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Groups Sue Driscoll’s for Deceptive Environmental and Sustainability Marketing Claims of Blueberries and Strawberries
Nonprofits Toxin Free USA, Organic Consumers Association, and Beyond Pesticides filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Driscoll’s Inc. alleging deceptive marketing of its berries. Driscoll’s is the world’s largest producer and marketer of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries and claims its growing practices are “in harmony with the environment.”
The company also advertises that its berries “aren’t produced in a factory; they’re grown outside in a dynamic biological environment” and are “good for you and the planet.”
Driscoll’s is headquartered in Watsonville, California, where it has operations throughout the city.
The majority of its production fields are sited adjacent and extremely close to elementary and middle schools. State records show at least 12 different carcinogenic pesticides are used at Driscoll’s operations, including malathion and the fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D), banned in 34 countries including those in the EU. A state air monitor inside one school detected 1,3-D air concentration levels far above the state’s official Prop 65 cancer risk threshold.
Personal Care Products Are Awash in Unlabeled Toxic Chemicals, Study Finds
Common personal care products widely contain unlabeled toxic chemicals, results from a new peer-reviewed study suggest. The testing of more than 110 items ranging from shampoo to baby lotions found evidence of unlabeled toxic chemicals in about 85%.
Many contained multiple ingredients known to be carcinogens or health hazards, and even 26% of products labeled “eco”, “green” or “natural” contained at least one dangerous compound. The products averaged more than three times as many chemicals than were listed on labels.
It is unclear whether the products are intentionally adulterated, or unintentionally contaminated. Either way, the findings raise further questions about the safety of everyday goods already under scrutiny for their health risks, and the authors say the study highlights the need for stricter oversight, including mandatory testing.
New York Village Quietly Sues 17 Chemical Companies Over PFAS-Tainted Water Wells
The Village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, has taken legal action against some of the biggest names in the chemical industry, alleging that PFAS pollution has reached local drinking water wells. As of Aug. 14, The Croton Chronicle reported village officials had not publicly disclosed that the lawsuit had been filed, adding a separate transparency issue to the dispute.
Lawyers for the Village of Croton-on-Hudson filed a 49-page lawsuit in New York state court on Aug. 13. The independent publication noted the case names 17 chemical companies, along with up to 20 unidentified “John Doe” defendants.
In the complaint, the village says the defendants produced fire-suppressant products made with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and that those products led to “widespread PFAS contamination” in Croton’s wells. “On information and belief, the PFAS contamination described above is a direct and proximate result of fire protection, training, and response activities in the area near Plaintiff’s water system, resulting in the migration of PFAS into Plaintiff’s water supply,” the filing states, according to the Chronicle.
Warning Signs Are Flashing at America’s Overheating Landfills
One winter’s day in 2023, Shoosmith Landfill began to melt down. Underground temperatures in a section of the recently closed municipal waste site near Richmond, Virginia, reached 194F, 34% higher than federal standards allow, hot enough to give a person an instant third-degree burn. A spike in carbon monoxide readings from the landfill’s gas-collection wells was another sign that buried garbage might be releasing toxic emissions and effluents.
The operator, Shoosmith Bros. Inc., told regulators there was likely no fire, but instead an unspecified event stemming from “characteristics of the waste mass.” It said it needed the state’s permission to keep parts of the landfill running at hotter-than-normal temperatures while it got things under control. Over the next two years, as temperatures inside the landfill climbed, Shoosmith Bros. made 10 more of these requests covering dozens of gas-collection wells, according to public records.
Virginia regulators approved the vast majority of them. That didn’t turn out well. By December 2025, the landfill was producing more than 1 million gallons a month of leachate, a mix of rainwater and other fluids that grows contaminated as it percolates through the waste, an increase the operator later linked to the elevated heat. State officials also found dark liquids flowing into a stormwater drain that feeds into a creek leading to the Chesapeake Bay.
Farmers Hope New Steam Technology Will Eliminate Use of Pesticides
Farmworkers have claimed for years that contact with pesticides has left them battling cancer, neurological disorders and other ailments. A new technology aims to weed out pesticides by turning to steam. National advocacy group Farmworker Justice has been fighting the use of toxic pesticides on crops for years. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that roughly 10,000 to 20,000 farmworkers suffer from acute pesticide poisonings every year.
Shinta Kawahara Family Farms in Santa Cruz County believes it has found a better way. The organic farm is testing new technology that uses high pressure steam, instead of toxic fumigants, to prep the soil before a plant or seed goes into the ground. Rod Koda’s farm was one of the first in the nation to begin testing the steam technology, and he believes it’s working.
“I don’t have the plant mortality, and the fruit would be bigger because the plant is not stressed, the root is not stressed,” Koda said. Researchers say the steam serves as a herbicide and reduces plant disease by 70%, killing the soil pests.
How Growing up in ‘Chemical Valley’ Inspired Lawyer to Sue Industry She Used to Work For
The factories were just part of the landscape for Hélène Duguy growing up in the heart of an area known as France’s “Chemical Valley”. “Those factories are visible from my mother’s apartment,” says Duguy, 34, whose mother still lives in St-Genis-Laval, south of Lyon.
Until recently, her mother did not accept that there might be any danger associated with living in close proximity to chemical factories. “She just trusted the municipalities to do their job,” Duguy says. “I think it remained something quite remote for her — she understood there was a problem, but Pfas is invisible, so it’s very hard to understand the reality of it and what it could mean for you.”
It was only after a warning was issued about the safety of homegrown food and locally produced eggs that the scale of the contamination became more tangible. “She’s now even considering selling her flat,” Duguy says. “I was with her last weekend and I told her that for me, the contamination she is exposed to continuously is extremely worrying […]
Here I feel very close to people who I was raised with, so this makes the issue very relatable, very tangible, and also it makes the fight more concrete.” Today, as an ambitious young lawyer, Duguy is part of a team taking the companies running the factories to court.
