Katie Jurek was 19 years old when she was told the osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer, had returned. Her death, aged 20 in 2007, was devastating for former classmates. Within seven years, another four teenagers died from cancer. More:

• Toxic Secrets: The town that 3M built - where kids are dying of cancer – The Sydney Morning Herald
• Cancer toll on Williamtown's Cabbage Tree Road near Newcastle – The Sydney Morning Herald

Lots of big brands are shifting toward more sustainable gear, without harmful PFCs. But for the industry as a whole, change is slow. In July 2017, the shake machine, which tests water resistant properties of hydrophobic down, had been going for 2,000 minutes. A then 21-year-old intern at bulk down supplier Sustainable Down Source (SDS), knew she was onto something. So far, the test results indicated that 33 hours of rain wouldn’t rob the feathers, which had been treated with a eco-friendly Durable Water Repellent (DWR), of their insulating properties. More:

• Outdoor Gear Makers: Get Green or Die Trying – Outside

Plastic and traces of hazardous chemicals have been found in Antarctica, one of the world’s last great wildernesses, according to a study. Seven of the eight sea-surface water samples tested contained microplastics such as microfibres. Seven of the nine snow samples tested contained detectable concentrations of the persistent hazardous chemicals – polyfluorinated alkylated substances, or PFAS. More:

• Antarctica: plastic contamination reaches Earth's last wilderness – The Guardian
• Microplastics in the Antarctic – Greenpeace
• Microplastics and persistent fluorinated chemicals in the Antarctic (Report)

Mixtures of chemicals commonly found in consumer products are more likely to increase breast cancer risk than the same chemicals individually, according to a new analysis. But safety tests by government regulators don't routinely evaluate the combined effects of multiple chemical exposures. More:

• Consumer Product Safety Testing Overlooks Cancer Risk From Exposure to Multiple Chemicals – EWG
• A Ternary Mixture of Common Chemicals Perturbs Benign Human Breast Epithelial Cells More Than the Same Chemicals Do Individually (Research article)
• How Toxic Pollutants Can Harm Future, Unexposed Generations – EWG

As children at Patrick Air Force Base in the early 1980s, Kristen Emery and her siblings fished Florida’s Banana River and strung their catch on the back porch to eat. They dug up the backyard, muddying their hands. When they were thirsty, they drank tap water at their base housing. Kristen’s nose bled all the time. She was in and out of the emergency room constantly with asthma or other illnesses from kindergarten through second grade. When puberty hit at 13, a large mass grew on her neck. The diagnosis was Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She spent her teenage years in chemotherapy. More:

• More reasons to be worried about cancer-causing chemicals on military bases – Military Times
• Addressing Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) (Report presentation)

On May 9, a federal appeals court heard oral arguments in a case about an explosive issue among U.S. veterans: the widespread use of burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the potential health consequences they suffered as a result. The case, which dates back to 2008, consolidated dozens of lawsuits by hundreds of veterans and their families seeking to recover damages from the military contractor.

• Veterans Go Back to Court Over Burn Pits. Do They Have a Chance? – The New York Times Magazine
• Burn pits downrange caused lung disease in service members, court rules – Military Times

The FAO report warns that this dangerous phenomenon should be of concern worldwide. Its consequences are not limited to the degrading of our soils: ultimately, it also poisons the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Soil pollution significantly reduces food security, not only by reducing crop yields due to toxic levels of contaminants, but also by causing crops produced from polluted soils unsafe for consumptions both for animals and humans

• FAO Releases Alarming Report on Soil Pollution – IPS
• Soil Pollution: A Hidden Reality (Report)

New York City's fire department has assembled one of the largest firefighter research populations in the world - Every day for almost three years, a group of firefighters would travel from a clinic in Brooklyn to a laboratory in the Bronx. They had precious cargo in tow: blood samples collected from individuals serving in the Fire Department of the City of New York, many of whom were first responders to the World Trade Center attack on 9/11. More:

• Researchers think 9/11 gave first responders cancer—but proving it will be nearly impossible – Popular Science
• How Modern Furniture Endangers Firefighters – The Atlantic
• Learn about Dioxin ‐ US EPA
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB's): Current Intelligence Bulletin 45 – US NIOSH
• Multiple Myeloma and Its Precursor Disease Among Firefighters Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster (Research article)
• Estimation of Future Cancer Burden Among Rescue and Recovery Workers Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster (Research abstract)

