By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers has teamed with the Sierra Club and other groups to form a coalition that’s suing the state of California to enforce the state’s protections against cancer-causing chemicals. USW’s Shawn Gilchrest says the coalition also wants Dupont’s Teflon chemical – PFOA – treated as a carcinogen.

[Gilchrest]: “The agencies are just not reacting to the hazardous chemicals the way that the law is intended. And so what we really want to do is hold the agencies accountable. We depend on our agencies and on our federal regulators to be watchdogs for us and its a shame when we actually have to take them to court to hold them accountable for doing what they should be doing."