Category: Chemicals Pesticides Fertilizers

Consumers need to know what chemicals are being released into their environment, but industry wants to keep it secret, calling them proprietary trade secrets.

Study: Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year

Washington Post: Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds. A first-of-its-kind study shows that lung-irritating particles from fertilizer, feed lots and manure cause thousands of premature deaths — even more than coal power plants. But using more sustainable farming practices and eating less meat could save lives.

“The odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing,” she told a congressional committee in November 2019. Herring, who died last week, said she and other residents developed headaches, breathing problems and heart conditions from the fumes.

Now, a first-of-its-kind study shows that air pollution from Duplin County farms is linked to roughly 98 premature deaths per year, 89 of which are linked to emissions directly caused by hogs. Those losses are among more than 17,000 annual deaths attributable to pollution from farms across the United States, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DeSmogBlog, May 1, 2021

Articles include: Fossil Fuel Companies Are Promoting ‘Lower Carbon,’ ‘Responsibly Sourced’ Oil and Gas; Louisiana Oil Fields and Orphaned Wells; UK’s Leading Climate Science Denial Group; Urge Banks Not to Fund Chemical Plant in Louisiana;  Climate Disinformation Database: The Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Paraquat Exposure Alert: Paraquat Linked to Parkinson’s Disease—Agricultural Workers Could Be Entitled to Compensation

The National Law Review: Paraquat Exposure Alert: Paraquat Linked to Parkinson’s Disease—Agricultural Workers Could Be Entitled to Compensation.

Agricultural workers who were exposed to the herbicide paraquat and have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease may have a claim for financial compensation.

With lawsuits against paraquat manufacturers already filed in multiple states, attorneys are now investigating paraquat lawsuit cases at no charge.

A paraquat toxic exposure lawsuit may be your only chance to receive the compensation you need to cover the costs of treating Parkinson’s disease.

What You Need to Know About Paraquat and Parkinson’s Disease

Dozens of countries around the world have banned the use of paraquat, a weed killer so toxic that ingesting a single sip can be deadly, according to The New York Times.

In the United States, paraquat use isn’t just legal—it’s on the rise. The total amount of paraquat usage in the U.S. doubled between 2006 and 2016, the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project reported.

WV congressional delegation not on same page on legislation targeting PFAS

Charleston Gazette-Mail: WV congressional delegation not on same page on legislation targeting PFAS.

hey’re in our clothes, our food and our blood. We made them virtually indestructible, but there’s evidence that they can destroy us.

They’re per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial chemicals whose extensive contamination and deleterious health effects have left a toxic legacy in West Virginia.

But West Virginia’s congressional delegation isn’t on the same page when it comes to recently reintroduced federal legislation designed to protect Americans from PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that don’t break down in the human body and the environment and can be found in food, household products and drinking water.

Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., last week announced legislation that would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a national drinking water standard for two of the most extensively found PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

Study: Monsanto Court Shenanigans, DDT, food industry

Right to Know: Some of the articles include:

Above the Fold – Children’s News, April 22, 2021

Articles include: Report: Lead in Pennsylvania water; tougher air pollution limits needed; Report: climate’s impact on children’s health and justice; Report: dogs and human fertility; Study: father’s drinking and children’s health; North Pole pollution; lead pipes in Buffalo, NY; climate change guide for kids; Study: forever chemicals and the immune system; school in Portland, OR, and munitions facility; PCBs in Vermont school; Study: tap water research; Study here and here: toxic nanotech graphene face masks.

There Are Massive Chemical Dumps In The Gulf We Know Almost Nothing About

Huffington Post: There Are Massive Chemical Dumps In The Gulf We Know Almost Nothing About. In the 1970s, the EPA allowed chemical companies to dump toxic waste into the deep sea. Now, oil giants are drilling right on top of it.

Seventy miles off the coast of Louisiana, among a maze of drilling platforms and seafloor pipelines, thousands of 55-gallon drums containing hazardous industrial chemicals litter a vast, dark swath of the ocean floor. They’ve been sitting there for nearly 50 years.

Charles McCreery was a few months into a new job as an oceanographer and water quality expert at the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management when he first learned of the dumping ground. It was 2014, and he was tasked with reviewing oil giant Shell’s exploration plans in an offshore leasing area known as Mississippi Canyon, in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. Deep in the document, he came across the company’s internal policy for steering clear of toxic waste barrels, and what to do should their operations puncture or disturb one.

“The content, and its toxicity, of each individual barrel is not known,” the Shell document reads. “Within the area there are/could be many hundreds of waste barrels. Many of the barrels may have released their contents over time.”

Above the Fold – Week’s Best & Covid

Environmental Health News puts out weekend ‘summary’ emails, in addition to their daily emails.

EHN Week’s Best: April 16, 2021: forever chemicals on paper straws; Piney Point pollution; jails and environmental justice; DDT; PFAS; drought’s impact on farming water;  rechargeable batteries – real cost; Mexico and coal; heavy metals in children’s food; Japan dumping Fukushima’s radioactive water into the ocean.

EHN Covid: April 16, 2021: facemask garbage; underserved communities & J&J vaccine halt; green spaces & housing justice;  loosing women scientists; how to stop a pandemic.

How an election in Greenland could affect China — and the rare-earth minerals in your cellphone

Washington Post: How an election in Greenland could affect China — and the rare-earth minerals in your cellphone.

Sitting on vast, untapped reserves of uranium and rare-earth minerals, Greenland holds the keys to massive wealth.

But many Greenlanders have grave doubts about whether they should allow the world to exploit those resources, given the risk that mining could pose to the Arctic territory’s fragile environment.

The remote, snow-covered island sent a clear message to global mining interests this week when voters handed a rare victory to Inuit Ataqatigiit, a democratic socialist party with a 34-year-old leader and an environmental bent. The party, whose name translates to “Community of the People,” had campaigned on halting what was on track to become a massive mining operation in southern Greenland, led by an Australian company and backed by Chinese investment.

Study: Algal blooms – 2 articles

Environmental Health News: Algal blooms target sea otter hearts. A toxin formed during algal blooms, which are increasingly common due to climate change, leaves sea otters at risk of deadly heart disease. Within the past decade, those working on the frontlines of marine health have treated an unprecedented number of animals poisoned by harmful algal blooms. Jayme Smith, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project’s harmful algal bloom expert, was an undergraduate student at Vanguard University of Southern California working with sea lions at a local marine mammal rehabilitation center when she consistently saw these devastating impacts. “It’s really heartbreaking,” Smith told EHN. “A lot of times it’s the adult female sea lions and they’re in really bad condition, they have seizures, and a lot of times they can’t recover.” The culprit behind these episodes: domoic acid. This biotoxin accumulates in the food web during algal bloom events and causes severe health effects in larger animals, humans included. Now, researchers warn that the potent toxin targets the hearts of sea otters, threatening already sensitive populations, according to a recent study in the Harmful Algae journal.

The Conversation: Water being pumped into Tampa Bay could cause a massive algae bloom, putting fragile manatee and fish habitats at risk. Millions of gallons of water laced with fertilizer ingredients are being pumped into Florida’s Tampa Bay from a leaking reservoir at an abandoned phosphate plant at Piney Point. As the water spreads into the bay, it carries phosphorus and nitrogen – nutrients that under the right conditions can fuel dangerous algae blooms that can suffocate sea grass beds and kill fish, dolphins and manatees. It’s the kind of risk no one wants to see, but officials believed the other options were worse.