Crude-by-rail is rolling into America's cities. Railroad shipments of volatile crude oil have increased 6,000 percent from 2008 to 2014, alarming citizens who weren’t told of the danger passing through their communities.
Members of the farmworker justice movement are calling on Congress to implement stronger protections for farmworkers from hazardous pesticides. The federal government estimates that there are 10,000–20,000 acute pesticide poisonings among workers in the agricultural industry annually.
Earthjustice is seeking to intervene on behalf of community groups to defend an ordinance that limits harmful pesticide spraying near homes, schools and waterways. The island’s county council passed the ordinance in the wake of repeated incidents of schoolchildren and other residents suffering symptoms of pesticide exposure, and inaction by Hawaiʻi authorities.