tagged w/ contaminated water
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PART ONE..........
Nuclear threat level raised
Crisis rates in most severe category
Japan nuclear agency raises threat level
By Matt Smith, CNN
April 11, 2011 11:11 p.m. EDT
Click on picture to play Video
Anatomy of a ghost town
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The agency raises the level from 5 to 7
7 is the highest possible level and is on par with Chernobyl
Japan's government has called for further evacuations
Cities covered by Monday's orders should evacuate in about a month, Edano says
Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese authorities Tuesday "provisionally" declared the country's nuclear accident a level-7 event on the international scale for nuclear disasters -- the highest level -- putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced the new level Tuesday morning. It had previously been at 5.
Regulators have determined the amount of radioactive iodine released by the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was at least 15 times the volume needed to reach the top of the International Nuclear Event Scale, the agency said. That figure is still about 10 percent of the amount released at Chernobyl, they said.
The amount of radioactive Cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, is about one-seventh the amount released at Chernobyl, according to the agency.
Japan's nuclear concerns explained
Hidehiko Nishiyama, the safety agency's chief spokesman, explained the final level won't be set until the disaster is over and a more detailed investigation has been conducted.
Tetsunari Iida, a former nuclear engineer-turned-industry critic, told CNN the declaration has no immediate practical impact on the crisis. It is a sign, however, that Japanese regulators have rethought their earlier assessments of the disaster, said Iida, who now runs an alternative energy think-tank in Tokyo.
According to the scale, a level 5 equates to the likelihood of a release of radioactive material, several deaths from radiation and severe damage to a reactor core.
The 1979 incident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island was a 5. The partial meltdown of a reactor core there was deemed the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
The Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union rated a 7 on the scale, which equates to a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures."
Japan's government called for evacuations Monday from several towns beyond the danger zone already declared around Fukushima Daiichi, warning that residents could receive high doses of radiation over the coming months.
Japan to evacuate more towns
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the municipalities are likely to see long-term radiation levels that exceed international safety standards, and he warned that the month-old crisis at Fukushima Daiichi is not yet over.
"Things are relatively more stable, and things are stabilizing," he said. "However, we need to be ready for the possibility that things may turn for the worse."
And about an hour after he spoke, a fresh earthquake rattled the country, forcing workers to evacuate the plant and knocking out power to the three damaged reactors for about 40 minutes, the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, reported. The magnitude 6.6 tremor came a month to the day after the magnitude 9 quake and tsunami that knocked out the plant's cooling systems, and followed a magnitude 7.1 aftershock Thursday night.
Neither the 6.6 quake nor any of the smaller ones that rippled across the region in its wake inflicted any more damage to the plant, Tokyo Electric officials told reporters.
At least six killed in latest Japan quake
Tuesday morning, a fire broke out in a battery storage building in a water discharge area of reactors 1-4 at Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo Electric said. The fire was out a few hours later and the company said it caused no radiation emissions and no effect on cooling systems.
Japan's government said it did not know how many people would be displaced by the new evacuation orders. Evacuation orders have so far covered about 85,000 people inside the 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) zone, while another 62,000 within 30 kilometers have been told to stay inside, Fukushima prefecture officials told CNN.
The decision announced Monday does not create a wider radius around the plant, said Masanori Shinano, an official with Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission.
Instead, "if there are areas in the northwestern parts where there is a risk of exceeding 20 millisieverts as a cumulative dose over a one-year period, the area will be designated an evacuation area even if it is beyond the 30-kilometer area," Shinano told reporters Monday night.
That dose is a tiny fraction of what would cause immediate radiation sickness, but it's more than seven times the amount a typical resident of a western industrialized country receives from background sources in a year. Long-term exposures to those levels of radiation could increase the risk of cancer -- and the presence of cesium isotopes that have half-lives of up to 30 years means that radioactivity could linger for some time.
CONTINUED.......PART ONE..........
Nuclear threat level raised
Crisis rates in most severe... more
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How damaged nuclear plant's radiation gets into food, water
Photo: A crop of spinach is nearly ready for harvest at a field in Sukagawa in Fukushima Prefecture on Tuesday.
March 23rd, 2011
11:42 PM ET
Officials in Japan's capital Wednesday advised parents not to give city tap water to infants after tests showed it had elevated levels of radioactive iodine - a problem attributed to a nuclear plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Radiation exceeding legal limits also has been found in 11 types of vegetables and milk in prefectures surrounding the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, prompting some prefectures to stop shipping these products. The United States is preventing the import of milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit from four Japanese prefectures, though certain products could be allowed in if tests show them to be safe, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said.
