Disingenious Greenwashing

I don't know why anyone is surprised by this any more.

Public health experts involved in the response to the Ebola crisis have condemned what they described as a ludicrous, insulting and opportunistic attempt to exploit the disease for corporate gain by the world’s largest privately-held coal company.

As part of a PR offensive to rebrand coal as a “21st-century fuel” that can help solve global poverty, it has emerged that at the height of Ebola’s impact in Africa, Peabody Energy promoted its product as an answer to Africa’s devastating public health crisis.

Fairbanks (AK) City Council votes 5-1 to end fluoridation

Congratulations Fairbanks, Alaska and www.fluoridefreefairbanks.org.

If only the Burlington (VT) city council would have the balls to decide yea or nay (and show some responsibility as elected city officers). Two councilor-appointed city commissions have recommended the removal of fluoride in the city's water supply (Board of Health and Public Works commission), and the council takes no action! It's been more than 5 years that the council have been kicking this around. Get with it, already!

And not surprisingly, Ralph Nader has called for a national debate on mandatory water fluoridation.

The War on Aids... 29 years and counting

"Let me remind you that over the last year, the same leaders had absolutely no problem finding the money on a moment's notice to bail out their corporate friends and the greedy Wall Street bankers, yet when it comes to global health, the purse is always empty.

"A full 110 billion euros [142 billion dollars] appeared from nowhere when the Greek economy faltered earlier this year. But when it comes to universal access, the G8 chose to ignore their commitments before the crisis, and they are poised to continue to do so today."-- Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society and organiser of the 18th International AIDS Conference which opened this weekend in Vienna

Burlington Bans Smoking in Parks & Beaches

On Monday the Burlington city council voted unanimously to ban smoking at beaches and parks and has future plans to include a total ban on Church Street. (In 2004, the city banned smoking in restaurants and bars.) Explaining Monday's ruling, councilor Joan Shannon and current chair of the ordinance committee writes in her local Front Porch Forum, "there will be cleaner air in the areas of our parks where people tend to congregate." Surely this will displease some smokers and civil libertarians. We all know about the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke in enclosed areas. While it may appear as common sense to ban smoking outdoors, scientific studies on the effects of second-hand smoke outdoors remain inconclusive.

Everyone hates smokers anyway, so the city council ruling was an easy, feel-good change to the city's ordinance.

How to enforce this new law is another matter. That's not been worked out. The smoking ban at the Cherry Street CCTA bus stop has not been enforced. (It should be noted that neither the city's pesticides ordinance nor the dogs-on-leash law is enforced to their full extent.) Appearance matters. The news of Monday's ruling is certainly a diversion from the bad press city council got from the Burlington Telecom mess (councilors knew what was going on and didn't do anything about it), so Monday's ruling gives the temporary positive impression that the council is doing some work.

The city allows car idling for three minutes. If the intention was to promote better health, what about cars idling while stopped on streets crossing the pedestrian Church Street? Exhaust is linked to increased rates of asthma in children and contributes to air pollution, too - probably more than SHS. What about the plethora of cars that park at beaches and parks. City Hall Park is surrounded on three sides by parking. What about run-off into our precious Lake? A total pedestrian zone downtown is unlikely. The tourists and merchants would complain and the city would lose lucrative revenue.

[Over a year ago, the Board of Health recommended to city council that Burlington stop water fluoridation, in light of new findings in the NRC Report on fluoride in drinking water, citing particularly its effects on infants, kidney patients, diabetics and the elderly. There have been a couple of hearings by the public safety committee, but the recommendation has been untouched by city council. Politics and priorities are at play here, of course. Common sense would tell us that a decision to remove fluoride should be easy as the one the council took on Monday evening, but I won't hold my breath.]

Protégez-vous

Hat Tip to The House of LeMay.

UPDATED: Vermont Yankee tritium leak threatens ground water

UPDATE BELOW

Maggie Gunderson wrote yesterday on GMD about the news of a tritium leak at VY. What's particularly troubling is this:

... the quote from VY's report to NRC detailing the tritium wedge moving toward the Connecticut River, especially

"The presence of tritium in station air compressor condensate and manholes (Storm Drain System) has been identified since 1995... leakage of tritium to ground water beneath the site will be transported by natural ground water gradient to the Connecticut River." (Page 51)

The problem with tritium is that it is chemically identical to water. This means that the tritium cannot be filtered out of the water like the other radioactive isotopes may be filtered from reactor water or other contaminated water.

