NEWS ARCHIVE 2006 Last
updated on 08/25/07 07:48 AM
12/28/06
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has found widespread
safety and health hazards at the West Hartford tool manufacturing
plant of Danaher Tool Group, doing business as Holo-Krome Inc.
OSHA's most recent inspection, conducted under two national
emphasis programs aimed at preventing amputations and overexposure
to lead, has resulted in citations for 26 alleged willful, repeat
and serious violations of standards. Proposed penalties total
$247,600. [Click
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12/27/06
Virginia -- Suspicious of DuPont after revelations that the
company has contaminated other communities, Richmond-area
activists are asking the EPA to look at the company’s use of a
likely carcinogen in their own area. Virginia workers and
environmentalists want state and federal regulators to investigate
chemical giant DuPont and its use of a controversial
Teflon-related chemical at a plant near Richmond. The request,
issued by a coalition of labor and environment advocates –
follows investigations into similar complaints in other cities. [Click
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12/26/06
Efforts to curb pollution in North America have taken a blow from
a U.S. decision this week to exempt thousands of facilities from
having to publicly report their toxic releases. In a
little-noticed move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
quadrupled the threshold for toxic releases that do not have to be
publicly reported. [Click
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12/20/06
Chicago, IL -- Gerald Carlton was trying free a clogged drain and
used Liquid-Plumr and Rooto Professional Drain Opener, a highly
concentrated solution of sulfuric acid, authorities believe.
Firefighters also suspect that another product containing bleach
may have been present in the drain. Fumes from the chemical
reaction apparently killed Carlton (an autopsy is scheduled today)
and sickened eight others -- his wife, son and six firefighters. [Click
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12/19/06
California -- Moreno Valley school officials are considering
opposing two food-processing plants proposed on former Air Force
property, saying a refrigeration chemical and increased truck
traffic could pose a health risk to teachers and students at a
nearby school. District officials are concerned about potential
exposure from the anhydrous ammonia the plants intend to use in
their large refrigeration units. According to the U.S. Dept. of
Labor, anhydrous ammonia is widely used as a refrigerant in
industrial facilities, and spills pose a significant threat when
the chemical comes in contact with skin, when it is inhaled, or
when it is exposed to fire or in an explosion. [Click
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12/18/06
BELLWOOD, Ill. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $151,650 in fines
against Universal Form Clamp Inc., Bellwood, Ill., for 40 alleged
serious violations of federal workplace safety and health
standards including violations associated with flammable and
combustible liquids, process safety management of hazardous
chemicals, hazardous waste operations and hazard communication. [Click
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12/15/06
A Missouri widow filed an asbestos suit in Madison County Circuit
Court against 187 defendant corporations claiming during the
course of her husband's employment he inhaled large amounts of
asbestos. Some of the defendants include Anheuser Busch, AutoZone,
Bondex, Chevron, DaimlerChrysler, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Ford Motor
Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Honeywell, John Crane,
Mallinckrodt, The Pep Boys, Proctor and Gamble, Sears, Western
Auto and 3M. [Click
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12/14/06
European Union (EU) lawmakers have approved a new chemical law
aimed at making producers and importers of chemicals prove that
the substances they put on the market are safe for consumers –
making it one of the most controversial laws in years. [Click
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12/13/06
In a new review study published in The Lancet researchers from the
Harvard School of Public Health and the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine systematically examined publicly available data on
chemical toxicity in order to identify the industrial chemicals
that are the most likely to damage the developing brain. The
researchers found that 202 industrial chemicals have the capacity
to damage the human brain, and they conclude that chemical
pollution may have harmed the brains of millions of children
worldwide. The authors conclude further that the toxic effects of
industrial chemicals on children have generally been overlooked. [Click
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12/12/06
BEIJING, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A blast at a petrochemical plant in
northwestern Lanzhou, the second deadly accident in less than a
year at a unit of PetroChina in the city, killed three workers,
the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The explosion at Lanzhou
Petroleum and Chemical Company happened on Monday afternoon in
part of a unit making maleic anhydride. [Click
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12/11/06
Ann Arbor, MI -- A man caught stealing anhydrous ammonia from a
Scio Township business Sunday night was in critical condition from
inhaling the chemical, authorities said. Washtenaw County
Sheriff's deputies responded to a theft in progress at the 800
block of South Parker Road and found a man attempting to steal the
chemical from a tank located outside the agricultural supply
business. [Click
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12/8/06
Initial findings from recent scientific studies suggest that
chemicals in the environment and genetics play significant roles
in the obesity spike. [Click
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12/7/06
Yakima, WA -- A limited air-sampling survey conducted by
farm-worker advocates in April outside two homes near Yakima
Valley orchards found what could be unacceptable levels of a
pesticide that can cause damage to the central nervous system of
children. Grower representatives quickly criticized the report,
titled "Poisons on the Wind," as unscientific. It was
released Wednesday by the Farm Worker Pesticide Project of
Seattle. [Click
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12/6/06
Agrochemicals firm Syngenta has agreed to give payments to 11
former employees of an insecticide factory in southwestern
Switzerland. The agreement comes more than a year after reports of
a number of cases of bladder cancer around the southwestern town
of Monthey that could be connected to exposure to the chemical
galecron. [Click
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12/5/06
Dartmouth researchers find that low doses of arsenic have broad
impact on hormone activity. In the journal Chemical Research in
Toxicology, the researchers report that three different steroid
hormones all show similar responses to arsenic in drinking water,
suggesting a broader effect and a common mechanism of arsenic on
how these hormones function. [Click
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12/4/06
Close your eyes and walk past one of the city's countless nail
salons and you might think you're passing an auto body paint shop.
That's because many of the chemicals are the same, albeit in
smaller quantities. The products that lacquer your toenails
fire-engine red or make your fingernails luxuriously long and
shapely can contain chemicals that are suspected or known to cause
cancer and birth defects, yet there are limited safeguards for
nail salon workers and their customers. [Click
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12/1/06
Brussels, Belgium – European public interest groups, including
WWF, have denounced a deal struck behind closed doors between
representatives of the European Parliament and the Council of
Ministers that will weaken REACH, the proposed EU chemical
legislation. If adopted, the deal would allow many chemicals –
including many that are known to cause cancer, birth defects and
other serious illnesses – to stay on the market and be used in
consumer products, even when safer alternatives are available. [Click
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11/30/06
Lousiville, KY -- Residents near Rubbertown's chemical plants
continue to face greater health risks from toxic emissions than
people in eastern Louisville, according to the city's latest
report card on toxic air. Cancer risks from long-term, maximum
exposure near the West Louisville plants were four to 60 times
higher in 2005 than those at the University of Louisville's Shelby
Campus along Shelbyville Road near Hurstbourne Parkway. [Click
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11/29/06
This is the story of 9-11 and cancer. To date, 75 recovery workers
on or around what is now known as "the Pile"—the
rubble that remained after the World Trade Center towers collapsed
on the morning of September 11, 2001—have been diagnosed with
blood cell cancers that a half-dozen top doctors and
epidemiologists have confirmed as having been likely caused by
that exposure. [Click
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11/28/06
In 1990, as the makers of Perrier water absorbed the full consumer
backlash from recalling drinks containing benzene in the US,
Cadbury Schweppes quietly pulled one of its own products for the
same reason, new documents show. Cadbury's benzene was traced to a
reaction between two common ingredients in the drink – something
that was still producing benzene in some other firms' drinks this
year. But the problem with the two ingredients – sodium
benzoates and citric or ascorbic acid (vitamin C) – was never
made public. [Click
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11/27/06
It has been two years since the state set a goal to limit the
amount of perchlorate in Californians' drinking water, but
officials have yet to establish a mandatory threshold for the
potentially dangerous chemical. The federal limit for exposure to
perchlorate is 24.5 parts per billion (ppb). Local agencies have
been following the state public health goal of 6 ppb in treating
their water. But even that figure may not be enough to protect
hundreds of thousands of Californians, according to an analysis of
a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. [Click
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11/24/06
JACKSON, Miss. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Mountain Pure MS Water
Bottling Company and proposed penalties totaling $164,150 for
violations including lack of personal protective equipment for
employees working with corrosive materials, exposing workers to
ozone well above the permissible levels, and improperly stored
chemicals. [Click
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11/21/06
Widely used chemicals with suspected links to cancer and
developmental problems in humans are present in common baby
products like the yellow rubber ducky, bath books and clear
plastic bottles. The toxic chemicals, which are used to harden or
soften plastics, can leach out each time a baby sucks on a
favorite doll or gnaws on a cool teething ring. Starting Dec. 1, a
first-in-the-nation ban goes into effect in San Francisco,
prohibiting the sale, distribution and manufacture of baby
products containing any level of bisphenol A and certain levels of
phthalates. [Click
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11/20/06
Charlotte, NC -- State officials will evaluate the health of 250
people who live near foam-making plants in North Carolina, hoping
the information will add to the small amount of information
available about the effects of an airborne chemical.Toluene
diisocyanate, or TDI, is linked to asthma and other respiratory
problems. State health officials closed the Trinity American foam
plant in Randolph County nearly a decade ago because of TDI
emissions. [Click
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11/17/06
Indiana -- Interstate 65 was closed after a cloud of noxious gas
began spreading from a truck transporting a combustible chemical
powder. Five people were treated for breathing difficulties after
exposure to the cloud of sodium hydrosulphite, which seeped from
the back of a semi-truck in the parking lot of the Pilot Travel
Center truck stop at 18011 Colorado St. near Lowell. [Click
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11/16/06
BATON ROUGE, La. -- AKM, LLC, doing business as Volks
Constructors, has been cited for alleged safety and health
violations including the use of hazardous chemicals from unmarked
containers and the lack of material safety data sheets for
hazardous chemicals that has resulted in proposed penalties
totaling $47,600 from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). [Click
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11/15/06
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Northern Health Care Linen Services Inc. has
been cited for alleged failure to protect workers against exposure
to bloodborne pathogens, hazardous chemicals, falls and other
safety and health hazards and resulted in $83,700 in proposed
fines from the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA). [Click
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11/14/06
Fetal and early childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the
environment can damage the developing brain and can lead to
neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)--autism, attention deficit
disorder (ADHD), and mental retardation. Still, there has been
insufficient research done to identify the individual chemicals
that can cause injury to the developing brains of children. [Click
for More]
11/13/06
CINCINNATI, OH – Nov. 10, 2006 – Firefighters are twice as
likely to develop testicular cancer and have significantly higher
rates of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and prostate cancer than
non-firefighters. The findings suggest that the protective
equipment firefighters used in the past didn't do a good job in
protecting them against the cancer-causing agents they encounter
in their profession. [Click
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11/10/06
WYNNEWOOD, Okla. -- OSHA has cited the Wynnewood Refining Co. for
failing to properly maintain processing equipment relating to the
operation of the hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit when it was
evident that flare line leaks were occurring, exposing employees
to hydrocarbons and hydrofluoric acid. Proposed penalties total
$154,800. [Click
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11/9/06
Under an eagerly awaited ruling by New York's highest court,
plaintiffs and defendants in cases alleging injuries caused by
chemical exposure will need to carefully assess the amount of the
chemical to which the plaintiff was exposed. [Click
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11/8/06
LONDON - Exposure to industrial chemicals in the womb or early in
life can impair brain development but only a handful are
controlled to protect children, researchers said on Wednesday.
