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‘Everywhere Chemicals’ Are in Our Food, Decades After Scientists Recognized Dangers
Earl Gray was astonished by what he found when he cut into the laboratory rats. Some had testicles that were malformed, filled with fluid, missing or in the wrong place. Others had shriveled tubes blocking the flow of sperm, while still more were missing glands that help produce semen.
For months, Gray and his team had been feeding rats corn oil laced with phthalates, a class of chemical widely used to make plastics soft and pliable. Working for the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1980s, Gray was evaluating how toxic substances damage the reproductive system and tested dibutyl phthalate after reading some early papers suggesting it posed a risk to human health.
Sitting on a screened porch on a humid summer day more than 40 years later, Gray recalled the study and the grisly birth defects. “It was in enough animals, so we knew it wasn’t random malformations,” said Gray, 80, who retired after nearly 50 years with the agency.
Gray and other scientists were awakening to the potential dangers of phthalates, which were making their way into nearly every human being on the planet as plastics became a way of life in the 20th century.
Trump Administration Backs Bayer’s Bid to Curb Roundup Lawsuits
President Donald Trump’s administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to take up Bayer’s bid to curtail thousands of lawsuits claiming its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, pushing the group’s shares to their highest in almost two years.
In a brief filed at the court, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer bolstered Bayer’s effort to limit the lawsuits and potentially avert billions of dollars in damages, saying the company was correct that the federal law governing pesticides preempts lawsuits that make claims over the products under state law.
The shares had surged 14.9% to 35 euros at 0812 GMT on Tuesday. “We see the Solicitor General’s recommendation as an important step towards containing glyphosate litigation,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note, adding the Supreme Court was likely to rule next year. The analysts flagged there could be a reduction in provisions for glyphosate litigation, which Bayer has said were $7.6 billion at the end of September.
US Landfills Emit Nearly a Ton of Airborne PFAS a Year, Study Finds
U.S. municipal landfills leak roughly 1,800 pounds of PFAS into the air annually — evidence that the country’s garbage dumps are a persistent source of airborne “forever chemicals,” according to a new nationwide study. Researchers from North Carolina State University and Oregon State University measured levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in gases emitted from 30 municipal landfills of varying ages across the U.S.
Most of the PFAS found were a specific type called fluorotelomer alcohols, which are produced when common PFAS-based water repellent coatings on household items, including stain-resistant carpet and couches or waterproof rain jackets and boots, slowly break down.
While more research is needed to establish the potential health risks from exposure to airborne PFAS from landfills, the study, published this month in Environmental Science & Technology, shows that landfills could be a long-term source of PFAS emissions to the environment and points to the need for more accurate accounting of their fate and transport after disposal, said Courtney Carignan, an epidemiologist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study.
Lowe’s Home Centers to Pay $12.5M Penalty for Lead Paint Violations During Home Renovations
U.S. Department of Justice reported:
The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency today announced a proposed nationwide settlement with Lowe’s Home Centers LLC — a subsidiary of Lowe’s Companies Inc. — to resolve alleged violations of EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule.
The violations stem from renovation work performed by Lowe’s contractors at hundreds of homes across the country, primarily between 2019 and 2021. As part of the settlement, Lowe’s will pay a $12.5 million penalty and improve its compliance program for renovations in homes that may contain lead-based paint.
“Careless handling of lead paint endangers the health of children and other Americans. The stiff penalty Lowe’s will pay reflects the importance of using certified firms and contractors in older home renovations,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“Contractors hired for work that may disturb paint in homes built prior to 1978, when lead-based paint was in widespread use, must be certified. These contractors have the training to recognize and prevent the hazards that can be created when lead paint is disturbed.”
FDNY Members Want Answers After Discovery of Documents About 9/11 Toxins at Ground Zero
Members of the FDNY and union leaders held an emergency rally in Manhattan on Monday afternoon over the discovery of previously undisclosed records about ground zero. They are demanding answers after it was revealed that first responders were exposed to toxins on 9/11 that the city knew about but never shared.
Officials say 68 previously undisclosed boxes containing information on the 9/11 toxins were found after legislation was ordered demanding a probe into what and when the city knew about toxins at ground zero. Union officials say the information in those documents contained critical “life-and-death” data. Officials say the documents prove city leaders at the time of the attack were aware there was asbestos in the air, but intentionally hid the information.
“They had real testing done and when that testing was done it was suppressed and everyone was told the air was safe, people would have made different choices,” an official said. Since the 9/11 attacks, 400 members of the FDNY have died from illnesses linked to ground zero toxins.
Air Pollution Linked to Over 180,000 Deaths in the EU. Which Country Was Hit the Hardest?
Air pollution remains one Europe’s deadliest environmental threats despite recent progress. Air pollution has been linked to thousands of preventable deaths in the European Union, despite a “significant” improvement in air quality.
A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) found that between 2005 and 2023, premature deaths attributable to fine particulate matter fell by 57%.
Despite this, unsafe levels of air pollution resulted in a staggering 182,000 deaths in 2023.
Still, 95% of urban Europeans are exposed to air pollution levels “considerably” above recommendations set out by the World Health Organization. Air pollution continues to be the top environmental risk to Europeans, according to the EEA, above other factors such as exposure to noise and chemicals or the risk of climate-related heatwaves.
