Cancerous fish in Pacific after Fukushima

In March 2011 a tsunami caused by an earthquake hit the Fukushima reactor in Japan. Cancerous fish are being found on the US west coast, where currents have likely carried radiation from the Fukushima reactor to fish stocks closer to the US, and fish have picked up radiation from near Fukushima. Tumors are caused by abnormal cell growth, and radiation is one cause of tumors. Fish, and people who eat them, are being exposed to dangerous levels of cesium-137 and strontium-90.

This is what cancer on fish looks like:

Below is salmon with tumors.

Map of Pacific salmon range.


Below: This is what tumors look like in sliced, raw fish. Source.

Here's an estimated fallout map of the Fukushima radiation.
More info on currents and radiation patterns from Fukushima.

What the "experts" say

Government "experts", pundits, and bloggers alike have claimed it's safe to eat the cancerous fish after no testing has been done on them. But radioactive cesium has been found in 15 Pacific bluefin tuna in this study from PNAS. The study says tuna have definitely transported radioactive materials from the Fukushima reactor across the Pacific to the US. The scientists found no cesium in pre-Fukushima tuna. Another blog says this radiation is only 5% of eating a normal banana.

Doses of radiation are cumulative for a lifetime, meaning the dose never goes away, is never diminished, and it stays in your body for a lifetime. The more radiation you are exposed to, the more likely something will go wrong with your body. Until we have more information about the prevalence of the radiation in Pacific seafood, ignoring the impact is foolish and irresponsible.

The NRDC says eating cancerous fish is ok: " Could Fukushima radiation in U.S.-caught fish increase over time to levels that would present a significant health impact to individuals? In our judgment, the answer is “No” due to dilution of the radioactivity released from Fukushima in the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean." They do explain how they think dilution works and why the radiation levels are safe.

Even the Japanese Prime Minister said “There are no health-related problems until now, nor will there be in the future.” That's an impossible claim to make. He cannot control the future, nor does he care since he won't be in office then. Increased cancer rates around Fukushima in Japan may not show up for another 20-30 years, but the damage is already done to the people. It's up to you to keep your family safe by not making foolish assumptions about the safety of food. After all, when has the government ever made a conservative assumption that something is safe?

Caution is required here, not reliance on bureaucrats who just don't care about what happens to people when they are no longer in office. Get educated, know your food and where it comes from, and you should be in a more healthy position.

More links

1. Superstation95. Fukushima radiation is damaging more animals than just fish. Also affected are seals, shrimp, and polar bears. Furry animals have a loss of body hair, an obvious component of radiation poisoning.
2. Nuclear-News. Scientists estimate number of deaths from cancer just from eating radiated fish.
3. The Fish Vet. More info on cancerous fish caught in upper Alaska, Vancouver, and Alberta.

Radiation explained

How much radiation is coming from the Fukushima power plant and reaching the US west coast? How much of this radiation is needed to cause cancer? How much exposure will lead to death? This post will help explain radiation terms and how much radiation is bad for the human body. There will be more posts about cancerous fish next week.

First, radiation emitted from a substance is not the same as radiation absorbed by tissue or other matter.


The Becquerel (Bq)

From Wikipedia:

One becquerel is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second.

The becquerel simply measures how many times the nucleus decays per second. But that doesn't explain what level of becquerels is dangerous to a person or animal.

• 2 radioactive decays in a second equals 2 Bq. 
• 1123 decays per second is the same as 1123 Bq. 
• 1 becquerel is 10 milliSieverts (mSv).

The Sievert (Sv)

From Wikipedia:

The sievert is used both to represent the risk of the effect of external radiation from sources outside the body, and the effect of internal irradiation due to inhaled or ingested radioactive substances. Conventionally the sievert is not used for high dose rates of radiation which produce deterministic effects, which is the severity of acute tissue damage which is certain to happen. These effects are compared to the physical quantity absorbed dose measured by the unit gray (Gy).

The sievert measures the biological effect on tissue in joules per kilogram. There is a "weighing factor" which must be applied to the matter or tissue which absorbs the radiation. This factor is different for different types of tissue. Examples:

