EPA allows companies to keep chemical information secret

 In the latest installment of their ongoing 18-month investigation, Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely allows companies to keep new information about their chemicals secret, including compounds that have been shown to cause cancer and respiratory problems. The newspaper examined more than 2,000 filings in the EPA's registry of dangerous chemicals for the past three years. In more than half the cases, the EPA agreed to keep the chemical name hidden from public view. In hundreds of other cases, it allowed the company filing the report to keep its name and address confidential. This is despite a federal law calling for public notice of any new information through the EPA's program monitoring chemicals that pose substantial risk. The whole idea of the program is to warn the public of newfound dangers.

Here's the link to the whole series. 

USA TODAY's Blake Morrison and Brad Heath have published a package of stories using government data to examine the air quality of American schools located near industrial plants. They found that thousands of schoolchildren are exposed to dangerous levels of carcinogens, metals and other chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency has never run these models and keeps no records on the air quality around schools. Morrison and Heath have also created a search engine so readers may look up the levels at local schools.  The entire package can be seen here.

An Associated Press analysis of federal drug data shows the U.S. government has spent over $200 million since 2004 on drugs that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In some instances, these unapproved medications have been linked to deaths. While Medicaid is not supposed to cover unapproved drugs, the FDA does not have a comprehensive list of the banned medications. Medicaid can continue to pay for the medication until it is officially taken off the market by the FDA, a protracted process that can take years.

Clark Kauffman of the The Des Moines Register reports that a state-run home for profoundly disabled children and adults has employed nine unlicensed psychologists and two successive, unlicensed medical directors. State records show the medical directors — both of whom are gynecologists — were paid a total of $127,424 without either of them ever obtaining the Iowa medical licenses that would have enabled them to care for residents as specified in their job descriptions. Kauffman also reported that after one former doctor at the home was fired for abusing a resident, Iowa officials removed his name from the state's registry of abusers in exchange for his promise to practice in another state.

Following up on a recent investigation of vaccination enforcement in schools, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that hundreds of local day care centers also routinely violate a state law that prohibits admitting children without required shots. The newspaper also found health officials and child care licensing regulators were confused about what the law actually says and have been declaring centers in compliance even if as many as 10 percent of children are not vaccinated.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger, as part of their ongoing series Chemical Fallout, found that products labeled as “microwave safe” release toxic doses of the chemical bisphenol A when heated. The newspaper had a University of Missouri laboratory test 10 products to see if the chemical bisphenol A leached out of containers when heated. The tests found that that BPA leached out of every product tested – in some cases at levels known to cause harm in laboratory animals. The highest levels were found in Enfamil baby formula and a Rubbermaid storage container.

An investigation by Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explored the case of a profoundly developmentally disabled woman who was raped and impregnated in her own home. A nursing assistant was charged with rape. The investigation found that it was the second time in two years a male nursing assistant was suspected of sexually assaulting her, but no safety measures were introduced after the incident in 2006. Some have questioned whether male nursing assistants should be responsible for the care of non-verbal, vulnerable female patients. A recent ballot initiative passed calling for increased training for nursing assistants.

On Sunday and Monday, The Charlotte Observer published a two-part series detailing the risks to young workers in dangerous jobs. The stories showed that federal child labor enforcement has waned despite new evidence that many employers are ignoring the rules. Observer reporters also spoke to more than 20 current and former workers at House of Raeford Farms, who said the N.C.-based poultry company frequently hired underage workers, despite rules that prohibit companies from hiring juveniles for hazardous jobs such as poultry processing.

Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that some dietary supplements, which are not subject to government regulation, contain amounts of undisclosed prescription drugs, as well as food allergens, bacteria and human placenta. Journal-Constitution reporters were able to obtain one dietary supplement containing prescription drugs, despite the fact that it had been the subject of FDA alerts.

Deborah Sontag of The New York Times continued the paper's "Getting Tough" series with an examination of some hospitals' practice of repatriating immigrant patients to their native countries without consent. The article offers several vignettes of the difficulties patients and hospitals face in such situations, including the story of Antonio Torres, a nineteen year-old legal immigrant working in Phoenix, whose hospital sent him to Mexico because he had no insurance.