toxins

In tests of 250 food cans, the Center for Environmental Health found that nearly 40 percent were lined with bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical linked to birth defects and cancer along with other health disorders, says the CEH in a report.

The EPA has proposed delaying, by a year, the implementation of a pesticide-application rule made tougher under the Obama administration, said the agency in a press release.

Air, water and soil quality in China are improving, but unevenly, with certain areas faring worse from pollution, says the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. The state of agricultural land quality in the country ‘does not allow for optimism’ and ‘the problem of soil pollution for industry, companies and nearby land is prominent,’” said Chen Jining, head of the MEP,

In testing an array of foods and beverages for the weedkiller glyponsate, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found excessive residue levels in 3.9 percent of the grain products sampled, says The Western Producer. The agency ran tests on 3,188 food samples, and while it detected traces of glyphosate in nearly 30 percent of them, only 1.3 percent of the samples overall exceeded the government limits.

After three Hawaiian counties lost efforts to regulate GMOs and require pesticide disclosure on the local level, Democratic state Rep. Richard Creagan is proposing a change to a state bill that would require agribusinesses to reveal what kinds of pesticides they are using, where they are using them, and in what quantities.

Hawaiian lawmakers killed a bill that would have required agribusiness companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to notify nearby residents before spraying pesticides, says Civil Beat. “Reporting provisions requiring notifications for each application would be very onerous and difficult to carry out,” testified Warren Mayberry, DuPont Pioneer’s senior manager of government affairs.

The Mariana trench in the northern Pacific is one of the most remote places on earth, but scientists say that the organisms that live there are heavily contaminated with industrial pollutants.

The largest peach grower in Missouri — Bader Farms — claims Monsanto is responsible for the illegal use of herbicide that damaged its trees over the past two years, said the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The lawsuit says 37,000 trees were harmed because of herbicide drift from a field where farmers used unauthorized versions of dicamba on crops, which were genetically engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the weedkiller.

In a victory for Monsanto, Syngenta and other seed companies farming in Hawaii, a federal appeals court ruled that counties can’t regulate pesticide use or GMO crops, says Civil Beat. “The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Friday that Hawaii state pesticide law is comprehensive, and that the Legislature intended it to be 'uniform and exclusive of additional, local rules.'”

The head of Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, Myron Ebell, is not only a climate-change skeptic. He also has a history of discouraging pesticide regulations, writes Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, pointing to Ebell's role as the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

With Syngenta already under investigation for the alleged misuse of pesticides in Hawaii, the EPA is now looking into Monsanto, Terminix, and Wonder Farm [a Hawaiian agricultural operation] for allegedly ignoring pesticide laws in Hawaii, says Civil Beat.

Oil wastewater used to irrigate food crops in California’s Central Valley was found to contain carcinogens and other toxins in a preliminary report by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of the Pacific, and the nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy.

A report by the United Nations Environment Program says drought and higher temperatures, forecast as part of climate change, can trigger a build-up in crops of chemical compounds that are toxic to animals and humans. Nitrates can accumulate to dangerous levels in grain during drought, while carcinogenic fungal aflatoixins are expected to become an increasing risk in higher latitudes as average temperatures rise.

The level of mercury has dropped 50 percent in ocean fish and the level of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has fallen more than 90 percent in the last 40 years, according to a new review by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

"Just in time for Valentine’s Day, news that may break a chocolate-lover’s heart," says the news site Fair Warning. The California consumer group As You Sow says it will file notices against candy companies for failing to put warnings on their chocolate...

A new analysis from the Environmental Working Group reveals that state and federal testing of lakes and other bodies of water has found toxins from algae blooms in waterways in 48 states. The toxins, which sometimes make their way into drinking water supplies, can cause negative health outcomes ranging from skin rashes to serious illness or death.