0.098	μSv:	banana equivalent dose, an illustrative unit of radiation dose representing the measure of radiation from a typical banana[32][a]
0.25	μSv:	U.S. limit on effective dose from a single airport security screening[33]
5 to 10	μSv:	one set of dental radiographs[34]
80	μSv:	average dose to people living within 16 km of Three Mile Island accident[35]
0.4 to 0.6	mSv:	two-view mammogram, using weighting factors updated in 2007[36]
1	mSv:	The U.S. 10 CFR § 20.1301(a)(1) dose limit for individual members of the public, total effective dose equivalent, per annum[37]
1.5 to 1.7	mSv:	annual dose for flight attendants[38]
2 to 7	mSv:	barium fluoroscopy, e.g. Barium meal, up to 2 minutes, 4–24 spot images[39]
10 to 30	mSv:	single full-body CT scan[40][41]
50	mSv:	The U.S. 10 C.F.R. § 20.1201(a)(1)(i) occupational dose limit, total effective dose equivalent, per annum[42]
68	mSv:	estimated maximum dose to evacuees who lived closest to the Fukushima I nuclear accidents[43]

And now some fatal doses in sieverts:

4.5 to 6	Sv:	fatal acute doses during Goiânia accident
5.1	Sv:	fatal acute dose to Harry Daghlian in 1945 criticality accident[45]
10 to 17	Sv:	fatal acute doses during Tokaimura nuclear accident. Hiroshi Ouchi who received 17 Sv was kept alive for 83 days after the accident.[46]
21	Sv:	fatal acute dose to Louis Slotin in 1946 criticality accident[45]
54	Sv:	fatal acute dose to Boris Korchilov in 1961 after a reactor cooling system failed on the Soviet submarine K-19 which required work in the reactor with no shielding[47]

1 sievert is equal to 100 REM, a dose UOM still used in the US. Some more doses from Our Radioactive Ocean:
10 sieverts, aka 10,000 milllisieverts (mSv): usually fatal within a few weeks.


The Gray

Measures energy absorbed by matter in joules per kilogram of matter. The US 'rad' is equivalent to the gray. From Wikipedia:

The gray is conventionally used to express the severity of what are known as "tissue effects" from doses received in acute unintended exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation. These are effects which are certain to happen, as opposed to the uncertain effects of low levels of radiation which have a probability of causing damage. A whole-body acute exposure to 5 gray or more of high-energy radiation usually leads to death within 14 days. This dose represents 375 joules for a 75 kg adult (equivalent to the chemical energy in 20 mg of sugar). For X-rays and gamma rays the gray is numerically the same value when expressed in sieverts, but for alpha particles one gray is equivalent to 20 sieverts, and a radiation weighting factor is applied accordingly.

Radiation found on the US west cost (it's fatal)

Thanks to a map from Our Radioactive Ocean I found 2 samples of Pacific ocean water that measured 2.6 becquerels. Since 1 becquerel is 10 mSv, then 2.6 Bq is 26 mSv. According to the chart above, 2.6 Bq is close to the radiation received from a full body CAT scan. However, that dose is for one second! An hour on a boat in the water would equal an hour of exposure, which would be: (60*60*2.6 Bq) = 9360 Bq * 10 = 93600 mSv, or 93.6 Sv. That's well above the fatal doses in the table above!

Remember, radiation doses are cumulative. Once you absorb enough, cancer begins to grow, or you simply die from radiation poisoning. The danger is in how long you are exposed to the radiation.

More links

1. Our Radioactive Ocean. Has 10+ sites right now and is monitoring radiation levels. It is part of WHO. An actual map of results since 2011 are here. Click on the map point to see one or more samples for that site, oldest sample first. Very helpful!
2. Conversion table. Helpful.
3. A helpful explanation of the radiation units from Radiation Scott.

Diet low in zinc can cause digestive problems

June 9, 2016. Science Daily.

A new study from Technical University of Munich shows even a small zinc deficiency can cause digestive problems but does not normally cause fatigue or skin problems.

Some highlights.

1. Even the smallest zinc deficiency can cause problems. Although this is referred to as a "sub clinical" problem.
2. Zinc deficiency tends to reduce an animal's appetite.
3. The pancreas puts zinc into the digestive tract to help with digestion. 
4. "...a subclinical zinc deficiency in humans has been attributed to increased levels of inflammation markers and reduced immunocompetence."

38 countries now ban GMO crops

Although some still grow them, GMO crops are banned from importation in some countries.

More here.
More info on GMO bans by country and the type of ban (growing, importing, etc).
GMO ban map by country.
World map: countries with GMO labelling laws.
World map: 64 countries require GMO labelling.

Copyscape helps protect your content

If you want to protect your content, you can use Copyscape to search for one of your webpages. Then notify the site own they are using protected content.

Fracking spills poison livestock and people

From The Nation.

