TASK DEFINITION: Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
PROBLEM: Paragraph: The deal would resolve alleged violations of civil environmental statutes, including the Clean Water Act, related to the pollution from a company factory in Waynesboro. It would amount to the largest environmental damage settlement in Virginia history and the eighth largest in the nation, officials said. The money would go to projects including wildlife habitat restoration, water quality enhancement and improvements to recreational areas. “In bringing this settlement to a close, we are finally righting a wrong that has impacted the South River and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River for so many decades,” Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said at a news conference announcing the settlement. Wilmington, Delaware-based Dupont Co. used mercury in its process of making synthetic fiber at the plant between 1929 and 1950, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. Strict storage and disposal regulations weren’t in place at the time, and some of the mercury seeped into the South River and flowed downstream to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. DuPont discovered the mercury — which accumulates in fish and is especially dangerous to pregnant or breastfeeding women and young children — in the facility’s soil in 1976, officials say. The pollution impacted over 100 miles of river and thousands of acres of floodplain and riparian habitat, affecting fish, mussels, migratory birds and amphibians, the Department of Justice said in a statement. The pollution also has limited some recreational fishing in Waynesboro, a city of about 20,000 in the Shenandoah Valley. The terms of the settlement are outlined in a proposed consent decree that was filed in federal court in Harrisonburg on Thursday. It is subject to a 45-day public comment period and must be approved by the court. The amount of money proposed is “quite impressive,” but mercury is very persistent in the environment and very difficult to remove, said Dr. Thomas Benzing, a professor of integrated science and technology at James Madison University who works with a team of researchers who have been monitoring the mercury levels since 2001. If the settlement goes forward, DuPont would pay slightly more than $42 million toward projects including streamside plantings and erosion control to improve water quality and fish habitat; mussel propagation and restoration; migratory songbird habitat restoration and protection; and recreational fishing access creation or improvement. The company also will pay for renovations at the Front Royal Fish Hatchery to improve production of warm-water fish such as smallmouth bass, at an estimated cost of up to $10 million. “Every dollar is going to be used to clean up the land, the source issues and the water, to where it would have been” if not for the pollution, said Assistant Attorney General John Cruden of the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division. No one from DuPont — which is awaiting final regulatory approval for its merger with Dow Chemical in a deal to create DowDuPont, a $130 billion conglomerate — spoke at the announcement. But Mike Liberati, South River project director for the DuPont Corporate Remediation Group, said in a statement that DuPont “is committed to a long-term presence in the Waynesboro area and to maintaining transparency with its citizens.” The first phase of remediation, involving part of the riverbank in Waynesboro’s Constitution Park could be complete in February. Soil there containing the highest concentrations of mercury is being excavated and hauled away and replaced by clean topsoil, Liberati said. “It’s going to be a long-term project. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight,” Benzing said. Claim: DuPont to pay $50M over mercury-contaminated Virginia rivers.

SOLUTION: Chemical giant DuPont will pay more than $50 million but admit no fault under a proposed environmental settlement after releasing toxic mercury for decades that made its way into Shenandoah Valley waterways, state and federal officials announced Thursday.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: Pfizer shares were up nearly 4 percent on positive findings for the oral treatment, called palbociclib, one of the company’s most important experimental drugs that some analysts believe could eventually claim annual sales of more than $5 billion, if approved. The trial tested the pill in post-menopausal patients with locally advanced or newly diagnosed breast cancer that had spread to other parts of the body. “We are delighted with the final data,” Pfizer said in a release, adding the company will discuss the successful data on progression-free survival with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “to determine next steps” for palbociclib. A secondary goal of the study is to determine whether palbociclib can prolong overall survival. But Pfizer spokeswoman Sally Beatty said the company does not yet have such data, because it takes longer periods to follow patients and gauge survival trends. Although Pfizer is conducting two larger late-stage trials of palbociclib, ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum noted the company has previously said it might discuss with the FDA the potential to seek approval of the medicine based upon mid-stage trial data, if the data warranted. Palbociclib, which blocks enzymes known as cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) 4 and 6, was taken in combination with a standard treatment called letrozole among women who were estrogen receptor positive - meaning tumors grow in response to estrogen - and HER2-negative, meaning that the HER2 protein is not causing the cancer. Such patients make up about 60 percent of advanced breast cancer cases. Letrozole is the chemical name of Femara, a Novartis AG drug that belongs to a class of treatments called aromatase inhibitors that block production of estrogen. Pfizer on Monday did not present detailed data from the trial results, saying they would be presented at a scientific meeting in San Diego in April. The success of the trial, called Paloma-1, follows highly favorable interim data that Pfizer unveiled in December 2012. At that point in the study, those taking both palbociclib and letrozole went an average of 26.1 months before tumors worsened. That compared with 7.5 months for those taking letrozole, but not palbociclib. The 18.6-month difference was considered statistically significant. Side effects from palbociclib were similar to those previously reported, Pfizer said on Monday. The earlier interim results had shown that patients taking the drug combination experienced anemia, fatigue and neutropenia - a decline in white blood cells called neutrophils that can put patients at higher risk of infection. Palbociclib was designated a “breakthrough” drug by the FDA last April based on initial data from the trial. The FDA grants “breakthrough” status to drugs that may offer substantial improvement over existing treatments for serious or life-threatening diseases. The status helps to speed up the approval process. Pfizer has started two late-stage trials of the drug - Paloma-2 and Paloma-3 - in patients with advanced breast cancer. Paloma-2 will test the same drug combination, palbociclib and letrozole, as an initial treatment for breast cancer. Paloma-3 will evaluate palbociclib in combination with another hormone therapy, fulvestrant, in women whose cancer has progressed after hormonal therapy. The drug, sold under the brand name Faslodex by AstraZeneca Plc, is called an estrogen receptor antagonist. Companies trying to develop treatments similar to palbociclib include Novartis and Eli Lilly & Co. Breast cancer killed more than 508,000 women worldwide in 2011, according to the World Health Organization. Pfizer shares were up 3.7 percent at $31.53 on Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. Claim: Pfizer breast cancer drug succeeds in mid-stage trial.

