#EPA testing

[freyrsolutions]

Learn the EPA registration process for disinfectants antimicrobial products. Understand FIFRA rules, toxicity testing, labeling, state-level compliance.

[tauforged]

the downside of working a full time job is i’m almost never online anymore. which is fucked. but alas i can’t exactly be blogging when i’ve got alkalinity titrations to run . such is life i suppose

[elegantdefendorexpert]

Toxic PFAS detected in several Delaware watersheds, report says

Read the full article by Zoë Read (WHYY) “Toxic PFAS chemicals have been detected at significant levels across rivers and streams throughout Delaware…Toxic PFAS detected in several Delaware watersheds, report says

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Hitler and the Nazi party took over Germany in 53 days. March 1st marks 41 days of the Trump administration. My hope for March is that the list you’re about to read won’t be the in-real-time evidence of America sliding further into autocracy.

Here we go again…

January-February 2025

March 2025:

Trump has made English the official language of the country [x]

Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine [x]

Trump has imposed new tariffs on China and Canada and they have retaliated [x]

Linda McMahon has been confirmed as Secretary of Education [x]

The Department of Education has set up a witch-hunt for DEI in schools [x]

Trump has delayed his tariffs on the auto industry [x]

Trump suspends tariffs on Mexico [x]

ICE is now targeting migrant families who entered the US with their children [x]

Trump is threatening new tariffs on Canada, including 250% tariffs on dairy products [x]

The Department of Homeland Security is performing polygraph tests on employees [x]

Because of cuts to USAID, Afghan women who fled the Taliban might be forced to return [x]

The Department of Health and Human Services is offering all of their employees a $25,000 buyout [x]

Trump says he will double Canadian tariffs on steel and aluminum [x]

Trump administration has rebranded the CBP One app as the CBP Home app for migrants to self-deport [x]

Trump created a strategic crypto reserve [x]

The Department of Education is cutting nearly half its workforce [x]

The Department of Agriculture has cut $1 billion in funding to bring fresh food to schools [x]

The Trump administration is rolling back dozens of environmental protections and regulations [x]

The Senate passed the spending bill that had been passed by the Housw earlier this month [x]

Trump administration has shut down the media organization Voice of America [x]

The US is bombing Houthi targets in Yemen [x]

The EPA has dismissed a case against a chemical plant in Louisiana [x][x]

Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education [x]

Homeland Security is going after foreign-born academics and scholars [x]

Trump says the Small Business Administration will take over the oversight of federal student loans [x]

Trump administration has deported Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador without due process [x]

NOAA is making cuts to weather data collection due to layoffs [x]

Trump stacks military academy boards with MAGA loyalists, including Michael Flynn and Charlie Kirk [x]

Trump tells the Attorney General to sanction lawyers who file lawsuits against his administration [x][x]

The IRS is going to share tax data with ICE to help them track down undocumented immigrants [x]

Trump signs executive order that requires proof of citizenship to vote [x][x]

Supreme Court upholds regulations on ghost guns [x]

An endangered sea turtle is stranded in Wales because of Trump’s funding freeze [x]

Federal appeals court maintains temporary block on Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act for deportations [x]

Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on all automobiles brought into the US [x]

HHS has cut 10,000 employees [x]

A Tufts University graduate student from Turkey has been arrested by ICE agents who wore masks as they grabbed her off the street [x]

This happened in February but I didn’t learn about it until just now — Trump created a White House Faith Office [x][x]

Trump signed an executive order to control the Smithsonian [x][x][x]

Ohio has passed a bill coined the Higher Education Destruction Act by opponents. It bans all DEI from Ohio public universities, bans faculty from going on strike, and eliminates services to veterans and people with disabilities [x]

Trump has pardoned Trevor Milton [x]

Trump won’t rule out a third term [x] (that’s not allowed)

Miscellaneous News:

A federal judge has ruled against another one of Trump’s attempted firings. [x]

Federal workers are fighting back against DOGE cuts [x]

Musk had a closed-door meeting with Republican senators to cement DOGE cuts in law [x]

There was a heated exchange in the House over the misgendering of Sarah McBride [x]

House Republicans block a vote to end Trump’s tariffs [x]

A federal judge has ordered that thousands of federal employees be reinstated [x]

Trump says he wants to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies [x]

A judge has blocked Trump’s transgender military ban [x]

Elon Musk is spending millions of dollars on a Wisconsin Supreme Court election [x]

Arlington National Cemetery has taken down information about female veterans and veterans of color from their website [x]