1. Fracking fluids (composed of mostly chemicals so toxic the companies won't name them) are poisoning wells in  Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.
2. Fracking spills poison surface lakes and streams. 
3. The fracking process, putting unknown chemicals under pressure to push out oil, forces these chemicals into aquifers, poisoning them permanently. Aquifers can span multiple counties or nearly a whole state, affection 100,00s of people who can no longer use their wells for drinking or gardening.
4. Jacki Schilke in North Dakota saw fracking begin 3 miles from her house via 32 fracking wells. Then 5 of her cows die. She can no longer sell the cows because they are likely poisoned from the well water. Thus, her livelihood that pays for her food and house, is gone. Schilke has trouble walking, has burning in her lungs, has a rash that hasn't gone away in a year, and sometimes urinates blood.
5. Ambient air testing by a certified environmental consultant detected elevated levels of benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and xylene—compounds associated with drilling and fracking, and also with cancers, birth defects and organ damage. 
6. Her well tested high for sulfates, chromium, chloride and strontium; her blood tested positive for acetone, plus the heavy metals arsenic (linked with skin lesions, cancers and cardiovascular disease) and germanium (linked with muscle weakness and skin rashes). 
7. Both she and her husband, who works in oilfield services, have recently lost crowns and fillings from their teeth; tooth loss is associated with radiation poisoning and high selenium levels, also found in the Schilkes’ water.
8. 17 cows died in Louisiana after a fracking spill. The following year the sexes of the cows born were skewed: 10 females, only 2 males. 
9. In New Mexico the hair was tested of cows. 54 of 56 (96%) animals showed petroleum residue. That means the cows ate the petroleum. 
10. "In North Dakota, wind-borne fly ash, which is used to solidify the waste from drilling holes and contains heavy metals, settled over a farm: one cow, which either inhaled or ingested the caustic dust, died, and a stock pond was contaminated with arsenic at double the accepted level for drinking water."
11. Cattle that die on the farm aren't used for human food, but they are used for chicken and pig feed. 

What to do
Get a water filter that filters out many of these chemicals AND pathogens. In order to get the right filter, you MUST see third party test results, and these are very rare in the industry. But Berkefeld (Berkey) filters do have test results and they are very good. Activated carbon catches some chemicals but not all. Therefore chemical filters often have multiple stages. Look for a 5-stage filter. Brita filters are not enough!

Tips to buy a filter
Get a silver impregnated filter to reduce bacterial growth while the filter sits.
The bigger counter-top filters like a Berkey (there are other brands like it) general filter 2 liters per hour.

Example units which are good at filtering chemicals

1. Berkey from Amazon with carbon and fluoride filters. $288usd. 
2. Here's an Aquacera carbon filter for $30usd. If you want to make your own filter out of two 5g buckets, make sure the seal between the "dirty" and the "clean" water is 100% tight. You absolutely don't want to get cryptosporidium, as you will never forget it. This is absolutely not for beginners, your health depends on it!

More links

1. See Which water filter is best for you? Has links to reviews of many types of water filters. To remove chemicals you need some type of activated carbon filter, but this won't remove pathogens like bacteria. So you need a combination filter that removes chemicals and pathogens.
2. List of fracking maps. Find out if your aquifer has been poisoned by nearby fracking wells.

GMO problems in India

Indian farmers committing suicide due to GMO crops. In 2002 Indian farmers started using GMO cotton that makes it's own pesticide called Bt so they wouldn't have to buy the very expensive pesticides from Monsanto. Then pests became resistant to the Bt cotton, and the farmers had to switch to other GMO cotton crops, and that means they had to buy seed every year. This leaves many farmers stuck in a cycle of debt from which they have no out, and that leads to bankruptcy.

Sources

1. Suicide figures are here at the New York Uni School of Law.  PDF here. 
2. GMO news related to India from GMO Free Regions.

Philadelphia passes sugary drink tax

Philadelphia recently passed the sugary drink tax which adds 1.5 cents to every ounce of a sugary drink, but this raises a lot of questions.

1. How many computer systems will need to be updated to track the size of each and every drink? 
2. Does this count coffee drinks, which are also loaded with sugar? 
3. Does this count frozen drinks like slurpees? 
4. Does this count sweet tea? It also has a lot of sugar. 
5. Does it count sports drinks, energy drinks? They also have lots of sugar. 

For a 32oz Big Gulp the sugar tax (excluding sales tax) is 48 cents. Berkeley, CA was the first to pass a sugary drink tax. I can see many industries pushing back against this.

Source
Organic Consumers.

EWG has "complete" list of carcinogens in the American people

1. Where the data came from: Environmental Working Group spent about a year reviewing 1000 "biomonitoring" studies. 
2. EWG found that a subset of chemicals pose a significant cancer risk to Americans. 
3. Last week the US congress passed a bill to strengthen the very weak chemical regulations. The bill creates a program called the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative. 

Source
EWG article. June 14, 2016. The list/report.

