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Pfizer, J&J Sued by New Jersey Over Decades-Old Pharmaceutical Plant Pollution
New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has sued Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell and several real estate companies over a site in North Jersey where toxic waste remained from a now-shuttered pharmaceutical plant. The new civil complaint could lead to another big payout for the state.
The DEP did not specify how much it will need for the site’s restoration. Recent legacy pollution lawsuits filed by New Jersey have led to settlements ranging from about $393 million with Solvay up to $2 billion with DuPont. The plant in Morris Plains, Morris County, operated from the 1950s to the 1980s under Warner-Lambert, which Pfizer acquired in 2000.
The state also named Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell and three real estate companies as “knowing purchasers” of parts of the site throughout the years. Under New Jersey’s Spill Act, these later buyers can be held responsible for cleanup if they acquired land with knowledge of past contamination.
Parkinson’s Risk Rises With Outdoor Air Chemical Exposure
Exposure to ambient trichloroethylene (TCE) — a common chemical used in degreasing and dry cleaning — correlated with a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease, an analysis of over a million Medicare beneficiaries showed. Exposure to outdoor TCE was associated with a new diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease approximately 14 years later in a dose-dependent manner, reported Brittany Krzyzanowski, Ph.D., of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, and co-authors.
People who lived in the top decile of ambient TCE had a 10% higher relative risk of a subsequent Parkinson’s diagnosis compared with those living in the lowest decile of TCE exposure (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.08-1.13), Krzyzanowski and colleagues wrote in Neurology. High levels of ambient TCE were seen in the Rust Belt region of the U.S. and several smaller areas throughout the nation, the researchers said. Parkinson’s risk was higher in the area surrounding two of the three highest TCE-emitting facilities in the nation, with risk decreasing as distance from the facility increased.
In 2023, a large analysis showed that Marines exposed to TCE and other volatile organic compounds in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune had a 70% increased risk of developing Parkinson’s 34 years later compared with Marines who served elsewhere.
Experts Issue Warning After Making Concerning Discovery in Human Lungs: ‘A Significant Public Health Concern’
A scientific review has highlighted something unsettling about what might be in the air we breathe every day. Plastic particles may be infiltrating the human body far more than previously thought — with serious implications for long-term health.
News Medical discussed the scientific review, published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, which analyzed lung tissue from 13 autopsies. Out of those samples, 11 contained microplastics. Researchers found different types, with polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET, being the most common. These materials are commonly used in food packaging and plastic bottles. The review also referenced research estimating that an individual may inhale around 69,000 microplastic particles every year.
Researchers have found microplastics in oceans, soil, food and even bloodstreams. But this review underscores that inhalation may be one of the most direct and persistent forms of exposure — and one we have little control over.
Study Finds Wildfire Smoke Reduces Sperm Quality
A new study indicates the potential health impacts of wildfires don’t end when wildfire season does. Researchers at the University of Washington found that wildfire smoke exposure could reduce key aspects of sperm quality in men. The team found consistent declines in sperm concentration, total sperm count, and other key fertility aspects during wildfire smoke exposure among the 84 men tested.
The semen samples came from men who provided sperm for intrauterine insemination procedures between 2018 and 2022. Researchers said their findings aligned with smaller studies from Oregon Health & Science University that linked air pollution and wildfire smoke to impaired reproductive health.
“These results reinforce growing evidence that environmental exposures — specifically wildfire smoke — can affect reproductive health,” said senior author Dr. Tristan Nicholson, a reproductive urologist at the UW Medicine’s Men’s Health Center in Seattle.
Nuclear Missile Workers Are Contracting Cancer. They Blame the Bases.
At a memorial service in 2022, veteran Air Force Capt. Monte Watts bumped into a fellow former Minuteman III nuclear missile operator, who told him that she had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This story also ran on States Newsroom. It can be republished for free.
Watts knew other missileers with similar cancers. But the connection really hit home later that same January day, when the results of a blood test revealed that Watts himself had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “I don’t know if it was ironic or serendipitous or what the right word is, but there it was,” Watts said.
Within the community of U.S. service members who staff nuclear missile silos scattered across the Northern Rockies and Great Plains, suspicions had long been brewing that their workplaces were unsafe. Just months after Watts was diagnosed in 2022, Lt. Col. Danny Sebeck, a former Air Force missileer who had transferred to the U.S. Space Force, wrote a brief on a potential cancer cluster among people who served at Minuteman III launch control centers on Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
