Across the former Soviet Union harmful agricultural chemicals were either buried or improperly stored. Now the process of clean-up has begun. More:
The Guardian

In the 1970s, when no one lived here, the local authorities thought that Tegul'det was an ideal spot to bury unwanted pesticide. Time passed and several families settled near the Tegul'det mound. It was an attractive spot, close to the river and not far from the main village. Tegul'det is far from being an isolated case. More:
The Guardian

As the phased-out stain repellent PFOS steadily decreases in people, its replacement is rising rapidly at levels that are doubling every six years, a Swedish study shows. Levels of perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) in the women's blood rose 11 percent per year between 1996 and 2010. Whether there are any potential health effects of these exposures -- which are still far lower than PFOS levels -- is unknown. More:
Environmental Health News

From plastics to flame retardants, the ubiquitous chemicals of our daily lives have raised public health concerns like never before. Inside the Beltway, however, data-crunching scientists are often no match for industry lobbyists and corporate lawyers. More:
Scientific American

Populations of otters, grey seals and sea eagles are slowly recovering in Sweden, which is likely to be thanks in part to a ban on organochlorine chemicals, such as PCBs and DDT, in the 1970s, according to a new study. However, the research shows that negative effects of these chemicals on the reproductive health of female animals persisted for more than 15 years after the ban was introduced. More:
Science for Environment Policy 

Prenatal and childhood exposure to flame retardant compounds are linked to poorer attention, fine motor coordination and IQ in school-aged children, a finding by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health that adds to growing health concerns over a chemical prevalent in U.S. households. More:
ScienceDaily

Couples with high levels of PCBs and similar environmental pollutants take longer to achieve pregnancy in comparison to other couples with lower levels of the pollutants, according to a preliminary study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. More:
NIH News - USA

In a sobering study published in the journal Environmental Health, researchers at UC Davis and UCLA measured food-borne toxin exposure in children and adults by pinpointing foods with high levels of toxic compounds and determining how much of these foods were consumed. The researchers found that family members in the study, and preschool children in particular, are at high risk for exposure to arsenic, dieldrin, DDE (a DDT metabolite), dioxins and acrylamide. More:
UCDavis Health System - California, USA

Legacy contaminants are decreasing more quickly than previously reported in three of the Great Lakes, but have stayed virtually the same in two other lakes, according to new research. “These are very positive results. The lakes are improving and slowly cleaning themselves up,” said Thomas Holsen, co-director of Clarkson University’s Center for the Environment. In all of the lakes, the older contaminants are being replaced by newer ones, mostly flame retardants, that are building up in fish and wildlife. More: 
Environmental Health News

A pregnant woman's exposure to chemicals that make consumer products stain and water resistant may affect the growth and weight of her daughter at birth and later in life as a toddler. A British study has found that newborns whose mothers had higher levels of the polyfluoroalkyl compounds PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS during pregnancy weighed between 3 and 5 ounces less than girls born to mothers with lower levels. At 20 months, the girls born to mothers with higher exposures to PFOS were heavier when compared to those with lower exposures. Prior animal and human studies show similar trends. More: 
Environmental Health News

The long running saga of DuPont and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), often called simply C8, has passed an important milestone with the delivery of the final report from an independent panel of experts tasked with determining its health effects. More: 
Chemistry World

C’est par la ville de Buea que le centre de Recherche et d’Education Pour le Développement (CREPD) a lancé, lundi dernier, la vaste campagne régionale contre les Polluants Organiques Persistants (POP), produits chimiques dangereux et toxiques pour l’homme et l’environnement, selon les experts. More: 
La Nouvelle Expression - Cameroun Actu (French)

Interview with Jim Willis, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions - As the Global Chemical Outlook points out, the 20th century led to the invention and worldwide use of thousands of synthetic chemicals whose global footprint has accumulated in almost every living thing, including human being. More:
Geneva International Cooperation

Geneva - Scientific experts meeting under the aegis of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) concluded a five-day meeting in Geneva Oct. 19 with an agreement to advance proposals that would lead to eventual restrictions on the production and sale of four chemicals. More:
Bloomberg BNA 

New Bedford, USA — A long-departed manufacturing company will pay $366 million to clean the PCB-laden harbor here, the largest cash settlement for a single site in the history of the federal Superfund program, government officials announced Wednesday. More:
The Boston Globe

Pesticides pervade the environment, from the air we breathe to the food we eat, and they are making children sicker than they were a generation ago, a new report warns. The authors' conclusions were based on dozens of recent scientific studies that have tied chemicals to children's health, and their report sought to bring collective meaning to those findings. More: San Francisco Chronicle
See also: A Generation in Jeopardy: How pesticides are undermining our children’s health & intelligence.

L'Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire (Anses, France) avait été saisie en septembre 2010 par la Direction générale de l'alimentation d'une demande d'avis relatif aux analyses de retardateurs de flamme bromés à mettre en œuvre dans le cadre des prochains plans de surveillance. Le 14 septembre dernier, elle rendait son avis sur cette question. More: 
www.actu-environnement,com (French)

Un mobile peut renfermer jusqu'à 40 éléments contenant des métaux lourds et des polluants organiques persistants. Armés de pinces, de ciseaux et de tournevis, les chercheurs de l'Ecology Center ont intégralement démonté les appareils pour soumettre tous leurs composants – processeur, circuits imprimés, écran, boutons, batteries... – à une analyse. More: 
Le Monde (French)
See also: 2012 Mobile Phone Study (English)

Even if all the dioxin were eliminated from the planet, Washington State University researchers say its legacy would live on in the way it turns genes on and off in the descendants of people exposed over the past half century. More:
Science Daily

It has been four decades since one of the most catastrophic agricultural disasters in U.S. history unfolded in the heart of Michigan, forcing the destruction of tens of thousands of cattle contaminated with polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, and allowing the chemical to slip onto the dinner plates and into the drinking glasses of nine out of 10 Michiganders. More:
Detroit Free Press - USA