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A new study that combines measurements from some 1,400 drinking water wells across North Carolina estimates that more than half the wells in the state's central region contain levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium in excess of state safety standards. The NSF-funded findings are published in Science of the Total Environment.

As the Trump administration scales back federal regulation of the waste from coal-fired power plants known as coal ash, a handful of Southern states have passed laws forcing utilities to clean up or contain the toxic mess. Other states, though, have done little or nothing.

Furniture, flooring, construction materials, and humans and their habits are just some sources of the thousands of particles and gases that surround people living indoors. As scientists collect increasingly sophisticated data on the chemistry of the indoor environment, policy-makers and industry leaders are seeking more information on how to apply these findings to buildings and homes, experts said at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium.

Duke Geology Professor Emeritus Orrin Pilkey has long written about how to live with changing shorelines, but his latest collaboration with his son Keith Pilkey sounds the alarm on the coastal crisis looming for the country.