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HHS and EPA Announce New Scientific Partnership to Strengthen Glyphosate Review
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a new interagency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen scientific coordination and expand the evidence available to EPA’s ongoing registration review of glyphosate under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Under the MOU, the agencies will exchange scientific information, identify research gaps, and expand research into potential human health effects. EPA retains sole authority for registration decisions under FIFRA, and the MOU creates no new authority for either agency.
“Americans have a right to know what the best science tells us about the chemicals they encounter in their food, workplaces, and environment,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We are bringing the scientific resources of HHS to the table to answer unresolved questions, strengthen the evidence, and give EPA the data it needs to conduct a rigorous review.
We will ask the hard questions, demand sound science, and follow the evidence wherever it leads. This partnership advances President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda by putting the health of the American people first.”
Chemicals Linked to Breast Cancer Are ‘Ubiquitous,’ Study Shows
The more scientists look for chemicals that can increase breast cancer risk, the more they find. Hundreds of potential breast carcinogens lurk in consumer goods, food, drinking water, pesticides, drugs and building materials, scientists reported in a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Exposure to these chemicals is ubiquitous, the authors warn, yet biomonitoring efforts are failing to measure people’s exposures to most chemicals or assess risks from compound exposures.
Chemicals found in and derived from fossil fuels accounted for some of the largest production volumes and environmental releases of potential breast carcinogens, said lead author Jennifer Kay, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute, which works to reduce toxic threats to women’s health. She called widespread use of petrochemicals, particularly to make plastic, “a huge problem.”
AG Paxton Secures Settlement with Sprouts Over Produce Pesticide Misting
Texas Border Business reported:
Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a settlement with Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. (“Sprouts”) that ensures none of its produce will be misted with the synthetic antimicrobial pesticide, ProduceMaxx. This agreement will be effective in all Sprouts locations nationwide.
This settlement follows an investigation into grocery stores across Texas, which was announced by Attorney General Paxton in January 2026. The investigation was launched following concerns that synthetic pesticides such as ProduceMaxx were being misted on organic produce. ProduceMaxx is an EPA-registered antimicrobial pesticide containing hypochlorous acid, a chlorine-based compound.
Thousands of grocery stores across the United States have engaged in off-label use of ProduceMaxx in produce misting systems to allegedly control bacteria and extend shelf life. ProduceMaxx was additionally being used to treat organic produce by other means such as washing and “crisping,” unbeknownst to consumers.
Now, under the settlement, Sprouts has agreed to stop spraying ProduceMaxx on all produce, including conventional non-organic produce, nationwide. Additionally, Sprouts will cease use — misting or otherwise — of ProduceMaxx or any other synthetic antimicrobial pesticide on all organic produce nationwide. The agreement will take effect within 90 days.
Why You Should Never Drink That Plastic Water Bottle Left in Your Car
Worried about your exposure to microplastics? Then you’d better think twice before drinking that water that’s been sitting in your car for days. Microplastic research has gone into overdrive in recent years as more people recognize how much they ingest and its potential health risks.
Studies show it could cause everything from liver damage to inflammation and oxidative stress. And none of that is good. The problem is that avoiding microplastics feels like a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as we find and eliminate one source from our routine, another pops up. However, there’s a new source that seems fairly easy to avoid: that old, hot plastic water bottle sitting in your cup holder for who knows how long.
In 2023, researchers examined how different temperatures and UV exposure affect four common plastics, the same types used in packaging and bottles that could easily be left in a hot car. They discovered that although each type of plastic degraded slightly differently, all of them released tiny microplastic fragments, and not just a few. During testing, the plastics released billions of microscopic particles into the water. In contrast, the bottles kept in a refrigerated environment as the control group released almost none.
Wildfire Smoke Linked to Greater Health Risks Than Other Pollution
American Medical Journal reported:
WILDFIRE smoke is linked to greater cardiopulmonary and cancer mortality harms than other fine particulate pollution. Two large U.S. studies indicate that the source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) may influence its health effects, with wildfire related PM2.5 showing greater toxicity per unit of exposure than pollution from other sources. The findings raise clinically relevant concerns as wildfire smoke reaches communities well beyond traditionally fire prone regions.
The first study examined long term exposure and survival among 414,016 adults aged 65 years and older with lung cancer. Researchers combined residential information from the SEER Medicare database with estimates of wildfire related and nonwildfire PM2.5 exposure.
Both exposure types were associated with increased mortality following lung cancer diagnosis. However, equivalent increases in wildfire related PM2.5 were associated with substantially greater toxicity. Although wildfire smoke accounted for approximately 4% of total PM2.5, it contributed an estimated 17% of mortality associated with total PM2.5 exposure.
Hundreds of deaths annually were estimated to be attributable to wildfire related PM2.5. More smoky days and longer periods of exposure were also associated with poorer survival, suggesting that environmental exposure could warrant consideration in cancer care and survivorship planning.
The Pesticide Papers: Guam Residents Feared the Military Was Poisoning Them. New Records Reveal Decades of Toxic Contamination
On a typically humid day on Guam in September 2025, Leevin Camacho received a phone call that made his stomach churn. Life on the tropical island — an unincorporated territory of the United States that plays a key role in the Pentagon’s military strategy against China — was slow paced, particularly in the semirural village of Yigo where much of Camacho’s extended family lived. But that morning, his phone rang with unusual news.
“I got a call from my mom,” said Camacho, 48. Some family members had received letters from the local water authority. “My mom was in a panic, telling me that my kids shouldn’t brush their teeth with the tap water because it contained a pesticide.”
In the letter, authorities said they had detected unsafe levels of a pesticide known as dieldrin in a well, connected to the fresh water aquifer below the village, which potentially represents “an unacceptable long-term cancer risk” to residents. It was the first time many people in the village had heard of dieldrin. The pesticide had been banned in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1987 because of concerns about its toxicity to humans and animals.