A fluoroether from a Chemours plant near Petersburg, W.Va., contaminates public and private well water in Ohio and West Virginia, U.S. EPA. This marks the first time that the industrial chemical hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) has been found in U.S. water outside of North Carolina. In that state, the substance contaminates the Cape Fear River downstream of a Chemours plant near Fayetteville that makes fluoroethers. HFPO-DA has also been found in that river’s sediments, well water up to 11 km from the plant, and rainwater. More:

• GenX-related fluoroether taints water in wells near West Virginia Chemours plant – C&EN
• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant? – C&EN

Afternoon naps are a time-honored tradition in many child-care centers, as toddlers snuggle up on soft mats to drowse, daydream or fidget. The possibility that those mats could be exposing kids to toxic chemicals might come as a surprise to most parents and day-care workers. But a new analysis found potentially harmful flame retardants in the majority of mats at some day cares across Seattle (US). More:

• Nap mats at some Seattle child-care centers contain potentially harmful chemicals – The Seattle Times (US)
• New Warning to Consumers: Avoid These Flame Retardants – CR Consumer Reports
• Flame Retardants – US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Reducing public health threats by restricting the use of toxic flame retardants in certain consumer products – State of Washington House Bill 2545
• Exposure to brominated and organophosphate ester flame retardants in U.S. childcare environments: Effect of removal of flame-retarded nap mats on indoor levels (Research article)

First-of-its-kind study finds finished cabinetry is a major source of PCBs inside people's homes; scientists suspect wood sealants are the culprit. Researchers tested indoor air at 16 homes and found three types of PCBs are widespread and finished cabinets are the source of the toxics. More:

• Finished kitchen cabinets are emitting toxic PCBs – EHN
• A New Study Found Toxic Chemicals In Kitchen Cabinets, And Here's What You Need To Know – BuzzFeed.News
• Emissions of Tetrachlorobiphenyls (PCBs 47, 51, and 68) from Polymer Resin on Kitchen Cabinets as a Non-Aroclor Source to Residential Air (Research article)
• Stepping backward to improve assessment of PCB congener toxicities (Research article)
• Non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls induce a release of arachidonic acid in liver epithelial cells: a partial role of cytosolic phospholipase A(2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 signalling (Research article)
• In Vitro Toxicity Profiling of Ultrapure Non–Dioxin-like Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners and Their Relative Toxic Contribution to PCB Mixtures in Humans (Research article)

Two decades after pollution from highly toxic fluorinated chemicals was first reported in American communities and drinking water, the number of known contamination sites is growing rapidly, with no end in sight. The latest update of an interactive map by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University documents publicly known pollution from so-called PFAS chemicals at 94 industrial or military sites in 22 states. More:

• Fluorinated Chemical Pollution Crisis Spreads – EcoWatch
• Interactive map of toxic fluorinated chemicals in tap water at industrial or military sites – EWG
• Teflon chemical harmful at smallest doses – EWG
• Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Factsheet – US CDC
• New Teflon toxin found in North Carolina drinking water – The Intercept
• Algoma Township PFAS testing expands again – Michigan Live

Researchers study how pepper plants absorb common antimicrobial found in personal care items. More:

• Cleaning product toxins found in crops – COSMOS
• Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement – Endocrine Society
• Transformation, Conjugation, and Sequestration Following the Uptake of Triclocarban by Jalapeno Pepper Plants (Research article)

The unsightly ivory-colored meringue that rimmed the shore is a visible illustration of an ongoing national health and environmental disaster related to perfluorinated compounds. PFAS, as this group of chemicals is collectively called, are used to manufacture rain-repelling, stain-deflecting, heat-resisting consumer and industrial products like Teflon skillets, Gore-Tex jackets, and fire retardants. There’s a good chance that every home in America has products strengthened with one of the compounds. More:

• Fear and Fury in Michigan Town Where Air Force Contaminated Water –Circle of Blue
• Perfluorinated Chemicals Health Study Included in Congress Budget Deal –Circle of Blue
• Nonstick Chemicals Slipped Into Water, Causing Health, Environmental, Regulatory Mess –Circle of Blue

