About the Documents in the Chemical Industry Archives
The documents in the Chemical Industry Archives fall into four main categories:
Vinyl Chloride:
These documents were obtained by lawyers for Elaine Ross, the widow of a
worker for Conoco's chemical division who sued the company for allegedly causing her husband's death. Ms. Ross was represented by
William Baggett Jr., who served as EWG's tireless and expert guide through the mountain of chemical
industry documents made public through the litigation. There are about 10,000 pages in this collection from different companies
involved in the production of vinyl chloride, including Monsanto,
B.F. Goodrich, and Union Carbide.
The Chemical Manufacturers Association:
These documents represent the minutes from meetings of the Chemical Manufacturers Association, the trade association for the chemical industry,
and of its predecessor, the Manufacturing Chemists Association, which is now known as American Chemistry Council. Containing more than 25,000 pages,
these documents reach back to the early 1940s and include many of the trade group's committees, from Occupational Health and Safety to Government
Relations. Records of all of the CMA's Board of Directors and Executive Committee meetings up to the early 1990s are included in this collection.
Anniston, AL:
These documents, which emerged from a court case in 2000, reveal the truth about PCB contamination
in and around a Monsanto chemical plant in Anniston, Alabama.
Monsanto officials knew about the risks posed by PCB contamination, yet they withheld information about the contamination from the members of the community.
The documents also show that some state officials knew about the PCB problem, but did nothing to protect the people of Anniston or towns downstream.
Scotchgard:
This collection of 30,000 pages contains studies on PFOS, the toxic component in 3M's stain-repellant Scotchgard, which has been found in
virtually every sample of human blood that has been tested, and causes liver damage in laboratory rats. While these documents are publicly available
from EPA, they had not been searchable or viewable on the Internet until now. Please note that some of the documents in this collection are long
studies, which may require a lengthy download on a slower Internet connection.
Note:
Unless selected differently on the search page, all searches are performed on a combination of
the vinyl chloride, CMA, and Anniston, Alabama collections, a total of over 35,000 pages. Due to the large size of the Scotchgard collection, it must
be searched separately. All documents are presented in Adobe's pdf format,
and require the free Acrobat Reader to be viewed.
last updated: april.9.2001
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The Chemical Industry Archives is a project of the Environmental Working Group.
Many documents in the archives require Adobe Acrobat reader (free download).
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