#ePA

Trump EPA Risks Health of Millions With Giveaway to Corporate Polluters That Use Cancer-Causing Gas While US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Friday presented a proposed policy change as a demonstration of the Trump administration's commitment to "ensuring lifesaving medical devices remain available," public health advocates warned that relaxing rules on emissions of the cancer-causing gas ethylene oxide puts millions of Americans at risk. As The New York Times explained: "The move revived a long-running debate about the paradoxical effects of ethylene oxide on public health. While it plays a crucial role in sterilizing lifesaving medical devices like pacemakers and syringes, long-term exposure can cause leukemia and other types of cancer among people who work in or live near medical sterilization facilities." The EPA proposal would amend the Biden administration's 2024 National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for facilities that use ethylene oxide, which the agency estimated would have eliminated over 90% of dangerous pollution from the gas. The previous policy was cheered by organizations including Earthjustice, which sounded the alarm on Friday. "The 2024 standards would have delivered enormous public health benefits. EPA knows that ethylene oxide is carcinogenic and determined that sterilizers can install effective and affordable pollution controls," said Earthjustice senior attorney Deena Tumeh. "EPA has no basis to...

18 hours ago

Trump EPA Risks Health of Millions With Giveaway to Corporate Polluters That Use Cancer-Causing Gas
->Common Dreams | More on "EPA ethylene oxide cancer risk" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA #Health #TrumpFascism #NoDecency

0 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

EPA Announces $38 Million WIFIA Loan to Expand Drinking Water Services in Park City ... WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a $38 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the Mountain Regional Water Special Service District serving the Park City area of Summit County Utah. Enhanced water infrastructure will also benefit approximately 24,000 local residents and will help expand water treatment capacity and processes in preparation for the winter games. “Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is an exciting opportunity, putting Utah back on the world stage while boosting the local economy. At EPA, we are thrilled to support this effort and help ensure the 2034 Games are a shining success,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer. “That means enhancing and expanding water infrastructure in the greater Park City area, especially near the three ski venues, to support an influx of visitors. I am proud that EPA’s role in this project – through its $38 million WIFIA loan – will provide support for the Olympics as well as the long-term health of Utah’s economy.” The Mountain Regional Water Special Service District will use WIFIA financing to double water treatment capacity and address emerging contaminants at its Signal Hill Water Treatment Plant. This effort, called the Signal...

1 day ago

EPA Announces $38 Million WIFIA Loan to Expand Drinking Water Services in Park City ...
->Environmental Protection Agency | More on "EPA water infrastructure Utah Olympics" at BigEarthData.ai | #DrinkingWater #EPA

1 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

EPA Public-Private Partnership Advances Gold Standard Science to Protect Water Resources WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is renewing a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) initiated under the first Trump Administration with eight associations representing the aluminum, cobalt, copper, lead, zinc, and nickel industries. This agreement will help ensure that the agency’s actions related to metals and aquatic life are informed by the best available gold standard science and data. “EPA is committed to working with industry partners to share resources, data, and expertise to advance gold standard science that supports economic growth and environmental protection,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer. “This collaborative and commonsense approach ensures that we consider the latest scientific developments as we work to protect water resources and Power the Great American Comeback.” Since 2017, the CRADA with metals stakeholders has been an effective partnership that leverages expert knowledge and resources of scientists both inside and outside EPA to gather and analyze the latest information on metals toxicity and their potential effects on aquatic life. EPA uses this information when developing recommendations that states can adopt to protect water quality under the Clean Water Act. Not only has this partnership saved taxpayer dollars, but it also supported key...

1 day ago

EPA Public-Private Partnership Advances Gold Standard Science to Protect Water Resources
->Environmental Protection Agency | More on "EPA metals aquatic science partnership" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA #Science #Water

0 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

EPA says it will slash workload after IG flags slashed workforce as overburdened The Environmental Protection Agency has shed too many employees to manage its large portfolio of grants, its inspector general found in a new report released on Thursday, and it has not taken steps to plan for the new workload it took on under President Biden. The Trump administration pushed back on the finding, saying instead that it was slashing grants and the workload would therefore decrease commensurate with staffing cuts. The inspector general did not accept that rationale, noting employees are handling more grants than the agency itself has recommended. About half of EPA’s budget each year goes to states, localities and other entities in the form of grants. EPA saw a sudden surge in funding for grants under the Biden administration, after he signed into law a major infrastructure bill in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. The extra funding led to a 56% increase in EPA’s grants between 2018 and 2025. The value of those grants skyrocketed by 338% over that period. EPA employs both grant specialists and project officers to oversee that work, who respectively manage the administrative and technical aspects of the agreements. The agency lost 113 grant specialists and project officers since May...

