Chemicals

"The Energy Department on Wednesday proposed reversing a Trump-era rule that was expected to undermine its ability to regulate efficiency of both residential furnaces and commercial water heaters."

"Minnesota pollution control and natural resources officials on Wednesday released a $700 million plan to improve the drinking water for 14 Twin Cities communities whose groundwater was contaminated due to decadeslong chemical disposal by 3M Co."

"Construction on an enormous $9.4 billion plastics plant proposed in St. James Parish must be delayed so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do a more extensive and lengthy review of the facility's impacts on the environment and nearby minority communities, a top Army official said Wednesday."

"The Environmental Protection Agency will ban the use of a pesticide widely applied on food crops but linked to neurological damage in children, reversing one of the Trump administration’s most fraught public health decisions."

"Researchers attribute up to 900,000 premature deaths every year to a dangerous component of air particle pollution found in paints, pesticides, and cleaning supplies."

"Local water systems are asking the EPA—for the first time in the Safe Drinking Water Act’s history—for help obtaining chlorine-based water treatment chemicals amid a nationwide shortage."

"Two American manufacturers unveiled a new recipe on Thursday for PFAS and plastics-free packaging for everything from burgers to salads, in a bid to make takeout food more sustainable and safer for consumers. While the companies—Zume and Solenis—are not the first to design a grease-resistant, PFAS-free food container, this is the first time that manufacturers have open-sourced such packaging technology."

"The groundwater of at least nine military installations near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia is contaminated with high levels of toxic fluorinated “forever chemicals,” according to a report Wednesday by an environmental group that cites Defense Department records."

"A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must update nearly three-decade-old regulations about the chemicals that can be used to disperse offshore oil spills, which some environmental groups contend cause serious health problems."

"FDA is warning the food industry that certain processes for producing plastic used for food containers may result in PFAS leaching into food. "