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NEWS ARCHIVE 2005    Last updated on 08/25/07 07:48 AM

12/29/05
The United Steelworkers (USW) union has mailed information to over 4,500 retail carpet dealers and sent letters to the CEOs of 35 carpet manufacturing companies informing them that they may have "a legal duty to warn" their customers about potential harmful effects of carpets that may contain perfluorooctanoic acid, a Teflon-related chemical also known as PFOA or C8 that may be present in various stain repellents. [Click For More]

12/28/05
The price of a custom surfboard went up $200 overnight on news that Clark Foam - the country's primary supplier of foam used to make surfboards - was shutting its doors. The primary concern involves Clark Foam's use of the toxic chemical Toulene Diisocynate, or TDI. Exposure to TDI particles in the air can cause severe and chronic lung problems. [Click For More]

12/27/05
BRONX, N.Y. -- Bronx-based A & L Sheet Metal Fabrications Corp. has been cited by the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for four instances of failing to correct hazards cited during a 2004 OSHA inspection including failure to develop and implement a hazard communication program, train employees, label containers and have material safety data sheets. [Click For More]

12/22/05
BEIJING - China’s southern business capital of Guangzhou, just north of Hong Kong, rushed Thursday to ensure water supplies as a toxic spill from a smelter flowed toward the city of 7 million. It was China’s second environmental disaster in a month and came as authorities were trying to minimize the impact of a chemical spill on a northeastern river. [Click For More]

12/21/05
SPRINGFIELD, VA -- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has released a new edition of the popular NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. The Guide consolidates NIOSH and OSHA information materials into an easy-to-use resource document for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals. The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards is available from the National Technical Information Service. [Click For More]

12/20/05
OMAHA, Neb. -- The U.S. Department of Labor' Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Demolition Contractors, Inc. (DCI) for alleged failure to protect employees from safety and health hazards including overexposure to crystalline quartz silica and failure to provide hazardous communication training during demolition operations. Proposed penalties total $265,000. [Click For More]

12/19/05
New Zealand - Auckland University scientist Dr. Shiva Reddy conducted a study that he believes links meat preservatives, specifically nitrites and nitrates, to New Zealand's epidemic number of type 1 diabetes cases. [Click For More]

12/16/05
CHICAGO - Shipped from Singapore, the swordfish entered the United States this year without being tested for the toxic metal mercury. When a fillet from that fish reached a display case at a supermarket in Illinois, it carried no government warning labels, even though federal officials know swordfish often is so contaminated that young children and pregnant women should never eat it. When the Chicago Tribune bought and tested this particular piece of fish, the results showed not just high amounts of mercury, but levels three times the legal limit. [Click For More]

12/15/05
Most people spend at least half their lives inside their homes. With the winter season arriving, heating systems, reduced ventilation and fireplaces may create poor indoor air quality that may be unpleasant, or may lead to serious health problems. [Click For More]

12/14/05
When Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters receded, they left behind a chocolate malt-like coating of sediment and sludge on the yards, homes, and cars of New Orleans. Research published today provides one of the first peer-reviewed analyses of contaminants in the sediment. The findings reveal troubling levels of lead that, when considered alongside historic soil contamination, call for remediation, some scientists say. [Click For More]

12/13/05
British firefighters are again battling a ferocious blaze at an oil depot just north of London, after they were forced to temporarily halt their work amid fears of more explosions. [Click For More]

12/12/05
The molecule is supposed to be stable, unreactive, hard to digest. It may, in fact, be none of those. It's a brominated flame retardant — astonishingly effective at delaying fire in plastic. In today's world, the value of such power cannot be underestimated. Blazes sparked by televisions, stereo equipment, VCRs and other home electronics account for the largest number of fire deaths in the United States. But the flame retardant, known to the industry as "Deca," also shows up in our bodies. And there is much debate aboutwhat happens once it gets there. [Click For More]

12/9/05
The Ohio Department of Environmental Protection has ordered Lanxess to take immediate steps to lower volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from its styrenic plastics facility in Addyston, OH. According to local reports, officials are taking no chances, and some 300 children who attend a grade school near the plant are being bused to other schools. [Click For More]

12/8/05
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today debuted a new Construction Module for its Compliance Assistance Quick Start Web tool, the agency's Web-based tool that introduces employers and employees, especially those at new or small businesses, to the compliance assistance resources on OSHA's Web site. [Click For More]

12/7/05
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced the availability of two new resources on the agency's website: a web-based assistance tool for workers and employers in the tree care industry, and a new advanced search engine that allows users to search topics in a variety of targeted areas. [Click For More]

12/6/05
A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Monday reinstated a string of racketeering suits that charge chemical giant DuPont with hiding evidence about a widely used fungicide so it could settle crop-loss cases on the cheap. [Click For More]

12/5/05
ADDYSTON, OH - Decades of breathing the air in this West Side town means a 50 times greater risk of contracting cancer because of chemicals coming from Lanxess Corp., the giant plastics maker operating along the Ohio River. [Click For More]

12/1/05
A University of Washington study suggests that pesticides are finding their way into the bodies of pre-school children in agricultural communities at a higher level than previously thought. More than half of the tested children of farm workers who live in Douglas and Chelan counties in Washington state were exposed during the spraying season to pesticide levels that exceeded federal safety levels, according to UW researchers. That's even though the children themselves do not work in the fields. [Click For More]

11/30/05
WATSONVILLE, CA – Farmer Vanessa Bogenholm won't go near the pesticide methyl bromide even though it could boost her strawberry harvest. But just down the coast in Salinas, grower Tom Jones says his berry farm can't survive without the powerful toxin. The two farmers both help California supply more than 85 percent of the nation's strawberries, but they part ways when it comes to methyl bromide, a soil fumigant that an international treaty has banned as of this year for all but the most critical uses. [Click For More]

11/29/05
HERMISTON, OR — Calling the incident a “near-miss,” a Umatilla Chemical Depot official from the weapons disposal facility said all 700 workers are being re-trained. Destruction of chemical weapons are on hold until that is complete. The incident, an unclamping of a working filter unit in the ventilation system of the building, put at least two workers in danger of chemical agent exposure. [Click For More]

11/28/05
METHUEN, MA -- ASI Industries and Atlantic Stone Industries LLC, both located in Marlborough, Mass., have been fined a total of $106,100 by the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for 14 instances of failing to correct hazards cited during OSHA inspections including exposing employees to respirable silica dust, lack of engineering controls to reduce exposure levels; and lack of a respiratory protection program. [Click For More]

11/23/05
BEIJING - A Chinese city of 3.8 million people closed schools and was trucking in drinking water Wednesday after shutting down its water system following a chemical plant explosion that officials said polluted a nearby river with toxic benzene. [Click For More]

11/22/05
Allegations that DuPont hid studies showing the high health risks of a chemical used to line grease-resistant packaging for candy, pizza, microwave popcorn and hundreds of other foods, could affect processors on both sides of the Atlantic. [Click For More]

11/21/05
Newport News, Va. - The Army might not know what kind of radioactive waste it dumped with chemical weapons off Virginia in 1960, but Ellis R. Cole is sure it wasn't harmless. The Geiger counter readings were proof of that. Cole said he helped winch hundreds of 55-gallon barrels labeled "radioactive" out of a ship and into the ocean. [Click For More]

11/18/05
The European Parliament approved a law yesterday that will force companies to test thousands of chemicals - many used in common household products like paint, cleaners, toys and furniture - for their effects on human health and the environment. [Click for More]

11/17/05
Nine-year-old Zoe Alinaz wheeled around the lobby of the Texas Supreme Courthouse Wednesday, impatient for his grandmother to finish talking to lawyers and Mission citizens. Alinaz has the neural tube defect spina bifida and cannot walk. He is one of the several residents from Mission, Texas, who have injuries they said were caused by exposure to harmful chemicals in a nearby toxic waste site. [Click For More]

11/16/05
SAN MATEO, CA — A wing of the San Mateo Medical Center was evacuated Tuesday morning after the spill of a hazardous chemical. According to hospital officials, a one-ounce container of a chemical known as Buckley's Formocresol was dropped around 10 a.m. in a dental clinic exam room. The fumes affected three staff members, who went to the hospital's emergency room for treatment, and the San Mateo County hazardous-materials team was called to the scene, while hospital personnel set up a triage area outside the emergency room. [Click For More]

11/15/05
OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, November 15, 2005 (ENS) - Only 11 Canadians had their blood tested for toxic chemicals in a new study by an environmental nonprofit organization, but they came from across the country and every person's blood tested positive for a wide range of chemicals. Stain repellants, flame retardants, mercury and lead, DDT, and PCBs are among the 60 contaminants detected by blood tests. [Click For More]

11/14/05
Could neurotoxin pollutants be causing an elevated suicide rate in a North Carolina community? Sited next to a paper mill and other industrial plants, the community is suffering a sustained increase in suicides, which researchers think could be linked to the release of hydrogen sulfide and other airborne chemicals. [Click For More]

11/11/05
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Birds Eye Foods and proposed penalties totaling $60,275 for safety and health hazards at the company's Montezuma, Ga., plant. The company received 24 serious citations for alleged violations including failure to properly locate ammonia pressure release discharge piping and provide workers with current, updated process safety management information. [Click For More]

11/10/05
BEIJING, Nov. 10 -- An unlicensed washing-up liquid factory, which sold potentially cancer-causing detergent to more than 300 restaurants in Beijing, was closed down on Tuesday. Hidden in a 12-square-metre room in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the factory had sold 54 tons of toxic detergent since May, the district's administration for industry and commerce said. Detergents were being produced using an industrial chemical called SLESN70, a strongly acidic liquid normally used to clean machinery and pipelines. [Click For More]

