Toxic chemicals

12/14/2009 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after his California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Linda Adams and Danish Environmental Minister Troels Lund Poulsen signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an agreement between California and Denmark to collaborate on green chemistry and share information and findings to implement California's Green Chemistry program:    » read more »

12/15/2009 -- (New York, N.Y) An updated round of results from air toxics monitoring at two New Jersey schools and one New York school are now available on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Web site. A total of four schools in EPA’s Region 2 were selected as part of the EPA's national Schools Air Toxics Initiative.

The initiative, which is monitoring 63 schools in 22 states, will help EPA and state governments learn if long-term exposure to toxics in the outdoor air poses health concerns for school children and staff. Early sampling at all four schools in EPA Region 2 show that levels of air toxics are below levels of short-term concern.    » read more »

$30 Million in Recovery Act Funding Will Improve Safety

December 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chairman of the Superfund, Toxics and the Environmental Health Subcommittee today applauded progress at the Cornell Dubilier Superfund Site in South Plainfield where $30 million in Recovery Act funding is being invested to clean up contaminated soil and debris.

The Recovery Act, which Lautenberg helped author as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was signed into law by President Obama in February.    » read more »

CDC Study Reveals Urgent Need to Reform Chemical Safety Standards; Senator Preparing Chemical Reform Legislation

December 10, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, today highlighted the release of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.

Lautenberg, a leader in the Senate on improving chemical safety, is preparing legislation that would put the burden on companies to prove that chemicals are safe before they end up in products and eventually in our bodies.    » read more »

Senator Preparing Legislation To Ensure Stronger Chemical Facility Protections

December 3, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today marked the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak disaster by calling for stronger security measures at chemical plants across the country. More than 3,500 died in the immediate aftermath of the gas leak in the Indian city of Bhopal and more than 15,000 people have perished from the aftereffects of the tragedy.    » read more »

Rep. Israel Announces New Legislation to Get Arsenic out of Poultry; The Poison Free Poultry Act of 2009 bans the use of an arsenic-based poultry feed additive called roxarsone

November 23, 2009 -- Hauppauge, NY – On Monday, Rep. Steve Israel announced new legislation to get arsenic out of the U.S. poultry supply. Rep. Israel’s Poison Free Poultry Act (H.R.3624) bans the use of an arsenical called roxarsone, which is commonly added to chicken and poultry feed, from being used as an additive in the U.S. food supply.    » read more »

$2 million NIEHS award to support development of a radio frequency identification (RFID) vapor sensor that can be part of a badge and worn on clothing

17 November 2009 -- NISKAYUNA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced a $2 million award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health to develop wearable RFID sensors to alert people to the presence of environmental chemical agents in the air and sample exhaled breath to serve as an early indicator of disease.    » read more »

Chemical Has Been Shown To Lead To Developmental Problems And Cancers

November 16, 2009 -- On the heels of a new Consumer Reports’ study showing that the toxic chemical bisphenol-A is now in a wider range of products used and consumed by children and in higher concentrations than previously thought, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today unveiled his legislation that bans BPA in food and beverage containers marketed to kids aged three and under.    » read more »

(CHICAGO - Nov. 12, 2009) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has announced that two of Wisconsin’s lead-based paint programs have been federally authorized. They are the Lead-based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting program, and the Pre-Renovation Education program.

Wisconsin is the first state authorized to administer and enforce the Renovation, Repair and Painting rule which mandates training and licensing in lead-safe work practices for construction contractors, property managers and others that work in homes and child-occupied facilities built before 1978. Gov. James E. Doyle has certified that the Wisconsin programs, to be administered by the division of public health, are at least as protective as EPA’s and provide adequate enforcement.    » read more »

November 13, 2009 -- Corpus Christi—The United Steelworkers Union (USW) is asking why elected officials from Corpus Christi did not appear at a community forum Nov. 11 to discuss the dangers of using hydrogen fluoride (HF) in area refineries and its alternatives.

“Their failure to appear at this forum is especially disheartening since a serious refinery accident in July that involved a fire and HF release left one worker fighting for his life,” said Jim Lefton, sub-director of USW District 13. “Residents around the refineries wondered why city and county officials deserted them.”    » read more »

By applying just the right compression to thin films of bismuth ferrite, Berkeley Lab researchers have produced a lead-free alternative to the current crop of piezoelectric materials.

November 13, 2009 -- BERKELEY, CA - There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. A lead-free alternative to the current crop of piezoelectric materials has been identified by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC), Berkeley.    » read more »

Chemical Used in Countless Products Including Baby Bottles, Canned Formula and Canned Food

November 13, 2009 -- On the heels of a new Consumer Reports’ study showing that the toxic chemical bisphenol-A is now in a wider range of products used and consumed by children and in higher concentrations than previously thought, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today unveiled his legislation that bans BPA in food and beverage containers marketed to kids aged three and under.    » read more »

November 09, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens) today applauded the House passage of the Chemical and Water Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2868), which would increase the security and safety of the country’s chemical plants and water facilities. Maloney is a co-sponsor of the legislation, which passed the House late Friday afternoon by a vote of 230 to 193.    » read more »

11/04/2009 -- LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to Texaco Inc. that requires the company to assess soil and groundwater contamination and evaluate additional cleanup options, for the Pacific Coast Pipeline Superfund Site (commonly known as the “Texaco site”) in Fillmore, Calif.

“With this UAO, EPA looks forward to moving the Site cleanup into its final phase, so the property can be returned to productive reuse by the community,” said Keith Takata, Director of the Superfund program in EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “This cooperative effort builds on prior cleanup work and will result in a protective cleanup for the community.”    » read more »

11/03/2009 -- WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding three new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

To date, there have been 1,610 sites listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 340 sites have been deleted resulting in 1,270 sites currently on the NPL (including the three new sites added in today’s rulemaking). There are 63 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 58 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. There are a total of 1,333 final and proposed sites.    » read more »