Glyphosate found in 11 out of 24 breakfast foods in America

ANH released a study that showed 11 out of 24 breakfast foods contained glyphosate. Highlights:

• They found Roundup in oatmeal, bagels, eggs- including the organic variety, potatoes and even non-GMO soy coffee creamer.
• The presence of glyphosate in eggs and dairy supports the fear that the chemical is accumulating in the tissue of these animals, and therefore presumably also in human tissue, in a process called bioaccumulation.
• The study PDF is here. 

Source
ANH. Apr 19, 2016.
93% of people tested positive for glyphosate.

EPA says atrazine threatens wildlife

1. Atrazine likely poses a threat to both land and water animals. 
2. Atrazine is banned in Europe but found in the drinking water of over 27 million people in the U.S. (About 8%.)
3. Atrazine is a potent endocrine disruptor. One study shows it changes the sex of frogs. 
4. EPA found that mammals are exposed to 198 times more atrazine than the “level of concern for chronic risk” and fish are exposed to 62 times that level.

Source
EWG.
Nature study of frogs changing sex.

Online tools for programmers

Programmers and web developers often have to use tools to do some testing of, say, a regular expression, javascript, or CSS formatting code. A regular expression, commonly called "regex", is a powerful tool for finding text (and extracting it) or for replacing some old text with new text. It allows multiple finds or replaces in one line of code.

regex101.com: This is my favorite regex site and it is used to test regular expressions. You can have your own account, save your regex in your own private repo, or in a public library. It also explains how each part of the regex works and colors each character to how it was found with the regex. Worth a look.

regexr.com is another online site to test regular expressions.

jsbin.com: This can be used to test HTML, CSS, and Javascript all in one browser window. The left side is the HTML, CSS and Javascript page, the right side is the rendered output.

Color picker: Sometimes web developers need to find that perfect color so a color picker is essential. This one has various ways and color models to pick a color and convert it to #rrggbb format.

How do you make a color palette to match a specific image? With this site. Upload an image and it generates a CSS color palette to make your website all purdy. It generates light, medium, and dark color palettes.
Mmm, squidgy.

How do you generate a CSS gradient? With this tool. CSS supports gradients, which can make your area look like it has a horizon, or just make an area pop with color.

And don't forget Markdown. There are several variants of Markdown but it allows you to write and format text without all that pesky HTML getting in the way and making things hard to read. Then the Markdown is converted to HTML, PDF or another format, and then you do what you want with that formatted output.

Dillinger.io is an online markdown editor that shows a formatted preview which shows you what your output will look like. You can save your items to Google Drive, Dropbox, One drive and Github. You can also export the file to Markdown, HTML, PDF and styled HTML (I assume this creates an inline style sheet for the HTML page). You can also import from Dropbox, Github, Google Drive, One Drive, and a local file from your PC. Dillinger is open source, stored on Github, and is free to install on your own server.

This automatically saves your documents so when you go back to the site, all my documents were there. It probably uses cookies so enable cookies for this site.

Pandoc converts many text formats into other text file formats like Markdown to HTML or Markdown to an EPUB book. It has a ton of options so read carefully. And it's free. For Windows, Mac, Linux and BSD.

US lab being blamed for flu affecting Europe

The event was December 2015 but agencies reported it later.

A US lab is being blamed for the accidental release of a new strain of flu from a lab in Shelkostantsiya, 30 km away from the city of Kharkov. The strain of flu, called California flu, has killed 20 Ukranian soldiers and hospitalized 200.

Source
Newstarget. April 22, 2016.
Google translated to English the Ukraine Ministry of Health news site. No mention of the flu back to April 15, 2016.
News from MINA. Jan 25, 2016.

Monarch caterpillars killied by Bt pollen

Monarch caterpillars fed milkweed leaves dusted with pollen from Bt crops died at a much higher rate.

1. Pollen blows everywhere up to 60 yards away from a GMO crop. It cannot be contained or controlled, thus it affects many more species and areas than companies claim it does.
2. We already know that Monsanto pays off scientists and schills to get the results they want. And Marc Fellous, former chairman of France's Biomolecular Engineering Commission (BEC) has been indicted for forging a scientist's signature without his consent. 
3. Both the FDA and EPA have been caught hiding information and lying to the public. See the rest of this blog for news stories, there are too many to reprint here. 

