Violators of the Clean Water Act Go Unpunished

By Theodora Filis

In the last five years, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. Violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation. These violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations that might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

There are many causes of tap water contamination, ranging from agricultural runoff, to improper use of household chemicals, and everything in between. Few of us realize the extent or impact of these low level synthetic chemicals in the water we use. In the early 1900s‚ before chlorine‚ pesticides‚ herbicides and the tens of thousands of other chemicals we are exposed to every day were in existence‚ the average American possessed a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer; today 1 in 3 Americans can expect to get cancer during their lifetime‚ including 1 in every 2 males. 

Our use of man-made chemicals has become so extreme that we can now find traces of these low level SOCs (synthetic organic chemicals) in virtually every public water supply around the world. A recent report by the Ralph Nader Study Group‚ after reviewing over 10‚000 documents acquired through the Freedom Of Information Act‚ confirmed, "U.S. drinking water contains more than 2100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer.

Toxins regularly found in drinking water samples include PCB's, lead, chlorine, chloramine, pesticides, herbicides and prescription drugs. Our drinking water gets recycled all the time and with an estimated 80,000 synthetic chemicals in use today, the situation is worsening. 

Coal-ash dump sites pollute drinking water with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. There are 137 known toxic contamination sites from coal-ash pollution in 34 states. Environmental groups are urging the EPA to set and enforce a national standard to protect the public from coal-ash pollutants. 

In New York State alone, 205 water systems have broken the law by delivering tap water that contained illegal amounts of bacteria since 2004. Drinking water tests since 2004 have detected illegal concentrations of arsenic, and tetrachloroethylene (a dry cleaning solvent) . Only three water systems were penalized for bacteria violations.

Home filtration systems can help protect your families heath. The EPA  recommends using active carbon filters. The reason for this is that they can remove 99% of all the toxins as they can be chemically bound to the surface of the filter as well as manually removing them.  Active carbon filters also leave in the trace elements and improve the taste of the water as well.

Organophosphate: Insecticide and Nerve Gas - 2 for the Price of 1!

By Theodora Filis


A new study links Organophosphate Pesticides (a compound marketed by many of the world’s major agrochemical companies) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

ADHD is thought to affect 3% to 7% of American children, with boys affected more heavily than girls. 


A recent study, reported in the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives, examines the effects of both prenatal and childhood exposure to the pesticides which are widely used in the United States to control insects on food crops.  EPA documents show that babies and children under five can ingest levels of the insecticide through food and water that exceed levels the agency considers safe. 

A growing body of evidence is suggesting that exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs) is a prime cause of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. The findings are considered plausible to many experts because the pesticides are designed to attack the nervous systems of insects, making it likely they should also effect the nervous systems of humans who are exposed to them.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that prenatal levels of the pesticides were related to attention problems at age 5, with the effects apparently stronger among boys. "We were especially interested in prenatal exposure because that is the period when a baby's nervous system is developing the most," said Brenda Eskenazi. 

The aerial application of OPs (such as dimethoate) is permitted in the UK to control cereal and vegetable pests, in sheep dips, and as insecticides in military premises, on equipment and was even used on personnel during the Gulf War.

Some of the main agricultural products are Hostathion (triazophos), Metasystox-R (oxydemeton-methyl), Dursban and Lorsban (chlorpyrifos), Sumithion (fenitrothion) and Actellic (pirimiphos-methyl)(2).

EPA has ruled that OPs can’t be used for most residential applications in the US, but  they are still turning up in the fruits and vegetables. Forty OPs are registered in the US, with at least 73 million pounds used each year in agricultural and residential settings. A USDA report from 2008 found that detectable levels of OPs were contained in 28% of frozen berries, 20% of celery, and 25% of strawberries.

What's a parent to do?

To avoid potentially harmful pesticides buy local or organic whenever possible. National surveys have shown that fruits and vegetables from farmers' markets contain less pesticides even if they are not organic.

The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, has compiled a list of best and worst fruits and vegetables for pesticide residue, which includes a clip-out guide for shopping.

Detoxify your lawn and garden. If you have lawn-care service, ask if the company uses the organophosphate pesticide trichlorfon; it's used almost exclusively by lawn-care companies and golf courses, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Clean out your garden shed. The organophosphate diazinon (brand names: Diazinon, Spectracide) was outlawed for residential use in 2004, but there may be some left in your garage or shed. Check with your community's hazardous-waste disposal program on how to safely dispose of pesticides. Organophosphates kill fish, so don't dump them down the drain.

Pick those nits. Malathion is approved for treatment of head lice in children over age 6. But do you really want a neurotoxin on your child's scalp? Non-toxic alternatives include combing, hand-picking nits, and using the face cleaner Cetaphil to suffocate adult lice.

Check your school's pest control policy. Many school districts have moved to Integrated Pest Management, which emphasizes less toxic alternatives. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is a good source for information on how to implement IPM in schools, the kind of thing you could wave at a PTA meeting.

The Way I See It...

Lots of debates going on this month after consumers were made aware of BPA not only in their bottled water, but also their cash receipts.

