Trump Sabotages Obama-Era Chemical Law

He stacks the EPA with industry lobbyists Who put corporate profits ahead of public safety

By Sarah Okeson

Former President Barack Obama signed an overhaul of a landmark law in 2016 intended to protect people from being killed or maimed by chemicals, but Donald Trump is sabotaging the law to help the profits of chemical companies.

David Fischer, a former employee of the American Chemistry Council, recently replaced former chemical industry lobbyist Nancy Beck, another former employee of the council, as deputy assistant administrator at the EPA chemical safety office. The council whose members include DuPont and ExxonMobil Chemical spent $9.3 million on federal lobbying in 2018.

The EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Chemical Council

Corporate criminals skate under Trump

Sweet Deals for Corporate Wrongdoers

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

We have been hearing plenty this year about the unwillingness of the Justice Department to bring criminal charges against Donald Trump, but a new report from Public Citizen shows there is an even bigger non-prosecution scandal when it comes to lawbreaking by large corporations.

Soft on Corporate Crime is a detailed analysis of the long-standing yet still disturbing practice by which big companies found to be involved in serious misconduct are given a sweet deal not typically available to individual criminals. 

These deals, known as non-prosecution and deferred prosecution agreements, allow the company to avoid criminal charges if it admits to the wrongdoing, pays a penalty, and signs an agreement that leaves open the prospect of future prosecution if the bad behavior continues.

Using data from the Corporate Prosecution Registry, Public Citizen examined the 535 NPAs and DPAs the Justice Department has entered into since 1992. 

Two terms for Trump

What Lindsay Graham used to believe

What goes around, comes around

What happens when you flush?

Bill Schlesinger for Environmental Health News    

Although often attributed to Sir John Crapper, it was Alexander Cumming who perfected the design of the flush toilet in 1775, forever changing the way that humans dispose of their personal waste.

No longer was waste deposited in the chamber pot or privy. Health and sanitation improved markedly, but an entirely new problem faced society: what to do with liquid waste or sewage waters.

In the developed world, most human waste is now sent to a sewage treatment plant or through a local septic system to cleanse and renew the waters that carry it.

Sewage treatment plants and septic systems are designed to take organic wastes and convert them to carbon dioxide, nitrate and phosphate. We depend on fungi and bacteria to degrade the waste. In some levels of treatment, bacteria are used to convert nitrate to nitrogen, which is returned to the atmosphere.

Some chemicals, such as sorbitol, sodium fluoride in toothpastes and sodium hypochlorite in bleach, are not unknown in the natural environment and pass through sewage treatment with little notice.

In contrast, many of the synthetic chemicals in our daily lives are xenobiotic—that is, not known in the natural world.

Paraben is such a synthetic compound that is added to cosmetics as an antibacterial agent. Silver and copper nanoparticles are added to athletic fabrics to retard the odor of human perspiration.

Nuts, continued

Increasing Daily Nut Consumption May Help Stave Off Gradual Weight Gain, Reduce Obesity Risk

By Sci-News Staff / Source

Nuts are nutrient-dense foods rich in unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and fiber. Their high fat content leads some to perceive nuts as unhealthful and to be avoided by those attempting to manage or lose their body weight.

Consumption of nuts and seeds in the U.S. increased from 0.5 servings/day in 1999 to 0.75 servings/day in 2012.

A research team led by Dr. Deirdre Tobias of the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health aimed to evaluate the association between changes in total consumption of nuts and intakes of different nuts (including peanuts) and long-term weight change, in three independent cohort studies.

They analysed information on weight, diet and physical activity in 51,529 male health professionals (40-75 years old) from the Health Professionals Follow Up Study; 121,700 nurses (35-55 years old) from the Nurses Health Study (NHS); and 116,686 nurses (24-44 years old) from the Nurses Health Study II (NHS II).

Over more than 20 years of monitoring, participants were asked every 4 years to state their weight, and how often, over the preceding year they had eaten a serving (28 g) of nuts, including peanuts and peanut butter.

As Trump retreats, financial markets push for sustainability, climate accountability

'If you're not attentive to climate risks, the sustainability of your business is in question.'

Douglas Fischer, executive director for Environmental Health News

President Trump, speaking before the UN General Assembly Tuesday, vowed globalism is dead. A day later a roomful of suits representing some of the largest pension, mutual and hedge funds in the world offered a very different take.

The globe, they agreed, is moving toward a low-carbon, sustainable economy. Those who haven't factored that shift into their investment strategy are at risk.

Some 300 investors and regulators gathered during Climate Week in New York to talk trends and gain insight about markets at the annual Sustainable Investment Forum. The warning was clear: Mother Nature and the markets are moving forward, even as the Trump Administration retreats and global climate talks appear stalled.

