Login
Kentucky Law Shields Pesticide Companies With ‘Sufficient Warning Label’ From Lawsuits
Some Kentucky farmers are praising a new state law that critics believe will shield pesticide companies from certain lawsuits. Senate Bill 199, passed by state lawmakers earlier this year, takes effect on July 15.
Focused on pesticide labeling, it states that if the warning information on the bottle is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that company cannot be sued in Kentucky for failing to alert customers of certain health risks, including cancer.
Farmer Matt Gajdzik, who owns and operates Mulberry Orchard in Shelbyville, supports SB 199, stressing the importance of the substances used on their fruit and vegetable crops to repel bugs, weeds or fungus. “When we’re applying a fungicide or an insecticide, we’re trying to protect the fruit and also the tree,” he told WHAS11.
How Local Communities Are Challenging Big Tech Data Centers’ Noise, Pollution and Rising Electricity Bills
As the race to build data centers across the United States accelerates, local governments worry that the tech industry mantra of “move fast and break things” means their communities are at risk of being broken. I’m a Harvard researcher studying the relationship between data centers and energy. I’ve closely monitored how local governments respond to proposals or even just concerns about the potential for data centers in their communities.
What I’ve found is a complex story of community needs, political tensions and corporate power — all interacting with local, state and national democratic processes. Technology companies stay competitive by being ready to provide data and communications services even before customer demand rises. Data centers already power online communications, shopping and banking systems. Now, expanding demand for artificial intelligence has led to over 1,000 pending data center proposals across the country.
Federal actions also drive development. The Trump administration has identified data center build-out as a strategic priority. The administration has promoted data center capacity as a measure of American strength and signaled that federal regulations on data centers may be eased.
What Tires Leave Behind Can Become Toxic Fish Food
With every work commute or grocery store run, a car’s tires wear down, causing tiny fragments of rubber to break away from the tire surface. That microscopic debris can be washed into streams, waterways, and estuaries when it rains. “Driving a car or even riding in a bus is a bit like dragging an eraser across the planet, except the crumbs are microplastics. Toxic microplastics,” said Britta Baechler, director of ocean plastics research at the Ocean Conservancy.
Products like packaging materials and microbeads might come to mind long before tires when thinking of microplastics. But rubber hitting the road is actually a major contributor of marine plastic pollution, with some studies showing tire wear particles account for nearly half of the microplastics in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
And tire fragments have only recently been classified as nano- and microplastic particles in various environmental studies, meaning the presence of these toxic, tiny particles has likely been underreported.
New GMOs Deregulated: A Betrayal of Farmers, Consumers and Science Itself
The right-wing majority in the European Parliament today has voted today to scrap existing safety and transparency rules for new GM foods (NGTs). By doing so they betrayed farmers, consumers and science itself. Today’s vote means that big seed and pesticide companies like Bayer-Monsanto, BASF, Corteva, Syngenta, and their lobby groups including Euroseeds and Croplife EU, can increase their profits and do not have to ensure their products are safe.
It will cause an increased dependency by farmers and breeders on these few corporations (mostly US- or China-owned), which is a threat to food security. Already today, these multinational seed corporations dominate 60% of the commercial seed market, leading to a highly concerning level of dependency. “From the outset, the NGT law proposal from the European Commission had no scientific basis and is built on false promises of sustainability.
The EU is taking a big step back in health and environmental protection by excluding most NGT plants from safety tests and traceability requirements. The rightwing EPP rapporteur Jessica Polfjärd has played a dirty trick on democracy by not actually defending during trilogues the EP’s main demands for labeling and restricting patents as adopted in February 2024.”
Breakdown Product of Pesticides and Refrigerants May Be Classed as Reproductive Toxicant by EU
The European Chemicals Agency (Echa) has formally recommended classifying trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a breakdown product of certain pesticides and refrigerants, as a reproductive toxicant that may impair fertility and harm an unborn child. This decision, announced 10 June and based on the conclusions of Echa’s risk assessment committee (RAC) earlier this month, could have significant implications for the regulation of drugs, pesticides and refrigerants.
The RAC opinion, based on animal studies, will be forwarded to the European Commission. Echa has also backed the RAC conclusion that TFA should be designated as persistent, mobile and toxic. The EU classes TFA as a member of the family of environmentally-persistent chemicals known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The recommended classification change will next be forwarded to the commission for action, and that process will likely take nine to 15 months, according to Hans Peter Arp, a chemist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology whose research classified TFA as a global threat.
DOJ Defends Musk’s xAI in Data-Center Pollution Lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Justice Department moved to block an NAACP lawsuit challenging xAI over allegations that gas turbines powering its Mississippi data center risk polluting nearby communities. The lawsuit filed by the civil-rights group said xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence company, and its subsidiary MZX Tech are violating the Clean Air Act by operating gas turbines without an air permit at the data center in Southaven, Miss.
The DOJ said in its filing this week that the data center “trains and develops new AI models that are critical to the economy and the Department of War.” The department asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi to dismiss the lawsuit.
Air Quality: Rainfall History Matters as Much as Where the Air Came From
University of Michigan College of Engineering reported:
Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club and Plymouth State University, has discovered.
The findings give meteorologists a physical benchmark to improve simulations that predict changes in pollution levels over complex terrains. It also shows how air pollution can be deposited in sensitive mountain environments, with downstream effects for waterways fed from the mountains.
The research team analyzed cloud and rainwater samples collected over 19 summers (1996-2014) at the top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The rare, long-term sample series contained markers of human pollution and rainout — how much it rained before the air mass arrived in New Hampshire.
“Mount Washington is the tallest peak in the northeast and experiences extreme weather. This isolated, remote region provides unique data that helps us study how pollution comes into the area,” said Lauren Richards, an undergraduate student at U-M majoring in climate and meteorology and lead author of the study published in Earth and Space Science.
Abandoned Gas Wells Dot West Virginia, Leaking Toxins
Abandoned oil and natural gas wells are scattered throughout West Virginia and the surrounding region, leaking toxic pollutants into the atmosphere, and the state doesn’t know where all of them are. The sound of gunfire ruptured the cool morning air at the edge of West Virginia’s Kanawha State Forest near Charleston as shooters practiced with their weapons at the gun range.
Ted Boettner, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, and Dave McMahon, the co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights organization, were going to take a look at an abandoned natural gas well.
After about a 10-minute hike, they came upon a rusted-out brine tank used to store salty water that rises from the wells. Another few minutes and McMahon stood beside an abandoned well. The rotten eggs odor of hydrogen sulfide leaking from the well casing was strong.
