Toxic aftermath: Decades later, PBB contamination suspected in illnesses and deaths

The Detroit Free Press has found that four decades after an agricultural disaster allowed the chemical polybrominated biphenyl into the food and water of nine out of 10 Michigan residents –as the state scales back monitoring of the sites and the Environmental Protection Agency gears for a multi-million dollar cleanup, many of the health risks have lingered.

"Baggage screeners at San Francisco International Airport allege that dozens if not hundreds of bags identified by X-ray machines as high-risk bomb threats are loaded onto planes each day without any human inspection in a clear violation of federal rules."

"In interviews conducted over the past year, six company screeners told The San Francisco Examiner that supervisors regularly clear dozens of suspicious bags in rapid succession with no inspection during peak travel times, a practice they say has gone on for years."

An ABC15-Phoenix investigation has found years of lawsuits, dozens of complaints and even a warning from Ford itself in regards to a discovery of an acceleration problem in '02-'04 Escapes. Documents obtained suggest Ford may have known about the problem for years but are just now issuing a recall.

When officials from Sensient Flavors explain their work, they sometimes compare it to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. But working at the food and beverage flavor manufacturer on Indianapolis' Southwestside is no child fantasy. Some workers were exposed to more than 400 times the generally recognized safe level for a chemical associated with a life-threatening lung condition, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star. In its report, the Star details problems at the plant, integrating documents throughout the story.

A Chicago Tribune investigation has found that the flame retardants that are packed into couches, chairs and many other products are not working as promised. Furthermore, two powerful industries--Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers have waged a deceptive campaign that led to the proliferation of these chemicals.

Sam Roe, Patricia Callahan and Michael Hawthorne utilized DocumentCloud to provide proof of the deception and its' widespread effect.

"An investigation by KING 5 Seattle has found that federal food inspectors were ordered to ignore moldy applesauce that a Washington plant shipped to grocery stores across America."

"The investigation revealed that USDA knew for more than three years that their inspectors had grave concerns about the sale of moldy applesauce to the public, but the federal food agency didn’t put a stop to it."

"A USA Today investigation reveals that seven decades after scientists came to the US during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess.

Several senior engineers cited design problems that could bring the treatment plant's operations to a halt before much of the waste is treated."

"Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration convened a committee of medical experts to weigh new evidence concerning the potential dangers in popular birth control pills including Bayer AG’s Yaz and Yasmin. The committee concluded by a four-vote margin that the benefits of drugs with drospirenone, the synthetic hormone in question, outweigh the risks.

However, an investigation by the Washington Monthly and the British medical journal BMJ has found that at least four members of the committee have either done work for the drugs’ manufacturers or licensees or received research funding from them. The FDA made none of those financial ties public."

John Fauber of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that "drug research, even from clinical trials sponsored by the federal government, routinely is suppressed, harming patients and increasing health care costs, according to new data highlighting an ethical controversy that continues to plague the field of medicine."

"The current situation is a disservice to research participants, patients, health systems and the whole endeavor of clinical medicine," according to an editorial accompanying the data published in the British Medical Journal.