Lead Lawsuit Twist: Flatulence, Cows, and Lead

A few months ago, we happily reported that the California Supreme Court ordered companies that had once manufactured lead paint to pay $1 billion towards helping remediate a residual mess we're all still living with. The State's case was largely anchored in the painstaking historical work

The Power of the "Dutch Boy"

Dutch Boy Group is a paint manufacturing company founded by the National Lead Company (NL), which produced lead paints. This [https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/byL2Oz3DXGbLmp19aq9J7d9nD?lightbox=1] is a 1954 proposal for a paint advertisement program and budget for Dutch Boy. From the mid 1950s, it pursued a particularly

PFASs in Minnesota

We've just added about 90 new documents on 3M and PFASs in Minnesota. 3M recently settled [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-20/3m-is-said-to-settle-minnesota-lawsuit-for-up-to-1-billion] a case brought by the state for $850 million. Among other issues, these documents show deliberation by 3M and pollution control agencies on threats

The PFAS Project and Toxic Docs

[http://www.pfasproject.com] Toxic Docs has always seen itself as part of a larger environmental health community. We freely provide our resources to those looking to house documents on environmental health and to take advantage of the tools we’ve developed or that are coming down the road. Today,

Roundup Cameo in Toxic Docs

This week, a California jury found Monsanto liable in a case around its weed killer Roundup. A groundskeeper claimed exposure to Roundup contributed to development of his cancer. It ordered Monsanto to pay $289 million. The debate over Roundup and glyphosate, its chief ingredient, will continue for years, along with

Asbestos Regulation: Pushing Back Against Zero

Asbestos has been in the news all this summer. First came notice of a multi-billion dollar judgment against Johnson and Johnson for asbestos in talc that plaintiffs claim contributed to development of ovarian cancer. Then there was a pipe explosion in mid-town Manhattan that sent asbestos onto surfaces and in

Asbestos and the Blame Game

This week, the EPA announced that it would allow [https://archpaper.com/2018/08/epa-asbestos-manufacturing/] certain asbestos-based products on a "case-by-case" basis. But the dangers of asbestos to both consumers and workers have long been known and often obfuscated by firms with stakes in marketing asbestos-base dproducts. Today’

Airborne Lead: The Last Regulatory Frontier

Lead poisoning is caused by an accumulation of lead in the body over many months and years. Young children are especially susceptible to the disease, which affects their cognitive and physical development. The document [https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/pmm0XqbxY5RLZrKyyjzVxgp4k?lightbox=1] we are highlighting today is from the Lead

Asbestos in Talc: The View from History

Last month, a jury handed down a huge $4.6 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson, finding it liable for ovarian cancer that plaintiffs claim was associated with asbestos in talc. Most people who read the story were puzzled over talc and asbestos appearing in the same sentence. But questions

Shell Sponsored Benzene Study

Benzene is an organic chemical compound and known carcinogen. It is most commonly found in gasoline and crude oil, and is still one of the twenty most widely used chemicals in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Today, we are looking at documents [https://www.toxicdocs.org/

Corporate Resistance to Asbestos Regulations

The 1970s saw of a flurry of new legislation intended to curb the presence of toxic substances, with the Toxic Substances Control Act passed in 1976. Still, companies continued to battle against these new regulations. Our item today comes from the vaults of the Kaiser Gypsum Company, a former producer

Meet Karuna Vikram, our social media intern!

This summer, Karuna Vikram, a NYC high school student, has helped author a series of posts about material in Toxic Docs. You can read them here here [https://www.toxicdocs.org/blog/author/karuna/]. We decided to get to know her more, and our interview is below. Q: Who are

Monsanto and PCBs

Today, we are highlighting internal records [https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/Yz3L6oev3rkB8YjXMe7N5GQD?lightbox=1] from Monsanto. These are responses to a rule proposed on June 7, 1978 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA was introducing stricter regulations on the manufacturing, processing and distibution of PCBs. These new restrictions

Asbestos in Talcum Powder

On July 13, 2018, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay 4.69 billion [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/business/johnson-johnson-talcum-powder.html] in punitive damages to 22 women and their families who claimed that asbestos in the company’s talcum powder had caused them to develop ovarian cancer.

Women in the Workplace

We have blogged previously [https://www.toxicdocs.org/blog/working-women-and-occupational-hazards/] about the toxic effects of lead on working class women. In the early 20th century, early scientific evidence began to show that women exposed to lead were more likely to have complications in their pregnancies. The document [http://www.toxicdocs.

Occupational Exposure Standard for Benzene

The document [http://www.toxicdocs.org/d/Y2qVR8DOy46b27kKymK6oEQE?lightbox=1] we are highlighting today is a 1977 recommendation from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for an occupational exposure standard for benzene. Benzene is an industrial chemical that is recognized today as a carcinogen and emitted during

Silicosis Prevention: A Matter of People and Pay

The campaign to end silicosis, a disabling respiratory disease caused by overexposure to silica dust that accumulates in the lungs, reached its peak in the 1930s. The document [http://https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/b5eLXVyj21Qg1Db0kxqkXJEO?lightbox=1] we are highlighting today is a special for the New York Times from

PCBs and Resistance to Disease

PCBs and the danger they posed to the environment gained more attention in the public sphere in the latter half of the twentieth century, as thscientific studies began to corroborate their harmful effects. This evidence soon disseminated by journalists and activists to the public. The document [http://https://www.toxicdocs.

Lead in Toys

In May 1936, a report [https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/jLpOLZ2dXBQ0k5n1jz5dVw0Q?lightbox=1] in the Consumers Union magazine highlighted the possible presence of lead in a large number of children’s toys. The lead was mostly found as a part of the alloy with which the toys -- soldiers, airplanes,

The DDT Controversy: Science and Society

After its discovery in 1940, DDT’s popularity exploded as it came to be known as an effective, long lasting insecticide that could control the spread of malaria and other infectious diseases. Despite this, concerns about DDT’s safety and impact on the environment soon emerged, peaking in the 1960s.

Working Women and Occupational Hazards

Throughout the 20th century, women were laboring in industries where their exposures to lead was very high. The document [http://www.toxicdocs.org/d/82jQqJ5VeKpadLv4V3jZarLyK?lightbox=1] we are highlighting today is from 1928. It described the toxic effects of lead exposure on working-class women, who were often more vulnerable

Occupational Health Hazards

Environmental health is often analyzed separately from occupational health, but they're often less distinct than we think. That's something clear in this document about fuel tank cleaners, who fell sick shortly after lead exposure while on the job. From nausea to blindness to even death, numerous

Lead and Lobbying in the 1990s

[https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/YGwj4k3VL1BO1kz5d8gw9dXKN?lightbox=1] In its final days, the Lead Industries Association (LIA) was still mounting aggressive campaigns to protect its members. Following the 1996 re-election of Bill Clinton, it received the following proposal from a public relations company, Nutter & Harris. The document laid out

PFASs/Teflon Documents from Sharon Lerner (The Intercept)

Sharon Lerner (@fastlerner [http://twitter.com/fastlerner]) is one of the best investigative journalists working today. Now a reporter for The Intercept, Lerner specializes on the environment and health. In the past couple years, has been writing a series of reports on PFASs. The series was a National Magazine Award

Featured Document: Lead and the Blame Game

We've blogged previously about The Lead Papers [https://www.toxicdocs.org/blog/forthcoming-the-lead-papers/], our collection of 70,000+ documents on lead. We'll finish importing all of them next week. We recently discussed a document [https://www.toxicdocs.org/blog/lead-and-publicrelations/] that showed one way the lead