The person in charge of defending DOGE cuts is a social media fashion influencer [x]

A chorus of ladies wrote a song for Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) [x]

The UK, Germany, and Nordic countries have all issued travel warnings about traveling to the US [x]

Columbia University has given in to Trump’s demands in order to restore federal funding [x]

Usha Vance and Mike Waltz, along with other US officials are planning to visit Greenland this week [x]

Trump administration accidentally sent secret war plans to the editor of a magazine [x]

Trump defends Mike Waltz who accidentally added a journalist to text chain about secret war plans [x]

The White House is seeking corporate sponsorships for its annual Easter Egg roll [x]

Florida is trying to loosen their child labor laws [x]

Ohio is trying to pass a bill to completely ban all DEI in public universities [x]

Alabama board defunds local library in first action under new book ban law [x]

Utah has banned fluoride in its drinking water [x] (I hope you like tooth decay)

JD Vance says Greenlanders want to join the US [x]

April-June 2025

This post is constantly being updated so if this comes across your dash, check OP’s blog to see the most up-to-date version.

Remember that you have a voice. Remember that Donald Trump and his spineless cronies want you to just give up and accept their control. REMEMBER: NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.

[liberalsarecool]

I owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency and am still exhausted from the experience.

But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than:

• when he incited an insurrection against the government,

• mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans

• separated children from their families

• lost those children in the bureaucracy

• tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church

• tried to block all Muslims from entering the country

• got impeached

• got impeached again

• had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history

• pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden

• fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia

• bragged about firing the FBI director on TV

• took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community

• diverted military funding to build his wall

• caused the longest government shutdown in US history

• called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate”

• lied nearly 40,000 times

• banned transgender people from serving in the military

• ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions

• vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers

• refused to release his tax returns

• increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion

• had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history

• called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers

• coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist

• refused to concede the 2020 election

• hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House

• walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl

• called neo-Nazis “very fine people”

• suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID

• abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey

• pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans

• incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic

• withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords

• withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal

• withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances

• insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter

• pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op

• failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies

• called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries

• called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation”

• claimed that he single-handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere

• forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader

• believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

• berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe

• suggested the US should buy Greenland

• colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges

• repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people”

• claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases

• violated the emoluments clause

• thought that Nambia was a country

• told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public

• called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution

• nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet

• nominated a corrupt head of the EPA

• nominated a corrupt head of HHS

• nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department

• nominated a corrupt head of the USDA

• praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies

• refused to allow the presidential transition to begin

• insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death

• spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president

• falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote

• called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser”

• falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year

• considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions

• mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID

• locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones

• used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus”

• hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser

• pardoned several of his shady associates

• gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories

• got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!)

• had a Secretary of State who called him a moron

• forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history

• botched the COVID vaccine rollout

• tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him

• charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties

• constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate

• claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear

• called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas”

• used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise

• opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling

• got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers

• claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US

• ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings

• blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining

• redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle

• got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters”

• threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution

• botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

• threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them

• pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes

• thought that the Virgin islands had a President

• drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane

• allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing

• rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos

• pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID

• rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers

• held blatant campaign rallies at the White House

• tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man

• refused to attend his successors’ inauguration

• nominated the worst Education Secretary in history

• threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted

• attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci

• promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t)

• allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues

• struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble

• called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ”

• threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders

• went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic

• claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”

• seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution

• demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director

• praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles

• completely gutted the Voice of America

• placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service

• claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower

• suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country

• suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public

• overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported

• reduced the number of refugees the US accepts

• insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames

• gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address

• named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties

• eliminated the White House office of pandemic response

• used soldiers as campaign props

• fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him

• demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade

• hired a shit ton of white nationalists

• politicized the civil service

• did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government

• falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts

• claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won

• insulted reporters of color

• insulted women reporters

• insulted women reporters of color

• suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs

• attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him

• summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election

• spent countless hours every day watching Fox News

• refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas

• hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer

• tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him

• acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney

• attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault

• held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present

• didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media

• stopped holding press briefings for months at a time

• “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power

• led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform

• claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers

• tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course

• suggested that the government nuke hurricanes

• suggested that wind turbines cause cancer

• said that he had a special aptitude for science

• fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure

• blurted out classified information to Russian officials

• tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida

• fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban

• hired Stephen Miller

• openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them

• interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel

• abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war

• tried to get Russia back into the G7

• held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden

• seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive

• lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated

• falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t

• shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies

• still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan

• still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks"

• forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID

• told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”

• fucked up the Census

• withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic

• did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,” allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act

• seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican

• stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win

• constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump

• claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened

• said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake

• claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him

• claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President

• created a commission to whitewash American history

• retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain

• claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there

• hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims

• had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others

• bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties

• apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House

• stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians

• falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police

• said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about

• tried to rescind protection from DREAMers

• gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic

• tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax

• said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states

• deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented

• claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln

• touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all

• retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile

• forced through security clearances for his family

• suggested that police officers should rough up suspects

• suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs

• tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender

• suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher

• nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy

• retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event

• hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags

• accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address

• claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia

• mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault

• obsessed over low-flow toilets

• ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release

• called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek)

• hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech

• took advice from the MyPillow guy

• claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists

• said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure

• never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign

• falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent

• announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest

• insulted the leader of Canada

• insulted the leader of France

• insulted the leader of Britain

• insulted the leader of Germany

• insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!)

• falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues

• blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually

• continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,

• said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked

• left a NATO summit early in a huff

• stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of five knows not to do that

• called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary

• refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise

And a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember .

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall-Free

"The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday [October 8, 2024] requiring water utilities to replace all lead pipes within a decade, a move aimed at eliminating a toxic threat that continues to affect tens of thousands of American children each year.

The move, which also tightens the amount of lead allowed in the nation’s drinking water, comes nearly 40 years after Congress determined that lead pipes posed a serious risk to public health and banned them in new construction.

Research has shown that lead, a toxic contaminant that seeps from pipes into the drinking water supply, can cause irreversible developmental delays, difficulty learning and behavioral problems among children. In adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead exposure can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function and cancer.

But replacing the lead pipes that deliver water to millions of U.S. homes will cost tens of billions of dollars, and the push to eradicate them only gathered momentum after a water crisis in Flint, Mich., a decade ago exposed the extent to which children remain vulnerable to lead poisoning through tap water...

The groundbreaking regulation, called the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, will establish a national inventory of lead service lines and require that utilities take more aggressive action to remove lead pipes on homeowners’ private property. It also lowers the level of lead contamination that will trigger government enforcement from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb.

The rule also establishes the first-ever national requirement to test for lead in schools that rely on water from public utilities. It mandates thatwater systems screen all elementary and child-care facilities, where those who are the most vulnerable to lead’s effects — young children — are enrolled, and that they offer testing to middle and high schools.

The White House estimates that more than 9 million homes across the country are still supplied by lead pipelines, which are the leading source of lead contamination through drinking water. The EPA has projected that replacing all of them could cost at least $45 billion.

Lead pipes were initially installed in cities decades ago because they were cheaper and more malleable, but the heavy metal can wear down and corrode over time. President Joe Biden has made replacing them one of his top environmental priorities, securing $15 billion to give states over five years through the bipartisan infrastructure law and vowing to rid the country of lead pipes by 2031. The administration has spent $9 billion so far — enough to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes, the administration said.

On Tuesday, the administration said it was providing an additional $2.6 billion in funding for pipe replacement. Over 367,000 lead pipes have been replaced nationwide since Biden took office, according to White House officials, affecting nearly 1 million people...

Environmental advocates said that former president Donald Trump, who issued much more modest revisions to the lead and copper rule just days before Biden took office, would have a hard time reversing the new standards.

Erik Olson, the senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the Safe Drinking Water Act has provisions prohibiting weakening the health protections of existing standards...

Olson added that the rule “represents a major victory for public health” and will protect millions of people “whose health is threatened every time they fill a glass from the kitchen sink contaminated by lead.”

“While the rule is imperfect and we still have more to do, this is by far the biggest step towards eliminating lead in tap water in over three decades,” he said."

-via The Washington Post, October 8, 2024

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #13

April 5-12 2024

President Biden announced the cancellation of a student loan debt for a further 277,000 Americans. This brings the number of a Americans who had their debt canceled by the Biden administration through different means since the Supreme Court struck down Biden's first place in 2023 to 4.3 million and a total of $153 billion of debt canceled so far. Most of these borrowers were a part of the President's SAVE Plan, a debt repayment program with 8 million enrollees, over 4 million of whom don't have to make monthly repayments and are still on the path to debt forgiveness.