11/9/05
Susan Lynn would like some information, please: What is the autism rate among people living in the United States right now who have never been vaccinated? If you have that data or know where to find it, kindly contact her by the end of the month, care of the Tennessee House of Representatives, which is considering whether to ban a mercury preservative from childhood vaccines. [Click For More]

11/8/05
Vermont -- The state Department of Health is urging private well owners to obtain water tests, now that the federal safe drinking water standard for arsenic is being lowered. Effective Jan. 31, the Environmental Protection Agency is lowering the standard for arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. [Click For More]

11/7/05
Washington, DC, November 7, 2005 - Investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) are en route to the Valero oil refinery in Delaware City, Delaware, where two contract workers were overcome and killed this weekend by entry into a nitrogen gas-filled process vessel. [Click For More]

11/4/05
CBS 2 investigators and the Naperville Sun found various types of cords keeping you connected may be toxic to the touch. There are cords on phones, hands-free sets for cell phones, cd players and music headsets which contain cancer causing chemicals or lead. [Click For More]

11/3/05
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a searchable database with over 1,400 references to chemicals that have the potential to affect children’s environmental health. [Click For More]

11/2/05
At the University of Rochester, scientists are investigating the effects on an infant of a pregnant woman's exposure to chemicals, such as phthalates. The hormone-disrupting compounds used to soften plastics are found in many cosmetics, lotions, shampoos and baby products. [Click For More]

11/1/05
Hammond, IN -- Calumet Container's business was rinsing, repainting and reselling used chemical drums from the 1960s through 1982, when the Indiana attorney general threatened to close the plant for air and water quality violations. Within a week, an explosion and fire leveled the facility, leaving thousands of damaged chemical barrels, 69 semi trailers, severely contaminated soil and water. There were no company officials around when it happened. [Click For More]

10/31/05
China -- Millions of peasant workers are leaving their poverty-stricken hometowns to join the labor force in urban areas where they work for small-scale and privately owned enterprises. Most of the jobs they take are strenuous and hazardous and the workers have inadequate personal protection. After three or five years of hard work, some get kicked out because they are suffering from certain occupational diseases and they receive little or no compensation. [Click For More]

10/28/05
Duluth, MN -- A chemical leak closed part of a laboratory at St. Mary's Medical Center. The Duluth Fire Department's hazardous materials team responded to the spill. The chemical was xylene, a colorless solvent used as a cleaning agent and found in many products, including paint thinner, varnishes and gasoline. [Click For more]

10/27/05
ATLANTA -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Goldens' Foundry & Machine Company for exposing workers to safety and health hazards including failure to properly label chemicals; and exposing workers to silica above the permissible exposure limit at its Columbus manufacturing plant. The agency is proposing penalties totaling $117,950. [Click For More]

10/26/05
SOUTH DAKOTA -- A Salem man has been charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of a woman exposed to phosphine gas in an apartment building. Billy Lee Schulz, 58, is accused of dumping fumitoxin in his building's water softener brine tank, causing the Oct. 1 death of resident Irene Schock, 81, according to court documents. The fumitoxin emitted phosphine gasses. [Click For More]

10/25/05
Public interest groups today petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the antibacterial agent triclosan in household products because of evidence that it causes health and environmental effects and leads to antibiotic resistance. The chemical, marketed widely to protect children from germs, is found in antibacterial soaps, deodorants, toothpastes, cosmetics, fabrics and plastics. [Click For More]

10/24/05
CHICAGO - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 recently settled administrative cases with three Ohio companies for violations of federal law governing the reporting of hazardous chemical releases. The companies involved and the location of their Ohio facilities are Millennium Inorganic Chemicals Inc., Ashtabula; F.T. Precision Inc., Fredericktown; and Ohio Power Co., Cheshire. [Click For More]

10/21/05
Indianapolis, IN - A mother of 5 can't believe the warning on her children's halloween costumes. A warning covered by Kmart with black tape. "This product contains lead. A chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other respiratory hazards," she quoted the label. [Click For More]

10/20/05
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A cross section of safety and health hazards including employees being exposed to excess levels of cadmium at a Hornell, N.Y., manufacturer and refurbisher of railroad cars has resulted in $130,500 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click For More]

10/19/05
When it comes to assessing the occupational health hazards of exposure to nanoparticles, what can we learn from other small particles and fibers such as asbestos? [Click For More]

10/18/05
Until now, the debate over a possible link between ethyl mercury and autism has focused on its use in vaccines beginning in the 1930s, when the first children diagnosed with the disorder were born. But medicines were not the only commercial products to harness this highly toxic form of mercury. Starting about the same time, ethyl-mercury-based fungicides appeared on the market. [Click For More]

10/17/05
TEXARKANA, Ark. —Hundreds of homes were evacuated after a liquid propane gas tank was hit by a Union Pacific train car, exploding in a ball of fire and leaving a plume of smoke over the south end of the city, a police spokesman said. The air quality was of concern because a train car carrying vinyl acetate caught fire, police spokesman Chris Rankin said. Rankin said fumes from the chemical are “most definitely poisonous.” [Click For More]

10/14/05
Many common baby products, such as teethers, bath books and sleep accessories, contain toxic chemicals, according to a report released by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The toxic chemicals include phthalates and PBDEs, both of which have been linked to a host of health problems. [Click For More]

10/13/05
Pollutant chemicals called PCBs damage sperm but do not appear to have a dramatic impact on male fertility, scientists say. However, they warn damage from PCBs could be enough to render infertile men whose sperm is already of less than optimum quality. The synthetic organic pollutants are found widely in the environment. [Click For More]

10/12/05
Six U.S. senators have written a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency asking it adopt a health protective interim standard for exposure to trichloroethylene vapors. The senators noted that TCE, a solvent used for cleaning metal parts, is a widespread contaminant found in at least 325 of the nation´s more than 1,200 Superfund sites, and that the chemical has been linked to cancer and damage to the nervous and immune systems. [Click For More]

10/11/05
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed SB 600, aimed at establishing a statewide program to track trace amounts of synthetic chemical pollutants in our bodies. "While the intent of the measure is worthy," Schwarzenegger said in his veto message, "the bill will only provide a partial snapshot of chemicals present in tested participants without proper context of what the presence of (a) specific chemical means or how it interacts with other health factors." [Click For More]

1o/10/05
On Feb. 2, 2004, with no public input and minimal notification, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission switched from chlorine to sanitize its water supplies to chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Many residents, unaware of the changeover, suddenly began to experience health effects: burning skin; red rashes; itching; dry mouth and throat; digestive problems; coughing; wheezing; sinus congestion; and severe asthma symptoms. [Click For More]

10/7/05
BOSTON -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a Boston maker of granite and marble countertops for 10 instances of failing to correct hazards cited in a 2004 OSHA inspection including failure to abate included employees exposed to excess levels of silica and lack of engineering controls to reduce exposure levels. Proposed penalties total $58,500. [Click For More]

10/6/05
JOPLIN, Mo. - A butter flavoring manufacturer ordered to pay more than $53 million in damages to employees of a southwest Missouri popcorn plant who blamed the product for lung disease has settled with 19 other plaintiffs. [Click for More]

10/5/05
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited BF Goodrich for safety and health hazards at its Tuscaloosa, Ala., tire manufacturing plant including failure to train employees and implement an emergency response plan and hazard communication program. The agency is proposing total penalties of $91,700. [Click For More]

10/4/05
Ag-Mart Produce, the giant Florida tomato grower at the center of an investigation involving three deformed babies born to fieldworkers, announced it will no longer use pesticides that have been linked to birth defects. "The recent issues that have been brought to light have caused the company to look further and harder," Ag-Mart spokesman David Sheon said. "The company has a history of wanting to be a leader in the reduction of pesticides." [Click For More]

10/3/05
BATON ROUGE -- Fifty oil spills caused by Hurricane Katrina are still being cleaned up a month after the storm, including 1.68 million gallons of crude that poured from storage tanks southeast of New Orleans. The Coast Guard had no estimate of how long it will take to clean up all the spills, but most of the oil cannot disperse further because it has been contained by collection booms or is caught inside berms, canals and levees. [Click For More]

9/30/05
NEWARK, N.J. - A release of chlorine gas inside a chemical plant Friday led authorities to close a busy highway during the morning rush hour and warn nearby residents to stay indoors and roll up their windows. The precautions were lifted about two hours later when hazmat teams found only negligible levels of chlorine outside the plant because its pollution control system prevented a dangerous release, officials said. [Click For More]

9/29/05
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A manufacturer of non-dairy creamers and desserts faces $37,500 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) following a May 4 ammonia leak. Rich Products Inc. was cited for 15 alleged serious safety and health violations at its Buffalo plant. [Click For More]

9/28/05
In its Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, released July 21, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has documented significant declines in the population's exposure to environmental chemicals. The study used biomonitoring to assess exposure levels. The report is based on measurements of chemicals and metabolites in blood and urine from a random sample of participants in the National Health and Nutrition Information Survey. [Click For More]

9/27/05
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A March 15 accident that left a worker with second and third degree burns over much of his body has resulted in an Akron, N.Y., manufacturer being fined $115,550 by OSHA. Whiting Door Manufacturing Corp., which manufactures and sells trailer doors for the transportation industry, was cited for a total of 14 alleged willful, serious and other than serious violations of safety standards after an accident in which an employee working on the plant's coating line fell into an elevated 7,000 gallon tank of hot caustic solution. [Click For More]

