Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Who’s Going to Pay to Rid California’s Water Systems of the “Extremely Potent Carcinogen” TCP

May 3, 2017 | Shawn Collins

According to the non-profit Environmental Working Group, California’s public water systems in the San Joaquin Valley and urban areas like LA and San Bernardino and San Mateo counties are contaminated with a very dangerous, cancer-causing chemical known as 1,2,3 trichloropropane (“TCP”). Evidently, the TCP is a remnant of a chemical manufactured by Dow Chemical and Shell Oil.

The California State Water Board is proposing to limit the allowable concentration of TCP in drinking water to 5 parts per trillion. Fine. But who’s going to clean up the TCP? Are Dow and Shell responsible for the TCP in the water systems? The Water Board should also be looking into that. Because it’s not enough to just tell people how dangerous TCP is……the point is to get the TCP out of their water as soon as possible.

http://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/public-water-systems-polluted-with-123-tcp/

Enough Already with the President’s Destructive War on Science

May 3, 2017 | Shawn Collins

Who is Donald Trump trying to impress with his demands to slash spending on scientists and scientific research, and his twitter-blizzard attacks on established science (climate change, as but one of many examples)?

In the environmental field in which I work, the results of research studies done by federally-funded scientists are why we know the dangers to human health of the chemicals-like TCE, PCE, and vinyl chloride– which plants and factories have recklessly dumped and buried throughout their history. People are alive today because of the discoveries made by these scientists.

It’s also why, as the article below argues, we have a chance to actually decrease massive federal spending on disease (like the $279 billion we spend annually on caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease)…because the scientists at the National Institutes of Health are hard at work to find a cure. There is no point in stripping America of its miraculous ability to lead the world in improving life and health. And there is no point in threatening to do so, either.

How to Keep Your Teen Driver Safe During Prom Season

April 26, 2017 | The Collins Law Firm, P.C.

One of the best things a parent can experience is seeing their child all dressed up and ready for prom. The dinner, the dance, and the pictures all remind us that our child is growing up. It’s an exciting time but it can also be a very dangerous one, especially on the roads.

Teen drivers are not known for being safe drivers. In fact, car crashes remain the No. 1 cause of death among teenagers. Add in friends, excitement, dates, and the temptation to drink before getting behind the wheel, and you only intensify the problem. But it’s not only alcohol and drugs that can cause an accident. Texting, talking or cell phone use while driving is fast becoming one of the country’s most dangerous activities. So how can you keep your teen driver from being in a car accident this prom season?

Talk to your teen about drunk driving. Let him/her know that car crashes involving teens and alcohol tend to be more serious and even deadly. Talk to your teen openly about drug use and the very real consequences of using drugs and driving. Remind your child of the legal consequences of DUI. Discuss whether he/she has felt peer pressure to try drugs alcohol and give your teen strategies for saying “no” or avoiding the issue altogether. Ask your teen to make a promise to you that he or she will not drive impaired or let a friend drive impaired.

Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents in Chicago

April 19, 2017 | John Risvold

Across the Chicagoland area red light cameras have been installed at hundreds of traffic signals. These red-light cameras are sold to citizens as a way to reduce traffic accidents and increase safety on the roadways. The problem is, the cameras aren’t making us safer. These cameras actually increase the likelihood of an accident occurring.

A Daily Herald analysis of 52 intersections across 29 Chicago suburbs shows that after cameras were installed, crashes involving injuries stayed the same or increased at nearly half the intersections where that data was reported. Crashes considered hazardous increased at nearly one-third of the intersections analyzed by the paper.

Similarly, a Chicago Tribune study found a 22 percent increase in rear-end crashes that caused injuries at intersections with red-light cameras.

Pruitt’s Reason for EPA Budget Cuts is a Lie

April 7, 2017 | Shawn Collins

Scott Pruitt has repeatedly stated that he’s cutting the EPA’s budget for Clean Air programs because those programs are not the EPA’s job and that he expects the states to do more to ensure clean air.

This is a lie. Here’s what Scott Pruitt knows:

(1) The states don’t have the money for more environmental protection. They don’t even have the money for what they’re supposed to be doing right now. The State of Illinois where I live, for example, cannot even afford to pay to keep all of its schools and government offices open, or for the medical care, it is contractually obligated to provide its employees. Many other states are in similarly pathetic financial shape. In short, anyone who proposes extensive new state programs for anything-protecting the environment, or otherwise-should have their sanity questioned.

