TOXBASE

The primary clinical toxicology database of the National Poisons Information Service.

 A Toxic Legacy

Workers like Yvette Flores didn’t know their jobs in electronics manufacturing could harm their children. And the U.S. does tragically little to protect them.

 Jewelry Containing Toxic Metal Found At Major U.S. Retailers, Tests Find

Jewelry with the toxic metal cadmium is showing up on the shelves of national retailers including Ross, Nordstrom Rack and Papaya, according to newly released test results. Analysis done for the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health revealed some jewelry sold with women’s dresses and shirts was nearly pure cadmium, which can cause cancer and reproductive harm after prolonged exposure. Consumer advocates were hopeful cadmium had disappeared from the U.S. jewelry market following changes prompted by a 2010 Associated Press investigation that found Chinese manufacturers were using the metal to make kids’ jewelry.

 Shipping Containers Are Pumped Full of Toxic Gas

Chemicals used to fumigate cargo have sent dockworkers to the hospital.

 The brain's drain: How our brains flush out their waste and toxins

How does the brain clean itself? We now know a major route for clearing toxins out from the brain, and the finding could help us understand what goes wrong in age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

 The toxins of our past still threaten the future of killer whales

The EPA banned PCBs 40 years ago, but they're not going anywhere.

 There Are Nearly 1,000 Chemicals in Our Food That Have Never Been Tested for Safety

Why the FDA and the EPA aren't set up to protect us from contaminants in the food we eat.

 Toxic Smoke Is Africa’s Quiet Killer. An Entrepreneur Says His Fix Can Make a Fortune

Eric Reynolds will tell you that he is on the verge of freeing much of humanity from the deadly scourge of the cooking fire. He can halt the toxic smoke wafting through African homes, protect what is left of the continent’s forest cover and help rescue the planet from the wrath of climate change.

Every Person on Earth Is Polluted With Hundreds of Human-Made Toxins

Even infants come into the world tainted with 200-plus industrial chemicals and pollutants.

Toxins All around Us

Exposure to the chemicals in everyday objects poses a hidden health threat.

What does exposure to environmental chemicals mean for our health?

It is not possible to live in a chemical-free world on Earth. Chemicals are all around us, and some, like oxygen and hydrogen, are essential components for living creatures including us humans. However, some other chemicals may be harmful to our health.

America's Next Water Contamination Crisis May Already Be Here

The family of chemicals called PFAS have been used in everything from carpeting to fast food wrappers. They also may have contaminated America's water.

Can low doses of chemicals affect your health? A new report weighs the evidence

Toxicology’s founding father, Paracelsus, is famous for proclaiming that “the dose makes the poison.” This phrase represents a pillar of traditional toxicology: Essentially, chemicals are harmful only at high enough doses. But increasing evidence suggests that even low levels of “endocrine disrupting chemicals” can interfere with hormonal signals in the body in potentially harmful ways.

Explainer: What are endocrine disruptors?

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

Exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday products could affect expectant mothers

Our increasing exposure to under-researched chemicals concerns Tyrrell. She advises caution towards a tendency to focus on single chemicals as a combination of different additives is likely to cause more harm. “As more chemicals are produced there are more combinations to be wary of and we lack the resources to be able to keep up with thorough testing,” she said.

Gloves armed with glowing bacteria may one day detect toxins or disease

Bacteria sealed inside gloves or bandages are programmed to light up when they detect a certain chemical.

How Does Our Brain Get Rid Of Toxins?

Neuroscientist Jeff Iliff talks about his research, which explores how the brain naturally flushes out toxins during sleep.

If Solar Panels Are So Clean, Why Do They Produce So Much Toxic Waste?

Solar panels often contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. “Approximately 90% of most PV modules are made up of glass,” notes San Jose State environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney. “However, this glass often cannot be recycled as float glass due to impurities. Common problematic impurities in glass include plastics, lead, cadmium and antimony.”

It's Time to Get Arsenic and Other Toxic Substances out of Baby Food

It’s time to get arsenic and other heavy metals out of our infants’ diets.

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.

The Chemical Industry Scores a Big Win at the E.P.A.

The Trump administration, after heavy lobbying by the chemical industry, is scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market,

The Deadliest Scourge You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

Guns take more than 30,000 lives in America each year. But there’s a less-visible, even deadlier scourge that’s been mostly lost in an era of mass shootings and terrorism scares: work-related illness, which kills 50,000 people annually, according to the best government estimate. Hundreds of thousands more are sickened by job-related exposures to toxic substances.

The Most (And Least) Toxic Places In America

In any case, of the 50 most populous cities, Indianapolis, IN leads the pack with 10.9 million pounds. The city has long been cited for its poor air quality, a result of steel mills, auto plants, and numerous coal-powered power plants that spew out arsenic, lead and mercury at alarming rates.

The problem is not glyphosate, or DDT, or BPA - we must challenge the entire system!

The real problem is not one of specific 'bad actors', but the entire system that allows new, likely to be toxic compounds to pollute the environment in near-total ignorance of their impacts. It's time to take our campaigning to a whole new level.

The toxics in our electronics are a huge problem. But there may be a fix

From cellphones to computers to televisions, electronics are manufactured with a long list of substances that are known to be toxic, including metals such as lead and hexavalent chromium, and other contaminants such as phthalates and brominated flame retardants. They all serve specific roles: Lead is extremely effective as a solder, for example, and flame retardants keep our computers from bursting into flames while we type.

The Truth About Toxins

Juice fasts. Colon cleanses. Salt baths. Detoxifying face masks. Countless stores, websites and infomercials market these and other products that claim to "rid your body of toxins," in the words of one major retailer. They're not promoting the kind of detox that is an important part of substance abuse treatment. Instead, they're selling solutions to a problem that is "essentially made up,

When Pollution Is a Matter of Life and Death

The E.P.A. found that a small town in Louisiana was overloaded with carcinogens. Why didn’t that mean the government had to act?