Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories
Toxic vinyl chloride accidents; court blocks EPA order to eliminate PFAS in plastic containers; measuring a farm's carbon footprint; the global plastics crisis threatens human health.
Toxic vinyl chloride accidents happen once every five days, report finds
Accidental releases of toxic vinyl chloride have occurred in the United States once every five days, on average, since 2010, according to a new report that highlights the extent to which communities and chemical plant workers are exposed to the known carcinogen.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence on the frequency of hazardous chemical accidents, including a 2023 report that found such incidents occur in the US almost daily.
Environmental, public health and community advocates have been calling on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban vinyl chloride following a February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which resulted in a “controlled” combustion of vinyl chloride in several rail cars that exposed residents to the chemical.
The report, produced by Material Research L3C on behalf of the environmental groups Beyond Plastics and Earthjustice, is intended to help inform the EPA as it takes steps towards conducting a risk assessment of vinyl chloride, along with four other toxic chemicals, a move the agency announced in December. The review, conducted under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), would be the first step towards considering a potential ban on vinyl chloride or additional restrictions to help protect public health and the environment from exposure to the chemical. (Read the rest of the story.
US court blocks EPA order to eliminate PFAS in plastic containers
A US appeals court has vacated an action by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordering a company to stop producing plastic containers that leach toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into pesticides, household cleaners, condiments, and many other products.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on March 21 ruled that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority when it issued orders to Texas-based Inhance in December prohibiting the company from manufacturing or processing PFAS through its fluorination process for containers.
The EPA move came after the agency determined that types of PFAS created during the fluorination process “are highly toxic and present unreasonable risks that cannot be prevented other than through prohibition of manufacture.”
The agency issued the orders under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which authorizes the EPA to regulate and screen chemicals produced or imported into the US.
But Inhance challenged the EPA’s action, arguing that the EPA improperly sought to take action against the company under a section of TSCA dealing with new uses of chemicals, and that Inhance’s process did not constitute a new use. (Read the rest of the story.)
When measuring a farm’s carbon footpring — Britain has the right answer
(Opinion columns published in The New Lede represent the views of the individual(s) authoring the columns and not necessarily the perspectives of TNL editors.)
The key to achieving climate mitigation in agriculture depends on an accurate measure of carbon sequestration and emissions of major greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.
Mitigation measures so far have revolved around public and private programs that offer payment for practices such as cover crops and no-till planting that industry experts have determined sequester carbon in the soil.
Carbon markets have also been initiated that pay farmers for their conservation practices. Called carbon credits, the payments are used to offset greenhouse gas emissions the buyers produce as a part of their business operations. Those offsets are commonly used to achieve their own climate claims such as “net zero.”
A number of farmers are already participating in these “markets,” but some in the industry remain dubious. “These aren’t markets, they’re just schemes,” says Jeff Schahczenski, an economist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology. (Read the rest of the opinion column.)
Postcard from California: The global plastics crisis is a threat to human health
(Opinion columns published in The New Lede represent the views of the individual(s) authoring the columns and not necessarily the perspectives of TNL editors.)
Last April, an annual assessment of the clarity of Lake Tahoe found it was the clearest it had been since the 1980s. But just months later, scientists reported that the iconic alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada border had alarming levels of a nearly invisible form of pollution: microplastics.
Microplastics are particles of plastic measuring less than 5 millimeters – roughly the size of a pencil eraser – generated largely from the breakdown of discarded plastic bottles and other plastic items. The US is the world’s largest generator of plastic waste, as people throw away more than 27 million tons of plastic annually.
In a study released last July, an international team of researchers found that Lake Tahoe had the third-highest concentration of microplastics out of 38 large lakes in 23 countries. Tahoe’s crystal blue waters held higher concentrations of microplastics than the floating garbage patches littering the world’s oceans, the study determined.
Last year, a report from the California State Policy Evidence Consortium commissioned by state legislators, raised concerns about microplastics’ suspected human health effects, including reproductive harm, respiratory problems and biological changes that could lead to intestinal cancer.
As The New Lede reported at the time, the consortium’s review of nearly 2,000 scientific studies relied mostly on studies of microplastics’ effects on rodents. But in March, the New England Journal of Medicine published the first study to show that microplastics have a direct effect on human health. (Read the rest of the opinion column.)