There is also a lack of research and testing to identify which
chemicals cause the most harm or how they should be regulated,
they added. Only a few substances, such as lead and mercury, are
controlled with the purpose of protecting children. [Click
for More]
11/7/06
Cheswold, Delaware -- A Cheswold company has been issued a state
violation for a chemical leak that caused hundreds of nearby
residents to evacuate or seal their homes from noxious fumes. The
state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
determined that nearly 13 tons of styrene leaked from a train
railcar outside Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex on Fork Branch Road
south of Cheswold. [Click
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11/6/06
ITHACA, NY — Following months of review, the New York State
Department of Health released its new guidelines for indoor air
levels of a toxic industrial chemical. The guidelines dictate how
the state responds — or requires responsible parties to respond
— when trichloroethylene is found in soil and indoor air. [Click
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11/3/06
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- OSHA has cited and proposed a $237,200 penalty
against FKI Logistex, Olivette, Mo., for 45 alleged serious,
willful, and repeat safety and health violations including
improper storage of flammable and combustible liquids; quantity of
flammable liquids maintained in the paint spray booths exceeded
the minimum required for operation; and employees were permitted
to consume food and beverages in areas that contained toxic
materials. [Click
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11/2/06
Delaware -- After decades of studies and legal wrangling, federal
officials have ordered a $52 million cleanup of the former Koppers
Co. Inc. Superfund site south of Newport, moving the 317-acre
former wood-treating plant property a major step closer to
recovery. [Click
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11/1/06
Nearly half of Britain's hairdressers are suffering from a
debilitating and career-threatening skin disease brought about by
the chemicals used in their trade, health inspectors said last
night. They said the condition, dermatitis, is affecting about
50,000 hairdressers and barbers across the UK, due to widespread
flouting of safety regulations by salon employers. Staff are
contracting dermatitis through regular exposure to products
containing large quantities of chemicals, such as peroxides, soaps
and shampoos. [Click
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10/31/06
Atlanta, GA -- The state Department of Human Resources said a
survey of more than 600 residents of the south Fulton County town
of Fairburn and nearby communities has found they were sickened
with symptoms "consistent with exposure to propyl mercaptan,"
a highly toxic substance used in crop pesticides. [Click
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10/30/06
ESCONDIDO, CA -- Escondido firefighters delayed entering the
burning North County Plating shop on Industrial Avenue because of
concerns about hazardous materials. Their concern makes sense.
Environmental regulators have long seen metal plating as one of
the most sensitive businesses around, and metal platers routinely
use strong acids, cyanide and heavy metals such as chromium and
cadmium in their work. [Click
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10/27/06
Minneapolis, MN -- City Council committee OKs resolution requiring
janitors to use less-toxic cleaning products when cleaning city
buildings. -- public health advocates say exposure to many of the
chemicals commonly used to clean bathrooms, offices, lobbies and
other areas can make some people sick. [Click
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10/26/06
(NewsTarget) -- According to a report called "Science for the
Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental
Health Standards to Protect Those Most at Risk," released
Thursday, the protection standards for cancer-causing radiation in
the United States are so low, only the strongest people are
protected. [Click
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10/25/06
Death rates among workers who manufacture computer components are
at higher risk of dying of cancer, compared with the general
population. "The findings reveal elevated cancers in
manufacturing workers associated with solvents," said Richard
Clapp, a professor of environmental health at Boston University's
School of Public Health, wrote the study. "These cancers
include brain, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and kidney." [Click
For More]
10/24/06
BOSTON, MA -- Electrochem, Inc., a battery manufacturer, faces
nearly $59,000 in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor's
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for workplace
hazards at its Canton, Mass., plant including not developing a
compilation of process safety information on the hazardous
chemicals, the technology, and the process equipment in battery
manufacturing, as well as failing to perform an initial hazard
evaluation of the process. [Click
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10/23/06
The 10 most polluted places on the planet. -- The list compiled by
the US-based Blacksmith Institute locates the top ten pollution
hotspots in eight countries, affecting more than 10 million
people, most of whom are impoverished, with adverse health
conditions. [Click
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10/19/06
Palm Springs, CA -- The discovery of contamination at a school
district maintenance yard in Thermal is prompting a cleanup effort
that may include paving over the troubled spot. The Coachella
Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District owns the site
contaminated with DDT that was likely used years ago when it was a
common pesticide. [Click
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10/18/06
Abidjan, Ivory Coast - Not long after hundreds of tons of toxic
waste were jettisoned around Ivory Coast's main city under cover
of darkness, Jean-Jacques Kakou and thousands of others awoke to
an overpowering stench that burned the eyes and made it hard to
breathe. Three weeks later, Kakou was dead - one of at least 10
deaths authorities suspect were linked to dumping that has thrown
light on a growing global trade in hazardous waste. Poison is
still being shipped out of developed nations to the Third World
despite international legislation. [Click
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10/17/06
Responding to the growing incidence of genital malformations in
baby boys, an international conference is being held in Helsinki,
Finland, next month to discuss the possible link with widely used
cosmetic chemicals. Studies have shown that some of these
chemicals may be linked to the growing incidence of genital
malformation in baby boys, as well as the increasing number of
people being diagnosed with breast, testis and prostrate cancer. [Click
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10/16/08
BP's safety record in the US has come under renewed attack in a
damning official report into a fire at its Texas City refinery
which happened just four months after an explosion at the same
plant killed 15 workers. The US Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board (CSB), an independent federal agency concluded
yesterday that the incident could have been avoided had BP
followed simple safety procedures and briefed contractors
properly. [Click
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10/13/06
PUEBLO, Colo. -- OSHA has cited Davis Wire Pueblo LLC in Pueblo
with proposed penalties totaling $287,500, for alleged willful and
serious violations of safety and health standards including
overexposure to airborne lead and deficiencies in the
implementation of the required lead program. [Click
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10/12/06
LANSING, Ill. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $116,200.00
in fines against Cracker East Corp., Haslett, Mich., for alleged
willful and serious violations of workplace safety and health
standards during demolition work including failing to comply with
OSHA health standards on lead and personal protective equipment
and failure to provide adequate washing and eating areas. [Click
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10/11/06
ATLANTA -- OSHA has cited U.S. Battery Manufacturing of Augusta,
Ga., for alleged safety and health violations and is proposing
penalties totaling $50,200. One citation specified that company
employees were exposed to lead concentrations greater than the
permissible levels. The second citation noted that the company
failed to implement engineering controls and work practices to
reduce employee exposure to lead. [Click
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10/10/06
South Africa -- Approximately 5000 former employees of the
Pelindaba nuclear facility, near Pretoria, may possibly be
suffering from an occupational disease related to chemical and
radiation exposure. [Click
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10/9/06
Although the removal of most lead from gasoline and paint has
driven down exposure levels from those seen 30 years ago, new
research sharply lowers the level of lead exposure that's
considered safe. And it expands the population of people who need
to worry about the toxic chemical. [Click
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10/6/06
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Wiremold Co., a manufacturer of electronic
products, faces $315,000 in fines from OSHA for workplace hazards
at its West Hartford, Conn., plant including improper storing and
handling of flammable liquids and combustible items; inadequate
system for collecting aluminum dust generated during buffing
operations; deficiencies in the plant's hazard communication
program; and failing to determine if workers were exposed to lead
and cadmium. [Click
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10/5/06
Researchers from Italy have reported that occupational exposure to
solvents such as benzene, xylene, and toluene may increase the
risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin’s
lymphoma (HL). The details of this case-control study were
published in Epidemiology. [Click
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10/4/06
BEIJING — Two environmental officials have been fired over a
chemical spill that forced authorities to cut off water supplies
to 80,000 people last month in central China, state media said
Tuesday because they failed to adequately supervise two companies
blamed for tainting a local river with toxic arsenide. [Click
for More]
10/3/06
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) today issued safety and health guidance to help small
businesses comply with the Agency's new hexavalent chromium(Cr(VI))
requirements for general industry, construction and shipyards. The
guide describes the steps that employers are required to take to
protect employees from hazards associated with exposure to Cr(VI).