More links to studies about Bt and insects

1. Iowa study shows Bt pollen harmful to the monarch butterfly.
2. Cornell study. 1999.
3. Pleasants, J, KS Oberhauser. 2012. Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: Effect on the monarch butterfly population. Insect Conservation and Diversity. DOI:10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00196.x
4. Oberhauser, K.S. and E.R.L. Rivers. 2003. Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae & Bt corn pollen: A review of ecological risk assessment for a non-target species. AgBiotechNet. 5:1-7.
5. Sears, M. K., R. L. Hellmich, D. E. Stanley-Horn, K. S. Oberhauser, J. M. Pleasants, H. R. Mattila, B. D. Siegfriedi, G. P. Dively. 2001. Impact of Bt corn pollen on monarch butterfly populations: A risk assessment. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 98 (21): 11937-11942.

The Bt toxin affects many land invertebrate species, but also many aquatic vertebrates. I bred daphnia and ostracods for several years and when I put Bt in one barrel all invertebrates died. Luckily I was able to "reseed" the barrel the following year with no ill effects, but that was after a freezing Michigan winter. Not all environments that contain Bt will be safe after a mild winter.

But of course, industry, who wants to make a lot of money, claims Bt pollen is safe for insects. Just like  2,4-d (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a herbicide), acetamiprid, Agent Orange, asbestos, aspartame, cigarettes, DDT, DES, diazinon, epoxiconazole, flame retardant in the US, fluroxypyr, fracking, glyphosate, imidacloprid, isoproturon, lead paint, malathion, mercury fillings, microbeads, organophosphates, parathion, PCBs, pirimicarb, prochloraz, tebuconazole, tetrachlorvinphos, thalidomide, Vioxx was safe. 

You can even do your own trial study to test this.

1. Get an aquarium. 
2. Learn how to care for daphnia or ostracods. They eat mainly free-floating bacteria or algae. 
3. Buy daphnia online and put into a cycled fish tank. 
4. Care for them for 3-4 weeks to get them stabilized. 
5. Add fresh Bt blocks to the aquarium, sold in local stores. 
6. Watch the population die. 

You can also do this experiment with cloning crayfish since they are a hearty species.


Sources

1. Cornell Study. 1999. Another link.
2. Laura C. Hansen Jesse, John J. Obrycki. 2000. Field deposition of Bt transgenic corn pollen: lethal effects on the monarch butterfly. Oecologia, DOI 10.1007/s004420000502, published online: 19 August 2000. Link to PDF full study.

Collaborating on writing articles

Sometimes I come across some handy sites, and my favorites are free.

Authorea let's multiple people collaborate on writing articles. It's free but you have to sign up.

Miraheze.org is a free Wiki site using MediaWiki, the same wiki language that Wikipedia uses, which is also the most popular wiki language. A wiki lets you write markup, it's easier than HTML, and it supports formatting, links, images, videos, etc. To make your own free wiki, go here.

Aphids stop responding to GMO wheat in UK

(It's worth repeating older news to show a pattern of bad behavior among gov't and industry.)

A GMO wheat was tested in the UK. The wheat was supposed to emit the aphid distress pheromone to keep aphids away, and reduce pesticide use, but after a while the aphids stopped responding to the signal.


Source
ANH International. July 2015.
GM Freeze.

MIT wireless power

We already have devices that charge without plugging them in, but the devices must be laid right on top of a special coil.

How it works

The technology is called "magnetic resonators". A loop or coil of conductive material like copper, carrying an alternating current (AC), is a very efficient structure for generating or capturing a magnetic field. If a conductive loop is connected to an AC power source, it will generate an oscillating magnetic field in the vicinity of the loop.  A second conducting loop, brought close enough to the first, may “capture” some portion of that oscillating magnetic field, which in turn, generates or induces an electric current in the second coil.

Resonant Magnetic Coupling: Magnetic coupling occurs when two objects exchange energy through their varying or oscillating magnetic fields. Resonant coupling occurs when the natural frequencies of the two objects are approximately the same.

Timeline

Late 1800s: Tesla  drew up plans for a tower, about 57 meters tall, that he claimed would transmit power to points kilometers away, and even started to build one on Long Island. Though his team did some tests, funding ran out before the tower was completed.

2006: WiTricity gets more attention. List of articles here.

June 2007. A study: "Wireless Power Transfer via Strongly Coupled Magnetic Resonances". Science magazine. 

2008: Marin Soljacic powered a 60-watt lightbulb from 2 meters away.

WiTricity Corporation is selling wireless technology. Marin Soljacic is on the board and is the founder.

I was unable to find an update on if they have increased the distance between the resonators (units). If you have more recent info that the witricity can be transmitted more than 2 meters, please leave a comment below.

Source
MIT News. June 7, 2007.

Historical pesticide overview

Here's a good series of PDFs about the history of pesticides from Scientific Beekeeping. The first one I opened is a series of images, i.e. scanned pages. It would be difficult to get the text from it.

