chemicals

These toxic household cleaners can cause asthma or burn your lungs

Ah, America. The country where you’re allowed to buy products containing hazardous chemicals that other countries have banned. The Environmental Working Group, the people who brought you the Dirty Dozen list of foods to buy organic, are taking an extensive look at the chemicals in more than 2,000 cleaning products. The group’s researchers are months […]

What’s inside a school lunch burger? 26 ingredients, and only one is meat

Caramel color makes the burger look like it's been grilled when it really hasn't.

Critical List: Too many tornadoes; scientists help plant seeds reach Antarctica

Super Tuesday results: The rich guy who would be terrible for the environment won primaries in six states, the scary evangelist who would be terrible for the environment won three, and the sad nerd who should know better but would probably be terrible for the environment just to fit in won one. March has already […]

Critical List: Australia floods break records; industrial agriculture is booming

Floods in Australia are rising to record levels. We told you Australia is screwed. Guys. GUYS! Mitt Romney also gave out renewable energy loans as governor of Massachusetts OMG WTF SOLYNDRA BRAIN EXPLODES. San Francisco is working to integrate electric bicycles into its car share service. Russian scientists have drilled a hole through two miles […]

Monsanto won’t have to clean up dioxin in West Virginia

West Virginia continues to win the game of exposing human beings to extremely hazardous conditions in exchange for working-class pay, then telling them to deal with it when they get sick. The latest example of this behavior doesn't even have to do with coal, but with Monsanto and Agent Orange.

For 30 years, the Monsanto plant in a town called Nitro (named after the chemicals produced there! For real!) produced a defoliant ingredient that would later be used in Agent Orange. But the herbicides made in Nitro were contaminated with dioxin, which meant that Nitro residents were exposed to the toxic chemical beginning in the late 1940s. Dioxin has been connected to every bad health impact imaginable—for adults, problems like cancer and immune suppression, and for kids, problems like birth defects and learning disabilities. And now, because of the way West Virginia law works, the most that the citizens of Nitro can ask from the company is that it covers the cost of medical testing fees.

Critical List: Toxic chemicals on the rise; baby seals in trouble

The EPA may retest water in Dimock, Pa., where residents have linked polluted water to fracking operations. In its first round of testing the town's water, the EPA declared it safe.

GM is fixing up the Volt in order to avoid in real-life battery fires like the ones that started during testing.

As winter sea ice disappears in the Arctic, fewer baby harp seals are making it.

The amount of toxic chemicals shunted into the environment went up 16 percent between 2009 and 2010, according a new EPA report.

Ask Umbra: How can I de-stink secondhand clothes?

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I strive to reduce/reuse/recycle, but as someone who is sensitive to chemicals, purchasing used clothing presents problems. Sometimes soaking the clothes in borax or vinegar, and washing as much as a dozen times (in less toxic, unscented detergent) fails to remove the ferocious stink of the previous […]

What are we made of? One word: Plastics

This story originally appeared in Urbanite. In What’s Gotten Into Us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World, McKay Jenkins sounds an alarm on the chemicals that we unknowingly ingest and inhale daily.Photo: J.M. GiordanoAfter the discovery of a tumor near his hip, McKay Jenkins, married, father of two, began investigating the manufacturing and consumer use […]

Pesticides on trial [VIDEO]

On Dec. 3, the 27th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, anti-pesticide advocates are bringing the six largest pesticide companies to trial. Or rather, to something called The Permanent People’s Tribunal, an international body that “officially facilitates the trial, lacking any set of binding national laws.” According to a recent press release from the North American […]