CDC Accused of Conspiracy in Lawsuit That Also Names Local Entities
For two years, residents in East Palestine have maintained that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructed area medical providers not to test for chemical-related illnesses in the wake of the 2023 train derailment.
On Thursday, NewsNation reported it had obtained a copy of the clinical guidance letter sent to hospitals and providers from the CDC after the rail disaster that reads “in part” that “no testing or treatment related to a specific chemical exposure is recommended.” NewsNation did not release the full guidance letter or give any additional details regarding the letter’s content.
In June 2023, local health care providers denied ever receiving a recommendation against making a chemical-related diagnosis following the derailment. That denial was made during a public health session of the informational series facilitated by the Region 5 Environmental Protection Agency in the village.
The reported existence of such a letter and the alleged actions of the CDC — civil conspiracy claiming the CDC conspired with Mercy Health to deny plaintiff’s medical care thus exacerbating their injuries — is one of many charges laid out in a 86-page lawsuit that was filed in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas earlier this year on behalf of nearly 800 plaintiffs by Just Well Law.
Bills Aimed at Studying, Restricting ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Texas Fail
Rising public concern in Texas over PFAS, or “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, infertility and immune disorders sparked lawmakers to file half a dozen bills to study the chemicals, regulate them in sewage sludge and ban them in firefighting foam for some uses. But despite backing by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and urgent pleas from farmers grappling with poisoned land and dead cattle, none made it to the governor’s desk.
Evidence of PFAS contamination across Texas is growing. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data shows that at least 50 public water systems in Texas have exceeded federal limits for PFAS in drinking water. In North Texas, farmers have alleged that fertilizers made from municipal waste contaminated their land with PFAS and poisoned their livestock. And firefighting foams containing PFAS can run off into nearby bodies of water.
The chemicals are used in thousands of other household items including nonstick cookware, pizza boxes, toilet paper, soaps and rain jackets. They don’t break down and can remain in water and soil indefinitely.
How New Jersey’s Towns Are Tackling Microplastic Pollution From Construction
Environmental Health News reported:
About a year ago, while scrolling on Facebook, retired NBC reporter Brian Thompson saw something that shook him. A woman named Sherri Lilienfield shared photos of her front lawn covered in at least two inches of what, at first glance, looked like pristine white snow. It was not. It was plastic dust from a nearby construction site, where workers had been cutting up plastic building materials out in the open.
“It’s always windy here,” Lilienfield said about Margate, a 1.6-square-mile town on the Jersey Shore about a 20-minute drive south of Atlantic City. “Stuff blows everywhere.”
Lilienfield, who has a background in chemical engineering and has been a real estate agent since the 1990s, was worried.
She knew that construction on the Jersey Shore was booming and that plastics are increasingly replacing traditional construction materials like wood, stone, and concrete, especially near the shore, where people want to use maintenance-free materials. She also knew researchers have been sounding the alarm about these plastic materials, as they might have potential adverse health outcomes.
Elevated Exposure to Wastewater Contaminants in Communities Near Ag Fields, Study Finds
Chemical contaminants in wastewater have long been of concern, especially given the significant costs of upgrading wastewater treatment facilities to remove existing and emerging chemicals.
In advancing chemical safety, one of the many regulatory determinations that Beyond Pesticides advocates for, prior to the allowance of any toxic chemical use, is the establishment of a realistic cleanup or disposal strategy. Yet, a plethora of petrochemical pesticides flood the market and contaminate the air, soil, water, and crops before poisoning humans and wildlife.
A study in the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering uses the detectable levels of metabolites (breakdown products) of pesticides in wastewater to gauge exposure to populations living near flower bulb fields throughout the Netherlands. Wastewater samples were collected from five wastewater treatment plants located in different parts of the Netherlands, with two of the locations (Tollebeek and Lisse) located near flower bulb fields and the other three representing control areas. The study finds that higher levels of chemicals correlate with proximity to agricultural fields and present a heightened health risk.
The authors describe wastewater-based surveillance as a complementary approach to human biomonitoring that they use “to assess the spatial differences in human exposure in areas with relatively high use of pesticides versus reference areas.”
By analyzing influent wastewater [coming into wastewater treatment plants] for the presence of several specific human metabolites of triazines, pyrethroids, and organophosphates, the researchers are able to assess exposure to pesticides based on the proximity to flower bulb fields and evaluate the associated health risks.
Wildfire Smoke Threatens Heart, Lung Health For Months Afterward
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Skies choked with wildfire smoke can affect people’s heart and lung health for up to three months afterwards, a new study says. The particle pollution created by wildfires continues to increase people’s risk of hospitalization for months after the smoke clears, researchers reported May 28 in the journal Epidemiology.
“Even brief exposures from smaller fires that last only a few days can lead to long-lasting health effects,” lead researcher Yaguang Wei said in a news release. Wei is an assistant professor of environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Results also showed that risk increases as the amount of smoke pollution rises.
For the study, researchers analyzed hospitalization records for the residents of 15 states between 2006 and 2016 — Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
In all, the data included more than 13.7 million hospitalizations for heart diseases and nearly eight million for respiratory conditions, researchers found. Researchers found that people’s risk of these hospitalizations increased within three months of exposure to wildfire smoke.
