On a cloudy day in late October, Alyssa Shiel crouched on a narrow strip of grass between the curb and the sidewalk of a neighborhood in inner Southeast Portland, plunging a small syringe-like probe ...

ALBANY — We’ve all heard and read about the hazards of lead in the environment — in old paint or in aging municipal water systems. But there is also lead in aging overhead and buried phone lines in ...

Lead does not break down over time and so accumulates in soil, but not much federal testing or scientific research has focused on the potential risks coming from lead-sheathed telephone cables. READ ...