As with oil and coal, our addiction to nitrogen is harming the very ecosystems we need to survive.As with oil and coal, our addiction to nitrogen is harming the very ecosystems we need... more
India has blocked entry to a former US naval ship heading for break-up at a scrap yard on its west coast, citing environmental and pollution concerns.India has blocked entry to a former US naval ship heading for break-up at a scrap yard... more
"We all know pollution and toxins are bad for you, but the Environmental Working Group has conducted perhaps the deepest analysis of this issue on the most vulnerable demographic on the planet."
Ken Cook is president and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group (EWG), a public interest research and advocacy organization that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment.
http://www.ewg.org/"We all know pollution and toxins are bad for you, but the Environmental Working Group... more
Drug addiction clinics say they are becoming increasingly concerned by the health risks associated with the chemical -- the only known example of the body forming a third drug following the ingestion of two others.
For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug...
These 25 common household foods can be lethal to your furry or feathered buddy. As a pet owner, your best bet is to stick with veterinary approved foods specifically
made for your pet.
A recent article in Nature Biotechnology on how biotechnology companies restrict independent research described a study showing that a genetically modified corn killed ladybugs and that the study was suppressed by the corn’s developer.
In 2001, Pioneer Hi-Bred developed a GM corn variety that contained two Bt toxins, Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1, to kill corn rootworms.
The company asked university laboratories to test for unintended consequences on ladybugs. Scientists fed the corn to ladybugs and found that nearly 100% died after the eighth day in the life cycle.
Pioneer forbade the scientists from publicizing the data. A scientist with the group who wants to remain anonymous said “The company came back and said ‘you are under no circumstances able to publicize this data in any way.’”
Pioneer submitted data to the EPA showing no harm to ladybugs and received government approval to commercialize the corn in 2003.
A Pioneer scientist says the commercialized variety contains a different genetic construct than the corn that killed the ladybugs.
The EPA was told about the independently produced data, but did nothing, according to the anonymous scientist. The same scientist also says Pioneer’s data is flawed.
(Source: Nature Biotechnology)A recent article in Nature Biotechnology on how biotechnology companies restrict... more
I just called and was told there have been several hundred other calls and that they are looking into legal ways to stop it. The person I spoke to didn't sound very enthused though. But please, call the number at the link and tell the EPA to intervene. It is the one way we can stop this once and for all!
Is the Earth worth one phone call?
___________
Mountaintop removal blasting has begun on Coal River Mountain.
These operations are happening only a few hundred feet away from the Brushy Fork impoundment dam, which holds over 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge above Pettus, WV. If the dam bursts, nearly a thousand people in the Coal River Valley would likely lose their lives within minutes.
At the same time, Coal River Mountain is the proposed site of an industrial wind farm. Studies have shown that its ridges have the highest and most productive wind potential. The Coal River Wind Project has done research to demonstrate that a wind farm on top of the mountain could generate approximately 1.2% of West Virginia's total energy needs, create 300 jobs in the area, and generate a long-term tax revenue stream. Every day that blasting happens, the possibility for the wind farm diminishes.
The state of West Virginia refuses to do anything about this destruction. Please contact the EPA and ask them to intevene at Coal River Mountain.
Call Lisa Jackson's office at (202) 564-4700.I just called and was told there have been several hundred other calls and that they... more
French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini unmasked the dangers of genetically modified brinjal, almost approved for commercial production in India. He shared with Savvy Soumya Misra his findings on Bt brinjal and Roundup Ready soybean
*On the data submitted on Bt brinjal by Mahyco for approval from the Indian government
The data submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) of the Union environment ministry is not valid; it has not been signed by the scientist who conducted the tests. What is more scandalous is that the studies on the effects of Bt brinjal were conducted for just three months.
If the product is to be consumed by humans, the tests should have been for a period of at least two years—the lifespan of a rodent.
