The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new feature on its website that uses several new interactive Web technologies that let users track the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) from coal-fired power plants. SO2 is a pollutant that causes acid rain and harm to public health. EPA's Acid Rain Program (ARP) has been tracking quarterly SO2 emissions from covered power plants since 1995. The new features are a welcome tool for helping the public and government officials track pollution, hold polluting facilities accountable, and ensure that policies to reduce pollution are working.

White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag said Monday that OMB did not improperly interfere in an EPA program meant to test the hormone-disrupting effects of chemicals. Orszag said that EPA has complete control over the program.

In response to industry and political pressure, the Food and Drug Administration may be backing away from a regulation that would require oyster sellers to process oysters to kill Vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that can sicken or kill those it infects. The regulation was supposed to take effect in 2011, but FDA may delay action while it further studies the issue.

Researchers spent years studying the effects of bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure on factory workers in China, and the news isn't good. The key findings of the study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, are more or less summed up in two passages.