"A newly appointed member to a top U.S. EPA advisory panel suggested in 2012 that children need exposure to contaminated air to help their lungs ward off pollutants, according to a profile by a leading scientific organization."
"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will travel next week to address the American Chemistry Council’s board meeting at a high-end resort on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, his spokesman confirmed Thursday."
"A weed killer called dicamba has damaged more than 3.6 million acres of soybean crops, or about 4 percent of all soybeans planted in the United States this year, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday in calling for an urgent federal response."
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist nominee, Sam Clovis, who now serves as the agency’s senior White House adviser, confirmed in an Oct. 17 letter obtained by The Washington Post that he has no academic credentials in either science or agriculture."
"Retired U Prof. Deborah Swackhamer says Trump administration is downgrading science."
"Water drawn from wells at a hazardous waste site in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico meets federal drinking water standards and is fit for consumption, the US Environmental Protection Agency said in a news release on Tuesday."
"Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday pressed U.S. EPA's inspector general and administrator in separate letters for more information about the former American Chemistry Council executive now playing a key role at the agency."
"Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, stripped a half-dozen scientists and academics of advisory positions Tuesday and issued new rules barring anyone who receives E.P.A. grant money from serving on panels that counsel the agency on scientific decisions."
"The White House said on Tuesday there are no plans to withdraw the nomination of Sam Clovis for a Department of Agriculture position, despite Clovis becoming a central figure in the Russia investigation."
Pesticides are a big environmental story. And under Trump, they are much in the news. But pesticide regulation, and its political, environmental and public health fallout, is an older and more complex tale. The Backgrounder explains how the rules work (and don't), and provides leads and resources for your reporting.
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