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Exposure to Some PFAS Could Increase Risk of Multiple Miscarriages — Study
Exposure to some toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” may increase the risk of having multiple miscarriages, new peer-reviewed research has found.
The study, which tracked about 200 women in China, found those who had at least two miscarriages, or unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortions, showed higher levels of several types of PFAS in their blood. The study adds to a long list of reproductive harms associated with Pfas exposure.
“Prior studies have identified that PFAS were associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, but the potential influence of Pfas’s exposure on [recurrent miscarriages] remained uncertain,” the study’s authors, with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote. “Our investigation identified significant associations between [some PFAS] and increased risks of unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortions.”
US Oil and Gas Air Pollution Is Causing Unequal Health Impacts: Study
Air pollutants from U.S. oil and gas operations are causing 91,000 premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of health issues each year — with racial and ethnic minority populations bearing the biggest burden, a new study has found.
The outdoor contaminants, which include fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), nitrogen dioxide and ozone, take the biggest toll on Black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic groups, according to the study, published Friday in Science Advances.
While the U.S. has one of the world’s largest oil and gas industries, the associated air pollutants and health impacts have thus far been poorly characterized, the study authors noted. As such, they sought to quantify severe outcomes like asthma, preterm birth and early death — as well as where these effects take place.
Great Lakes Microplastics Research Could Inform National and Global Policy
As experts gathered in Geneva this month to negotiate an enforceable global plastic pollution treaty, scientists studying the Great Lakes continued their research that could pinpoint how microplastics impact human health and ultimately inform decisions made across the world.
The effects of microplastics in wildlife have been documented for over a decade. These effects include declines in fertility in aquatic wildlife; negative behavioral changes; decline in reproduction and metabolic disorders. However, because microplastics come from so many different sources — such as the air, drinking water and foods — that data can’t be used to determine exact impacts on humans. Other scientists have found microplastics in human brains, placentas and other organs.
Microplastics and other contaminants threaten the ecology of the Great Lakes, which contain almost 90% of the freshwater in the U.S. Experts are warning their colleagues and those who rely on the Great Lakes about the documented and potential effects of these materials on the environment and human health. The Great Lakes basin, which spans the U.S. and Canada, provides millions of people with freshwater for drinking, agriculture and industry.
Colorado’s Alpine Wetlands Are Quietly Contaminating Drinking Water With Toxic Mercury
Environmental Health News reported:
Mercury pollution drifting from Asia and sulfate runoff driven by climate change are triggering the formation of a dangerous neurotoxin in Colorado’s mountain wetlands, potentially threatening water supplies for millions.
Subalpine wetlands in Colorado are producing methylmercury, a toxic form of mercury that bioaccumulates and can harm both wildlife and humans, especially those consuming fish.
This process occurs when inorganic mercury, sulfate, and organic carbon meet in low-oxygen wetland soils, conditions now increasingly common due to global mercury emissions and warming-driven runoff.
Researchers found higher concentrations of methylmercury at wetland outlets than inlets, indicating that these mountain systems are acting as a source of the contaminant to downstream drinking water supplies.
A Toxic Landfill Was on the Brink of Expanding. Residents Fought Back and Won
Where the Calumet River meets the shores of Lake Michigan sits 43 acres of lakefront property, a seemingly perfect location for Southeast Side residents to enjoy. But for nearly 40 years, this has been the site of a toxic waste dump, storing over 1.2 million cubic yards of pollution-laced sediment dredged from local waterways.
The location was meant to become a public park once the landfill was full. As it hit capacity, its operator, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, instead announced plans to vertically expand the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility to extend its life another 20 years.
That kicked off a new front in the decades-long battle by residents to move the landfill into its park era — and this year, with help from advocates and state officials, they halted the expansion. Now, they’re eagerly awaiting news on when the Army Corps will cap the site, a key step before park development can begin.
Residents Near This Alabama Plant Are Fighting for Their Right to Know What’s in the Air They Breathe
A new report by an environmental group says that residents in Alabama and other states could be endangered by Trump Administration changes to hazardous air pollution regulations for the steel industry.
The non-profit Environmental Integrity Project released a report called “The Steel Industry’s Hazardous Air Pollution,” which says the Trump Administration’s proposed delay or elimination of 2024 Environmental Protection Agency hazardous air pollution control rules for the steel industry will threaten public health.
One monitor at Drummond Co.’s ABC Coke in Tarrant registered six-month average levels of benzene at the facility perimeter in 2022-2023 that were more than four times the chronic, long-term, health threshold identified in EIP’s report. The report said ABC Coke in Tarrant was in non-compliance 2 quarters in the last three years, and in the last five years, was subject to four enforcement actions with $529,800 in penalties.