UPDATE

The Rutland Herald today quotes concerns by nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderson (Maggie's husband)

who served on the special Oversight Panel that examined Vermont Yankee's reliability last year, said there likely was a plume of contamination under the reactor, and that concentrations of the tritium were likely higher in locations other than the well.

Gundersen noted that Entergy officials told his committee there was no underground tanks of piping that would have contained radioactivity, calling into question the accuracy of their reports.

"The Oversight Panel specifically asked about underground pipes and tanks, but we were stonewalled by Entergy. Tritium is a sign of a leaking pipe or tank. Entergy told the panel that they had no buried tanks or pipes containing radioactivity. This is an indication that a radioactive plume is moving under the VY site," Gundersen wrote in an e-mail.

Gundersen said the committee was very concerned about underground radioactive contamination at the site.

Austin Citizens Do Battle with Fluoridation

Take a look at this video of citizens testifying before the Austin Environmental Board on December 2. We see both ordinary citizens and specialists, who have been shocked after reading up on the stupid practice of water fluoridation, speaking truth to power.

Consumer Reports Finds BPA in Nearly All Canned Food Samples

This is a very big deal.

In the wake of a new Consumer Reports study that found BPA in common, name-brand canned goods, The Breast Cancer Fund, Clean WaterAction, Clean New York, Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Toxics Alliance and other environmental health advocates support Consumers Union's call for the FDA to immediately act to protect consumers from BPA. Read the full CU press release is here (and check out the link to the findings, listing the products to avoid!)

Here is an excerpt:

Consumer Reports’ latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The new findings show that BPA can be found in a diverse assortment of canned foods including those labeled “organic,” and even in some foods packaged in “BPA-free” cans. Consumer Reports’ tests of a few comparable products in alternative types of packaging showed lower levels of BPA in most, but not all cases. The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and are also available free online at www.ConsumerReports.org. “The findings are noteworthy because they indicate the extent of potential exposure,” said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “Children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones we found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA near levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies. The lack of any safety margin between the levels that cause harm in animals and those that people could potentially ingest from canned foods has been inadequately addressed by the FDA to date.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is soon expected to announce the findings of its most recent reassessment of the safety of BPA. Consumers Union hopes it will remedy some of the deficiencies of its previous analysis. BPA has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.

Toxic BPA is a problem - it's used to line canned foods - even ORGANIC canned food - tomatoes, soups & more. It's linked to breast cancer & testicular cancer. Protect your health - return your risky canned goods to your grocer.

The CU Reports article in the December 2009 issue is here.

In September, I attended a conference in Burlington, VT, "A Critical Link," sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, where we heard from national leading experts in the field of environmental health talking about the effects of toxins on men, women and children. Along with other toxins that effect our health, the use of BPA was mentioned. CCTV Channel 17 in Burlington has on-line Part 1 and Part 2 of the conference. Highly recommended! If you are in Burlington, Channel 17 will also rebroadcast Part 1 at 2:00 PM and Part 2 at 3:41 PM on Sunday November 8.

Oh, Sheet!

Radio Netherlands

The [Dutch] Justice Ministry is distributing toilet paper in prisons printed with information on safe sex, hygiene and dealing with aggression. The rolls carry illustrated slogans such as "wash your hands more often" and "always use a condom, also with a blow-job". The one-week trial scheme is aimed at investigating whether this way of providing information could be used to influence prisoner behaviour.

Christian Democrat MP Rikus Jager has raised objections to the scheme with Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak, the Telegraaf newspaper reports. Apart from the extra expense, Mr Jager thinks the explicit toilet paper could distress victims of sexual abuse.



COMMENT: Is this Dutch toilet humour? But just think: The SOS (sex lessons on a sheet) messages could be expanded to schools and hospitals. The Telegraaf reports the scheme has been successful at Rotterdam's Erasmus Hospital ('wash your hands'). America's public health officials take note! Social Libertarians, too!

