CEOs living large – really, really large: The New York Times has published an accounting of the highest paid CEOs at American companies in 2017 and how their compensation compares to median pay for their workers. It's painful to read. A Walmart employee would have to work more than 1,000 years [...]
About 4.6 million children in the United States live in homes where guns are kept unlocked and loaded, as more people come to believe – despite scientific evidence to the contrary – that a home with a gun is a safer home, according to a new analysis ...
Fluoride is often called one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century. But evidence suggests that while a small dose of the chemical can help prevent cavities, some American children are being exposed to amounts of fluoride that could be harmful to their teeth – and, possibly, even damaging to their brain development.
Recent evidence suggests that long-term ingestion of drinking water with nitrates at just half that federal limit can prove dangerous to children and adults alike, potentially raising the risk of bladder, thyroid, kidney, ovarian and colon cancers.
A new online database lists contaminants as well as their levels and likely sources, and any federal drinking water violations by local water utilities.
At toxic cleanup sites across the country, environmental agencies have allowed groundwater contamination to go untreated and slowly diminish over time—a strategy that saves money for polluters but could cost taxpayers dearly and jeopardize drinking water supplies.
With the threat of antibiotic-resistant germs on the rise, California Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to sign tough restrictions on administering antibiotics to livestock.
Large livestock farms, which can generate as much waste as people in a large city, have been growing in size and number for the last 30 years. In many areas, they pose a serious threat to water supplies.
Chlorine is used to kill bacteria in drinking water, but with the unintended consequence of creating chemical byproducts that may raise the risk of cancer.
A Houston-based oil and gas drilling contractor, Integrated Production Services, has pleaded guilty to a negligent violation of the Clean Water Act and has agreed to pay penalties totaling $162,000 to federal and state agencies. The case stemmed from the spilling of 400 to 700 gallons of hydrochloric acid -- a [...]
More communities are ending the practice of adding fluoride to the water supply, prompted by local government budget squeezes and growing skepticism about the health benefits. As The New York Times reports, Pinellas County on Florida's west coast voted to stop its seven-year-old fluoridation program. The county joins about 200 [...]
More than 250 doctors, nurses and environmental groups are calling for New York State officials to study the public health consequences of drilling for natural gas using the controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As ProPublica reports, the health and environnmental advocates want the state to identify the [...]
High concentrations of the toxic metal hexavalent chromium have been detected in Chicago's drinking water. A first round of testing found the metal -- which gained notoriety as the water contaminant in the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich” -- at a level 11 times higher than a precedent-setting public health goal [...]
Tests have found coal ash contamination in the groundwater at nine Tennessee Valley Authority power plants, including two sites where investigators say the pollution could pose a health hazard. As The Tennessean reports, the TVA's Office of Inspector General discovered groundwater contamination at all but one of the 10 plants [...]
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has faulted federal health officials for failing to address flaws in a 2004 article on exposure to lead in District of Columbia tap water. The continuing confusion over elevated blood lead levels in Washington, D.C., residents, the GAO said in a [...]
