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Aug 19, 2011 Antibacterial Chemical Raises Safety Issues

QUOTE: a battle over the active ingredient in Dial Complete and many other antibacterial soaps, a chemical known as triclosan...Several studies have shown that triclosan may alter hormone regulation in laboratory animals or cause antibiotic resistance...F.D.A. has already said that soap with triclosan is no more effective than washing with ordinary soap and water, a finding that manufacturers dispute.

New York Times
Dec 10, 2010 When Wrinkle-Free Clothing Also Means Formaldehyde Fumes

QUOTE: some critics said more studies on a wider array of textiles and clothing chemicals were needed, including a closer look at the effects of cumulative exposure [to formaldehyde-Ed.]. At the very least, they said, better labeling would help.

New York Times
May 24, 2010 In Standoff With Environmental Officials, BP Stays With an Oil Spill Dispersant

QUOTE: While the Corexit products, made by the Nalco company of Naperville, Ill., are the time-tested old faithfuls of oil spill treatment, they were developed in the 1980s and ’90s, and critics say that less toxic and more effective products are now available....Complicating the standoff between the company and regulators, there are many methods for estimating the toxicity of chemical oil dispersants and no single standard prevails.

New York Times
Apr 15, 2010 Lautenberg bill seeks to overhaul U.S. chemical laws

QUOTE: would require manufacturers to prove the safety of chemicals before they enter the marketplace. That would be a significant departure from current laws, which allow chemicals to be used unless the federal government can prove they cause harm to health or the environment.

Washington Post
Sep 12, 2009 Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering (Toxic Waters)

QUOTE: in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation...

New York Times
Sep 05, 2009 In Toys and More, Are Chemicals Safe or Harmful? New law tightens use of phthalates, but industry says hazard isn't proven

QUOTE: Over the past few years, researchers have uncovered multiple health hazards, either in animal or human studies, linked to phthalates [chemical that is in many consumer products].

HealthDay
Aug 25, 2009 Herbicide Found in Water May Pose Greater Danger (Green)

QUOTE: Drinking water containing a common herbicide could pose a greater public health risk than previously thought because regular municipal monitoring doesn't detect frequent spikes in the chemical's levels...

Washington Post
Aug 20, 2009 Lead Sickens 1,300 Children in China

QUOTE: Lead pollution from a newly opened and unlicensed manganese smelter has poisoned more than 1,300 children in southeastern China’s Hunan Province...

New York Times
Aug 05, 2009 L.A. lawyer accused of fraud in pesticide litigation (Column One)

QUOTE: Here[Nicaragua], [the chemical] DBCP is more than a pesticide. It is a political movement. The forces of poverty and corruption cloud the most basic facts surrounding the claims. The truth that can be established is one that [Judge Victoria] Chaney alluded to in her ruling: If Nicaraguans truly were injured by DBCP a generation ago, what has happened since makes identifying the victims nearly impossible.

Los Angeles Times
Jul 29, 2009 Chinese Workers Say Illness Is Real, Not Hysteria

QUOTE: As soon as the Jilin Connell Chemical Plant started production this spring, local hospitals began receiving stricken workers from the acrylic yarn factory 100 yards downwind from Connell’s exhaust stacks. A clear case of chemical contamination? Not so, say Chinese health officials who contend that the episode is a communal outbreak of psychogenic illness, also called mass hysteria.

New York Times
Jul 27, 2009 Wanted: Home for 17,000 tons of mercury (60- Second Science)

QUOTE: The U.S. is sitting on a slippery stockpile of toxic material that has nothing to do with the nuclear power industry: thousands of tons of mercury. The question remains now of where to store it.

Scientific American
Jul 12, 2009 W. Va. soldiers sue firm for chemical exposure in Iraq: Seven soldiers from a W.Va. unit are suing a U.S. contractor for chemical exposure in Iraq

QUOTE: lawsuit alleges that KBR managers knew about the site contamination [in Iraq] and the threat it posed, and "disregarded and downplayed the extreme danger" to West Virginia National Guardsmen.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mar 10, 2009 Drug Investors Lose Patience

QUOTE: Now, with cash scarce, credit tight and big drug companies like Merck intent on branching into biotechnology themselves, struggling start-ups may no longer get second and third chances to succeed.