9/26/05
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- One of the "common sense" bills that just passed the California State legislature this session is the Governor's greatest headache. Will he veto it to protect a generous and powerful industry? Or will he protect more than 6 million children, and hundreds of thousands of teachers, and school employees, by signing it? Assembly Bill 405 protects those in school from exposure to experimental pesticides. [Click For More]

9/23/05
WASHINGTON -- BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to pay more than $21 million in penalties for safety and health violations following an investigation of a fatal explosion at its Texas City, Texas, plant March 23 that claimed the lives of 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. The penalties are part of a settlement agreement announced today by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click For More]

9/22/05
Americans may have plenty of reasons to fear French fries. While they are one of the country's favorite foods, they are soaked with trans fats, loaded with sodium and full of simple carbs, the bad kind. And, it turns out, they are also full of a chemical called acrylamide, which is known to cause cancer in laboratory rats and mice. [Click For More]

9/21/05
Exposure to an extremely low dose of bisphenol-A (BPA) can disrupt the pancreatic beta-cell function in vivo inducing insulin resistance, according to a new study published in the Sept. 17-24 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. BPA is widely used by the chemical industry to produce plastic polymers. These polymers are mainly polycarbonates, which are often used to make transparent plastic bottles used to pack food and beverages. [Click For More]

9/20/05
Two right-wing, industry-backed groups filed a data quality petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency's labeling of certain chemicals as "likely human carcinogens." Specifically, the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) and the American Council on Health and Science (ACHS) want EPA to eliminate statements in its Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment that indicate that a substance may properly be labeled as "likely to be carcinogenic to humans" based solely or primarily on the results of animal studies. [Click For More]

9/19/05
WASHINGTON - A new health risk emerged from the sediment of New Orleans — test results showing that diesel and fuel oils, which can take years to break down, make up as much as a 10th of the weight of some sediment samples. Earlier tests turned up dangerous amounts of sewage-related bacteria and lead in floodwaters and more than 100 chemical pollutants. [Click For More]

9/15/05
WASHINGTON, DC -- The magnitude and geographic sweep of the pollution left by Hurricane Katrina is so enormous that the Environmental Protection Agency is struggling to determine what the worst hazards are, where they are and what can be done about them, the agency's administrator said Wednesday. [Click For More]

9/14/05
GULFPORT, MS — Environmental crews along the Coast have embarked on a massive cleanup effort, searching for punctured chlorine cylinders, loose treated timber, roaming diesel tanks and household battery acid, a mission that could take years to complete. Damage from Hurricane Katrina threatens to harm an area brim with marine life, but also endangers residents and pets who may unwittingly stumble onto debris or hazardous material while trying to reclaim their homes. [Click For More]

9/13/05
South Carolina -- One man is dead and two other workers have been injured during an explosion at the Carolina Polymers plant Monday. State health department spokesman Thom Berry says nine firefighters also were taken to a local hospital for observation after the blast that released chemicals from a tank into the air. [Click For More]

9/12/05
On college campuses across the nation, plastic bottles of water and soda are even more ubiquitous than iPods. And for some cost-conscious students, those bottles remain useful even after their original contents have been downed. But a burgeoning field of study suggests that refilling and reusing plastic bottles may not be a wise idea. [Click For More]

9/9/05
DELISLE, MS - EPA officials say major factories in South Mississippi weathered Hurricane Katrina with some damage and small chemical releases, but no major environmental impacts. Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Laura Niles said the EPA and U.S. Coast Guard conducted air monitoring around the Mississippi Phosphates fertilizer manufacturing plant in Pascagoula, finding that the ammonia gas was very localized and "no major threat to the community." [Click For More]

9/8/05
As engineers began pumping out the Big Easy, creating small but visible wakes of water behind street signs and tree trunks, the water they're moving carries a volatile mix of everything imaginable — from household paints, deodorants and old car batteries to railroad tank cars, sewage treatment plants and landfills. While state officials stop short of calling it a toxic soup, at least so far, federal environmental officials call it catastrophic. [Click For More]

9/7/05
WASHINGTON -- Jonathan L. Snare, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), is prepared to offer the full resources of the agency to help protect the safety and health of workers responding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. Five public service announcements will be recorded on specific hazards that workers are routinely exposed to during cleanup and recovery operations. They include: flooding, mold, falls, electrical (including downed electrical wires) and chainsaws. [Click For More]

9/2/05
(CBS) Washington -- Sewage and chemicals are mixed into a potentially toxic bathtub soaking New Orleans, posing the threat of disease for residents forced to wade in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. "Probably the more immediate health risk to the people is that whatever was in the sewer is in the water," said John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "Whatever bacterial or viral diseases that people put into the system before the flooding is now in the water." [Click For More]

9/1/05
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for business resumption following a disaster. However, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is offering a disaster safety checklist to assist businesses before, during and after a disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina. [Click For More]

8/31/05
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is extending until Nov. 7, 2005, the comment period for its lead in construction standard that requires testing for lead exposures, provisions to protect workers from exposure where lead is present, and medical monitoring of exposed workers. The comment period extension will be announced in the Aug. 29, 2005, Federal Register. [Click For More]

8/30/05
Eleven EPA employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals of the Civil Service have called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country, and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer in people. The unions acted following revelations of an apparent cover-up of evidence from Harvard School of Dental Medicine linking fluoridation with elevated risk of a fatal bone cancer in young boys. [Click For More]

8/29/05
WASHINGTON -- Helping prepare hospital employees to respond to victims of mass casualty incidents involving hazardous substances is the focus of a conference being held October 6-7 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the conference will feature representatives from OSHA, JCAHO, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Defense. [Click For More]

8/26/05
PITTSFIELD, MA -- A General Electric contractor has excavated 44 barrels suspected of containing PCB-laced oil from a plot of land that sits next to a heavily polluted parking lot on Newell Street. Environmental advocates said it confirms their repeated warnings that the area around Newell Street is infested with PCB dumping grounds, which -- unless discovered and removed -- will threaten the health of residents and of the cleaned Housatonic River for decades to come. [Click For More]

8/25/05
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited American Electric Power Company, Inc. and its subsidiary Appalachian Power Company for alleged worker safety and health violations involving asbestos at the Phillip Sporn generating plant in New Haven, W.Va., and proposed $110,000 in penalties. [Click For More]

8/24/05
The U.S. EPA plans to study the extent of damage done to drinking water supplies by a component of rocket fuel -- another step toward possible federal regulation of the chemical. The goal of the proposed $42 million study is to assess the occurrence of perchlorate and 25 other contaminants in water systems and potential human exposure over the next five years, according to EPA's proposed rule. [Click For More]

8/23/05
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A wrongful death suit has been filed against British Petroleum, claiming a former refinery contaminated ground water in Jackson County and caused a fatal illness. The family of Nancy Ryan claims that exposure to benzene made her sick and eventually caused her death. [Click For More]

8/22/05
BAY CITY, MI -- Dow Chemical Co. will post signs along the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers to alert anglers about the safety of different types of fish, state officials said. The move is aimed at addressing dioxin in the watershed. High levels of the chemical have settled into the soil and river sediment along at least 22 miles of Tittabawassee River flood plain downstream from the chemical giant's headquarters in Midland. [Click For More]

9/19/05
NEW YORK -- A wide range of occupations, from farming to teaching, may be potential risk factors for degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, research findings suggest. In a study of more than 2.6 million U.S. death records, researchers found that a variety of jobs were associated with an increased risk of death. Many of the associations had been seen in earlier research and could potentially be explained by on-the-job exposures to the chemicals that farmers, welders and hairdressers routinely use or inhale. [Click For More]

8/18/05
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited B & D Industrial & Mining Services and proposed penalties totaling $41,550 following a fatal accident at the company's Jasper, Ala., plant. Alleged violations included failure to properly label and store chemicals and gas containers. [Click For More]

8/17/05
Los Angeles -- Six months after heavy winter storms turned a long-closed Huntington Beach landfill into a soupy, toxic mess, an emergency cleanup is underway amid neighbors' health concerns. In February, workers pumped nearly 4 million gallons of rainwater from the site. Nineteen cracks were discovered in an 18-foot-high earthen berm along Hamilton Avenue, which lines the two northernmost waste pits. [Click For More]

8/16/05
Delaware -- Some Delawareans are at a higher risk for cancer because of a combination of deadly toxins in the air, according to a yearlong, statewide study released Monday. The study doesn't blame a particular toxin in the chemical soup that makes up Delaware's air, but it does say Wilmington residents are especially vulnerable because of an increased level of cancer-causing chemicals. [Click For More]

8/15/05
-Newswire - The postal addresses of 22,500 children who had died of cancer in Britain between 1955 and 1980 were linked to emissions hotspots for specific chemicals. These were identified from published maps of atmospheric pollution levels. The chemicals included carbon monoxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, 1,3-butadiene, benzene, dioxins, benzo( a )pyrene, and volatile organic compounds. [Click for More]

8/12/05
Liquid detergent capsules used in washing machines pose a 'new household risk to children', a group of Irish consultants have warned. In a letter to the medical journal, The Lancet, the doctors described how during a six-month period, they treated six children with alkali eye injuries, caused by liquid detergent tablets. [Click For More]

8/11/05
In the second reported major incident in recent days of mishandled hazardous materials at University of California-run Los Alamos National Laboratory, a lab employee was hospitalized for six days with "pneumonia-like symptoms" after inhaling dangerous fumes. Another employee suffered temporary shortness of breath after exposure to what an in-house investigative report at Los Alamos called "hazardous chemical vapors". [Click For More]