Photo: Radio Netherlands

HELEN CALDICOTT COMES TO VERMONT NEXT WEEK

From Ken Picard in Blurt/Seven Days

Seven Days just learned that one of the most renowned antinuclear activists is speaking in Vermont next week.
...
Needless to say, the activist/physician's work remains far from completed. In fact, she calls our current age "the most dangerous age ever." Dr. Caldicott's talks are compelling, insightful and devastatingly on-target.
...
Indeed, beyond the doom and gloom, she offers something in all too short supply these days: hope.

The Nobel-Prize-nominated scientist and activist speaks at Middlebury College's Bicentennial Hall at 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 7, then later that day at the Barnes & Noble in South Burlington. The following day, Dr. Caldicott signs books and meets the public at UVM's Davis Center bookstore from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a talk in the Grand Maple Ballroom. On Thursday, April 9, Caldicott will be in Montpelier and Brattleboro, locations TBA. Be sure to catch one of these talks!

COMMENT: Not only does Dr Caldicott bring hope in these dark days, but also a challenge for Vermonters to wake up!

US SUPREMOS RULE AGAINST WYETH IN VERMONT CASE

Maggie Gunderson in GMD:-- The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Vermont resident Diana Levine in Wyeth v. Levine, Dkt. 06-1249 (3/4/09). Levine had won her case in Vermont, but drug company Wyeth had appealed the almost $7 million award all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senator Patrick Leahy filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief to a Vermonter Diana Levine's U.S. Supreme Court case. Leahy was joined in his "amicus" legal brief, which was filed in August 2008, by 17 members of Congress, including Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch and Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Harkin, Dianne Feinstein, Richard J. Durbin, and Russell D. Feingold, and Representatives Henry A. Waxman, John Conyers, Jr., John D. Dingell, Frank Pallone, Jr., Bart Stupak, Zoe Lofgren, Linda Sanchez, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Maxine Waters.

PLAINFIELD (VT) BANS FLUORIDE

FOX 44 TV:- PLAINFIELD, Vt. (AP) - The town of Plainfield has voted to remove fluoride from its drinking water.

In a voice vote after a lengthy floor discussion on Tuesday's Town Meeting Day, residents voted in favor of the ban.

Supporters say they want to have the choice whether or not to ingest fluoride and don't want to be forcefully medicated.

Great, disappointed as I was that Andy didn't win in Burlington, the news from Plainfield makes the 2009 Vermont Town Meeting Day one to remember. Now...after the Burlington BoH passed a resolution to remove fluoride from the tap water, the City Council and the re-elected mayor just have to get their asses in gear to make the right decision for our city, too.

THE FUTURE OF BOYS

Via Pulse:- Stop the world, I want to get off. This is a disturbing CBC documentary entitled The Disappearing Male. It is a 44 minute video about a critically important, yet seldom covered, issue facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system by endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

WHEN YOU CATCH CODE..

NYT ScienceTimes

Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage.

Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true.

STATUS QUO HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

Yesterday it was announced that the president-elect has chosen former senator Tom Daschle to be HHS secretary. When he was a senator, he was one of the biggest recipients of campaign donations from the health care industry. Since he left the senate, he’s had a position advising a Washington legal and lobbying firm on a number of issues, notably health care. That firm’s lobbying clients include a number of pharmaceutical companies.

Indeed, in yesterday's NYT:

Although Mr. Daschle’s work might not preclude his appointment, it could raise the possibility that the administration could require him to recuse himself from any matter related to either the Mayo Clinic or some of the clients he advised at Alston & Bird — a potentially broad swath of the health secretary’s portfolio.

No presidential administration has sought to extend its conflict-of-interest policies to previous employers as Mr. Obama has pledged to do, earning high marks from government ethics groups. Mr. Daschle’s selection reflects a clash, widely predicted by Washington lawyers and lobbyists, between Mr. Obama’s unusually sweeping self-imposed ethics rules and his desire to recruit experienced policy hands.

Change we can believe in.

In a pathetic round-table discussion last night on PBS’s Newshour, Judy Woodruff was joined by

Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, a national trade association representing health insurance providers;

Stuart Butler, vice president for domestic and economic policy at the Heritage Foundation;

Chris Jennings, former senior health policy adviser to president Clinton, now president of Jennings Policy Strategies, a health policy consulting firm;

and Uwe Reinhardt, professor of economics and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (he of managed care, which gave “consumers” a “choice,” but was controlled by insurance companies that put profits before patient care).

