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Contaminants in Water Linked to Uterine Cancer Risk
Higher levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) — a disinfection byproduct of the drinking water treatment process — were linked to a higher risk of uterine cancer among a cohort of California women.
Among those with addresses linked to a community water supply for 10 or more years, higher levels of total THMs were associated with a higher risk of uterine cancer, specifically endometrioid tumors, reported Rena R. Jones, PhD, MS, of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues.
Looking at individual THMs, the highest hazard ratios for uterine cancer overall and endometrioid tumors were observed with chloroform, they noted in JAMA Network Open.
FDA Bans Orange B, Floats Banning Another Additive
Federal regulators on July 22 finalized a ban on a color additive called Orange B.
The Food and Drug Administration repealed authorization that let companies add Orange B, which was primarily used in casings for hot dogs and sausages, regulators said in a rule set to be published on Thursday.
“We have determined that the authorized use of Orange B has been abandoned, and we have concluded that this color additive regulation is outdated and unnecessary,” FDA officials said. Health officials said in 2025 that they were planning to ban Orange B and another additive, Citrus Red No. 2, prompting many companies to phase out those and other synthetic colors.
Comments from the public received since then did not change the FDA’s conclusion that the industry no longer uses Orange B. The ban on Orange B will take effect in 46 days.
Jury Rules Against Orkin for Spraying Pesticide on New Orleans Organic Farm
The owners of Fat River Farm, an organic garden in the Lower 9th Ward, won their lawsuit against Orkin LLC, after one of its employees sprayed pesticides onto their crops and plants. The court victory was a big win for the community of local farmers, many of them based in the Lower 9th Ward, which has become home to many gardens since its catastrophic flooding in 2005.
In April 2022, the farm’s owners, Marguerite “Margee” Green and James Elliot Robinson, were inside their shotgun home when they heard a sound, like a leaf blower, they said. When they looked outside, they saw a uniformed Orkin employee using a fogger that cast a cloud of chemicals across their organic produce, flowers and chickens.
The couple walked outside and asked the pesticide technician for his paperwork. Turns out, he was supposed to be at a neighbor’s home. Realizing his mistake, the man told them that they would bear no cost for his service: as if the farm was lucky enough to receive a free service, Green recalled.
Louisiana Communities Are Left in the Dark on Toxic Air — and Industry Helped Keep It That Way
Kimbrelle Kyereh lives just a few hundred feet from the massive chemical storage tanks in St. Rose, in southeastern Louisiana. Oily fumes sometimes drift into her home, bringing headaches, nausea and insomnia. On one such night, she grabbed her son at 3 a.m. and fled to an all-night IHOP.
In 2023, after years of coping with the noxious odors, Kyereh began collecting air samples in her yard for a local environmental justice group. But soon after, Louisiana passed an industry-backed law that sharply restricted how that kind of data could be used. So she stopped. “I shut my mouth like they wanted me to,” Kyereh said.
Along the 85-mile corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans — where cancer rates from toxic air pollution are among the nation’s highest — many residents live in the shadows of heavy industry with no idea what they’re breathing.
Turns out, that’s by design.
Fracking Ban in the Delaware River Basin Survives a Republican Challenge (For Now)
A Republican-led effort to end the Delaware River Basin’s ban on fracking fell short on Tuesday after an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act was not brought before a congressional committee, allowing the longstanding restriction to stand for now.
The amendment, authored by U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, would have stripped the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate regulator, of its authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing in the 330 mile-long watershed that stretches from upstate New York to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, a region that supplies drinking water to millions of people.
The measure would also have pre-emptively stopped any fracking bans imposed by two other regulators, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in central Pennsylvania, and the Potomac River Basin Compact in Washington, D.C., and surrounding states. Perry’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The Delaware River Basin Commission said it looked like the rules governing the three commissions would remain unchanged, and that the House of Representatives will now vote on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) without proposed changes to the fracking ban.