Trump Will Do ANYTHING To Win in 2020

The Real Lesson of Ukraine-gate

By Robert Reich

Amid the impeachment furor, don’t lose sight of the renewed importance of protecting the integrity of the 2020 election.

The difference between Richard Nixon’s abuse of power (trying to get dirt on political opponents to help with his 1972 reelection, and then covering it up) and Donald Trump’s abuse (trying to get Ukraine’s president to get dirt on a political opponent to help with his 2020 reelection, and then covering it up) isn’t just that Nixon’s involved a botched robbery at the Watergate while Trump’s involves a foreign nation.

It’s that Nixon’s abuse of power was discovered during his second term, after he was reelected. He was still a dangerous crook, but by that time he had no reason to inflict still more damage on American democracy.

Trump’s abuse has been uncovered fourteen months before the 2020 election, at a time when he still has every incentive to do whatever he can to win.

Oh no, It's the Don!

For more cartoons by Ruben Bolling, CLICK HERE

Quid pro quo

Oct. 17 Food Bank Fundraiser now includes 40+ restaurants, including the Coast Guard House, 1149 and more

Donate Now 40 Restaurants to Serve Delicious Food at Empty Bowls Some of the best restaurants from all over Rhode Island will be serving tastings on Thursday, October 17 at Empty Bowls. Please check out our list of participating restaurants, buy a ticket, and come taste what they have on offer! EDITOR'S NOTE: It would be nice to see more South County restaurants sign up for this event. From Westerly to Narragansett, there certainly are plenty of great places to eat.   Restaurant List Win Dinner at the Dorrance! New this year, we're holding a raffle to win a private five-course dinner for 8 at The Dorrance, complete with cocktail and wine pairings. Raffle tickets are $50 and only 150 will be sold. You do not need to be present to win.   Call 401-942-6325 to purchase your raffle tickets in advance. *State law prohibits the sale of raffle tickets online.  Click here to check out the Hey Rhody Fall Guide  feature on Empty Bowls. 12 Gives Back Honors the RI Community Food Bank Each month, WPRI 12 spotlights a local organization in the community that is making a difference, and this month, they chose the Rhode Island Community Food Bank! In this short segment, WPRI delves into the work we do at the Food Bank. WPRI also treated staff to a pizza party! Watch Now

Donate Now Our mailing address is: Rhode Island Community Food Bank 200 Niantic Ave Providence, RI 02907-3150

Will Rhode Island follow their lead?

California passes landmark law protecting “gig workers”

By Rebecca Smith, National Employment Law Project

Following is a statement by Rebecca Smith, director of the Work Structures program at the National Employment Law Project:

“The passage of AB5 in California is a resounding victory for workers and responsible businesses in that state and across the nation. California is paving the way for other states to ensure that workers are not carved out of the employee rights and benefits that they need and deserve. Against a no-holds-barred, money-is-no-object campaign, workers showed big tech that even in its birthplace, it can’t run over workers in its quest for profit.

“AB5 uses the clear and fair ‘ABC test’ to determine when a company must be accountable to workers as its employees. It will lift up the wages and benefits of janitors, nail salon workers, construction workers, landscapers, nannies, homecare workers, ride-hail and truck drivers, delivery workers, and many others.

In his own words

Is Compost the Secret to Making Ag Climate Friendly?

A new study finds that adding compost to farmland can offer deep benefits for storing carbon and building healthy soils.

BY RACHEL CERNANSKY, Civil Eats

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.

It’s no secret that organic farmers believe in compost, but just what role compost plays in soil’s ability to store carbon—and keep it out of the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change—has been less clear. 

A recent study out of the University of California, Davis suggests that compost plays a larger role than once thought in building soil carbon. It also found that carbon levels fluctuate more in deeper soil than most evaluation methodologies tend to account for. 

In practical terms, the findings could mean compost has been undervalued by agricultural incentive programs, and that we’ve been measuring carbon levels in soil all wrong.

Trump is making us sick. Literally.

Stressed out: Americans making themselves sick over politics

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Never-ending campaigns, social media, 24-hour news cycles. Politics are impossible to escape, even for the casual observer.

But are policy fights and polarization more than a headache in the collective consciousness? 

New research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests yes -- that we're making ourselves sick over politics.

Nearly 40% of Americans surveyed for the study said politics is stressing them out, and one in five are losing sleep. 

These responses and others show many in the United States believe their mental and physical health has been harmed in some way by exposure to politics.

The research, led by Nebraska political scientist Kevin Smith, is the first to look comprehensively at the physical and emotional costs of paying attention to and participating in political discourse. 

Previous examinations have focused almost solely on economic costs, such as time lost from work to vote or the monetary costs of supporting a campaign.