Here‘s what the news tells us: “The levels that could be absorbed from receipts can be higher than those inadvertently eaten along with canned food and drinks or otherwise in contact with polycarbonate plastics. These plastics and can linings contain BPA, and it can leach out of these containers, even when they are used properly. Data suggests exposure from receipts could be seven times higher than levels ingested in the diet. This is because BPA is directly applied to receipt paper, and large amounts of the chemical can easily rub off.”

This is how we react:  Let’s go to Starbucks, and make sure you hand me my receipt - huh?

While Mad-Cow disease has been swept efficiently under the already bulging carpet with the nicely embroidered bald eagle on it,  cloned meats were being produced right under our very own snouts.  So uninformed and "unaffected" are American consumers that when the news of a British farmer selling milk from the offspring of a cloned animal surfaced in Europe causing a ban on all cloned meats, the American’s responded by saying the “British always take things so seriously”.

He who laughs last… “I see no evil, I hear no evil, therefore there is no evil” Ahh, that’s better. Latte anyone?

U.N. officials say the flooding in Pakistan is “the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change”. Over 1/5 of the country has been devastated by flooding leaving millions of people homeless and countless more dead. Claims that the floods in Pakistan are just the beginning, and that the world should brace itself for more of these devastating disasters, have conservatives claiming that global warming couldn't possible exist because "It snowed more this winter than it has in several decades - proving global warming doesn't exist."

Trying to get most American's to see the truth today, is like trying to get an illegal immigrant into Arizona…

Cloned Meats. To Debate or Not To Debate? Sorry, that question’s not allowed!

By Theodora Filis

Research for this article began when I was asked to be a guest on China Radio’s Today on Beyond Beijing contributing to their panel discussion on cloned meats. I was honored, but cloned meats? What did I know about cloned meats? Nothing, and apparently, I wasn’t alone.

Kept in the dark would be an accurate description of how American consumers are treated when it comes to cloned meats and food from their offspring.

Reproductive cloning is a centuries old technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another animal — Bio 101 ends here. Farm animal cloning, on the other hand, is a new technology.  While scientists boast that cloning preserves elite genetics, further studies suggest the process may actually result in subtle changes in food composition which could pose food-consumption risks.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate the sale of milk or meat from offspring of cloned animals and does not require these foods to be labeled. Cloned food products have been in the American food supply since 2008.

It wasn’t until August 4th of this summer that the use of cloned meat made its way into the headlines.  The New York Times reported: Britain Confirms Unauthorized Sale of Meat From Animal Bred From a Clone sparked huge debate over cloned meats in the UK and across Europe forcing the EU to place bans on the sale of cloned meats and their offspring until strict regulations could be put in place.

While the safety and ethics of new food technologies caused concern across Europe, in America, consumers continued to buy steak, hamburgers and hot dogs without giving it a second thought.

The two major issues surrounding cloned meats are the lack of research and a question of ethics. The ethical issue can be argued, lack of research cannot. Recent studies have found that genetic defects in clones could be passed down to their offspring. The data on cloned pigs’ offspring showed smaller litters, slower growth, 25% of progeny deaths, and an abnormality rate of 2.5 times that of normal pigs. Most clones die before birth or in the first few weeks of life.

Cattle clones often suffer from “large-offspring” syndrome, wherein the fetus grows twice as large as normal, sometimes causing death for both the cow and calf. Surviving calves are often sicker than ordinary calves.

Most beef studies found differences in clones’ meat composition and pork studies found significant differences. Nevertheless, at the end of the George W. Bush administration, the FDA hurriedly approved the cloning of farm animals.

Today, many US farmers have left the cloning business because they find it to be too expensive - $17,000 to clone one animal - and have not found it to be the most effective way to improve their herd. 

Every meat eater has eaten food from the offspring of cloned animals. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

• Why aren’t we asking questions and demanding answers from our government agencies and meat producers?
• Why haven’t strict regulations been enforced on cloned meats and their offspring?
• Why haven’t US consumers demanded a ban on cloned meats until more research has been done?

It’s time for Americans to grow a pair and stand up for their rights as consumers because to date real questions have not been allowed!

While the FDA has claimed that the cloned meat would not have to be labeled any differently, legislators in seven states, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Washington, have sponsored bills that would require cloned meat and dairy to have a label that told the consumers that the product they are purchasing was produced by a cloned animal.

Sources:

http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/documents/pdf/PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report_Full.pdf

http://www.soilassociation.org/

http://www.endanimalcloning.org/animalwelfare.shtml

http://www.just-food.com/companies/european-commission_id365

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-beef-with-cloned-meat

http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/animalbiotech/Outreach/Progeny_of_Clones.pdf

http://www.as.miami.edu/english/wiki105/index.php?title=Cloned_Meat#Introduction

http://www.food.gov.uk/

Today on Beyond Beijing

Getting ready to go on China Radio's Today on Beyond Beijing panel. We're talking cloned meat in the food supply http://www.am880.net LIVE.

The 411 On Plastic Water Bottles… and Cash Receipts?