In Steel Country, the Fight for Clean Air Faces New Obstacles
As it runs north to Pittsburgh from its headwaters in West Virginia, the roughly 130-mile-long Monongahela River carves a winding path through a steep-walled basin dotted with small towns and forested hillsides. But the prettiness of this place, known to locals as the Mon Valley, belies a long history of pollution and a drawn-out battle for clean air.
In 1875, Andrew Carnegie opened his first steel mill along the river in Braddock, near Pittsburgh, launching more than a century of heavy industry. By 1901, Carnegie’s company had merged with others to become U.S. Steel. The Mon Valley was the epicenter of domestic steel production, and the air was thick with smog.
Between 1970, when the Clean Air Act was passed, and 2020, emissions of key air pollutants nationwide dropped by 78 percent. In the Mon Valley, however, improvement has been more halting. The American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air report ranked Allegheny County, which includes the Mon Valley, among the most polluted places in the nation, with failing grades for unhealthy ozone levels, spikes in exposure to fine particulate pollution, and chronic exposure to those fine particles throughout the year.
Pair of Kentucky Chemical Plants Exempted From EPA Rule Meant to Reduce Harmful Emissions
President Donald Trump has given dozens of chemical facilities this month — including one in Calvert City and one in Louisville — at least two more years to comply with federal regulations meant to monitor and reduce the amount of certain toxins companies can release from their plants.
This comes after the Biden Administration finalized amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) in 2024, filed under what many officials call the HON rule.
Under this rule, many chemical manufacturers are required to implement measures to reduce emissions of chloroprene — which is a likely human carcinogen — and ethylene oxide, which can cause cancer if the chemical is inhaled. Facilities that worked with certain toxins — including ethylene oxide; chloroprene; benzene; 1,3-butadiene; ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride — are also required to conduct fenceline monitoring under this rule. All six of those toxins are either likely or known human carcinogens.
Data Centers Face a New Environmental Concern
Data centers sprouting up across the U.S. are facing an emerging environmental challenge: What happens to the wastewater they generate, and what kind of contaminants are in it? Recently, a data center under construction in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was found to have contaminated the sewer system with a rare bacterium.
The water utility took swift action.
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities fined the project developer, revoked its wastewater permit and announced that it would not accept certain types of wastewater from data centers citywide. The developer of the project — which is backed by Meta — is appealing the $10,000 fine and disputes the utility’s conclusion tracing the bacterium to its project.
But the incident highlights what engineers view as an emerging challenge for the data center industry that is already under scrutiny over its environmental footprint. As new projects crop up nationwide, experts say it’s not clear whether small utilities have the infrastructure and regulations to ensure the wastewater is properly managed.
“It’s almost like overnight, we have a new industry. Normally when it comes to industrial discharges, the information is public and also well documented,” said Jonathan Brant, an engineering professor at the University of Wyoming. With data centers, there is “scant actual hard data out there on what these waters look like or how these waters are going to be managed,” Brant said.
Tiny Bees, Big Impact: Ga. Tech Study Raises Concerns About Pesticide
New Georgia Tech research raised concerns about whether a widely used pesticide could be harming bumblebees, pollinators scientists say are critical to the food supply.
Bumblebees may be only about an inch long. Still, researchers said roughly one-third of the food people grow depends on pollinators like bees, making their health a major agriculture issue.
The study focused on sulfoxaflor, a next-generation pesticide introduced in 2013 that kills sap-feeding pests like aphids in crops, including soybeans and corn. Georgia Tech researchers said sulfoxaflor is known to be toxic to bees, and scientists are still working to understand how low-dose exposure affects reproduction.
Researchers said low-dose exposure to sulfoxaflor disrupted reproduction and altered gene expression in bumblebees. In a study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the team exposed groups of worker bumblebees to low doses of the pesticide and analyzed changes in gene activity, finding ovarian tissue showed the most significant shifts in gene expression.