8/10/05
(CNN) -- An explosion at a hazardous waste plant rocked suburban Detroit late Tuesday, sending fireballs and billowing smoke hundreds of feet in the air. Authorities with the Romulus police department and the fire department said the explosion happened at a chemical plant shortly after 9 p.m. and that a one-mile radius around the facility has been evacuated, including a nearby Ford plant. [Click For More]

8/9/05
The Environmental Protection Agency has failed to protect children from rat poison exposure, a federal judge ruled yesterday, suggesting chemical manufacturers should add a bittering agent to keep children from ingesting their products. Ruling in favor of two advocacy groups U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote that the agency failed to justify its 2001 agreement with pest control companies, which dropped two provisions from a 1998 rule requiring them to include a bittering agent and an indicator dye. [Click For More]

8/8/05
ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - Worldwide, amphibians are dying. In a new study published in the August issue of the journal Ecological Applications, It was found that Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller killed 98 percent of tadpoles during a three-week test in simulated shallow ponds. In a separate dry experiment, Roundup killed 79 percent of young frogs and toads after just one day. [Click For More]

8/5/05
Louisiana -- The largest emitter of mercury pollution in the state, PPG Industries in Lake Charles, announced today that it will spend more than $90 million over three years to replace its mercury-cell production process with a less-polluting method. PPG had been releasing between 1,600 pounds and 1,800 pounds of mercury into the air each year from the production unit that turns salt and water into chlorine, alkali and hydrogen. [Click For More]

8/4/05
West Virginia -- C8 is a chemical used by DuPont's Washington Works plant to manufacture Teflon. The chemical, which is not contained in the final Teflon product, has leaked into several water supplies near DuPont's plant in Wood County for at least 50 years. Six local water districts in West Virginia and Ohio are known to be contaminated with C8. Health screenings officially got under way this month to determine whether the substance is harmful to humans. [Click For More]

8/3/05
Like the glint of a knife in the dark, a laboratory accident in 1998 helped scientists realize that some chemicals commonly used to make life more convenient can be health hazards. Since what they still call "the disaster" in geneticist Pat Hunt's lab, more scientists have come to suspect that, even in tiny amounts, some of the chemicals that keep our food fresh, our hair stylish, our floors shiny and our fabrics stain-free might be confusing our hormone systems and derailing fetal development. [Click For More]

8/2/05
WASHINGTON (AP) - In deciding whether to approve specific pesticides, the Environmental Protection Agency is using data from two dozen industry tests that intentionally exposed people to poisons, including one involving a World War I-era chemical warfare agent. [Click For More]

8/1/05
HOMESTEAD — Two and a half years ago, nursery worker Mario Chavez was as good as dead. Chavez, 53, says in November 2002 he handled Christmas trees being prepared for shipping. "The trees had been sprayed with a chemical, and it would drip over me all day." The chemical was chlorpyrifos, an ingredient in insecticides that in high doses can damage enzymes vital to the nervous system. Excessive exposure may cause seizures and even death, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warnings. [Click For More]

7/29/05
FORT WORTH -- A series of explosions rocked a chemical plant in north Fort Worth on Thursday afternoon, unleashing a five-alarm fire and an enormous pillar of black smoke that could be seen in Denton and Dallas. At least five people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening. Officials did not order evacuations but asked people who live or work within a five-mile radius to stay indoors until early evening to avoid the toxic smoke. [Click For More]

7/28/05
Boston, MA -- Reading fire officials will send a bill of about $11,000 to an asbestos removal company whose workers allegedly moved chemicals from a laboratory at Reading Memorial High School, triggering a full-blown hazardous materials alert. The reaction is an example of how increased sensitivity to the potential dangers of chemical contamination can now lead to sophisticated response and costly results for what in the past may have been handled as a simple mistake. [Click For More]

7/27/05
PERTH AMBOY, N.J. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Acetylene Service Company, Perth Amboy, N.J. for alleged safety and health violations after a January explosion killed three workers. Proposed penalties total $237,600. [Click For More]

7/26/05
DEARBORN, Mich. -- Some workers at a plant in Dearborn were sent to local hospitals after a chemical spill at about noon. Seven workers were taken to area hospitals -- six of them for observation and one who experienced some breathing difficulties. The Dearborn Fire Department, confirmed that the chemical released was hydrogen sulfide. [Click For More]

7/25/05
SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- Thousands of Utahns will be left breathless this holiday weekend. Not from the spectacular Pioneer Day fireworks, but from the fireworks' thick smoke. Scientists and health officials don't have a good understanding of the phenomenon. One study in western Washington state traced microscopic particles of a dozen metals in fireworks smoke, including lead, strontium, vanadium and zinc. [Click For More]

7/22/05
HOUSTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Northwest Pipe Co. and proposed penalties totaling $197,500 for exposing employees to safety and health hazards including failure to establish a written safety and health program and train employees to safely use hazardous chemicals. [Click For More]

7/21/05
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations and proposed penalties totaling $356,700 against Exide Technologies Inc. for 38 alleged safety and health violations including hazardous waste, emergency response, confined space entry, lead contamination, cadmium exposure, bloodborne pathogens and lack of employee training. [Click For More]

7/20/05
Two new studies on Aspartame and Diet Drinks Confirm Source of Obesity, Cancer/ Malignant Brain Tumor Epidemics. Neurosurgeon Says Ban Toxin From Schools. [Click For More]

7/19/05
ANNANDALE, FL - One person's beautiful fingernails can be hazardous to another person's health. Add a language barrier to the mix, and the possibilities for problems increase. Reaching out to the large population of Vietnamese nail technicians, the Environmental Protection Agency hosted a pair of workshops yesterday with the instructions given in Vietnamese. [Click For More]

7/18/05
METHUEN, Mass. -- Safety and health hazards at a Lawrence, Mass., textile mill have resulted in $66,375 in proposed penalties from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Malden Mills was cited for 14 alleged violations of workplace safety and health standards including flammable materials stored near emergency exits; unsafe welding operations, and improper storage of oxygen and acetylene cylinders. [Click For More]

7/14/05
MOBILE, Ala. -- OSHA has cited Cutler at Abbeville L.L.C alleging safety and health violations at the company's Abbeville, Ala., egg processing facility. The agency is proposing penalties totaling $81,500. OSHA began an inspection on Jan. 19, the day after an ammonia leak caused a plant-wide evacuation. "This company lacked comprehensive management programs to train employees, identify hazardous chemicals and plan for unexpected ammonia releases," said Ken Atha, OSHA's Mobile area director. [Click For More]

7/13/05
Sheboygan, WI -- Some scientists are worried that a dangerous chemical in the Sheboygan River could potentially make fish unsafe to eat and harm area residents. Scientists will be gathering data for the next two months to determine if the polychlorinated biphenyls — or PCBs — buried in the sediment of the river are coming to the surface and being swept into Lake Michigan. [Click For More]

7/12/05
CEDAR FALLS, IA --- A nitric acid spill at Bossard Iowa Industrial Products in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park sent about 15 people to the hospital. No one appeared seriously injured from the spill that happened around 10 a.m., As of 6 p.m. Monday five people remained hospitalized at Sartori Memorial Hospital for observation. [Click For More]

7/11/05
Virginia -- A tractor-trailer carrying hazardous materials crashed in Spotsylvania County killing its driver and closing southbound Interstate 95 near Massaponax and paralyzing the region for about 24 hours. Between 500 and 1,000 gallons of toxic herbicide spilled when the truck crashed. The collision and chemical spill sent nearly a dozen people to the hospital. [Click For More]

7/8/05
TAMPA, Fla. -- OSHA has cited Howard Fertilizer & Chemical Company Inc., for 38 alleged serious violations of workplace safety and health standards including failing to: use proper equipment to mix and heat chemicals; assess hazards involved in processing chemicals; determine and provide appropriate personal protective equipment for employees, and provide employees with chemical-hazard-recognition training..The citations, which assess penalties totaling $73,850, follow investigation of a Feb. 16 accident at the company's Groveland, Fla., plant. [Click For More]

7/7/05
WALPOLE, MA -- A local company has been fined $101,000 by the state Department of Environmental Protection for failing to promptly report a chemical spill this winter. On Dec. 6,about 1,300 gallons of liquid acetone, a flammable chemical used to make plastics and fibers, spilled out of a tanker truck at the Callahan Company, a chemical distributor at 18 Industrial Road. [Click For More]

7/6/05
TOKYO -- Seven Japanese companies on Wednesday said a total of 51 workers who had handled asbestos had died in recent decades, raising to 294 the death toll at 10 companies. Japanese industrial equipment maker Kubota Corp. first announced last week that 79 workers at its asbestos-producing plants had died over several decades. [Click For More]

7/5/05
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) poses a greater cancer risk than EPA has estimated, science advisers to the agency said in a draft report released last week. The draft report from EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) says the agency should classify the chemical as a "likely" carcinogen in humans. [Click For More]

7/1/05
St. Clair, IL -- Seven personal injury lawsuits seeking a combined total of $33.7 million were filed in Madison County Circuit Court on behalf of plaintiffs claiming they were exposed to manganese-containing welding fumes which resulted in their neurological injuries. [Click For More]

6/29/05
SACRAMENTO — California moved closer Tuesday to the establishment of the country's only statewide biomonitoring program, aimed at tracking chemicals such as plastics and flame retardants that scientists increasingly find in our bodies. [Click For More]

6/28/05
ST. LOUIS -- Investigators continue to look into the cause of a blaze at a gas distribution company that launched massive fireballs and hurled metal canisters into the surrounding neighborhood, even as some residents on Monday called for the industrial business to move to a less populated area. A federal agency is investigating Friday's explosion at a Praxair Inc. facility, a gas distribution business situated next to a national historic district neighborhood known as Lafayette Square. [Click For More]

