Must-read recap: The New Lede’s top stories
News about the intersection of human and environmental health
Hoping everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend! As you start the new week, TNL Managing Editor Carey Gillam will be heading to the courthouse in Kansas City, Mo., to listen to the first-ever, in-person testimony from former Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant at a Roundup cancer trial. Monsanto has fought hard to keep Grant off the stand; we’ll bring you the story of his testimony when, and if, it happens!
Meanwhile, take a look at this story published today about a group of South Carolina residents trying to protect their community from a polluting paper mill; a court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, more than a year after the EPA found violations of clean air and clean water laws.
In South Carolina, residents battle paper mill pollution and say EPA falling short
People living within miles of the plant say they can’t go outside due to the strong odors, and that their health and their property values are threatened.
Lawyers representing the area residents say an investigation of the plant’s practices shows it is not properly monitoring air emissions, including for methyl mercaptan, a toxic air pollutant. New-Indy’s sources of air emissions also include other harmful compounds that include dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, they say.
The plant is connected to is controlled by the Kraft Group, LLC, which was founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
And in case you missed this story from last week, check out the latest in the long battle over the pesticide chlorpyrifos, an insecticide used by farmers in producing popular fruits and vegetables, among other crops:
Farm groups ramp up battle to keep using banned pesticide to grow food
A powerful contingent of agricultural and produce grower groups this week filed the latest salvo in a years-long battle over the pesticide chlorpyrifos, seeking to reverse a new rule banning the chemical from use in U.S. food production.
Calling chlorpyrifos a “pest control tool that is critical” for growing crops, the coalition of 19 state and U.S. food and agricultural groups and one chemical company on May 24 filed their opening brief against the EPA in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The move comes after health and environmental advocates successfully forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year to announce a ban on the use of chlorpyrifos in farming due to scientific evidence showing the chemical damages children’s brains.
In a similar fight over a widely used pesticide, a group of eight advocacy organizations last week alleged in court filings that the EPA 2021 decision to continue allowing the use of the weed killer paraquat violates federal law.
EPA backing of pesticide poses human health risks, groups allege
They say the EPA failed to adequately account for the “magnitude” of the risks posed by paraquat use, and improperly determined that the benefits of paraquat for crop production outweigh the dangers to farmworkers and others.
The EPA improperly dismissed the risks of Parkinson’s disease from paraquat exposure by “mischaracterizing” data from animal research studies, according to the groups. They allege the EPA emphasized the economic savings for farmers but did not properly balance the benefits against the human health risks as well as risks to mammals, birds, bees and other wildlife.
See these and several other stories from last week at The New Lede website,
And remember: We welcome your story suggestions and new tips - email carey.gillam@ewg.org and please subscribe and consider donating to help us expand our work.