Federal appeals court rejects requiring graphic warning labels on cigarette packs. Today’s 2-1 decision by the panel in Washington, D.C., contradicts another appeals court’s ruling in a similar case earlier this year, raising the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the dispute. The court’s majority in the latest ruling, stemming from a legal challenge by tobacco companies, found that federal labeling requirement would violate free speech rights. The government had proposed requiring tobacco makers to place graphic pictures on the top half of cigarette packages. The images include pictures of diseased lungs and a body on an autopsy table, combined with wording such as “smoking can kill you.” Reuters, The Wall Street Journal
Republican lawmaker’s move would stall reporting on carcinogens. U.S. Rep. Danny Rehberg of Montana has introduced a bill that could substantially delay the National Toxicology Program’s next report on carcinogens, due in 2013. The last report, from 2011, added styrene and formaldehyde to the list of known or anticipated carcinogens, drawing objections from the chemical industry and House Republicans. Although the report is both peer-reviewed itself and drawn from independent, peer-reviewed literature, Congress ordered a reassessment of the styrene and formaldehyde findings . While that work goes on — which could take up to five years — Rehberg seeks to block updated carcinogen reports. Mother Jones
Federal judge finds Tennessee Valley Authority responsible for a massive 2008 coal ash spill. The spill from a coal-fired TVA power plant poured a billion gallons of toxic sludge into local waterways, marred hundreds of acres of land and still plagues the rural community of Kingston, Tenn., 35 miles west of Knoxville. The court ruling was a victory for the more than 800 property owners who sued for damages, claiming negligence by TVA, the nation’s largest public utility. If TVA had acted appropriately, the underlying failure of collapsed containment dikes “would have been investigated, addressed, and potentially remedied before the catastrophic failure,” the judge said. TVA is doing a $1.2 billion cleanup. The Tennessean, The Associated Press
Drug firm scraps development of hepatitis C treatment after patient dies of heart failure. Bristol-Myers Squibb said eight other patients also in the clinical trial of the drug, known informally as 094, were hospitalized after the medicine proved toxic to their hearts or kidneys. Bristol acquired the drug this year in its $2.5 billion acquisition of Inhibitex Inc. The company said it still had not “definitively” determined the cause of the death and hospitalizations, but it was stopping its efforts “in the best interest of patients.” Bristol is monitoring the health of more than 100 other patients also in the study. Hepatitis C, a difficult to treat and sometimes deadly liver disease, afflicts an estimated 4 million Americans. The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press
Georgia recycling firm accused of 24 safety violations. The offenses cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration against World Recycling of Gainesville, Ga., included exposing workers to excessive welding fumes and to “fall, struck-by, crushed-by and caught-in hazards.” OSHA said the company also allowed forklifts to be used that had damaged tires as well as inoperable horns or back-up alarms. The agency proposed penalties of $74,400. Separately, OSHA accused Danco Precision of Phoenixville, Pa., with 14 safety violations and proposed $55,500 in penalties. An OSHA officials said many of the violations stemmed from a lack of guards on machinery that can cause amputations. AccessNorthGa.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Recalls: Hoffman Town & Country turkey jerky
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein and Bridget Huber
