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Headline	Author	Published	Section
No way to bee EPA knuckleheads hide info on pesticide implicated in colony collapse disorder	Tom Philpott	20 Aug 2008	Gristmill
So there's this insecticide called clothianidin that seems likely to be implicated in colony collapse disorder. By the EPA's own reckoning [PDF], clothianidin 'has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honeybees, as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen.' Over in Germany, the introduction of clothianidin coincided with a sudden bee die-off, so German authorities recently banned it. They reckon ...
Topics: animal welfare, litigation, NRDC, shenanigans, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

The Life of Py Common, EPA-OK'd insecticides causing health problems		01 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 3:57 PM on 01 Aug 2008 More than a quarter of all significant pesticide-related health problems reported to the U.S. EPA in 2007 involved a class of insecticides deemed safe by the agency, says a new report from the Center for Public Integrity. Naturally occurring pyrethrins and their synthetic counterpart, pyrethroids, have been touted as safe alternatives to nasty organophosphates. In the past decade, they have inc ...
Topics: green living, health, news, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

EPA-holes When pleasing industry compulsively takes precedence over public interest	Tom Philpott	31 Jul 2008	Gristmill
It's gratifying to see EPA chief Stephen Johnson writhing under pressure to resign in disgrace. The agency is being hounded by lawsuits from states while Johnson faces perjury accusations from Congress. My question: what took so long? Documenting the agency's recent betrayals of the public interest would take a book, not a blog post. Myself, I'm still seething over last year's decision to approve methyl iodide -- a powerfully carcinogenic substance -- for use on stra ...
Topics: Florida, politics, Stephen Johnson, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Possible 'Cide Effects EPA to ban pesticide carbofuran from food in U.S.		25 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 7:12 AM on 25 Jul 2008 In an unexpected move, the U.S. EPA announced Thursday that it will act to ban the pesticide carbofuran from food in the United States before next year's growing season. The EPA said the pesticide can cause "nausea, dizziness, confusion, and -- at very high exposures -- respiratory paralysis and death"; the pesticide has also killed millions of birds and other wildlife. Carbofura ...
Topics: agriculture, news, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

Starfruit punch Declaring an 'emergency,' EPA allows a restricted pesticide in Florida	Tom Philpott	24 Jul 2008	Gristmill
If you love starfruit, you may want to consider giving your habit a rest for a while. A friend emailed me this bit from [PDF] from Wednesday's Federal Register. Declaring an 'emergency,' the EPA has established a 'time-limited tolerance' for residues of fludioxonil, a pesticide, on starfruit. According to the EPA, Florida starfruit is being scourged by a fungus that evidently can only be repelled by fludioxonil. I'm in the process of figuring out exactly how to ...
Topics: food, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Score one for Dow Chemical In the EPA's Midwestern division, a pro-industry stalwart replaces a dioxin stickler	Tom Philpott	21 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Back in May, Mary Gade found herself unceremoniously ousted from her post as Midwest regional administrator of the EPA. According to an excellent Chicago Tribune article by Michael Hawthorne, Gade had been locked in a battle with Dow over the chemical giant's massive, long-standing dioxin mess in low-income areas of Michigan. Hawthorne reports that Gade crossed a line with her bosses in Washington when 'she sent contractors to test soil in [one] neighborhood where D ...
Topics: Michigan, politics, toxics, US EPA, waste (all these topics)

Fumigant and Far Between EPA cracks down on the pesticides on your peppers		11 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 12:35 PM on 11 Jul 2008 The U.S. EPA plans to tighten restrictions on five nasty soil fumigants that keep pests away from strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. The proposed mitigation measures include buffer zones, warning signs, air-quality monitoring, management and outreach plans, emergency-response training, and provision of breathing masks for farmworkers. The rules would apply to five sca ...
Topics: agriculture, food, news, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

To Clean Up or Not to Clean Up ... We're Still on Defense U.S. Defense Department fighting EPA orders to clean up Superfund sites		30 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 8:17 AM on 30 Jun 2008 Defying environmental law, the U.S. Defense Department has resisted repeated orders lately from the U.S. EPA to clean up some of the nation's most contaminated places. The DoD/EPA standoff has turned into a bureaucratic pissing match wherein the EPA has asserted its authority to order and oversee cleanup of ultra-polluted Superfund si ...
Topics: Department of Defense, news, politics, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

