Chemicals

"Well-meaning home gardeners who buy plants to attract pollinators might be harming honeybees, according to a study that an environmental group released Wednesday."

"At a beef industry conference in Denver last week, the animal health auditor for meat producer JBS USA presented a video showing short clips of cows struggling to walk and displaying other signs of distress. The animals appeared to step gingerly, as if on hot metal, and showed signs of lameness, according to four people who saw the video."

"Kerri was 4 when she started having trouble walking. Justin was 5 when he got a nosebleed that would not stop. Danielle was 7 when her legs began to ache."

"A 27-year-old U.S. program intended to warn the public of the presence of hazardous chemicals is flawed in many states due to scant oversight and lax reporting by plant owners, a Reuters examination finds."

"The Federal Railroad Administration said it is investigating the safety of transporting crude oil by rail, including whether chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are corroding tank cars."

"The beepocalypse is on the cover of TIME, but it looks like managed honeybees will still pull through. Wild bees—and wild species in general—won't be so lucky in a human-dominated planet."

"In April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised to 535,000 its estimate of the number of American children with potentially dangerous levels of lead in their blood."

"NEW YORK -- All of the notices U.S. regulators received to vouch for the safety of common food additives between 1997 and 2012 were submitted by people who had a vested interest in the outcome of those assessments, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Wednesday."

"The train that derailed in Lawtell [La.] is leaking chemicals and at least one of two cars carrying a hazardous chemical, vinyl chrloride, is damaged."

"Key assumptions about bisphenol A (BPA) exposure and bioavailability may be off base, according to a new report in EHP that questions the traditional interpretation of biomonitoring data underlying current risk assessments of the chemical. Laboratory research suggests that BPA, a widely used chemical for polycarbonate plastics and other products, is an endocrine disruptor with potential adverse health effects involving reproduction, metabolism, and cancer."