New York Times
Jan 24, 2009 EPA a failure on chemicals, audit finds: Assessment of toxic risks inadequate, says new chief (Chemical Fallout: Update)

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency's ability to assess toxic chemicals is as broken as the nation's financial markets and needs a total overhaul, a congressional audit has found.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/JS Online
Nov 29, 2008 Trace Levels of Melamine in Formula Called Safe

QUOTE: Last month, the Food and Drug Administration said it was "currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns." FDA officials updated their interim risk assessment yesterday after finding what they described as "extremely low amounts" of melamine and cyanuric acid, a related chemical, in samples of two popular brands of domestically made infant formula.

Washington Post
Oct 13, 2008 Gift to Center Headed by FDA Panel Chairman Raises Questions

QUOTE: A retired medical supply manufacturer who considers bisphenol A to be "perfectly safe" gave $5 million to the research center headed by the chairman of a Food and Drug Administration panel about to rule on the chemical's safety.

Washington Post
Oct 04, 2008 FDA Sets Safety Threshold for Contaminant Melamine

QUOTE: Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), head of a House subcommittee that oversees FDA funding, criticized the agency for saying there could be safe levels of melamine in foods.

Washington Post
Sep 22, 2008 EPA Unlikely to Limit Perchlorate in Tap Water

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from the White House and the Pentagon, is poised to rule as early as today that it will not set a drinking-water safety standard for perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children across the nation.

Washington Post
Sep 17, 2008 Study Links Chemical BPA to Health Problems: Findings Reignite Debate Over Safety; Scientists Say More Research Is Needed

QUOTE: The first large study in humans of a chemical widely used in everyday plastics has found that people with higher levels of bisphenol A had higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities, a finding that immediately became the focus of the increasingly heated debate over the safety of the chemical.

Washington Post
Apr 27, 2008 Studies on Chemical In Plastics Questioned: Congress Examines Role Of Industry in Regulation

QUOTE: Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by an industry trade group.

Washington Post
Jan 10, 2008 Food Allergies Stir a Mother to Action

QUOTE: [Robyn O'Brien] wonders if it’s only a matter of time before Big Food tries to stop her from exposing what she sees as a profit-driven global conspiracy whose collateral damage is an alarming increase in childhood food allergies.

New York Times
Jan 01, 2008 Not just a pretty face: The side effects of cosmetic chemicals

QUOTE: As if there weren’t enough concerns about the toxicity of cosmetic chemicals, manufacturers are rushing to incorporate nanotechnology that uses particles 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair....Animal studies show that some nanoparticles can penetrate cells and tissues, move through the body and brain and cause biochemical damage.

Common Ground
Oct 13, 2007 In China, a Lake’s Champion Imperils Himself ("Choking on Growth" part 3 of 10)

QUOTE: Grass-roots environmentalists arguably do more to expose abuses than any edict emanating from Beijing. But they face a political climate that varies from lukewarm tolerance to icy suppression.

New York Times
Oct 08, 2007 The Testing Lab: Dangerous Sealer Stayed on Shelves After Recall

QUOTE: Critics say the Stand ’n Seal case demonstrates how the Consumer Product Safety Commission is too overwhelmed with reports of injuries and with new hazards to comprehensively investigate or follow up on many complaints. The agency’s laboratory is also so antiquated it did not have the equipment necessary to evaluate fully the remedy BRTT offered — leaving the agency to rely largely on the company’s promise that it would fix the problem

New York Times
Oct 01, 2007 Lead-paint suit may thin burden of proof

QUOTE: What sets it apart is a 2005 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that Thomas' attorneys don't need to prove the companies manufactured the specific paint that made him sick. All they have to prove is that the companies were making lead paint when the homes in which Thomas lived were built, from 1900 to 1905, that the paint sickened him and that the manufacturers knew of that danger.

USA TODAY
Sep 01, 2007 The Way We Live Now: Not in Whose Backyard?

QUOTE: Countless federal laws have been written to preserve far-flung wilderness that Americans rarely visit (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for instance) and endangered species that we scarcely see (from longhorn fairy shrimp to piping plovers). Yet no legislation has been tailored to protect a landscape that is perhaps the most vulnerable: the low-income communities that shelter most of America’s polluting facilities.

New York Times
Jul 22, 2007 Where does your food come from? Food labels don't tell the whole inside story

QUOTE: Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

San Jose Mercury News
Jul 16, 2007 The Toxic Republic: For Profit's sake, China's people are getting poisoned

QUOTE: In 1906, ordinary Americans' outrage over unsafe medicines and foodstuffs...led to passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act. Right now, though, most Chinese are busy earning a living.

