Latest Public health News
California sets long-awaited drinking water limit for 'Erin Brockovich' contaminant
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California regulators voted Wednesday to establish a drinking water limit on hexavalent chromium, a toxic chemical compound made infamous by the movie “Erin Brockovich.” The rule is the first in the nation to specifically target the heavy metal, known as...
Homes are demolished in Ivory Coast's main city over alleged health concerns. Thousands are homeless
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Dame Touré rushed to quickly gather what she could as bulldozers rolled into her neighborhood in Ivory Coast's fast-growing economic hub of Abidjan. Her three children joined her, stuffing plastic bags with clothes and whatever other items they could grab, before...
Asbestos victim's dying words aired in wrongful death case against Buffet's railroad
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Thomas Wells ran a half-marathon at age 60 and played recreational volleyball until he was 63. At 65 years old, doctors diagnosed him with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure. “I’m in great pain and alls I see is this...
Why is the EPA regulating PFAS and what are these 'forever chemicals'?
On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized limits on certain common types of PFAS chemicals in drinking water. It is the first time a nationwide limit on so-called forever chemicals has been imposed on water providers. EPA Administrator Michael Regan called it the biggest action...
Asbestos victims in Montana want Buffett's railroad company held responsible
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An attorney for two people who died of a rare lung cancer argued on Monday for a jury to hold BNSF Railway responsible for pollution in a small Montana town near the U.S.-Canada border where thousands of people were exposed to toxic asbestos dust. The railroad...
Victims of Montana asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett's railroad to court
LIBBY, Mont. (AP) — Paul Resch remembers playing baseball as a kid on a field constructed from asbestos-tainted vermiculite, mere yards from railroad tracks where trains kicked up clouds of dust as they hauled the contaminated material from a mountaintop mine through the northwestern Montana town...
St. Louis-area residents make plea for compensation for illnesses tied to nuclear contamination
Karen Nickel has been dealing with lupus and other illnesses for years, illnesses she blames on childhood exposure to a suburban St. Louis creek where Cold War-era nuclear waste was dumped decades ago. It's time, she said Friday, for the federal government to start making amends. ...
Editorial Roundup: Minnesota
Minneapolis Star-Tribune. March 29, 2024. Editorial: Make a bigger push to improve grad rates Minnesota’s high schools need to keep working on attendance issues, struggling students. The slight decrease in Minnesota’s 2023 high school graduation...
AP Exclusive: EPA didn't declare a public health emergency after fiery Ohio derailment
The aftermath of last year's fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio doesn't qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven't been documented, federal officials said. The Environmental Protection Agency never approved that...
Chick-Fil-A backtracks from its no-antibiotics-in-chicken pledge, blames projected supply shortages
ATLANTA (AP) — The fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A backtracked from its decade-old “no antibiotics ever” pledge intended to help prevent human antibiotic resistance linked to the rampant use of the drugs in livestock production. Instead, the company said in a statement that it...
