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CIEL Report: Formosa Plastics as a Case Study

zoefriese

CIEL's report is the first I have encountered to attempt to give a comprehensive analysis of Formosa Plastics and its impact on communities. The report breaks down the corporation's story into several sections: its origins and convoluted corporate structure, its primary products and common health risks of production, documented legal violations, and environmental justice threats. Together, the 100-page document covers significant ground, yet is readable in under an hour. It includes key statistics that are understandable without extensive background. I believe this report, as a mode of communication, finds an outstanding balance between accessible language, analysis, brevity, and detail. Activists and researchers alike should strive for the same qualities in their knowledge-sharing strategies.

Serial offender report with transnational scope

tschuetz

This report released in 2021 by the Center for International Environmental Law was an important collaboration between "No Formosa" organizers in different settings. While the report's primary goal was to highlight and challenge Formosa's expansion in Southern Louisiana, it also addressed Formosa's operation in different places in the US, as well as Cambodia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The report also prompted discussions about how to talk about environmental justice and what related concepts (like environmental racism) can be used to characterize the dynamics that produce injustices in these settings. 

Train carrying PVC derails in Ohio

tschuetz

Rick Mullin (Feb 9, 2023) reports about a railcar accident in Ohio in which several cars carrying vinyl chloride had to be released and burned. Mullin highlights that the event is one in a series of recent rail accidents in Ohio, calling into questions the safety of the railway infrastructure. He also mentions that, based on data from the Chlorine Institute  20,000 rail shipments of vinyl chloride in North America in 2021.

The Ohio train derailment underscores the dangers of the plastics boom: https://grist.org/transportation/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-p…

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/FalconryFinance/status/1624051231554510848

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maryclare.crochiere

"Two FDNY EMTs who had to intervene to stop four police officers beating a handcuffed patient on a stretcher have turned the cops in to authorities"

""Three cops began to punch the patient in the face, EMS (had) to get in the middle of it to intervene. Pt's. wounds and injuries cleaned in the (ambulance)," the report said."

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maryclare.crochiere

The article shows the fact that EMTs had to step in to prevent police officers from further abusing an inmate/patient. The purpose of EMS is to take care of people that are hurt accidentally or in crimes, not to pull police officers off of patients. This article is purely factual, but shows a very poor example of police "helping" EMTs.

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maryclare.crochiere

This article is all about emergency response. Could you imagine being called to a scene where the patient is sustaining injuries from a police officer? As EMTs, we are trained to help police for help if the patient is combative or a minor, and all they should do is restrain the patient or act as their parent for custody purposes. The police officer should not be the reason we have to provide care, unless someone's safety was at risk - which it does not seem was the case. This situation shows increased risk for EMTs in the field and more challenges we are facing each day with the politics and violence around police departments these days.

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wolmad

"The violence broke out when the patient spit at the Emergency Service Unit officers and swore at them. The officers responded by hitting him in the face, hauling him off the stretcher to the ground and then tossing him back on the stretcher, "

"After the first round of punches, the patient was "taken off the stretcher to the ground and restrained again, pt. was thrown by ESU again on to my stretcher," the EMT wrote. "Pt. sustained injuries to face and head," the report said."