#chemical-irritants

#chemical-irritants

The weather was hot and sticky, and the acid sting of the smog had crept as far west as Beverly Hills. From the top of Mulholland Drive, you could see it leveled out all over the city like a ground mist.

"What surprised me is we are still seeing so many visits to emergency departments associated with very common household cleaning products," Lara McKenzie, Ph.D., stated, emphasizing the ongoing issue despite safety advancements.

Environmental monitoring has traditionally relied on snapshots of exposure from a water sample collected on a single day, a blood sample drawn at one point in time, or soil tested from a specific location. But exposure unfolds gradually as people move through different environments and come into contact with air, dust, and surfaces throughout the day.

Plasticizers are a general term for a whole range of chemicals added to materials, typically plastic and rubber, to make them softer and more pliable. They're found in countless everyday items like plastic shower curtains, shrink-wrap, PVC raincoats or flexible tubing and wire insulation for homes. Plasticizers, sometimes called phthalates, are also found in cosmetics, like nail polishes, lotions and shampoos.

In a calm, thoughtful voice, he explained that though the equipment in his home lab was simple—including items such as a hot plate, scales and standard glassware found in a school science classroom—the experiment itself was more advanced. Fritz said the work focused on molecular structures used in pharmaceuticals and how they might be adapted to improve treatments for various diseases.

The Trump administration is slowly dismantling the federal disaster management system that protects the nation from chemical catastrophes, such as fires and explosions at high-risk facilities. The US Environmental Protection Agency's Response Management Program (RMP) requires more than 12,500 high-risk facilities to develop protocols to prevent catastrophes, or limit fallout, and was largely designed to protect workers, first responders, and fence-line communities.

A 71-year-old man died on Monday after falling into a large vat of mineral oil at a New Jersey chemical plant, police and the company said Tuesday. The incident occurred at around 1:30 p.m. at the Bayway Chemical Plant in Linden when the subcontractor fell into a 6,000-gallon container he was loading with oil. He was retrieved by responders from the Bayway and Linden fire departments, but pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Local mushroom experts and enthusiasts have bemoaned the state's messaging around the poisonings as narrow and fear-based. Many would prefer to see an emphasis on education, rather than a prohibition on all foraging, and point out that touching, smelling and looking at mushrooms is safe. "There's a lot more nuance," said Debbie Viess, co-founder of the Bay Area Mycological Society. "It's much more important to steer people to places where they can educate themselves about the safety and the dangers of eating wild mushrooms."

Many human activities - from improper disposal of waste to the degradation of car tyres - release small plastic particles, which have infiltrated the atmosphere, oceans and other ecosystems. These include nanoplastics - particles measuring less than 1 micrometre across - and microplastics, which range from 1 micrometre to around 5 millimetres. They've entered our bodies and brains, and scientists are still working to understand their effects on people's health.

Clean Harbors just locked in a $110 million contract for PFAS water filtration at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. This isn't just another project win. It's validation of the company's end-to-end PFAS solution: lab analytics, water filtration, site remediation, and most critically, high-temperature incineration disposal.

"There was an incident this morning (11am) at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) on Pearse Street involving a chemical spill," a spokesperson said. "Three individuals were transferred to St James' Hospital. Dublin Fire Brigade and An Garda Síochána attended the scene but have since left and the situation is under control. "The building is closed for environmental cleaning. We have no further update at this stage."

The conventional approach to evaluating the impact of air pollution is to focus on a single exposure during a fixed period of time. But evidence suggests that contaminants work together, magnifying the damage to people's lungs. Conventional studies fail to probe synergistic effects. They also ignore the cumulative effects of lifelong exposures to pollutants, known as the exposome. Researchers need to shift away from single-pollutant studies and towards those involving a broad range of exposures.

But experts from Silent Spring Institute have now discovered several 'chemicals of concern' in these additions - including those made from human hair. In their study, the team screened 43 popular products sold online for a wide range of chemicals. Their analysis uncovered traces of dozens of chemicals, including flame retardants, phthalates, pesticides, styrene, tetrachloroethane, and organotins. Worryingly, previous research has shown that these substances are linked with cancer, hormone disruption, developmental problems, and effects on the immune system.

New analysis has identified 25 chemicals linked to cancer that the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) still allows in American food production. The findings come from scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, who determined that eight of the chemicals are classified as known human carcinogens and 17 are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.

The state health department reports that, between late November 2025 and early February 2026, there have been four deaths and 40 hospitalizations linked to consumption of dangerous mushrooms, an outbreak the department describes as unprecedented. That's far above the average for the state, which typically sees fewer than five mushroom-poisoning cases annually. The people who have been sickened include a seasonal farm worker couple from Oaxaca, Mexico.