toxics

Environment

What Gulf lawmakers should learn from Sen. Frank Lautenberg

By Bridge the Gulf

June 6, 2013 - 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.

Environment

New survey details BP oil spill's human health damages

By Sue Sturgis

April 23, 2012 - 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.

Fracking's air pollution threat

By Sue Sturgis

March 27, 2012 - 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.

Dumping dioxin on Dixie

By Sue Sturgis

January 25, 2012 - 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.

Environment

Federal health agency misled on dangers from poisoned drinking water at N.C. Marine base

By Sue Sturgis

May 8, 2009 - After years of pressure from grassroots activists, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry announced last week that it was withdrawing its 1997 report that wrongly claimed there was little cancer risk from chemical-contaminated drinking water at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville, N.C.