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California Farmworkers Say Pesticide Drift Is Harming Families Before Children Are Even Born
In a Sacramento legislative hearing room, farmworkers, family members, and advocates recounted pesticide drift, ongoing illness, and harm they say began for some children before birth. Taken together, their stories pointed to the same conclusion for lawmakers: the state’s pesticide oversight is not protecting the communities closest to agricultural fields.
During a joint oversight hearing convened by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, who leads the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, and Senator Catherine Blakespear, chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, residents and specialists argued that California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation has been too slow to remove hazardous chemicals and shield nearby neighborhoods.
The scale of use remains immense. In 2023, California growers applied more than 49 million pounds of pesticides banned elsewhere, according to Inside Climate News, including over 8.5 million pounds of chloropicrin and more than 7 million pounds of the cancer-causing fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene, which is banned in 40 countries.
Study Raises New Questions About Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy
U.S. News & World Report reported:
A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health is raising questions about fluoride exposure during pregnancy and children’s cognitive development. “This study addresses an important gap by evaluating prenatal water fluoride and child cognition in a large U.S. sample,” said lead author Katrina Simon of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
“Findings from this work offer evidence that can inform ongoing guidance aimed at supporting children’s development,” she added in a news release. Researchers compared test scores from more than 2,500 children between the ages of 3 and 17 with prenatal fluoride exposure estimated from public drinking water levels where their mothers lived.
Fluoride levels near or above 675 micrograms per liter were associated with significantly lower scores on tests of fluid cognition, including problem-solving, memory, attention and adapting to new information. The link appeared stronger in children under age 7.
Court Upholds EPA Rule Forcing Polluters to Pay for ‘Forever Chemical’ Pollution
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule putting polluters on the hook to clean up toxic “forever chemicals” was upheld in court on Tuesday despite an industry challenge. The rule in question formally designates two specific forever chemicals, called PFOA and PFOS, as “hazardous substances.”
That gives the EPA more authority to investigate sites that have been contaminated with these chemicals and hold polluting companies liable for cleanup costs under the nation’s Superfund law. The rule was put forward under the Biden administration and was also backed by the Trump administration.
It faced a court challenge from various industries which argued that the EPA did not adequately consider the costs of its action. The panel of judges, including Obama appointee Patricia Millet and Trump appointees Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao with the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, determined that the EPA’s action was legal.
Judge Set to Vaporize EPA Bid to End California Emissions Standards
Courthouse News Service reported:
A federal judge on Wednesday signaled she’s likely to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to nullify California’s Clean Air Act waivers, which that allows the state to enact stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
Senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell expressed concern over the Justice Department’s position that any agency could effectively enlist Congress to undo longstanding regulations by reclassifying them as final rules and employing an expedited review process under the Congressional Review Act, a plan specifically laid out in the controversial Project 2025.
The exception at issue, known as the California waiver, was enacted in 1970s to address the dangerous levels of smog in Los Angeles and throughout the Golden State. It has since evolved to make the state a “laboratory of innovation” where automakers can test new technology.
Amara’s Law Made Minnesota the Strictest State on PFAS. Now the EPA Is Loosening Its Own Rules.
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reported:
During the Trump administration, five new pesticides containing PFAS were approved. The EPA also changed the federal definition of PFAS from a chemical containing any carbon-fluorine bonds to one containing more than one carbon-fluorine bond.
Carbon-fluorine bonds are some of the strongest in chemistry. That makes products incredibly stable, good for firefighting foam or a protective spray. It’s also what makes them “forever chemicals,” lingering in bodies and waterways for lifetimes. “That’s a good thing when you want to use it for a product,” said Bruce Alexander, division head of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota. “It’s a bad thing if it’s in the environment, in the body, because then it doesn’t go away. It doesn’t break down, and that’s where the forever chemicals name came from.”
PFAS is a family that includes thousands of chemicals. Some of the most commonly discussed are PFOA and PFOS, but there are myriad individual chemicals that don’t erode naturally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found PFAS in the blood of 97% of Americans.
North Carolina Poultry Industry Grows as Manure Oversight Lags, Report Finds
North Carolina’s poultry industry continues to add more birds to already highly concentrated barns, generating millions of tons of manure that is largely unregulated by the state, according to a new report. The report, released Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), mapped chicken and turkey operations across the state, which is the leading producer of chicken meat in the US, supplying roughly 13% of the nation’s total each year.
The report found the state raised more than 421 million chickens and turkeys in 2024 — a 3% increase since 2022, according to federal data analyzed by EWG. The birds are mostly raised in large, tightly packed barns, and the industry produces over 3.6 million tons of manure annually. The state has previously recognized potential problems with the growth of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
In 2007, after years of scrutiny of pollution from hog CAFOs, state lawmakers finalized a moratorium for any new or expanded hog farms that gather manure in lagoons and spray it on fields as fertilizer. But the reported increases in poultry are part of a decades-long trend of industry growth and, unlike hog farms, poultry farms that use dry litter — using wood shavings or rice hulls along with the manure — do not need water quality permits to spread the birds’ manure on fields, said report author Al Rabine, a senior geospatial analyst at EWG.
