Afternoon naps are a time-honored tradition in many child-care centers, as toddlers snuggle up on soft mats to drowse, daydream or fidget. The possibility that those mats could be exposing kids to toxic chemicals might come as a surprise to most parents and day-care workers. But a new analysis found potentially harmful flame retardants in the majority of mats at some day cares across Seattle (US). More:

• Nap mats at some Seattle child-care centers contain potentially harmful chemicals – The Seattle Times (US)
• New Warning to Consumers: Avoid These Flame Retardants – CR Consumer Reports
• Flame Retardants – US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Reducing public health threats by restricting the use of toxic flame retardants in certain consumer products – State of Washington House Bill 2545
• Exposure to brominated and organophosphate ester flame retardants in U.S. childcare environments: Effect of removal of flame-retarded nap mats on indoor levels (Research article)

First-of-its-kind study finds finished cabinetry is a major source of PCBs inside people's homes; scientists suspect wood sealants are the culprit. Researchers tested indoor air at 16 homes and found three types of PCBs are widespread and finished cabinets are the source of the toxics. More:

• Finished kitchen cabinets are emitting toxic PCBs – EHN
• A New Study Found Toxic Chemicals In Kitchen Cabinets, And Here's What You Need To Know – BuzzFeed.News
• Emissions of Tetrachlorobiphenyls (PCBs 47, 51, and 68) from Polymer Resin on Kitchen Cabinets as a Non-Aroclor Source to Residential Air (Research article)
• Stepping backward to improve assessment of PCB congener toxicities (Research article)
• Non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls induce a release of arachidonic acid in liver epithelial cells: a partial role of cytosolic phospholipase A(2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 signalling (Research article)
• In Vitro Toxicity Profiling of Ultrapure Non–Dioxin-like Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners and Their Relative Toxic Contribution to PCB Mixtures in Humans (Research article)

Two decades after pollution from highly toxic fluorinated chemicals was first reported in American communities and drinking water, the number of known contamination sites is growing rapidly, with no end in sight. The latest update of an interactive map by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University documents publicly known pollution from so-called PFAS chemicals at 94 industrial or military sites in 22 states. More:

• Fluorinated Chemical Pollution Crisis Spreads – EcoWatch
• Interactive map of toxic fluorinated chemicals in tap water at industrial or military sites – EWG
• Teflon chemical harmful at smallest doses – EWG
• Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Factsheet – US CDC
• New Teflon toxin found in North Carolina drinking water – The Intercept
• Algoma Township PFAS testing expands again – Michigan Live

Researchers study how pepper plants absorb common antimicrobial found in personal care items. More:

• Cleaning product toxins found in crops – COSMOS
• Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement – Endocrine Society
• Transformation, Conjugation, and Sequestration Following the Uptake of Triclocarban by Jalapeno Pepper Plants (Research article)

The unsightly ivory-colored meringue that rimmed the shore is a visible illustration of an ongoing national health and environmental disaster related to perfluorinated compounds. PFAS, as this group of chemicals is collectively called, are used to manufacture rain-repelling, stain-deflecting, heat-resisting consumer and industrial products like Teflon skillets, Gore-Tex jackets, and fire retardants. There’s a good chance that every home in America has products strengthened with one of the compounds. More:

• Fear and Fury in Michigan Town Where Air Force Contaminated Water –Circle of Blue
• Perfluorinated Chemicals Health Study Included in Congress Budget Deal –Circle of Blue
• Nonstick Chemicals Slipped Into Water, Causing Health, Environmental, Regulatory Mess –Circle of Blue

The state of North Carolina formally warned Chemours that in 60 days, it will prohibit the plant from emitting to the atmosphere hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and two related fluoroethers that hydrolyze into HFPO-DA. One of those chemicals is GenX, a surfactant used as a polymerization aid to manufacture fluoropolymers. Fluoropolymers are used as membranes in fuel cells and to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide. More:

• North Carolina cracks down on Chemours’s fluoroether air pollution – C&EN
• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant? – C&EN
• GenX chemicals taint sediments – C&EN

The levels of harmful flame retardants in children's blood are dropping every year, according to a new study of kids from New York City. The flame retardants—polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)— were used for decades in furniture, electronics and clothing in an effort to slow the spread of flames if they catch fire. The chemicals were voluntarily phased out starting in 2004 because they build up in the environment and people—PBDEs are found in the air (in and outside our homes), some food, and in people all around the world.

