Word: velsicol
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Companies accused of selling unsafe products have drawn steadily harsher penalties from courts and regulatory agencies in recent years. Last week that trend was significantly advanced by Jus tice Department felony indictments against Chicago-based Velsicol Chemical Corp. and six present and former employ ees. The executives, all of whom could face prison terms, are charged with con spiring to conceal from the Environmental Protection Agency the results of tests that showed that two widely used pesticides may cause cancer in humans. The indictment is the first ever sought by the EPA against a company for covering up adverse information...
Typical of the agency's shortcomings, says the subcommittee, is the EPA'S failure to act effectively against leptophos, an insecticide that has recently been implicated in an outbreak of nervous disorders among employees at a plant operated by the Velsicol Chemical Corp. in Bayport, Texas. The company, notes the report, failed to inform the EPA of the illnesses for five months. But the EPA ignored equally compelling evidence that the chemical was dangerous. In 1973 and 1974, while the EPA was evaluating leptophos, it received repeated warnings from scientists that the compound was neurotoxic, or capable...