What happened
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will require 218 chemical plants to reduce toxic and carcinogenic airborne pollutants, aiming to reduce the number of people with elevated cancer risk by 96% nationwide. The rule targets ethylene oxide, used for sterilizing medical devices, and chloroprene, used to make rubber in footwear, plus four other chemicals. More than half the affected plants are in Texas and Louisiana, including a strip of factories and adjacent communities known as Cancer Alley.
Who said what
The commentary
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
-
Today's political cartoons - November 16, 2024Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - tears of the trade, monkeyshines, and more
-
5 wild card cartoons about Trump's cabinet picksCartoons Artists take on square pegs, very fine people, and more
-
How will Elon Musk's alliance with Donald Trump pan out?The Explainer The billionaire's alliance with Donald Trump is causing concern across liberal America
-
Climate change is threatening Florida's Key deerThe Explainer Questions remain as to how much effort should be put into saving the animals
-
Ecuador's cloud forest has legal rights – and maybe a song creditUnder the Radar In a world first, 'rights of nature' project petitions copyright office to recognise Los Cedros forest as song co-creator
-
At least 95 dead in Spain flash floodsSpeed Read Torrential rainfall caused the country's worst flooding since 1996
-
A human foot found on Mount Everest is renewing the peak's biggest mysteryUnder the radar The discovery is reviving questions about who may have summited the mountain first
-
Cuba roiled by island-wide blackouts, Hurricane OscarSpeed Read The country's power grid collapsed for the fourth time in just two days
-
Earth's carbon sinks are collapsingUnder the Radar Forests and soil are not operating as usual
-
A new investigation has put the spotlight on roadside zoosIn the Spotlight Over 150 allegations against these zoos have been made over the past decade
-
Canada's carbon tax in the crosshairsUnder the radar PM Justin Trudeau's flagship green policy has become increasingly unpopular as citizens grapple with high inflation and cost-of-living crisis
