Toxic Substances

• Santa Susana Rocketdyne Facility Continues to Plague Surrounding Community

  Helen Zukin | October 09, 2006 3:00 AM | 1 CommentLos Angeles, CA

  Toxic exposures from Rocketdyne facility continue to cause concern. Radioactive release causes excess cancer deaths. A scientific panel released its long awaited report on Thursday, concluding that the 1959 nuclear reactor meltdown at the Rocketdyne facility was responsible for hundreds of excess cancer deaths. For almost fifty years, the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab conducted its nuclear...

• Debate Over Alleged Dangers of BPA Ramps Up

  Miriam Schimmel | May 02, 2008 8:07 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  The latest environmental hot button is the bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical contained in polycarbonate plastics. While BPA has existed since its creation in 1890 and the first evidence of toxicity...

• British Petroleum to be Fined for Explosion

  Lance Rubin | February 19, 2008 5:23 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  The 2005 explosion at British Petroleum's Texas City plant killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others. Civil suits filed by the injured people and the families of those killed have been mostly resolved, but BP is being fined for its wrongdoing. The explosion at the Texas City plant about 40 miles southeast of Houston occurred after a piece of equipment called a blowdown drum overfilled...

• Radiation Poisoning: Not Just a Risk for Russian Politicians

  Paul Kiesel | December 04, 2006 3:00 AM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  The invisible increasing threat of radiation exposure. Radiation exposure on the rise. The recent radiation poisoning of a Russian politician brings to light a serious threat to public health. Unsuspecting Americans are receiving elevated levels of radiation, not as a result of political intrigue- James Bond style but, due to the existence of radiation in workplaces, homes and communities. For...

• Petrochemical Industry Continues to Attempt to Suppress Link Between Benzine Exposure and Disease

  Paul Kiesel | November 12, 2006 12:14 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Industry should not attempt to influence studies linking benzene exposure to cancer. The public should be protected from the petrochemical industries "junk science". A recent article published in the respected International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health sheds light on the petrochemical industry's efforts to withhold data showing that employees working with benzene have an...

• $7 Million Awarded to Mesothelioma Victim

  Miriam Schimmel | March 13, 2008 2:22 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Asbestos manufacturer, Georgia Pacific Corp., was ordered by a San Francisco jury to pay in excess of $7 million to plaintiffs, Joan and Daniel Mahoney. Plaintiffs sued Georgia Pacific claiming that Mrs. Mahoney developed terminal cancer from exposure to asbestos fibers released during her work in a home remodeling business with her husband. Her husband testified that she was exposed to the...

• CA Consumers May Sue Grocery Stores to Enforce State Labeling Laws

  Shehnaz Bhujwala | February 19, 2008 11:19 AM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Last week, California's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a federal food labeling law does not preclude California citizens from using state consumer laws to enforce an identical state labeling law. The High Court's ruling means consumers may sue grocery store chains to enforce a state law requiring labeling of dyes added to farm-raised salmon.Do you recall a time in the not-too distant past...

• Slow Response for Mercury Spill on Los Angeles Subway

  Shannon Weidemann | February 26, 2007 11:39 AM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Los Angeles's subway stations are unattended and monitored only by closed circuit television cameras. In December a man spilled mercury on the platform at one of the stations and contacted the Metro Transit Authority on what he had done. It took 8 hours before anything was done to clean up the spill. In the meantime several passengers of the subway came in contact with the hazardous...

• Lawsuit Accuses Gas Co. of Polluting Aquifers

  Patrick DeBlase | January 11, 2007 2:05 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Southern California Gas Co. accused in lawsuit by the Environmental Law Foundation of leaching cancer-causing toxins into the local aquifer by storing and pumping natural gas in depleted oil fields.The Oakland based Environmental Law Foundation filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court this week alleges that the Southern California Gas Co. is polluting the local water table. ...

• Asbestos: A Deadly Danger

  Elaine Mandel | December 05, 2006 3:20 PM | 0 CommentsLos Angeles, CA

  Many who were exposed to deadly asbestos fibers still don't know they were exposed. Throughout the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of workers worked with and around deadly asbestos fibers. Most of them worked with insulation or in the shipping, construction, mining or railroad industries. Many of these workers inhaled the deadly asbestos fibers for years. Those fibers caused lung...