Latest news with #toxicmetals
New York Times
17-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
E.P.A. Delays Required Cleanups of Toxic Coal Ash Landfills
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would give utility companies an additional year to begin cleaning up contamination from toxic coal ash landfills across the country. Coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal in power plants, can contain lead, lithium and mercury. Those toxic metals can pollute waterways and drinking water supplies and have been linked to health effects including cancer, birth defects and developmental delays in children. The E.P.A.'s move was a victory for utilities that had lobbied the Trump administration to delay the cleanup requirements. But environmentalists warned that it threatened the health of the predominantly poor communities near coal plants nationwide. Under a rule finalized by the Biden administration last year, utilities had until February 2026 to report to the E.P.A. any contamination from their coal ash landfills. The utilities had until May 2028 to install groundwater monitoring systems and to start drafting plans for cleaning up the contamination. The E.P.A. said on Thursday that it would extend these deadlines by at least a year, until February 2027 and August 2029, respectively. 'President Trump recognizes that affordable and reliable energy are key to the strength of our nation and to our nation's energy dominance,' Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement. 'Today's actions provide much needed regulatory relief for the power sector.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Vapes Clouds Contain Absolutely Horrifying Chemicals, Scientists Find
If you vape — and especially if it's because you think it's a less harmful alternative to smoking — then we have some really bad news. New research from the University of California, Davis, shows that some popular disposable vapes contain levels of toxic metals so appalling that they exceed traditional cigarettes. And we don't just mean a single cig — we're talking packs of them. The work, published as a study in the journal ACS Central Science, sounds the alarm on the vast amounts of unregulated if not illegal disposable vapes in the US that remain a favorite of teens. "When I first saw the lead concentrations, they were so high I thought our instrument was broken," study coauthor Mark Salazar, a researcher at UC Davis, said in a statement about the work. For their study, the researchers focused on vapes from three popular brands: ELF Bar, Esco Bar, and Flum Pebble. The tests involved activating the vapes and creating between 500 to 1,500 puffs for each one and analyzing the vape clouds. Afterwards, they disassembled the vapes to see where the contaminants were coming from. The findings were immediately alarming. Salazar and his colleagues discovered concentrations of toxic forms of metals like nickel, chromium, and antimony in most of the tested vapes. To quickly sum up what makes these metals bad: the type of nickel the researchers detected can cause lung and nasal cancer; chromium is also considered a carcinogen; and antimony can lead to heart and lung problems when inhaled as a dust and cause vomiting when swallowed. That brings us to lead. Two vapes from Esco Bar were absolutely reeking with it; on average, the devices from this brand emitted more lead in the first 200 puffs than smoking twenty packs of cigarettes. The contamination appears to be caused both by the components of actual vape and the nicotine juice they contain. "We found that these disposable devices have toxins already present in the e-liquid, or they're leaching quite extensively from their components into e-liquids and ultimately transferred to the smoke," Salazar said. Overall, two of the vapes emitted enough nickel and antimony levels to exceed cancer risk limits, the researchers said, while four vapes had nickel and lead emissions severe enough to be considered a risk for causing neurological damage and respiratory diseases. Bear in mind that this is what the researchers found by testing just three of some of the most well-known disposable vape brands. There are hundreds of other brands out there of even murkier origins, most imported from China. And while we're still only beginning to grapple with their health hazards, the findings line up with other research, including a study last year that found elevated uranium and lead levels in the urine of teens who regularly vaped. "Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement," said senior author Brett Poulin, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, in the statement. More on vaping: We Talked to the Inventors of the "Tamagotchi" Vape That Dies If You Stop Puffing
The Independent
25-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Disposable e-cigarettes are more toxic than traditional cigarettes, researchers say
Disposable electronic cigarettes that are popular with teenagers are more toxic than traditional cigarettes, researchers cautioned on Wednesday. Researchers from the University of California at Davis found that, following a few hundred puffs, some vape pods and other e-cigarettes emit higher amounts of toxic metals than traditional cigarettes. One of the e-cigarettes they studied released more lead during the course of a day than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes. In humans, exposure to lead has been shown to result in reproductive issues, high blood pressure, hypertension, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain, and memory and concentration problems in adults. In children, it can lead to hearing problems, slowed growth, headaches, learning and behavioral difficulties, lowered IQ, and damage to the brain and nervous system. 'Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement,' Brett Poulin, an assistant professor at the university's Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, said in a statement. 