal is unfair to cancer patients."

"Several major US lobby firms that are working for chemical industry interest groups to fight against strict regulation of harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water are also representing local governments wrestling with health and water quality issues stemming from the contamination, according to a new report."

"State laws banning Pfas in clothing and textiles have significantly reduced the amount of toxic “forever chemicals” used in the products, which public health advocates say marks a major public health win and underscores the value in protective policy."

"Trump’s EPA is planning to weaken restrictions on oil and gas wells that produce very little energy but release vast amounts of methane. Oil billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand, a major Trump donor, is set to reap the benefits. Society as a whole will deal with the environmental costs."

"Breast milk samples from mothers in Seattle contain alarming levels of dangerous hormone-disrupting chemicals, including BPA, BPS, melamine, cyanuric acid, and triclosan, new peer-reviewed research has found."

"Katherine Levy remembers a childhood deeply rooted in the natural offerings of Lake Tahoe – water skiing in the summer and working as ski instructor on the surrounding snow-covered mountains during winter months." "A US government plan to spray multiple types of herbicides – including the cancer-linked glyphosate weed killer – within national forest property that abuts the community’s cherished lake."