Public Health

Hawaiians Protest Chemical Poisons Sprayed In Their Communities

May 18, 2015 Mike Ludwig, www.truth-out.org Resist! Chemical Industry, Environment, Hawaii, Public Health

For the past three years, a growing coalition of activists and civic leaders on Kaua'i has been battling Syngenta and three other agrichemical companies - BASF, DuPont Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences - over toxic pesticides the companies spray as they field test and produce genetically engineered seeds, which are also known as genetically modified organisms or GMOs. The four companies spray thousands of gallons of pesticides labeled "restricted use" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at their farms and test plots on Kaua'i each year. At least five of the 22 restricted-use pesticide formulas used on the island contain chemicals that have been banned in Switzerland due to environmental and human health concerns, but are perfectly legal in the United States as long as they are applied by licensed workers.

Monsanto Weed Killer Poisoning Youth?

May 12, 2015 Mary Ellen Kustin and Soren Rundquist, www.alternet.org Educate! GMOs, Monsanto, Public Health, Youth

Genetically engineered crops, or GMOs, have led to an explosion in growers’ use of herbicides, with the result that children at hundreds of elementary schools across the country go to class close by fields that are regularly doused with escalating amounts of toxic weed killers. GMO corn and soybeans have been genetically engineered to withstand being blasted with glyphosate – an herbicide that the World Health Organization recently classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The proximity of many schools to fields blanketed in the chemical puts kids at risk of exposure. But it gets worse. Overreliance on glyphosate has spawned the emergence of “superweeds” that resist the herbicide, so now producers of GMO crops are turning to even more harmful chemicals.

Federal Judge OKs Uranium Mining Next To Grand Canyon National Park

May 12, 2015 Indigenous Action, www.indigenousaction.org Educate! Clean Up the Mines, Environment, Indigenous People, Public Health

U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell denied a request to halt new uranium mining at the Canyon uranium mine, located only six miles from Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim. The Havasupai tribe and a coalition of conservation groups had challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to allow Energy Fuels Inc. to reopen the mine without initiating or completing formal tribal consultations and without updating an obsolete federal environmental review dating to 1986. At stake are tribal cultural values, wildlife and endangered species, and the risk of toxic uranium mining waste contaminating the aquifers and streams that sustain the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. “We are very disappointed with the ruling by Judge Campbell in the Canyon Mine case,” said Havasupai Chairman Rex Tilousi.

Transformer Explosion At Nuclear Plant Causes Oil Spill

May 11, 2015 Steve Lieberman and Matt Spillane, www.lohud.com Educate! Environment, New York (NY), Nuclear Energy, Public Health

The owners of Indian Point are planning to clean up several thousand gallons of oil that potentially spilled into the Hudson River after a Saturday night transformer explosion and fire. The fire, which began at 5:50 p.m., sent smoke billowing into the air and oil overflowing the plant's moat, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The plant's fire suppression system automatically sprayed water on the transformer fire," Sheehan said Sunday. "Oil made its way into the drains and into the water. Several thousand gallons may have overflowed the transformer moat." The fire didn't cause the release of any radiation and didn't pose a threat to workers or the public, according to a statement by Entergy Corp, the owner of the nuclear power plant.

Campaign Against Glyphosate Steps Up In Latin America

April 30, 2015 Fabiana Frayssinet, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Food and Agriculture, Latin America, Public Health

After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen, the campaign has intensified in Latin America to ban the herbicide, which is employed on a massive scale on transgenic crops. In a Mar. 20 publication, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that the world’s most widely used herbicide is probably carcinogenic to humans, a conclusion that was based on numerous studies. Social organisations and scientific researchers in Latin America argue that thanks to the report by the WHO’s cancer research arm, governments no longer have an excuse not to intervene, after years of research on the damage caused by glyphosate to health and the environment at a regional and global level.

The “Shocking” Statistics Of Racial Disparity In Baltimore

April 29, 2015 Bill Quigley, www.commondreams.org Educate! Baltimore, Education, Inequality, Mass Incarceration, police brutality, Public Health, Racial Justice, Unemployment

Were you shocked at the disruption in Baltimore? What is more shocking is daily life in Baltimore, a city of 622,000 which is 63 percent African American. Here are ten numbers that tell some of the story. One. Blacks in Baltimore are more than 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites even though marijuana use among the races is similar. In fact, Baltimore county has the fifth highest arrest rate for marijuana possessions in the USA. Two. Over $5.7 million has been paid out by Baltimore since 2011 in over 100 police brutality lawsuits. Victims of severe police brutality were mostly people of color and included a pregnant woman, a 65 year old church deacon, children, and an 87 year old grandmother.

Fresh Nuclear Leak Detected At Fukushima Plant

February 24, 2015 AFP, www.news.yahoo.com Educate! Environment, Japan, Nuclear Energy, Public Health, Waste

Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea, the plant's operator announced Sunday, highlighting difficulties in decommissioning the crippled plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the sensors, which were rigged to a gutter that pours rain and ground water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a nearby bay, detected contamination levels up to 70 times greater than the already-high radioactive status seen at the plant campus. TEPCO said its emergency inspections of tanks storing nuclear waste water did not find any additional abnormalities, but the firm said it shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean. The higher-than-normal levels of contamination were detected at around 10 am (0100 GMT), with sensors showing radiation levels 50 to 70 times greater than usual, TEPCO said.

Last McDonald’s Meal In Iceland, Circa 2009, Still On Display

February 10, 2015 John Vibes, www.trueactivist.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Public Health

After spending over a year in Iceland’s National Museum, the last McDonalds meal sold in the country will now be going on display at the Bus Hostel in Reykjavik. The world-famous fast food chain shut down its Iceland locations in 2009, and even after all this time the last meal sold in the country has still not become rotten or moldy. After the economic collapse, McDonalds failed to keep customers coming back in Iceland, and the company was forced to close their doors in the country. The final day that McDonalds was open in Iceland was October 31, 2009, and on that day a man named Hjortur Smarason purchased a meal as a souvenir.

Detroit Water Brigade Part Of Larger Struggle

February 9, 2015 Demeeko Williams, www.detroitnews.com Resist! Detroit, Human Rights, Public Health, Water

The largest nurses union in the country declared Detroit in a “public health emergency,” with an infant mortality rate higher than Mexico. The Irish Parliament brought us to Dublin to testify. Even The Hulk himself, actor Mark Ruffalo, came to Detroit to turn the water back on. Occupy Wall Street stands behind the people of Detroit because Wall Street bondholders stand behind the water shutoff program. In reality, we’ve been on the front lines of this real crisis, bringing emergency relief to thousands of Detroiters pushed to the brink by utility cutoffs, foreclosure, crumbling public services and mass joblessness.

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