LANSING, Mich. — A former Michigan public health official and Democratic candidate for governor entered the race for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat on Thursday.

Abdul El-Sayed, 40, is the second Democrat to put his name in the running in what could be one of the most watched races in the 2026 midterm elections. He’s also the second candidate this week to launch a campaign to replace Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is not seeking reelection.

“It’s way too hard to survive here in the richest, most powerful country in the world and it should not be this hard to get by,” he told The Associated Press.

El-Sayed ran for governor in 2018 as a progressive Democrat and was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. He came in second in the Democratic primary, losing to Gretchen Whitmer by more than 20 points and beating now U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar by more than 12 points. Whitmer went on to win the general election and is in the midst of a second term. She can’t run again because of term limits.

A resident of Ann Arbor, El-Sayed recently served as director of the Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services in Wayne County, home to Detroit. Before that, he was the public health director of the city after it declared bankruptc y in 2013.

El-Sayed said he’s inspired to run for Senate after the overhaul of the federal government brought on by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, including changes and cuts made at the nation’s top health agencies. But he said Democrats must do more than just run on the opposite of Republican policies.

“You have to come with your own independent analysis of what you think the problem is and how you want to solve it, if you want to earn the trust of the public,” he said.

El-Sayed joins state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in the Democratic field of candidates looking to replace Peters. Others considering a run include U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers launched his bid on Monday after losing a Senate race last year by 19,000 votes to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention soon to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. Kennedy also said he’s assembling a task force to focus on the issue.

Also on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing “new scientific information” on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.

Kennedy told The Associated Press of his plans after a news conference in Salt Lake City.

Utah last month became the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warned the move would lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the cavity-preventing mineral to their water systems. Water systems across the state must shut down their fluoridation systems by May 7.

Kennedy praised Utah for emerging as “the leader in making America healthy again.” He was flanked by Utah legislative leaders and the sponsor of the state’s fluoride law. “I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will,” he said.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who appeared with Kennedy at the news conference, said his agency was launching a renewed examination of scientific studies on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water to help inform any changes to the national standards.

“When this evaluation is completed, we will have an updated foundational scientific evaluation that will inform the agency’s future steps,” Zeldin said. “Secretary Kennedy has long been at the forefront of this issue. His advocacy was instrumental in our decision to review fluoride exposure risks and we are committed to working alongside him, utilizing sound science as we advance our mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and in 1962 set guidelines for how much should be added to water.

Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a “dangerous neurotoxin” and said also it’s been associated with arthritis, bone breaks, and thyroid disease. Some studies have suggested such links might exist, usually at higher-than-recommended fluoride levels, though some reviewers have questioned the quality of available evidence and said no definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main one for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water was long considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

About one-third of community water systems — 17,000 out of 51,000 across the U.S. — serving more than 60% of the population fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 CDC analysis. The agency currently recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.

But over time, studies have documented potential problems. Too much fluoride has been associated with streaking or spots on teeth. Studies also have traced a link between excess fluoride and brain development.

A report last year by the federal government’s National Toxicology Program, which summarized studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter — more than twice the recommended level in the U.S. — was associated with lower IQs in kids.

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Stobbe reported from New York.

SOPA Images via Getty Images

LUIS TATO via Getty Images

LUIS TATO via Getty Images

The District of Columbia on Friday filed a lawsuit against the federal government over pollution in the Anacostia River, arguing it has inflicted “catastrophic harm” on the mostly poor and minority communities living along the urban waterway.

The lawsuit argues that federal government, which owns and controls the riverbed, has since the 1800s dumped toxic waste, heavy metals and chemicals including carcinogenic PCBs in the river and refused to clean it up. The 9-mile (14-kilometer) river flows through Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland. For decades, it was treated as a municipal dumping ground for industrial waste, storm sewers and trash. That contamination largely affected communities of color.