All these expert analysts used the current financial crisis as an explanation and excuse for preventing Obama's "desire" for real and serious health care reform. All are tied to the status quo of health care delivery in this country.

Judy Woodruff did not invite any working people, patients or physicians into the discussion mix. The Newshour's experts don't know what the citizens want, but speaking for their corporate connections, they presume to know what's best for us. Not once during the discussion was single payer mentioned.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, has introduced a bill - HR676 - for single payer, making it unlawful to sell private health insurance for benefits that are medically necessary.

57% of Americans, when asked about their choice for health care delivery, have said they want it government sponsored. (70% of Democratic primary voters want it.) Even back in August, the Democratic platform snuffed out single payer in the mix for health care reform solutions.

In the interest of a true discussion and debate, why didn’t Woodruff have representatives from the California Nurses Association or Physicians for a National Healthcare Program? Both groups have called for single payer. (Although the CNA supported Obama.) Why not include Vermont’s own Dr Deb Richter, former president of PNHP or its founders Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein?

BLOOD SAVERS

The Coffee Memorial Blood Center in Amarillo, Texas, is working with area hospitals to reduce unnecessary blood transfusions in an effort to address low blood supplies. The Northwest Texas Healthcare System has tapped a company with a Web-based program that can analyze whether or not patients should have received a blood transfusion, helping to educate staff on blood use. The Baptist St. Anthony's Health System is using Cell Saver, a device that collects patients' blood during surgery and prepares to pump it back if needed.

This idea is nothing new. When at St Luke's in Houston, already Texas Heart Institute had developed ways to save blood during surgeries. Fortunately, some doctors have been educated about efficiency in transfusion medicine. The days of only whole blood transfusion are over.

UK LANDMARK ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL VICTORY

An environmental activist in the UK has won the right to have the use of pesticides in England and Wales reviewed.

Georgina Downs has suffered from reactions to pesticides since she was a child. A high court judge's ruling will force Environmental Secretary Hilary Benn to start a review of their use.

A High Court judge said award-winning Georgina Downs had produced "solid evidence" that rural residents had suffered harm from crop spraying with toxic chemicals. He ordered the Government to reconsider how to protect the health of countryside communities.

Miss Downs, who lives on the edge of farm fields near Chichester, West Sussex, launched her independent UK Pesticides Campaign in 2001 and was recently named a "woman of the year". To support her campaign, she collected evidence on DVD from other rural residents reporting health problems including cancer, Parkinson's disease, ME and asthma they believe could be linked to crop spraying.

This is welcomed news, even on this side of the pond. Burlington's Board of Health has been reviewing the city's pesticide ordinance for well over a year. There is unanimous agreement of the board that the ordinance should be changed to make Burlington pesticide-free.

LET THEM BUY SOAP!

The Prince of Orange, Willem-Alexander, chair of UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) is in South Africa to promote Global Handwashing Day. (It's today: As a Burlington Board of Health commissioner, let me remind you to wash your hands after using the toilet and before eating.)

It should be noted that a corporate sponsor for today's event is the Anglo-Dutch soap manufactuer, Unilever.

Warning: chemical contaminants in soaps.

And don't you think we should have enough clean water first to wash with?

.

SCIENTISTS CREATE GENETIC MAP OF EUROPE

An international team of researchers created a two-dimensional map that shows the geographical origins of 3,000 Europeans based on their genetic mutations. GlaxoSmithKline participated in the effort because it could prove beneficial to genetic epidemiology, which involves populationwide studies. Such research could help drugmakers cut costs in testing adverse reactions to medicines. (Source: MIT Technology Review)

LET'S FACE IT

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

'Facebook Generation' Faces Identity Crisis

Dr Himanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health Trust, said that people born after 1990, who were just five-years-old or younger when the use of Internet became mainstream in 1995, have grown up in a world dominated by online social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

"This is the age group involved with the Bridgend suicides and what many of these young people had in common was their use of Internet to communicate. It's a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don't like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable," said Dr Tyagi. "People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behaviour to get that sense.

Thanks to Mark Vernon (read his comments here) and TA for alerting me to this article