Canary’s Cry for Saturday, January 3

A patron at Sheraton’s Four Point hotel in San Francisco discovers a disturbing environmental hazard inside the building.

The World According to Monsanto

Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin on the troubling past of one of the world’s biggest agricultural companies.

Don’t miss the very last line by Poppy Bush.

Link

Beautiful Mauna Kea this week

Here is Mauna Kea blanketed in snow.

Link to beautiufully done video by Tim O. Bryan at Big Island Video News– give you a good idea of my island home, the beauty and the danger.

Officials watching Hawaii’s air quality tonight

Hilo Medical Center’s emergency department gearing up for holiday

I think this report on extra air testing and a prepared hospital is supposed to make people like me with respiratory problems feel safer, but it doesn’t! It just gets me more worried about what the night will bring.

Right now my neighbors are erecting tents for a big party. So my health over the next 12 hours depends solely on the weather: if it rains as forecasted, the firecracker maniacs will be deterred, and if the wind is blowing the smoke away from my house, then I might be okay no matter if it rains or not. Last year was very difficult. It’s not just problems with my breathing and how the toxic smoke makes me feel (sick), but my eyes become so horribly irritated that I can’t read or watch TV or do anything but sit here and endure it.

And no matter what the officials say, staying indoors with air filters does nothing to keep the toxic smoke from entering our homes. In Hawaii our homes are like sieves, they are not sealed in any way, shape or form. What is outside is inside, and inside our bodies.

No one wants to ring in the New Year with a trip to the emergency room.

But Hilo Medical Center’s emergency department staff is taking extra steps to prepare for a possible influx of people with respiratory conditions from smoke caused by fireworks, said Reggie Agliam, nursing supervisor for Hilo Medical Center.

The hospital is also ready for any burns or fireworks-related injuries that might occur, he added.

As far as increased emergency department activity on New Year’s, Agliam said, “last year wasn’t too bad,” but added the hospital would rather be safe than sorry.

The state Department of Health will be monitoring Hawaii’s clean air quality throughout the state during New Year’s Eve and comparing it with national ambient air quality standards. The heavy use of fireworks during the annual holiday celebration can significantly increase the amount of particulates in the air, especially on Oahu, according to the department.

“We are going to be measuring particles in the air. Smoke is made out of particles,” said Lisa Young, environmental health specialist for the Department of Health. The smoke caused by fireworks can aggravate conditions such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Young said the same monitoring stations that test for vog on the Big Island are being used to record fireworks-related smoke levels. The department will be monitoring particles from smoke in Hilo, Kona, Pahala and Mountain View, Young said.

The department is encouraging the public, especially people with respiratory conditions, as well as young children and the elderly, to be properly informed and prepared for the upcoming New Year’s firework celebration.

According to the department, people who suffer from respiratory conditions may want to take certain precautionary measures during fireworks celebrations, including: staying indoors and closing windows and doors, avoiding people with colds and other lung infections, making sure air conditioners or air purifiers are working properly and filters are changed, avoiding smoking or second-hand smoke and washing hands often and thoroughly.

The department also recommends people make sure they have an adequate supply of medication on hand, as directed by a physician, and that people contact a physician if they need more medication or want to get clear instructions of what to do if health conditions suddenly worsen.

While the suggestions are intended for those with existing conditions, they are also useful for healthy people during high air pollution episodes, including times of high particulates dust, fireworks smoke and volcanic haze, according to the department.

Take care, dear canaries, wherever you are: Stay safe out there!

Link to story by Terri Henderson at The Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Photo by kolix

Canary’s Cry for Wednesday, Dec. 31

Bloomberg.com reports that a “Coal Ash Spill Leads to Arsenic Warnings for Tennessee Wells” :

Water samples near a billion-gallon spill of coal ash in eastern Tennessee have found levels of arsenic and other heavy metals higher than drinking-water standards, prompting a warning against using private wells in the area.

Samples taken at the site of the spill in Harriman, 35 miles southwest of Knoxville, “slightly exceed” the standards for some metals, according to a statement from the Tennessee Valley Authority, owner of the coal power plant where the Dec. 22 accident occurred. Results from well-water and air tests won’t be known until later this week, the utility said.

The spill at the utility’s Harriman Fossil Plant deluged more than 300 acres of rural Roane County, destroying three homes and damaging 42 other properties. In nearby Kingston, that raised fears of fouled water and air, while 13 families wait to see if their homes can be salvaged, said Carolyn Brewer, finance director for the city of 5,300.

“Some of them are staying with families; some are working with real estate agents, leasing homes, buying homes,” Brewer said in a telephone interview today. “There’s two or three that will just never be able to get back in their homes. They’re just destroyed.”

