Latest Chemicals Headlines
All the headlines from our Chemicals Topic Page, ordered by recency.
West Virginia Politicians Call for State, Federal Regulation of Chemicals
Jan 22 2014 // West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin this week proposed tighter regulations for chemical storage facilities after a spill contaminated the water supply for 300,000 people. Tomblin, the Democratic...
New Health Warning Raises Concern in West Virginia Over Chemical Spill
Jan 17 2014 // A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning to pregnant women in West Virginia has raised alarms because officials, relying on the agency’s guidance, had been assuring residents their tapwater was safe...
Sen. Rockefeller Requests Increased Funding for Chemical Safety Board
Jan 15 2014 // U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller is seeking more funding for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board following a spill in West Virginia that tainted the water supply for about 300,000 residents. Rockefeller says in a news release that he...
Calls for Tougher Chemical Regulation Follow West Virginia Spill
Jan 14 2014 // A chemical spill that left 300,000 people in West Virginia unable to drink their water is reviving calls for more stringent regulation of thousands of chemical storage sites in the U.S., especially those near water...
Chemical Firm, Local Water Company Sued Over West Virginia Spill
Jan 14 2014 // 13 Jan 2014 20:12 A West Virginia chemical maker was sued along with a local water company over a spill into the Elk River in the state capital, Charleston, that left businesses and residents without tap water for...
Top 2013 Jury Awards: Price-Fixing, Nursing Home Liability, Defamation
Jan 14 2014 // U.S. juries awarded three verdicts of $1 billion or more for the third straight year in 2013, topped by a $1.2 billion award against Dow Chemical Co., the largest ever in a price-fixing case. Second was $1.1 billion...
West Virginia Chemical Cleanup Continues; Probe of Leak Underway
Jan 13 2014 // West Virginia’s Governor sees the “light at the end of the tunnel” in the chemical leak that has compromised water service for about 300,000 in the state. Residents face a fifth day without drinking water...
California Tops ‘Judicial Hellhole’ List
Jan 13 2014 // California isn’t just a warm place to live, which is often the case even in winter, but it turns out the state is considered a “judicial hellhole.” The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its annual...
Construction’s Growing Role in Renewable Energy
Jan 13 2014 // California isn’t just a warm place to live, which is often the case even in winter, but it turns out the state is considered a “judicial hellhole.” The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its annual...
Rotting Wood Product in Post-Katrina Built Homes May Spark Legal Action
Jan 7 2014 // Actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, which has built 100 energy-efficient new homes in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, is considering legal action against the manufacturer of an...
Obama Administration Considers Rules on Use of Explosive Chemicals
Jan 7 2014 // Farmers and oil drillers may be required to report their use of explosive chemicals under measures the Obama administration is considering to avoid disasters such as a Texas blast that killed 14 people last year. Policy...
Texas Fire Marshal Preaches Safety, Training After West
Dec 30 2013 // When a fertilizer plant exploded in a small Texas town, killing 15 people and decimating homes and schools, it became Chris Connealy’s responsibility to stop anything like it from happening again. The state fire...
California Tops ‘Judicial Hellhole’ List
Dec 17 2013 // California isn’t just a warm place to live, which is often the case even in winter, but it turns out the state is considered a “judicial hellhole.” The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its annual...
9 with Cancer Sue DuPont Over West Virginia Plant Chemical
Nov 1 2013 // Nine Ohio and West Virginia residents who have cancer and other diseases have filed federal lawsuits this month against chemical giant DuPont Co. The lawsuits accuse the Wilmington, Del.-based company of knowingly...
Ex-Texas Chemical Firm Exec Gets Prison for Worker Death
Oct 30 2013 // A federal judge has sentenced the former president of a Port Arthur, Texas, chemical company to one year in prison for occupational safety crimes that led to an employee’s death. Matthew Lawrence Bowman is the former...
Oklahoma City Firm to Receive $113M Insurance Payment from Blast
Oct 28 2013 // Oklahoma City-based LSB Industries Inc. will get a $113 million insurance payment after a May 2012 explosion damaged one of its chemical plants in south Arkansas. No one was injured in the blast at the El Dorado Chemical...
West Fertilizer Plant Cited, Fined by OSHA
Oct 21 2013 // Further Investigation Delayed by Government Shutdown The partial government shutdown has delayed the federal investigation of the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, and efforts to improve chemical safety,...
Further Investigation of Fertilizer Plant Blast Delayed
Oct 10 2013 // The partial government shutdown is delaying the federal investigation of the fertilizer plant explosion in West and efforts to improve chemical safety, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said. Deadlines set by President...
BP Exposed Neighbors to Toxic Gases, Jury Told at Trial End
Oct 8 2013 // BP Plc deliberately exposed neighbors of a Texas refinery to tons of cancer-causing gases and then misled regulators and community leaders about the dangers, a lawyer told a Texas jury. Jurors are expected to begin...
Lawsuit: Pollution from Louisiana Fire Making Residents Sick
Sep 26 2013 // About a dozen Slaughter, La., residents allege respiratory problems and diminished property values in a lawsuit filed in the wake of the Nov. 19 blaze that destroyed the Monolyte Laboratories Inc. chemical facility. The...