6/27/05
i-Newswire, - In the first study of its kind, researchers compared the effects of both sheltering and evacuation on the local population during a fire at a Devon plastics factory which resulted in hazardous chemicals released into the surrounding environment. During the first six hours, many of the local residents were evacuated. But it was then decided that remaining residents should stay in their homes. Researchers found that soon after the fire, the evacuated group had almost twice as many exposures as compared with those in the sheltered group [Click For More]

6/23/05
For safety professionals to truly make a difference in the workplace, they must evolve from the role of "enforcer" to "enabler" – someone who helps workers achieve their career goals safely and healthily and asks, "How can I help you do that?" That philosophy, which was a recurring theme at ASSE's annual conference in New Orleans, is the foundation of Corning Inc.'s risk-based safety and health auditing process. [Click For More]

6/22/05
Lyn Redwood knew something was wrong with her son, Will, shortly after his first birthday in 1995. “It was like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers.’ He couldn’t talk and it was just like he was a shell of a person,” she said. Redwood had started hearing about the levels of thimerosal contained in childhood vaccines. Thimerosal is a chemical preservative that contains nearly 50 percent mercury, a liquid so-called heavy metal. [Click For More]

6/21/05
Federal investigators joined the probe Monday into the fatal exposure of a contract employee to phenol, a strong corrosive poison used in the making of thermo plastics, at the Bayer Baytown Industrial Park. An accidental release of the chemical compound occurred at 9:15 a.m. Saturday at the polycarbonate facility. [Click For More]

6/20/05
SACRAMENTO — Dr. Richard J. Jackson, the state's top medical officer, has a pretty good idea how much lead contaminates you and your family. Even though he's never tested you. He knows this because he and other scientists have spent 50 years measuring and studying lead in the United States. They know the typical blood-lead level in children and adults. But when it comes to flame retardants, plasticizers, pesticides or any of the dozens of chemicals found as often as lead in our bodies, Jackson, the state public health officer, has scant idea of what's normal. [Click For More]

6/17/05
Anchorage, Alaska -- Children who fire .22-caliber rifles in indoor shooting ranges may be at risk for high levels of lead in their blood if the ranges aren't properly maintained, a new study reported Thursday. Elevated lead levels in children threaten their intellectual development and can lead to physical ailments. [Click For More]

6/16/05
WASHINGTON -- Data from two dozen industry tests that intentionally exposed people to poisons, including one involving a World War I-era chemical warfare agent, are being used by the Environmental Protection Agency in approving and denying specific pesticides. [Click For More]

6/15/05
Although it has taken just 60 years for humans to put many freshwater lakes on the eutrophication fast track, a new study shows their recovery may take a thousand years under the best of circumstances. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), University of Wisconsin-Madison limnologist Stephen R. Carpenter reported results of a study that showed that the buildup of phosphorus in soils in lake watersheds is likely to be the source of serious chronic environmental problems for hundreds of years. [Click For More]

6/14/05
TULSA, Okla. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited the American Airlines maintenance facility in Tulsa for allegedly failing to protect workers from contaminated spray painting fumes and sanding dust. Proposed penalties total $67,975. [Click For More]

6/13/05
New Jersey — A former mechanic for an Edison forklift rental company who was disabled in 2000 when he was exposed to a toxic pesticide while repairing one of the machines has been awarded $46.7 million by a Superior Court jury. The jury determined that Troy Chemical Corp. of Newark, the company that sent the contaminated forklift to Mid-Hudson Forklift Rental Corp. is responsible for the disabling illnesses Karl Webb suffered after cleaning and repairing the machine on Feb. 18, 2000. [Click For More]

6/10/05
Harvard University researchers studying premature babies in a neonatal intensive care unit have found surprisingly high levels of a plastic that is particularly toxic — at least in animal studies — to developing male reproductive systems. The chemical, used in medical devices such as IV lines, doesn't belong in NICUs, the researchers said Wednesday, and mothers pregnant with boys and parents of premature baby boys in particular should ask their doctors not to use products with the compound, an additive known as di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, or DEHP. [Click For More]

6/9/05
When U.S. District Judge Duross Fitzpatrick dismissed three of the four counts against the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) in a lawsuit filed by the International Brominated Solvents Association and other plaintiffs, the plaintiff's attorney Henry Chajet commented, "We're very satisfied." ACGIH has an explanation for Chajet's satisfaction: The continuing lawsuit by industry groups who want to block ACGIH from publishing workplace exposure levels for four chemicals is an effort to bully ACGIH and prevent it from releasing hazard information on substances that industry wants to use. [Click For More]

6/8/05
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. - Nearly 100 people living near Columbian Chemical Co.'s plant in Marshall County have sued the company, claiming emissions of carbon black and carbon disulfide are a health hazard. The lawsuit, filed recently in Marshall County Circuit Court, alleges that emissions from the Proctor plant increase the risks for respiratory illnesses, vascular diseases, neurological disorders and cancer. [Click For More]

6/7/05
Michigan - Thieves intent on stealing anhydrous ammonia, a key ingredient in the manufacture of the drug methamphetamine, had already beaten a path to Hamilton Farm Bureau's Martin facility. This time their vandalism of a tank cost the company almost $12,000 in federal penalties. [Click For More]

6/6/05
Globally, millions of people are at risk for the adverse effects of arsenic exposure. The majority of harmful arsenic exposure comes from drinking water from wells drilled through arsenic-bearing sediments. Drinking water contains primarily inorganic arsenic, which is more acutely toxic than the organic form. [Click For More]

6/3/05
It's just a study involving a few rats with fertility problems in Pullman, but the findings could lead to fundamental changes in how we look at environmental toxins, cancer, heritable diseases, genetics and the basics of evolutionary biology. If a pregnant woman is exposed to a pesticide at the wrong time, the study suggests, her children, grandchildren and the rest of her descendants could inherit the damage and diseases caused by the toxin -- even if it doesn't involve a genetic mutation. [Click For More]

6/2/05
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- A painting contractor's failure to protect employees removing lead-based paint from the Heinz Loft Apartment project in Pittsburgh, has resulted in $106,800 in proposed penalties from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Mike McGarry and Sons Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, was cited for 12 alleged willful, serious and other-than-serious violations of workplace safety and health regulations following an OSHA inspection. [Click For More]

6/1/05
The industrial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) may cause immune system changes in workers exposed to the chemical, Italian researchers conclude. The study found that workers exposed to TCE showed significant changes in the normal balance of immune system regulators called cytokines. The finding could explain previous research that found that workers exposed to TCE had increased rates of autoimmune disorders. [Click For More]

5/31/05
SACRAMENTO, CA - Moving more assertively than any other state's lawmakers, the California Legislature is stepping into a growing global debate over how to regulate potentially dangerous chemicals used in perfume, nail polish, plastic baby bottles, rubber ducks and thousands of other products. Under measures facing votes this week, the state would collect samples from the bodies of Californians and study data from manufacturers to better identify which chemicals may pose health risks. [Click For More]

5/28/05
BP backed off statements made last week that the root causes of its deadly Texas City refinery explosion were that workers weren't following procedures and supervisors were lax. While those were indeed critical factors leading to the blast, they were not the deeper causes, as the company had said in releasing its interim report on the accident a week ago. [Click For More]

5/27/05
Researchers have reported for the first time that they have found a highly significant link between human exposure to chemicals used in consumer products and adverse changes in the genitals of baby boys. The sons whose mothers' urine contained higher levels of phthalates, a family of compounds used to soften vinyl and other plastics, were more likely to show the physical changes, according to the University of Rochester study. [Click For More]

5/26/05
Farmers and amateur gardeners who are exposed to pesticides run a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Previous evidence that suggested an association with the disease was strengthened by the publication of research covering almost 3,000 people in five European countries. Scientists found that heavy exposure to pesticides increased the chances of developing Parkinson's by almost 50 per cent. [Click For More]

5/25/05
PARAMOUNT, CA -- A sulfur dioxide leak at a Paramount refinery sent 19 schoolchildren to hospitals Monday with complaints of respiratory problems and nausea as investigators worked to determine the cause of the incident. The sulfur dioxide cloud wafted over Wirtz School, which neighbors the refinery, and affected about 40 children, who complained of nausea, difficulty breathing, headache, watery eyes and other exposure symptoms. [Click For More]

5/24/05
Ontario, Canada -- Ontario ranks as having the highest lead pollution in North America and Canadian industrial facilities are listed as the top three offenders, a NAFTA pollution watchdog report shows. The Commission for Environmental Co-operation (CEC) report to be released today, called Taking Stock, tracks toxic chemical pollution from 24,000 industrial facilities in Canada and the U.S. for 2002. [Click For More]

5/23/05
TRENTON, New Jersey -- The state of New Jersey is blocking a proposal by the U.S. Army and the chemical company DuPont to transport corrosive wastewater left after VX nerve agent is neutralized from Indiana to New Jersey for further treatment. The VX nerve agent now is located in a stockpile at a U.S. Army base in Indiana, where the neutralization has begun. [Click For More]

5/20/05
PFOA is found in the blood of Arctic polar bears, Mediterranean dolphins, and cormorants on Lake Winnipeg. In fact, says a 2003 report by the Environmental Working Group, "as more studies pour in, PFCs seem destined to supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals as the most notorious, global chemical contaminants ever produced." In a company report, DuPont acknowledges that the widespread prevalence of PFOA in human blood "raises questions that should be addressed." But the company has repeatedly emphasized that there are no known human risks. [Click For More]

5/19/05
EDINBURG, TX — San Carlos Elementary School remains closed today after insecticide exposure Wednesday morning forced the evacuation of 580 students and school staff members. Fifty-six students and nine campus staff members complained of nausea and headaches, said Gilbert Tagle, the school district’s public information officer. [Click For More]

