Company pays government to challenge pesticide research showing link to Parkinson's
Friday, February 11th, 2011
This story is being co-published with Politics Daily.
In an unusual scenario that raises questions of conflict of interest, a company that conducts research on behalf of the pesticide industry has paid a U.S. government agency to help prove some controversial chemicals are safe.
The company, Exponent Inc., based in Menlo Park, Calif., is known for its scientific research on behalf of corporate clients facing product liability concerns. In this case, Exponent is trying to refute research showing that even a small amount of combined exposure to two agricultural chemicals, maneb, a fungicide, and paraquat, an herbicide, can raise ...
EPA develops neurotoxicants list, new testing
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
This story is being co-published with Politics Daily.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — As the rates of learning disabilities, autism and related conditions rise, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to release a roster of the pollutants likely to contribute to these or other disorders, American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop has learned.
In an ongoing, three-year effort, an EPA team has determined which developmental neurotoxicants — chemicals that damage the fetal and infant brain — may pose the biggest risk to the American public.
Some of the compounds on the EPA’s list are ubiquitous in household products, drinking water, medicine ...
EPA workers say North Carolina building making them sick despite attempts to fix problems
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
This story is being jointly published with WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C. WRAL's story, which first aired on Thursday, Oct. 28, appears below.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- When it opened in November 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency's campus in Research Triangle Park, N.C., was touted as a state-of-the-art facility.
It contains more than a million square feet of labs and offices, where some of the top researchers in the U.S. work to improve the quality of the nation’s air, water and land. But there’s one problem nobody at EPA has been able to solve: Air ...
Reform of toxic substances law collapses
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Fire retardants in baby blankets, nano-particles in cosmetics, plastics in water bottles and anti-bacterial agents in soaps. Experts call these and other chemicals emerging contaminants — compounds that were once thought to be safe, but which scientists now believe may pose a danger to human health.
How those chemicals get into your house — and your bloodstream — is no surprise: Loopholes in the federal law that regulates toxic chemicals have allowed manufacturers to sell them without first proving they are safe.
In recent years, however, dozens of studies, many funded by the federal government, have shown that chemicals that are ubiquitous in ...