Worse, Mahyco tried to cover up the side-effects by jumbling data on various types of brinjal in a way that it was hard to compare Bt brinjal with normal brinjal. I am sorry to say people in the geac did not carefully assess the data. It is also not clear how the geac overlooked the fact that Bt brinjal has a protein that induces resistance to antibiotics. Mahyco has not studied hormonal impacts of Bt brinjal—Bt toxin found in it could lead to reproductive health problems.
*On his findings on Roundup Ready soybean that tolerates herbicides
Our study found that even minute doses of Roundup (a natural herbicide) disrupt sex hormones like androgen and estrogen. The inert ingredients in Roundup Ready (RR) soybean like polyethoxylated tallowamine kill human cells and disrupt the synthesis and action of human sex hormones. The research was published in this year’s July edition of the journal Toxicology. Some pregnant women who consumed RR soybean developed disorders. This combined with certain studies on animals in labs (conducted by others) made us conclude that Roundup is an endocrine disruptor.
*On claims that GM plants reduce the need for pesticides
This is a false projection. Bt plants, in fact, are designed to produce toxins to repel pests. Bt brinjal produces a very high quantity of 16-17mg toxin per kg. They affect animals. Unfortunately, tests to ascertain their effect on humans have not been conducted. RR soybean that makes up 63 per cent of GM plants in the world contains high amounts of Roundup. The US food and drug administration (usfda) has allowed up to 400 ppm Roundup residues in animal feed. It is much more than what we recommended. There was a paper published in June in Scientific American saying usfda would review the approval accorded to RR soybean because of our study.French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini unmasked the dangers of genetically modified... more
"I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of molecular data than in this study" - Prof Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, who assessed Monsanto-Mahyco's molecular transformation methods
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"Set aside Bt brinjal recommendation"
The Hindu (National edition), October 14 2009 http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/16/stories/2009101657611300.htm
*No studies for toxicity conducted: Expert
*"Bt brinjal will impact food security, health"
*No gene-flow studies were done
NEW DELHI: It may well go down as the blackest day in Indian history, unless the government reverses the decision of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to recommend commercial release of Mahyco's Bt brinjal.
Bt brinjal will impact the country's food security, health, farming and environment in perpetuity, says a food safety analyst.
"We who know the details of the appraisal of the Mahyco-Monsanto safety dossier by four world renowned scientists [Seralini, Carman, Heinemann and Gurian-Sherman] cannot imagine the extent of the disaster that will unfold in India," Aruna Rodrigues said from Mhow in Madhya Pradesh.
Quoting Seralini of France, Ms. Rodrigues said no long-term feeding studies for chronic toxicity had been conducted for Bt brinjal. These feeding studies only would help reveal tumours/cancers as they grow slowly. "The inescapable conclusion of these feeding studies is that they have been 'engineered' or designed to throw up 'no significant differences'," she said.
Ms. Rodrigues said Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a former scientist of the Environment Protection Agency, speaking about contamination from gene flow from Bt brinjal to wild brinjal relatives and domesticated varieties, reported that no gene-flow studies were done. "The possibility of harm from gene flow has been widely recognised by many scientists. In the United States, this recognition has been a major factor in regulatory action restricting the commercialisation of GE crops (including cotton) with wild relatives. India is a centre of domestication and diversity for brinjal, and this adds additional concern."
She said Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, who assessed Mahyco's molecular transformation methods, asserted that the company had failed at the elementary step of the safety study, analysing the insertion. "I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of molecular data than in this study," he was quoted as saying.
Ms. Rodrigues said the fact that the government accepted the principle that the seed-developing company itself should do safety testing of its own product and "trusted" it to do so invalidated the safety dossier."I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of... more
A fisherman at the Pier in New York is having a successful day fishing, when a stranger asks for a fish. The fisherman obliges but shortly thereafter feels regret for not teaching this Fishmoocher how to avoid the toxic pollutants in the fish caught around New York City. Through reality TV style interviews both the fisherman and Fishmoocher explain some of the health risks and how to avoid them. If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish he will eat for a lifetime, but make sure it is a long and healthy life by knowing how to avoid the pollutants in the fish we catch. http://www.goingcoastal.orgA fisherman at the Pier in New York is having a successful day fishing, when a... more
Canadians Join Global Day of Action Against Monsanto: Challenge approval of new eight-trait GM "SmartStax" corn
Today Canadians opposing Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) crops will join the first "International Day of Action Against Multinational Corporations" that has been initiated by the global farmers' movement called La Via Campesina. Canadians will support this year's focus on Monsanto and GM crops by inundating the Minister of Health with letters and calls asking for the immediate withdrawal of approval for Monsanto's GM "SmartStax" corn, authorized without safety assessment from Health Canada.
