Environmental Health

"Turn on the faucet. Fill a glass with water. Drink it. Acts so commonplace you perform them without thinking twice. Flora Barraza cannot. Neither can José Garcia, nor the cooks at Los Pasteles Bakery No. 2, nor the elderly at the Epoca de Oro Adult Day Care. Along the Texas-Mexico border, nearly 90,000 people are believed to still live without running water. An untold number more — likely tens of thousands, but no one is sure — often have running water of such poor quality that they cannot know what poisons or diseases it might carry."

New Mexico's Democratic Senator Tom Udall, who has a reputation as an environmental champion, has surprised environmentalists by his alliance with the chemical industry on toxics reform.

A few dairy farmers are slipping throught the Food and Drug Administration's enforcement net prohibiting unnecessary use of antibiotics in dairy cows.

"Cleaner air has for the first time been linked to bigger and stronger lungs among school-age children, according to findings released Wednesday from a two-decade study in Southern California."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is overhauling its voluntary labeling system for designating that household cleaners and contain environmentally safe ingredients."

"McDonald’s said on Wednesday that it would begin using chickens that are not raised with antibiotics used to treat humans, a move likely to put pressure on competitors of the fast-food chain, which now sells more chicken than beef."

Prompted by a new California rule, manufacturers of polyurethane foam furniture are removing potentially toxic flame retardants from their new products. But the sale of old furniture in second-hand stores may put poor people at greater risk.

"The EPA has been unable to collect the data it needs from the multibillion dollar oil and gas sector, which has stymied a five-year federal study."

"In March 1957, as Elvis was buying Graceland and the Soviets were preparing to shock the world with Sputnik, Robert F. Wagner, the famously cautious mayor of New York, was having trouble taking a stand."

"NEW YORK – Cleaning up widespread corruption in the water supply industry is crucial to avert looming water conflicts born of desperation, warns a new United Nations report based on case studies in 10 countries.

“In many places … corruption is resulting in the hemorrhaging of precious financial resources,” siphoning an estimated 30 percent of funds earmarked for water and sanitation-related improvements, the report states.