The sludge-like spill, a mixture of water and residue from burned coal, escaped from a 40-acre holding pond after a retaining wall burst last week. After repeatedly saying the spilled material isn’t toxic, the TVA cautioned residents in its latest statement against touching or stirring up the material.

Leslie at The Oko Box Blog says the same coal ash spill, which happened “just around the bend” from where she lives, is polluting the air in her neighborhood to the point of making her “nauseous, lethargic, and seizure prone.” Take care, Leslie!

On the same topic, the New York Times reports “At Plant in Coal Ash Spill, Toxic Deposits by the Ton.” NYT says, “The spill has reignited a debate over whether coal ash should be regulated as a hazardous waste. In 2000, the E.P.A. backed away from its recommendation to do so in the face of industry opposition, promising instead to issue national guidelines for proper ash disposal, though it never did.”

In other disturbing news, Utne Reader reports about the consequences from marketing chemical-laden cosmetics to younger and younger consumers. In “Not So Pretty in Pink: Marketing Toxic Makeup to Young Girls,” Utne notes, “This rush to cosmetic beauty also represents increased exposure to toxic chemicals. Scientists now suspect that chemicals found in many of the cosmetics for which young girls clamor contribute to a disturbing trend. Girls in the United States, especially African American girls, are entering puberty earlier than their grandmothers did. Half of all American girls now show signs of breast development by age 10—one to two years earlier than 40 years ago—and a significant number show signs as early as 8 or 9.” Take a look at the article to find out why.

Thanks, Leslie and Linda!

Canary’s Cry for Saturday, Dec. 27

A new Cal State Long Beach study finds high levels of DDT and PCB in seals and sea lions that died between 1994 and 2006, suggesting possible danger for humans.

The Los Angeles Times reports Old Chemicals Found Years Later in Marine Mammals. The new study found DDT, a once widely used agricultural pesticide now banned in the United States, in slightly lower concentrations in sea lions than was found in studies of marine mammals conducted in the early 1970s, according to the report published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. Adult male sea lions and seals had the highest concentrations because they had the highest fat content. But the chemicals were also present in pups, who absorbed them from their mothers’ milk.

The Philadelphis Inquirer reports that fumes from a chemical used to deice planes got into the passenger cabin of an Alaska Airlines jet yesterday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, irritating the eyes of people on board, officials said. Paramedics treated 26 people, and seven, including all five crew members, decided to go to a hospital, an airline spokeswoman said.

Chicago News reports that a South Side meat-packing plant containing hazardous chemicals burned for approximately three hours on Christmas Day before more than 160 firefighters extinguished the blaze.

The Ithaca Journal reports on more protest against the decision by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to allow retailers to sell toys in inventory that may contain a potentially harmful chemical. Continued sale of toys with phthalates - a class of chemical compound used as a softener for plastics that seeps out of toys when chewed - is possible because of a safety commission ruling that Congress’ Consumer Product Safety Act pertains only to newly manufactured or imported toys containing phthalates. In a press release, [Assemblywoman Barbara] Lifton said animal toxicity data shows that phthalates could be harmful to infants or children. Toys that are already in stock can still be sold because of pressure applied from toy and chemical companies such as ExxonMobil, she said. The Consumer Product Safety Act became law in August.

Photo by Tom Clifton

Winter Solstice: The return of the Light

In celebration of the beauty and the blessed rhythm of our Earth.

Link

The save the planet song

This song is so beautiful. And I love the images in the vid. The lyrics ask, “What better ways can we come up with?” The first image he gives us as “a better way” is an awesome chicken coop! It looks like half of the structure is for the chickens and the other half for growing food. It’s really a wonderful montage of images. And the video was made by the musician himself, Douglas Stambler. His YouTube channel is here.

Download this song at:
http://www.tradebit.com/visit.php/436…

Drawings from: www.solviva.com
Domes from: www.monolithic.com

Link

Spare the air

The Sacramento Air Quality Management District created this informational television ad to educate the public about air quality issues.

SpareTheAir.com

Link to vid

Canary’s Cry for Monday, Dec. 8

USA Today has put out an in-depth Special Report on Toxic Air and America’s Schools.

USA Today used an EPA model to track the path of industrial pollution and mapped the locations of almost 128,000 schools to determine the level of toxic chemicals outside. The potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious and largely unaddressed.

Click here for USA Today Video by Garrett Hubbard, Steve Elfers, Denny Gainer, and Rhyne Piggott: USA TODAY examines the impact of industrial pollution outside the nation’s schools and explores how toxic chemicals shuttered one elementary school in Addyston, Ohio, three years ago. This video is Part One. Part Two is due out shortly. Click here for USA Today full report and supporting stories.

