LaTricea Adams' parents and grandparents all grew up in Riverside, a neighborhood in south Memphis.

“This neighborhood is a historically and currently majority African American community,” LaTricea Adams, a resident of Memphis, said. "As you are about to enter into the Riverside community, you know it because you can smell it.”

Adams is also the CEO of Black Millennials for Flint, an organization focused on seeking environmental justice for lead-free African American & Latino communities.

Neighbors who live near manufacturing and chemical plants, highways and train tracks have worried about their health for decades.

Shelby County, where Memphis is located, received an "F” in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2022 report for ozone levels multiple years in a row. They’ve passed in the particle pollution category since the mid-2000s but repeatedly failed before then.

“The most polluted area in Memphis is southwest Memphis. There used to be a monitoring station,” Chunrong Jia, an air pollution researcher and associate professor at the University of Memphis School of Public Health, said.

Jia is a researcher who focuses on air pollution exposure and risk assessment. He collects chemicals in the air on this rooftop monitoring station, and then takes the tubes and analyzes the chemicals.

“Each peak represents a chemical,” he explained, pointing to the analysis on the computer screen. “For example, one peak represents benzene which is a carcinogenic chemical in the air, it’s ubiquitous, it’s an ingredient of gasoline and diesel.”

New funding could change the data collected on these pollutants. The recently signed Inflation Reduction Act provides $3 billion in funding for environmental and climate justice block grants, and $236 million will go toward increased air pollution monitoring, intended to benefit disadvantaged communities.

“There are two groups of air pollutants we often see in the area,” Jia said.

The first is criteria air pollutants. Jia said these include seven pollutants, like lead and particulate matter. Ground-level ozone is also included. The EPA says these pollutants can harm your health and the environment.

The second group is toxic air pollutants. Jia says this is a larger group of chemicals, and includes gasses like benzene.

“They are emitted from different industrial processes and often those low-income communities are by these air toxins because they are close to those industrial facilities,” Jia explained. "Studies have found that even at low concentrations, our exposure to low-level complex mixtures of these chemicals still can cause adverse health effects.”

The State of the Air 2021 report also found that more than 4 in 10 people in the U.S. live with polluted air, putting their health at risk. More data on what’s in the air could help researchers find more answers to how this impacts us and the environment.

“Where's the data,” Andrea Jacobo, a visiting assistant professor at Rhodes College and doctor of public health candidate, said. “It gives us the data we need to advocate for our communities to change the infrastructure."

Jia said he sees the funding providing multiple benefits, from strengthening current monitoring efforts to providing monitoring in areas that don’t currently have it.

“In particular those under-served communities, often they are located near those industrial facilities or highways or polluted dumping sites,” Jia said.

“We know that our communities are polluted. The next step is how do we address the chronic illness that comes from these pollutants that we see,” Adams said.

Video above: EPA administrator visits East Palestine train derailment site

After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment.

Last week, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state's environmental protection agency expressing concern that dioxins may have been released when some of the chemicals in the damaged railcars were deliberately burned for safety reasons. They joined residents of the small town and environmentalists from around the U.S. calling for state and federal environmental agencies to test the soil around the site where the tanker cars tipped over.

Here's a look at dioxins, their potential harms and whether they may have been created by burning the vinyl chloride that was on the Norfolk Southern train:

Highly toxic, persistent compounds

Dioxins refer to a group of toxic chemical compounds that can persist in the environment for long periods of time, according to the World Health Organization.

They are created through combustion and attach to dust particles, which is how they begin to circulate through an ecosystem.

Residents near the burn could have been exposed to dioxins in the air that landed on their skin or were breathed into their lungs, said Frederick Guengerich, a toxicologist at Vanderbilt University.

Skin exposure to high concentrations can cause what's known as chloracne — an intense skin inflammation, Guengerich said.

But the main pathway that dioxin gets into human bodies is not directly through something burning like the contents of the East Palestine tanker cars. It's through consumption of meat, dairy, fish and shellfish that have become contaminated. That contamination takes time.

"That's why it's important for the authorities to investigate this site now," said Ted Schettler, a physician with a public health degree who directs the Science and Environmental Health Network, a coalition of environmental organizations. "Because it's important to determine the extent to which dioxins are present in the soil and the surrounding area."

Does burning vinyl chloride create dioxins?