It's an article from Barbara J. Erickson and Eric H. Erickson Jr.  It's in the American Bee Journal from November 1983. At the end of the article there is a list of studies they quoted.

Solar in rental units

"85% savings with energy storage" said the headline.

Another quote:

“The addition of storage technologies has the potential to nearly double stand-alone solar electricity bill savings at about a third of the cost of solar. For example, the addition of a $112,100 battery storage system to a $385,000 solar installation increased savings from $15,000 per year to $27,900, an 85 percent increase in savings for only a 29 percent increase in cost.”

So, to pay for the $385k solar installation, with a savings of $27,900 per year, means it would take 385,000/27900, or 13 years to break even. $385k is capital that most mom and pop, and even many corporate rental companies do not have. We really need more cost-effective ways for the little individual family to go with solar or storage technologies, and even that won't benefit some people. Only in some areas is the cost of energy going up much too fast.

Using insulating technologies to save energy could help. Living underground  is one idea but you just can't push dirt against a building and make it work. First the building has to be engineered enough to withstand the pressure of the dirt from all the sides. Second, even if it's legal according to zoning laws (which prevent many many people from using wind power), most people do not have the cash to do such a thing. An underground house, in most cases, must be built from scratch.

The other issue working against people installing alternative energy solutions is spelled out here:

“Median rents in California increased by over 20 percent from 2000 to 2012, while the median income dropped by 8 percent, significantly driving up the percentage of income that California households must spend on rent.”

Incomes keep going up, or stay the same and lost to increases costs. The inflation rate only tracks the AVERAGE cost of goods in the US or at the state level. It has nothing to do with people not getting a raise in 10 years, increase out-of-pocket medical expenses, higher taxes from Obamacare and other sources, and other factors.

Source
Clean Technica.

EPA scientist fired for telling the truth about biosludge

Dr. David Lewis was fired from the EPA for telling the truth about the toxicity of biosolids from sewage sludge, which is often put on food crops.

A few points:

1. Sewage sludge is mostly feces and animal fats that settle out after water is treated. Once the sewage sludge is treated with lime, it is called biosolids and these are put onto food crops. 
2. The EPA regulates only nine of 27 heavy metals found in sewage sludge (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Hg, Mo, Ni, Se, Zn), and no toxic organic chemicals. 
3. Most of these unregulated chemicals are highly persistent in the environment and get more concentrated up the food chain. 
4. They are already known to cause problems in animals and humans. These chemicals are linked to autism, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease.
5. "EPA’s solution to pollution was dilution. But, with the promulgation of the 503 sludge rule, EPA’s approach changed to concentrating pollutants on land—where we live, work and play—at millions of times higher levels than allowed elsewhere under the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts." The EPA thus contradicted itself by making the sewage sludge much more concentrated and more dangerous on land, where more people would be exposed to the toxins. 
6. The EPA claims this more concentrated sludge on land is not harmful due to little understood magical properties: "Sludge magic [means] there are unique properties in the biosolids matrix that sequester metals [and] organics [and] significantly reduce, if not eliminate, movement of pollutants from the biosolids out to the environment."
7. Studies showing the "safety" of biosolids and biosolid dust blowing around town were fabricated, like the one at University of Georgia. 

It's time to make your own gardens and grow your own food. Your gov't isn't protecting you.


Source
Mother Earth News. Feb 2016.

Applebaum rape was a lie, by her friends!

Jacob Applebaum was accused of sexual assault by some "eyewitnesses". The girl who was with Jacob, the supposed victim, denies the allegations and explains what happens. The "eyewitnesses" make sweeping and extreme, unfounded accusations, and damage any credibility for actual rape victims and give the impression that all rape victims should be automatically disbelieved. These "eyewitnesses" damage real rape victims and they should be fined or charged with something.

Knee-jerk white knights are very damaging for society, and actual victims, and they should be stopped. And journalists should confirm the story from a better source before posting it. Now the journalists are open for a lawsuit for defamation because, they basically spread a lie.

White Knight SJWs are mentally disturbed, cannot control themselves, and are now hurting other people, and the authorities need to put a stop to this immediately.

Source
Twitlonger.

Annual usage of glyphosate on 70 US crops

An EPA memo lists the average annual usage of glyphosate on US crops from 2004-2013. This average isn't useful because glyphosate use has gone up so high in recent years. The memo also lists the average percent of that crop treated, and max percent crop treated.

These are estimates only, and subject to being very underreported. I actually don't see a single crop that ISN'T sprayed with glyphosate.


Source
EPA memo on Google Drive. This only covers pesticides with a SINGLE active ingredient. There are many more pesticides which have to use a combination of active ingredients because glyphosate has been making superweeds.