In other news, The New York Times reports that “A Problem Rises to the Surface in Greenpoint.” Residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, have toxic gases “rising into their homes from below, the legacy of dry-cleaning plants, foundries and other manufacturers that once operated in this hub, which has long been home to immigrants and, more recently, artists and young professionals. Such vapor intrusion — chemicals from contaminated soil and groundwater that become airborne, entering buildings through pores and cracks — has become a growing public health concern around the country in recent years. Contaminants that spread from industrial activity, or that were mistakenly believed to have been contained or eliminated in environmental cleanups, have been discovered wafting into basements.”

Toronto’s air choked with carcinogens

Toronto’s new law forcing industry to disclose chemical emissions might start to curb the toxic soup currently found in the city’s air.

This place does not pass the canary test!

Dry cleaning store on Queen East just west of Coxwell that has sign stating they don’t use toxic chemicals. COLIN MCCONNELL-TORONTO STAR

The 25 chemicals captured in Toronto’s new industry disclosure bylaw create a toxic brew of emissions that currently exceed health safety levels, Toronto Public Health says.

Almost all of the chemicals – most of them thought to be carcinogens – show up in Toronto’s air above accepted health standards. But some can surpass the best benchmarks by 25 to 30 times, making the simple act of breathing city air a risky proposition.

Those startling conclusions are part of the research that created the foundation for Toronto’s sweeping new “community right to know” bylaw, the first of its kind in Canada.

Using federal data from four Environment Canada air-monitoring stations across Toronto, public health researchers compared the figures to health measurement levels adopted in California (a rigorous standard founded on being “protective” of the public’s health) and by the Ontario Ministry of Environment.

“Most of us know that Toronto’s air is bad to breathe, especially in the summer,” said Katrina Miller, spokesperson for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, which spent years lobbying for the new bylaw. “We now know that there are certain cancer-causing chemicals in our air at levels that are absolutely unacceptable.”

Link to full story at HealthZone.ca

Thanks, Linda!

Guardsmen sue over chemical exposure in Iraq

Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers have sued the Houston-based defense contractor KBR, saying the company knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq in 2003.

From Democracy Now!:

The soldiers were providing security for KBR during repairs of a water treatment plant in southern Iraq shortly after the US invasion. The suit claims the site was contaminated for six months by hexavalent chromium, “one of the most potent carcinogens” known to man. It alleges that KBR knew the plant was contaminated but concealed the danger from civilian workers and soldiers. We speak with one of the soldiers and with the lead attorney in the case.

Link here to full story, which includes a rush transcript of interview with Michael Doyle, lead counsel for the Guardsmen in the litigation, and Jody Aistrop, former member of the Indiana National Guard and one of the sixteen soldiers suing KBR.

Excerpt:

JODY AISTROP: Good morning. Well, my time in Iraq, we just spent at different sites every day, just basically getting KBR in, getting them out and guarding them while they were doing their job, just protecting them. Specifically, the water plant, we would go there, you know, every third day. And if the contractors really liked you, liked the job you were doing, you could go for a week for two weeks straight.

And, I mean, I believe that we were contaminated, because I, myself, seen the stuff on the ground. I was in the pump room, where the Iraqis were down working on the pumps. And the whole place was just covered, the pump room was. [cough] Excuse me.

I really don’t know what else to say. We basically just went in, did our job. And I feel that they knew. A report had came out that KBR knew that the ground was contaminated. And we were just told it was a mild irritant, don’t worry about it. The bloody noses are from the dry air, the sand. And we just continued to do our job, like it was nothing.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Jody, what were some of the symptoms that you and the others, beside the bloody noses that you mentioned, that you started to experience? And did you—what kind of complaints did you lodge to them, to the company officially?

JODY AISTROP: The main one was the bloody nose. Your eyes would burn. You would get a rash, like on your arms or your legs. And actually, my rash just cleared up like three months ago. And it turned into lesions once I got home.

Link to full story at Democracy Now!

Real Video Stream

Real Audio Stream

Read the lawsuit against KBR

Organic farming at Boggy Creek Farm

Organic farmer Larry Butler of Boggy Creek Farm in Austin, Texas, tells us about organic farming. He explains that an organic farm uses not only organic feritlizers, but also Integrated Pest Management. He points out that farms using chemical pesticides also still experience bug problems.

“Chemicals are not the panacea for farming,” he says. “Instead of chemical fertilizers and chemical herbicides and things like that, sometimes we’ll use vinegar for an herbicide, it’s just like Round-Up.”

