Court Scraps Agent Orange Suit

US will join decontamination effort early next year

(AP) - Vietnam today started the first phase of a joint plan with former enemy the United States to clean up environmental damage leftover from the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, a lasting legacy from the Vietnam War. Vietnam's Ministry of Defense will begin sweeping areas around the Danang airport, a former US military base in central Vietnam where the herbicide was stored, for unexploded ordnance. The US Agency for International Development will then assist in removing dioxin from soil and sediment at the site. It marks the first time the two sides will work together on the ground to clean up contamination. More»

(NEWSER) - Exposure to Agent Orange appears to increase the risk of developing heart disease and Parkinson’s, a congressionally mandated report says. The carcinogenic defoliant has not been definitively linked with the illnesses, but a professor who led the report says there is “limited or suggestive evidence of an association." More evidence of a link is likely to emerge as Vietnam veterans exposed to the chemical grow older, HealthDay News reports. More»

Calif. settlement would limit acrymalide, a byproduct of cooking

(NEWSER) - Potato chip companies have agreed to settle a California lawsuit that charged them with not warning consumers about a cancer-causing chemical in their snacks, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Frito-Lay, Kettle, and the company that makes Cape Cod potato chips will lower the levels of acrylamide in their products and pay the state around $2 million. More»

Chemical company hopes to leave bankruptcy by year's end

(NEWSER) - Chemical company WR Grace cleared a major hurdle in its 7-year effort to emerge from bankruptcy yesterday, agreeing to pay more than $3 billion to settle asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits, reports the Baltimore Sun. The deal, which a bankruptcy judge must approve, would establish a trust fund to settle current and future lawsuits. "In the final analysis, nothing will really compensate for people who lose their husbands or wives," said a lawyer for the claimants. More»