President Biden announced a plan that would cancel student loan debt for 4 million borrowers and bring debt relief to 30 million Americans The plan takes steps like making automatic debt forgiveness through the public service forgiveness so qualified borrowers who don't know to apply will have their debts forgiven. The plan will wipe out the interest on the debt of 23 million Americans. President Biden touted how the plan will help black and Latino borrowers the most who carry the heavily debt burdens. The plan is expected to go into effect this fall ahead of the election.

President Biden and Vice-President Harris announced the closing of the so-called gun show loophole. For years people selling guns outside of traditional stores, such as at gun shows and in the 21st century over the internet have not been required to preform a background check to see if buyers are legally allowed to own a fire arm. Now all sellers of guns, even over the internet, are required to be licensed and preform a background check. This is the largest single expansion of the background check system since its creation.

The EPA published the first ever regulations on PFAS, known as forever chemicals, in drinking water. The new rules would reduce PFAS exposure for 100 million people according to the EPA. The Biden Administration announced along side the EPA regulations it would make available $1 billion dollars for state and local water treatment to help test for and filter out PFAS in line with the new rule. This marks the first time since 1996 that the EPA has passed a drinking water rule for new contaminants.

The Department of Commerce announced a deal with microchip giant TSMC to bring billions in investment and manufacturing to Arizona. The US makes only about 10% of the world's microchips and none of the most advanced chips. Under the CHIPS and Science Act the Biden Administration hopes to expand America's high-tech manufacturing so that 20% of advanced chips are made in America. TSMC makes about 90% of the world's advanced chips. The deal which sees a $6.6 billion dollar grant from the US government in exchange for $65 billion worth of investment by TSMC in 3 high tech manufacturing facilities in Arizona, the first of which will open next year. This represents the single largest foreign investment in Arizona's history and will bring thousands of new jobs to the state and boost America's microchip manufacturing.

The EPA finalized rules strengthening clean air standards around chemical plants. The new rule will lower the risk of cancer in communities near chemical plants by 96% and eliminate 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution each year. The rules target two dangerous cancer causing chemicals, ethylene oxide and chloroprene, the rule will reduce emissions of these chemicals by 80%.

the Department of the Interior announced it had beaten the Biden Administration goals when it comes to new clean energy projects. The Department has now permitted more than 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects on public lands, surpass the Administrations goal for 2025 already. These solar, wind, and hydro projects will power 12 million American homes with totally green power. Currently 10 gigawatts of clean energy are currently being generated on public lands, powering more than 5 million homes across the West. 

The Department of Transportation announced $830 million to support local communities in becoming more climate resilient. The money will go to 80 projects across 37 states, DC, and the US Virgin Islands The projects will help local Infrastructure better stand up to extreme weather causes by climate change.

The Senate confirmed Susan Bazis, Robert White, and Ann Marie McIff Allen to lifetime federal judgeships in Nebraska, Michigan, and Utah respectively. This brings the total number of judges appointed by President Biden to 193

[collapsedsquid]

The possibilities I’ve laid out in this article are somehow even more dangerous than using the payments system to impound congressionally appropriated spending. As I was finalizing this article yesterday afternoon, the news broke that Citibank- in a separate case- had made a court filing providing evidence that the FBI had demanded that it freeze bank accounts associated with an Environmental Protection Administration grant program. These bank accounts included a New York state government bank account. The pattern across my previous reporting, my current reporting, the reporting of others and this late-breaking FBI-EPA-Citibank situation suggest that the Trump administration is testing the waters in order to gain far greater control of the United States entire payments infrastructure- control great enough to bend Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s enemies to their will at a speed far faster than courts could ever conceivably contain. We are entering waters beyond the scale of constitutional crises and nearly every expert in this shallow pool feels ill-equipped to speak about it publicly for a variety of reasons. I’m having trouble imagining circumstances more dangerous.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1974 Pontiac Firebird Formula SD-455

