Category: Environmental Contamination

Who’s protecting the residents of Cicero and Stickney, IL, from thetons of toxic chemical emissionsmigrating from the massive, 36-acre Koppers coal tar plant at the corner of Laramie and Pershing roads? The danger is that these chemicals from Koppers are blowing into nearby residential neighborhoo...

For the last 50 years, EPA has buckled to pressure from the chemical industry, and basically done nothing to protect millions of Americans from breathing a life-threatening, cancer-causing chemical known as “ethylene oxide” (ETO). Along the way, EPA even repeatedly violated federal law – the �...

For years, the big cereal companies have been telling us that a bowl of whole grain oat cereal for breakfast is a healthy way to start our day. Turns out maybe it isn’t. A recent study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has uncovered a toxic chemical, chlormequat, in popular oat cereals like...

Attorney Shawn Collins, founder and partner of The Collins Law Firm in Naperville, Illinois, was instrumental in forging a $408 million settlement of the cancer claims of more than 800 plaintiffs in In re Willowbrook Ethylene Oxide Litigation, venued in Illinois State Court (Cook County). The claims...

We are proud to announce that our $363 million verdict in Kamuda v. Sterigenics U.S. LLC, et al., was named the number one jury verdict in Illinois in ALL practice areas in 2022 by Top Verdict. In addition, this verdict was the second highest personal injury verdict in the entire United States and t...

Partner Shawn Collins is featured in an interview in Lawyer Monthly magazine this month. Below is an excerpt from the article. Leading the Charge Against America’s Biggest Polluters Instances of harmful pollution and ecological disasters have grown unsettlingly commonplace in the US – despite en...

PCBs – the common term for polychlorinated biphenyls – are toxic manufacturing compounds that do not occur in nature and have been linked to various health problems with the liver, thyroid, skin, and eyes. Moreover, they have been classified as probable human carcinogens by the EPA and the Inter...

The big pesticide companies are once again being accused of manipulating science to get what they want; this time by withholding evidence of pesticide toxicity from European Union (EU) regulators in order to get their pesticides approved. The tactic is not only unethical but is against the law. And ...

Particulate matter is in the air all around us. Emitted from sources like industrial plants, fossil fuel burning, power plants, and wildfires – they are everywhere and can have dire consequences for human heart health. Regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are in place...

Just weeks after America witnessed a black plume of toxic murk billowing above East Palestine, the Surface Transportation Board inexplicably decided to increase the chance of an identical derailment horror, right here in the Chicago area. When the Board approved America’s first big railroad merger...