Canadians are calling and writing the Minister of Health to ask that she immediately halt the introduction of Monsanto’s new eight-trait GM corn called "SmartStax" because it was not assessed for safety by Health Canada. "SmartStax" corn was authorized this summer by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for planting next year but was not examined by Health Canada for human health safety.
La Via Campesina is calling multinational corporations the "main threat to peasant and indigenous families and humanity" because corporations are privatizing land, biodiversity, water, and seeds. Monsanto is the world's largest seed company and owns almost 90% of all the GM crops sown globally.
"It's extremely significant that La Via Campesina is focusing their World Food Day action on Monsanto and GM crops. It shows us that farmers around the world see GM crops as a major threat to their survival," said Devlin Kuyek, a Montreal-based researcher for the international group GRAIN.
"Monsanto and Dow together own eight patents in 'SmartStax' corn and will charge higher prices and take deeper control over seed," said Benoit Girouard, President of Union Paysanne, a member group of La Via Campesina.
"Health Canada must stop Monsanto's 'SmartStax' corn before farmers start growing a GM crop that was never assessed for human consumption." said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. "The Minister of Health is supporting Monsanto ahead of safeguarding the health of Canadians."
"Monsanto is still pushing GM wheat and GM alfalfa regardless of the major environmental risks and despite the fact that consumers and farmers have soundly rejected both," said Arnold Taylor of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate’s Organic Agriculture Protection Fund.
"Contamination by GM crops is causing deep financial harm to Canadian farmers," said Terry Boehm, Vice-President of the National Farmers Union, also a member group of La Via Campesina. "Right now we see that Canadian farmers face the loss of their most important flax market in Europe due to GM contamination."Canadians Join Global Day of Action Against Monsanto: Challenge approval of new... more
Indian tribe the Dongria Kondh face destruction of their lands and extinction at the hands of British mining giant Vedanta Resources.
The ash spills out across the plain beneath the brooding bulk of Niyamgiri mountain, swamping the trees that once grew here, forming dirty grey-brown drifts around the stems of the now-dead scrub.
Every day there is more ash, pouring out of the alumina refinery that squats among the steep-sided, jungle-clad hills of western Orissa, India. The dust hangs in the air and clings to the landscape, settling on the huts of the aboriginal Kondh tribes who call this place home, choking those who breathe it in.
Niyamgiri is as remote as any place in the country: 600km from the state capital Bhubaneswar, accessible only by narrow, shattered roads pocked with deep holes, a world away from the economic powerhouse that is 21st-century India.
It is a place of quiet beauty, of lush green paddy fields and huge mango trees, where self-sufficient tribes still share the jungle with elephant, tiger and leopard. Yet this most unlikely place is now the frontline in a clash of civilisations that has pitched the indigenous population up against the corporate might of the British mining company Vedanta Resources, intent on dragging Niyamgiri into the modern world.
It is the mineral wealth lying beneath the slopes of the mountain that has drawn Vedanta to Niyamgiri. It wants to turn the hillside into a giant bauxite mine to feed its refinery at the foot of the mountain.
The FTSE 100-listed company, which is run by the abrasive billionaire Anil Agarwal, is pressing ahead despite a desperate local rearguard action and an international outcry. Yesterday the British government turned on the company, issuing an unexpectedly damning assessment of its behaviour.
Vedanta hopes the refinery will produce at least one million tonnes of alumina a year. But the Kondh people – the Dongria, Kutia and Jharania – need the bauxite too. It holds water remarkably well and helps feed the perennial streams on which they and the animals that live on the mountain rely. Once the bauxite is gone, they fear, the streams will run dry. And that will be the end of the Kondh.
