Environmental Health

"Shortly after Chicago Public Schools disclosed the district has not tested water fountains for lead contamination, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the nation's third-largest school system will begin checking water in a small number of schools this year. The announcement Wednesday came more than a month after the Tribune requested the results of any water quality tests conducted by or for CPS since 2012."

"President Barack Obama is planning to visit Flint on May 4 to spotlight the city’s lead-contaminated water that has deprived the city’s 100,000 residents of reliable access to drinking and bathing water."

"Cities and states preparing for possible Zika outbreaks this spring and summer are losing millions of federal dollars that local officials say they were counting on, not only for on-the-ground efforts to track and contain the spread of the mosquito-borne virus but also to respond to other emergencies that threaten public health."

"Federal regulators plan to begin working with state and local officials on an assessment of drinking water infrastructure in the wake of the Flint, Mich. crisis."

"The United States is on the verge of a national crisis that could mean the end of clean, cheap water. Hundreds of cities and towns are at risk of sudden and severe shortages, either because available water is not safe to drink or because there simply isn’t enough of it."

"Deborah Graham’s life changed on April 18, 2015, with the arrival of a letter."

"A bipartisan measure to partially fund President Barack Obama's $1.9 billion request to combat the Zika virus will soon get a vote, a senior Senate Republican said on Thursday."

"More than half of the US population lives amid potentially dangerous air pollution, with national efforts to improve air quality at risk of being reversed, a new report has warned."

"The European commission has ordered a ground-breaking moratorium on two endocrine-disrupting weedkillers that have been linked to thyroid cancer, infertility, reproductive problems and foetal malformations."

"Michigan would have the toughest lead-testing rules in the nation and require the replacement of all underground lead service pipes in the state under a sweeping plan that Gov. Rick Snyder and a team of water experts unveiled Friday in the wake of Flint's water crisis."