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The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose restrictions on harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water after finding they are dangerous in amounts so small as to be undetectable. But experts say removing them will cost billions, a burden that will fall hardest on small communities with few resources. Concerned about the chemicals’ ability to weaken children’s immune systems, the EPA said last year that PFAS could cause harm at levels “much lower than previously understood.” (Phillis and Peterson, 3/3)

KHN: Schools Struggle With Lead In Water While Awaiting Federal Relief 

On a recent day in this 19th-century mining town turned tourist hot spot, students made their way into the Granite High School lobby and past a new filtered water bottle fill station. Water samples taken from the drinking fountain the station replaced had a lead concentration of 10 parts per billion — twice Montana’s legal limit for schools of 5 parts per billion for the toxic metal. (Houghton, 3/3)

EPA on Thursday ordered Norfolk Southern to begin testing for dioxins, a family of toxic chemicals that cause cancer and various other ailments, at the site of the East Palestine, Ohio, train crash. The order followed weeks of complaints by local residents that EPA wasn’t testing for dioxins, which can form when vinyl chloride is burned, as happened after the crash. (Guillen, 3/2)

Residents vented and pleaded, describing how their families were still living in hotels or experiencing lingering health problems, including repeated vomiting and rashes. They told the officials how they felt trapped, with few resources to move away from the homes they had spent their lives building, and demanded more answers about the validity of the testing done on their air, water and soil. (Lieszkovszky and Cochrane, 3/2)

The investigation into the Ohio train derailment has found that aluminum parts on three tank cars may have melted and caused pressure relief devices not to function, contributing to the release of toxic chemicals last month, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Thursday. (Shepardson and Brooks, 3/2)

Children in Texas who live along the U.S.-Mexico border have a 30% higher risk of death within five years of being diagnosed with the most common type of childhood cancer compared to those living elsewhere in the state, a new study found. Childhood cancer is the second-leading cause of death for kids under 16 years of age, and people who live in Texas border communities — about 80% are Hispanic — have long had less access to health care. (Galvan, 3/2)