Jennifer Walker-Journey

French health regulators are calling for a ban of Allergan’s textured breast implants, and cautioning doctors and patients about texture implants from other manufacturers. The implants are associated with an increased risk for a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL). Textured implants makeup about 85 percent of the implants used for cosmetic and reconstructive breast surgeries in France. The National Agency for Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) recommendation comes after two days of testimony during a public hearing about the safety concerns with the breast implants, and days after the U.S. Food ... Read More

Six NGOs (non-governmental organizations) asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) denial of its petition for the agency to close a reporting loophole so that imports of and domestic uses of the carcinogen asbestos are reported, including reporting on consumer products containing asbestos-containing talc. “This will maximize EPA’s ability to use the information reported to conduct the ongoing asbestos risk evaluation and the subsequent risk management,” the organizations said in their Right to Know Petition, which was originally flied Sept. 25, 2018 under section 21 of the ... Read More

A University of Washington researcher said she is “convinced” that the active ingredient glyphosate in the commonly used weed killer Roundup can cause cancer after conducting an analysis with colleagues on the chemical. Lianne Sheppard, senior author and professor of biostatistics and environmental and occupational health sciences, said she and colleagues found a “compelling link” between people with the “highest exposure” to glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. “All of the meta-analysis conducted to date, including our own, consistently report the same key finding; exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) ... Read More

A Wyoming man is suing Monsanto alleging the agrochemical company’s Roundup weed killer contributed to his non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) diagnosis. The federal lawsuit comes just six months after Monsanto was ordered by a California jury to pay a school groundskeeper $289 million after finding his exposure to glyphosate in Roundup was the cause of his terminal NHL. (Monsanto appealed and the award was reduced to $78 million.) The recent lawsuit involves the case of Jace Florquist, and is one of more than 8,000 filed against Monsanto alleging a link between glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, and NHL. According to ... Read More

Buildings regularly burned to train San Diego firefighters for more than a decade contained asbestos and lead in the floors, walls, and ceilings, and put thousands of firefighters at risk for serious injuries. Now the city is being blamed for not protecting its first responders who trained at the San Diego Fire Academy at the former Naval Training Center (NTC) near the San Diego International Airport. The facility was converted to a training facility for firefighters more than 20 years ago. The department was aware for at least two decades that the buildings firefighters crawled through and dragged heavy equipment ... Read More

Anyone who visited the Grand Canyon Collections Building between 2000 and June 18, 2018, was exposed to radioactive uranium at levels 400 t0 4,000 times greater than those considered safe by Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards, a National Park Service manager told National Park employees and health officials earlier this month. Elston “Swede” Stephenson, the park’s safety, health and wellness manager, sent the email to fellow employees and, a week later, to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, saying he had repeatedly asked National Park executives to inform the public of the exposure and the potential ... Read More

An explosion last July in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, that killed a firefighter was caused by two utility contractors when they failed to establish the location of underground utilities prior to beginning excavation work, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said in a news release. Verizon Wireless had contracted with Bear Communications LLC of Lawrence, Kansas, for a fiber optics project in Sun Prairie. Bear had subcontracted with VC Tech Inc., of Ypsilanti, Michigan. VT Tech’s employees were working in the vicinity of the explosion but had evacuated before the explosion, according to a Bear spokesperson. ... Read More

Seven former and current employees of an Ohio nursing home were indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges they mistreated two patients in their care, including one who “literally rotted to death,” Attorney General Dave Yost said during a news conference. The seven employees were nurses at Whetstone Gardens and Care Center in Columbus, Ohio in 2017. They face a combined 34 charges including involuntary manslaughter and patient neglect, and for causing a patient physical harm because they falsified her medical records and forged signatures. “This is gut wrenching for anyone who has entrusted a care facility ... Read More

People exposed to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used weed killer Roundup, have a 41 percent increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to a new analysis published in the journal Mutation Research. “All of the meta-analyses conducted to date, including our own, consistently report the same key finding: exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) are associated with an increased risk of NHL,” the authors wrote in the study. The study, conducted by researchers with the University of Washington, is the most up-to-date analysis of glyphosate and its link to NHL. It incorporates a “2018 study of more ... Read More

The $14 million award given to the family of a man who died from a disease caused by asbestos exposure was upheld this week by a South Carolina appeals court. Dennis Seay had sued Celanese Corp., in September 2013, a month after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died December 2014. Seay was employed by Daniel Construction Company, which was hired by Celanese. Seay did maintenance and repair work on machinery at a Celanese facility from 1971 to 1980 during which he was exposed to materials containing asbestos. Asbestos was widely used in construction materials until the 1980s, when its ... Read More