The state of North Carolina formally warned Chemours that in 60 days, it will prohibit the plant from emitting to the atmosphere hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and two related fluoroethers that hydrolyze into HFPO-DA. One of those chemicals is GenX, a surfactant used as a polymerization aid to manufacture fluoropolymers. Fluoropolymers are used as membranes in fuel cells and to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide. More:

• North Carolina cracks down on Chemours’s fluoroether air pollution – C&EN
• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant? – C&EN
• GenX chemicals taint sediments – C&EN

The levels of harmful flame retardants in children's blood are dropping every year, according to a new study of kids from New York City. The flame retardants—polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)— were used for decades in furniture, electronics and clothing in an effort to slow the spread of flames if they catch fire. The chemicals were voluntarily phased out starting in 2004 because they build up in the environment and people—PBDEs are found in the air (in and outside our homes), some food, and in people all around the world.

• Good News: Toxic flame retardants declining in NYC kids’ blood – EHN
• Ten Years After California Ban, Big Drop in Fire Retardants in Breast Milk – EWG
• Temporal trends and developmental patterns of plasma polybrominated diphenyl ether concentrations over a 15-year period between 1998 and 2013 (Research article)

A byproduct of yellow pigment manufacturing is showing up in Great Lakes air—and it isn't going away Toxic PCBs are on a steady decrease in Great Lakes region air but over the past decade one type remains constant—it's likely due to yellow pigment manufacturing. More:

• Most PCBs are decreasing near the Great Lakes—but one’s not. Why? – EHN
• Atmospheric Concentrations of PCB-11 Near the Great Lakes Have Not Decreased Since 2004  (Research article)
• Partial pressures of PCB-11 in air from several Great Lakes sites (Research article)
• Global distribution and local impacts of inadvertently generated polychlorinated biphenyls in pigments (Research article)
• Inadvertent Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Commercial Paint Pigments (Research article)
• A New Player in Environmentally Induced Oxidative Stress: Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congener, 3,3′-Dichlorobiphenyl (PCB11) (Research article)
• PCBs and OH-PCBs in Serum from Children and Mothers in Urban and Rural U.S. Communities (Research article)

When Donald Taves discovered two kinds of fluoride in his blood in the late 1960s, he immediately knew something was wrong. Everyone assumed that blood contained just one type of fluoride, a naturally occurring form that health officials added to drinking water to prevent cavities. But levels in people’s blood didn’t seem to relate to those found in their water supply. More:

• In search of safe replacements for harmful chemicals used in cookware, carpets, clothing, cosmetics and more – ENSIA
• Short-chain Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) - A literature review of information on human health effects and environmental fate and effect aspects of short-chain PFAS – The Danish Environmental Protection Agency
• New Chemicals Program Review of Alternatives for PFOA and Related Chemicals – US EPA
• Fact Sheet: PFOA & PFOS Drinking Water HealthAdvisories – US EPA
• Fluorinated Compounds in U.S. Fast Food Packaging (Research article)
• Release of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) from Carpet and Clothing in Model Anaerobic Landfill Reactors (Research article)
• Comparing the toxic potency in vivo of long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids and fluorinated alternatives (Research article)
• Hazard assessment of fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and their precursors: status quo, ongoing challenges and possible solutions (Research article)
• Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals in the U.S. Population: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004 and Comparisons with NHANES 1999–2000 (Research article)
• PFCS: global contaminants: PFCS in animals worldwide – EWG

In many ways, DuPont’s environmental crisis in the Ohio River Valley is now playing out in southeastern North Carolina, where the company made C8 at its Fayetteville Works plant before switching to a compound called GenX.  More:

• Part 1: Secrets, denials and toxic water: C8 in the Ohio River Valley – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 2: DuPont’s C8 leak in Fayetteville spurs fears of health crisis – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 3: Public learns of Cape Fear River toxins, 11 years later – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 4: For those exposed to GenX, an agonizing wait for answers – The Fayetteville Observer

If you only focus on diet and exercise you're missing a huge influence—chemicals in our environment that promote weight gain. More:

• Why are we so fat despite our best efforts? – EHN
• Environmental obesogens: organotins and endocrine disruption via nuclear receptor signaling (Research article)
• Uppsala Consensus Statement on Environmental Contaminants and the Global Obesity Epidemic (Research article)
• Metabolism disrupting chemicals and metabolic disorders (Research article)
• Obesogens: an emerging threat to public health (Expert review)