Gag order keeps Oregon from telling public about cancer-causing pollutant

Oregon officials think they've found high levels of a cancer-causing chemical in the air near a Lebanon battery parts maker, but a judge won't let them say a word about it.

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Thomas A. McHill on Friday agreed to Entek International's request for what appears to be an unprecedented gag order against state environmental and health regulators. Entek would be "irreparably harmed" if the regulators told the public about the preliminary finding, McHill wrote.

Ironically, though, much of what those regulators have to say appears in public court documents filed in their defense.

Those records say computer modeling indicates high levels of a cancer-causing solvent, trichloroethylene, may be present near Entek in an area that includes an elementary school.

Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/04/gag_order_keeps_oregon_from_te.html