5/18/05
Greenville, SC -- Authorities say a worker at Southern Water Treatment fainted and collapsed due to an unknown medical problem. The worker struck a nozzle as he fell and released a cloud of hydrogen sulfide into the air. Greenville Memorial Hospital reported 11 patients due to the leak. [Click For More]

5/17/05
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) announced it will hold a public hearing related to its investigation of combustible dust hazards at industrial facilities. The hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. on June 22 in the Horizon Ballroom of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington. CSB is soliciting comments on a number of questions related to combustible dust hazards. [Click For More]

5/16/05
Europe is setting environmental standards for international commerce, forcing changes in how industries around the world make plastic, electronics, toys, cosmetics and furniture. Now, the EU is on the verge of going further — overhauling how all toxic compounds are regulated. A proposal about to be debated by Europe's Parliament would require testing thousands of chemicals, cost industries several billion dollars, and could lead to many more compounds and products being pulled off the market. [Click For more]

5/13/05
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Lee Mechanical Contractors Inc., Park Hills, Mo., for allegedly failing to ensure appropriate protective programs were in place for employees working in a lead contaminated environment. Proposed penalties total $113,000. [Click For More]

5/12/05
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- A dangerous clean-up operation following a thirty-three gallon spill of muriatic acid at Solvox Mfg. Company, a subsidiary of Hydrite Chemical Company, Milwaukee, has resulted in a proposed fine of $171,000 and workplace safety and health violations issued by the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click For More]

5/11/05
The Bush administration has ordered a nearly 50 percent cut in mercury pollution from power plants over the next 15 years, a plan that will raise electricity prices but help protect fetuses and young children from nerve damage. The rule makes the United States the first country in the world to regulate mercury emissions from utilities, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials. [Click For More]

5/10/05
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Protecting workers and cutting injury compensation costs are the results OSHA expects personal health care facility operators to enjoy after participating in a half-day free seminar provided by the agency on May 24 in Lima, Ohio. The seminar will provide advice and guidance on OSHA regulations and best practices in dealing with such areas as bloodborne pathogens, ergonomic hazards, workplace violence, hazard communication, lockout/tagout requirements, and recordkeeping. [Click For More]

5/9/05
TORONTO, CANADA - The Ontario government is delivering on its plan to enhance workplace health and safety by proposing to update occupational exposure limits (OELs) for 18 hazardous workplace substances. [Click For More]

5/6/05
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay - The signatories of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) pledged Thursday to search for alternatives in order to eventually eliminate the use of the insecticide DDT in the fight against malaria. Although DDT is one of the 12 POPs that the international community has agreed on eliminating as soon as possible, it is still widely used as an effective and low-cost weapon against the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. [Click For More]

5/5/05
Two years ago, state Sen. Ed Meyer lost Adora to cancer. His normally spry 10-year-old Labrador retriever had suddenly become lethargic. Meyer's veterinarian ran tests that revealed that Adora's organs were riddled with cancer, which the vet was certain was caused from ingesting poisonous lawn-care pesticides. Meyer said he had used pesticides on his lawn in Westchester (where he lived before he moved to Guilford, Conn., two years ago), and he often walked with Adora on the neighboring golf course. [Click For More]

5/4/05
Male babies exposed in the womb to chemicals that mimic estrogen -- compounds found in birth control pills and some plastics -- are at risk of being born with deformities in their prostate and urethra that may lead to diseases in adulthood, according to a study of lab animals published today. Some researchers say the wider use of the chemicals might have contributed to a surge in prostate cancer, particularly in men under 65 years of age, that has been seen in the past two decades. [Click For More]

5/3/05
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited United States Pipe and Foundry Company for serious citations including inadequate personal protective equipment and eye wash stations for employees working with corrosive materials; improper labeling and storage of hazardous chemicals; and failing to provide employees with safety and health training, Proposed penalties total $71,000 following inspections at the company's Bessemer plant. [Click For More]

5/2/05
A group of men from the camp gather to chat and tell their stories to curious visitors or passers-by. Gamal Mansuer, an older man with a white beard, holds up an inhaler and a small breathing machine. “I can’t breathe because there is asbestos in my lungs,” explains Mansuer, who was recently fired after working at the factory for 15 years. He is one of 90 employees who have been laid off from Aura-Misr, a Spanish-Egyptian asbestos company. [Click For More]

4/29/05
Concerned that research linking benzene to cancer could lead to expensive and strict controls on the petroleum industry, five major oil companies are funding a multimillion-dollar study to counter the findings, documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show. The study, launched in 2001 in Shanghai, China, with as much as $27 million from BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell Chemical, will analyze benzene's effects on the blood and bone marrow, and its ability to cause cancer in workers. [Click For More]

4/28/05
GENEVA -- Faced with a rising toll of occupational-related death, injury and sickness, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Office (ILO) today mark the World Day for Safety and Health at Work by highlighting the need for a preventative safety culture worldwide. According to new estimates by the ILO, the number of job-related accidents and illnesses, which annually claim more than two million lives, appears to be rising because of rapid industrialization in some developing countries. [Click For More]

4/27/05
El Passo, TX -- The top generators of toxic releases in El Paso County are a tile manufacturing plant, Fort Bliss, and El Paso’s refineries, according to scorecard.org, a group that reports on information gathered by the EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. The TRI is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities. [Click For More]

4/26/05
WESTON, Mass., PRNewswire -- FEMA's new software program, HAZUS-MH, can dramatically reduce the costs associated with natural disasters by providing advanced impact analysis to emergency planners at all levels. HAZUS-MH helps emergency managers to determine the potential damage from inland and coastal flooding, hurricane winds, earthquakes, and chemical hazards. [Click For More]

4/25/05/
RIALTO, Calif. -- An emerging threat of uncertain dimensions looms in this working-class suburb, where a chemical used in rocket fuel and defense manufacturing has befouled nearly half the drinking water supply. But Rialto is just one of many communities facing this problem. The choices faced here -- when to close wells, whom to sue and how not to get sued -- confront officials in 36 states where the Environmental Protection Agency says perchlorate has been detected. [Click For More]

4/22/05
Lagos, Nigeria -- The Nigerian Federal Government has been urged to declare the Niger Delta region a disaster zone, following recent research, which confirmed the presence of carcinogens in water samples taken from across the region. [Click For More]

4/21/05
BEIJING - An explosion tore through a chemical plant in southwest China late Thursday, destroying a three-story building and leaving 19 employees missing, the government said. The blast occurred on the outskirts of Chongqing, a major industrial city. [Click For More]

4/20/05
Indiana - A Corydon industrial plant may have illegally released into the air tens of thousands of pounds of a toxic chemical associated with nervous-system damage and cancer each year between 1998 and 2003, accordig to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [Click For More]

4/19/05
Hazardous events resulting from methamphetamine production, including explosions and environmental damage, are increasing, according to two new reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Methamphetamine-related events recorded by the Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) system increased from 184 in 2000 to 320 in June, 2004, totaling 1,791 events in the 16 states that use HSEES. Washington (399 events) and Missouri (351) reported the most events. [Click For more]

4/18/05
California lawmakers will consider the nation's first ban of BPA in plastic products made for babies and toddlers next week. Recent studies have shown that BPA is extremely harmful, even in very low doses. The chemical acts like the female hormone estrogen and interferes with the body's natural processes. [Click For More]

4/15/05
WASHINGTON -- Reducing Worker Exposures to Perchloroethylene in Dry-Cleaning is the name and goal of a new publication unveiled today by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Perchloroethylene is a commonly used chemical in the dry-cleaning industry that can pose serious health hazards. The booklet provides practical and effective guidance on ways for dry-cleaning operators to reduce worker exposure to perchloroethylene. [Click For More]

4/14/05
Washington, DC – Today, 20 consumer and environmental groups from across the country asked the national headquarters of Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement, two of the largest home and garden retailers, to carry a full range of organic, non-toxic lawn care products to protect the health of children, families, pets and the environment and to reconsider the sale of "weed and feed" due to its hazards and environmental pollution. Recent surveys show almost half of all households buying lawn care products are seeking non-toxic alternatives. [Click For More]

4/13/05
New Haven, CT, Apr. 13 (UPI) -- Scientists at Yale University say they've found bisphenol-A, a chemical found in many food-storage plastics, can lead to neurological diseases. The researchers said small doses of BPA can lead to learning disabilities and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. [Click For More]

4/12/05
Across California's vast Central Valley, producer of a quarter of the nation's food and fiber, and in a growing number of other locales, pesticide exposure is causing alarm, and not just among the millions of farm workers on agriculture's front line. [Click For More]

4/11/05
BRAINTREE, Mass. -- Engineered Materials Solutions Inc., faces $89,100 in fines and was cited for a total of 29 alleged serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act including employees being exposed to excess levels of cadmium; ineffective steps to reduce exposure levels; inadequate monitoring of workers for exposure; cadmium-contaminated surfaces in the break room, change room and other locations; inadequate or improper methods of cleaning up cadmium; and an incomplete cadmium compliance plan. [Click For More]

4/8/05
Adam Finkel was OSHA's regional director for the Rocky Mountain states when he became aware that inspectors from his own federal agency were increasingly being exposed to toxic beryllium dust. But when he and others brought the matter to the attention of the top brass at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency refused to immediately conduct specific tests for the exposure, which can lead to a deadly lung disease like emphysema. [Click For More]