[Click
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10/2/06
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California will become the
first U.S. state to try to measure how its residents are absorbing
chemicals from common products under a "bio-monitoring"
bill signed on Friday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. [Click
For More]
9/29/06
Researchers in Taiwan say they have established for the first time
that the mercury compound present as a contaminant in some seafood
can damage insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. In their
experiments, Shing-Hwa Liu and colleagues exposed cell cultures of
insulin-producing beta cells to methylmercury. They used
concentrations of methylmercury at about the same levels as people
would consume in fish under the U. S. Food and Drug
Administration's recommended limits. [Click
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9/28/06
ELIZABETH, N.J. -- A trucking company worker damaged a pressurized
tank containing sulfur dioxide on Tuesday, releasing a cloud of
gas that sickened dozens of people, authorities said. City Fire
Director Onofrio Vitullo said 51 people were decontaminated and
taken to three hospitals. [Click
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9/27/06
Texas -- State and federal regulatory agencies are continuing
their investigations of the explosion at the Bayer Material
Sciences plant that sent 22 workers to area hospitals Tuesday. The
blast happened at approximately 11:30 a.m. in a process vessel, or
tank, at one of the Bayer industrial park’s two TDI, or toluene
diisocyanate, units. [Click
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9/26/06
National Geographic -- Modern chemistry keeps insects from
ravaging crops, lifts stains from carpets, and saves lives. But
the ubiquity of chemicals is taking a toll. Many of the compounds
absorbed by the body stay there for years—and fears about their
health effects are growing. [Click
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9/25/06
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited The Waggoners
Trucking for 28 safety and health hazards including failure to
develop and implement a hazard communication program and failure
to train employees who worked with hazardous chemicals at the
company's Brunswick, Ga., terminal. The agency is proposing
penalties totaling $46,800. [Click
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9/22/06
California -- About 45 farmworkers in San Joaquin Delta fruit
orchards were exposed Thursday to an extremely toxic pesticide
sprayed by a nearby aircraft. The workers complained of nausea and
skin irritation -- classic signs of intoxication by the
organophosphate pesticide Di-Syston, which the Sacramento County
Agricultural Commissioner's Office identified as the substance
sprayed over the asparagus field. [Click
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9/21/06
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Imagine this: Your great-grandmother was
exposed to an environmental toxin while she was pregnant with your
grandmother. Now you and your children are suffering consequences
like cancer and kidney disease even though you were never exposed
to the toxin yourself. A new study released this week reveals
passing down the effects of a toxin through the generations may be
possible. [Click
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9/20/06
Many of the chemicals found in the laptops, including lead, PVC
and some BFRs, are hazardous to health and persist in the
environment. Long-term exposure to some BFRs (certain PBDEs) has
been associated with abnormal brain development in animals, with
possible long-term impacts on memory, learning and behavior. [Click
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9/19/06
Abidjan - Ivory Coast arrested two executives of a Dutch
commodities company whose dumped toxic waste caused widespread
sickness in the country's largest city, a government official said
on Monday. Hospitals have provided free treatment to 44 000
people, many of them complaining of nausea, headaches, and
breathing difficulties caused by the foul-smelling substance,
according to the health ministry. [Click
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9/18/06
Georgia -- State and federal officials confirmed Friday that tests
showed toxic chemical presence of hundreds of thousands of times
the accepted upper safe exposure levels for humans in south Fulton
County beginning in late spring and early summer. [Click
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9/15/06
Washington, DC (AHN) - Pesticide exposure may increase the risk of
Parkinson's disease, says a study done by researchers at Emory
University and Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta;
although pesticides are banned, they are still present in the
environment. The findings were presented at the 232nd American
Chemical Society gathering - the largest scientific society in the
world. The scientists said that exposure to pesticides increases
the pace of changes occurring in the brain, eventually leading to
the possibility of early onset of Parkinson's perhaps even decades
earlier. [Click
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9/14/06
A bill that would set up the nation's first statewide program to
measure exposure to toxic chemicals by testing thousands of
volunteers has overcome industry opposition and reached the desk
of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill, SB 1379, by state Sen.
Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, would
require the state Department of Health Services to establish a
program for residents who agree to have their blood, urine and
other body fluids tested for toxic chemicals and other pollutants.
[Click
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9/13/06
BRAINTREE, Mass. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed a total of
$95,000 in fines against First Student Inc., a Cincinnati-based
school-bus service, following a fatality and an injury at two of
its Boston facilities. The fatality occurred March 9 at the
company's Freeport Street bus yard when a mechanic was overcome by
carbon monoxide produced by a gasoline-powered jump-starter used
to start buses. [Click
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9/12/06
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
announced that it will publish an Advance Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking in the Federal Register on Sept. 12, 2006, seeking
public comment on the implementation of the Globally Harmonized
System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). Adoption
of the GHS by OSHA will require OSHA to propose changes to the
Agency's Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). [Click
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9/11/06
JACKSON, Miss. -- OSHA has cited Dominion Marine Group, PRC
Environmental and Advanced Demolition with proposed penalties
totaling $85,575 following the investigation of a March 21
accident that resulted in the death of two workers. The Dominion
Marine employees were recovering barges sunk during Hurricane
Katrina. One employee died from inhaling hydrogen sulfide fumes as
he pumped water from a barge compartment. The second employee died
during a rescue attempt. [Click
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9/8/06
MADISON, Wis. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $123,000 in
fines against Madison-Kipp Corp., Madison, Wis., for alleged
willful and serious violations of workplace safety and health
standards including failure to implement an adequate process
hazard analysis, failure to implement a hazardous-waste operation
and emergency-response program and to train workers in those
requirements, and failure to provide medical evaluations and fit
testing for safety equipment. [Click
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9/7/06
JACKSON, Miss. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Stringer
Oilfield Services and issued 13 serious citations to the company
including the lack of a written safety program for hazard
communication, and proposed penalties totaling $40,300 following
the investigation of a fatal accident at a Raleigh, Miss., work
site. [Click
For More]
9/6/06
The number keeps climbing. More than 750 people in north Fayette
and south Fulton counties have reported illnesses they believe are
related to exposure to the organophosphate pesticide MOCAP
originating at the Philip Services Corp. plant on Ga. Highway 92
near Fairburn. Georgia Division of Public Health (DPH) and Georgia
Environmental Protection Division (EPD) are studying illnesses in
the community and samples of chemicals previously located at the
plant. [Click For
More]
9/5/06
Researchers studying railroad workers have documented that
cleaning solvents used in their jobs caused brain damage,
shrinking the vital bridge that helps one side of the brain
communicate with the other. The results of the study by
researchers from West Virginia University, the University of
Pittsburgh and Johns Hopkins University, which was funded by the
federal government, bolster evidence that powerful degreasers can
damage the brain. [Click
For More]
9/1/06
In an effort to prevent some respiratory diseases, the National
Institute for Occupational and Safety and Health (NIOSH) is
requesting assistance from workers, employers, small business
owners and others that have interaction or exposure to spray-on
truck bed lining procedures. Spray-on bed liners contain
methylenebis (phenyl isocyanate), known as MDI, that can cause
respiratory disease such as asthma, and in some cases, death. [Click
For More]
8/31/06
While some people tend to associate dangerous chemicals and toxic
agents with bioterrorism in the aftermath of 9-11, every day
items, like pesticide or household cleaning products, can create a
hazardous threat. [Click
For More]
8/30/06
Yes, dioxins are among the many contaminants that people should
worry about. Yes, exposure to dioxins increases the risk of
cancer. These are facts that both the U.S. National Toxicology
Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have
accepted. What is still the subject of controversy is whether or
not we can actually get the dioxins through fatty food that has
been wrapped with certain plastics and cooked in the microwave. [Click
For More]
8/29/06
California -- Perchlorate, a toxic ingredient of solid rocket fuel
that is contaminating hundreds of wells throughout Southern
California, would be limited in drinking water under a new state
standard. The California Department of Health Services plans to
set a drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion, the same as
a goal the state established two years ago. The standard, however,
would be enforceable, whereas the existing goal is not. [Click
For More]
8/28/06
New Zealand -- Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are believed to
be repeatedly exposed to organic chemicals on the job. The Labour
Department has investigated nearly 400 cases of a condition known
as Chronic Solvent Neurotoxicity in the last 13 years and has
found about a third of them are work related. [Click
For More]
8/25/06
One month after OSHA released its asbestos information bulletin,
EPA is following suit by releasing a draft brochure aimed to
protect the health of auto mechanics. The brochure, Current Best
Practices for Preventing Asbestos Exposure Among Brake and Clutch
Repair Workers, includes work practices that may be used to avoid
asbestos exposure. It also summarizes existing OSHA regulatory
requirements for professional automotive mechanics. [Click
For More]
8/24/06
ATLANTA -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Pyramid Mouldings,
Rossville, Ga., for allegedly exposing workers to repeated and
serious safety and health hazards including hazard communication
requirements. The agency is proposing penalties totaling $176,000.