1974 Pontiac Firebird Formula SD-455

1974 Formula SD-455 in Pinemist Green with a Saddle interior. The SD-455 was essentially a carryover from 1973. When the 1974 model year began, the SD-455 engine option was placed on hold pending new EPA certification along with the same problem that faced the 1973 SD-455; a shortage of SD-455 forged connecting rods. When 1974 SD-455 vehicle production finally began in November 1973, the engine plant struggled to produce just 8 engines per day. With all the publicity in the media surrounding the SD-455, the Pontiac Parts Department had 1,350 back orders for SD-455 forged connecting rods. On November 9th, 1973, Pontiac issued a bulletin to dealers that all orders for SD-455 connecting rods were cancelled. In order for a dealer to re-order, they were now required to supply a VIN to the Zone Office to make sure the order was for an actual SD-455 equipped car. Orders were limited to just 4 connecting rods, which Pontiac felt was sufficient to handle any warranty issues. By March 1974, the connecting rod problem had still not been resolved, and now Pontiac restricted any SD-455 specific component from being ordered without supplying the VIN of the vehicle, the exception were piston rings. The entire SD-455 saga reads like a soap opera. Cost cutting, upper management turnover, attempting to circumvent EPA emission tests, component shortages, delay after delay, it's amazing that the SD-455 actually made it into production at all. - MCN

[bonebrokebuddy]

@kodedgeekthings eyo you mentioned wanting a dpxdc prompt for Howard, Batman’s mechanic!

Harold misses fixing toys for kids and in his off hours has taken up the habit of answering questions on forums about machining, electrical, engineering, mechanics, and mechanical design that are often frequented by students.

One day, he comes across a request by a college student who is trying to assemble his own car out of scrap he bought from a local wrecking yard.

Ghostly_Boy states that he has previous experience in machining and can make replacements for broken or too-damaged parts if need be, but he doesn’t know where to start and what specific requirements he needs to reach to ensure it’s street legal.

Harold willing to help, he answers a few of Ghostly Boy’s clarifying questions:

- Great questions!

It’s good to note that if you’re not careful, fixing or making your own car from parts can be a moneysink and can cost you more than a brand new vehicle. - That being said, your first major step to ensuring you can drive the car is to get the title of the body/frame of the car you plan to build. It’ll have the VIN on a plate welded to the frame usually near the lower edge of the windshield wipers on the drivers side. It’s how the DMV identifies vehicles for licensing.

- Generally, you’ll at first get a “wreck out” title that shows the vehicle is listed as a total loss, but if you can assemble the parts for the car with that frame, the DMV can check if it’s properly running and road worthy & license for you to use it on public roads if you’ve done the proper paperwork.

- Once that is done, it’s largely a case of getting the right parts and assembling them. Depending on how much you have to repair, you could be taking on a task that could give a challenge to even a seasoned mechanic. There may be additional paperwork depending on what exactly you need to repair, like the breaks, lights, steering, etc.

- If you want to build the car entirely from scratch, chassis and all, that’s an entirely different story with a much more complicated list of requirements to make it street legal, so getting a frame from a junkyard is a great first step!

- Make sure to keep all bills of sale, junkyard receipts, invoices and manufacturers’ certificates on any major parts you used in building the vehicle to prove its road worthy to the DMV when it’s complete!

Harold doesn’t always answer first but over time he’s found the adventures of this kid amusing and keeps up with it.

Ghostly_Boy keeps the forum updated with his progress:

The kid spontaneously deciding to scrap the wiring system and make his own in a span of 3 days, leaving experienced mechanics on the forum practically screaming at the kid for his updates showing him using random wires he salvaged and pigtailing them together to get the length of wire he needed.

Mixing not only multiple types of wires but ones that didn’t have the protection needed for auto use. DIY-ing his own relay and fuses he didn’t have and connecting the wrong grounds and switches. And planning on leaving the wires unwrapped and loose.

Leaving Ghost to promptly redo the wiring, correctly this time, within 78 hours.

Making a repair of a massive rusted hole on the passenger side by the bumper and the front tire via cutting 1/2in past the rust, grinding it pretty and clean, tac & seam welding the vintage aluminum housing material of a toaster to cover the hole to the response of Harold and many others in the forum just going “… I guess that would work?”

Harold and many others telling the kid that this “ectoplasm” material wasn’t cleared through the EPA’s Clear Air Act and could be illegal to drive with it as it’s fuel source unless he got the emissions tested & the center of gravity of the car adjusted to have the center of gravity a gas car has, it wouldn’t pass Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Nor would the previously untested on material make it easy or quick to get an Emissions testing certificate. Best to just stick with gas.

Removing what he thought was a “skid plate” that turned out to be another rusted out section on the frame on the bottom of his car and repairing it with steel he salvaged from an old medical table he had laying around. (To the multiple slightly confused commenters asking how Ghost had a spare medical table, he replied, “eh, my folks visit every so often and they’ve been giving me things they’re clearing out of the house so they can move closer to my older sister. I just so happened to get the ye olde medical table. They’re an odd couple of folks but that’s why I love them.”)

