New testing shows low levels of a banned toxic chemical are still showing up in a variety of everyday products including paints, newspapers, magazines and cardboard food packaging. The tests found the compound at low levels in 49 different products, according to a report released by the The Washington Department of Ecology. More:
EarthFix

Children from the Midwest involved in a prospective study are the third U.S. birth cohort to show strikingly consistent associations between prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants and impaired performance on neurodevelopment tests later in childhood. More:
Environmental Health Perspectives

Waste from soft furnishings like curtains, cushions and sofas should be discarded with the same caution as electronics, say scientists. Both types of waste contain brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which have been shown to damage the environment and human health. More:
Planet Earth Online

Vietnam will stop using all types of machinery and equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), one of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs), by 2020 and safely dispose the substance by 2028.
VietNamNet - Viet Nam

The Agricultural Ministry has taken measures to control pesticides with a view to safeguard public health and the environment as the Ministry found that it is compulsory to change the act on pesticides to meet the modern day requirements. Organic fertilizer is suitable for the country's agriculture as Sri Lanka still practices traditional methods. More:
www.news.lk - Sri Lanka

In all urban markets of Nepal, farmers are selling heavily poisoned vegetables and fruits. This is because of the overuse of insecticides and pesticides. And toxic chemicals are used to preserve fruits and vegetables during transportation and storage till they reach the consumers. More:
The Himalayan - Nepal

Birds are providing some insight into contamination in the Great Lakes. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey are observing the nesting patterns of tree swallows along the banks of the lakes and are collecting blood from their babies to monitor levels of some toxins. More:
The Columbus Dispatch - USA

On June 13, 2014, the World Bank approved a US$ 8.10 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF)* for Egypt’s “Sustainable Persistent Organic Pollutants Management Project (POPs)” More:
The World Bank

When Penelope Jagessar Chaffer became pregnant, her obstetrician warned her to avoid alcohol, cigarettes and mercury-laden tuna. Dangers posed to her unborn child by industrial chemicals such as flame retardants, pesticides and plastics, however, never came up. Chaffer's prenatal care experience is more or less the norm, according to a national survey that gauged obstetricians' stances on counseling pregnant patients about environmental health hazards.More:
www.huffingtonpost.com

Tests on 125 consumer and children’s products show some manufacturers have replaced flame retardants banned in many products sold in Washington, with unregulated - but also potentially toxic - chemicals. A report containing test results is available. More:
Bonney Lake Courier-Hearld - USA

Across Antarctica, wastewater from dozens of research bases, housing up to 5,000 people at a time, mostly scientists, is releasing chemicals into the environment—and into penguins and other wildlife. The most recent culprit: a toxic flame retardant called Hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD. More:
National Geographic

Throwing on pajamas and curling up with a magazine could mean exposure to chemicals banned several decades ago. New, unpublished research has found that traces of polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world. More:
Environmental Health News

Researchers from Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority in Germany have made a study of Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and “novel” brominated flame retardants in house dust.

Researchers from Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences have made a study of development of PFOS and PFOA criteria for the protection of freshwater aquatic life in China.

Past laboratory research has associated perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) with liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancers in rodents.  Now a major epidemiological study published in EHP reports an association between PFOA exposure and kidney and testicular cancers in individuals who lived near and worked at a plant that produced the chemical. More:
Environmental Health Perspectives

22/10/2013 - The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, a subsidiary body of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), recommended the inclusion of polychlorinated napththalenes (PCN) and hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) to the UN-backed major treaty banning hazardous chemicals. Every human in the world carries in his or her body traces of POPs, which circulate globally through a process known as the “grasshopper effect” and include chemicals which are agents that that can kill people, damage the nervous and immune systems, cause cancer and reproductive disorders and interfere with normal infant and child development.

Scientists have documented for the first time that banned flame retardants have declined in people in the United States, where levels of the chemicals had been growing exponentially. The small study, reported that levels in pregnant California women were 65 percent lower than in a similar group of women tested three years earlier. More:
Environmental Health News

Shoppers spend over £10 billion on bananas annually and now this demand is being linked to the contamination of Central America's crocodilians. A research analyses blood samples from spectacled caiman in Costa Rica and finds that intensive pesticide use in plantations leads to contaminated species in protected conservation areas. More:
ScienceDaily

To protect delicate eardrums, around 8 to 10 baleen whale species have ear canals that are naturally sealed off from the external environment. Over the years, earwax begins to build in the narrow tubes. Like tree rings, layers found within whale earplugs are already used to help researchers estimate an animal’s age. In this new study, scientists guessed that the wax may have more secrets to tell. More:
www.smithsonianmag.com

San Francisco - In the coastal redwood forests of central California, scientists trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the reproductive problems of dozens of endangered condors think they have uncovered the culprit: the long-banned pesticide DDT. More:
www.thecalifornian.com