FairWarning is a nonprofit investigative news organization that focuses on public health, safety and environmental issues and related topics of government and business accountability. FairWarning has allowed its hard-hitting reports to be posted on ISHN.com:
Critics fault new highway law for concessions to trucking industry
December 9, 2015
A $305 billion highway bill approved by Congress and signed by President Obama last week includes several provisions aggressively sought by the trucking industry that, critics say, will undermine traffic safety.
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Racial politics flavor debate over banning menthol cigarettes
November 19, 2015
Lorillard Tobacco donated nearly four times as much to Republican candidates as to Democrats in the 2014 congressional elections. No surprise there — most businesses count on Republicans to hold the line on regulations and taxes.
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Heavy-spending trucking industry pushes Congress to relax safety rules
November 10, 2015
Big rig crashes kill nearly 4,000 Americans each year and injure more than 85,000. Since 2009, fatalities involving large trucks have increased 17 percent. Injuries have gone up 28 percent. Given these numbers, you might expect Congress to be agitating for tighter controls on big rigs.
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For big railroads, a carload of whistleblower complaints
October 21, 2015
As both a veteran railroad worker and union official responsible for safety, Mike Elliott became alarmed when he learned of trouble-plagued train signals in his home state of Washington. Signals, he said, at times would inexplicably switch from red to yellow to green – potentially creating confusion that could lead to a crash. Elliott raised that and other signal issues repeatedly with his managers at BNSF Railway Co.
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Asbestos found in imported crayons and toy fingerprint kits
July 9, 2015
Asbestos has been found in several brands of children’s crayons and fingerprint kits made in China and sold in the U.S., according to tests commissioned by an environmental group. The findings are detailed in a report being released today by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund. It marks the third time in 15 years that the cancer-causing substance has been detected in crayons or fingerprint toys marketed to children—apparently, due to the use of asbestos-contaminated talc.
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Collision course: With wary eye on big trucks, bike riders seek safe space on city streets
July 6, 2015
On a July afternoon in New Orleans last year, Philip Geeck was riding his bicycle in a marked bike lane on a busy street. Approaching an intersection, he came up alongside a tractor-trailer truck hauling a tank of chemicals.
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Off-road industry looks to Congress to put brakes on safety regulation
June 29, 2015
Manufacturers of off-road vehicles have mounted fierce resistance to proposed federal rules aimed at reducing rollover crashes that have killed hundreds of riders. After failing to persuade the Consumer Product Safety Commission to shelve the rules, the companies have turned to Congress to run interference.
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Feds want to run flimsy motorcycle helmets off the road
June 11, 2015
After years of inaction, federal regulators are trying to crack down on the use of cheap novelty helmets linked to thousands of motorcycle crash deaths and injuries in recent years. The novelty helmets do not comply with federal safety standards, and provide little or no protection against head injuries in a crash.
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Study: Cancer risk high for firefighters, but higher for minority firefighters
June 3, 2015
Posted with permission from Fairwarning.org: A new study has found that firefighters have a greater than average risk of developing some types of cancer, and that black and Latino firefighters face the highest risk of all.
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Talc-ovarian cancer link sparks growing legal battle
May 1, 2015
Deane Berg’s doctor called her in the day after Christmas, 2006, to give her the crushing news. She’d had her ovaries removed, the pathology results were back, and they could not have been much worse. Berg had stage III ovarian cancer, and her prognosis was poor.
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Highway agency takes a hit over safety report on electronic billboards
February 10, 2015
Why did the billboard cross the road? It sounds like the opening line of a corny joke, but it’s actually a question raised by a baffling glitch in a Federal Highway Administration study on the safety of electronic billboards. Billboards that seem magically to have moved from one side of the highway to the other are part of a detailed critique by a former FHWA researcher, who says the federal report is so badly flawed that no one should rely on its conclusions.
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