toxics

Developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and other pipeline projects are improperly storing massive quantities of pipe outside, uncovered, for years at a time. A new report filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission details how this causes a coating on the pipe to break down and release toxic substances into the environment, creating a public health risk.

As people took to the streets nationwide to condemn last week's Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, they were met in many places by tear gas, which is banned from use in war but still deployed domestically by police for crowd control. The tear gas canisters fired in recent protests in Minneapolis and many other cities were made by Florida-based Safariland, whose products have also been controversially used against asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. senator from New Jersey, who died this week at age 89, worked to protect communities from toxic industrial pollution. Lawmakers who represent environmentally challenged districts along the Gulf Coast could learn a lot from his legacy -- and so could their constituents.

A health survey conducted in Gulf Coast communities by the Louisiana Environmental Action Network finds widespread and frequent illnesses among people exposed to pollution from the disaster.

As North Carolina considers lifting its ban on the controversial natural-gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," a growing body of evidence documents serious public-health threats due to air pollution from such operations, which have already been linked to water contamination.

As the Environmental Protection Agency readies a long-awaited report on a class of health-damaging pollutants known as dioxins, we look at the biggest industrial dioxin sources in the U.S. -- and find that the South bears a disproportionate toxic burden.