The Department of Defense (of itself) DOD slows condemning research into its polluting behavior	Liz Borkowski	17 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Back in April, a Government Accountability Office report explained how the White House Office of Management and Budget was holding up the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System assessments. According to GAO, the OMB started requiring an 'interagency review' process allowing agencies that might be affected by the IRIS assessments to provide comments on the documents. As a result, some of these outside agencies can effectively block completion of IRIS assessments, whi ...
Topics: climate, Department of Defense, health, politics, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Candy-shaped rat poison on its way out EPA gives manufacturers three years to adjust to new regulations designed to protect children	Fawn Pattison	30 May 2008	Gristmill
The U.S. EPA announced today that it would be tightening up the safety requirements on ten nasty rodenticides that are blamed for poisoning around 10,000 children -- mostly black and Latino inner-city kids -- every year. Those ten chemicals will no longer be available in the form of little pellets that look like candy, and that small children are so prone to stick in their mouths. The new rules will require non-agricultural users of rat poison to use it only inside tam ...
Topics: green living, health, parenting, regulation, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Rocket Bottle EPA not super-interested in keeping rocket fuel out of drinking water		06 May 2008	News
Posted at 3:53 PM on 06 May 2008 There is a "distinct possibility" that the U.S. EPA will pass on restricting perchlorate in the nation's water supplies, an agency official said Tuesday. Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that has been found at some 400 places in 35 states, can muck up normal thyroid function. But Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA assistant administrator for water, told the Senate Environm ...
Topics: food, news, politics, toxics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics)

More on Gade ouster Bush supporter apparently fired for doing her job	Kate Sheppard	02 May 2008	Gristmill
An EPA controversy brewing in the Midwest calls to mind the U.S. attorneys scandal, as Brad Johnson noted yesterday. Top officials in the agency have forced Mary Gade, head of the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, to step down from her post or be fired by June 1. The ouster comes after Gade pressured Dow Chemical to clean up the dioxin-saturated soil and sediment extending 50 miles downstream from its Michigan headquarters. Gade is also the former director of the ...
Topics: Muckraker, news, politics, shenanigans, toxics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics)

If the Leaders Lead, the Lead Standards Will Follow U.S. EPA to tighten standard for airborne lead		02 May 2008	News
Posted at 6:24 AM on 02 May 2008 Compelled by court order to review its 30-year-old standards for airborne lead, the U.S. EPA proposed a new, tougher standard this week that would cut allowable lead levels by over 90 percent. True to form, though, the agency proposed a range of standards that exceeded the maximum limit of what its scientific advisers recommended as necessary to protect public heal ...
Topics: air pollution, news, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

Mary, Mary, Too Contrary Bush admin ousts top EPA official over Dow Chemical pollution case		01 May 2008	News
Posted at 8:41 PM on 01 May 2008 The Bush administration forced out the U.S. EPA's top Midwest regulator on Thursday, after months of contention over a pollution case involving Dow Chemical, the Chicago Tribune reports. Mary Gade, who was appointed by President Bush in 2006, had been tussling with Dow over plans to get the company to clean up extensive dioxin pollution that it dumped into Michigan waterw ...
Topics: news, shenanigans, toxics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics)

Shades of U.S. attorney scandal in the EPA Top EPA official forced out by political appointees	Brad Johnson	01 May 2008	Gristmill
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. I've previously described Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson as 'the environment's Alberto Gonzales.' After years of scandal as White House Counsel and Attorney General, Gonzales finally resigned after it was revealed that numerous U.S. attorneys were fired without cause under his watch. Now it seems the EPA is following the Department of Justice's efforts to rid itself of staffers who are not 'loya ...
Topics: jackassery, politics, shenanigans, Stephen Johnson, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Health Bent EPA chemical-review process sucks, says GAO		29 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 1:32 PM on 29 Apr 2008 U.S. EPA reviews of the health risks posed by ubiquitous chemicals are hampered by extensive nonscientist involvement, says a report from the Government Accountability Office. The EPA review process, rejiggered by the White House in 2004, is cloaked in secrecy, causes years of delay, and has lost credibility, the GAO says. The Defense Department, Energy Department, and NASA, all of which have a vested inter ...
Topics: Government Accountability Office, health, news, politics, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