Linda Birnbaum, a leading dioxins researcher, toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said that burning vinyl chloride does create dioxins. Other experts agreed the accident could have created them.

The "tremendous black plume" seen at East Palestine suggests the combustion process left lots of complex carbon compounds behind, said Murray McBride, a Cornell University soil and crop scientist.

McBride said it will be hard to say for sure whether these compounds were released until testing is done where the train cars derailed.

Which is likely why residents, politicians, environmentalists and public health professionals are all calling for state and federal environmental agencies to conduct testing at the derailment site.

Routes to the environment

There is already some level of dioxins in the environment — they can be created by certain industrial processes, or even by people burning trash in their backyards, McBride said.

Once they are released, dioxins can stick around in soil for decades. They can contaminate plants including crops. They accumulate up the food chain in oils and other fats.

In East Palestine, it's possible that soot particles from the plume carried dioxins onto nearby farms, where they could stick to the soil, McBride said.

"If you have grazing animals out there in the field, they will pick up some of the dioxins from soil particles," he said. "And so some of that gets into their bodies, and then that accumulates in fat tissue."

Eventually, those dioxins could make their way up the food chain to human consumers. Bioaccumulation means that more dioxin can get into humans than what's found in the environment after the crash.

"(Animals) don't metabolize and get rid of dioxins like we do other chemicals," Schettler said, and it's stored in the fat of animals that humans eat, like fish, and builds up over time, making the health effects worse.

Should residents be concerned?

Birnbaum and Schettler agreed that residents have reason for concern about dioxins from this accident.

Even though they are present in small amounts from other sources, the large amount of vinyl chloride burned off from the train cars could create more than usual, McBride said.

"That's my concern, that there could be an unusual concentration," he said. "But again, I'm waiting to see if these soils are analyzed."

It takes between 7 and 11 years for the chemical to start to break down in the body of a person or animal. And dioxins have been linked with cancer, developmental problems in children and reproductive issues and infertility in adults, according to the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.

Still, Guengerich thought that other potential health risks from the derailment — like the concern that exposure to the vinyl chloride itself could cause cancer — may be more pressing than the possible dioxins: "I wouldn't put it at the highest level on my list," he said.

Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, agreed that vinyl chloride should be of more concern than dioxins for the public and said that even the mental health of a community rocked by the catastrophic derailment should be a higher public health priority than dioxin exposure.

As with many environmental exposures, it would be hard to prove any dioxin present came from the derailment. "I think that it would be virtually impossible .... to attribute any presence of dioxin to this particular burn," she said.

But most experts thought it was important to test the soils for dioxins — even though that process can be difficult and costly.

"The conditions are absolutely right for dioxins to have been formed," Schettler said. "It's going to be terribly important to determine that from a public health perspective, and to reassure the community."

