Typically, scientists don't air their grievances against one another publicly. They stick to the facts and let the peer review process ferret out the truth. But the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Drinking Water Quality Institute bucked that tradition on its recently proposed PFOA drinking water limit. The institute recommended a drinking water limit of 14 ppt for PFOA, just one-fifth of the EPA's. But even that may not be totally protective, according to the institute. More:

• Determining safe PFOA level an uncertain science - Currier Times
• Health-based Maximum Contaminant Level Support Document: Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) (PPT presentation) - New Jersey Drinking Water Quality Institute

Low-income and Latina pregnant women who seek care at Zuckerberg San Francisco General have widespread exposure to environmental pollutants, many of which show up in higher levels in newborns than the mothers, according to a new study from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Biomonitoring California. The study is the first in the United States to measure exposure to 59 toxic chemicals in pregnant women and their newborns. More:

• Study finds wide exposure to environmental toxics in cohort of pregnant women - UC Berkeley
• Environmental Chemicals in an Urban Population of Pregnant Women and Their Newborns from San Francisco (Research article)

It started in Long Island, New York. An apparent cluster of breast cancer cases had been discovered in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and some residents worried that pesticide applications on former farmland could be to blame. The U.S. Congress asked the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to research the potential role of environmental exposures in these cases. More:

• Institutes in the Lead: Identifying Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer - Environmental Health Perspectives

The Next Generation (NexGen) of Risk Assessment effort is a multi-year collaboration among several organizations evaluating new, potentially more efficient molecular, computational, and systems biology approaches to risk assessment. The following article summarizes their findings, suggests applications to risk assessment, and identifies strategic research directions. More:

• The Next Generation of Risk Assessment Multi-Year Study—Highlights of Findings, Applications to Risk Assessment, and Future Directions (Scientific review)
• Next Generation Risk Assessment: Incorporation of Recent Advances in Molecular, Computational, and Systems Biology - US EPA Report

Common household chemicals found in a wide range of products from carpets to cleaning products can alter hormones and contribute to type-2 diabetes—likely costing Europeans billions of dollars annually. Scientists looked at data from seniors in the Swedish city of Uppsala on how exposure to chemicals known to disrupt the endocrine system, like phthalates, PCBs, pesticides and perfluoroalkyls, contributes to obesity and diabetes. More:

• These Common Chemicals Are Linked to Type-2 Diabetes: Study - Time
• Population attributable risks and costs of diabetogenic chemical exposures in the elderly (Research article)

For more than half a century along the Ohio River, the chemical company DuPont provided jobs for thousands of people. One chemical they produced is PFOA, commonly known as C8. It was a remarkably useful compound, used in “Teflon” non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, and even in some food wrappers. Over time, researchers have found that C8 is also toxic. DuPont and other companies phased out U.S. production a few years ago. More: 

• Toxic Legacy: “Teflon” Chemical Sticks Around In Water Supplies - Ohio Valley ReSource
• Studies Highlight Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water - West Virgina Broadcasting
• C8 Study Publications - C8 Science Panel

Bringing a new chemical to the market under the new TSCA will be a very different process to that which manufacturers have grown accustomed to. As amended by the Chemical Safety Act, TSCA now requires an "affirmative finding" of safety for pre-manufacture notices (PMNs). If the agency decides a substance poses an unreasonable risk, it must issue an order to prohibit or restrict it. More:

• Chemical notification process ‘very different’ under new US TSCA - ChemicalWatch
• Summary of the Toxic Substances Control Act - US EPA

Researchers estimate the United States economy takes a $340 billion hit annually as endocrine-disrupting compounds lower IQs, increase behavior problems and exacerbate health woes like obesity and diabetes. More:

• Toxic economy: Common chemicals cost US billions every year - Environmental Health News
• Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the USA: a population-based disease burden and cost analysis (Research article)

Every year, small-scale Kenyan farmers produce thousands of tonnes of mangoes only to watch them rot on orchard floors. Despite its prevalence, the mango industry barely contributes to rural incomes because of the fruit fly problem. Some producers are starting to reduce their reliance on chemicals and develop alternative controls for fruit fly, in the hope of reaching the quality standards required for western export markets. A small Kenyan biopesticide company has developed a pioneering fruit fly control based on a common insect-killing fungus that occurs naturally in the soil. More:
Kenya’s mango farmers ditch chemicals to boost exports - The Guardian

PCBs are industrial chemicals so toxic that were banned 40 years ago. Research has shown that they can cause a range of health concerns, including cancer and neurological problems such as decreased IQ. And yet, because they were commonly used in building materials for decades, they continue to contaminate classrooms in between 13,000 and 26,000 schools nationwide. More:
The Washington Post

