PCBs // Current

NATIONAL POST - RURAL FORCES - REMEMBRANCE

Anation FREE of its CAGE Twenty years ago this week, the people of one of the least... more

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The Prince of Wales - The Prince's Charities

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Going Coastal: Teaching a Man to Fish.

A fisherman at the Pier in New York is having a successful day fishing, when a... more

niceminnesota
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The Associated Press: EPA tells schools to test aging caulk for PCBs

By LIBBY QUAID (AP) WASHINGTON — Hundreds of school buildings across the United... more

mae37
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Pollution causing cancer in animals, new report warns

Dumping of toxic wastes is contributing to cancer among wildlife, a new report says.

Scientists say that tumors on beluga whales, sea lions and other animals are a warning signal. They call these animals “sensitive sentinels of disturbed environments.”

The report, "Wildlife Cancer: a Conservation Perspective," published in the July edition of the cancer research journal Nature Reviews Cancer, cites growing evidence from around the world that pesticides, coolants and other toxic chemicals are causing a variety of severe tumors in animals.

For example, the sea lions that are a major tourist attraction at San Francisco’s Pier 49 are being diagnosed with deadly tumors around their rear flippers and anuses. Frances Gulland, director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal Center in nearby Sausalito, told Newsweek her center periodically gets calls from the pier reporting sea lions crippled by horrible swellings. Gulland said 17 percent of the sea lions brought to the center from the pier die of renal failure or paralysis caused by tumors that travel up the genital tract and push against the kidney and spine.

According to the journal article, sea lions that died of genital carcinoma had an 85 percent higher concentration of toxic PCBs in their system than other sea lions. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, are chemicals used in coolants and electrical transformers.

Gulland said that blubber samples of sea lions who died of cancer also show high concentrations of the pesticide DDT. Many sea lions are born near the Channel Islands, where 1,700 tons of DDT were dumped before it was banned in 1972.

In Canada’s St. Lawrence Estuary, cancer was found to be the second leading cause of death among dead beluga whales that were found beached or drifting out to sea. The Saguenay River, which flows into the estuary, is lined with aluminum smelters. The smelters are heavy producers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), proven carcinogens for humans as well as animals.

Belugas feed from the bottom of the estuary, eating creatures like the blue mussel. Blue mussels in the Sanguenay River area had PAH concentrations 200 times higher than in adjacent areas.

It’s not just the whales. Smelter workers there have shown high rates of lung cancer, while people in the area who drank from taps supplied with surface water developed stomach and intestinal cancer.

"The more we contaminate the environment, the more we will see problems," Gulland told Newsweek. "If you dump a pollutant, it doesn't just go away."

The report’s authors, biologists Denise McAloose and Alisa L. Newton, work for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Health Program.

McAloose, like many other scientists, sees a connection between the environmental role in cancer among wild animals and cancer prevention among humans. "We need collaboration and cooperation across conservation organizations, public-health communities, as well as governments to make changes that have positive outcomes for animals and the planet," she told Newsweek. "Because that will have positive impacts on the human population."Dumping of toxic wastes is contributing to cancer among wildlife, a new report says.... more

JanforGore
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Specialized manufacturer and designer of Prototype Printed Circuit Boards at affordable cost anywhere in the world.

Specialized manufacturer and designer of Prototype Printed Circuit Boards at... more

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Study Links Stranded Marine Animals to Environmental Toxins

In a study, recently published in the journal Environmental Pollution, Eric Montie, a... more

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6 months ago
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PBS Frontline: POISONED WATERS

More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, iconic American waterways like the... more

JanforGore
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7 months ago
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12 comments

Jury finds for Monsanto in PCB trial

Ludicrous. Despicable. Disgusting. "Not enough evidence." The thousands of pounds of... more

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7 months ago
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13 comments

First trial begins in suit charging Monsanto tainted food and water with PCBS in Anniston Alabama

Lawyers in opening statements this morning told a Jefferson County jury they will show... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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Poisoned Killer Whales? Blame Salmon

The most contaminated wildlife on Earth—killer whales in the Pacific Northwest—are... more

jefftego
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10 months ago
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Ocean 911: Animal Emergency

Part emergency room, part rehab facility, and part research lab, the Marine Mammal... more

covelogibbs
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11 months ago
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Monsanto and Michael Pollan talk about creating a world that can feed itself

This is like 36 minutes long, but it's definitely worth watching...

Kati_kat
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1 year ago
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Monsanto expects Roundup to generate 1.8 billion in profits for 2008

That's a lot of poison in our rivers, streams, food, air and stomachs. Poison for... more

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1 year ago
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Film review: The World According To Monsanto

The most important documentary you will see this year.