A growing number of state legislatures are considering bans on cosmetics and other consumer products that contain a group of synthetic, potentially harmful chemicals known as PFAS.In Vermont, the state Senate gave final approval this week to legislation that would prohibit manufacturers and suppliers from selling or distributing any cosmetics or menstrual products in the state that have perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as well as a number of other chemicals.The products include shampoo, makeup, deodorant, sunscreen, hair dyes and more, said state Sen. Terry Williams, a Republican, and member of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare.“Many known toxic chemicals are used in or found as contaminants in personal care products, including PFAS, lead and formaldehyde," Williams said in reporting the bill to Senate colleagues.California, Colorado and Maryland passed similar restrictions on cosmetics that go into effect in 2025. Other proposals are under consideration in Washington and Oregon while bills have also been introduced in Illinois, Rhode Island and Georgia.According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, studies have linked PFAS exposure to increased cancer risk, developmental delays in children, damage to organs such as the liver and thyroid, increased cholesterol levels and reduced immune functions, especially among young children.Like in Colorado and California, the proposed Vermont crackdown on PFAS — known as “forever chemicals” for their persistence in the environment — goes beyond cosmetics. The bill, which now must be considered by the Vermont House, would extend the ban to apparel, including outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions, athletic turf, clothing, ski wax and textiles, including upholstery, draperies, towels and bedding that intentionally contain PFAS. The bill has been referred to a House committee and the chairwoman said Friday that she's not sure if the panel will get to it this session. The legislation gives various timelines for the phaseouts."We must stop importing dangerous chemicals like PFAS into our state so we can prevent the harms they are causing up and down the supply chain — from their production and use to their disposal,” Lauren Hierl, executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters, said in a statement.In March, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first federal limits on the chemicals in drinking water, saying the protection will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses, including cancer. The chemicals had been used since the 1940s in consumer products and industry, including in nonstick pans, food packaging and firefighting foam. Their use is now mostly phased out in the U.S., but some still remain. Pressure is also growing to remove PFAS from food packaging.A study by University of Notre Dame researchers released in 2021 found that more than half the cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada were awash with a toxic industrial compound associated with serious health conditions.Researchers tested more than 230 commonly used cosmetics and found that 56% of foundations and eye products, 48% of lip products and 47% of mascaras contained fluorine — an indicator of PFAS.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says on its website that there have been few studies of the presence of PFAS in cosmetics, and the ones published found the concentration is at very low levels.The Personal Care Products Council, which represents the cosmetics industry, says in 2020 it supported California legislation to phase out certain ingredients, including 13 PFAS in cosmetics, and identical legislative language in Maryland the following year. The group called for states to pass uniform laws to avoid confusion.As for bans on apparel containing the chemicals, the American Apparel & Footwear Association supports the bill passed unanimously in the Vermont Senate and appreciates that amendments were made to align with phase-out timelines in existing PFAS restrictions in California and New York, said Chelsea Murtha, AAFA’s director of sustainability, in a statement.The Outdoor Industry Association, based on Colorado, said overall it supports the Vermont bill, also noted the current version more closely matches the timeline for compliance with California's.“We are also appreciative of the exemption for outdoor apparel severe wet conditions until 2028, as our industry is diligently working to move toward non-regrettable alternatives that will not compromise consumer safety or the quality of the product,” said association President Kent Ebersole in a statement.

MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. — Even with bare branches still anticipating winter snow, the landscape of New Hampshire’s lake region holds an estimable, eerie beauty.

Along with foliage, this time of year also sees an absence of one of New England's beloved waterfowl that is a haunting fixture along lakeshores.

This time of year, common loons leave their lake homes before they freeze to bob and fish in the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean. While they may be at their most elusive in the winter, there’s a group trying to prevent the beloved bird from disappearing altogether at the hands of an invisible enemy.

"These contaminants are ubiquitous and they're persistent and it makes one shudder to think what might all be out there that just hasn't been identified," said Tiffany Grade, a biologist at the Loon Preservation Committee.

Grade has been tracking a disturbing decline in the birds' population since the mid-2000s. Ever since, they’ve been testing no longer viable eggs in look nests on local lakes and what her team has discovered is a disastrous chemical cocktail lurking in the egg, including banned chemicals DDT and PCB.

"Here we are decades after the fact, and these are still showing up in these sediments. They're flushing into the lake and we're seeing them potentially impacting our loon population," said Grade.

DDT was a pesticide used heavily in the 1940s and 1950s in orchards. PCB was used in everything from electrical equipment to fluids for vehicles to sprays to keep the dust down in the summer on country roads. Both have been banned since the 1970s.

It’s not just the loon population in New Hampshire that these “legacy chemicals” have been found in, but in wildlife around the country and world – such as marine life up and down the east coast as well as waterfowl on the Great Lakes.

While the full extent of how these chemicals are impacting animals is still being studied, it’s been found that they can stunt growth, weaken eggshells, reduce reproduction and compromise immune function.

"This is not just the New Hampshire issue. This is a, this is a issue across the country," said Grade. "We just need more information to help us understand. You know where these areas of contaminants are both for the sake of protecting loons, other wildlife, but people as well."

The Loon Preservation Committee may be a small nonprofit, but they’re the one agency in the state who’s systematically testing species high up on the food chain measuring the impacts of these banned chemicals, which is an expensive endeavor. Grade hopes other organizations jump on board to figure out this issue not only for the sake of wildlife but for our sake, too.

"We need to make sure we understand. What the impacts potential impacts of these contaminants can be and that that's an open and transparent process," Grade said.

While this team works to figure out how to save these beautiful creatures, they also have a plea about watching what we release into our revered landscapes, because we may never be able to take it out.

"We know we can't plead ignorance anymore about what these chemicals can do, and we really need to be careful about it," said Grade.