Toxics | Grist

Buzz Off

A guide to non-toxic pest control 6
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Summer brings many delights -- and a few not-so-delightful companions too. You've checked out Umbra's video advice on dealing with cockroaches, but how can you coexist with mosquitoes, ants, and other so-called pests? Here are a few eco-remedies for keeping the little wanderers at bay.
Ask Umbra’s video advice on sunscreen 2
Posted 5 months ago
A Can of Worms

California is new front line of BPA fight 1
Posted 5 months ago
California is at the forefront of the fight to protect young children from exposure to BPA. A bill authored by Democratic state Sen. Fran Pavley would essentially ban BPA in products such as baby bottles, sippy cups, infant formula and baby food jars designed for children ages three and younger.
EPA chief on mountaintop mining, climate, and more 0
Posted 5 months ago
Action Jackson

EPA chief Lisa Jackson on mountaintop removal, climate legislation, toxics, and more 3
Posted 5 months ago
The EPA can't stop mountaintop-removal mining under current law, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tells Grist. In an exclusive interview, she also talks about climate legislation, toxics, environmental justice, and what it's like to be part of Obama's "green Cabinet." Watch the video and read the highlights.
Murder by breath

Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of my friend John Soley 0
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
After a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many of his neighbors were poisoned by pollution, and that the perpetrators should be held to account.
Sparkling Wit

Ask Umbra on rinse aids 7
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Your dishwasher requires a rinse aid -- but what the heck is in that thing, and is there an eco-alternative? Umbra offers a cascade of advice.
Do dirty coal plants make us more vulnerable to swine flu? 3
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Scientists have discovered that exposure to a common pollutant may make people more likely to experience severe symptoms from swine flu -- and it's a pollutant emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities.
KBR, Halliburton sued over war-zone’s toxic burn pits 2
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Confronted with the need to dispose of enormous quantities of war-related trash, private contractors working for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan came up with a simple solution: They burned the trash in big, open pits. Now soldiers, contractors, and civilians have filed a series of class-action lawsuits against the companies behind the burning, saying the smoke from the pits contained toxic chemicals that have left them with severe respiratory problems, chronic infections, and even cancer.
Toxic injections

Industry defends federal loophole for drilling before packed Congressional hearing 5
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
In a packed and sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight.
Also, Can We Come Over?

Have a happy (and green) Memorial Day weekend 2
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Whether you're grilling, gardening, or sinking your teeth into a big, juicy watermelon, we've got some choice advice.
We Are the Chompions

Ask Umbra on mowing with goats 8
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
With Google making the switch to goats, a reader wonders if animals really are the best lawn-mowing alternative.
Potty Humor

Which natural toilet-bowl cleaner wins with a flush? 10
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Are eco-brand toilet-bowl cleaners really worth a shit?
Obama nominates Superfund polluter lawyer to run DOJ environment division 1
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
President Barack Obama has nominated a lawyer for the nation’s largest toxic polluters to run the enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws. Obama “announced his intent to nominate” Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice. Moreno, general counsel for that department during the Clinton administration, is now the corporate environmental counsel for General Electric.
DUMPING IN DIXIE

Toxic waste from New York river cleanup headed to Texas 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Work got underway this week to clean up hazardous PCB pollution that General Electric dumped into New York's Upper Hudson River. But the toxic waste is being sent to a landfill that sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, a key drinking-water source for West Texas.
Littler kids, bigger risks

New report details pesticide over-use in child care centers 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
You make your home as green as you can -- but what happens when Jr. heads off to daycare? Fawn Pattison explains the risks, and what you can do.
Hot potato

Pennsylvania rejected TVA coal ash that’s going to poor communities in Alabama and Georgia 2
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Some of the more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash that spilled from an impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee last December is making its way to landfills in poor and black communities in Alabama and Georgia, as we reported last week at Facing South.

It turns out that TVA also looked into sending the waste to Pennsylvania for dumping into abandoned mines -- but that state's Department of Environmental Protection rejected the ash as substandard.
City Sickers?

Ask Umbra on urban foraging 4
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Spring has sprung, and one urban entrepreneur wants to make dandelion wine. But should she pick 'em from her local park? Umbra advises.
Green Grillz

Taking a bite out of the environment 0
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Look, dentists, just because you're green doesn't mean I'm not still terrified by you.
Screw Earth Day

Simplify your cleaning routine 3
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Simplify your cleaning routine by tossing out toxic stuff and sticking to the (very cheap) basics.