Link

Rachel Carson, mother of environmental movement

Okay, here’s your antidote for the last post. I was just messin’ with you again.

No comment

Love Canal, 30 years later

“It was like a Hitchcock movie.”

Here’s a report on Love Canal by ERIKA ENGELHAUPT, who explores “the toxic waste dump that became synonymous with environmental disaster 30 years ago.” You are not going to believe this, but they are moving people back into the area. Here’s a slide show (or click on photo at left), and here are the first few paragraphs of the report:

Niagara Falls, N.Y. In the middle of an abandoned suburban neighborhood, a long grassy mound pokes up a few feet higher than the cracked streets surrounding it. A green chain-link fence surrounds the small hill, which is covered with wildflowers in summer lavender chicory and small yellow daisies. The fence has no warning sign not anymore but this is Love Canal, the toxic waste dump that became synonymous with environmental disaster 30 years ago.

Adeline Levine, a sociologist who wrote a book about Love Canal, described to me the scene she had witnessed exactly 30 years earlier, on August 11, 1978. “It was like a Hitchcock movie,” she said, “where everything looks peaceful and pleasant, but something is slumbering under the ground.”

That “something” was more than 21,000 tons of chemical waste. The mixed brew contained more than 200 different chemicals, many of them toxic. They were dumped into the canal, which was really more of a half-mile-long pond, in the 1940s and 1950s by Hooker Electrochemical Co. In 1953, the canal was covered with soil and sold to the local school board, and an elementary school and playground were built on the site. A working-class neighborhood sprang up around them.

“The neighborhood looked very pleasant,” says Levine, who was a sociology professor at the State University of New York Buffalo in 1978. “There were very nice little homes, nicely kept, with gardens and flowers and fences and kids’ toys, and then there were young people who were rushing out of their homes with bundles and packing up their cars and moving vans.”

Link to full report

Link to slideshow

Thanks, Linda!

Documentary on toxic threat to male reproduction system

I encourage you to watch this documentary, The Disappearing Male, about the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. Click on the green arrow and the link will take you to the site where you can view the vid.

“We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children’s children are the experimental subjects.”

-Dr. Herbert Needleman

The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.

The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.

At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.

The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.

Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called “hormone mimicking” or “endocrine disrupting” chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.

Link

Thanks, Linda!

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard is a brilliant short film about how modern corporate greed got us into this mess of rampant consumerism, overwhelming pollution and toxic chemicals.

Yes! magazine says in its review of the film:

Our consumerism uses up resources, pollutes the planet, poisons humans, destroys species, keeps people in poverty, and contributes to global warming—all without making anyone happier.

An anti-consumerism diatribe is not something people want to hear, though, so you need something short and sweet that grabs and holds peoples’ attention.

That’s what we have in The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. In just 20 minutes, her little film lays out the problems in our consumption of “stuff” and shows how everything is linked: environmental problems with social justice issues with declining happiness. Plus she shows how corporations have undermined the government in its role of protecting the common good.

Introduction:

Extraction:

Production:

Distribution:

Consumption:

Disposal:

Another way:

Snitched from Yes!, a FABULOUS publication, a favorite of mine for years.

Thanks, Linda!

Aerial spraying in California put public at risk

In the Open Forum at SF Gate, Mike Lynberg writes that “Aerial pesticide spraying put people at risk.”

Lynberg is referring to the spraying that occured in the fall of 2007 when the State of California sprayed pesticides over Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties to control the potentially invasive Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). Thousands of Californians participated in a grass roots effort called Stop the Spray, and asked Governor Schwarzenegger to investigate the health complaints and end the LBAM Eradication Program. And in June 2008, the State announced a moratorium on aerial spray of urban areas. However, according to the Stop the Spray website, the LBAM Eradication Program still continues with the use of controversial toxic ground treatments and aerial pesticide spray of rural/mountainous areas.

Writes Lynberg:

The state’s long-awaited report on the human health risks of aerial pesticide spraying for the light brown apple moth was released last week. The report says what thousands of outraged people from Monterey to Marin County had feared: the product sprayed put some people at risk.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that one or more ingredients in the LBAM product could cause an allergic response in sensitive individuals,” reads the report, issued by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Department of Public Health.

The report acknowledges that some of the ailments suffered by people in the Monterey and Santa Cruz areas - namely asthma and reactive airway disease - “may be associated with exposure to a sensitizer or allergen.”

[...]

Seventy-four doctors filed pesticide illness reports. Several people ended up in emergency rooms.

There is more in the new report to validate the outrage many people felt about aerial spraying. State agencies now say there is a “paucity of data” on long-term exposure to the pesticides. Lab animals were tested for very short periods of time, whereas people in the Monterey and Santa Cruz areas were exposed to chemicals that persisted in the air for 30 to 60 days.