People just crying at the kid to go to rockauto.com and just buy the damn parts he needs for his car. (A good resource btw)

The kid kept cutting corners to save cash but through the badgering of Harold and many others that he actually would have to spend money to make this car be safe to drive in, he finally got it completed.

Ghost’s post of him leaving DMV waving the updated title to the car in its envelope in the air, titled, “THE DMV FINALLY SAID IT WASN’T A FIRE HAZARD! ONLY TOOK 2 YEARS! THANKS EVERYONE!” Got the most amount of responses he’d ever had with congratulations from lurkers and previous commenters.

Over the course of those two years, Danny learned how to draw his own wiring diagrams, properly solder and weld, and learning to actually plan out his projects so he got it right at least the fifth time instead of the 20th. Not bad for a kid that went straight from graduating high school with a 1.5GPA to construction jobs.

But after finally getting the car approved, Ghostly_Boy returns to the forum with a new problem. Lamenting that his parents keep coming over and “modifying” his car to no longer make it street legal.

At this point, about half of the answers to the submission think it’s either a joke project taken very, very seriously with a good chunk of money behind it, or a kid with parents that have narrowly avoided falling completely down the mad scientist rogue rabbit hole.

After all, what sort of parent would think that the DMV would approve to “anti-ghost missiles” being attached to the outer body of the car? Either way, the submissions always had video attached showing a demonstration, proving that Ghost wasn’t just completely yanking their chain. And a good amount of money would have to be sunken in to not only pay for the fines Ghostly continued to get from the additions to his car, but to actually manufacture and make a unique working product for each plea for help request.

Harold is not only taking notes on some of these defense measures but also decides to bring up the boy to Alfred. Intrigued, they together keep an eye on Ghostly_Boy. Bruce may be their employer, but they can handle a case or two on their own.

- I wanted Danny to try to make smth for himself now that he doesn’t have access to his parent’s lab anymore but he also doesn’t have access to ectoplasm so he’s fairly unfamiliar how to wire things Not for ectoplasmic standards.

Also I wanted to make a prompt where Danny had a good relationship with his parents & went into a fairly realistic job after high school with his fairly bad GPA so he’s saving up for a technical school via construction jobs as he doesn’t like the idea of working fast food for understandable reasons.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Someone asked this question recently. Here's a good source.

by Tyler Vanzo

When masks were in short supply during the Covid-19 pandemic, people started questioning whether N95 face masks expire. Are expired face masks (but otherwise untouched) still effective? Surprising results from a peer-reviewed study have led some to question N95 expiration dates.

Do Face Masks Expire? The answer is yes if you’re talking about disposable masks. Disposable face masks will have a best-by date on the packaging, just like food. While this period is likely to be several years away, it is important to use the masks before then to get the best protection.

Reusable face masks are washable and safe to reuse, making them an excellent choice to stock up on. For the best results, wash the masks according to the instructions on the package and hang them to dry.

Do N95 Face Masks Expire? Researchers at the University of North Carolina and the EPA tested brand new and 10-year-old expired 3M N95 face masks. The oldest masks had expired 11 years before the study. And if the expiration lifespan is 5 years, that means the oldest masks were 16 years old.

Importantly, the researchers tested the masks on real people’s faces, rather than manikins. These fit tests are important because they take into account the part that people most suspect would degrade–the straps and other pieces that influence fit.

Fit tests compare the number of particles inside the mask while a person is wearing it versus the number of particles outside the mask. In this study, the average particle size was tiny–0.05 microns.

10-Year-Old Expired N95 Masks as Effective as New Surprisingly, the expired N95 masks were within one percent as effective as the brand-new masks–essentially indistinguishable.

It’s important to note that this was a small study. The researchers tested two different models of expired masks with three masks for each model.

N95 Masks Have Longer Shelf Life Than We Once Thought However, there is other data suggesting that N95 masks last longer than some people have thought. Our longevity tests found less than a 1% decrease in fit effectiveness in pollution masks worn every day for 30 days.

Why Do Masks Have Expiration Dates? Manufacturers mark their masks with expiration dates. For example, 3M says their masks have a 5-year shelf-life when the respirators are stored in their original packing and proper climate conditions (-4F to 86F, not exceeding 80% RH). That leads some to conclude that masks are less effective after this date.

The motivation behind the expiration date is that mask effectiveness depends on having a good fit. Over time, the elastic bands and nose pieces can degrade. If the straps and other structural pieces degrade, the masks will fit less well.