'These risks are not just worse than other e-cigarettes but worse in some cases than traditional cigarettes.' Poulin was the senior author of the findings, which were published in the journal ACS Central Science. To reach these conclusions, the scientists analyzed the metal and elements that exhibit properties of metals in seven types of disposable devices from three of the most popular brands. The brands included Esco Bar, Flum Pebble, and ELF Bar. The brands did not immediately reply to The Independent's requests for comment. They activated the e-cigarettes and created between 500 and 1,500 puffs per device tested. The authors found that some devices emitted 'surprisingly high' concentrations of lead and antimony, that levels of chromium, nickel, and antimony increased as the number of puffs increased, and that most of the disposable e-cigarettes tested released markedly higher amounts of metals and metalloids into vapors than earlier and refillable vapes. Antimony is used in flame retardant, chromium is used in the production of stainless steel, and nickel is used in appliances and rechargeable batteries. Antimony is a hazardous substance that can cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, liver and kidney damage, and a hole in the septum. Chromium exposure is also linked to kidney and liver damage, as well as respiratory cancer and perforated eardrums. Nickel can cause a variety of side effects on human health, such as allergy, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, lung fibrosis, and lung and nasal cancer. There are other chemicals in e-cigarettes that also may cause cancer. Then, the researchers took the devices apart, hoping to trace the sources of the metals. They saw that components in some devices that were made of leaded bronze alloy had leached into e-liquids in the cartridges and that nickel was being released from heating coils. Antimony was also in the unused e-liquids. 'We found that these disposable devices have toxins already present in the e-liquid, or they're leaching quite extensively from their components into e-liquids and ultimately transferred to the smoke,' Mark Salazar, a Ph.D. candidate in Poulin's lab and the study's first author, explained. For daily users, vapors from three devices had nickel levels and two devices had antimony levels that exceeded cancer risk limits. Four of the devices had nickel and lead emissions that surpassed health-risk thresholds for illnesses besides cancer, such as neurological damage and respiratory diseases. E-cigarette use has been tied to lung injuries, with more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths reported between the summer of 2019 and February 2020, according to Yale Medicine. Although most disposable e-cigarettes are illegal in the U.S., they remain available. Last week, the Supreme Court sided with companies in a ruling making it easier to sue over Food and Drug Administration decisions blocking their products from the market. ELF Bar and Esco Bar have been the focus of Food and Drug Administration scrutiny. ELF Bar's website says it is not available in the U.S. and FLUM is illegal under California's retail flavor ban. To date, 34 tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products and devices have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The majority of e-cigarette consumers are teens and young adults, including 1.63 million students, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like regular cigarettes, most e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm the parts of an adolescent's brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. Last year, however, use among youth plummeted to the lowest level in a decade. Still, the risks associated with using e-cigarettes remain, and young adults are at increased risk of lead exposure. The researchers noted that the market is outpacing science, heightening the need to enforce regulations around illegal e-cigarettes. 'Pediatric tobacco use and nicotine dependence are significant health concerns. Despite declines in cigarette use, youth still use tobacco products—including e-cigarettes—at high rates,' the American Academy of Pediatrics stresses.
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Disposable vapes release MORE cancer chemicals than traditional cigarettes, shock research indicates
Vaping, long touted as 'healthier' alternatives to smoking, may actually be more toxic than traditional cigarettes. Researchers at the University of California, Davis tested seven flavored e-cigarettes from three of the most popular brands and found the disposable vapes release more cancer-causing toxic metals than cigarettes. One of the disposable e-cigarettes studied released more lead during a day's use than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes. The study's main author, Mark Salazar, a PhD candidate, said the levels were so high he 'thought our instrument was broken.' The scientists analyzed the metals inside seven types of disposable devices from three of the most popular brands, ELF Bar, Flum Pebble and Esco. Using an instrument to activate the disposable e-cigarettes and heat the internal liquid, they created between 500 and 1,500 puffs for each device. They found: After using a device to simulate the equivalent of up to a week's use, the team found they contained the heavy metals nickel, lead and antimony. The metals are used to make the devices' heating coils, which turns liquid in e-cigarettes into vapors that get inhaled. The metals then leach from the vapes into the liquid. Vapor from three of the tested devices contained levels of lead and nickel above cancer safety limits, and two had elevated levels of antimony - an element used in batteries and as a flame retardant. Esco Bars in particular were found to release four to 13 times more lead in their first 200 