Benzene

• Lab testing found numerous acne products formulated with benzoyl peroxide, including face washes, creams, and spot treatments, degrade to cancer-causing benzene under normal use and handling.
• LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Wisner Baum filed multiple class actions alleging several companies sold benzoyl peroxide (BPO) acne products without warning consumers that they contain unsafe levels of benzene, a potent human carcinogen.
• Class action attorneys Stephanie B. Sherman and R. Brent Wisner filed the complaints (Example Case: Howard et al.
• "Our clients never would have purchased these products had they known they were exposing themselves to a dangerous carcinogen."

• Today, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada announced the draft regulations to further reduce emissions from the petroleum sector of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are airborne pollutants that contribute to smog.
• These changes would improve air quality in neighbourhoods and communities across the country that are close to oil and gas facilities.
• The draft regulations reflect an on-going commitment to environmental justice and the need to address disproportionate environmental harms on communities near industrial sites.
• Exposure levels are higher in communities near large emission sources, including Indigenous and low-income communities already facing increased health burdens.

• Encina to supply Covestro with chemically recycled raw materials enabling circular MDI, TDI and polycarbonate starting at the end of 2027
  PITTSBURGH, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Covestro, a global leader in high performance polymers, and Encina, a US-based producer of ISCC PLUS certified circular chemicals, reached a long-term supply agreement for chemically recycled, circular feedstock derived from post-consumer end-of-life plastic.
• Specifically, Encina will supply Covestro with benzene and toluene pending the completion of Encina's world-scale production facility, anticipated to come online at the end of 2027.
• Building upon previous sustainable sourcing efforts, this marks the first major procurement agreement involving chemically recycled, circular-based raw materials for Covestro, a major step in the company's journey towards full circularity.
• The agreement with Encina represents a pioneering milestone for incorporating innovative recycling technologies, in this case chemical recycling of end-of-life plastic, into Covestro's production.

• It’s incomprehensible, then, that many of our politicians support “unlocking the Beetaloo Basin” in the Northern Territory and developing another 48 oil and gas projects across Australia.
• Today we have launched a report that demonstrates the many risks of oil and gas development for human health and wellbeing in Australia.
• Read more:
  Australia's 116 new coal, oil and gas projects equate to 215 new coal power stations

What is the evidence against oil and gas?

• There is a need to combat widely held misconceptions and repeated misinformation about the safety of the oil and gas industry.
• New research clearly shows that “unlocking gas” is at least as harmful to the climate as mining and burning coal.
• Our report synthesises recent scientific and public health research on five areas of concern about oil and gas operations:
• Fracking is often applied many times to each of hundreds to thousands of wells in a region.
• Air becomes contaminated with volatile organic compounds, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, radioactive materials, diesel fumes, hydrogen sulfide, acrolein and heavy metals.
• Read more:
  Companies that frack for oil and gas can keep a lot of information secret – but what they disclose shows widespread use of hazardous chemicals

What are the health impacts?

People exposed to oil and gas operations experience a long list of harms. These include:


Read more:
Land clearing and fracking in Australia's Northern Territory threatens the world's largest intact tropical savanna

Putting Indigenous people and others in harm’s way

• Some companies have allegedly violated the rights of Traditional Owners to free, prior and informed consent.
• The massive disruption of Aboriginal Country and life puts people at great risk of physical, social, emotional, cultural and spiritual harm.
• The report also issues a loud warning about sexual violence against First Nations Americans and Canadians associated with oil and gas activities.
• She is affiliated with the Climate and Health Alliance, Australian Public Health Association and the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.