Bottom Line: Do N95 Face Masks Expire? Fit tests found less than a 1% difference in effectiveness between 10-year-old expired N95 masks and brand new masks.

(Ad segment of this article omitted. Feel free to patronize the author's site for HEPA filters and more.)

Study link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2769443

[daughter-heir]

hi I know shit is really bad right now but can I ask what the effects of the chevron decision will be

Hi! I'll try to explain it as thoroughly as I can so you can get a full understanding of the issue without getting too legal with it. Starting from the beginning - federal agencies are an arm of the executive branch; they're tasked with everyday enforcement and administration of federal laws. To make an agency, Congress passes a founding statute that delegates authority and tasks the agency with a broad mandate to regulate a certain thing. Obviously, Congress can't contemplate every single thing that that agency is going to have to regulate, right? So there's a lot of ambiguity regarding what exact agency power is and what they can do under their statute/s. Congress can pass laws to clarify ambiguity that give an agency more specific power, but we all know how dysfunctional Congress is.

Agencies promulgate rules and regulations under their statutory mandate and interpret ambiguous language in their statutes based on their technical expertise (ex: environmental scientists at the EPA). However, some of those rules get challenged in court by various groups who say that that agency doesn't have the power to regulate x. That's where the Chevron doctrine comes into play.

The case Chevron v. National Resources Defence Council from 1984, involved an advocacy group who challenged an interpretation of the term "stationary source," which the EPA redefined. The regulation had something to do with air pollution sources, and I can't even comprehend the complexities of all that went into that. Why, do you ask? Well, because I'm not an expert! And that is along the lines of what the court found - the judicial branch cannot substitute its authority for the technical expertise of agency officials.

The Court held that Congress implicitly delegates authority to agencies if not explicitly, and it is not the place of the judiciary to substitute their interpretation for that of experts. Other reasons included the fact that Congress is an elected, accountable body and the judiciary is not. This established 40 years of precedent that is a bedrock principle in administrative law and a doctrine called Chevron Deference. Under Chevron Deference, the courts had a very clear test: (1) Is the statutory provision ambiguous? and (2) Is that agencies interpretation reasonable/permissible?

The effect was that almost always, the judiciary deferred to an agencies interpretation except under limited circumstances. Since that has been overturned, it opens up so many agency rules and regulations to legal challenges. Now, judges get to decide whether THEY think the agency has authority and their interpretation is reasonable. The effect of that will be conservative justices in the federal judiciary will say "no, I don't think that's reasonable" to something they think is too liberal and ignore agency expertise on the issue.

Federal regulations touch every aspect of our lives - workplace safety, public health, student loan forgiveness, the environment, and essentially anything else you can think of. The Executive Branch relies on federal agencies to get anything done due to how polarized Congress is. Agencies are responsible for the day to day functions of our government. The effect is that allllll the rules and regulations that govern us can be challenged without deference to expertise. There is a lot of uncertainty in the realm of administrative law right now.

[iamthepulta]

As is turning disturbingly into custom, I have a paper to write and I can't think unless I start writing to somebody first.

The topic is the Flint Water Crisis. Our focus, corrosion and why it happened. The nuance I'm adding for spice: Ancient plumbing.

So, in Flint, Michigan, the major players are the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and the City of Flint (Flint). The City of Flint is in a $25 million deficit and their contract with DWSD to supply water expires in 2014. In 2011, the state has put the city under Emergency Management, which is trying to decrease spending, essentially. Additionally, since 2004, DWSD has been upping their service rates at a yearly 6.2%, or 62% total (expensive). And kind of an asshole move since Flint has been buying water from DWSD since 1967.

Flint has their own water treatment plant that's been an emergency backup to the DWSD-supplied water, but it is only operated 4 times a year just to ensure it can function.

Flint says Fuck This Actually, and in 2013, decides to pull water from Lake Huron; but this pipeline is still being developed and only due to be online in 2017. So Flint decides for the 2-3 year period, they can pull water from the Flint River and treat it in their own treatment plant. They hire an engineering firm to retrofit the plant and email Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) for quality guidelines to follow during plant startup.

At this point, Flint was incorrectly told by MDEQ they DID NOT have to continue adding phosphates to the water as corrosion control, which the previous plant had been doing. They could start up as normal, and check every six months for any lead issues. Additionally, to control the amount of trihalomethanes (fancy word for a gas molecule with three halogens, a hydrogen, and a carbon) already in the water, the plant added FeCl3 as a disinfectant and flocculant (purifies water via latching onto other molecules and allowing them to be filtered out) instead; FeCl3 is non-toxic, but increases the water corrosivity in an already corrosive system.

