it might not be the government

Today I learned that a fiberglass manufacturer near the Air Force base has been fined by the EPA for releasing too much styrene into the air over the course of several years, and inhaling styrene is supposed to make people sick. I am not at all surprised that inhaling styrene makes people sick since I can't even drink cold water from innocuous-looking clear styrene (#6) fast-food cups, but there was this EI a few years ago who was getting into trouble near the base, and the Air Force was denying everything. Since we expect the government to lie to us, it likely never occurred to anyone she discussed the problem with that they could be telling the truth, not that we have any way of knowing who caused what at this point.