Below are brief explanations of how the radiation can get into food and water and how dangerous the food/water contamination in this instance might be.
Traveling from nuclear plant to food, water and milk
Radioactive particles escaping from the Fukushima Daiichi plant (see this interactive for how and why this is happening) bind to dust, traveling in the air for a distance before coming to ground, according to CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The particles, such as cesium-137 and iodine-131, contaminate farm produce and water simply by falling on them.
The large surface areas of leafy vegetables, such as spinach, make them likely to collect greater amounts of particles than many other produce types, said Marko Moscovitch, professor at Georgetown's Department of Radiation Medicine.
The main way these particles get into milk is when they fall on the grass eaten by cows.
What are the risks of consuming the food, milk and water?
Experts say little is known about how eating radiation-contaminated food affects people in the short- and long-term. But experts who have spoken with CNN say that the contamination levels reported so far appear to pose very little risk.
Dr. James Cox, an oncology professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said he believes the radiation levels measured in these products pose a "nonexistent" immediate risk to humans, and "very low" long-term risk.
Spinach tested in a prefecture south of Fukushima showed radiation up to 27 times greater than the legal limit. Gupta, however, said a person "would have to eat the contaminated spinach from Japan every day for one year to get the same amount of radiation you would get from one chest CT (computed tomography) scan."
A chest CT scan would expose a person to about 7 millisieverts of radiation. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that an average person gets about 3.1 millisieverts annually from natural sources, and an average American - thanks in part to medical diagnostic procedures and other man-made sources of radiation - gets about 6.2 millisieverts per year.
Even low radiation doses can damage or alter the DNA of irradiated cells, the NRC says. And the radiation protection community "conservatively assumes that any amount of radiation may pose some risk for causing cancer and hereditary effect, and that the risk is higher for higher radiation exposures," the NRC says.
But Gupta and Moscovitch say it's highly unlikely that the radiation reported so far in Japanese food would pose a risk to human health.
"(The radiation is) not negligible my any means. But impact on human health? Not likely," Gupta said Wednesday night on the CNN program "In the Arena."
Read more about what Cox - an expert on the effects of radiation on the survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima - has to say about the risks in this story, which also addresses the consumption of contaminated milk following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
The concern about infants and the contaminated water
Tokyo officials recommended withholding tap water from infants after government samples taken Tuesday night found 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of water - two times higher than the limit that the government considers safe for infants.
The amount of iodine detected was lower than the level considered safe for adults: 300 becquerels per kilogram. A liter of water weights 1 kilogram. A becquerel is a measurement of radioactive intensity by weight.
The level set for infants is "very conservative," Cox said, but elevated radiation levels are considered a problem for small children, because their thyroid glands are more susceptible to radioactive iodine.
"Erring on the side of caution for the extreme degree for children makes good sense," Cox said. For adults, "as far as the immediate health risk, something that would make people sick, I don't think that would come close to it."
Can radioactive contamination be removed from water?
The World Health Organization says standard water treatment procedures - including coagulation, sedimentation and filtration - might remove "significant amounts of radioactive contaminants." Other options including blending contaminated water with noncontaminated water to dilute the radioactive particles, the organization says.
CNN's Thom Patterson, Elizabeth Landau, Danielle Dellorto, Miriam Falco, Madison Park and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.How damaged nuclear plant's radiation gets into food, water
Photo: A crop of... more
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ST. MARC, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2010
Haiti: Suspected Cholera Outbreak Kills 135
Aid Groups Rush in Supplies as Deadliest Outbreak Since Earthquake Hits Refugees; 1,000 Said to be Infected
Photo: A sick child in central Haiti hooked up to an IV waiting for treatment, Oct. 21, 2010. (Operation Blessing International)
Victims await treatment at a medical facility in St. Marc, northern Haiti, amid an epidemic that has claimed at least 135 lives over the last few days, Oct. 21, 2010. (Getty Images)
(CBS/AP) At least 135 people have died in a suspected cholera outbreak, and aid groups are rushing in medicine and other supplies Friday to combat Haiti's deadliest health problem since its devastating earthquake.
The outbreak in the rural Artibonite region, which hosts thousands of quake refugees, appeared to confirm relief groups' fears about sanitation for homeless survivors living in tarp cities and other squalid settlements.
