Failure to comply with [chemical] leak detection and repair requirements under federal emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants was the rap.
In a face slappingly arrogant statement the company said:”[Vertellus] is confident that these emissions did not have any effect on it’s employees or neighbors.”

“Of the 40,000 people who responded to Ground Zero after the attacks, 70 percent, or 33,000, are sick or dying as a result of their service”/ “A lot of the things they were exposed to, such as benzene, have in the past possibly been implicated with an increased incidence in the cancer.”

According to the World Health Organization over 25% of illness world wide is caused by environmental toxins, meaning pollution. Arguably, the ignorance that allowed humans to mindlessly pollute the planet in pursuit of economic prosperity fueled the industrial revolution and allowed the rise of industrialized nations in the 20th century. However, today there are many [...]

Are you in the habit of squeezing a few extra drops into your tank after the pump has automatically shut off? If so don’t try it in Oregon! The state has outlawed topping off in an effort to reduce airborne levels of benzene, a known carcinogen. Uri Papish, air quality program operations manager for the [...]

The widow and children of a deceased Texas man have filed a lawsuit against Chevron alleging that the man died wrongfully as a result of benzene exposure. "As a result of such exposure, Luther Wesley Miller, developed multiple myeloma from which he died a painful and terrible death on Feb. 7, 2008," the lawsuit  filed [...]

After two years of litigation, a Texas benzene lawsuit has come to an abrupt end. 58th District Judge Bob Wortham dismissed the plaintiff’s claims for lack of evidence. The plaintiff, Bobby Hall of Arizona, had filed a lawsuit against Arco, Exxon, Shell and 16 other petrochemical companies. The suit stated that Hall had been exposed [...]

A recent Study by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) found that the new car smell is an unhealthy "toxic cocktail," that could lead to long term health problems. Dr. Steve Brown, head of CSIRO’s Air Quality Control research says in a CSIRO press release: "Just as air inside our homes and workplaces is [...]

Scientists in Houston Texas will be looking into emissions from flares at refineries and chemical plants to asses how they contribute to smog.  The study is funded by the Texas Environmental Research Consortium, a nonprofit group founded in 2002 with a goal of studying ozone, a key ingredient in smog. Note: Ozone is helpful in the [...]

When a local oil refinery changed hands in 1970, residents of a small Ohio neighborhood learned that an oil pipeline had been leaking under their homes for 50 years.  "In the 70s, you could go in any of theses houses and it smelled like you poured kerosene or gasoline on everything in the house. When [...]

The Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) has filed a lawsuit  against ExxonMobil accusing the oil giant of trampling state environmental laws at it’s Scenic Highway chemical plant, in Baton Rouge, by releasing 89,700 pounds more airborne pollution than it’s permits allow since May 13, 2008. The suit brings up multiple documented chemical leaks, and failure [...]