Articles by Grist staff

Don’t Mess With Texas — Unless You’re Buying the Hot Dogs

Texas chemical plants cause problems for nearby residents The Houston Chronicle is running an investigative series on chemical plants and their effects on nearby residents, and it ain’t pretty. There’s a fair bit of evidence suggesting that companies dramatically underreport their annual emissions. On top of that, accidental leaks — or what the industry calls […]

Dirty Pretty Things

Two major cosmetic companies will omit harmful chemicals from products Revlon Inc. and L’Oreal USA have pledged to follow the European Union’s relatively strict new anti-toxics rule in formulating their perfumes, hair dyes, makeup, and other products for sale in the U.S. The two companies were convinced to take the step by San Francisco’s Breast […]

Near Death Experience

Living in pollution hotspots ups chance of kiddie cancer, study says Many childhood cancers likely have environmental causes, according to a new study from the U.K.’s Birmingham University. Women who live within a half-mile radius of emission hotspots such as industrial areas and major roads, it says, are two to four times more likely than […]

Receding Blair Line

Blair government tried to weaken E.U. climate-change targets The U.K. environmental community is all atwitter over revelations that senior officials in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government tried to remove tough greenhouse-gas reduction targets from the E.U.’s official climate policy. Specifically, they asked that language calling for 50 to 80 percent reductions (from 1990 levels, by […]