Toxic Docs Blog

Gender, Safety, and the EEOC

Roison Casey The submission on toxic docs that I found (https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/G5r0EX4xjmb0j1E3na5njvz8V) included two documents. First, on May 12 1978, George P. Sape, a lawyer who served as vice president for the Organization Resources Counselors Inc. (ORC), sent a memorandum to the ORC's Equal Opportunity Legal

Pedagogy

Food Waste and American Society

Margaret Meyerson The phenomenon of food waste is predicated on having food to waste, a phenomenon only available since the industrialization of food production in the 19th century. Both the impact of the disposal of excess food on public health (particularly the absence of suitable disposal systems leaving discarded food

Pedagogy

Asbestos and Trade Associations

Machaela Parkin I chose to read the minutes of the first annual meeting of the Asbestos Cement Products Assocation from 1969 (3-23-2012 Ex. 02 ACPA November 21 1969-1), a 1970 meeting report from the Environmental Health Task Force (3-23-2012 Ex. 03 Env Health Task force October 1970), and a 1971

Pedagogy

Ethyl Gas Safety in the Interwar Period

Kate Tadeo Of the two documents I read, I was most interested in the order in which I read the articles and the dates they were produced. The first document I read was a small collection of letters, the first from December 1935 to Ethyl Gas Corp (presumably from the

Pedagogy

A critique of the Bureau of Mines and leaded gasoline studies

Kairaluchi Oraedu I chose a letter from 1925 in which Yale professor, Yandell Henderson, is writing to Mrs. Grace Burnham of the Workers’ Health Bureau. In this document Yandell criticizes the Bureau of Mines report on ethyl gas as inaccurate. He reveals that experiments done by the Bureau of Mines

Pedagogy

Regulators and Lead

I was most taken aback by the candor found in many of the documents on the website. We have this image in our heads of corporate malfeasance that is insulated and clandestine. Actions disclosed to a limited number of corrupt individuals and hidden from the regulators intended to protect us.

Pedagogy

The Health of Miners

Hannah George I took a look at an interesting 1968 document entitled "Let's Get Cracking," by W.W. Nelson, the Assistant Public Relations Adviser for Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines (upon my own searching, I discovered this to be based in Johannesburg, South Africa). The document is

Pedagogy

Toxins and Food Politics

Amanda Armstrong In their article "Farm Chemicals Said Vital," Marge Davenport, a journal medical writer for the Oregon Journal, discusses the debates surrounding the ongoing use of pesticides and insecticides in the agricultural sector, as discussed during the August 1969 symposium at Oregon State University. Attendees, including Kenneth Walker, then

Pedagogy

Monsanto PR

By Anastasia Hendricks The document I found does not have an explicit title, and seems to be part of a larger document. It is sourced to Monsanto and is written in a question-and-answer format -- likely an FAQ drafted by Monsanto, addressing clients and the general public. It begins with

Pedagogy

Toxic Docs in the Classroom

For the next two weeks, we'll be highlighting uses of Toxic Docs in the classroom. Co-PI David Rosner has been teaching a class called "Poisoned Worlds" at the Mailman School of Health/Department of History (Columbia University) for years, using the database to give students direct practice with primary sources.

Pedagogy

Lead poisoning and trade associations

By Sophia Abrahamson As scientists stumbled upon cheaper, more effective chemicals throughout the 20th century, lead increasingly appeared in daily products. Lead poisoning became a risk of the general public, and not just specialists working in industry (i.e., manufacturing workers, painters). Tetraethyl lead in gasoline, for example, caught the

Featured

Introduction: The Barry Castleman Files

Toxic Docs is pleased to host the papers of Barry Castleman. Castleman is an expert on the risks of asbestos who has published pathbreaking work on the topic. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be dropping the entire collection, highlighting documents of note each time we do. Here are

PFAS: Researchers Have Warned of 'Forever Chemicals' for Years

The EPA recently announced that PFAS are more toxic than once thought, however, researchers have raised concerns about the health consequences of exposure to these ‘forever chemicals’ for years. Today, we are highlighting documents submitted by Taft Law to the EPA’s TSCA Confidential Business Information in 2013 on the