Newsweek
May 06, 2007 From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine

QUOTE: The syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. It is also a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident. Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products.

New York Times
Apr 19, 2007 Melamine in pet food may not be accidental

QUOTE: The most common way to test protein levels in the grain industry is to test for nitrogen, a major component of protein. Adding melamine, with its high amount of nitrogen, to wheat gluten would give the illusion of a higher protein content...

USA TODAY
Sep 15, 2006 Chemical-plant security vexes Congress: A compromise emerged this summer, but now House leaders seek to limit DHS authority to regulate such security.

QUOTE: At issue is whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should have the authority to require chemical plants to implement specific security measures, such as switching to safer chemicals or using armed guards. The chemical industry and House Republican leaders believe it should not.

Christian Science Monitor
Aug 02, 2006 Unions Say E.P.A. Bends to Political Pressure

QUOTE: Unions representing thousands of staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency say the agency is bending to political pressure and ignoring sound science in allowing a group of toxic chemicals to be used in agricultural pesticides.

New York Times
Oct 23, 2005 Nanotechnology's Big Question: Safety: Some Say Micromaterials Are Coming to Market Without Adequate Controls

QUOTE: ...report urged manufacturers and regulators to evaluate the properties of nanomaterials in laboratory tests, adding: "There is a strong likelihood that the biological activity of nanoparticles will depend on physiochemical parameters not routinely considered in toxicology studies."

Washington Post
Jul 28, 2005 Congress Curbs EPA Use of Pesticide-Experiment Data

QUOTE: Lawmakers agreed late Tuesday to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from using data from experiments that expose human subjects to toxic chemicals until the agency establishes a new standard for evaluating pesticides based on such tests.

Washington Post
Jul 15, 2005 Report Details Environmental Harm to Fetuses

QUOTE: Unborn babies in the United States are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides...

Washington Post
Jun 17, 2004 EPA to Act Against DuPont for an Ingredient in Teflon

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to take "formal action against DuPont soon" over allegations that the giant chemical company failed to report possible health problems connected with a key ingredient used in making Teflon.

Washington Post
Feb 19, 2004 Complaint Disputes Definition of 'Organic'

QUOTE: ...filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying some of the nation's best-known organic shampoos and body washes shouldn't be labeled "organic" because one of the key ingredients is simply tap water.

Washington Post
Jan 24, 2004 Study Links Some Hair Dyes to Kind of Cancer

QUOTE: Scientists claim to have discovered a link between the use of hair dye and cancer but a cosmetics trade group disputes the allegation.

New York Times
Jul 14, 2003 Asbestos Bill Could Be Windfall for Business

QUOTE: The Senate has taken a major step toward setting up a national fund to compensate people whose health has been ruined by asbestos, but the first and biggest beneficiaries of the plan may be companies such as Halliburton...

Los Angeles Times
Jul 09, 2003 Spoon-Feeding Poison: EPA Opens the Door to Testing Bug Killers on People

QUOTE: The tests appear to defy the very essence of the Hippocratic oath, "First, do no harm." Unlike tests for exploratory vaccines and medicines, pesticide studies offer zero benefits for participants.

Village Voice
Jun 14, 2003 History for Hire in Industry Lawsuits

QUOTE: The American Prospect magazine, in a 2000 article, identified Dr. Ludmerer as well as the popular historian Stephen E. Ambrose and Theodore Marmor, a social scientist at Yale University, as high-paid consultants for the tobacco industry.

New York Times
Jan 18, 2003 Banana Workers Get Day in Court

QUOTE: ...the chemical companies shipped DBCP [the pesticide] abroad and the growers used it despite knowing about its harmful effects even before the ban.

New York Times
Jan 01, 2002 Monsanto Hid Decades of Pollution: PCBs Drenched Ala. Town, but No One Was Ever Told

QUOTE: ...for nearly 40 years...Monsanto Co. routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills...for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew.

Washington Post
Dec 15, 2001 EPA Calls for Pause in Pesticide Tests On Humans: After Evaluating Results of Three Such Trials, Agency Seeks Advice On Ethics and Utility of Practice

QUOTE: Three trials evaluated by the agency this year subjected some volunteers to doses of pesticides hundreds of times greater than levels that EPA regulators had deemed safe for the general public...

Washington Post