Exxon oil spill cleanup ongoing in Arkansas, pipeline shut
One drop of oil will “contaminate approximately 75,000 gallons of water- the size of an Olympic swimming pool.” DEQ, Louisiana.gov
I wonder how many drops of from “thousands of barrels” of oil will escape into the ground table and impact the fresh water of the region. I also wonder if pollution standards will quietly be changed to accommodate new levels of contamination; rendering once unsafe levels as “safe.”
On the shore of Washington state’s Columbia River, six radioactive containment ponds are leaking in Hanford, the largest nuclear superfund site in the United States.
According to Washington State Governor Jay Inslee there are, “no immediate health risks from leaking nuclear waste.” The half-life of two isotopes of weapons grade Plutonium are 14.4 and 24,000 years there is plenty of risk and reason to be concerned. With all respect to the Governor, “are you kidding me/us?” Or is it just that since nothing can be done to safely dispose of these man-made isotopes, the sound bite is to assume an existential position and simply not worry as nothing can be done to put the genie back in the bottle?
What is to happen with San Onofre, an antiquated nuclear facility, sitting on a fault line, on the Pacific coast, mid-way between Los Angeles and San Diego? Will the eventual leaking of nuclear waste from their holding tanks also not become, “cause for immediate concern?” And speaking of “holding tanks” with the half-life of Plutonium being what it is, how long are these tanks supposed to remain in place and to what end?
The curious connection between an invasive beetle that has destroyed over 100 million trees, and subsequent heart disease and pneumonia in the human populations nearby, Lindsay Abrams The Atlantic
Washington, DC — The key system for preventing a repeat of the massive Gulf of Mexico blowout in the sensitive waters of the Arctic underwent only partial and cursory testing with no independent analysis of the results, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which obtained the federal testing data. As a result, federal overseers are again completely relying upon industry assurances of safety as Royal Dutch Shell prepares to begin drilling this week in the remote Chukchi Sea.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all “records pertaining to results of Shell oil company’s testing of its well-head capping stack that would be used in response to a well-head blowout in its Arctic drilling program,” the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE is an arm of the Interior Department, formerly within the Minerals Management Service) could produce only one document – a one-page set of notes. This slim production belied the agency’s claim in press statements that it had conducted “comprehensive” testing to meet “rigorous new standards.”
The field-testing took place over less than two hours in Puget Sound on June 25th and 26th and involved only two BSEE officials and Shell. The first day, they lowered the capping stack to a depth of 200 feet, but did not try to attach it to a simulated wellhead and blowout preventer (BOP), as would be necessary in a real-world blowout.” Read full article at Peer.org
In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer-lobbyist, as Food Safety Czar in the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), and Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s former Biotech Governor of the Year as Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture. Mr. Vilsack’s award was conferred by an industry organization representing Monsanto and the other genetic engineering companies.
Tell FDA to Label Genetically Engineered Food
May 26 will mark 20 years since the FDA decided, at the request of the biotech industry and corporate agribusiness (and most recently under the leadership of Michael Taylor) to prevent Americans from knowing if their food has been genetically engineered or not. Due to the efforts of Michael Taylor, genetically engineered foods do
not
have to be safety tested or labeled. The Food & Drug Administration conducts no premarket review or approval engineered foods, as long as Monsanto (and other industry members such as Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, BASF) concludes that the genetically engineered substance is not “materially different” from normal food.
Michael Taylor’s FDA has rubber-stamped Dow Chemical Corporation’s conclusion that their Agent Orange Corn (genetically engineered to resist the herbicide 2,4-D used in Agent Orange) is somehow comparable to normal corn.
Tom Vilsack’s USDA is ready to give Agent Orange Corn final approval. Soon, we will be eating corn engineered with genes from a soil bacterium that isn’t killed by 2,4-D herbicide: A “food” which human beings have never eaten before, has never been tested for safety, and marketed without any indication that it is a genetically engineered product.
2,4-D kills plants by causing the cells in the tissues that carry water and nutrients to divide and grow without stopping.
2,4-D is currently the 7th largest source of dioxin pollution in the US and is toxic to the eye, thyroid, kidney, adrenals, ovaries/testes, and neurological system. Agent Orange Corn is projected to increase 2,4-D use 50 times over.