SOLUTION: Pfizer Inc’s experimental breast cancer drug significantly delayed progression of symptoms in a mid-stage trial, meeting the study’s primary goal and keeping Pfizer in the forefront of a race for a new standard of care for the disease.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: "When President Trump announced a plan to suspend immigration to the United States, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted the news with her own assessment of the decision: ""Immigrants make up a majority of essential workers in places like New York City,"" the Democrat wrote April 21. ""They're on the front lines of the battle against this pandemic. I stand with our immigrant communities now and always."" With so much dependent on the group of people that have become known as ""essential workers,"" we wanted to look closer at Gillibrand’s statement to see if the numbers support it. Immigrants make up a majority of essential workers in places like New York City—they're on the front lines of the battle against this pandemic. I stand with our immigrant communities now and always. https://t.co/3KvPLoztko We found that while the statistics on this question are a little murky, one credible study does reinforce her assertion. Gillibrand’s communication’s director, Evan Lukaske, told PolitiFact that the senator was defining essential worker based on the way the New York City comptroller's office defined ""frontline workers"" in its March 26 report, ""New York City’s Frontline Workers."" The comptroller’s report defined New York City’s COVID-19 ""frontline workers"" as grocery, convenience, and drug store workers; public transit workers; trucking, warehouse, and U.S. Postal Service workers; health care workers; child care, homeless, food, and family services workers; and cleaning service workers. On March 20, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and the New York State Department of Economic Development issued a guidance on the term ""essential worker,"" and it listed several categories of worker who would not be covered under the categories used in the comptroller’s report, including those working at airports, certain types of manufacturing enterprises, hardware stores, funeral homes, animal shelters, and banks. Notably, the comptroller report’s ""frontline worker"" category includes only ""direct-service, mostly non-governmental employees,"" meaning that it doesn’t count most types of public employees. As a result, the report does not take into account police officers, firefighters, and other first responders. So while Lukaske said that Gillibrand ""is using ‘frontline’ and ‘essential’ as synonymous, there is a discrepancy between the two terms, and an alternate definition could end up changing the demographic profile. That said, the comptroller’s report provides one reasonable definition. So what does the report’s analysis show? According to the comptroller’s study, more than 53% of frontline workers are foreign-born, meaning they’re immigrants. Of the sectors studied, building cleaning services employs the highest share of immigrants at 70%. It is followed by health care and food and drug store workers, both at 53%. Other studies have backed up the broader proposition that immigrants make up a significant portion of essential workers. The Center for Migration Studies of New York, a think tank on international migration, has estimated that 1.8 million immigrants in New York state work in jobs the state considers ""essential businesses."" The think tank found that foreign-born workers make up 31.5% of workers in essential businesses in New York state, despite only representing 28% of the state’s overall labor force. (It is logical that New York City’s percentage would be higher, since immigrants represent a higher share of the population in the city than in the rest of the state.) Nationally, immigrants make up a ""sizable"" share of essential workers in the fight against the pandemic, said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the Migration Policy Institute. The group estimates that 6 million immigrants are working frontline jobs in health care, food production, and transportation, and another 6 million immigrants work in industries such as food services and domestic household services. ""You can assume that an immigrant-rich area like New York City might have higher shares of immigrants than the U.S. average in particular occupations,"" she said. Meanwhile, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that immigrants represent about 45% of the total workforce in New York City. That’s in line with Gillibrand’s assertion, said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer with the Pew Research Center. Gillibrand said that ""immigrants make up a majority of essential workers in places like New York City."" This number is backed up by a New York City comptroller’s office study that found that 53% of all ""frontline"" workers in the city are immigrants. However, the comptroller office’s definition, which doesn’t include government workers such as first responders and which differs from the state’s definition of ""essential workers,"" is only one way of analyzing the data, and other methods might produce a lower percentage." Claim: “Immigrants make up a majority of essential workers in places like New York City.”

SOLUTION:
Gillibrand’s number is backed up by a New York City comptroller’s office study that found that 53% of all “frontline” workers in the city are immigrants. However, the comptroller’s definition doesn’t include government workers such as first responders and differs from the state’s definition of “essential workers.” So it is one way of analyzing the data, and other methods might produce a lower percentage.