Bergeson & Campbell
Attorney with Bergeson & Campbell, who specializes in the regulation of toxic chemicals
PROFILE
Lynn Bergeson
Guest
FROM Lynn Bergeson
To the Point
Is West Virginia's Water Crisis a Wake-up Call? Last Thursday, water from West Virginia's Elk River began to smell like licorice. The trouble was traced to a leak of methylcyclohexylmethanol from a one-inch hole in a storage tank just upstream from the plant treating water for 300,000 people, including those living in Charleston, the capital city. For five days, West Virginians were told, “don't drink the water — cook with it, shower, bathe the baby or wash your clothes." Levels of MCHM are finally being reduced, but nobody yet knows how much danger it's posing to public health. One of thousands of chemicals never tested for safety, MCHM is used in the coal industry, the driver of West Virginia's economy. The industry and its supporters attack EPA regulations as a “war against coal." Could regulatory enforcement have prevented the spill?
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The art and science of fixing faulty genes UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues say they can edit any organism’s DNA using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. This technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, could redefine the possibilities for editing human and non-human genes, opening the door to societal and ethical implications.
The 805
A Santa Barbara doctor learns to treat his own pain At the peak of his career as a palliative care doctor in Santa Barbara, Michael Kearney found himself burned out and in a state of personal suffering. Even though he had become an expert in treating the pain of others, he couldn’t treat his own. That changed when he had a revelatory experience that provided him with a path forward. Meanwhile, the November election is just days away, a look at what could happen to the Central Coast if California voters pass Proposition 10.