Under the EU chemicals legislation REACH, all chemicals manufactured or imported above 10 tonnes per year must be assessed for persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) properties. For persistence assessment of chemicals a software system was developed combining multiple computational models to predict persistence in several environmental compartments (e.g. water, soil). More:

• New computer modelling tool to identify persistent chemicals - Science for Environment Policy
• VEGA: Virtual evaluation of chemical properties and toxicity (Software platform)
• PROMETHEUS – Prioritization of chemicals: a METHodlogy Embracing PBT parameters into a Unified Strategy (Project report)
• A new integrated in silico strategy for the assessment and prioritization of persistence of chemicals under REACH (Research article)

When the U.S. phased out PFOA, long used to make Teflon, China's production and use of the toxic chemical soared. More:

• The Teflon Toxin goes to China - The Intercept
• Shifts in production of perfluoroalkyl acids affect emissions and concentrations in the environment of the Xiaoqing River Basin, China (Research article)

Household items like televisions, furniture, beauty products, cleaning products, and flooring materials shed chemicals that end up in the air and in the dust on our floors. These chemicals can enter our bodies from air and dust when we breathe and touch contaminated surfaces, accidentally transferring them to our food or mouth with our dusty hands. And some of these chemicals can contribute to health problems. More:

• Not Just Dirt: Toxic Chemicals in Indoor Dust – NRDC
• DetoxMe smartphone application – Silent Spring Institute
• Consumer Product Chemicals in Indoor Dust: A Quantitative Meta-analysis of U.S. Studies (Research article)
• The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants (Research article)
• Changes in indoor pollutants since the 1950s (Research article)
• Endocrine disrupting chemicals in indoor and outdoor air (Research article)
• Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement (Research article)

The pesticide drove bald eagles, ospreys, and other wildlife toward extinction and should only be used as a very last resort. More:

• Zika Is No Excuse to Bring Back DDT - Take Part
• Top 10 Zika Response Planning Tips: Brief Information for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Officials - US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Researchers are continuing to discover associations between environmental contaminants and autism spectrum disorder, which now affects 1 in 68 children in the United States. In particular, children born to mothers with higher blood levels of PCBs during the second trimester of pregnancy had roughly an 80 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with autism than children of mothers with the lowest blood levels of the chemicals. More: 

• Study adds PCBs to list of chemicals linked to autism - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Polychlorinated Biphenyl and Organochlorine Pesticide Concentrations in Maternal Mid-Pregnancy Serum Samples: Association with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability (Research article)

In order to enable sound management of chemicals, with the aim of reducing the risks associated with their use, their effects in the environment should be known and their occurrence should be monitored. However, it is not feasible to do this for the millions of chemicals in use. It is, therefore, important to prioritise the chemicals of highest concern — a major challenge currently facing regulatory bodies. More:

• Chemicals risk assessment: Baltic study recommends more monitoring of emerging pollutants - Science for Environment Policy
• The dilemma in prioritizing chemicals for environmental analysis: known versus unknown hazards (Research article)

Pesticide exposure can have negative impacts on many species and is a major threat to biodiversity. A new study is one of few to assess the risks specifically for European reptiles. The results suggest that at least one third of European reptile species are at high risk of exposure, with lizards showing the highest sensitivity to pesticides. More:

• One third of all reptile species in EU at high risk of pesticide exposure - Science for Environment Policy
• Risk of pesticide exposure for reptile species in the European Union (Research article)

Drinking water contamination with poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) poses risks to the developmental, immune, metabolic, and endocrine health of consumers. The number of industrial sites that manufacture or use these compounds, the number of military fire training areas, and the number of wastewater treatment plants are all significant predictors of PFAS detection frequencies and concentrations in public water supplies. More:

• Detection of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in U.S. Drinking Water Linked to Industrial Sites, Military Fire Training Areas, and Wastewater Treatment Plants - Environmental Science & Technology Letters
• Study: At least 6 million at risk from PFOA chemical family

Head lice have become immune to most of the over-the-counter chemicals used to treat them, according to a new study. The study, published recently in the Journal of Medical Entomology, found insecticides such as permethrin – one of the most common treatments for head lice – used to be up to 100 per cent effective in killing the parasites when it was introduced in 1984. More:

• Head lice becoming resistant to common chemical treatments - The Sydney Morning Herald
• Expansion of the Knockdown Resistance Frequency Map for Human Head Lice (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) in theUnited States Using Quantitative Sequencing (Research article)

C8 Science Panel study suggests that perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are associated with lower levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and sex hormones in young children. More:
Perfluoroalkyl Substances, Sex Hormones, and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 at 6–9 Years of Age: A Cross-Sectional Analysis within the C8 Health Project (Research article)