1 day ago

EPA says it will slash workload after IG flags slashed workforce as overburdened
->Government Executive | More on "EPA workforce grants oversight cuts" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA

1 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

Trump EPA moves to roll back recent limits on ethyene oxide, a carcinogen The Trump administration on Friday moved to roll back Biden-era limits on emissions of ethylene oxide, a cancer causing chemical, often used in the sterilization of medical devices. The Environmental Protection agency said repealing the rules, which fall under the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, would “safeguard the supply of essential medical equipment” — saving approximately $630 million for companies over 20 years. California is home to about a dozen such facilities. The government said the emissions are part and parcel of protecting people from “lethal or significantly debilitating infections that would result without properly sterilized medical equipment.” “The Trump EPA is committed to ensuring life-saving medical devices remain available for the critical care of America’s children, elderly, and all patients without unnecessary exposure to communities,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. An estimated 50% of sterile medical devices in the U.S. are treated with ethylene oxide, or EtO, particularly those that can’t be cleaned using steam or radiation. The colorless gas is also used to make chemicals found in products such as antifreeze, detergents, plastics and adhesives. But EtO poses health risks. Short-term exposure by inhalation can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue respiratory irritation and...

1 day ago

Trump EPA moves to roll back recent limits on ethyene oxide, a carcinogen
->Los Angeles Times | More on "EPA rolling back ethylene oxide" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA #TrumpFascism #NoDecency

0 0 0 0

FiveToePhil

@fivetoephil.bsky.social

1 day ago

E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

RIP #EPA.

Do they really want poisoned air, water, and land?

We MUST win the midterms to bring sanity back to America.

We MUST win BOTH the House AND the Senate.

We will IMPEACH the entire mob.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/c...

1 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

EPA Bows to Corporate Polluters, Abandons Duty to Protect Public from Sterilizers' Ethylene Oxide Emissions "And my mother and father," he added. "Praise be to God. God's greatness is abundant." According to Al Jazeera, the man's brother-in-law and nephew were also killed in the strike. "The Israeli enemy says every day that it is targeting infrastructure," he told the Qatar-based news network. "Is this the infrastructure?" It was a devastating scene repeated in other parts of Lebanon, including the south, were a distraught mother on Friday reportedly buried five sons killed by Israeli bombing, and in the Ghobeiry neighborhood of central Beirut earlier this week, when an Israeli airstrike destroyed the home of the Hamdan family, reportedly killing father Ahmad Hamdan, his three daughters, and two grandchildren. As of Tuesday, Hamdan's wife was missing beneath the rubble of their bombed-out home. As in Gaza—where officials say that more than 2,700 families have been erased from the civil registry during Israel's ongoing genocide and around 6,000 other families have only a single surviving member—entire Lebanese families have been wiped out by Israeli strikes since October 2023. In one such strike on the Maronite Christian village of Aitou in October 2024, members of four generations of one family were killed, with 22 victims ranging in age from...

1 day ago

EPA Bows to Corporate Polluters, Abandons Duty to Protect Public from Sterilizers' Ethylene Oxide Emissions
->Common Dreams | More info at BigEarthData.ai | #ClimateChange #Emission #EPA

0 1 0 0

The Flies

@theflies.bsky.social

1 day ago

When 'normal regulatory process' means CEO meeting in June, four federal wins by March The EPA lawyer who attended the June meeting with Bayer's CEO is the same lawyer who signed the March brief supporting Bayer at the Supreme Court.

Four angles. One story. More at gettheflies.com/when-normal-regulatory-p...