How much outrage can a single multinational corporation inspire? How much damage can they inflict? The breathtaking new film, The World According to Monsanto, features a company that sets the new standard. From Iowa to Paraguay, from England to India, Monsanto is uprooting our food supply and replacing it with their patented genetically engineered creations. And along the way, farmers, communities, and nature become collateral damage. The Gazette says the movie "will freeze the blood in your veins." The Hour says it's a "horrifying enough picture" to warrant "fury." But most importantly, this critical film opens our eyes just in time. The film is the work of celebrated award-winning French filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, whose three years of work on four continents exposes why Monsanto has become the world's poster child for malignant corporate influence in government and technology.

Combining secret documents with accounts by victims, scientists and policy makers, she guides us through a web of misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. And we learn how the company systematically tricked governments into allowing dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods into our diet-with Monsanto in charge of determining if they're safe.

Deception, Deception, Deception

The company's history with some of the most toxic chemicals ever produced, illustrates why they can't be trusted. Ask the folks of Anniston, Alabama, where Monsanto's PCB factory secretly poisoned the neighborhood for decades. PCBs are Monsanto's toxic oils used as coolants and lubricants for over 50 years and are now virtually omnipresent in the blood and tissues of humans and wildlife around the globe. But Anniston residents have levels hundreds or thousands of times the average. They all know their levels, which they carry as death sentences. David Baker, who lost his little brother and most of his friends to PCB-related diseases such as cancer, says Anniston kids used to run up to him, report their PCB level and ask, "How long you think I got?"

Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group says that based on Monsanto documents made public during a trial, the company "knew the truth from the very beginning. They lied about it. They hid the truth from their neighbors." One Monsanto memo explains their justification: "We can't afford to lose one dollar of business."

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Replacing Nature: "Nothing Shall Be Eaten That We Don't Own" Monsanto is the world's largest seed company and many are concerned. Troy Roush says, "They are in the process of owning food, all food." Paraguayan farmer Jorge Galeano says, "Its objective is to control all of the world's food production." Renowned Indian physicist and community organizer Vandana Shiva says, "If they control seed, they control food; they know it, it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs; it's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world." The World According to Monsanto is aptly named. It is about Monsanto seeking to recreate the world in its own image, for its own benefit. They intend to replace (and patent) the entire food supply. And since their genetic pollution self-propagates in the environment, it will outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste. Such widespread permanent influence may not be safe with any individual or company. With Monsanto's record, the results can only be catastrophic. This powerful documentary might just inspire a global rejection of Monsanto's plans for our world. If so, it will be the most important film in history.
The most important documentary you will see this year. How much outrage can a... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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Pollutants cause birds to sing tainted love songs

Traces of a chemical once used by power plants leave birds looking fit, but singing... more

jefftego
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1 year ago
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The Rhone: France's poisoned artery

Beneath the waters of the Rhone, which flows through some of France's key tourists... more

MeganMcKenzie
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1 year ago
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GM sugarbeets not a sweet proposition, and citizens are fighting back

Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Anthropologist Margaret Mead

Even if you've heard the above quote many times before, the sentiment expressed is so powerful that I think it's worth repeating. All around the world, small groups of people are organizing public support for improved food safety and successfully challenging large corporations to change their behavior.

That's exactly what Flint Michigan residents Kathleen Kirby and Mark Fisher are banking on: their power to influence change. They're participating in a nationwide consumer boycott of Kellogg's Co. instigated by the Organic Consumers Association. By boycotting the world's largest cereal company, they hope to pressure Kellogg's into rejecting the use of sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets and to spark widespread market rejection in products ranging from cereal to baby food to candy.

As you may know, Roundup Ready sugar beets are genetically altered to resist Monsanto's toxic weed killer, Roundup, and its active ingredient, glyphosate. But here's the scary truth about these beets:

When the USDA first approved GE sugar beets for commercial planting in 1998, the EPA also increased the maximum allowable residues of glyphosate on sugar beet roots from just 0.2 parts per million to 10ppm. That's a staggering 5,000 percent increase of allowable toxins on beet roots. And, it's little surprise that EPA made this policy change at the request of Monsanto.

Sugar beet roots contain sucrose that's extracted, refined, and processed into the sugar used in the foods we eat. What this means is that the more GE ingredients that find their way into our food, the greater the likelihood that we are ingesting more toxic chemicals.

Thankfully, GE sugar beets have never been grown in the U.S. for sale to food manufacturers -- that is, until this year, when Western farmers planted their first crop of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets. Right now, over half of the sugar used in U.S. processed foods comes from sugar beets, with beet and cane sugars combined in those products. What's most disturbing is that once GE sugar beets hit the market, which could be as early as next year, there will be no way to know if we're eating GE sugar because GE ingredients are not labeled.

Currently, only four major GE crops are sold commercially -- corn, cotton, soy, and canola. Most of these are engineered to withstand repeated, large doses of herbicides. For the most part, these crops and their byproducts are largely fed to animals with the exception of some minor food ingredients and oils. GE beet sugar breaks with this tradition in that it could become the first major GE ingredient added to almost all processed foods on our grocery store shelves.
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Our food supply is systematically being taken over and poisoned by Monsanto.There is no other way to state it now. If sugarbeets are allowed to continue to become a part of our food supply, then you can expect that EVERYTHING you touch will be genetically modified, and it has NOT been proven to be safe for human consumption or our environment. Please, I have been writing on this for months along with others who have been trying to make people understand how URGENT it is that you get involved in pushing state legislatures to require proper labelling of GM sources in foods. Read up on this at the Monsanto tag and take action.