[Click
For More]
8/23/06
Washington, DC (PRWEB) -- The National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
has issued a report on biomonitoring – the practice of testing
human blood, urine, or other fluids for the presence of
environmental chemicals. The report reaches the conclusion that
all responsible students of the newly developing science gain -
the ability to generate biomonitoring data that often exceeds the
ability to know what the data mean in a health risk context. [Click
For More]
8/22/06
BANGOR, Maine -- A Stillwater, Maine, employer faces $149,500 in
fines from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) after one of its workers suffered
carbon monoxide poisoning at a Bangor residential construction
project. [Click
For More]
8/21/06
New York, Aug 21: A US court has rejected a plea of some survivors
of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy for a clean-up of the affected
chemical plant site, citing "sensitive and severe
difficulties" of undertaking the exercise in a foreign land.
[Click
For More]
8/18/06
4 Components to Consider when Building an Incident Response Plan
-- Incidents, both natural and man-made, happen. In recent years,
many safety people have been tasked with managing incident
response. It's a heavy duty, especially for those more experienced
in such areas as lockout/tagout, machine guarding, and hazard
communication. [Click
For More]
8/17/06
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 123 chemical
facilities in the United States are located where a catastrophic
release from them could injure or kill more than one million
people each. Using a slightly different model, the Department of
Homeland Security projects that 272 chemical facilities threaten
at least 50,000 people each. [Click
For More]
8/16/06
SARASOTA, Fla. - More than 75 high school students and faculty
were checked for exposure to mercury Tuesday after the toxic
liquid metal leaked from a small vial in a student's backpack.
Seven students came in direct contact with the mercury, which
spilled onto a classroom table at Cardinal Mooney High School,
Dezzi said. No one showed immediate signs of illness from
exposure. [Click
For More]
8/15/06
AUSTRALIA -- A national study has revealed that in excess of 2200
Australians die each year as a result of exposure to hazardous
chemicals, including asbestos. [Click
for More]
8/14/06
According to the most recent CDC estimates, one in 166 children in
the US suffers from an autistic disorder. After a three year
investigation, "The Mercury in Medicine Report" was
released by the House Committee on Government Reform, and stated
in part: “Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is
directly related to the autism epidemic. The public health
agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional
malfeasance for self protection and misplaced protectionism of the
pharmaceutical industry.” [Click
For More]
8/10/06
China -- Wang Xuedong is unable to use chopsticks to eat, as he is
losing control of his hands. Wang, a 27-year-old worker in a
private electronics firm in Foshan in South China's Guangdong
Province, has been diagnosed with chronic hexane poisoning.
"Since I came here half a year ago my job has been to wash
circuit boards with chemical liquids." [Click
For More]
8/9/06
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security's Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is moving forward to address
concerns that have been raised regarding the levels of
formaldehyde in travel trailers in the Gulf Coast region. The
agency has specifically asked for and received from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an air monitoring and
sampling plan that is intended to validate methods that can be
used to reduce the presence of formaldehyde in travel trailers. [Click
For More]
8/8/06
Tons of toxic mercury from U.S. recycling programs are funneled
each year to loosely regulated industries in developing countries,
where much of the hazardous metal is released into the atmosphere.
Scientists say some of that air pollution can drift back to this
country and contaminate lakes and rivers, undercutting aggressive
efforts to keep mercury out of the environment. [Click
For More]
8/7/06
When sailors needed to get rid of napalm, oil and grenades at the
Concord Naval Weapons Station after World War II, they had a
simple solution: Just dig a hole and have a bonfire. Sixty years
later, the hangover for these toxic practices is becoming clear as
the city of Concord tries to redevelop a base laced with harmful
contaminants that can lead to cancer and other diseases. [Click
For More]
8/5/06
Washington -- To find out if the tiniest airborne particles pose a
health risk, University of Rochester Medical Center scientists
have shown that when rats breathe in nano-sized materials, the
particles quickly follow an efficient path from the nose to
several brain regions. [Click
For More]
8/4/06
Australia -- International legal experts have joined local lawyers
in preparing a class action on behalf of almost 300 residents
living near the site of a toxic chemical fire at an industrial
estate north of Brisbane last year. The claim is threatening to be
the biggest chemical exposure case of its kind in Australian
history and is being discussed in international legal circles. [Click
For More]
8/3/06
NEW YORK -- OSHA fines J&J Bronze & Aluminum Casting Corp.
$144,750 for safety and health hazards including employee
overexposure to lead, the absence of work practices, engineering
controls, respirators, a clean changing room, showers, medical
surveillance, employee training and other required safeguards; a
deficient hazard communication program; lack of hearing and eye
protection; and no hearing conservation training. [Click
For More]
8/2/06
New Mexico -- Julie Tambourine at first thought someone was
playing a sick joke on her. When she returned to her home in
Eldorado nearly two weeks ago, she found a receipt tacked to the
door indicating a pest-control company had treated the area around
her house with a pesticide. Tambourine suffers from multiple
chemical sensitivities. And the chemical used -- pyrithroid -- was
the same one that had disabled her 10 years earlier. [Click
For More]
8/1/06
Tacoma, WA -- The state has fined a Fife nursery supply company
$82,000 for mishandling dangerous wastes after a fire last
December at a South Hill refuse transfer station, officials said
Monday. L & L Nursery Supply Inc., 2507 Frank Albert Road,
plans an appeal. [Click
For More]
7/31/06
SHANGHAI, CHINA -- An explosion at a chemical plant in eastern
China killed at least 22 people Friday and prompted the evacuation
of 7,000 others, state news media and officials said. Twenty-eight
people were missing. [Click
For More]
7/28/06
Common household products to clean your toilet or freshen the air
may potentially be hazardous for your health, according to a new
NIEH study. Millions of people use products that contain the
organic compound, dichlorobenzene. It's found primarily in room
deoderizers, toilet bowl cleaners, and moth control insecticide.
Researchers found traces of the compound in every person they
tested which they said in some people could potentially lead to a
loss of lung function. [Click
For More]
7/27/06
WASHINGTON -- Growing scientific evidence suggests the most
widespread industrial contaminant in drinking water -- a solvent
used in adhesives, paint and spot removers -- can cause cancer in
people. The National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday that a
lot more is known about the cancer risks and other health hazards
from exposure to trichloroethylene than there was five years ago
when the Environmental Protection Agency took steps to regulate it
more strictly. [Click
For More]
7/26/06
The nation's two largest food-industry unions are urging the Bush
administration to issue an emergency order restricting workers'
exposure to lung- destroying fumes from a butter-flavoring
chemical used in everything from pastries to popcorn. [Click
For More]
7/25/06
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- OSHA has cited Haulmark of Georgia Inc. of
Fitzgerald for hazardous material exposure and other workplace
safety and health violations. The agency is proposing penalties
totaling $57,150. OSHA issued 29 serious safety and health
citations to the trailer manufacturer for failing to prevent
worker exposure to methylene chloride, a hazardous chemical used
to clean equipment. [Click
For More]
7/24/06
A recent national report that stressed links between dioxin and
cancer is raising concerns in Delaware, where thousands of tons of
dioxin-tainted wastes have been spilled, buried or stored. [Click
For More]
7/21/06
Somerville, MA -- Seventeen people, including one firefighter,
were hospitalized Tuesday morning, triggering a probe into a
chemical leak that resulted in a Level 1 hazmat situation. A
55-gallon drum of super-concentrated bleach was the target of the
investigation at the Angelica Corp. facility. [Click
for More]
7/20/06
ATLANTA -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Oriental Weavers of America
following a fatal accident at the company's Dalton, Ga.,
manufacturing plant. The agency is proposing penalties totaling
$126,450 for violations including improper hazard communication
procedures. [Click
For More]
7/19/06
LANSDALE, Pa. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Crystal Inc.-PMC
for alleged safety and health violations including improper
storage of incompatible chemicals, hazard communication
deficiencies, and improper handling of formaldehyde, and proposed
$213,700 in penalties. The Lansdale, Pa., company manufactures
specialty chemicals and employs 51 people. [Click
For More]
7/18/06
Do beautifully polished nails pose a safety risk for women and
their offspring? That's a quandary facing a growing number of
cosmetics companies, salons and customers as health and
environmental advocates step up their attack against a
controversial ingredient contained in most nail polishes --
including some very popular brands. [Click
For More]
7/17/06
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency tightened
public health standards for dry cleaners Friday, saying that
cleaning shops in residential buildings must stop using a toxic
solvent in their machines by 2020. Administration officials said
the new restrictions on perchloroethylene, or perc, a hazardous
air pollutant, would reduce Americans' exposure to a chemical
linked to cancer and neurological damage. [Click
For More]
7/14/06
Eau Claire, WI -- Nine former Uniroyal workers say they became
sick after working there. They're suing and their lawyer says this
suit could be just the beginning. He says 30 former workers
contacted him and say they're suffering. Uniroyal closed in 1991.