"We have been afraid of this since the earthquake," said Robin Mahfood, president of Food for the Poor, which was preparing to fly in donations of antibiotics, dehydration salts and other supplies.
Many of the sick have converged on St. Nicholas hospital in the seaside city of St. Marc, where hundreds of dehydrated patients lay on blankets in a parking lot with IVs in their arms as they waited for treatment.
Catherine Huck, deputy country director for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the Caribbean nation's health ministry had recorded 135 deaths and more than 1,000 infected people.
"What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and (they) can go quickly if they are not seen in time," Huck said. She said doctors were still awaiting lab results to pinpoint the disease.
David Darg, international disaster relief director for Operation Blessing International told CBS News on Thursday it was the worst outbreak of disease he had seen since the earthquake, and many lying outside of the hospital were children.
The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Claude Surena, said the cause appeared to be cholera, but added that had not been confirmed by the government.
"The concern is that it could go from one place to another place, and it could affect more people or move from one region to another one," he said.
Cholera is a waterborne bacterial infection spread through contaminated water. It causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours. Treatment involves administering a salt and sugar-based rehydration serum.
No cholera outbreaks had been reported in Haiti for decades before the earthquake, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Haitian officials, including President Rene Preval, have been pointing to the lack of severe disease outbreaks as a hard-to-see success of the quake response.
With more than a million people left homeless by the disaster, however, experts have warned that disease could strike in the makeshift camps with nowhere to put human waste and limited access to clean water.
At the hospital, some patients including 70-year-old Belismene Jean Baptiste said they got sick after drinking water from a public canal.
"I ran to the bathroom four times last night vomiting," Jean Baptiste said.
The sick come from across the Artibonite Valley, a starkly desolate region of rice fields and deforested mountains. The area did not experience significant damage in the Jan. 12 quake but has absorbed thousands of refugees from the devastated capital 45 miles south of St. Marc.
Trucks loaded with medical supplies including rehydration salts were to be sent from Port-au-Prince to the hospital, said Jessica DuPlessis, an OCHA spokeswoman. Doctors at the hospital said they also needed more personnel to handle the flood of patients.
Elyneth Tranckil was among dozens of relatives standing outside the hospital gate as new patients arrived near death.
"Police have blocked the entry to the hospital, so I can't get in to see my wife," Tranckil said.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued an advisory urging people to drink only bottled or boiled water and eat only food that has been thoroughly cooked.ST. MARC, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2010
Haiti: Suspected Cholera Outbreak Kills 135
Aid... more
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Thousands of the largest water polluters in the United States are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law. As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising. About 117 million Americans get their drinking water from sources fed by waters that are vulnerable to exclusion from the Clean Water Act.Thousands of the largest water polluters in the United States are outside the Clean... more
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A new study has revealed that an herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs, chemically castrating some and turning others into females.A new study has revealed that an herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by... more
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Recently, the Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced a groundbreaking agreement with five healthcare facilities that will end the practice of disposing of pharmaceutical wastes, such as, for example, birth control pills, antibiotics, anti-depressants, and heart medications, into waterways. Pharma wastes are identified by the Environmental Protection Agency “contaminants of emerging concern,” and have been linked to multiple health and developmental problems in aquatic animals. Because of the potency of the drugs and their prevalence in our waterways many believe that their presence may also affect human health and addressing this illegal water pollution needs to be a high priority in our governments.
Continue reading:
http://gmo-journal.com/index.php/2010/02/11/addressing-unchecked-dumping-of-drugs-in-waterways/Recently, the Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced a groundbreaking... more
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"Since 2004, testing by water utilities has found 316 pollutants in the tap water Americans drink, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) drinking water quality analysis of almost 20 million records obtained from state water officials.
More than half of the chemicals detected are not subject to health or safety regulations and can legally be present in any amount. The federal government does have health guidelines for others, but 49 of these contaminants have been found in one place or another at levels above those guidelines, polluting the tap water for 53.6 million Americans.
The government has not set a single new drinking water standard since 2001.
Water utilities spend 19 times more on water treatment chemicals every year than the federal government invests in protecting lakes and rivers from pollution in the first place."
http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/home?inlist=Y&utm_source=tapng&utm_medium=email&utm_content=fourth-link&utm_campaign=toxics
How clean is your city water, search at the link.
