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For a second time, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, on Wednesday secured House passage of legislation that would combat contamination across the country by PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals once prevalent in household items and fire-retardant materials that have been linked to health problems.
The bill, with Dingell as its prime sponsor, passed 241-182, with 23 Republicans joining the Democratic majority to approve the measure. It now goes to the Senate, where its chances of passage have increased with Democrats in marginal control of the chamber.
While the legislation touches on many aspects of regulating PFAS which is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the bonds of which are so strong they don t degrade or do so only slowly in the environment the main parts of the bill would require the federal government to label the two most widely known chemicals as hazardous and require national drinking water standards to be developed.
Brian Kaufman, Photo Story
Shawn Windsor, Sports Feature
Janet Graham, Best Headline
Detroit Free Press Staff, Best Video Presentation
Georgea Kovanis, Best Writing
The Freep also won additional awards in other categories.
Nancy Kaffer won third place for Best Columnist; Phoebe Wall Howard won second place in Business/Agriculture News; Ryan Garza won third place in News Photo and second place in Best Photo; Kimberly P. Mitchell won third place in Photo Story; Detroit Free Press Staff won third place in Special Selection, third place for Best Coverage of the Coronavirus in Michigan and second place in Spot News Story; Jeff Seidel won second place in Sports writing.
Alarming spike in Great Lakes drownings tied to COVID-19, study finds
Keith Matheny
Detroit Free Press
An alarming spike in the number of drownings across several of the Great Lakes last year may have been linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new research study finds.
The drownings, particularly on Great Lakes Michigan, Ontario and Huron, appeared to correlate to times when government restrictions on movement were relaxed amid the pandemic. As community swimming pools, water parks and other options for cooling off in the summer remained closed, more people apparently chose to visit local beaches on the Great Lakes. At many of those beaches, COVID-19 contributed to local governments not providing lifeguards, swimming area markings or flag warnings for dangerous wave days.