Latest Chemicals Headlines
All the headlines from our Chemicals Topic Page, ordered by recency.
U.S. Court Dismisses ‘Agent Orange’ Case Against Chemical Firms
Feb 22 2008 // A federal appeals court Friday upheld a lower court ruling dismissing a civil lawsuit against major U.S. chemical companies brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs over the use of dioxin, or “agent orange,” during the...
Jury Rejects Cancer Patient’s Claims in Texas Railroad Tie Lawsuit
Feb 13 2008 // Jurors in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb. 11 rejected a cancer survivor’s claim that toxic chemicals from a Texas railroad tie plant where her husband worked caused the disease that required the removal of her...
Ala. Supreme Court Reverses, Relaxes Rules on Chemical Injury Suits
Feb 10 2008 // In a 5-4 decision, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed direction and allowed lawsuits from workers who become ill many years after being exposed to dangerous chemicals. The majority said the two-year statute of limitations...
Alabama Supreme Court Reverses Course, Offers Hope to Ill Workers
Jan 30 2008 // In a 5-4 decision, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed direction and allowed lawsuits from workers who become ill many years after being exposed to dangerous chemicals. The majority said the two-year statute of limitations...
S.C. Company Wants Neighbors to Help Pay for Pollution Cleanup
Jan 21 2008 // A South Carolina company being sued by neighbors for polluting groundwater around its plant in Myrtle Beach is asking a court to force those neighbors to help pay for testing and cleanup of contamination. AVX Corp. says in...
Fire, Explosions Reported at Louisville, Ky. Chemical Plant
Jan 17 2008 // A Kentucky chemical plant was evacuated Tuesday following a fire and a series of explosions, but no injuries were reported, the company said. The blaze was reported about 10 a.m. EST at the BASF Corp. plant, which makes...
States Prevail Over Industry with Tougher Chemical Security Laws
Jan 16 2008 // The federal government won’t override New Jersey’s chemical security laws, which are tougher than the national standard, thanks to a provision pushed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Lautenberg, D-N.J., was in Jersey...
Hanover Insurance to Acquire Chemical Industry Insurer Verlan
Jan 14 2008 // Worcester, Mass.-based The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. has agreed to acquire Verlan Holdings, Inc., a Silver Spring, Maryland-based holding company that provides insurance to manufacturers and distributors of...
First Cancer Lawsuit Related to Texas Railroad Tie Plant Begins
Jan 10 2008 // Owners of a Texas plant that makes railroad ties were grossly negligent in failing to provide safety equipment for workers handling toxic chemicals, a pollution prevention expert testified in the first of a flurry of...
Report: Deadly Explosion at Fla. Chemical Plant Equal to Ton of TNT
Jan 7 2008 // The blast from an explosion that killed four workers at a Florida chemical plant last month was equal to a ton of TNT and blew debris as far as a mile away, a U.S. investigator said Thursday. “The blast at T2...
Fla. Chemical Plant Explodes, Half Mile Area Initially Evacuated
Dec 20 2007 // An explosion and fire at a chemical plant in Jacksonville, Fla., killed four people Wednesday and injured at least 14, fire officials said. Fire officials initially ordered a precautionary evacuation within a half-mile of...
Lexington Ups Capacity on Bio-Chemical Terrorism Coverage
Nov 27 2007 // Lexington Insurance Company, a member company of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), has increased capacity of its BioChem Shield product from $10 million to $25 million. BioChem Shield is Lexington’s coverage...
LA Jurors Award $3.3 Million to Banana Workers in Pesticide Case
Nov 8 2007 // A jury awarded $3.3 million to six workers who claimed they were left sterile by a pesticide used at a banana plantation in Nicaragua operated by Dole Fresh Fruit Co. The workers’ lawsuit accused Dole and Standard...
Democrats Push OSHA to Regulate Worksites with Popcorn Flavoring
Sep 28 2007 // That buttery taste and smell of microwave popcorn may have caused a deadly lung disease in workers who package it. While there’s no evidence of any danger to the millions of people who eat it, Congress is taking...
CSI Expands Liability Coverage for Chemical Industry
Sep 19 2007 // Salisbury, Md.-based Consumer Specialties Insurance Co. (CSI), a risk retention group serving chemical manufacturer and distributor members of the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA), announced that it has...
Midwest Popcorn Makers Dropping Chemical Linked to Lung Disease
Sep 7 2007 // Four of the nation’s biggest microwave popcorn makers, including one in Iowa, are working to remove a flavoring chemical from their products linked to a lung ailment in popcorn plant workers while reassuring...
Report: Inadequate Safety Controls Led to Fatal N.C. Plant Explosion
Aug 2 2007 // Inadequate safety controls for chemical reaction hazards led to an explosion at a North Carolina chemical plant that killed one worker and injured 14 others last year in Morganton, federal safety investigators said...
Trial Set in Calif. for Latin American Banana Workers
Jul 11 2007 // The pesticide was designed to kill worms infesting the roots of banana trees on Latin American plantations. But at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama have filed five...
Oil Industry Develops New Safety Standards for Hazardous Worksites
Jun 22 2007 // An oil industry trade group said it has developed standards to better protect workers from explosions like the 2005 BP refinery in Texas explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170. The American Petroleum...
Florida Company Recalls China-Made Shir Toothpaste in U.S.
Jun 13 2007 // A Florida company issued a U.S.-wide recall of toothpaste it imported from China and distributed to wholesalers, saying that the product may contain a poisonous chemical. Gold City Enterprise LLC said the roughly 170,000...