Top Ten:
Arlington, TX
Providence, RI
Providence Water
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Water Department
Charleston, SC
Charleston Water System
Boston, MA
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
Honolulu, HI
Board of Water Supply
(Honolulu/Windward/Pearl Harbor)
Austin, TX
Austin Water Utility
Fairfax County, VA
Fairfax Water
St. Louis, MO
City of St. Louis Water Division
Minneapolis, MN
City of Minneapolis Water Department
Ten worst at the link as well.
Join Organic:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/"Since 2004, testing by water utilities has found 316 pollutants in the tap water... more
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If all the tourists who are so happy to visit Cuba, had knowledge of the lack of higene Cubans have to live with, they would run, because in Cuba, the soap is no where to be found and the water is disgusting. The Cuban government goes out of it's way to hide it, but Cuba is riddled with epidemics, of Swine Flu, Dengue, Conjunctivitis, and tuberculosis-even leprosy has made a comeback,If all the tourists who are so happy to visit Cuba, had knowledge of the lack of... more
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Zurama
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2 years ago
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Unseen Consequences: Marine debris is hazardous for marine animals, marine plant life, humans & almost anything else associated with water. Please visit the link to see how you can help.
There are two different sources from which debris pollutes our oceans. The first is from the land and includes users of the beach, storm water-runoff, landfills, solid waste, rivers, and streams, floating structures, ill maintained garbage bins and dumps and litterbugs. Marine debris also comes from combined sewer overflows, and storm drains. Typical debris from these sources includes medical waste, street litter and sewage. Land-based sources cause 80% of the marine debris found on our beaches and waters.
The second source of marine debris is from ocean sources, and this type of debris includes galley waste and other trash from ships, recreational boaters and fishermen and offshore oil and gas exploration and production facilities.
Adding to this problem is the population influx along our nation's shores. More people means more paved area and wastes generated in coastal areas. These factors; combined with the growing demand for manufactured and packaged goods, have led to an increase in non-biodegradable solid wastes in our waterways.
Each year millions of birds, whales, turtles, dolphins, fish and other marine animals become injured or die by becoming entangled in debris or by confusing it with their natural food. Marine mammals become entangled in marine debris or ingest plastics which they have mistaken for food. As many as 30,000 northern fur seals per year get caught in abandoned fishing nets and either drown or suffocate. Whales mistake plastic bags for squid, and birds may mistake plastic pellets for fish eggs. At other times, animals accidentally eat the plastic while feeding on natural food.
267 marine species have been reported entangled in or having ingested marine debris (Marine Mammal Commission, 1998). The plastic constricts the animals' movements, or kills the marine animals through starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by tightening material. The animals may starve to death, because the plastic clogs their intestines preventing them from obtaining vital nutrients. Toxic substances present in plastics can cause death or reproductive failure in the fish, shellfish, and wildlife that use the habitat.
Marine debris is a problem in oceans, coasts and watersheds throughout the world. It can result from human activities anywhere in the watershed, from an overturned trash can many miles from the ocean, or from litter left on a beach. Detergent bottles, plastic bags, cigarette butts, and discarded fishing line can become marine debris.
Polluted waters make trouble for humans, too. Once debris reaches coastal and ocean bottom, especially in areas with little current, it may continue to cause environmental problems. When plastic film and other debris settle on the bottom, it can suffocate immobile plants and animals, producing areas essentially devoid of life. In areas with some currents, such as coral reefs, debris can wrap around living coral, smothering the animals and breaking up their coraline structures.
Trash is an indicator of bigger problems.The typical float-able debris from Combined Sewer Overflows includes street litter, sewage (e.g., condoms, tampons, applicators), and medical items (e.g., syringes), resin pellets, and other material that might have washed into the storm drains or from land runoff. These materials or objects can make it unsafe to walk on the beaches, and pathogens or algae blooms can make it unsafe to swim. Pollutants, such as toxic substances, can make it unsafe to eat the fish caught from the waters. Swimming in or ingesting waters which are contaminated with pathogens can result in human health problems such as, sore throat, gastroenteritis, meningitis or even encephalitis. Pathogens can also contaminate shellfish beds.Unseen Consequences: Marine debris is hazardous for marine animals, marine plant life,... more
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Bottled water is widely considered to be a purer choice than tap water, but a new investigation finds that this isn't always the case.
In its test of 10 best-selling brands of bottled water, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found mixtures of 38 different pollutants including bacteria, fertilizer, and industrial chemicals in some of the tested brands at levels that were similar to tap water.
