Category: Environmental Contamination

In a recent decision described by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy as “a resounding victory for public health and a key component of EPA’s efforts to make sure all Americans have clean air to breathe,” the Supreme Court backed federally imposed limits on smokestack emissions that cross state li...

Late this summer Illinois finally implemented regulations designed to consider the vapor intrusion pathway when looking cleanup of polluted sites within the State. Like our State’s approach to many issues of critical public concern, the action is a day late and a dollar short. Vapor intrusion refe...

Late last week the Minnesota Department of Health notified several hundred residents of the Como neighborhood that they may be threatened by vapors containing cancer-causing chemicals released from the former General Mills facility on East Hennepin Avenue. A review of the records shows that General ...

On Tuesday September 10th local media reported that investigation of the former Burgess-Norton plant on Nims Street in Muskegon continues to drag on. Click here to read the article. A closer look reveals a troubling, and far too common scenario…….the precise scenario Shawn Collins discussed in h...

Our work for contamination victims typically starts out like this: A group of families get “bad news”. They’re told — often at a community meeting in the basement of a local town hall or church — that their water supply has just been tested, and that dangerous industrial chemicals are in t...

How long should it take to clean up toxic chemicals after they are spilled? A week, a month, a year, 5 years? The answer is: “decades, usually.” Worse, oftentimes, the answer: is “the chemicals will never be all cleaned up”. It’s scary and sad. But it’s true. Here’s a recent example of...

A study published on July 11, 2012, in Environmental Health Perspectives finds a scientific link between prenatal and early childhood exposure to PCE and adult vision problems.  The study was conducted by public health researchers at Boston University.  It studied a population on Cape Cod, Massach...

Thirsty? A drink of clean water is available in most places in our wonderful country. It’s available on tap in our homes, at water fountains in parks and in our children’s schools. Cool, clean aqua is available in the water coolers in our offices. If you are thirsty – go get a glass. A pretty ...

A study published in the journal Environmental Health on January 20, 2012, finds a scientific link between exposure to PCE in early childhood and the development of mental illness. The study was conducted by some of the most prominent and respected toxicologists and public health researchers in the ...

In every case we have the same worry: “what is this contamination doing to the children?” Whether the contamination is TCE in drinking water coming out of the kitchen tap and showerhead; PCE in “vapor” form in the air that the family breathes every moment in the home; or arsenic in the dirt ...