Chemicals & Manufacturing

Engenia, Tavium and Xtendimax — three weedkillers sold by Bayer, Syngenta and BASF respectively — share a common toxic ingredient: dicamba. First approved for use in the U.S. in 2016 on certain crops, the three weedkillers were outlawed in 2020 after they were found to kill other crops. Read More

Twenty workers were killed in an explosion at Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel smelter in Morowali Industrial Park on Sulawesi island in Indonesia last December, shining a spotlight on the safety problems that are rife in the production of one of the key raw materials for electric car batteries. Read More

The United Auto Workers union announced a historic strike against the “Big Three” U.S. Read More

Toyota published advertisements for its Hilux SUV vehicles by depicting them driving through rugged nature scenes. Activist groups Adfree Cities and Badvertising lodged a complaint with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the grounds that the ad encouraged behavior “grossly prejudicial” to environmental protection. The ASA then banned the ad from being used in the UK. Read More

In August 2020, a huge explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, killed 218 people. The cause was determined to be a fire that ignited a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that had brought to the port on the MV Rhosus, a ship registered to Savaro Ltd., a UK company. Victims’ families sued Savoro in UK courts – and in February the High Court of Justice in London ruled that Savoro needs to compensate the affected families. Read More

Traditional Māori owners are fighting to force Norske Skog to clean up the toxic mess left behind by the six decade old Tasman paper and pulp mill on the Rotorua lake on the North Island of New Zealand that closed for good in 2021. Read More

Workers at construction materials company Saint Gobain’s factory in Cuaulta, Morelos, Mexico, defeated company-backed union Confederation of Workers & Peasants (CTC) to set up a new union named the Independent Union of Free and Democratic Workers of Saint-Gobain. The victory over CTC was a result of major labor law reforms enacted in 2019. Read More

ArcelorMittal, the steel giant, has promised to invest $1 billion to upgrade its mining and metallurgical complex in Temirtau, Kazakhstan, where dozens of workers have died in industrial accidents in recent years and the pollution is so bad that winter snow sometimes turns black. Read More

Formosa Plastics, based in Taiwan, has proposed to build one of the world’s biggest plastics factory - a massive new $9.4 billion complex in St. James, Louisiana. The plans for the plant are projected to double air pollution in an area with some of the worst air quality in the U.S. Read More

Wearing white overalls stained with blood-red paint, members of Extinction Rebellion protested at Monsanto’s headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in mid-May. Read More