The report also admits that laboratory tests on a small number of animals might not be an adequate predictor of human health effects when large numbers of people - with different levels of sensitivity - are exposed to a pesticide.

Link

Photo from VeganReader.com.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and truly clean energy

The development of truly clean, green energy is an important issue for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. While those of us with MCS are forced to eliminate the toxicity of our immediate surroundings and of our basic consumer products as best we can in order to function and be productive, there are people out in the big bad world who are just as dedicated to eliminating toxicity of the larger environment. While the environmental activity of previous decades was more focused on the direct polluting of our air, waterways and soil (and therefore our bodies), the threat of climate change has shifted the focus to a much larger problem. And that larger problem is triggering greener critical mass thinking, finally.

It’s important for those of us with MCS to understand and support the efforts of people like Al Gore, because the environmental trends that are taking root in response to climate change are going to help us in our cause of MCS awareness. As more people become educated and aware of the differences between dirty, polluting energy (the “drill-baby-drill” mind set) vs truly clean, green energy (wind, solar, geothermal), I believe more people will also begin to take a look at the toxicity in their own immediate environment: their homes and places of work, and the food, air, and water they consume. This is all good news for those of us with MCS.

People usually do not change habits without a strong motivation. In the case of those of us with MCS, myself included, we are motivated by health issues to turn toward an organic, nontoxic lifestyle. We have no choice.  Because of our health issue, most of us were way ahead of the greenie curve. We all have adjusted our lifestyle, which has by default lessened our foot print, and we have heralded the call for others to do the same. Of course, those at the front edge of a movement are often seen as the “fringe” element, kooky people not in step with the norm. Well, guess what? The world is catching up with us. Why? Because the toxic paradigm has hit critical mass and is now hitting everyone where it counts: in the pocketbook.

So, what I see happening is the perfect storm, the convergence of several strong micro and macro environmental and social movements, all of which just culminated in the election of a U.S. president who promises Change. Environmentalists, scientists, consumers (especially parents), politicians, and the global marketplace are now pretty much all on the same page, even if for different reasons. And they, along with a growing consensus in the general population, are demanding truly clean, green energy, and along with it, I believe, the elimination of toxic products in the marketplace and thus in our environment and in our bodies.

For those of you who are not already, I’d like to get you in the mood for fully participating in the discussion on alternative energy. To start us off here on The Canary Report, I’d like to share with you a publication from Environment America, a federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. It’s called “Renewing America: A Blueprint for Economic Recovery.” Here’s the Executive Summary below, and here’s where you wonky types can download the full report.

Across the country, Americans are hurting. From the big cities of the coasts to the industrial heartland to our rural communities, the slumping economy is taking its toll in shuttered businesses, disappearing jobs, bankruptcies, foreclosures and an increased sense of anxiety about our collective future.

To revive the American dream, we need to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation—one that puts people back to work, contributes to long-term prosperity, rebuilds our communities, and protects our environment.

There is one path to a renewed economy that achieves all of those goals—one that is increasingly recognized by opinion leaders, politicians, investors and workers as our best chance to work our way out of our current economic troubles, while building a stronger, more self-reliant and environmentally responsible America.

It is the path to a clean energy future.

Clean energy in America is not some distant dream. We have the technology, the tools and the know-how to use energy more wisely and to get more of our energy from clean, renewable sources. What’s more, clean energy can be produced right here at home, creating new jobs in all sectors of the nation’s economy—including many jobs that can never be outsourced.

Americans are already beginning to see the benefits of clean energy in their local economies. Laid-off workers in the nation’s “Rust Belt” are getting back to work building wind turbines and solar cells; farmers in the Midwest are supplementing their incomes with royalties from wind farms; residents of economically distressed inner cities are learning how to install solar panels and weatherize homes for greater energy efficiency. Every part of the country has the opportunity to benefit from a transition to a new energy future.

But to turn this trickle of green jobs into a torrent of new economic opportunities, we need to act boldly—and fast. With a strong policy commitment to clean energy and the investment to match, we can:

• Embrace a future of clean power by making our economy more energy-efficient and getting 100 percent of our electricity from clean, renewable sources.

• Achieve energy independence, by cutting our consumption of oil in half—nearly as much as we currently import from all other nations.

• Speed economic recovery and create millions of new jobs in dozens of different occupations in every part of the country.

This report lays out a blueprint for how we can repower America for the 21st century, cleaning our environment while revitalizing our economy. A new president and a new Congress create a golden opportunity to chart a new future for America. The time to begin is now.

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