Faced with ferocious local opposition and an international campaign to stop the development, the company has returned time and again to the courts to push its plans through. In July, after numerous setbacks and rulings against it, it was finally given permission by India's supreme court to start mining.
It has wasted no time. Already, the skeleton of an enormous conveyor belt snakes out of the refinery and up to the foot of the mountain. Beyond it, an ugly scar of deep red earth runs up the hillside where hundreds of trees have been felled. Convoys of lorries trundle along the narrow roads, churning them to mud.
There are still legal challenges that the protesters can make and there is also the remote possibility that Vedanta shareholders, which include the Church of England, could bring pressure on the board to reverse its plans.
Although the mining is yet to start in earnest, those who live in the hundreds of small villages that dot the slopes are in no doubt that the effects of Vedanta's presence are already being felt. People and animals are dying, they say: the number of cases of tuberculosis have shot up.
Basanti Majhi sits with her hands folded in her lap, in a hut in the centre of the Kutia Kondh village of Rengopali, a couple of hundred metres from where the company has sited the red mud pond that holds the waste slurry from the refining process.
The 12-year-old started coughing hard last year; her family took her to a doctor, who confirmed TB. She complains of constant pains in her hips and joints and of problems from the dust that settles on the village. "The dust gets in my eyes and it makes it hard to breathe," she says.Indian tribe the Dongria Kondh face destruction of their lands and extinction at the... more
The headaches began just after Hermogenes Marrero arrived on Vieques, the small Puerto Rican island where the young U.S. Marine guarded stores of Cold War-era chemical weapons.
The retired sergeant, now 57 and terminally ill with cancer and other ailments, blames exposure to toxins released while he was stationed there from 1970 to 1972. By coming forward to support similar claims by island residents, he has become the public face of a new and bitter battle over Vieques, the Navy bombing range-turned-tourist destination off the U.S. territory's east coast.
"I've been sick since I left Vieques," said the wheelchair-bound Marrero, who now lives in an apartment cramped with life-support equipment in this small town in northwestern Puerto Rico.
Marrero is a key witness in a lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in compensation for illnesses that past and current Vieques residents have linked to the bombing range, where the U.S. and its allies trained for conflicts from Vietnam to Iraq.
The range closed in 2003 after years of protests over the environmental risks and the death of a Puerto Rican civilian guard who was killed in 1999 by an errant bomb. Many had long complained about clouds of smoke and dust wafting toward populated areas and explosions echoing across the hilly, 18-mile-long island of less than 10,000 people.
The U.S. has denied any link between illnesses and weapons that rained down on the island for six decades. With independent studies suggesting otherwise, however, a federal health agency recently began a new analysis of the situation.
Marrero, who was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in New York City, has had colon cancer twice. He is losing his vision and suffers from more than dozen other illnesses, including Lou Gehrig's disease, that he believes are lingering effects of his 18 months at Camp Garcia. He said he was recently diagnosed with a new bout of cancer that is inoperable in part because of a lung disease that requires him to stay on oxygen around the clock.
He is not party to the lawsuit because it is limited to Vieques residents, and involves more than 7,000 of them. But he has been fighting his own battle to have his ailments recognized as service casualties.
The chemicals he handled included canisters labeled "112" — a reference, he later surmised, to the secret Project 112 program that tested chemical and biological agents and was declassified by the Pentagon earlier this decade.
During some of the tests, he said, the military assessed how long it took an aerosol spray of chemicals to kill animals such as tethered goats. Though superiors said he was a safe distance from the tests, he was overwhelmed by a smell like roach spray every time he opened the door to the chemical warehouses. He said he vomited constantly.
"I asked 'How dangerous is that stuff? I'm watching animals drop dead,'" Marrero said. "They told me I'd be fine."