Keyboard waffle maker

For your computer enthusiast, this makes waffles in the shape of a computer keyboard.

Tracking the people who are part of the problem

Notice how people work in gov't, then in industry, and lobby for industry using their gov't contacts. 

Alt site for image.

Portland Schools have lead in drinking water, results withheld from parents

Portland public schools in Oregon have higher levels of lead in their drinking water. These results were hidden from parents. From 2010-2012 the district tested 90 buildings and over half had higher levels of lead in the drinking water. Damaging effects from lead are permanent and there is not treatment for exposure. Water fountains were only turned off when the local paper, Willemette Week, exposed the results. While the EPA allows some lead in the water studies show there are NO safe levels of lead, it's a highly neurotoxic substance.

USA Today reports that there are hundreds of school districts and daycare centers that have lead in their water. That's about 20% of water systems tested have levels higher than the EPA "action level" of 15ppb. Lead is most toxic to younger children whose brains are still developing.

The EPA estimates that about 90,000 public schools and half a million child-care facilities are not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act because they depend on water sources such as municipal utilities expected to test their own water. (In my town we get a water report once a year but it only tests for one heavy metal: lead.)

Testing for lead in blood is usually done in babies, not in school age children, but lead is dangerous for all ages. EPA "safe levels" of lead still cause vague symptoms but blood lead testing is not often done until lead levels reach much higher levels, at which point damage has already occurred. It's apparent that EPA rules have not moved ahead to keep pace with the science and research.

Since 2012, nearly 2000 water systems in the US have elevated lead levels. Schools that are tied to municipal water supplies do not have to test for lead but this is not enough. Those tests will miss any lead in the lead pipes at the actual building level, i.e. at the school. Lead can have many many sources and it needs to be tested from the spigot or drinking fountain at each building.

For more information on lead and poor gov't regulation, see here. See How to filter Lead out of Water. 


Sources

1. Food and Water Watch. Jun 1, 2016.
2. Lead taints drinking water in hundreds of schools and daycares across USA. USA Today.

How to filter lead out of your water

How to minimize lead exposure

1. If your water has been sitting for more than 6 hours, before you drink it or use it for cooking, let the water run 1-2 minutes to flush out any water that might have accumulated lead. Lead accumulates slowly in standing water.
2. Water filters in the US should be certified by NSF or the Water Quality Association. 

Placement of water filters

1. Water filters can be attached to a faucet, sit on top of a sink, be attached below a sink to the water supply line, or be in a tabletop pitcher, which can come in all shapes and sizes.
2. Berkey's are some of the best, larger, tabletop filters on the market. They have a low cost per gallon of filtered water.

Types of water filters

1. Reverse osmosis filters out almost everything in your water, but that includes minerals. Drinking RO water for too long will leach minerals out of your body and could cause problems. 
2. Activated carbon/charcoal filters filter out most substances by "catching" it in millions of tiny pores. These pores eventually fill up so the filter must be replaced once in a while. But they come in a variety of placement options. While carbon from a firepit can be used in a survival situation to filter water (and it has been shown to work to remove dye), activated charcoal can only be made in a factory under high pressure and high temperature steam. It cannot be made at home.
3. Multi-stage water filters. An example is the ZeroWater filter, where each filter unit has 5 stages. However these got very bad reviews on Amazon.

Filtering dissolved lead (which activated charcoal filters will do) is not the same as filtering out tiny lead particles. Get a filter with a small pore size AND activated charcoal. The best is Berkey systems filters.

There is some disagreement as to how well AC filters filter out lead. Some just reduce lead a bit, some remove 99% of lead. 

How to filter lead out of water

1. Use one of the activated carbon or RO filters above. Boiling the water does not remove chemical toxins, it only kills living pathogens.
2. Lead removal by AC (activated carbon) filters varies a lot. Look for test results for your specific model.

See this Important test!
Good Housekeeping tests water filters to filter out pharmaceuticals, PFOA, BPA, estrone, fluoxetine, ibuprofen, atrazine (pesticide), tonalide, TCEP, DEET and other contaminants. Feb 2012.

