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Monsanto Defeats Roundup Warning Claim After Supreme Court Win
Monsanto Co. and Bayer Corp. convinced a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse a ruling holding them liable for failing to warn a consumer about cancer risks associated with glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide.
Earlier this year the US Supreme Court threw out a $1.25 million jury verdict in a separate case brought by a man who blamed Roundup for his cancer. In a 7-2 decision the court said that consumers can’t sue the companies under state laws because federal regulators determined cautionary statements weren’t necessary.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempted failure-to-warn claims because the law prohibited states from …
Industry Knew for Decades That Microplastics Could Infiltrate Human Bodies
The chemical industry has known for decades that ingested microplastic particles can reach vital organs, an investigation has found.
While scientists are just starting to understand how microplastics accumulate in the human body and what harm they may inflict, documents reveal that industry scientists have long been aware of the risks, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
At a scientific meeting in 1974, a German scientist named Gerhard Volkheimer presented research showing that ingested bits of PVC plastic could enter the bloodstream.
In experiments, he had fed bits of PVC to dogs, pigs, and other animals, finding that within two hours, the particles had infiltrated the liver, brain, lungs, and other tissues. Volkheimer had also found that when humans were fed potato starch, which behaves similarly to PVC in the way it travels through the body, it later showed up in blood and breast milk.
Map Shows Texas Data Center Boom as Pollution Warning Issued
Texas’ rapidly expanding data-center industry could threaten decades of progress in reducing air pollution, according to new research examining the enormous amounts of electricity the state’s AI boom may need.
A recent assessment published by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) modeled how different ways of meeting future data-center electricity demand could affect emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon dioxide through 2031. The researchers found that the impact depends heavily on how the additional electricity is generated. Newsweek has contacted HARC for comment.
The warning comes as data centers spread across Texas, with state records showing projects in Abilene, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, San Antonio, Austin and parts of West Texas. The Texas comptroller maintains registers of qualifying data centers and qualifying large data-center projects, including facilities associated with companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle.
A New Bill Could Make Some Chewing Gums Illegal to Sell in New Jersey
New Jersey’s bubblegum scene may soon look a little different. On Sept. 14, Assemblywoman Shama Haider and Assemblywoman Margie Donlon introduced the Protecting Against Microplastics Act. If passed, the bill would require warning labels on chewing gum and other products containing “intentionally added microplastics” and then ban the sale of many of them across the Garden State entirely.
The bill defines chewing gum as an “insoluble plastic substance” meant to be chewed but not swallowed (don’t worry if you do; it won’t stay in your system for seven years, we promise).
The bill lumps gum in with tea bags, coffee grounds, talcum powder, and pet food as “potentially ingestible” products, though gum is certainly a highlight. As Haider explained to CBS, she felt compelled to act because mounting scientific evidence suggests microplastics likely harm our health.