Citizen activism is the only way to make companies like Monsanto back down. Consumers did it regarding POSILAC, and we can do it with this. Current TV is the only place I have been able to get exposure to this so far aside from my own blog, and it is also because of people here voting the information up so more can see it. So thank you to those who fight the good fight here everyday over those who would do anything in their power to keep this down.
Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed,... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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She's talking about Monsanto, but it's not talking to her

Monsanto doesn't want anything to do with French investigative journalist... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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India: Farmers, civil societies seek scrapping of GMO bill

'The Coalition For GM-Free India', representing farmers' unions and civil society organisations today sought scrapping of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill-2008 pleading that 'its provisions are unscientific, undemocratic and amenable to reduce Indians as 'guinea pigs' for the promotion of Genetically Modified (GM) crops and GM foods.'

The Bill envisages setting up a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) for ensuring a 'single widow' provision for speedy clearance of GM organisms and products. Such fast clearance mechanism is being put in place to facilitate the approval and propogation in India of GM organisms and products being developed by Monsanto and multinational companies, said a communique issued by the farmer leaders and experts from civil societies network after a-day-long deliberations here.

Being hurriedly pushed through, the Bill fixes a deadline for public feedback on July 30 to circumvent any worthwhile discussion organised in public domain by scientific community or arranged by the Department of Biotechnology (DGT), which has mooted the Bill, said Dr Devinder Sharma, a noted food and trade policy analyst.

''The proposed mechanism is an express clearing house for fast track approvals in favour of the biotech industry, at the expense of health and environment requisites,'' he added.

The NBRA proposals have been drawn up by the wrong people for the wrong reasons with the wrong perspectives, said Mr Yudhvir Singh, a leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. And the proposed Authority , he said, ''Denies and violates constitutional rights of the states on their agriculture and citizens rights to remain GM-free.'' This also creates a hurdle to progressive decisions made by the states including Kerala on implementating organic farming policies to protect farmers interests and imposes GM crops everywhere, Mr Singh said.

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Firstly, I just want to state that in response to the thread I posted this past weekend regarding paid shills or others voting these threads down to hide them... if there are, you lose. I am not going to be intimidated to stop reporting on this important issue for our very survival. What is being done in India as well as around the world by these biotech companies regarding GM crops is a travesty of Democracy and morality. I will not leave this or any site, especially current.com that gives me the chance to have this information dessiminated to people to hopefully effect change. Vote it down if you wish, but the information and truth of it will remain the same as will my resolve to report this information regardless.

Monsanto is an evil company that is preying upon developing countries as well as our own to shove these GM seeds down the throats of farmers already living in poverty. They will continue to deny them their Democratic right to liberty and our right to proper disclosure all in the name of profit at the expense of our global environment. It is companies like Monsanto that are raising food prices in collusion with the World Bank and WTO to push these seeds as well as privitizing water supplies, and it is companies like Monsanto that must be fought by informed consumers.

We have the right to know what is in our food, where our water comes from, and the right to say NO to any attempt to force these fake toxic foods upon us. If there is any way I and others here can effect that change, then I am going to continue to do it.

Thanks to all who responded in the other thread and also to the staff who explained the situation. Hopefully we will see a resolution. Current has a chance to be a true vanguard network for the people. I am grateful to have the chance to be a part of that.'The Coalition For GM-Free India', representing farmers' unions and civil society... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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44 comments

tagged w/ PCBs

NATIONAL POST - RURAL FORCES - REMEMBRANCE

The Prince of Wales - The Prince's Charities

Going Coastal: Teaching a Man to Fish.

The Associated Press: EPA tells schools to test aging caulk for PCBs

Pollution causing cancer in animals, new report warns

Specialized manufacturer and designer of Prototype Printed Circuit Boards at affordable cost anywhere in the world.

Study Links Stranded Marine Animals to Environmental Toxins

PBS Frontline: POISONED WATERS

Jury finds for Monsanto in PCB trial

First trial begins in suit charging Monsanto tainted food and water with PCBS in Anniston Alabama

Poisoned Killer Whales? Blame Salmon

Ocean 911: Animal Emergency

Monsanto and Michael Pollan talk about creating a world that can feed itself

Monsanto expects Roundup to generate 1.8 billion in profits for 2008

Film review: The World According To Monsanto

Pollutants cause birds to sing tainted love songs

The Rhone: France's poisoned artery

GM sugarbeets not a sweet proposition, and citizens are fighting back

She's talking about Monsanto, but it's not talking to her

India: Farmers, civil societies seek scrapping of GMO bill

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