Now, nine former workers say they were exposed to benzene on the
job. [Click
For More]
7/13/06
HOUSTON, (Reuters) - At least 21 people were taken to hospitals
after a chemical leak at a northeast Houston warehouse on
Wednesday afternoon, according to Harris County Hazardous
Materials spokesman. Over 200 people at the warehouse were checked
for symptoms of exposure to hydrobromic acid. [Click
For More]
7/12/06
The United States has requested a five year extension to the
deadline for completing destruction of its chemical weapons
stockpile. But even if the extension is granted, the new deadline
cannot be met, a U.S. ambassador says. The United States possesses
the second largest chemical weapons stockpile in the world - more
than 27,700 metric tons of deadly VX, GB, HD, mustard, and sarin
nerve agent and associated explosives. They must be destroyed
under the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty signed by 178
countries. [Click
For More]
7/11/06
Proponents of legislation to phase out the use of lead and nine
other chemicals in consumer products hailed a state-funded study
that found industry could replace hazardous chemicals with cheaper
alternatives. Advocates for chemical limitations yesterday said
the new study refutes industry claims that there are no
alternatives. The chemicals are used in a range of products
including bullets, fishing sinkers, cables, cosmetics and dry
cleaning solvents. [Click
For More]
7/10/06
KEARNY, N.J. -- OSHA has cited Radial International Corp. for
alleged safety and health violations, including failure to
properly protect employees from lead exposure, and proposed a
total of $136,000 in penalties. The Kearny, N.J., company, doing
business as Radio Casting Corp., is a brass foundry and aluminum
die-casting operation that employs 35 workers. [Click
For More]
7/7/06
Burlington, VT -- For years, Burlington's air has been relatively
high in benzene, a hazardous pollutant. Now the state plans to
figure out why, with the help of a half-million-dollar grant from
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [Click
For More]
7/6/06
WASHINGTON, PRNewswire -- Major environmental groups and dozens of
environmentalists sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen
Johnson today challenging the agency's decision to allow the use
of treated wood containing the highly toxic hexavalent chromium.
The letter asks the EPA to rescind its decision to allow mostly
non-residential uses of the chemical, and make public the
scientific basis for its decision. [Click
For More]
7/5/06
Since the 1970s, scientists have known that when DDT accumulates
in a woman's tissues it can be transmitted to her developing fetus
across the placenta. Now, a new study led by a team of researchers
at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that such in
utero exposure is associated with developmental delays in the
young child. [Click
For More]
7/3/06
Minnesota spends $1.5 billion a year on childhood diseases related
to environmental problems, according to a report to be released
Friday by two environmental groups. [Click
For More]
6/30/06
MOONACHIE, NJ -- An accidental chemical reaction at a polyurethane
manufacturing plant Thursday afternoon forced the evacuation of
about 75 employees, including nine who were taken to hospitals
complaining of eye and throat irritation, officials said. The
accident occurred just before 2:50 p.m. at the Crest Foam
Industries Inc. [Click
For More]
6/29/06
WICHITA, Kan. -- High-hazard industry workplaces in Kansas are the
focus of a "local emphasis program" being conducted by
the Wichita area office of the U.S. Department of Labor's
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Inspectors
will focus on establishments with 10 or more employees that have
not had a comprehensive OSHA inspection since 1995. [Click
For More]
6/28/06
FLUSHING, N.Y. -- A Flushing hospital's alleged failure to protect
workers from exposure to formaldehyde has resulted in $112,500 in
fines from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA). [Click
For More]
6/27/06
BRAINTREE, Mass. -- A Texas-based cement manufacturing company's
alleged failure to properly protect its workers from safety and
health hazards including employee overexposure to silica,
inadequate engineering controls to reduce silica and dust levels,
and deficient respirator and confined space entry programs at its
cement products plant in Middleboro, Mass., has resulted in
proposed penalties of $71,200 from OSHA. [Click
For More]
6/26/06
After a decade of delays and facing a congressional goal to
eliminate childhood lead poisoning by 2010, the Environmental
Protection Agency is on the verge of adopting a hotly contested
rule that tackles one of the last major dangers still posed by
lead: the poisonous dust stirred up by remodeling. [Click
For More]
6/23/06
NEW DELHI (AP)— Environmental activists warned Thursday that
unregulated use of mercury in India is putting millions of people
at risk, and the country has now become the world's second-largest
user of the poisonous chemical. Researchers said that without
government regulations to manage its use, mercury is being handled
and disposed of in a hazardous manner. [Click
For More]
6/22/06
By University of Colorado at Boulder, Chemical compounds in
household products like mothballs and air fresheners can cause
cancer by blocking the normal process of "cell suicide"
in living organisms, according to a new study spearheaded by the
University of Colorado at Boulder. Naphthalene in mothballs and
para-dichlorobenzene, or PDCB, found in some air fresheners, were
shown to block enzymes that initiate programmed cell death, or
apoptosis. [Click
For More]
6/21/06
In 2003, almost 6 millon workers were injured, 5,559 died in a
job-related accident and close to 50,000 died of occupational
illnesses. This means that every day 150 workers lose their lives
and around 1,200 are injured in the workplace or suffer the
consequences of job related illnesses. It also means that every
year in this country more people die at work than the people who
died in September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq together. [Click
For More]
6/20/06
Legislation to create a national asbestos trust fund is once again
drawing criticism for allegedly shortchanging the injured, making
the public pay for employers’ wrongdoing, and setting the stage
for eventual financial collapse. [Click
For More]
6/19/06
Nearly five years after 9/11, the United States remains far too
vulnerable to natural disaster and major attack. That's the
consensus of security experts and a new federal report released
Friday. Most states and local authorities lag in emergency
planning, the report found. At the same time, the federal
government is still struggling to close big security gaps in
airline passenger screening and port security and at chemical
plants. [Click
For More]
6/16/06
Mayo Clinic researchers have found that using pesticides for
farming or other purposes increases the risk of developing
Parkinson's disease for men. Pesticide exposure did not increase
the risk of Parkinson's in women, and no other household or
industrial chemicals were significantly linked to the disease in
either men or women. [Click
For More]
6/15/06
Birmingham AL -- Vulcan Materials Co., one of Alabama's largest
companies, has been hit by a $100 million jury award in California
over a claim it manufactured a chemical that polluted groundwater.
[Click
For More]
6/14/06
The Alaska Railroad is reopening an old and contentious debate
with a plan to use herbicides to kill weeds, brush and other plant
growth in and alongside its tracks. In an application filed with
the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the railroad
proposes using two commonly available weed killers called
glyphosate and 2,4-D and a Dupont Chemical product called Oust
Extra, which can only be used by professionals. [Click
For More]
6/13/06
CLEVELAND — In a closely watched case unfolding in federal
court, a jury is being asked to take up an intriguing question
that has confounded many medical researchers: Can welding fumes
cause neurological diseases such as Parkinson's? The lawsuit was
brought by a former welder who suffers arm tremors and other
movement problems that he says could be Parkinson's. [Click
For More]
6/12/06
CHICAGO -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $209,500 in fines
against Viasant LLC, Arlington Heights, Ill., for alleged willful
and serious violations of workplace safety and health standards
following an investigation into possible lead exposure to workers
at the site of a former battery plant in Kankakee, Ill. [Click
For More]
6/2/06
Linking prostate cancer to a widespread industrial compound,
scientists have found that exposure to a chemical that leaks from
plastic causes genetic changes in animals' developing prostate
glands that are precursors of the most common form of cancer in
males. The chemical, bisphenol A or BPA, is used in the
manufacture of the hard, polycarbonate plastic of baby bottles,
microwave cookware and other consumer goods and has been detected
in nearly every human body tested. [Click
For More]
6/1/06
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
announced today that its 2006 site-specific targeting (SST) plan
will focus on approximately 4,250 high-hazard worksites. Over the
past eight years, OSHA has used a site-specific targeting
inspection program based on injury and illness data. This year's
program (SST-06) stems from the agency's Data Initiative for 2005,
which surveyed approximately 80,000 employers to attain their
injury and illness numbers for 2004. [Click
For More]
5/30/06
5/30/06 Our homes are tighter than ever, sealing us in with
pollutants, biological — mould, dust mites, animal dander and
bacteria — and chemical — cigarette smoke, heating or cooking
appliance gases, building materials, furnishings and cleaning and
hobby products. [Click
For More]
5/26/06
California is poised to become the first state to phase out the
main chemical used by dry cleaners, following a unanimous vote by
the state's Air Resources Board on Thursday to develop a plan to
eliminate perchloroethylene — or "perc." [Click
For More]
5/25/06
When used indoors under certain conditions, many common household
cleaners and air fresheners emit toxic pollutants at levels that
may lead to health risks, according to a new study by researchers
at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. Exposure levels to some of the pollutants -
and to the secondary pollutants formed when some of the products
mix with ozone - may exceed regulatory guidelines resulting in
chronic exposure, according to the study. [Click
For More]
5/24/06
Eight months ago, 10 Washingtonians volunteered blood, urine and
hair samples to the Washington Toxics Coalition to be tested for
eight classes of chemicals. The results are in, and they are not
pretty. It wouldn't be kind to say that these 10 are walking toxic
waste dumps, but their levels of phthalates (found in such diverse
products as shower curtains and fragrances), PBDEs (found in flame
retardants, mattresses and furniture), mercury, pesticides, lead
and other chemicals were high enough to make both scientists and
subjects sit up and take notice. [Click
For More]
5/23/06
Newswise — Eighteen years later, people who worked with lead
have significant loss of brain cells and damage to brain tissue,
according to a new study published in the May 23, 2006, issue of
Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of
Neurology. The study examined 532 former employees of a chemical
manufacturing plant who had not been exposed to lead for an
average of 18 years. The workers had worked at the plant for an
average of more than eight years. [Click
For More]
5/22/06
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Friday it found
levels of cancer-causing benzene that exceeded federal standards
in five of 100 soft drinks and beverages it tested. Benzene, a
chemical linked to leukemia, can form in soft drinks containing
vitamin C and either of the two preservatives sodium benzoate and
potassium benzoate. Scientists say heat or light exposure can
trigger a reaction that forms benzene in the beverages. [Click
For More]
5/19/06
CHICAGO -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $134,000 in fines
