A Chicago Tribune investigation has found that the flame retardants that are packed into couches, chairs and many other products are not working as promised. Furthermore, two powerful industries--Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers have waged a deceptive campaign that led to the proliferation of these chemicals.

Sam Roe, Patricia Callahan and Michael Hawthorne utilized DocumentCloud to provide proof of the deception and its' widespread effect.

"An investigation by KING 5 Seattle has found that federal food inspectors were ordered to ignore moldy applesauce that a Washington plant shipped to grocery stores across America."

"The investigation revealed that USDA knew for more than three years that their inspectors had grave concerns about the sale of moldy applesauce to the public, but the federal food agency didn’t put a stop to it."

"A safety device required on all semitrailers has proven to break in test crashes and in a deadly accident in Middle Tennessee, a WSMV, Channel 4 I-Team investigation found."

Furthermore, "federal death statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate it's a widespread problem. On average, more than 300 people die every year when their car strikes the back of large trucks. It is unknown, however, how many deaths are caused by the failed device."

"A USA Today investigation reveals that seven decades after scientists came to the US during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess.

Several senior engineers cited design problems that could bring the treatment plant's operations to a halt before much of the waste is treated."

"Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration convened a committee of medical experts to weigh new evidence concerning the potential dangers in popular birth control pills including Bayer AG’s Yaz and Yasmin. The committee concluded by a four-vote margin that the benefits of drugs with drospirenone, the synthetic hormone in question, outweigh the risks.

However, an investigation by the Washington Monthly and the British medical journal BMJ has found that at least four members of the committee have either done work for the drugs’ manufacturers or licensees or received research funding from them. The FDA made none ...

John Fauber of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that "drug research, even from clinical trials sponsored by the federal government, routinely is suppressed, harming patients and increasing health care costs, according to new data highlighting an ethical controversy that continues to plague the field of medicine."

"The current situation is a disservice to research participants, patients, health systems and the whole endeavor of clinical medicine," according to an editorial accompanying the data published in the British Medical Journal.

An elderly couple was forced to move from their home after petroleum from an old gas station leaked into the ground and contaminated their well water. The couple was unaware of the Inland Protection Trust Fund, which was created by the state of Florida in 1986 "to respond to leaking petroleum storage tanks ... which threaten human health and the environment."

"Following the fund’s creation, the state offered amnesty programs to contaminated site owners to pay for the majority of the cleanup costs. But abandoned sites, such as Imperial Gas in Marion County, were not likely to get access to ...

At age 52, no one would think a mother and wife, with a roof over her head, would die from a drug overdose. However, after hurting her shoulder more than a decade ago, Myrtle Bailey died of a hydrocodone overdose. Unfortunately for her and many others, doctors are treating symptoms instead of actual problems. “Bailey was one of six people in Madison County to die of drug overdoses within a four-day span in June 2010. She was also one of 62 to die of a drug or alcohol overdose last year in the county, by far the county’s highest ...