The lawsuit alleges that PCBs from the Washington Navy Yard were dumped in the river along with hazardous chemicals from the Kenilworth Landfill and chemical waste from federal printing facilities. It also blamed the federal government for poorly managing the District of Columbia’s sewer system, which led to the dumping of raw sewage and toxic waste into the river.

That pollution has led to swimming bans and warnings about fishing along the river, the lawsuit alleges, calling the federal government its biggest polluter.

“It has systematically contaminated the River through the indiscriminate dumping and release of hazardous substances and through destructive dredge and fill operations,” the lawsuit says.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said pollutants in the river don’t break down and cause long-lasting harm to the environment, aquatic wildlife, and human health, including cancer, neurological and developmental disorders and birth defects.

The District of Columbia is demanding that the federal government pay for the river’s cleanup.

The lawsuit comes as the District of Columbia has made progress in cleaning up the river and returning to a time where residents fished and boated and wildlife including bald eagles, osprey, cranes, kingfishers and eel thrived there.

A $3.29 billion sewer upgrade, including a series of tunnels drilled under the city to capture storm and sewage water, has reduced overflows into the river by 91%, according to DC Water, the city’s water utility. The final section of the Anacostia Tunnel System went online in 2023, and the overall system is expected to reduce overflows by 98%.

Pepco, the city’s utility, also reached an agreement with the District of Columbia to pay more than $57 million for discharging hazardous chemicals from their power plants into soil, groundwater and storm sewers for decades that polluted the Anacostia and other areas. The settlement was believed to be the largest in the utility’s history.

The payments will be used in part to clean up the river. Other measures the city government instituted like a fee on plastic bags since 2009 have also helped keep trash out, experts say.

Still, the Anacostia remains polluted. It received a failing grade for the third time in six years in 2023 from a nonprofit that grades the river’s health based on its fecal bacteria content and the state of its aquatic vegetation.

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WASHINGTON — Cosmetic companies would have to take extra steps to ensure that any products containing talc are free of asbestos under a federal rule proposed Thursday.

The proposal from the Food and Drug Administration and mandated by Congress is intended to reassure consumers about the safety of makeup, baby powder and other personal care products.

It follows years of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and other companies alleging links between talc-based baby powder and cancer.

Despite the lawsuits, research has found mixed evidence of a potential link between cancer and talc, although the possibility has been recognized for decades because of how it is mined.

Talc is a mineral used to absorb moisture or improve the texture, feel and color of cosmetics. It is mined from underground deposits that are sometimes located near the toxic mineral asbestos. The risk of cross contamination has long been recognized by cosmetic companies.

But recent FDA-sponsored testing hasn’t uncovered any safety issues. Since 2021, laboratory analysis of more than 150 cosmetic samples has come back negative for asbestos, according to the FDA.

Still, concerns about the risk prompted Congress to pass a 2023 law requiring the FDA to release new industry standards for asbestos testing.

Dr. Linda Katz, the director of the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors, said in a statement that the agency has “carefully considered the scientific evidence and complex policy issues related to detecting and identifying asbestos in talc and talc-containing cosmetic products.”

“We believe that the proposed testing techniques are appropriate methods to detect asbestos to help ensure the safety of talc-containing cosmetic products,” Katz said.

The long-running litigation against J&J alleges that the company’s talc baby powder caused women to develop ovarian cancer, when used for feminine hygiene.

A J&J subsidiary has proposed paying roughly $8 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits. As part of the deal, the subsidiary would declare bankruptcy, although that proposal has been challenged in court by the Justice Department.

J&J removed talc from its baby powder in the U.S. market in 2020 and then internationally in 2023. The company says it continues to stand by the safety of its products.

Determining the root cause of cancer is difficult, especially in cases of ovarian cancer, which is a relatively rare form of the disease. Even large studies in thousands of women might not gather enough data to show a clear connection or definitively rule one out. The American Cancer Society says that, if there is an increased risk of cancer due to talc, “it is likely to be very small.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.