On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed into law a significant overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, the nation’s primary chemical safety law. It was the first update to the law, which was widely considered to be the least effective environmental law on the books, in 40 years.
An estimated half to three-fourths of lower-income young children in California don’t get the lead poisoning tests required by state and federal law. In response, state lawmakers are taking steps to strengthen the state’s childhood lead poisoning prevention efforts.
An outbreak of poisonous algae has forced officials in Salem, Ore., to warn citizens that infants, children and vulnerable adults should not drink the city’s tap water.
In his continuing crusade to prop up dying industries, President Trump wants to make Americans pay for expensive electricity from dirty, dangerous coal and nuclear power plants – even if cheaper, cleaner and safer sources are available.
After intense lobbying by the chemical industry, last week the Environmental Protection Agency signaled plans to delay or scrap proposed bans on some uses of the drinking water contaminant made notorious by the book and film “A Civil Action.”
Mixtures of chemicals commonly found in consumer products are more likely to increase breast cancer risk than the same chemicals individually, according to a new analysis. But safety tests by government regulators don’t routinely evaluate the combined effects of multiple chemical exposures.
The rate of premature births to California mothers living near coal and oil power plants dropped significantly after the plants were shut down, researchers from the University of California and Johns Hopkins University reported in a recent study.
Today is the first day of an Environmental Protection Agency summit on perfluorinated substances, or PFAS. The group of chemicals is linked to a host of health issues, including cancer, thyroid disease, weakened immunity and other health issues.
Children are exposed to brominated and organophosphate flame retardants from nap mats at child care centers, but switching to mats without the chemicals reduces kids’ exposures, according to a new study from scientists at Indiana University and Toxic-Free Future, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle.
More than 60 nations have banned all uses of asbestos. Shockingly, the U.S. isn’t one of them. The nation’s new toxics law gives the Environmental Protection Agency the power to completely ban the notorious killer, but the chemical industry is pushing for continued exemptions for some uses.
California lawmakers are moving toward ensuring that lead-free drinking water is required in all child care centers, catching up with Oregon, Washington and four other states.
The Trump administration is not only trying to revive the dying coal industry, but is working to slow the rapid growth of solar power. But at the state and local levels, governments and citizens continue to invest in a future where all Americans share the economic and environmental benefits of solar power.
