Exxon Mobil Corp. and the federal government have settled a case arising from the company being charged with violating the Clean Air Act due to air pollution violations at eight petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana. News sources say the company has agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty related the violations and spend approximately $300 million to install new equipment to improve operation and monitoring of industrial flares at the facilities.

Scientists have known for decades that drinking water contaminated by fertilizer nitrates can pose a threat to infants by undermining the ability of their blood to carry oxygen. The condition, known as ‘blue baby syndrome,” led federal regulators to impose an environmental standard of no more than 10 parts per million, or ppm, for nitrates in public water supplies.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released an eight minute safety video entitled “Fire in Baton Rouge” detailing the agency’s Key Lessons stemming from the 2016 fire at the ExxonMobil Refinery that seriously injured four workers. The video includes a new four minute animation explaining the events leading up to the incident.

Gulf War veterans with low-level exposure to chemical weapons show lasting adverse effects on brain structure and memory function, reports a study in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Workers who were likely exposed to dispersants while cleaning up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill experienced a range of health symptoms including cough and wheeze, and skin and eye irritation, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their study appeared online Sept. 15 in Environmental Health Perspectives and is the first research to examine dispersant-related health symptoms in humans.

The warm, humid climate of the areas affected by the recent hurricanes offers a fast recipe for mold accumulation, according to the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA®), which warns of a potential mold epidemic across those regions.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued two safety alerts Wednesday to increase awareness among aircraft mechanics and pilots of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Now that kids are back in school, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is reminding teachers, staff, and school administrators about the hazards of using flammable materials, such as methanol, during classroom science demonstrations.