#TheFlies #EPA #Bayer #Glyphosate

0 0 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

Trump EPA moves to repeal regulation of cancer-linked chemical ethylene oxide Many medical devices need to be sterile to be used safely. But sterilizing a pacemaker, catheter, or other device with steam or heat could damage its structural integrity. So medical device manufacturers turn to the chemical compound ethylene oxide, which is highly effective at killing microbes at low concentrations and allows companies to meet the Food and Drug Administration’s strict sterility standards. As a result, roughly half of all medical devices in the country are sterilized with ethylene oxide, or EtO, making it a linchpin of the medical device industry. There’s just one problem: EtO is a toxic gas that has been linked to cancers of the breast and lymph nodes. Roughly 90 facilities across the country deploy the chemical for sterilization. These nondescript facilities often resemble warehouses and are located in residential neighborhoods and near schools. In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency discovered that dozens of these facilities presented an unacceptable cancer risk to surrounding communities. Two years later, the federal agency, led at the time by the Biden administration, announced new regulations to limit the amount of the chemical released into the air. The rule required sterilization facilities to install equipment to capture and burn ethylene oxide and...

1 day ago

Trump EPA moves to repeal regulation of cancer-linked chemical ethylene oxide
->Grist | More on "Ethylene oxide cancer regulation repeal" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA #TrumpFascism #NoDecency

0 0 0 0

Mathew Helman

@mathelman.bsky.social

1 day ago

E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

Yes, it is factually accurate to say that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to give you cancer.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/c...

#EPA #cancer

4 2 0 0

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

'Exacerbating the climate crisis': Michael Regan reacts to major changes at EPA under Trump Since he returned to the White House, President Donald Trump has overturned many of the Biden administration’s environmental policies, especially those involving climate change. North Carolina native Michael Regan oversaw many of those policies as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President Joe Biden. During his time, the agency brought back hundreds of scientists who left during the first Trump administration, focused on environmental justice and drilled in on combating climate change. But recently, the EPA, now led by a Trump appointee, former Rep. Lee Zeldin, retreated from those fights. The agency revoked the Obama-era finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health. The finding had been used to establish the legal basis for many climate regulations. Zeldin said for 16 years consumer choice had been restricted and reversing that will return common sense to policy. The repeal eliminates the emissions standards for cars and trucks. The decision concerns Regan, who spoke with Spectrum News on the campus of his alma mater North Carolina A&T University, where he was recently named a board of trustees member. “Not only are we removing ourselves from a competitive position to develop technologies to compete with the rest of the world,...

1 day ago

'Exacerbating the climate crisis': Michael Regan reacts to major changes at EPA under Trump
->Spectrum News | More on "EPA climate policy under Trump" at BigEarthData.ai | #EPA #NoDecency #ClimateCrisis #TrumpFascism #ClimateChange

2 0 0 0

Paul Hallasy

@paulhallasy.bsky.social

1 day ago

E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/c... Another way the Trump EPA is trying to kill us. #EPA

0 0 0 0

Aric Caplan

@aric-advocates.bsky.social

1 day ago

E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

Actions speak louder than words: The #EPA is committed to ensuring lifesaving medical devices remain available for the critical care of America’s #children, #elderly and all patients without unnecessary exposure to #communities, said Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. chief. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/c...

0 0 0 0

1 day ago

…“This administration is systematically looking for ways to let polluters off the hook,” Sarah Buckley, a senior atty at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said… “If this abuse of authority is left unchecked, communities will pay the price in higher #cancer risks.”

…The #EPA will solicit […]

0 1 0 0

1 day ago

…inhaling the gas can cause coughing, dizziness, fatigue & nausea. Long-term exposure can damage the #brain & central nervous system & can increase the risk of breast #cancer, #leukemia, #lymphoma & other #cancers of the white blood cells.

The #EPA first classified #EthyleneOxide as a human […]

0 0 1 0

1 day ago

The agency’s proposed rule would loosen limits on #EthyleneOxide #emissions from around 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country. Roughly 2.3 million people live within two miles of these facilities in what are often #LowIncome neighborhoods or #CommunitiesOfColor, according to […]

0 0 1 0

1 day ago

The move revived a long-running debate about the paradoxical effects of #EthyleneOxide on #PublicHealth. While it plays a crucial role in sterilizing lifesaving medical devices like pacemakers & syringes, long-term exposure can cause #leukemia & other types of #cancer among people who #work in […]

0 1 1 0

1 day ago