Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
EPA Aims To Repeal, Delay Some Limits On PFAS In Drinking Water
The Hill: Trump Proposes Partial Rollback Of ‘Forever Chemical’ Drinking Water Protections
The Trump administration on Monday moved to partially roll back drinking water protections from toxic “forever chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to allow some delays for water systems to regulate these chemicals. It also said it would rescind four of the six types of forever chemicals covered under a Biden-era rule. (Frazin, 5/18)
AP: AP Fact Check: Trump Distorts Recent Revisions Of Scientific Projections Of Global Warming
President Donald Trump recently blasted the accuracy of global warming projections in a Truth Social post that itself painted a distorted view of the science, projections and how the international community discusses climate policy. Every several years, the United Nations produces massive scientific reports on what’s happening and likely to happen with human-caused global warming. Scientists update some of the scenarios used to make future projections. One key control knob, which determines the amount and impact of future climate change, is carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. The more carbon pollution, the more global warming, so scientists base their projections on a buffet of potential scenarios. (Borenstein, 5/18)
More environmental health news —
VTDigger: Vermont Officials Respond To Ongoing PFAS Contamination Concerns
The state of Vermont is offering well testing, free water and other support for southern Bennington and Shaftsbury in the wake of research last year that found PFAS contamination in the Bennington area has spread and worsened over time. The state is also in active negotiations with the current corporate owner of the now shuttered ChemFab factory in Bennington, which produced Teflon-coated fiberglass fabrics, containing PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid. (Solsaa, 5/18)
AP: New Mexico Wildfire Sparked By Medical Plane Crash Spurs Evacuations
A fast-growing wildfire sparked by the fatal crash of a small medical plane outside Ruidoso, New Mexico, has triggered evacuations for a rural area north of the Capitan Mountains and closures in the Lincoln National Forest, officials said Monday. The plane was en route from Roswell Air Center to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport when it crashed before dawn Thursday, killing the four people aboard. They were identified as pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara with the company Generation Jets and flight nurses Jamie Novick and Sarah Clark with Trans Aero MedEvac. (Peters, 5/18)
Mountain State Spotlight: OSHA Has 6 Inspectors To Keep 60,000 West Virginia Workplaces Safe
When two workers died last month in a violent chemical reaction at Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners near Charleston, federal records showed the facility had previously been cited for safety violations in 2018. But that doesn’t mean inspectors had regularly checked on the operation in the years between. In fact, the facility had not been inspected again before the fatal incident, highlighting a problem with workplace safety in West Virginia and across the country: federal inspectors do not regularly inspect the most dangerous workplaces. (Spencer, 5/18)
The Frontier, ProPublica: Oklahoma Family Fights Regulators Over Oily Sludge Flooding Their Home
The Frontier and ProPublica’s reporting on oil and gas pollution in Oklahoma over the last year has shown how old oil wells abandoned by the industry pose severe public and environmental health risks. Officially, the state lists 19,000 orphan wells that state regulators are responsible for cleaning up, but the true figure is likely over 300,000, according to federal researchers. State records suggest that the Merediths’ house may have been built on top of an improperly plugged oil well drilled in the 1940s. ... State regulators, according to the family, have done little to help them. (Bowlin and Campbell, 5/18)
The Washington Post: Scientists Now Say This Worst-Case Climate Scenario Is ‘Implausible.’ Here’s What It Means.
A U.N. panel on climate change seems poised to retire RCP 8.5, a scenario in which the world does nothing to curb planet-warming emissions, in its projections. (Dennis, 5/19)