The military also experimented with napalm, depleted uranium and agent orange, besides the millions of pounds of ordnance that Navy aircraft and ships dropped annually on Vieques. A cleanup began in 2005 to clear thousands of unexploded munitions from the former training range site that is now a Fish and Wildlife Service refuge, and the island has placed new emphasis on tourism.
The Mississippi attorney for the plaintiffs in the Vieques lawsuit, John Eaves Jr., said Marrero's account is crucial to understanding the legacy of contamination.The headaches began just after Hermogenes Marrero arrived on Vieques, the small Puerto... more
“No matter how you look at it, aspartame is bad news in my book. The massive introduction of this neurotoxin into the food supply is nothing less than biological warfare against every single one of us, and the only acceptable solution is to ban it from the food chain.”
By William Campbell Douglass II, M.D
The article is extensive, provides a lot of information.
"In 1980, the FDA Public Board Of Inquiry voted unanimously to reject the use of aspartame. The short version?
• Flawed data
• Brain tumor findings in animal studies
• Lack of studies on humans to determine long-term effects
Want the longer version? Read the history timeline here on DORway, then read about the shady way it was approved, including being ramrodded through the approval process by Donald Rumsfeld, who later went to work for the PR firm representing Searle (the company that first marketed the chemical). And if that weren’t enough, the Bressler Report, written by Jerome Bressler (who worked for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1977), describes numerous instances where Searle was less than forthcoming about reporting negative results. So the FDA allowed Searle to conduct and present their own tests and then to submit the findings of their choice. This, my friends, is a matter of pubic record. It’s a long read, but you can check it out a pdf of the official document here on DORway.
Incidentally, there have still been no studies done on humans to determine long-term effects, but the FDA seems to have conveniently ignored that part of their initial rationale."
An other excerpt:
"Really? Do you know what the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of aspartame is? When it was first approved, it was 20 mgm/kgm bodyweight. Then, once it was approved for use in Coke products, for some reason, the FDA decided it was OK (without additional studies – we’ll call their rationale “The Science of Politics”) to raise the limit to 50 mgm per kgm body weight.
Consider this: At 20 mgm per kgm bodyweight, a 50 llb child can reach his ADI with 2 ½ cokes. You do the math.
Thanks again, FDA."
More:
"In fact, speaking of looking the other way, legally, any Citizens Petition for a Ban submitted to the FDA is required by law to be answered within 180 days. Upon receiving the petition, the FDA must:
i) Approve the petition
(ii) Deny the petition; or
(iii) Provide a tentative response, indicating why the agency has been unable to reach a decision on the petition, e.g., because of the existence of other agency priorities, or a need for additional information. The tentative response may also indicate the likely ultimate agency response, and may specify when a final response may be furnished.
The Citizen’s Petition for a Ban on Aspartame was sent via certified mail on June 17, 2002 – 7 years ago. In May, 2003 the FDA sent a “tentative response,” siting “competing priorities.” To date, this petition has not been revisited and remains lost in the bureaucratic Twilight Zone, unanswered."
Without-Consent.com, a website informing the public about the toxicity of vaccine additives containing the oil squalene, releases its list of 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers showing the debilitating diseases induced in animals immunized with squalene. http://www.without-consent.com/media/SqualeneReferences-
Withholding this information from volunteers enrolled in clinical trials testing swine flu vaccines containing this oil – and from the general public encouraged to consider vaccination with it should conditions warrant – violates informed consent standards upheld by the Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Assembly’s Declaration of Helsinki and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rules and Regulations for the Protection of Human Research Subjects.
Squalene is an “adjuvant”.
– a substance used to accelerate and intensify the immune system’s response to weak vaccines. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) and U.K. National Health Service (NHS) have argued for the possible inclusion of squalene adjuvants in candidate swine flu vaccines without informing the public that rats injected with squalene develop the animal versions of rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis; and induces antibodies specific to systemic lupus erythematosus in mice. Rheumatoid arthritis, MS and lupus are incurable autoimmune diseases – diseases that occur when the immune system attacks the body it is supposed to defend. Examination of rats injected with squalene showed severe inflammation in their joints; other show lesions in the brain and nerves stripped of their insulation called the myelin sheath. Demyelization is a clinical hallmark of MS. There are two squalene adjuvants being tested in clinical trials in the U.S. Europe, Asia and South America – MF59 from Novartis and AS03 from GlaxoSmithKline. According to the manufacturers, at least 46 thousand volunteers are now enrolled in clinical trials for swine flu shots containing MF59 and AS03. Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline say their adjuvants are safe. The Novartis adjuvant, MF59, is already licensed in a seasonal influenza approved for human use in the European Union. Around 40 million doses have been distributed in Europe safely, Novartis says.
