Chemicals

"James Osborn has just one question: 'Would you drink it?' 'It' being a mysterious brown sludge -- allegedly fracking fluid -- that Osborn brought in a foam cup to a public hearing in Sidney, Nebraska, in front of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday."

"An environmental activist group has filed a legal petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking new rules that would enhance job protection for government scientists whose research questions the safety of farm chemicals."

"The embattled chairman of the Chemical Safety Board resigned late Thursday after President Obama asked him to step down, a White House official said."

"Glyphosate, 2,4-D, and dicamba found to affect bacteria in ways that could promote resistance to common antibiotics."

"The Environmental Protection Agency has found that a chemical commonly used to remove paint poses a health risk to pregnant women and women of childbearing age."

"One of the world's most popular weed-killers — and the most widely used kind in the U.S. — has been labeled a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer."

"WASHINGTON -- Senators traded some jabs at a hearing on chemical safety legislation Wednesday, but it seems likely that the bill will advance out of the Environment and Public Works Committee."

"MINDEN, La. — Just before midnight on Oct. 15, 2012, Sheriff Gary Sexton of Webster Parish was driving home from the airport when the sky lit up like midday. He flipped on his walkie-talkie to hear everyone asking: What on earth were those big booms?"

"A group of environmental and food safety organizations will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its approval of an insecticide that the groups say will harm threatened and endangered wildlife."

Did the chemical industry's main lobbying group write the bill to update the Toxic Substances Control Act? The top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, California's Barbara Boxer, says computer forensics show a draft of the "bipartisan" bill supported by the American Chemistry Council was written by the ACC itself. ACC denies it. Boxer has a competing bill. The controversy will erupt at a hearing today.