By Theodora Filis


Plastic water bottles have become a staple in everyone‘s lives. If you live in the westernized world or any part of the world for that matter, you have opened and drank from a plastic water bottle. Chances are you drink several a day. Plastic. Cheap and convenient. What could possibly be wrong with that?  Well… a lot.

An industrial chemical present in many hard plastic bottles and metal based food and beverage cans called Bisphenol A (BPA) leaches into our drinking water and food from plastic containers. BPA is present in certain food contact materials because it is used in the production of polycarbonate and epoxy-phenolic resins. Polycarbonate (PC) is a plastic widely used in articles such as infant feeding bottles, tableware (plates, mugs, jugs, beakers), microwave oven ware, storage containers, returnable water and milk bottles, and refillable water containers.

BPA was first approved by the FDA in the early 1960’s. In recent years, concerns have been raised about BPA’s safety.

- In August 2008, FDA released a draft report finding that BPA remains safe in food contact materials.

- On October 31, 2008, a subcommittee of FDA’s science board raised questions about whether FDA’s review had adequately considered the most recent scientific information available.

- On January 15, 2010, the FDA issued an interim update on BPA.

Studies using standardized toxicity tests have so far supported the safety of current low levels of human exposure to BPA. However, the results from recent studies using new approaches to test for subtle effects, from both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA “have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children”.

When scientists use the words “some concerns” when dealing with the health and safety our children, that’s when I worry. Why are products sold that pose “some concerns”?

Scientists have known for many years that the polycarbonate bond created by BPA was unstable and that the chemical would eventually leach into food or beverages in contact with the plastic. Why was it ever used in the first place? Why are we only learning about these health risks now? And why, is BPA one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide? Over six billion pounds are produced each year. Wow! You’d think it was good for us… it’s not.

In 2008, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported: “The average sperm count of a North American college student today is less than half of what it was 50 years ago. The quality of sperm is declining. Eighty-five per cent of the sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged.” The Canadian government bans plastic baby bottles, the Daily Mail reports, “baby bottles containing a controversial ‘gender bending’ chemical are to be barred in Canada, the first country to introduce such a ban.”

As if that wasn’t enough: A recent study commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that 40 percent of thermal paper receipts, originating with some of the largest retailers in the country, contained BPA levels anywhere from 250 to 1,000 times higher than products already known to contain BPA. According to 2004 statistics, BPA manufacturers made over 1 million tons of the substance. Most of this usually goes into the polycarbonate plastics industry, and less than 5% into food contact applications.

BPA being present in cash register receipts comes from the fact that the substance acts as a color developer in carbonless copy paper, as well as in thermal paper. Researchers caution that BPA could get absorbed by the skin and enter the body; or worse transfer from your fingers to your mouth after handling a cash register receipt. The “Scientists agree, this evidence will ultimately convince federal regulatory agencies that BPA should be illegal.”  Now that’s reassuring after the damage has been done.  However, somewhat disheartening considering the federal regulatory agencies need “convincing”.

How about convincing consumers to say “NO” to harmful substances until manufacturers come up with safe alternatives?

Safe alternatives you can use until our government bans BPA:


Use a stainless steel water bottle to keep yourself hydrated on the go. For wrapped foods, choose butcher paper, waxed paper or cellulose bags.


Use cloth grocery bags and reusable produce and bulk food containers.


Choose fresh, frozen and dried foods over those that are canned. (Most metal cans are lined with a plastic resin that contains the hormone disruptor, BPA).


Purchase toys made from natural materials, such as solid woods with non-toxic finishes and natural textiles like organic cotton or wool.


Avoid toys made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and baby bottles made of polycarbonate plastic.


If you do choose to buy plastic products, look for those labeled “phthalate-free” and “BPA-free”.

Many people are not aware that the symbols on plastics tell you everything about the plastic itself. The most common plastics have a resin code in a chasing arrow symbol (often found on the bottom of the product).

1 PETE (Polyethylene Terephthalate): AVOID
Common Uses: Soda Bottles, Water Bottles, Cooking Oil Bottles
Concerns: Can leach antimony and phthalates

2 HDPE (High Density Polyethylene): SAFER
Common Uses: Milk Jugs, Plastic Bags, Yogurt Cups

3 PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride, aka Vinyl): AVOID
Common Uses: Condiment Bottles, Cling Wrap, Teething Rings, Toys, Shower Curtains
Concerns: Can leach lead and phthalates

4 LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene): SAFER
Common Uses: Produce Bags, Food Storage Containers

5 PP (Polypropylene): SAFER
Common Uses: Bottle Caps, Storage Containers, Dish ware

6 PS (Polystyrene, aka Styrofoam): AVOID

7 OTHER (This is a catch-all category which includes):
PC (Polycarbonate): AVOID - can leach BPA. It also includes ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile), Acrylic, and Polyamide. These plastics can be a SAFER option because they are typically very durable and resistant to high heat resulting in less leaching. New plant based, biodegradable plastics like PLA (Polylactic Acid) also fall into the #7 category.