4/7/05
ATLANTA -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Leggett and Platt Inc. for exposing workers to serious safety and health hazards including failing to have required safety and health programs for respirators, confined spaces, hazard communication, fall protection and lockout-tagout procedures at its Covington manufacturing plant. The agency is proposing penalties totaling $78,500. [Click For More]

4/6/05
SEATTLE -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued repeat, serious and other-than-serious citations against cheese maker Sorrento Lactalis, Inc., for safety violations found during inspections at the company's Nampa, Idaho plant. The citations carry proposed penalties totaling $109,000 and include lack of an emergency response plan, hazardous material training, a respiratory protection program, inspections of respirators and drenching or flushing facilities for the eyes. [Click For More]

4/5/05
PEORIA, Ill. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has reached agreement with Formosa Plastics Corporation, Illiopolis, Ill., resolving citations issued following an investigation into an April 23, 2004 explosion that took the lives of five workers, seriously injured three others and destroyed much of the facility. [Click For More]

4/4/05
The Environmental Protection Agency has released new guidelines it will follow when assessing the risks posed by carcinogenic chemicals. The guidelines are similar to a draft released in 2003. They make revisions to the methods that EPA has used since 1986 to calculate cancer risks from exposure to chemicals. [Click For More]

4/1/05
Amid stiff opposition from the cosmetics industry, a California lawmaker is once again proposing to ban two kinds of chemical toxins widely used in cosmetics and personal care products. [Click For More]

3/31/05
ILLINOIS -- Illinois residents will have more opportunities to get rid of leftover household products, chemicals and pesticides this spring. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled 18 household hazardous waste collection events, starting Saturday. [Click For More]

3/30/05
Beijing, China, Mar. 30 (UPI) -- A chlorine spill caused when a tanker and a truck collided on a highway in east China killed two people and injured more than 300. [Click For More]

3/29/05
Department of Homeland Security -- Chemical agents are poisonous vapors, aerosols, liquids or solids that have toxic effects on people, animals or plants. They can be released by bombs, sprayed from aircraft, boats, or vehicles, or used as a liquid to create a hazard to people and the environment. [Click For More]

3/28/05
PONCA CITY, OKLA. - The meth was cheap and easy here. The dangerous cooking of the drug had become a cottage industry. It was consuming lives, overtaxing social services agencies and maiming police officers sent to stop it. But that was before a simple change in law last April that restricted the sale of cold tablets such as Sudafed, a common ingredient used by methamphetamine cooks. The number of meth labs seized statewide dropped by nearly half in the first month after the law changed and dropped by nearly 80 percent by December. [Click For More]

3/25/05
Hazardous chemicals at BP Amoco’s Texas City refinery exploded early Wednesday afternoon, March 23, killing 14 and injuring over 100. According to records at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the accident could have been much worse. BP Amoco has reported to EPA that it stores 800,000 pounds of hydrofluoric acid onsite at its Texas City facility. The company has estimated that over half a million people live within the facility’s 25 mile "vulnerability zone". [Click For More]

3/24/05
Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble at a Texas City Refinery Wednesday night. Authorities confirm that 14 people were killed in an explosion at the BP Amoco refinery in Texas City Wednesday afternoon. That plant is located about 35 miles south of Houston. [Click For More]

3/23/05
Common household dust contains a variety of hazardous chemicals originating from everyday consumer products, including Teflon and other nonstick cookware and fabrics coated with water-resistant Gore-Tex, according to a study released Tuesday. The study, one of the first of its kind, showed that hidden away in dust balls in vacuum cleaner bags were 35 toxic industrial chemicals that are legal in products but have been shown to cause reproductive, respiratory and other health problems in humans or test animals. [Click For More]

3/22/05
Traffic fumes could damage DNA. Signs of DNA damage were higher among toll booth attendants than their colleagues working in an office, reports a new study from Taiwan. The problem traces back to fine particles found in traffic exhaust. One of those chemicals -- called 1-OHPG -- was at the center of the Taiwanese study. [Click For More]

3/21/05
DOVER, Del. -- A federal judge slapped Motiva Enterprises with a $10 million fine Thursday after the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges relating to a fatal tank collapse and explosion in 2001. The fine is the largest criminal environmental fine in Delaware history. Motiva pleaded guilty to negligently endangering workers at its former refinery in Delaware City as well as discharging pollutants into the Delaware River and negligently releasing sulfuric acid into the air. [Click For More]

3/18/05
Baltimore, MD -- Anne Arundel County officials will sample well water next week at 19 homes adjacent to Fort Meade after the discovery of cancer-causing pollutants in an aquifer underneath the sprawling Army post. The county learned recently that Army tests done in June at three wells near an aquifer revealed excessive levels of tetrachloroethene, a dry-cleaning solution, and carbon tetrachloride, a pesticide. The chemical levels were as much as four times the federal government's contamination standards. [Click For More]

3/17/05
WASHINGTON - When police in Houston and across the country bust methamphetamine labs in living rooms, motel rooms and even the back seats of cars, local agencies are often left to clean up the deadly mess that includes poisonous gases, cancer-causing chemicals and flammable solvents. [Click For More]

3/16/05
WASHINGTON, DC -- About 78,000 children under five years old visited U.S. hospital emergency rooms due to unintentional poisonings in 2003 -- about one every seven minutes, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported today. Most of these poisonings included products commonly found in the home. [Click For More]

3/15/05
Sometime in late 1997, 3M Corp. medical director Dr. Larry Zobel learned of a troubling stain on his company's signature product: Everyone's blood in the United States apparently was contaminated with a tiny amount of a chemical used to make Scotchgard, his company's famously successful stain-resistant spray. [Click For More]

3/14/05
WASHINGTON -- Approximately 14,000 employers have been notified that injury and illness rates at their worksites are higher than average and that assistance is available to help them fix safety and health hazards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced. [Click For More]

3/11/05
WILLIAMSBURG, VA -- Thursday's Williamsburg City Council meeting had to move across the parking lot and into the public library's auditorium because the council's chambers were still undergoing decontamination from a mercury spill. Beads of the potentially toxic chemical were found on the council members' chairs and on the floor nearby. Police believe it was a deliberate act. Exposure to mercury vapors can cause neurological and respiratory problems. [Click For More]

3/10/05
Ministers and high level officials from 140 countries agreed at a United Nations conference in Kenya to pursue voluntary measures to reduce environmental and health risks from mercury, a heavy metal which can cause a wide range of medical problems such as harm to the nervous system, cardiovascular system, digestive tract, kidneys, and cause birth defects and affect the development of children. [Click For More]

3/9/05
Dioxin is one of the most studied chemicals on the planet. It is found throughout the environment and in our food supply. It causes a wide range of adverse health effects including cancer, birth defects, diabetes, learning and developmental delays, endometriosis, and immune system abnormalities. It is the most potent animal carcinogen ever tested. [Click For More]

3/8/05
Cincinnati, OH -- An additional 10,500 train cars carrying hazardous materials could move through Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky annually if a law banning such chemicals from Washington, D.C., goes into effect. CSX Transportation won't specify what material those cars would carry. But here are the top hazardous substances CSX trains generally carry: [Click For More]

3/7/05
METHUEN, Mass. -- A Somerville, Mass., flooring contractor faces $70,000 in proposed fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) following a fire at a Somerville jobsite that killed two workers and seriously burned two others when the flammable floor primer they were applying ignited, starting a fire. The primer was a lacquer sealant containing hazardous chemicals. [Click For More]

3/4/05
AUGUSTA, Maine -- A lead abatement contractor's failure to protect employees removing lead paint from a steel bridge spanning the Penobscot River between Lincoln and Chester, Maine, has resulted in $80,500 in fines from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click For More]

3/3/05
OLYMPIA, WA -- Providence St. Peter Hospital has been fined $45,000 by the state Department of Labor and Industries for numerous workplace safety violations related to the cleanup of a formaldehyde spill. [Click For More]

3/2/05
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations to Valmont Coatings-Oklahoma Galvanizing in Claremore, Okla., and proposed penalties totaling $126,000 for safety and health violations which sent 18 employees to the hospital after a chemical spill. [Click For More]

3/1/05
Rail accidents involving hazardous materials are rare, especially the ones that kill people. The Association of American Railroads notes that 99.9998 percent of hazardous materials that travel by rail make it safely. "But when something happens on the railroad it can be spectacular … and draws a lot of attention," said Tom White, a spokesman for the association. [Click For More]

2/28/05
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not adequately considered the impact that its proposed rule for occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium will have on collision repairers, according to the Automotive Service Association (ASA). Hexavalent chromium compounds are widely used in the chemical industry in pigments, metal plating and chemical synthesis. [Click For More]

2/25/05
Washington, DC -- A surveillance camera at Cardozo Senior High School in Northwest Washington picked up an image of a student spilling the mercury that forced Wednesday's evacuation of about 600 students and closure of the building. [Click For More]

2/24/05
METHUEN, Mass. -- A Wilmington, Mass., contractor's failure to safeguard workers against potentially deadly silica hazards during brick repointing work at St. John's Preparatory School, Danvers, Mass., has resulted in $60,000 in proposed fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click For More]

2/23/05
Oregon -- The family of a Hillsboro man who died of liver cancer has filed a $1.46 million wrongful death lawsuit against the companies that operated the former View-Master plant in Beaverton Oregon, claiming trichloroethylene or TCE contaminated well water at the site killed him. [Click For More]

2/22/05
Hagerstown, Md. (AP) - A newly passed ordinance barring rail shipments of hazardous materials through the District of Columbia raises the risk of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack in Maryland and other nearby states as the dangerous cargo is rerouted around the nation's capital, railroad officials say. CSX Corp., the train operator most affected by the law says that unless the measure is reversed, it will likely cause backups and bunching of chemical tank cars at its rail yards in Baltimore, Cumberland, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. [Click For More]