puffs than a pack of 20 cigarettes. This is the same amount of lead exposure as smoking 19 cigarettes in a single day. And four devices sold by Esco had levels of lead and nickel linked to respiratory and lung diseases like asthma and lung scarring. The researchers said while they only tested three out of 100 popular vape brands, the findings show concerning health risks for teens and young adults, who are most likely to use them. All three heavy metals tested are considered potential carcinogens, meaning they could cause cancer. And all have been associated with lung cancer, while lead has been shown to increase the risk of lung, kidney and brain cancers. Nickel has also been associated with nasal and sinus cancers. Though vapes are higher in these heavy metals than cigarettes, decades of research suggests cigarettes are still more dangerous because they contain about 7,000 carcinogens compared to 2,000 in vapes. Cigarettes have also long been proven to cause lung cancer, while research has not yet proven direct causation between vaping and the disease. Brett Poulin, senior study author and assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, said: 'Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement. 'These risks are not just worse than other e-cigarettes but worse in some cases than traditional cigarettes.' The study, published Wednesday in ACS Central Science, analyzed metal and metalloids - elements that have properties intermediate between metals and non-metals. Using a device to heat and activate the e-cigarettes, they made each one generate between 500 and 1,500 puffs. The average vape user does about 100 to 200 puffs in a day. The team found vapors from three of the devices - ELF Bar Flavored, ELF Bar Clear and Esco Bar Flavored - exceeded cancer risk limits for nickel. Meanwhile, Flum Pebble Flavored and Esco Bar Flavored exceeded these levels for antimony. And Esco Bar Flavored and Esco Bar Clear had lead emissions that surpassed health-risk thresholds for 'non-cancer disorders.' These include asthma and lung scarring fibrosis. Mark Salazar, first study author and PhD candidate in Poulin's lab, said: 'We found that these disposable devices have toxins already present in the e-liquid, or they're leaching quite extensively from their components into e-liquids and ultimately transferred to the smoke.' The CDC identified ELF as the most popular vape brand among teens and young adults in 2023 and 2024. And Esco Bars sold about $82million worth of products in the US in 2022, the latest data available. No flavored e-cigarettes are legal for sale in the US, though the FDA has authorized a limited number of unflavored ones. However, both varieties remain pervasive at convenience stores and through online retailers. Sales data reported by Reuters estimated $2.4billion worth of illegal vapes were sold in the US last year, which experts say is particularly concerning because they are not regulated or tested by any oversight agency so it's unclear what's in them. About six percent of US adults - about 17million - vape, according to the latest CDC data. And roughly six percent of middle school students and eight percent of high school students report vaping at least once in the last 30 days. While they have generally been considered a safer alternative to smoking tobacco and promoted as a smoking cessation aid, recent research suggests e-cigarettes may increase the risk of heart and lung damage. In a case study published this month, a New Jersey man died of what's thought to be the first documented case of lung cancer caused by e-cigarettes.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists find ‘alarming' levels of toxic metals, pollution in Lake Maurepas
Cypress trees remain in the wetlands and swamps of Lake Maurepas. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator) Scientists at Southeastern Louisiana University have found dangerously high levels of toxic metals and other contaminants in Lake Maurepas and have traced most of the pollution to industrial and other human activities. Led by SLU chemistry professor Fereshteh Emami, a team of researchers analyzed 400 water and sediment samples collected from multiple locations and depths in the lake from June through December 2023 and developed new methodologies to trace the origin of the pollutants, track how they spread and determine the factors that make them worse. The results were 'alarming,' according to the study, which was published in Environments in November and accepted for publication in another scientific journal, ACS Omega, this month. The analysis revealed concentrations of heavy metals and nutrients far beyond the thresholds the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. Arsenic levels peaked at 420% above the safe limit for lakes and 6,300% over the EPA's drinking water threshold. Lead and cadmium were detected at similarly high levels averaging orders of magnitude above safe limits. Nickel, copper, and manganese concentrations were also observed above their respective safety thresholds. Heavy metal exposure is known to cause severe health problems and can be fatal to humans. 