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EPA Pressed to Require Cancer Warnings on Pesticides
An environmental group urged EPA on Wednesday to require cancer warnings on all pesticides containing ingredients the agency already links to the disease — a mandate that would go far beyond current practice.
In an emergency petition, the Center for Biological Diversity said most active pesticide ingredients EPA has linked to cancer don’t carry a required label disclosing the risk.
The agency “consistently fails to warn the public about known cancer risks associated with pesticides,” the CBD said in the petition.
US Food and Drug Administration Rejects Petition to Set PFAS Limits in Food
The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected a legal petition demanding it set limits on toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in food, marking another setback for public health advocates’ push to limit exposures to the dangerous compounds.
The agency is refusing to set limits despite a growing body of science and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding food is the biggest source of PFAS exposure. Testing has found the levels of PFAS in single servings of some contaminated foods to be equivalent to drinking many glasses of contaminated water.
While regulators have focused on reining in PFAS in water, the chemicals are widely used throughout the food system, and there was hope that the agency under Robert F Kennedy Jr would take the threat more seriously. Kennedy leads the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, of which eliminating toxic chemicals from food is a cornerstone.
More Studies Link Breast Cancer to Pesticide Exposure, Despite U.S. Supreme Court Safety Proclamation
This piece reports on yet additional new studies linking pesticides to breast cancer. Numerous recent reviews make it clear that pesticide exposure per se raises the risk of breast cancer, across a wide swath of pesticide types. One would think that with the body of science linking breast cancer with pesticide exposure, covered extensively by Daily News and the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database, a scientific-based regulatory system would respond with a sense of urgency.
And yet, that is not the case, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes “acceptable” rates of disease for individual chemicals or chemical families, but does not evaluate patterns of disease linked to multiple chemical exposure. And so, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in U.S. women, and women turn to medical intervention with drugs, early surgical intervention, and targeted radiation.
Yet, the disease, principally associated with environmental rather than hereditary factors, and treatment cause severe disruption to the lives of women and their loved ones and are devastating to quality of life, while clinical responses can have adverse side effects.
Microplastic Pollution Can Fuel Rise in Antibiotic Resistance, Studies Find
Plastic pollution is among the gravest environmental crises facing humanity. Plastic production since 1950 has exceeded 8,300 million metric tons, with most plastic waste ending up in the environment, affecting wildlife, ecosystem functionality, and human health.
Simultaneously, the ability of disease-causing bacteria to withstand one or more antibiotics (known as antimicrobial resistance, or AMR) has surged to become a public health emergency now accounting for around 5 million deaths worldwide annually. “AMR is an existential human threat,” says Tim Walsh, a professor at the University of Oxford and director of biology at the U.K.’s Ineos Oxford Institute of Antimicrobial Research, who spoke to Mongabay via video call. “It will kill more people [each year] than TB, HIV and malaria, and if unchallenged could eclipse cancer as the biggest killer.”
Until very recently, these two global crises, plastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance, were considered separately by scientists and policymakers. But a new line of research suggests they’re inextricably linked: Plastic waste is quickly colonized by microorganisms, creating a new type of ecosystem dubbed the “plastisphere.” And bacteria living in the plastisphere are developing greater resistance to antibiotics at an unprecedented rates.
Cancer-Causing Pesticide Nearly 1000x Above Safety Limit in Fresno County Town, State Data Reveals
YourCentralValley.com reported:
Last year was the Central Valley’s least polluted year on record, but according to recently published data, at least one Fresno County town surpassed the safety threshold for a cancer-causing pesticide.
The Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) June 30 pesticide report revealed that Parlier reached 0.35 parts per billion (ppb) of 1,3-Dichloropropene (1,3-D) in 2025.
The chemical is used statewide, but per DPR’s safety guidelines, it should be kept below 0.27 ppb to reduce the risk of cancer, especially pancreatic cancer.
Parlier exceeded that threshold — by 31%. It was a 69% jump compared to the year prior, when the area recorded a much smaller 0.16 ppb.
Wyoming Tightens Wastewater Rules After Meta Datacenter Contractor Flushed Contaminated Water
Officials in Wyoming said a contractor for Mark Zuckerberg’s tech company, Meta, flushed bacteria-contaminated water into public sewers during construction of a controversial new AI datacenter. The incident prompted water authorities in Cheyenne to implement strict safety regulations on how wastewater from such projects is disposed of, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, which first reported the incident.
Meta has ordered its general contractor, Fortis, to cooperate with the Cheyenne board of public utilities (BOPU) to ensure there is no repeat, the newspaper said, insisting it wanted to be “a good neighbor”.
The company, however, noted that contamination by the rare but naturally occurring Cupriavidus gilardii bacteria did not affect drinking water supplies, and that its contractor’s own water testing by an independent environmental specialist found no trace of it.
