Toxins

Hans Sloane, the British Museum, and an Asbestos Purse – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

The Curious World of Benjamin Franklin: Hans Sloane, the British Museum, and an Asbestos Purse – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

There is an object in the British Museum that was bought from Benjamin Franklin. A small asbestos “purse.” With only these details, the modern mind imagines the elder statesman ambling up to Montague House, the museum’s home in Bloomsbury from 1759, on the same site as the modern museum. Perhaps the most well known American in the world, the Franklin in our imagination gains entry to the museum and marvels at the collections before offering up a curiosity of his own. In reality, it was a much younger Franklin who was invited to the home of Sir Hans Sloane in 1725 – almost thirty years before George II gave his Royal Assent to establish a public museum founded in large part on Sloane’s collections.

What β€œDark Waters” gets right about the DuPont/PFAS water pollution case

What β€œDark Waters” gets right about the DuPont/PFAS water pollution case

Today, we know the scope of contamination extends well beyond Parkersburg, West Virginia. PFOA and other PFAS remain in the blood of U.S. citizens and people around the globe, with no clear regulatory or remediation path in sight. PFAS remain unregulated at a federal level in the U.S. Chemical companies continue to churn out analogues of PFOA and other PFAS for use in consumer and industrial applications.

I keep reading more and more about PFAS and C8

I keep reading more and more about PFAS and C8 …☠

While there may be some industrial areas are that extremely polluted, it seems like the chemical is everywhere, from out waterways to our air. It leaks out ordinary MSW landfills as leachate, it comes down in rain from industrial emissions. It’s used in so many chemical processes, it puts out fires. Welcome to world of modern chemistry. βš—οΈ

The War on the War on Cancer

The War on the War on Cancer

Now, political appointees at the EPA are engaged in what appears to be an end-run around the agency’s own science. While IRIS, which is staffed by career scientists, hasn’t officially backed away from its 2016 report, the Trump EPA recently announced that it would not be calling for the level of pollution reductions IRIS laid out during the previous administration, leaving people around the country more vulnerable to the known carcinogen. And that’s only one of the changes made under the Trump administration that promise to weaken protections for Americans’ health, many of which were intended specifically to stave off cancers.

White House Announces Trump Would Likely Veto Bill Regulating ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

White House Announces Trump Would Likely Veto Bill Regulating ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

Sponsored by Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, the act is designed to reduce involuntary human exposure to PFAS, which are chemicals used in products like non-stick cookware and flame retardant foams. PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because they are not expelled from the human body once they are ingested. Traces of PFAS, which have been linked to the formation of certain kinds of cancer, have been found in multiple sources of drinking water across the country.