Paul Ryan’s Healthcare Plan Failed Because it was Cruel

March 25, 2017 | Shawn Collins

The politicians that we send to Washington enjoy the greatest healthcare in the world. If they or their spouses or kids get sick, they have immediate access to the finest doctors and hospitals, and the best and most advanced medicines, treatments, and therapies. They will never have to worry that someone in the family might die from an illness that their insurance doesn’t cover, or that they won’t be able to make their mortgage payments or send their kids to college because they had to use the money instead to pay for medical care.

Who pays for this extraordinary medical care– and peace of mind–you might wonder?

You and I do, of course. We (the taxpayers) pay for 72% of the insurance premiums that secure this coverage. We also pay for the special tax breaks that our elected representatives get-and no one else in the country gets-that make it much easier for them to purchase dental or vision insurance, and the free care they get-but no one else in the country gets– at medical facilities in Washington DC, and at military hospitals.

EPA Budget Cuts Take the Environmental Cop “Off the Beat”

March 21, 2017 | Shawn Collins

What do you suppose happens when a town cuts its police force and no longer tries to catch people speeding on the most dangerous roads in the town? More speeding, more danger, right?

In fact, if the town didn’t want to catch speeders any more on those roads, what is the surest way to accomplish that result? Cut the police force, right?

Now, what if the speeders themselves were in charge of the town’s decisions about how many police to have, and whether to dedicate them to catching speeders?

The Dangers of Truck Accidents in Illinois

March 19, 2017 | John Risvold

Chicago is a major hub for shipping and transportation. Large commercial tractor-trailer trucks, busses, and other large vehicles occupy many of the major tollways and expressways in the Chicago area on a daily basis. During your morning or afternoon commute you see these large trucks along the expressways. While these trucks and busses are essential to moving goods and people from one place to another, they are also becoming increasingly dangerous.

In 2014, the year the most recent Illinois data is available, the Department of Transportation noted that crashes involving large trucks accounted for 6% of all accidents. But these accidents were deadlier than the average car accident, comprising 13% of all fatalities.

More importantly, truck and bus accidents happened on clear days, with good weather and good visibility over 77% of the time.

An American Tragedy: The Victims of Environmental Contamination are Mostly the Poor and Minorities

March 18, 2017 | Shawn Collins

A recent article titled “Righting Civil Wrongs” sadly describes how the poor, minority residents of communities throughout the United States have been left with no choice but to sue their government (the US EPA, specifically). Years ago, these residents formally claimed that they were the victims of environmental racism because the government had permitted a local landfill to continue to expand into their neighborhood. By law, the US EPA is required to respond to these serious claims (they are claims of Civil Rights violations, after all) within 180 days, to say whether it agrees that environmental racism is at work. However, some of these residents have been waiting up to 20 years for an answer, and still do not have one.

So they are suing their government just to get an answer. Represented by an extraordinarily dedicated lawyer named Marianne Engelman Lado, they are asking that their government not only obey the law but, more fundamentally, acknowledge their basic humanity.

Of course, to make someone wait decades for the answer to their question is in itself an answer. It says: “We don’t believe you”. Or worse: “We don’t think you’re important enough to get you an answer…..even though the law says that we have to.” The EPA would rather ignore the law than get them an answer. What does this say? Worse, the EPA’s statistics reveal how it is, literally, impossible to get the EPA to take you seriously if you claim to be the victim of environmental racism. In the 22 year history of the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights, while nearly 300 complaints of environmental racism have been filed, not a single one, not a single one, has resulted in a finding of a civil rights violation.

Will the Threat of Vapor Intrusion be Ignored by Trump and Pruitt?

March 17, 2017 | Shawn Collins

Will President Trump and the man he appointed to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, rig our system for determining which sites are the most environmentally dangerous in the country by ignoring the threat of vapor intrusion that these sites pose to human beings living near them?

Sadly, there are many thousands of industrial sites around the US that are badly contaminated. These are sites where, years ago, companies dumped, spilled, or buried toxic chemicals. The key question for each of these sites is: does it threaten human health? Can its dangerous chemicals travel in water or air to where people live and work?

For years, the US has evaluated these contaminated sites to determine which pose the greatest threat to Americans, and therefore which deserved the greatest attention and resources for getting cleaned up. The most contaminated sites appear on the “Superfund National Priorities List.” They are often referred to as “Superfund” sites.