Monthly Archives: January 2014

More Bark, Less Bite?

The EPA announced yesterday that it is paring its regional workforce, offering buyout and early retirement packages to hundreds of employees.  EPA officials say that they hope to restructure the workforce, clearing out some higher-paid positions to make way for … Continue reading

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Good and Bad News on Phthalates in the U.S.

This study recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the monthly peer-reviewed journal supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that phthalate exposure in the … Continue reading

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Connecting the dots between BPA and U.S. health care costs

The incidence of chronic disease, use of synthetic chemicals, and evidence that many of them have human health impacts have grown during the past few decades.  So has U.S. health care spending (an eightfold increase since the 1960s).   As Philip … Continue reading

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No More Tears – and probable carcinogens

Johnson & Johnson has just quietly reformulated its baby shampoo as a result of consumer pressure.  It no longer contains formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.  In 2011, J&J promised to remove both chemicals from all of its baby care products by the … Continue reading

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Water Safe to Drink After West Virginia Spill (Just Not for Pregnant Women)

On January 9, 7500 gallons of Crude MCHM, or 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a chemical used to clean coal during processing, leaked from a storage tank at Freedom Industries and contaminated the Elk River and the drinking water supply in nine counties. … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday to Us!

This week marks the first anniversary of the Environmental Health blog.  What began as a class project has blossomed into regular spotlighting and analysis of a panoply of environmental health issues.  Looking back over the almost 100 posts written in … Continue reading

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Pesticide Residue Found on Nearly Half of All Produce Sold in Canada

Canada’s CBC News recently requested data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) under federal Access to Information Act, similar to the U.S.’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). According to the data, almost half of the fruits and vegetables sold … Continue reading

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The California $1.15 billion lead abatement rush

Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg issued his final verdict at the end of business today Left Coast time, ordering Sherwin Williams, National Lead, and ConAgra to pay $1.15 billion to remove lead paint from homes in 11 Californian … Continue reading

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As Winter Descends, EPA Proposes Stricter Standards for Wood Stoves

New Englanders feeding their wood stoves in a struggle against the sub-zero temperatures have something new to read, because EPA has proposed new emission limits on residential wood-burning heaters. While more than twelve million U.S. homes rely on wood stoves … Continue reading

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Silence of the Labs

This headline alone is irresistable.  Unfortunately, the chuckling dies down quickly after the first few scenes of this CBC report on government funding cuts in the sciences and their impacts on human health and the environment. “Ottawa has dismissed more than 2,000 federal scientists and researchers and … Continue reading

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