Tougher Testing Sought to Detect Asbestos in Talc
By Myron Levin on September 8, 2015
We use talc in many up close and personal ways: to powder babies’ bottoms, as an ingredient in cosmetics, a filler in capsules and pills–even as a food additive. In a world of ominous, unpronounceable chemicals, could anything be less scary than talc? Yet talc, the softest known mineral, is dug from the ground, where…
Posted in Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, Environmental Safety and Health, FairWarning Investigates, Food Supply, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, Product Hazards and Recalls, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Myron Levin on June 25, 2015
Manufacturers of off-road vehicles have mounted fierce resistance to proposed federal rules aimed at reducing rollover crashes that have killed hundreds of riders. After failing to persuade the Consumer Product Safety Commission to shelve the rules, the companies have turned to Congress to run interference. Powered by an aggressive social media campaign and political donations,…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Off-Road Vehicles, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Myron Levin on April 29, 2015
Colgate-Palmolive Co. was ordered to pay $12.4 million in damages to a woman with a deadly form of cancer after a Los Angeles jury found that an asbestos-contaminated talcum powder was the main cause of her disease. The case was then settled today for an undisclosed amount as jurors were about to consider tacking on…
Posted in Environmental Safety and Health, FairWarning Reports, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Myron Levin on April 29, 2015
Deane Berg’s doctor called her in the day after Christmas, 2006, to give her the crushing news. She’d had her ovaries removed, the pathology results were back, and they could not have been much worse. Berg had stage III ovarian cancer, and her prognosis was poor. Despite her 25 years as a physician’s assistant, Berg, then 49, knew next to nothing about ovarian cancer. Grappling with the “why me?” question, she studied the risk factors […]
Posted in Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, FairWarning Investigates, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Myron Levin on February 9, 2015
Why did the billboard cross the road? It sounds like the opening line of a corny joke, but it’s actually a question raised by a baffling glitch in a Federal Highway Administration study on the safety of electronic billboards. Billboards that seem magically to have moved from one side of the highway to the other…
Posted in Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving, FairWarning Reports |
By Myron Levin on October 29, 2014
Rebuffing off-road vehicle manufacturers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted today to move forward with rules aimed at preventing rollover crashes that have killed hundreds of riders. The rules would include minimum handling and stability standards for the popular trail machines known as recreational off-highway vehicles, or ROVs. The vehicles also would be engineered…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Off-Road Vehicles, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Myron Levin on October 28, 2014
Manufacturers of off-road vehicles have enlisted the help of a dozen U.S. senators to try to block regulations intended to prevent rollover crashes that have killed hundreds of riders. In a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the senators urged delaying a pending vote on safety standards for the popular trail machines known as recreational…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Off-Road Vehicles, Product Hazards and Recalls, Uncategorized |
By Myron Levin on September 29, 2014
What are the odds? In 2009, Congress passed landmark legislation directing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, aiming to cut the toll from the leading preventable cause of disease and death. Three times since, however, cigarette and e-cigarette companies have filed successful legal challenges to thwart rules intended to make their products…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Product Hazards and Recalls, Smoking and Tobacco Industry |
By Myron Levin on September 4, 2014
A third Major League Baseball team—the Oakland Athletics—has agreed to pay back wages and damages to a group of current and former employees to resolve government claims that they had been illegally underpaid. In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Athletics agreed to pay $266,358 to 86 employees. Among them were clubhouse…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Workplace |
By Myron Levin and Stuart Silverstein on May 22, 2014
A federal investigation of pay practices in Major League Baseball has been expanded to include two more teams—the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland A’s—bringing to four the number of clubs that have come under scrutiny for possible violations of U.S. wage standards. The Labor Department’s focus is pay for clubhouse and administrative workers and interns, who…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Workplace | Tagged Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Labor Department, Major League Baseball, Oakland A's, sports, wage violations, wages |