If It's Broke, Fix It EPA announces new lead standards for renovation of older buildings		31 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 3:04 PM on 31 Mar 2008 Contractors will have to train workers to follow "lead-safe work practice standards" when renovating or repairing older dwellings that house children or pregnant women, according to new standards introduced Monday by the U.S. EPA. The new requirements are an attempt to keep lead out of the bloodstreams of babes, as structures built before 1978 are likely to contain ...
Topics: green building, green living, health, news, placemaking, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Twisted Mettle Bush admin appeals ruling on mercury cap-and-trade plan		27 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 7:00 AM on 27 Mar 2008 The Bush administration has appealed a court ruling that struck down the U.S. EPA's controversial mercury cap-and-trade plan. The earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found the EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it enacted the mercury rule in 2005. The cap-and-trade system allowed dirtier power plants to buy the right to pollute from cleaner ones; 17 sta ...
Topics: litigation, news, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

Conflicts of Interest of Interest House committee to investigate EPA panel members' conflicts of interest		18 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 7:22 AM on 18 Mar 2008 A House committee has opened an investigation into possible conflicts of interest concerning members of U.S. EPA expert panels that advise the agency on matters such as banning or restricting the use of certain toxic chemicals. The EPA stirred up controversy last year when it dismissed a toxicologist from a panel that was reviewing the potential health dange ...
Topics: Congress, news, politics, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

The Cost of Doltish Business Company agrees to pay record $250 million in Superfund cleanup costs		12 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 7:26 AM on 12 Mar 2008 W.R. Grace & Co. agreed to pay $250 million to reimburse the U.S. EPA for ongoing cleanup of the asbestos-ridden mining town of Libby, Mont. A mine owned by Grace that operated from 1963 until 1990 contaminated much of the town with asbestos-tainted vermiculite. Over 200 area residents have died from related cancers, and over 1,200 more show signs of lung abnorm ...
Topics: business, litigation, news, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Keep your laws off my germ-resistant hook EPA versus the antimicrobial keychain	Tia Ghose	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
The EPA is deciding whether to class an antimicrobial keychain as a pesticide, according to an article in the New York Times. The product, called the handler, is basically a small, plastic pirate's claw impregnated with nanoscale silver particles. The particles prevent bacteria from getting a foothold on the hook. Have to go to the ATM and come into contact with filthy keys that other flu-ridden people have pawed? No problem, just pull out your hook. No ...
Topics: health, innovation, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Cutting Carbofuran EPA attempt to ban bird-killing pesticide runs into opposition		03 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 4:54 PM on 03 Mar 2008 The U.S. EPA has proposed a ban on a pesticide lethal to birds, but is running into resistance from the company that produces the chemical. The pesticide, carbofuran, is typically used on crops such as corn, alfalfa, and potatoes, and has been linked to the dieoff of 558 separate bird flocks since 1972. A manager with pesticide manufacturer FMC Corp. says carbofuran, "when use ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, Congress, industrial ag, news, politics, toxics, US EPA, wildlife (all these topics)

Like Spite on Rice Scientist with concerns about chemical removed from EPA panel		29 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 5:52 PM on 29 Feb 2008 An award-winning toxicologist was removed from a U.S. EPA panel reviewing the potential health dangers of deca, a flame retardant widely used in electronics, after the American Chemistry Council claimed she was biased. Deborah Rice had testified for the Maine legislature in support of a state ban on deca; EPA officials cited "the perception of a potential conflict of interest&q ...
Topics: Environmental Working Group, news, politics, toxics, US EPA (all these topics)

Living Through Chemistry Toxics report shows slight dip in U.S. releases overall, mercury releases up		22 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 7:56 AM on 22 Feb 2008 The U.S. EPA's 2006 Toxics Release Inventory just came out, showing a slight decline in total toxic chemicals released in the country, as well as a 17 percent increase in releases of mercury. Individual states showed mixed results, with Arizona's total toxic releases shooting up by 52 percent from 2005 to 2006 due almost entirely to pollution from one mine that ...
Topics: news, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

Cap 'n' Crunched Bush's controversial mercury rule for power plants struck down by federal court		08 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 9:57 AM on 08 Feb 2008 Bad news for the Bush administration: A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a U.S. EPA rule that would have let coal-fired power plants trade the right to emit mercury, a neurotoxin that contaminates waterways, accumulates in fish, and has been linked to nerve and brain damage, particularly in children. Environmentalists and public health advocates, among oth ...
Topics: litigation, news, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics)

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