Articles by Sharon Lerner

We found 14 results.


How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment against Chevron Lost Everything
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 3 Feb 2020

29 Jan 2020 – Steven Donziger won a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuador. The company sued him in New York, and now he’s under house arrest. “I’m like a corporate political prisoner, they are trying to totally destroy me,” he said.

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Coca-Cola Named Most Polluting Brand in Global Audit of Plastic Waste
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 4 Nov 2019

23 Oct 2019 – Coca-Cola was found for the second year in a row to be the most polluting brand in a global audit of plastic trash conducted by the Break Free From Plastic global movement. The giant soda company was responsible for more plastic litter than the next top three polluters combined.

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(Português) Coca-Cola É a Maior Produtora de Lixo Plástico do Mundo, Aponta Auditoria Internacional
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 28 Oct 2019

24 out 2019 – Pelo segundo ano consecutivo, a Coca-Cola foi responsável pela produção de mais lixo plástico do que o total dos três poluidores que aparecem logo abaixo dela no ranking.

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Waste Only: How the Plastics Industry Is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 29 Jul 2019

20 Jul 2019 – Once regarded mostly as an eyesore or a nuisance, plastic waste is now widely understood to be a cause of species extinction, ecological devastation, and human health problems. The industry is gearing up for the fight of its life, which may explain why an expert in actual warfare gave the keynote at the plastics conference. Much of the “recycled” plastic scrap that the U.S. sent to China [931 million kilograms in 2017] was burned or buried instead of being refashioned into new products.

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The US Environmental Protection Agency Move to Phase Out Animal Experiments Could Mean the End of Toxics Regulations
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 8 Jul 2019

3 Jul 2019 – The EPA is moving forward with a plan to sharply reduce and ultimately phase out experimental testing on lab animals. In an undated internal memo sent in late June, EPA chief Andrew Wheeler explained that the agency will cut its funding for experiments on mammals in half by 2025.

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Poison Fruit: Dow Chemical Wants Farmers to Keep Using a Pesticide Linked to Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 16 Jan 2017

While children in farming communities get the biggest doses of chlorpyrifos, people across the country are exposed to potentially dangerous amounts of the chemical through their food. Though it’s unclear exactly how much pesticide residue can alter brain development, all of the researchers I spoke with told me they advise pregnant women and young children to eat organic fruits and vegetables.

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DuPont May Dodge Toxic Lawsuits by Pulling a Disappearing Act
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 20 Jun 2016

Deceit, duplicity, power play. First DuPont spun off much of its environmental liability into a new company known as Chemours. Now DuPont plans to merge with Dow.

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New Evidence about the Dangers of Monsanto’s Roundup
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 23 May 2016

The two men have other things in common, too: After being regularly exposed to Roundup, both developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer that starts in the lymph cells. And, as of April, both are plaintiffs in a suit filed against Monsanto that marks a turning point in the pitched battle over the most widely used agricultural chemical in history.

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New Teflon Toxin Causes Cancer in Lab Animals
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 7 Mar 2016

3 Mar 2016 – The chemical introduced by DuPont in 2009 to replace the surfactant PFOA causes many of the same health problems in lab tests that the original chemical did, including cancer and reproductive problems, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. PFOA, also known as C8, was a key ingredient in Teflon.

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A Chemical Shell Game: How DuPont Concealed the Dangers of the New Teflon Toxin
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 7 Mar 2016

3 Mar 2016 – Mark Strynar and Andrew Lindstrom walked down the muddy bank of the Cape Fear River toward the water, sampling equipment in hand. It was the summer of 2012, and the scientists, who both work for the Environmental Protection Agency, were taking the first steps in what would be more than two years of detective work. On the western bank of the river sits a large plant built by DuPont.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Used Monsanto’s Research to Give Roundup a Pass
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 9 Nov 2015

27 out of 32 studies that looked at glyphosate’s effect on endocrine disruptor hormones and were cited in the June review — most of which are not publicly available and were obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request — were conducted, sponsored or funded by Monsanto. One study was by Syngenta, which sells its own glyphosate-containing herbicide, Touchdown.

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DuPont Found Liable in Teflon Toxin Trial
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 12 Oct 2015

8 Oct 2015 – A jury has found Dupont liable for negligence in the case of Carla Bartlett, taking less than a day to award $1.6 million to the Ohio woman who developed kidney cancer after drinking water contaminated with a chemical formerly used to make Teflon.

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The Teflon Toxin – Part 3: How DuPont Slipped Past the EPA
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 24 Aug 2015

During the five decades in which DuPont used and profited from C8, the company had only infrequently discussed the chemical with environmental authorities, and it kept most of its extensive internal research on the chemical confidential. After Bilott sent out his packages of evidence, however, DuPont’s relationships to government agencies shifted dramatically. They had the power to tarnish the company’s reputation and lead to huge legal and cleanup costs, so DuPont focused on weathering the scrutiny of regulators and keeping its name — and profits — unscathed.

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The Teflon Toxin – Part 1: DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept, 17 Aug 2015

In some ways, C8 already is the tobacco of the chemical industry — a substance whose health effects were the subject of a decades-long corporate cover-up. DuPont elected not to disclose its findings to regulators. A DuPont lawyer referred to C8 as “the material 3M sells us that we poop to the river and into drinking water along the Ohio River.”

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