WithoutConsent is an online information site created by Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Gary Matsumoto who reported evidence of squalene-induced injuries to U.S. service personnel in Vanity Fair, and to both U.S. and British service members in his book Vaccine A. He can be reached for comment at gary@without-consent.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel. 646.964.8646. Further questions about squalene-induced autoimmunity can be sent to Dr. Robert F. Garry, Professor in Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane Medical School at rfgarry@tulane.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; and Dr. Michael Whitehouse, Professor in Medicine at Griffiths University in Brisbane, Australia at whitehousemd@spin.net.au This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Brisbane is EST +14 hours). Queries about Vaccine A should be directed to Jocelyn Giannini, Assistant Marketing Manager, Basic Books, Basic Civitas, Nation Books, 387 Park Ave South New York, NY 10010; tel. 212.340.8143.
Source: Vac TruthWithout-Consent.com, a website informing the public about the toxicity of vaccine... more
Boyd E. Haley, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of chemistry and has published important studies about mercury (eg, 1-3). One of his team’s finding documented that a major phenomenon in Alzheimer’s-like pathologies could be induced by physiologically occurring levels of mercury (1). A recent essay is titled “Aluminum in vaccination-associated cognitive decline, motor neuron disease, autism” (4). That essay prompted an insightful comment from Dr. Haley, wherein he reports that vaccine-levels of aluminum exacerbate the pathologic potential of vaccinal thimerosal:
Dr. Haley explained, “Note that aluminum alone does not cause the abnormal biochemistry and production of neurofibillary tangles as does mercury (and only mercury) due to the specific interaction of mercury at specific sulfhydryl sites in specific enzymes/proteins known to be affected dramatically in Alzheimer’s disease. However, in our studies on neurons in culture we found that aluminum at levels found in vaccines dramatically enhanced the toxicity of thimerosal and mercury cation thereby decreasing the level of mercury required to have the toxic effects.”
Importantly, some vaccines including many flu shots still contain thimerosal, and many contain one or another of the aluminum compounds used as adjuvants. Thus we repeat: aluminum at levels present in vaccines increases the toxicity of thimerosal, which is ~49.6% ethylmercury by weight. Thus when an infant, toddler, or pregnant woman is injected with a vaccine or a combination of vaccines containing aluminum compounds and thimerosal, the likelihood of adverse effects is increased.
Perhaps we should ask, Why care?
Many media reports assure us that no evidence links thimerosal with neurologic harm. For instance, Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times expresses a popular notion by writing, “Many argue that environmental exposures — in particular, to preservatives used in certain vaccines – are a key factor in the development of autism. But a wide range of comprehensive investigations has failed to find such a link.” (5) Unfortunately, Melissa Healy’s glib statement is misleading.
However, at least three major studies have found thimerosal injections to be associated with developmental disabilities including autism. Two researchers at Stony Brook medical school found that male infants injected with thimerosal via hepatitis B vaccinations (a) were nine times as likely to be enrolled in special education services, and (b) were three times as likely to have autism — when compared with male infants who had not been so vaccinated (6-7). Importantly, these findings are consistent with the original CDC study (Verstraeten et al 1999) wherein early live thimerosal injections were associated with autism, PDD, language problems, sleep disorders, and tics (reviewed in 8).
Furthermore, other peer-reviewed studies have documented some of the mechanisms by which aluminum and mercury induce pathologies seen as neurodeneneration (eg, 10-14, 15-17).
