Banned for indoor use since 2001, the effects of the common insecticide known as chlorpyrifos can still be found in the brains of young children now approaching puberty. A new study used magnetic imaging to reveal that those children exposed to chlorpyrifos in the womb had persistent changes in their brains throughout childhood. The brains [...]

Cigarette maker Philip Morris spent years studying whether additives, such as menthol, added to the toxicity of their smokes. And several published studies—conducted by the company—have claimed that the additives had no impact on the danger of their products.  But thanks to lawsuits against the tobacco industry, a trove of previously secret scientific and corporate [...]

The ongoing bedbug epidemic has been a pain—if not full-on pestilence—for those infested and for those in constant terror of becoming so. The biting bugs are not known to carry infectious diseases like other bloodsuckers, such as ticks or mosquitoes. But the chemicals used to beat back these tiny insects seem to be making some [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released results of its second round of toxicity testing on dispersants—chemicals used to break up the oil that spewed for nearly 90 days into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s Macondo well. This new round focused on the specific oil in question—Louisiana sweet crude—alone and in conjunction with eight dispersants, [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released preliminary data Wednesday from its own toxicity testing for eight dispersants in a bid to corroborate potentially suspect industry-provided results. But questions remain about the safety of these chemicals that can be used to break up oil spills, including COREXIT 9500, which is being employed on a massive scale [...]

First U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson warned in September 2009 that reform of chemical regulations was coming and that bisphenol A, or BPA—a building block of many plastics—was among those that might be due for enhanced scrutiny. Then the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it had concerns about BPA and would conduct [...]