Chemicals on our food: When “safe” may not really be safe

Weed killers in wheat crackers and cereals, insecticides in apple juice and a mix of multiple pesticides in spinach, string beans and other veggies – all are part of the daily diets of many Americans. For decades, federal officials have declared tiny traces of these contaminants to be safe. But a new wave of scientific scrutiny is challenging those assertions.

 Hidden studies from decades ago could have curbed PFAS problem: Scientist

In the editorial, Grandjean said studies conducted up to four decades ago found health effects, including on the immune system, from PFAS chemicals, but those studies were hidden by production companies, like 3M Co.

 How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World

The organic compounds that enabled industrialization have unintended, long-lasting consequences for the planet’s life.

 Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution

Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals – but Arctic could be a refuge. At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study. Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet. Worse, their fat-rich milk passes on very high doses to their newborn calves.

 Persistent organic pollutants: towards a POPs-free future

The majority of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) identified until now are banned or restricted around the world owing to concerns about their harm to ecosystems and human health. However, this is not the end of the story; even long-banned POPs still linger in the environment; others are still in use and are being directly emitted; and new POPs may be identified for which we have limited information.

 Where have all our insects gone?

There is a crisis in the countryside – and a massive decline in insect numbers could have significant consequences for the environment.

What are POPs?

Convention The 12 Initial POPs The New POPs Chemicals proposed for listing under the Convention What are POPs? Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are organic chemical substances, that is, they are carbon-based. They possess a particular combination of physical and chemical properties such that, once released into the environment, they remain intact for exceptionally long periods of time (many years)...

Global Pesticide Scorecard Maps Performance

The prevalence of pesticides and other chemicals may seem like something of a bygone era, one marked by Silent Spring and the Bhopal Disaster, but the grim reality is that they are unfortunately very much around. Whether it is BPA in your water bottle or neonicotinoids decimating bee populations, action has not been uniform.

Persistent Poisons

Here we are, 45 years later, still battling with the residues of these persistent poisons. Makes you wonder about all the chemicals our industries use so freely in the production of our gotta-have consumer goods, including our foods. We need to understand two things, here: (1) a corporation’s primary responsibility is to the health of its bottom line, not the health of the people who buy its products; (2) the government agencies that are supposed to protect American consumers have a long history of favoring business interests over our health and safety.

A dangerous chemical romance

How ongoing use of banned chemicals and extensive deforestation now haunts northern Pakistan, leaving population prone to serious health issues

Dupont's museum of disastrous chemistry continues to spread its poison

Since 1892, when DuPont chose this site to house its smokeless gunpowder operations, Chambers Works has been ground zero for some of the world’s most environmentally devastating commercial enterprises.

Explainer: Toxic Substances Control Act

Currently, tens of thousands of compounds have never been subject to safety tests because they were on the market before the law was passed in 1976. Approximately 62,000 chemicals already on the market were ‘grandfathered’ in when tosca was enacted, and the new law had little power to investigate them.

Explainer: What are endocrine disruptors?

Some chemicals can mimic hormones, and in doing so wrongly turn on or off important bodily processes.

In ToxicDocs.org, a Treasure Trove of Industry Secrets

An online database of corporate memos, meeting minutes, and letters related to a variety of toxic substances aims to augment public health and safety.

Man-Made Pollutants Found in Earth's Deepest Ocean Trenches

Toxic chemicals are accumulating in marine creatures in Earth’s deepest oceanic trenches, the first measurements of organic pollutants in these regions have revealed.

Negotiators Focus on 'Dirty Dozen' Pollutants

Industrialization and modern insect control have improved the quality of life around the globe, but they have also added some 100,000 chemical compounds that, some scientists worry, could affect the health of people and wildlife. These persistent organic pollutants, known as POP's, have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.

Organic Pollutants Now Accumulating in Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau

The accumulation of DDT in the Himalayas exceeds levels found in the Arctic.

Persistent Organic Pollutants: A Global Issue, A Global Response

The page explains the importance of the Stockholm Convention, a legally binding international agreement finalized in 2001. In the Stockholm Convention, participating governments agreed to take actions to reduce or eliminate the production, use, and/or release of certain of these pollutants.

PFOA and PFOS are only the best-known members of a very dangerous class of chemicals

WHILE THE DANGERS of PFOA and PFOS are widely known, very little is known about the other chemicals in their class, PFAS. Here is some of the emerging science on how other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances affect people.

Pollution Has Worked Its Way Down To The World's Deepest Waters

PCBs were banned decades ago. But they're still out there. Marine biologist Katherine Dafforn at the University of New South Wales in Australia says the discovery of such high levels in these trenches is "disturbing."

U.S. Food Still Tainted with Old Chemicals

Thirty-eight years after DDT was banned, Americans still consume trace amounts of the infamous insecticide every day, along with more than 20 other banned chemicals.

Why Chemicals in the U.S. Are Still “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”

Originally passed in 1976, the old TSCA was meant to help the EPA regulate the safe production and use of industrial chemicals. But the act was founded on scientific assumptions and practices that are far outdated today. Perhaps worse, TSCA also grandfathered in a long list of “existing” chemicals—which made it extremely difficult for the EPA to pull them from the market even if they were later shown to be harmful.