'I was just surprised how polluted the area is,' Emami said in an interview. Emami's team at Southeastern developed new methodologies that allowed them to trace the pollutants to Pass Manchac and three rivers that feed into Lake Maurepas: the Blind, Amite and Tickfaw. It indicated that industrial and agricultural activities are major sources of the pollution. The researchers also detected a spike in contaminants near Pass Manchac following the Oct. 23, 2023, 'super-fog' multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate 55, indicating that toxic chemicals from combustion vehicles are also running off into the lake. The heavy metal concentrations found in Lake Maurepas are similar to those later detected following breaks in the waste containment levees at the Atlantic Alumina (Atalco) facility in Gramercy last year. Atalco's toxic metals — which also included arsenic, cadmium and lead, among others — ended up in a public drainage system that flows into the Blind River Swamp of Lake Maurepas. Although Emami's new methodologies did not trace the pollutants to specific facilities, news of the Atalco incident brought to light a previously unknown event that aligns with their findings, at least anecdotally, Emami said. More sampling and analysis is needed deeper upstream into those rivers in order to further narrow down the sources, she said. The researchers found other contaminants in the lake, including high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and a parameter called chemical oxygen demand, which indicates the presence of organic pollutants in water. According to the study, all three parameters were elevated at averages beyond what is considered safe. Their methodologies traced these pollutants to urban runoff and agriculture. The samples contained other toxic metals, such as mercury, at levels that were within safe limits. But the study noted they still pose a threat to humans and the environment through bioaccumulation, in which low doses of a heavy metal can amass in a living organism over time and add up to a dangerous level. 'Because of the non-biodegradable and bioaccumulative nature of these heavy metals, they could accumulate and biomagnify in fish and other aquatic animals,' the researchers wrote. 'As a result, they could enter the human body eventually through the food chain.' Emami said mercury is particularly dangerous because it easily bioaccumulates in crops and animals such as fish. Her team is conducting a follow-up study in which they are testing aquatic samples from Lake Maurepas and surrounding rivers for heavy metals and other contaminants such as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as 'forever chemicals.' Corinne Gibb, a chemist who works for the environmental advocacy Louisiana Bucket Brigade and was not involved in the study, said the research very clearly points to pollution that is flowing into Lake Maurepas from other water bodies. 'What they're showing for sure is that the pollution is coming through those rivers,' Gibb said. A Louisiana refinery spilled toxic waste into the community and knew about it for months Southeastern has been monitoring Lake Maurepas since the proposal of a carbon sequestration project by Air Products & Chemicals. The company plans to use carbon capture technology to trap emissions from an $8 billion hydrogen manufacturing complex in Ascension Parish and take them by pipeline to Lake Maurepas, where Air Products will have the capacity to inject an estimated 5 million tons of CO2 per year about a mile below the lakebed. In the first half of 2023, Air Products performed seismic testing to map the geological formations under the lake. In August of that year, the company moved a large temporary drilling rig into Lake Maurepas that served as a test well for the collection of core and fluid data, which ended in early 2024. Emami's team initially suspected but were ultimately unable to link any chemical pollutants to Air Products' activity in the lake. Aside from providing a multi-million dollar funding grant, the company played no role in any aspects of the study, its design or the decision to publish the results. 'We're committed to protecting the Lake Maurepas environment and ecosystem, which is why we have supported the independent monitoring of the Lake,' Air Products spokeswoman Christina Stephens said Wednesday after learning about the SLU study's findings. 'It's important for people to understand the lake's ecosystem, and as our work progresses we will continue to operate in a safe and responsible fashion.' That still doesn't assuage concerns of some local lawmakers. Rep. Kim Coates, R-Ponchatoula, who ran for office on a platform of protecting Lake Maurepas, pointed out the study shows the baseline water quality of the lake is already deeply concerning and could be made worse with general disturbances that accompany lakebed drilling and similar industrial activities. 'Adding deep geological carbon sequestration to an ecosystem already under strain from nutrient pollution raises serious questions,' Coates said. 'Even well-intentioned projects can have unintended consequences in such a delicate and dynamic environment. Until more is known, extreme caution is not just warranted — it's essential.' SLU's study is the first of its kind to combine dynamic statistical models with water quality data to trace pollutant sources and their driving factors. This allowed Emami's team to provide a comprehensive assessment of the chemical composition of Lake Maurepas based on a wide array of data. The methodology can also be used to predict when and where pollutants will flow or migrate to other areas, she said. 'Using the models, we were looking for the origins of the pollutant sources, and I wanted to know if the pollution sources in the Blind River could [let us] predict what was gonna show up in Manchac,' Emami said. 'And it did.' Emami said Pass Manchac's significant tidal exchange between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain has allowed her team to conclude that the water quality and levels of pollution between the two estuaries are virtually the same. Until the start of Southeastern's research, there was no ongoing public monitoring for toxic metals in Lake Maurepas. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Matthew Day said the public should be aware of existing fish consumption advisories, such as one issued last year for Lake Maurepas based on elevated mercury levels detected in fish tissue. However, the agency does not conduct any regular heavy metal monitoring in Lake Maurepas because it is not required under Clean Water Act obligations, Day said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
