Environmental Health

"Coal is looking at a starring role during the Republican national convention, as support for clean coal takes a step toward greater bipartisan support.

The fossil fuel was included in the draft political platform ahead of this week's convention in Cleveland.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who serves as the Republican National Committee's platform chairman, said the final platform would seek to lay out an agenda that reverses the "failed" policies of the Obama administration. Barrasso's state is home to one of the nation's largest coal regions."

"Dozens of boil water advisories have been issued in Alberta First Nations communities, one after E. coli was detected at a daycare, others after mice were found in water tanks."

"Gonorrhea may soon become untreatable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the wily Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria may be developing resistance to the only two antibiotics left that can cure the sexually transmitted disease."

"Senate Democrats are making a last-ditch effort to resuscitate a measure providing funding to combat the Zika virus, but Republicans have already panned their offer — escalating the partisan blame game as Congress prepares to leave for a summer recess without finishing a Zika bill."

"Researchers have found bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort in a sample from a second patient in the United States, according to a study published Monday. The patient had surgery at a New York hospital last year, researchers said."

"A new Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources draft report wrongly concludes that sand mining operations don't produce fine dust particles and shouldn't impact human health, an environmental advocacy group contends."

"A vocal and growing number of residents in northeast Fresno are convinced water from the city’s Surface Water Treatment Facility is primarily responsible for corrosion in their pipes, causing discolored water – and in several dozen instances, lead contamination – to flow from their household faucets."

"Federal government scientists on Friday released the final update of their study of Crude MCHM, without answering several important questions about the potential health effects of the January 2014 chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of residents in Charleston and surrounding communities of the Kanawha Valley."

"Outside Susan Holmes' house in southeastern Oklahoma, visitors are welcomed by an entryway lined with oxygen bottles and a machine that collects and concentrates oxygen from the air."

"As many as 50 pregnant women in Puerto Rico are becoming infected with Zika every day, top U.S. health officials said Wednesday as they urged the U.S. territory to strongly consider aerial spraying to prevent further spread of the mosquito-borne virus."