This is where the more known portion of the story begins: people immediately notice the changes in the water, including increasing discoloration and are concerned. It's policy to have a monitoring pool of homes for quality control, and Flint had that, but it's also policy to have 50% of those homes contain lead service lines and none on the Flint circuit were. They also didn't sample the homes that were on the circuit properly to pick up lead in the system, so the lead numbers that were picked up, were likely minimized.

So on one hand, you have people (and a whole lot of visual evidence) pointing to a damaged, polluted water supply, and test results that don't show anything abnormal.

Resident Zero took water samples to show to the city, and then independently sent them to Virginia Tech. The minimum concentration of lead in all the samples was 217 ug/L, 14.5 times the EPA action level of 15 ug/L. And as the sampling occurred, lead levels increased in the last five samples, so not even flushing the pipes (common precautionary treatment for any nasty buildup in pipes while water hasn't been moving) was adequate protection for any home inhabitants.

The reason this occurred was the corrosion of lead scaling that had built up on steel service lines outside homes (Fig 1). Typically, when phosphate is used as a corrosion inhibitor, soluble metals precipitate and create a scale on the pipe. Nothing goes into solution or the house, and things are fine and dandy. Without corrosion inhibitors, not only was the original corrosive contact occurring between the steel and lead pipes, but the scale was being removed and carried into the system. 99% of the contamination was due to this scale, as noted when solid filtration was used on the water samples and lead values decreased.

(Pieper, et al 2017)

+ Findings

+ Corrections/future learnings

+ Rome

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

Do you have any examples for what kind of air filtration places should be using? And how do I go about asking what they’re using? I’ve been wanting to contact my library to ask, but I don’t know what word to use.

(DISCLAIMER: this answer is for the USA. air filter regulations and certification vary country-to-country, and i live in the USA. please do not assume any of this--beyond the basic scientific information--is true if you are not in the USA.)

so the short answer is that in order to be effective against COVID (and most other viruses), your filter must capture particles in the size range of 0.1-1 microns. if the minimum capture size is larger than that range, it will not trap viral particles. just as importantly, it needs an appropriate Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) for the size of the room it's filtering; you can learn about how to calculate CADR and other details in the linked documents here, but the short version is your purifier's CADR should be equal to at least 2/3rds of the room's total area (for example, a room of 120 square feet requires a minimum CADR of 80), and rooms with ceilings higher than 8 feet require a higher CADR-to-area ratio than that. most wisdom recommends aiming for 5 complete air changes per hour, however, i've been told that this can be overkill.

the most commonly-used air filters in the USA which filter particles in the correct micron size range are HEPA filters. HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air [filter]. you can learn a little about HEPA filters on the EPA website here. because of how air purifier testing and distribution work, the easiest question to ask to determine if something filters the correct micron size range is "is this a certified HEPA filter?" there are many filters being marketed as "HEPA-type" filters which do not filter microns in the correct size range. make sure you ask if something is specifically a HEPA filter and not a "HEPA-type" filter.

other than asking if it's a HEPA filter, i would suggest asking the following questions:

is the CADR of your purifiers rated for your room size[s]?

if they don't know: who can i talk to in order to get that information?

if they don't know that: what is the CADR of your air purifier[s] and what is the square footage of the room[s] they are in? (you can calculate whether or not it's rated appropriately to size yourself.)

the CADR should be on the packaging and info booklets that come with the air purifier, but if whoever you're talking to can't access any of that information, try asking for the specific brand and model of the purifier. if you look it up, you should be able to easily find its CADR on the manufacturer's online listing.

hope this helps! let me know if i can expand on anything or explain anything more clearly.

[darkmaga-returns]

A new investigation reveals 90% of popular toothpaste brands contain dangerous levels of heavy metals like lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium, posing serious health risks.

Independent testing by Lead Safe Mama found major brands like Crest, Colgate, and Tom’s of Maine contaminated, with some products exceeding EPA safety limits for lead and arsenic.

Heavy metals in toothpaste enter the body through gums, inhalation, or ingestion, with children at highest risk for developmental harm, cognitive decline, and autism.

Despite alarming findings, no recalls have been issued, and companies defend their products, while FDA standards remain far looser than safety thresholds for other consumables.

Advocates urge consumers to switch to verified clean brands and push for stricter regulations as corporate negligence and weak oversight continue to endanger public health.