Environmental Health

"A Louisiana appellate court has upheld air permits for a giant proposed petrochemical complex in a region known as Cancer Alley, enraging local advocates. The decision, issued on Friday, will help clear a path for Formosa Plastics to build the nation’s largest petrochemical complex of its kind. The project has long faced staunch opposition from local and national environmental justice groups."

"Cameroon will be the first country to routinely give children a new malaria vaccine as the shots are rolled out in Africa."

"The nation’s rivers and streams remain stubbornly polluted with nutrients that contaminate drinking water and fuel a gigantic dead zone for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to significantly strengthen limits on fine particle matter, one of the nation’s most widespread deadly air pollutants, even as industry groups warn that the standard could erase manufacturing jobs across the country."

"Much of the U.S. remained gripped by deadly Arctic weather Sunday — with subfreezing conditions reaching as far south as Texas and Florida. But the numbing cold is expected to ease up in the coming days."

"With no date in sight for when it will be safe to drink tap water again on the island of St. Croix, officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands announced Wednesday night that they would distribute water filters and provide free lead and copper testing as they work on long-term solutions."

"Mosquito-borne disease once largely limited to Dhaka spreads countrywide as higher rainfall and heat lead to fivefold rise in cases in a year, with children the hardest hit".

"A Floodlight investigation found Alabama Power runs a news service and its foundation bought a Black newspaper. Neither reports on high electric bills or utility-related pollution".

"The country’s banana industry is heavily reliant on chemical pesticides that threaten the environment and public health".

"The Supreme Court appears to be seeking a way to diminish the Chevron doctrine — without completely overruling the 40-year-old legal theory that helps federal agencies defend their rules on public health, food safety and climate change."