against Project Management Services, headquartered in Girard,
Ohio, for alleged willful and serious violations of workplace
safety and health standards regarding lead and cadmium at a
Chicago foundry. [Click
For More]
5/18/06
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — State officials may ask federal regulators to
require pest control companies to ventilate homes after spraying
for bugs. Officials are considering the possibility in response to
the case of an elderly woman who died a few hours after her home
was sprayed. [Click
For More]
5/17/06
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has tentatively
agreed to new restrictions that will allow a Southern California
pesticide maker to keep a controversial insecticide on the market,
the agency announced Tuesday. Newport Beach-based Amvac
volunteered to cancel some uses and add restrictions to others for
a pesticide known as dichlorvos, or DDVP, which is commonly used
to kill mosquitoes, fleas and other insects. [Click
For More]
5/16/06
FREMONT, Neb. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Palleton of
Fremont Inc. for 33 alleged safety and health violations including
failure to label process tanks with the identity of chemicals and
associated hazards and failure to provide hazard communication
training to employees working with chemicals such as sodium
hypochlorite. Proposed penalties totaled $126,500. [Click
For more]
5/12/06
Scientists have for the first time detected cancer-causing
chemicals and nicotine in the urine of babies living in houses
where at least one parent smokes. University of Minnesota
researchers who studied 144 infants found "substantial
uptake" of a chemical called NNAL in nearly half of babies
exposed to second-hand smoke. NNAL is a by-product of a toxin in
tobacco that causes lung cancer. [Click
For More]
5/11/06
In 1994, a team of scientists locked dozens of dogs in airtight
plastic boxes and then pumped the pesticide methyl bromide into
these containers for seven hours each day for a month. The
devastating effects were noted in a brief, dispassionate summary
of their experiment. [Click
For More]
5/10/06
SHERIDAN, Colo. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited American Stone
Fabricators Inc. of Sheridan for 13 alleged serious violations of
health and safety hazards, and one instance of failing to abate
previously cited hazards, including employee overexposure to
silica. Proposed penalties total $110,000. [Click
For More]
5/9/06
Some pesticides affect humans by causing cancer, central nervous
system damage and respiratory illnesses. Others can have toxic
effects on human reproductive, endocrine and immunological
systems. For many pesticides, we simply don't know what the
long-term health effects are. [Click
For More]
5/8/06
''An environmental crisis is coming to China earlier than
expected, especially water pollution," Pan Yue, vice chairman
of China's State Environmental Protection Agency, said in a recent
interview in Beijing. ''We will face tremendous problems if we do
not change our development patterns." [Click
For More]
5/6/06
A Western Massachusetts association of water suppliers is urging
the state to carefully consider all possible sources of
perchlorate, including food, as they set a safe drinking water
standard for the chemical. With a week left in the public comment
period for the state's proposed 2 parts per billion drinking water
and hazardous waste standards for perchlorate, the state
Department of Environmental Protection has received mostly kudos
from clean water advocates on its plans. [Click
For More]
5/5/06
ATLANTA - A waterproofing boot spray has sickened nearly 200
people and more than two dozen pets in the Midwest since early
last year, health officials said Thursday. No one died, but people
in five states reported coughing and breathing problems, and more
than 80 went to hospitals. [Click
For More]
5/4/06
TOLEDO, Ohio -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $77,000 in fines
against A.K. Steel Corp., Mansfield, Ohio and $70,000 in fines
against Harsco Corp. Mansfield, following an inspection into the
companies' operations at the A.K. Steel plant at 913 Bowman St.,
Mansfield. OSHA opened a complaint inspection in October 2005
after receiving information regarding potential lead hazards and
personal protective equipment issues. [Click
For More]
5/3/06
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Two environmental justice groups filed suit
today to protect school children from diesel engine exhaust from
school buses. The lawsuit is filed under California's Proposition
65 (the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986),
and claims that Laidlaw is exposing school children who ride
Laidlaw school buses to cancer-causing diesel engine exhaust
without a warning. [Click
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5/2/06
Hawaii -- Safety Expert Says Housing Project on Kaneohe Marine
Corps Base Contaminated with Three Deadly Banned Toxins at
Dangerously High Levels; Navy Claims Levels of Chlordane,
Heptachlor and Heptachlor-Epoxide are Only Slightly Elevated and
Navy is Exempt from Following State Safety Guidelines; EPA and
Department of Health Launch Joint Investigation [Click
For More]
5/1/06
Unknown hazardous chemicals in everyday products are accumulating
in human tissue and persisting in the environment without breaking
down. Of 80,000 synthetic chemicals that have been registered in
the country, less than 10 percent have been tested for their
effect on human health. [Click
For More]
4/28/06
Hamilton, Canada -- Mira Kotarscak remembers how, as a 22-year-old
woman, she was so excited to get the job at Skippy Footwear, a
division of Susan Shoes. When there wasn't work sewing running
shoes, she'd clean paint off the bottom of rubber boots with a
solvent -- an organic compound called methyl ethyl ketone. [Click
For More]
4/27/06
Boston, MA -- Kevin Kane is gone, a victim of a rare cancer that
killed him at 26, and no government study is going to bring him
back. But a report released on Tuesday by the state Department of
Public Health definitively linking a cancer cluster in Ashland to
a toxic wasteland near Kane’s childhood home has brought some
comfort to his family - and alerted the rest of the community to
the risk if they were exposed. [Click
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4/26/06
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) today fined BP Products North
America, Inc. more than $2.4 million for unsafe operations at the
company's Oregon, Ohio refinery. OSHA's inspection identified a
number of violations similar to those found during an
investigation of the fatal explosion at BP's Texas City, Texas,
refinery that claimed the lives of 15 workers and injured more
than 170 others. [Click
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4/25/06
CONCORD, N.H. -- A Milford, N.H., manufacturer of stone
countertops faces $46,250 in fines from the U.S. Labor
Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
for not storing granite slabs in a safe manner and exposing
employees to silica dust. [Click
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4/24/06
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 today. [Click
For More]
4/21/06
ABERDEEN, Md. -- Four lab workers at Aberdeen Proving Ground were
hospitalized Thursday as a precaution following the third accident
involving a dangerous chemical in a 10-day period at the post. APG
officials say the employees of the Edgewood Chemical Biological
Center were working with phosgene this morning when one of them
smelled the gas in the air. Phosgene is a toxic industrial
chemical used to make plastics and pesticides. [Click
For More]
4/20/06
DOVER, Del. -- Drinking water supplies near a DuPont facility in
New Jersey have been contaminated with chemicals, including a
suspected carcinogen used in the production of Teflon, according
to a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the contamination
is linked to the manufacturing, use and disposal of perfluorinated
chemicals, including PFOA, at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in
Salem County, N.J. [Click
For More]
4/19/06
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited four western New York
employers for allegedly failing to safeguard workers against
asbestos hazards during cleanup and repair operations following a
November roof collapse at the Leisureland bowling and restaurant
complex in Hamburg, N.Y. [Click
For More]
4/18/06
Everyday living may be hazardous to your health - and Californians
should spend millions to do something about that, according to a
new bill under consideration by lawmakers. Senate Bill 1379 would
create the nation's first statewide biomonitoring program to study
levels of chemical contamination in blood, urine, fatty tissue or
breast milk. [Click
For More]
4/17/06
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. -- Crews were called to the Harcros Chemical
plant near Lawrenceburg when a 350-gallon tank behind the building
leaked onto a loading dock after a forklift cut a hose to the
tank. Officials said the chemical involved is glycol ether, an
industrial-grade cleaner. At least 15 people were treated for
exposure to the chemical, and six of them were transported to
local hospitals. [Click
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4/13/06
The U.S. Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB)
says that better process design, engineering, and hazard analysis
would likely have prevented the 2004 runaway chemical reaction and
vapor cloud release at MFG Chemical's plant in Dalton, Ga. More
than 200 families were forced to evacuate their homes, and 154
people had to be decontaminated and treated for chemical exposure
at a local hospital after allyl alcohol and allyl chloride were
released from a reactor at the MFG facility. [Click
For more]
4/12/06
Aberdeen, Md. (AP) - Aberdeen Proving Ground officials say 15
people at an Army research laboratory were taken to an onsite
clinic for monitoring Tuesday after a brief power outage put them
at risk of exposure to small amounts of V-X and mustard agent. [Click
For More]
4/11/06
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A Webster, N.Y., construction contractor, faces a
total of $323,000 in proposed fines from the U.S. Labor
Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
for allegedly failing to protect its employees against lead
exposure hazards at a worksite on the campus of the State
University of New York at Geneseo. [Click
For More]
4/10/06
As the U.S. economy strides into the age of nanotechnology,
thousands of workers are participants in a seat-of-the-pants
occupational health experiment. [Click
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4/7/06
JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Boston officials envision keeping rail cars
carrying hazardous chemicals at least 10 miles away unless the
city is their destination. A plan in Chicago would prohibit such
tanker cars in its downtown Loop. In Cleveland, city officials are
considering banning them near Lake Erie, water treatment plants,
and crowded neighborhoods. Transport of these chemicals presents
one of the knottiest public policy problems in the effort to
protect the nation's cities from terrorist attack. [Click
For More]
4/6/06
WASHINGTON -- Cancer-causing benzene has been found in soft drinks
at levels above the limit considered safe for drinking water, the
Food and Drug Administration acknowledged Wednesday. Even so, the
FDA still believes there are no safety concerns about benzene in
soft drinks, or sodas, said Laura Tarantino, the agency's director
of food additive safety. [Click
For More]
4/5/06
Eleven members of US Congress today filed an amicus brief with the
country's Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on behalf of
more than 20,000 victims of the 1984 Union Carbide chemical
disaster in Bhopal. In the brief, the 11 lawmakers argued that the
District Court was wrong in refusing to consider India's statement
requesting cleanup of the Bhopal plant. They also stated that the
disregard of India's submission was improper and interfered with
US public policy and foreign relations with India. [Click
For More]
4/4/06
Farmers, foresters, citizens and activists converged on Bangor, to
debate proposed rules to restrict pesticide use in Maine.
