North Carolina Injury Attorney Blog

For years, those living near the former CTS Corporation on Mills Gap Road in Asheville have complained of foul smelling tap water, contaminated ground water, and health problems neighbors believe are caused by the dumping of the dangerous solvent TCE. Despite the documented pollution, no clean-up has occurred, and CTS refuses to accept responsibility.

Concerned citizens from Asheville gathered in Skyland last week and called for investigations by Congress and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office regarding alleged mistakes and cover-ups by those charged with investigating the pollution at the former CTS/Mills Gap site.

The citizens group criticized a recent report released by the North Carolina Division of Public Health. That report concluded that private well samples collected over the last 10 years did not pose a danger to the public health because those living in the area no longer use their private wells or the levels in the wells that are still in use are too low to cause harm. The report's conclusion is evasive and vague. The only reason the private well water of those living close to the former CTS site is not harmful is because those residents have stopped drinking the water. The citizens group clearly has a valid point.

Further investigation is warranted, and a major clean-up is needed to restore this area in Buncombe County to its unpolluted condition. CTS should step up financially and make right the wrong it has inflicted. Dumping industrial solvents onto the ground near a residential area is idiotic and indicates a reckless indifference to the rights and safety of those living in close proximity to the site.

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Wisconsin's governor signed a bill into law yesterday that bans the dangerous chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in all cups sold in Wisconsin for children three years and younger. The ban will cover baby bottles, sippy cups and other similar products used by young children. Many studies have found that BPA is an endocrine-disrupter in animals, including early sexual maturation, altered development of the mammary gland and decreased sperm production in offspring.

A recent FDA announcement indicated "some concern" about how BPA may affect babies and children. The federal agency has now put $30 million aside for additional research studies over the next 2 years. Last year, a Harvard study found that participants who drank for one week from the popular polycarbonate (hard plastic) bottles, commonly used as water and baby bottles, had a 66% increase of BPA in their urine. The study concluded that BPA is leached from the container into the blood stream in sufficient quantities to show up in the urine.

The dangerous chemical has already been banned in Minnesota, Connecticut, the city of Chicago, and three counties in New York. Legislation to ban BPA in childrens' products is currently pending in Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington, D.C. Canada was the first country to pass a nationwide ban of BPA. The North Carolina Legislature should take steps to protect all North Carolina children from BPA because children do not get to chose the type of container from which they drink.

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