The Monsanto Monopoly: Price Fixing of Herbicides

In 1984, the Supreme Court found Monsanto in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act because of their “conspiracy to maintain resale prices and terminate price-cutters” of agricultural herbicides. The case was decided after Spray-Rite—a wholesale distributor of Monsanto agricultural herbicides from 1957 to 1968—filed a lawsuit against Monsanto

Standard of Exposure: Industry Opposition to OSHA

In 1978, John T. Barr of the Law Department for Air Products–an American chemical industry company–drafted a hearing brief on OSHA’s recently proposed regulations and its reach of power. Founded only seven years prior to the submission of Barr’s hearing brief, OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety

Lesson in Greenwashing: Monsanto and their Environmental "Showcase" Project

In the twenty-first century, several companies–most recently Deutsche Bank’s DWS [https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/investing/deutsche-bank-dws-greenwashing/index.html] – have come under scrutiny for "greenwashing" or misleading consumers about their environmental impact for the benefit of company image. While “greenwashing” is a relatively new term, this

Identifying Reproductive Toxicity: A Clash Between Industry and Government

In November 1996, the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) sent a letter to the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) on “Vinyl Chloride: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity Data Summary.” While evidence linking vinyl chloride and negative health effects began to emerge in the mid-1960s, CMA maintained that vinyl chloride was not likely

Wish for Unions: Documents from the Workers Institute for Safety and Health (WISH)

In honor of International Workers’ Day, we are highlighting documents from the Workers Institute for Safety and Health (WISH) which was established in 1980 to protect workers from occupational hazards. Shortly after the Industrial Union Department and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) brought a

Society of the Plastics Industry: 1989 Response to Global Warming

In April 1989, Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) published an article [https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/93vLQJj1YeYLNQO9BBobmX4Z3] titled “Climate Change Task Force Tackles Global Warming” in their trade association newsletter to address intensifying concerns over global warming. Though the article suggests that global warming legislation could threaten the plastic

The National Lead Company: A Case Study in Industrial Advertising

With news that the EPA will replace lead pipes across the country through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, we are highlighting historic documents that depict how advertising played a role in the growth of the lead industry. Throughout the early 20th century, the National Lead Company (currently known as NL

Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor: A Look Back in Time

The Environmental Protection Agency recently opened a civil rights investigation over pollution and discriminatory practices in Louisiana’s chemical corridor, however, residents have warned of hazardous exposures for decades. Dubbed “cancer alley” by residents, exposure to pollution from Louisiana’s chemical corridor has been linked to cancers, miscarriages, and other

Microplastics: Appears in Document Dating Back to 1946

With recent news [hhttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time] that microplastics are detected in places ranging from the depths of the ocean to the blood of humans, we are highlighting a 1946 document which contains the term “microplastic” in reference to National Gypsum Company Gold Bond plaster.

"Why Asbestos?": Presented by Swetonic of the Asbestos Information Association

Despite the emergence of evidence linking asbestos and lung cancer in the mid-1950s, asbestos remained in consumer products well into the 1970s. The document below highlights how Executive Secretary of the Asbestos Information Association Matthew M. Swetonic responded to mounting regulations on the asbestos industry. In 1973, Swetonic presented to

Industry Response to 1986 FOIA Amendment

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has transformed how the public engages with previously unreleased documents from corporations, government, and other agencies since it was enacted in 1967. While national agencies and organizations tend to file the most FOIA requests, individuals are also able to obtain documents of interest from

Estrogen Mimics: DES, DDT, and Dioxin

In 1994, the Vinyl Institute–a division under the trade association The Society of The Plastics Industry– sent a review on “Estrogen Mimics” to their Executive Board Technical Committee. Concern over estrogen mimics stems from their ability to cause multi-generational effects as observed with diethylstilbestrol (DES) including reproductive organ abnormalities,