Petitions submitted by the Maine Toxics Action Center (MTAC) and
Environment Maine (EM), with over 900 signatures, advocated for
rule changes that would ban all aerial spraying in Maine, would
phase out organophosphate pesticides (OPs), and would repeal the
$20 charge to be on the BPC's pesticide notification registry. [Click
For More]
4/3/06
Something very strange is happening in a small but highly polluted
Canadian community. Young boys are becoming hard to find on the
Chippewa Indian reservation in the gritty town of Sarnia, in
Ontario's "Chemical Valley". Research shows that the
number of boys being born to the community has been dropping
precipitously for the past 13 years, while the proportion of baby
girls has risen. [Click
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3/31/06
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Michigan-based
Leitz Tooling Systems for failing to protect workers from chemical
and safety hazards at the company's Muscle Shoals service center.
The agency is proposing penalties totaling $48,650. [Click
For More]
3/30/06
The Environmental Protection Agency has asked for documents that
could lead it to investigate the chromium industry for withholding
from the government a key study supporting a stricter standard for
the potentially deadly metal. [Click
For More]
3/29/06
WICHITA, Kan. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced the
beginning of a statewide local emphasis program in Kansas aimed at
reducing the frequency of work-related silicosis resulting from
employee exposure to crystalline silica. High silica exposures
have been found at counter top fabrication facilities as well as
other businesses performing similar tasks on stone products, e.g.,
making tombstones. [Click
For More]
3/28/06
Delaware -- Indian River Power Plant, owned by NRG Energy, was
once again listed as the dirtiest facility in the state. This
plant, built in 1956, released 14,000 pounds of ammonia to the
air; 61,005 pounds of chromium compounds to air, water and land;
3,600,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid to the air; 130,000 pounds
of sulfuric acid to the air; 25,879 pounds of lead compounds to
the air and land; and 241 pounds of mercury compounds to the air
and land during 2004. [Click
for More]
3/27/06
Altoona, PA -- Friends, family and co-workers are mourning
50-year-old Lee Henninger, who died after he was exposed to a
chemical earlier in the day. Friday morning, Henninger was at work
at the Tyrone Albemarle Corp. chemical plant when thiophosphoryl
chloride, used to make a fertilizer additive, splashed him in the
face, underneath his safety glasses, hard hat and face shield. [Click
For More]
3/24/06
ELGIN, Texas -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations against U.S.
Bricks Inc., doing business as Hanson Bricks in Elgin, Texas, for
alleged violations of safety and health standards including
failure to train employees in the use of hazardous chemicals and
identifying respiratory hazards. Proposed penalties total $55,000.
[Click
For More]
3/23/06
CONCORD, N.H. -- Franklin Nonferrous Foundry Inc., Franklin, N.H.,
faces a total of $120,200 in proposed fines from the U.S. Labor
Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
for failing to protect workers from a variety of health hazards
including lead overexposures. [Click
For More]
3/22/06
Toronto, Canada – Millions of people still use PVC wrap when
cooking food in microwaves or storing meats and cheeses in the
refrigerator, but there are dangers in using PVC food wrap because
of the toxins contained in the popular plastic. When PVC
(polyvinyl chloride), is manufactured or subjected to high heat,
the chlorine in it can chemically combine with organic materials,
producing deadly byproducts known as dioxins. [Click
For More]
3/21/06
Regulators are increasingly focusing on protecting workers from
exposure to methylene diphenyl isocyanate, or MDI, a key
ingredient in the tough and popular spray-on truck bed liners. [Click
For More]
3/20/06
WASHINGTON - In a sharp rebuke to the Bush Administration, a
federal advisory committee on children's health warns that the
EPA's recommended cleanup level for a rocket fuel chemical fails
to protect children, fetuses and mothers. The warning comes as
Massachusetts, pointedly rejecting the EPA guidelines, is setting
the nation's first enforceable safety standards for the chemical -
12 times more stringent than the federal cleanup level. [Click
For More]
3/17/06
Environmental Protection Agency studies indicate human exposure to
indoor air pollutants and volatile organic gasses, often produced
by cleaning supplies, can be two to five times higher than outdoor
levels. Although not much is known about the effects of organic
gasses usually found in homes, according to the EPA’s Web site,
many organic compounds are known to potentially cause cancer in
both humans and animals among other lesser problems. [Click
For More]
3/16/06
HARVEY, La. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations against
Ashton Marine LLC in Harvey for alleged violations of safety and
health standards including failure to develop and implement a
hazardous communication program. The agency proposed penalties
totaling $48,000. [Click
For More]
3/15/06
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United Steelworkers (USW) said
today that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must go
further to stop DuPont (NYSE:DD) and other manufacturers from
exposing the public to the controversial, Teflon-related chemical
PFOA, especially in light of EPA's acknowledgement in a proposed
rule in last week's Federal Register that the "EPA can no
longer conclude that these polymers will not present an
unreasonable risk to human health or the environment." [Click
For More]
3/14/06
California faces costly health and environmental problems that
will put it at a disadvantage in the global economy unless it
regulates the use of toxic chemicals, according to a report being
released today to the state Legislature. The report, by University
of California, Berkeley researchers, is the first in the nation to
recommend a state framework for "green chemistry" —
policies designed to motivate industry to reduce toxic chemicals
in manufacturing. [Click
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3/13/06
New York -- Babies born to women living near the World Trade
Center who were pregnant on 9/11 suffered more genetic damage than
other city infants - and could be at higher risk for cancer later
in life. About half the babies born to 329 nonsmoking women living
close to Ground Zero had DNA with significant levels of
combustion-related toxins, which have the potential to damage
development and increase risk of cancer. [Click
For More]
3/10/06
PITTSFIELD, MA — All of the city's pediatricians have signed a
letter to Mayor James M. Ruberto urging the community to speak out
against two PCB dumps that sit next to an elementary school. The
dumps — known as Hill 78 and Building 71 — were included in
the PCB cleanup settlement finalized in 2000. They are being
filled with contaminated soil and sediment taken from General
Electric's dormant transformer plant and the Housatonic River. [Click
For More]
3/9/06
PITTSBURGH -- A Johnstown, Pa., company's failure to adequately
protect workers against lead exposure has resulted in a proposed
penalty of $114,750 from the U.S. Department of Labor's
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Citations
against Shaw Steeple Jacks allege five willful, seven serious and
four other-than-serious violations of OSHA's lead standard. [Click
For More]
3/8/06
OLATHE, Kan. -- W.S.I. Industrial Services Inc. and Homrich Inc.
have been cited for alleged failure to protect workers from lead
exposure on a demolition project in Olathe. The U.S. Department of
Labor has proposed penalties of $212,500 against W.S.I. and
$169,200 against Homrich. [Click
For More]
3/7/06
WASHINGTON -- Following a published report that the Bush
Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans
carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close
to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is
calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state
agencies can take steps to protect the public. [Click
For More]
3/6/06
Sunnyside, NY -- Dozens of people were being treated for exposure
to unknown fumes at a printing company in the Sunnyside section of
Queens. The victims were being treated outside the business at
30-02 48th Avenue. The 150,000 square foot warehouse building
houses a printing company and other businesses. [Click
For More]
3/2/06
READING, England -- Underarm antiperspirants may contribute to the
risk of breast cancer because they contain aluminum salts with
metal ions that mimic the effect of estrogen. [Click
For More]
3/1/06
Washington – U.S. regulators and experts who specialize in
nanotechnology (science on the scale of single atoms and
molecules) have launched an effort they say will help minimize
environmental and health risks that could be associated with such
processes and products. The initiative – a series of meetings on
“green” nanotechnology – is led by Barbara Karn, manager of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) nanotechnology
research program. [Click
For More]
2/28/06
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) will publish a final standard for occupational exposure to
hexavalent chromium in the Feb. 28, 2006, Federal Register. The
standard covers occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI))
in general industry, construction and shipyards. [Click
For More]
2/27/06
MINNEAPOLIS - High levels of an industrial chemical have been
found in fish taken from the Mississippi River near a 3M plant,
according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Blood samples
taken from fish in the river near the Cottage Grove plant showed
high levels of PFOS, a chemical manufactured at the plant until
2002 and used in stain-resistant treatments for carpets, fabrics
and paper products. Some chemical concentrations were 10 times
higher than had been reported anywhere for fish or wildlife. [Click
For More]
2/24/06
WASHINGTON -- Worried about stricter regulations, the chromium
industry withheld key data from the government involving the
health risks of workers exposed to the carcinogenic metal,
according to a study released yesterday. The paper by George
Washington University and Public Citizen, published in
Environmental Health, found the industry submitted incomplete data
last year on the links between hexavalent chromium and lung
cancer. [Click
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2/23/06
Most of the toxicology studies of inhaled nanoparticles have
focused on its harmful effects on the lung. However, nasal
toxicity of nanoparticles has not been previously examined.