Noteworthy: in a recently published study, researchers dared mention that “The demonstrated neurotoxicity of aluminum hydroxide and its relative ubiquity as an adjuvant suggest that greater scrutiny by the scientific community is warranted.” (14)
Similarly, “Although Thimerosal has been recently removed from most children’s vaccines, it is still present in flu vaccines given to pregnant women, the elderly, and to children in developing countries.” (17)
Needless to say, I and others are perplexed. Why do most vaccinologists and many health officials proclaim the safety of vaccines containing aluminum compounds and/or thimerosal? Why do reporters such as Melissa Healy and spokespersons for the CDC and FDA turn our attention away from peer-reviewed studies demonstrating adverse effects from aluminum and thimerosal?
Why must myriad children and their families live with adverse effects of vaccinations whose ingredients cause neurodegeneration and developmental disabilities?
References:Boyd E. Haley, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of chemistry and has published important... more
Radiation levels were higher than normal at the homes of as many as 10 Acreage families with brain tumors or brain cancer, according a New York City law firm affiliated with the nationally known environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
The radiation appears to be coming from well water, said Lemuel Srolovic, an attorney with the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which is investigating a suspected cancer cluster in the semi-rural community. A Stuart engineering company hired by the firm measured the radiation in mid-September using a Geiger counter.
Acreage cancer watch
Latest water report (pdf) (10/01/09)
"Generally, it showed there appeared to be radioactive material in ground water being drawn up," Srolovic said.
A report issued last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection similarly found elevated levels of radioactive particles in four wells in The Acreage. But the DEP stressed that the radiation can occur naturally, and the report said the problem is "simple" for homeowners to address by installing water-treatment systems.
The DEP report found no evidence that water in the Acreage faces hazards from man-made pollution. But a state Health Department investigation into the possible cancer cluster is continuing, as is a separate inquiry by Brockovich's firm.
Brockovich, best known for being portrayed by Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning move, is scheduled to appear Thursday in West Palm Beach to update residents on the firm's findings.
The law firm's investigation started after the state Health Department in May began a resident-prompted study of brain cancer rates in the community. That study is now in its second phase, examining nine children who were diagnosed with brain tumors from 1995 through 2008.
Meanwhile, the DEP last week declared that its testing of 50 randomly selected Acreage wells showed that water in the 45,000-resident community generally meets state health standards. None of the 50 homes tested appear to have included families suffering from brain cancer or brain tumors.
"Our effort was kind of a supplemental testing to fill in the holes we feel weren't filled in by the DEP," Srolovic said.
The law firm's digging is fine with state environmental officials, said DEP spokesman Doug Tobin.
"While DEP has concluded our initial and secondary testing in and around The Acreage, the department encourages any other independent review or testing," Tobin said.
EnviroHome Inc., the environmental engineering firm that Weitz & Luxenberg hired, used a Geiger counter throughout the 10 residents' homes and yards. Only at water sources - wells, faucets and filtration systems - did readings rise higher than "background," or normal, radiation levels.
That prompted the Stuart company to take well water samples from nine of the 10 locations. Results are expected later this week and will include analysis for radium-226 and radium-228, radioactive metals that could cause cancer at elevated levels.
Geiger counters are used to read radiation levels but can't tell what is causing the radioactivity.
Srolovic said he was concerned about the DEP's test results.
"Certainly the Florida DEP testing at Seminole Water Plant and at private wells generally show widespread radiation in the water," Srolovic said. "The presence of this harmful material in water is a matter of concern."Radiation levels were higher than normal at the homes of as many as 10 Acreage... more
This week on YO!Radio -- Pizza Hut teaches kids to read, fast food calories crippling children's health, and toxic chicken goes to court. ALSO: YO!Radio caught up with author Enitan O. Bereola II at Maxwell's Lounge in Oakland to chat about his book: Bereolaesque: The Contemporary Gentleman & Etiquette Book For The Urban Sophisticate. Donny Lumpkins is a content producer and Malcolm Marshall is the producer of YO!Radio.
"Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health."
More at http://splitestate.com/the_film.html
