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)

Collection of accurate and reliable data is a prerequisite for informed risk assessment and risk management. Both scientists carrying out risk assessments and decision-makers in Europe need up-to-date and comparable information across Member States on hazards found in the food chain and on food consumption. More:
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

A study finds lower IQ (intelligence quotient) in children born to mothers who during their pregnancy were living in close proximity to chemical-intensive agricultural lands where organophosphate pesticides were used. More:

• Study Adds to Findings that Link Prenatal Pesticide Exposure to lower IQs - Beyond pesticides
• Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticide Use and IQ in 7-Year-Old Children (Resarch article)

US chemicals giant DuPont must pay more than $5 million (£3.8 million) to an Ohio man whose testicular cancer has been linked to drinking water contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; C8) from a DuPont plant in West Virginia, a federal jury ruled on 6 July. More:
Chemistry World

A panel of epidemiologists, toxicologists, microbiologists and other scientists critiqued and then supported the National Toxicology Program's draft analysis that concluded perfluorooctanoic acid, more commonly known as PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, are presumed to be immune hazards to humans. More: 

• PFOA, PFOS Likely Hazardous to Immune System: Scientists - Bloomberg BNA
• Immunotoxicity Associated with Exposure to Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) or Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) - US National Toxicology Program

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency have found that the majority of chemicals in use today have not been sufficiently examined for human health toxicity or environmental exposure. A new chemical bill was signed providing the decades-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) with a much-needed retrofit. More:
Smithsonian.com

How do we determine if a chemical is an endocrine disruptor? With more than 100,000 chemicals on the global market, it is a tremendous challenge to identify those that might cause harm to humans or wildlife. Scientists encourage decision makers around the world to adopt a new chemical evaluation tool that could save lives and money.

• Commentary: Identifying the "bad actors"— new challenges for the evaluation of endocrine disrupting chemicals - EHN
• A proposed framework for the systematic review and integrated assessment (SYRINA) of endocrine disrupting chemicals (Scientific article)

As part of the Contaminants in the Urban Environment series, an informative article is published on Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), also known as perfluorochemicals (PFCs). The publication is intended to give a basic understanding of the occurrence, toxic effects, and source of various contaminants in the environment and a guidance on ways to protect human and environmental health. More:

• Contaminants in the Urban Environment: Perfluoroalkyl Substances - University of Florida/IFAS
• Contaminantes en el Medio Ambiente Urbano: Los Perfluoroalquilos (Spanish)

In a new report, dozens of scientists, health practitioners and children's health advocates are calling for renewed attention to the growing evidence that many common and widely available chemicals endanger neurodevelopment in fetuses and children of all ages. More:

• A host of common chemicals endanger child brain development - ScienceDaily
• Project TENDR: Targeting Environmental Neuro-Developmental Risks. The TENDR Consensus Statement (Scientific consensus statement)

Biomonitoring data of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in breast milk are increasingly collected and available for quantitative analysis of levels and time trends. Five recommendations are proposed for dealing with POP concentration trends in breast milk during three distinct periods (pre-ban, transition, post-ban period). More:
Recommendations for Evaluating Temporal Trends of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Breast Milk (Research article)

Fluorinated compounds are everywhere. A bouquet of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), prized for their ability to repel both water and oils, have been used in diverse applications from non-stick frying pans to firefighting foams for decades. Yet they resist degradation, making them almost ubiquitous in the environment; and they tend to bioaccumulate in living creatures, raising health worries. More:
Chemistry World

Fish show high concentrations but since microplastics are mostly present in the stomach and intestines they are usually removed and consumers are not exposed to them. But in crustaceans and bivalve molluscs like oysters and mussels, you eat the digestive tract so there is some exposure there. Trophic transfer of POPs within the marine food webs has been reported to be associated with oceanic plastics and biomagnification of POPs has been found. More: 

• EFSA issues statement on microplastics and nanoplastics in food - New Food
• Presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in food, with particular focus on seafood (EFSA statement)