Several samples of Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice brand sold in California were found to exceed that state's legal limits of contaminants for bottled water.
"The bottled water industry really presents this image of purity, but our investigation demonstrated that it is really hit or miss," EWG senior scientist Olga Naidenko, PhD, tells WebMD. "We found a lot of variation among the same brands which suggests that at the moment consumers can not have confidence in their water."
But a spokesman for the bottled water industry denies the charge and accuses EWG of using "alarmist tactics."
"In general, the report is based on the faulty premise that if any substance is present in a bottled water product, even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set, then it's a health concern," International Bottled Water Association President and CEO Joe Doss says in a statement.
In an earlier interview before the release of the report, Doss told WebMD that "consumers can remain confident about drinking bottled water, which is a very safe, healthy, convenient product."
Testing Bottled Water
The water samples tested for EWG at a University of Iowa water quality laboratory revealed that 10 widely sold brands of bottled water, purchased in nine states and the District of Columbia, contained an average of eight chemical contaminants in each brand.
Two of the waters -- Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice and Giant grocery's Acadia brand -- bore the chemical signatures of the municipal water treatment plants in the areas where they were bottled.
Investigators concluded that the Sam's Choice samples sold in Oakland, Calif. and Mountain View, Calif. had been bottled at a single plant in Las Vegas.
The mix of contaminants and contamination levels were the same as in the local municipal water, indicating that little had been done to further purify the water after it was taken from the tap.
By law, bottled water that comes from a municipal water supply has to disclose this on its label, unless the bottler takes steps to further purify the water.
"Clearly, you would not expect to see the level of chemical that the samples had if the extra purification had been done," Naidenko says.
Specifically, the investigators found that:
Five of the tested waters contained fluoride, six contained small amounts of the fertilizer ingredient nitrate, and two contained the drug acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol.
Samples of the Sam's Choice water purchased at a San Francisco area Wal-Mart had levels of the disinfection byproducts trihalomethanes that exceeded the California legal limit for these chemicals.
Samples of the Sam's Choice brand also had higher-than-allowed levels of the chemical bromodichloromethane, which is a known carcinogen.
Samples of Giant's Acadia brand water also had levels of the chemicals that exceeded California safety standards, although the brand was sold only in mid-Atlantic states, where it met standards.
The report noted that levels of the chemicals in both waters also exceeded the bottled water industry's voluntary safety standards.Bottled water is widely considered to be a purer choice than tap water, but a new... more
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Above Photo of Lake Superior shoreline © Jim Kruger
Please read the Christian Century Article by Rev. Jon Magnuson on the "Acid Mine" that threatens Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
An ELCA Lutheran pastor, Rev. Magnuson is known across northern Michigan for creating numerous interfaith environment initiatives and other projects projects involving over 150 churches/temples, American Indian tribes, college students, at-risk teens, health care professionals and many others.
If this mine opens along Lake Superior, it could leak sulfuric acid into the Great Lakes.
It's the first of countless sulfide and uranium mines planned for Northern Michigan.
Besides unproven "new" technology, the mine will be open for only seven years - and create only about 150 short-term jobs. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the economic impact of the U.P.'s longstanding iron ore mines.
A lot of greed for a smattering of nickel and other minerals that will be sucked out of our precious soil.
The international mining company that wants to set up shop in Marquette County is Kennecott Minerals - an outfit with a dismal environmental record that has closed other acid mines without proper cleanup apparently finding it cheaper to fight in court than pay for the proper cleanup of the now vacent mine sites.
Photo of Lake Superior shoreline © Jim Kruger
Inland drilling: A debate over mining in Upper Michigan
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=5020
Many fear that the aicd mines - that will be joined by uranium mines - are a death-knell for northern Michigan and its bread-and-butter tourism economy.
Who will want to visit an area dotted by hundreds of acid pits and possibly polluted rivers, lakes and streams.
There are recent swirling rumors that Kennecott took state officials on junkets and other allegations of wrongdoing as their deep pockets wooed local and state leaders.
If true, it would not be the first scandal involving the local operation named the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company - as an important study critical of the mine were not made public by state officials until the information was leaked. Just an innocent oversight - the state claimed.
Do you hear the whirring sound? - it's Marquette's founding fathers are spinning in their graves.
For more information on the effort to stop the mines - visit Save the Wild UP website:
http://www.savethewildup.org
Above Photo of Lake Superior shoreline © Jim Kruger
Please read the Christian... more
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