"This study was the first to show that inhaled nanoparticless
of any sort can cause nasal pathology such as rhinitis, epithelial
cell injury, and remodeling of the nasal mucous membranes that may
compromise its function for smell and for defending the lung from
harmful airborne agents," Harkema said. [Click
For More]
2/22/06
Tennessee -- Twenty-two State Farm employees were sent to the hospital and
1,500 sent home early Tuesday when mysterious illnesses prompted a
hazardous materials evacuation. The sick employees were
transported to the emergency room at Middle Tennessee Medical
Center, after complaining of nosebleeds, headaches, general
dizziness or some combination of those symptoms. [Click
For More]
2/21/06
Fourteen years ago, as chemicals gobbled up the Earth's ozone
layer, an international treaty ordered a phaseout of a popular
pesticide for strawberries and other high-value crops. Now, U.S.
officials are poised to replace it with a new pesticide — one
that is highly toxic and has been declared a cancer-causing
chemical by the state of California. [Click
For More]
2/20/06
Picture two steaks on a grocer's shelf, each hermetically sealed
in clear plastic wrap. One is bright pink, rimmed with a crescent
of pearly white fat. The other is brown, its fat the color of a
smoker's teeth. Which do you reach for? The meat industry knows
the answer, which is why it has quietly begun to spike meat
packages with carbon monoxide. [Click
For More]
2/17/06
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited McWane Cast Iron
Pipe for 38 safety and health hazards including exposing workers
to silica and dust above permissible levels at the company's
Birmingham plant. The agency is proposing penalties totaling
$332,700. [Click
For More]
2/16/06
CINCINNATI -- A Denver, Colorado federal jury awarded $553 Million
to property owners living near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons
plant for property damage and exposure to plutonium contamination.
The verdict was rendered against Rockwell International Corp.
(NYSE: ROK) and Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) , who had
operated the plant for the federal government. [Click
For More]
2/15/06
US food safety authorities have re-opened an investigation closed
15 years ago into soft drinks contaminated with cancer-causing
chemical benzene, following evidence the industry has failed to
sort out the problem. [Click
For More]
2/14/06
OTTAWA, CANADA -- There is a belief among firefighters that since
the large-scale inclusion of plastics and polyvinyl chloride in
the construction of buildings and automobiles, the smoke from
fires is more dangerous. [Click
For More]
2/13/06
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Residents who live near the Citizens Gas &
Coke Utility plant on the city's east side could have higher odds
of developing cancer because of long-term exposure to benzene,
according to a state report. The study, by the Indiana Department
of Environmental Management, found chemical emissions raised the
cancer risk around Indianapolis Public School 21, which is near
the plant. [Click
For More]
2/10/06
MISSION, TX — The Environmental Protection Agency will have done
its job if it can remove all material at the old Hayes-Sammons
chemical plant exceeding state standards for toxic chemical
contamination, the official in charge of EPA clean-up efforts at
the former pesticide manufacturing plant said Thursday. [Click
For More]
2/9/06
SACRAMENTO, CA - Senate President pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland)
announced Tuesday he will introduce legislation to measure
chemical contamination in members of the general public and make
the information available to public health planners. Perata noted
that his Healthy Families Biomonitoring Program would, along with
infrastructure, be a top legislative priority this year. [Click
For more}
2/8/06
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Lone Star Bakery
Inc. in San Antonio for failing to adequately protect employees
from breathing a toxic substance. Proposed penalties total
$78,300. [Click
For More]
2/7/06
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted OSHA's
request for more time to publish a final rule for occupational
exposure to hexavalent chromium. The new deadline for publication
is February 28, 2006. [Click
For More]
2/6/06
BINGHAMTON, NY — The fire itself was underwhelming. It produced
more smoke than heat, and it was extinguished in minutes after
Binghamton firefighters responded. But the February 1981 fire in
the State Office Building hatched an environmental disaster that
would influence national policy on PCBs and lead to alarming
discoveries about human dioxin exposure. [Click
For More]
2/3/06
ENDICOTT, NY — State policy-makers determining guidelines for
acceptable human exposure to TCE didn't factor in studies that
link the chemical with testicular cancer and lymphoma in animals,
and other significant findings, according to a state Assembly
report issued Thursday. The result, according to advocates, is a
lax policy that is blind to the consequences of trichloroethylene
(TCE) exposure in places like Endicott, where elevated rates of
testicular cancer have been documented in residents. [Click
For More]
2/2/06
Splashing around in the local indoor paddling pool is all part of
childhood, but it could be contributing to the world-wide asthma
epidemic, research suggests. The research has found frequent
swimming in indoor chlorinated pools as a child can cause asthma
later. Children under two years were particularly at risk because
their lungs were still developing. [Click
For More]
2/1/06
Florida -- Dust puffs up like flour from Sarno landfill as trucks
dump arsenic-laden boards from old docks, decks and fences. As the
wood decays, the poisonous and cancer-causing chemical element
seeps into the groundwater because only sand and clay separates
the dump from the Floridan aquifer. A stricter federal limit on
arsenic in drinking water -- in effect this month -- should guard
against future cancer risk. [Click
For More]
1/31/06
In wake of a high-profile study on air pollution in cars, Volvo
and Hyundai move toward elimination of dangerous chemicals.
Mercedes, Chrysler, Toyota and Subaru urged to reduce highest
levels of toxic chemicals used to make interior auto parts. [Click
For More]
1/30/06
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a global
stewardship program that calls for voluntary withdrawal of use of
toxic compound perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA is the key
ingredient used to manufacture Teflon or fluoropolymers, which are
used in the manufacture of a wide range of non-stick and
stain-resistant surfaces and products. [Click
For More]
1/19/06
A first-of-its-kind study revealed new information about toxic
chemical exposure in automobile interiors. PBDEs (used as fire
retardants) and phthalates (used primarily to soften PVC plastics)
were found in large quantities in dust and windshield film
samples. Drivers and passengers are exposed through breathing and
contact with dust. These chemicals have been linked to asthma,
reproductive impacts, birth defects, impaired learning, liver
toxicity, premature births and cancer in laboratory animals, among
other serious health problems. [Click
For More]
1/18/06
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report shows no hazardous
waste or chemical spills at or near eight Mississippi Gulf Coast
plants in the path of Hurricane Katrina. EPA investigators took
soil and sediment samples around the eight sites and compared the
amounts of chemicals in those samples to known levels before the
storm. They also compared the results to guidelines developed for
lifelong exposure deemed by officials to be safe for people. [Click
For More]
1/17/06
LONDON - Exposure to pesticides in the womb or as a child can
double the risk of developing acute leukemia. They discovered that
children born to women who used insecticides in the home while
pregnant and after the birth were nearly twice as likely as other
youngsters to develop leukemia. [Click
For More]
1/16/06
Daytona Beach Commissioner Rick Shiver said what everyone in
Volusia County is probably thinking. The deaths of lead mechanic
Eric Johnson and maintenance worker Clyde Jones in an explosion at
the city's Bethune Point wastewater-treatment plant constitute one
of the worst tragedies to hit the city. City officials know what
caused the explosion. Sparks from a cutting torch being used to
repair the roof above a chemical tank ignited methanol fumes
seeping from a vent. [Click
For More]
1/13/06
PITTSBURGH -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations, with proposed
penalties totaling $186,750, to Horsehead Corp., Monaca, Pa. for
alleged safety and health violations including failure to protect
employees from excessive lead and cadmium exposure. The company
was also cited for 14 other-than-serious violations, with a
penalty of $12,600, for failing to maintain required records of
employee exposures to lead and cadmium. [Click
For More]
1/12/06
NEW YORK - While infertility may be caused by a number of factors,
new study findings suggest that exposure to nonpersistent, or
short-lasting, insecticides may play a role in male infertility.
Environmental exposure to chlorpyrifos or its metabolite (TCPY)
may be associated with reduced levels of circulating testosterone
in adult men. {Click
For More]
1/11/06
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Sloss Industries
for exposing workers to safety and health hazards at its coke oven
operations facility in Birmingham including exposing employees to
health hazards by failing to conduct respiratory evaluations,
sampling and personnel monitoring. OSHA is proposing penalties
totaling $91,500. [Click
For More]
1/10/06
China -- Local authorities in China's Hunan province halted
production at 32 chemical companies after a toxic spill from the
nation's biggest zinc smelter polluted a tributary of the Yangtze
River. Hengyang city closed all plants that produce or use cadmium
and arsenic to minimize the threat of further pollution and may
shut more, the Hunan environmental protection bureau said in a
statement posted on its Web site yesterday. [Click
For More]
1/9/06
MOUNT VERNON, OH -- Dozens of workers who were sickened with
respiratory illnesses at an automotive brake plant remain out of
work nearly five years after what federal occupational-health
officials have called the largest outbreak of its type. A study by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April 2002 found
that the illnesses likely were tied to a bacteria contained in
chemicals used to cool metals. [Click
For More]
1/6/06
SCHENECTADY, NY -- Monsanto Co. is facing a lawsuit by 590
employees of General Electric Co. in Schenectady who say they were
harmed by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in
Monsanto chemicals that GE used and disposed of. The product
liability suit seeks $1 billion in punitive and $1 billion in
actual damages. [Click
For More]
1/5/06
Chicago, IL -- Gov. Blagojevich will propose today that coal-fired
power plants be ordered to cut mercury emissions 90 percent over
the next three years. That represents a victory for health and
environmental groups, who have been demanding such a reduction
since May 2004. [Click
For More]
1/4/06
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- An Akron, N.Y., heating contractor's alleged
failure to protect employees against asbestos hazards has resulted
in a total of $90,500 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department's
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). NOCO Energy
Corp. was cited for 18 serious violations of OSHA standards
governing work with, or around, asbestos and the proper selection
and use of respirators [Click
For More]
1/3/06
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $114,450 in fines
against Waukesha Iron & Metal Inc., a scrap metal and
recycling operation in Waukesha, Wis., for 27 serious violations
including lack of personal protective equipment, training issues,
and numerous violations of the cadmium, lead and hazard
communications standards. [Click
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