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Articles on Hazardous materials

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A trooper checks the tire of a truck carrying flammable contents during a random hazmat checkpoint in Colorado. Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Train derailments get more headlines, but truck crashes involving hazardous chemicals are more frequent and deadly in US

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is looking into new rules for trains. Trucks, however, are involved in thousands more hazmat incidents every year in the US.
A collapsed building in Mayfield, Ky., after a tornado hit the town on Dec. 11, 2021. Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Smashed cars, burnt trees, soggy insulation: Post-disaster cleanup is expensive, time-consuming and wasteful

Government agencies have detailed plans for responding to disasters, like the Dec. 10-11, 2021 tornados. But one issue doesn’t get enough attention: cleaning up the mess left behind.
Plastic waste from Australia in Port Klang, Malaysia. Malaysia says it will send back some 3,300 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home

A year after China stopped accepting most scrap material exports, other Asian countries are following Beijing’s lead, forcing wealthy nations to find domestic solutions for managing their wastes.
Mural at Rockaway Brewing Company in Long Island City, Queens, New York, a longtime industrial and transportation hub that now is rapidly redeveloping. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

What lies beneath: To manage toxic contamination in cities, study their industrial histories

Many homes, parks and businesses in US cities stand on former manufacturing sites that may have left legacy hazardous wastes behind. A new book calls for more research into our urban industrial past.
Cleanup at the GE Housatonic Superfund site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 2007. Years of PCB and industrial chemical use at GE’s Pittsfield facility and improper disposal led to extensive contamination around the town and down the entire length of the Housatonic River. USACE/Flickr

Cutting Superfund’s budget will slow toxic waste cleanups, threatening public health and property values

President Trump’s budget would cut funding for Superfund, which cleans up the nation’s most toxic sites, by nearly one-third. An economist explains how Superfund cleanups benefit local communities.
Hazardous, I tell you - and I’m not talking about the manufacturers’ customer service. STEVE YEATER/AP

A solution that uses toxic waste to clean up toxins

The manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, fuelled by increased consumption and by the equipment’s relatively short lifespan. As a result…
Many DIYers are not aware of the strict regulations about how asbestos should be removed. OregonDOT/Flickr

DIY renovators now most at risk of asbestos cancers

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia todays says the increase in the number of malignant mesothelioma cases in Western Australia over the past decade is the result of home renovation and…

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