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The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take a case examining whether states and cities can sue fossil fuel companies over harms caused by climate change, a legal tactic modeled on the push to hold tobacco companies responsible for the health effects of smoking. The case is significant because dozens of municipalities are seeking billions in damages from oil and gas companies, often accusing them of misleading the public or hiding evidence about the links between greenhouse gases and climate risks. The companies deny any wrongdoing. (Jouvenal, 2/23)

On pesticides and chemicals —

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to endorse increased production of a chemical herbicide he has previously called a carcinogen has sparked a furious reaction among his followers and stressed the MAGA-MAHA alliance. The health secretary explained in a post to X on Sunday night he was backing a directive from President Donald Trump to boost manufacturing of agricultural chemicals he says “put Americans at risk” in order to reduce dependence on them from “adversarial nations,” alarming supporters of his Make America Healthy Again movement. (Reader, Burns and Brown, 2/23)

University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers continue to test water from the Potomac River one month after a wastewater pipe broke, dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the river, and find the river still has high levels of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, or staph. (Soucheray, 2/23)

An East Bay refinery will pay $10 million to settle allegations stemming from more than 100 notices of environmental violations over four years, including multiple releases of harmful dust that blanketed nearby properties, local officials announced last week. (Park, 2/23)

Joe Harrison’s quest for justice against the Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta began, officially at least, in August 2023 — just three months before his death. That’s when Harrison’s attorneys filed a lawsuit in the federal courthouse in East St. Louis, Illinois. Harrison owned a small cattle ranch in northeastern Oklahoma, and the lawsuit accuses Syngenta of failing to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of paraquat, the key ingredient in its blockbuster weedkiller Gramoxone. (Fitzgerald, 2/23)

On the health effects of microplastics —

In a new study, researchers found microplastics deep inside prostate cancer tumors, raising more questions about the role the ubiquitous pollutants play in public health. The findings — which come from a small study of 10 men — were presented Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. (Cox, 2/23)

Don’t toss that scratched-up, questionably stained, borderline EPA Superfund site, 12-year-old cutting board just yet! Your vintage fermentation lab with knife marks might not be so dangerous after all. (Gioino, 2/24)