• Good News: Toxic flame retardants declining in NYC kids’ blood – EHN
• Ten Years After California Ban, Big Drop in Fire Retardants in Breast Milk – EWG
• Temporal trends and developmental patterns of plasma polybrominated diphenyl ether concentrations over a 15-year period between 1998 and 2013 (Research article)

A byproduct of yellow pigment manufacturing is showing up in Great Lakes air—and it isn't going away Toxic PCBs are on a steady decrease in Great Lakes region air but over the past decade one type remains constant—it's likely due to yellow pigment manufacturing. More:

• Most PCBs are decreasing near the Great Lakes—but one’s not. Why? – EHN
• Atmospheric Concentrations of PCB-11 Near the Great Lakes Have Not Decreased Since 2004  (Research article)
• Partial pressures of PCB-11 in air from several Great Lakes sites (Research article)
• Global distribution and local impacts of inadvertently generated polychlorinated biphenyls in pigments (Research article)
• Inadvertent Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Commercial Paint Pigments (Research article)
• A New Player in Environmentally Induced Oxidative Stress: Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congener, 3,3′-Dichlorobiphenyl (PCB11) (Research article)
• PCBs and OH-PCBs in Serum from Children and Mothers in Urban and Rural U.S. Communities (Research article)

When Donald Taves discovered two kinds of fluoride in his blood in the late 1960s, he immediately knew something was wrong. Everyone assumed that blood contained just one type of fluoride, a naturally occurring form that health officials added to drinking water to prevent cavities. But levels in people’s blood didn’t seem to relate to those found in their water supply. More:

• In search of safe replacements for harmful chemicals used in cookware, carpets, clothing, cosmetics and more – ENSIA
• Short-chain Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) - A literature review of information on human health effects and environmental fate and effect aspects of short-chain PFAS – The Danish Environmental Protection Agency
• New Chemicals Program Review of Alternatives for PFOA and Related Chemicals – US EPA
• Fact Sheet: PFOA & PFOS Drinking Water HealthAdvisories – US EPA
• Fluorinated Compounds in U.S. Fast Food Packaging (Research article)
• Release of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) from Carpet and Clothing in Model Anaerobic Landfill Reactors (Research article)
• Comparing the toxic potency in vivo of long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids and fluorinated alternatives (Research article)
• Hazard assessment of fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and their precursors: status quo, ongoing challenges and possible solutions (Research article)
• Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals in the U.S. Population: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004 and Comparisons with NHANES 1999–2000 (Research article)
• PFCS: global contaminants: PFCS in animals worldwide – EWG

In many ways, DuPont’s environmental crisis in the Ohio River Valley is now playing out in southeastern North Carolina, where the company made C8 at its Fayetteville Works plant before switching to a compound called GenX.  More:

• Part 1: Secrets, denials and toxic water: C8 in the Ohio River Valley – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 2: DuPont’s C8 leak in Fayetteville spurs fears of health crisis – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 3: Public learns of Cape Fear River toxins, 11 years later – The Fayetteville Observer
• Part 4: For those exposed to GenX, an agonizing wait for answers – The Fayetteville Observer

If you only focus on diet and exercise you're missing a huge influence—chemicals in our environment that promote weight gain. More:

• Why are we so fat despite our best efforts? – EHN
• Environmental obesogens: organotins and endocrine disruption via nuclear receptor signaling (Research article)
• Uppsala Consensus Statement on Environmental Contaminants and the Global Obesity Epidemic (Research article)
• Metabolism disrupting chemicals and metabolic disorders (Research article)
• Obesogens: an emerging threat to public health (Expert review)

Le Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN) et le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) annoncent les résultats principaux de deux réseaux de suivi des oiseaux sur le territoire français et évoquent un phénomène de « disparition massive », « proche de la catastrophe écologique ». « Les oiseaux des campagnes françaises disparaissent à une vitesse vertigineuse, précisent les deux institutions dans un communiqué commun. En moyenne, leurs populations se sont réduites d’un tiers en quinze ans. » More:

• Les oiseaux disparaissent des campagnes françaises à une « vitesse vertigineuse » – Le Monde

Luring falcons to farms can keep pesky insects, rodents and other critters in check—putting a dent in poison and pesticide use. Summer carloads of sweet-toothed tourists, flush with cash and seeking local pies and jams, are an economic godsend in the cherry-growing region. Other hungry visitors are less welcome—voles, weevils, fruit flies, grasshoppers and pest birds do significant damage to local crops. More:

• Protecting crops with predators instead of poisons–EHN
• Poisons Used to Kill Rodents Have Safer Alternatives–Audubon
• Second generation anticoagulant rodenticide assessment (Department of Pesticide Regulation, Canada)
• Pesticides Use and Exposure Extensive Worldwide (Research article)
• Pest-removal services provided by birds on small organic farms in northern California (Research article)
• Enhancing agricultural landscapes to increase crop pest reduction by vertebrates (Research article)
• Prey Consumption by a Large Aggregation of Barn Owls in anAgricultural Setting (Research article)
• Avian predators as a biological control system of common vole (Microtus arvalis) populations in north‐western Spain (Research article)
• Establishing songbird nest boxes increased avian insectivores and reduced herbivorous arthropods in a Californian vineyard, USA (Research article)
• Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards (Research article)
• Bird damage to select fruit crops: The cost of damage and the benefits of control in five states (Research article)
• Effects of Introducing Threatened Falcons into Vineyards on Abundance of Passeriformes and Bird Damage to Grapes (Research article)

Glaciers, like many venerable objects, can act as time capsules. Like a dusty vinyl record holds an era’s songs, ice holds very old molecules—not just the H2O of snow, but traces of airborne particles like dust, ash, and chemicals that hitched a ride on falling flakes. In the Antarctic, Adélie penguins harbor consistent levels of the pesticide DDT. More:

• Melting Glaciers Do More Than Raise Sea Levels–Hakai magazine
• Melting Glaciers: A Probable Source of DDT to the Antarctic Marine Ecosystem (Research article)

Chemours is facing demands from North Carolina regulators to curb atmospheric releases of fluorinated chemicals from the company’s factory. More:

• Chemours told to cut fluorocarbon air pollution from North Carolina plant–C&EN
• State orders Chemours to control additional sources of GenX contamination–NC Department of Environmental Quality
• GenX Investigation–NC Department of Environmental Quality
• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant?–C&EN
• Partitioning and removal of perfluorooctanoate during rain events: the importance of physical-chemical properties (Research article)

Pesticides accumulate in bodies with high fat content. This conclusion has been reported by scientists who have been studying seabirds and marine mammals of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea for several years. In a scientific article, the authors presented the results of a study of organochlorine pesticide (OCP) build-up in the bodies of seabirds and marine mammals living in the north-western part of the Pacific Ocean. More:

• Pesticides found to accumulate in fat tissue–Phys.org
• Organochlorine pesticide accumulation in seabirds and marine mammals from the Northwest Pacific (Research article)

The study is the first to link the group of chemicals, PFASs [perfluoroalkyl substances], to weight gain and obesity, and suggests that exposure to the toxics may counteract weight loss efforts by slowing down people's metabolism. More:

• Another potential PFAS problem: Weight gain–EHN
• Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and Michigan (News clippings)
• GenX (News clippings)
• Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate in response to weight-loss diets: A prospective study (Research article)
• Trends in exposure to polyfluoroalkyl chemicals in the U.S. Population: 1999-2008 (Research article)
• Detection of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in U.S. Drinking Water Linked to Industrial Sites, Military Fire Training Areas, and Wastewater Treatment Plants (Research article)

Chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—used frequently in fast-food wrappers and other products for their oil- and water-repellant properties—have been linked to hormone disruption, immune dysfunction, high cholesterol and even cancer. Now, a new study suggests that exposure to the chemicals could make it harder to keep weight off after dieting. More:

• Environmental Chemicals Found in Non-Stick Pans Are Linked to Weight Gain–TIME
• Chemicals in packaging, carpets and non-stick pans 'may contribute to obesity'–The Guardian
• Many fast food wrappers still coated in PFCS, kin to carcinogenic Teflon chemical–EWG
• Household Chemical Linked to Heart Disease–Health.com
• Perfluoroalkylated substances in food: occurrence and dietary exposure (Scientific Report of EFSA)
• Fluorinated Compounds in U.S. Fast Food Packaging (Research article)
• Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate in response to weight-loss diets: A prospective study (Research article)
• Perfluorooctanoic Acid and Cardiovascular Disease in US Adults (Research article)

Discovery of a class of industrial compounds called fluoroethers in public tap water last year shocked hundreds of thousands of North Carolina residents who had been drinking the tainted liquid. Scientists are racing to find out why. More:

• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant?–C&EN
• Toxic tap water–A Wilmington StarNews investigation
• Legacy and Emerging Perfluoroalkyl Substances Are Important Drinking Water Contaminants in the Cape Fear River Watershed of North Carolina (Research article)
• Identification of Novel Perfluoroalkyl Ether Carboxylic Acids (PFECAs) and Sulfonic Acids (PFESAs) in Natural Waters Using Accurate Mass Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (TOFMS) (Research article)
• Cytotoxicity of novel fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl substances to human liver cell line and their binding capacity to human liver fatty acid binding protein (Research article)
• Comparing the toxic potency in vivo of long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids and fluorinated alternatives (Research article)

An investigative news series about perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or C8, associated compounds such as PFOS and GenX, and their negative impact on human health. More:

• The Teflon Toxin (News series) –The Intercept