2/21/05
KUALA LUMPUR: About 70 per cent of occupational ailments are caused by chemical exposure, resulting in skin diseases, poisoning and respiratory disorders. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairman, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, said studies had shown the diseases and sickness were partly caused by the use of highly toxic chemicals, unapproved personal protective equipment and improper personal protective equipment. [Click Fore More]

2/17/05
MANCHESTER, VA — Authorities evacuated the second floor of the Veterans Administration Medical Center yesterday after fumes from a hazardous chemical spill registered twice the acceptable level. [Click for more]

216/05
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Smiths Aerospace Components faces $116,000 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for safety and health hazards at its 255 Sheldon Rd. plant in Manchester, Conn. The airplane components manufacturer was cited for 23 alleged repeat and serious safety and health violations including unlabeled containers of hazardous chemicals. [Click For More]

2/15/05
New York -- In a stunning miscalculation, 421 contaminated sites across the state — including 14 in the city — designated safe by environmental officials are now feared to be leaching deadly chemicals into schools, homes and other buildings nearby. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is now launching a mammoth effort to retest the sites, re-clean them if necessary, and inform residents if toxins have breached their homes and schools. [Click For More]

2/14/05
An environmental group says its tests outside the former Ford Motor Co. industrial dump site found high levels of lead, arsenic and other toxic substances near the homes of Ramapough Mountain Indians who have complained of severe health problems. [Click For More]

2/11/05
A Nitro, W.Va., demolition company's continued failure to protect its workers against serious safety and health hazards has resulted in $50,500 in additional fines including lack of a respiratory assessment program for workers exposed to metal fumes and lack of a written hazard communication program for employees exposed to diesel fuel and propane. [Click For More]

2/10/05
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Cherry Valley Furniture, Inc. and proposed $156,000 in fines for failing to correct safety and health hazards which included a lack of hazard communication training, previously identified at its Richwood, W.Va. site. [Click For More]

2/9/05
As rapidly developing countries such as India industrialise, the dangers to local communities from pollution are often overlooked until there is a major disaster such as occurred in Bhopal. But action groups in India are beginning to sound the alarm, as in Patencheru, in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the country's newest high tech destinations - and one of its most toxic hotspots. [Click For More]

2/8/05
MISSOULA, Mont. - (KRT) - A federal grand jury here indicted W.R. Grace & Co. and seven current and former company officials on charges of conspiring to hide from employees, their families and the public that ore mined near Libby, Mont., was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos. [Click For More]

2/7/05
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is looking at whether tiny amounts of thousands of chemicals widely used in medications, beauty aids, cleaners and foods including caffeine, cotinine (from tobacco products), antibiotics, contraceptives, painkillers, antidepressants, hormones, steroids, chemotherapy drugs, insect repellents, veterinary medicines, soaps, perfumes, plasticizers and fire retardants are effecting fish populations. [Click For More]

2/3/05
Australia -- Cyanide has erupted from a storage tank at an abandoned Northern Territory mine while contractors hired by the NT Government were trying to neutralize the chemicals. More than 500 litres of cyanide escaped from a storage tank at the Mount Todd gold mine near Katherine on the Edith River, southeast of Darwin. [Click For More]

2/2/05
One of OSHA's few major regulatory efforts -- rulemaking for occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium (HC) -- aroused criticism from both industry and labor groups during the first day of public hearings on the proposal, in Washington, D.C. [Click For More]

2/1/05
The Department of Health and Human Services has added several new substances to its list of those the agency says cause cancer. HHS added 17 agents to a growing list of cancer-causing materials, bringing the total to 246. For the first time ever, viruses are listed in the report. Other new listings include lead and lead compounds, X-rays, compounds found in grilled meats, and a host of substances used in textile dyes, paints, and inks. [Click for More]

1/31/05
Some of the world's most lethal chemical weapons are stored in earth-covered bunkers at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, KY, protected from terrorists and monitored for leaks by the Army. What would happen if those chemicals were loaded onto train cars or trucks and a crash occurred in Louisville or St. Louis? Exposure to a tiny amount of VX, one of the chemicals stored at the depot, can kill a person within minutes. [Click For More]

1/28/05
A federal health agency is recommending trains carrying hazardous chemicals not travel through congested urban areas. The recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came in a report assessing the Jan. 6 train crash in Graniteville, SC. Chlorine gas released in the spill killed nine people and injured more than 500. [Click For More]

1/27/05
Inventories filed by chemical companies show that nine chlorine plants, some in the Midwest, are among the nation's largest sources of mercury. The toxic metal has contaminated rivers, lakes and oceans, and many states warn people to limit eating certain types of fish. While most chlorine manufacturers have switched to mercury-free technologies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the plants still using it cannot account for as much as 65 tons of mercury used in manufacturing. [Click For More]

1/26/05
Austin, TX -- Jonathan L. Snare has been named to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). No, he's not an expert in health or safety, but he used to be the lobbyist for Metabolife, the ephedra diet pill that attracted so much unpleasant attention. Ephedrine was finally barred in 2003 after the Food and Drug Administration decided it had caused 155 deaths. Exactly how this qualifies him to head OSHA is unclear. [Click For More]

1/25/05
Macon, GA -- Some Middle Georgia industrial facilities keep enough hazardous chemicals that a large spill could be harmful, even deadly, to unsuspecting neighbors. Although facilities that could affect the most people face tougher regulations, state enforcement is limited. And many less-regulated factories still have deadly potential. [Click For More]

1/24/05
NEW YORK – The recent train crash and chlorine leak in Graniteville, S.C., which killed nine people and injured at least 250, is raising renewed concerns about the safety of hazardous-materials rail shipments in communities across the country. [Click For More]

1/21/05
Beijing, China -- The Chinese capital was rocked by an explosion and fire at a chemical plant early Tuesday, injuring seven workers, local media reported. The blast occurred shortly after midnight at a subsidiary of the Beijing Dongfang Petrochemical Corporation, the Beijing Hua'er Company, which makes polyvinyl chloride polymer equipment. [Click For more]

1/20/05
HWASEONG, South Korea -- The owner of a local factory was charged with negligence and violation of health standards after several of his Thai employees were found to have suffered nerve damage from exposure to a toxic chemical at their workplace, Donghwa Digital, a liquid crystal display equipment maker. [Click For More]

1/19/05
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will hold public hearings in Washington, D.C., to discuss the agency's proposed rulemaking for occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium. The hearings will begin on Feb. 1 and are expected to run through Feb. 17. [Click For More]

1/18/05
More than 50 years after DuPont started producing Teflon federal officials are accusing the company of hiding information suggesting that a chemical used to make the popular stick- and stain-resistant coating might cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments. Environmental regulators are particularly alarmed because scientists are finding perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the blood of people worldwide, and it takes years for the chemical to leave the body. [Click For More]

1/17/05
Exposure of preganant women to air pollution is the most likely cause of childhood cancers, suggests a British study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Carbon monoxide, particulates and nitrogen oxides (which are associated with oil burning, particularly in engines) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, benz(a)pyrene and dioxins) are cited in the research. [Click For More]

1/14/05
WASHINGTON, -- Generation Green today called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the misleading marketing campaign being conducted by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Nutritionals LLC for its artificial sweetener, Splenda. Splenda is a chemically created product that uses chemicals such as chlorine and phosgene, a poisonous gas. Moreover, the Splenda ingredient label doesn't even list sugar as an ingredient. [Click For More]

1/13/05
The EPA is proposing a rule that would revise certain requirements for the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory. The revisions are to reduce reporting burden associated with the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Reporting requirements without compromising the usefulness of the information to the public. [Click For More]

1/12/05
The first results from a health study of workers at a DuPont plant using the controversial chemical used to make Teflon show no cancer risk but a slight increase in cholesterol for the most-exposed workers, the company said Tuesday. [Click For More]

1/11/05
WASHINGTON, - In an eagerly awaited report on perchlorate, one of the most controversial unregulated toxic pollutants in the country's drinking water and food supplies, the National Academy of Sciences said Monday that people would be safe if exposed to daily doses 20 times those under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency. [Click For More]

1/10/05
WASHINGTON -- OSHA announced its support for the National Response Plan unveiled today by the Department of Homeland Security which includes a new Worker Safety and Health Annex. The Annex provides guidelines for implementing worker safety and health support functions during national incidents, including acts of terrorism, major natural disasters, or man-made emergencies. [Click For More]

1/7/05
Graniteville, SC-- Eight people died and more than 240 were treated for respiratory and other ailments after two trains crashed Thursday morning, derailing 16 cars and spilling chlorine gas. [Click For More]

1/6/05
HASBROUK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- The U.S. Department of Labors' Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Atlantic Detroit Diesel Allison LLC for alleged safety and health violations at its Lodi, NJ site. OSHA initiated an investigation after receiving a complaint alleging that employees were exposed to diesel fumes. [Click For More]

1/5/05
Beginning in 2005, manufacturers and importers of any of the roughly 76,000 chemical substances listed on the Chemical Substances Inventory maintained by EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act ("TSCA Inventory") will be subject to new and expanded reporting and recordkeeping requirements. [Click For More]

1/4/05
PHILADELPHIA – The chemical bisophenol A (BPA) commonly used to make plastic food containers has been shown to stimulate the growth of a specific type of prostate cancer cell, according to a new study. [Click For More]

1/3/05
EL DORADO, Ark. (AP) -- Hundreds of residents remained out of their homes for a second day Monday as a fire continued to belch smoke from a nearby hazardous waste incineration plant. [Click For More]

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