Sources

1. Charcoal filter video. 
2. Consumer Reports overview of filter types.  
3. Consumer Research water filter testing. Mar 2016.
4. Good Housekeeping tests water filters to filter out pharmaceuticals, PFOA, BPA, estrone, fluoxetine, ibuprofen, atrazine (pesticide), tonalide, TCEP, DEET, sucralose and other contaminants. Feb 2012.
5. What you need to know about water filters to remove lead. USA Today. Mar 20, 2016. 
6. Google Search for water filter testing.
7. "Rough Science" series video where they make a charcoal (not activated carbon) filter. 
8. Natural News tests water filter removal of many heavy and radioactive metals such as: Aluminum,  Copper, Arsenic,  Strontium,  Cadmium,  Cesium,  Mercury,  Lead,  Uranium. Enter your email to see the actual results. Another page for results. Zero Water brand filters removed the most heavy metals in this test but got bad reviews on Amazon. 
9. NSF certified water filter models are here. "Water filters are tested and certified to NSF/ANSI 53 and 58 to ensure they reduce contaminants, including lead, per the requirements of the standards."
10. Youtube search for charcoal filters. 
11. Big Berkey lab results for filtration. 
12. Independent water filter results from Water Filter Labs. by Mike Adams. Also tested filtering out radioactive items.

Monsanto complains algae test was too sensitive for glyphosate

In a PDF file which is a Feb 12, 1999 fax from Monsanto to Europe's ECCO TEAM BBA, PDF page 11, Monsanto claims the test against an algae Skeletonoma costatum was invalid because that algae is much more sensitive than other algae, and that means glyphosate is safe for algae. Isn't that the point in testing, to use a more sensitive test subject to really root out toxic substances?

Source
Link to PDF report. See PDF page 11, amendments to "2.10 Classification and Labelling".

Sign pro-health petitions.

• You can help. 
• It's free to sign. 
• They need your email and physical address to confirm this is not a fraudulent signature. 

1. Ban organophosphates which hurts kids and adults alike.
2. Make coal companies clean up their mess when they leave a mine just like citizens have to. 
3. Allow more studies on the benefits of marijuana and CBD. Reschedule 420. Cannabis and CBD work for things like certain types of pain, anxiety, depression, we just need to know more about dosing, side effects, and interactions with other drugs.

GMO crops not fair, not sustainable, very damaging

1. GMO crops are not sustainable. Farmers cannot collect their own seed from their first ripened crop. They must buy seed every year. This keeps people in poverty. 
2. GMO crops are highly dangerous. The decline of the monarch butterfly by 90% is blamed on GMO crops that produce their on Bt toxin. 
3. GMO crops increase the amount of pesticides used. These  pesticides get into the food chain, causing many illnesses in people, and get into the environment, killing and sickening many animals, and damaging streams and wildlife. Glyphosate found in 51 streams. Monsanto causing autism? Pesticides in your pills and supplements. Pesticides in organic food. People are wanting to test their own food too. Monsanto breaks GMO law in India. Sperm counts declining since 1938.
4. Just like the injudicious use of antibiotics creating super bacteria, GMO crops are producing super weeds that are resistant to Roundup. This creates a market for doubly harmful pesticides with 2 active ingredients, which further fouls up the water and food supply, thus increasing medical costs for almost all people in the US. Americans are more 5.8x exposed to glyphosate than Europeans. 
5. GMOs and Monsanto's predatory legal actions steal farms from innocent farmers. If GMO pollen blows into another farmer's field, the farmer can be sued, and the legal expenses alone can cause the farmer to sell their farm and lose everything. Monsanto sues, and wins, against things the defendant cannot control.

Source
GM Freeze.

Charity plants trees and most of them die

What happens when you buy a product that claims to donate money to plant trees? There was one case where the charity actually planted the trees, but no one watered them and almost all of them died.

Before donating or buying a product, check with your charity to follow up to see if the trees they planted in the past are still alive. Check with a third party to see if the trees are actually alive.

Don't waste your money on charities that won't care for the trees. Planting them is one thing, keeping them alive, apparently, is quite different.

More info on International Tribunal against Monsanto

Where: The Hague, Netherlands
When: Oct 15-16, 2016

This is not an official tribunal and it cannot make Monsanto pay any fees or fines. It will, however, provide a legal base for further cases against Monsanto. A more detailed Monsanto timeline going back to the 1980s is here.


Source
OrganicConsumers dot org.

US cost of solar KW/hour pushing 5-5.8 cents.

But this is mostly in the southwest US. What about us freezing up in Michigan?

See Graph.

Source
CleanTechnica.

93% of people have glyphosate in their urine

Monsanto claims all glyphosate that enters the body is metabolized by the liver, so why did 93% of people tested have unmetabolized glyposate in their urine?

The study was run by the Detox Project with the help of a laboratory at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). There is a link to a Powerpoint file here.

97% of scientsts think global warming is caused by human activity

The consensus ranges from 90-97% that humans are a major cause of global warming.

The article notes:

The greater the climate expertise among those surveyed, the higher the consensus on human-caused global warming.

Below is a graph showing expertise vs consensus found. The graph shows the higher the expertise of the scientist was, the more consensus their study found.

Read the article, it's interesting with more graphs. It also has a list of 20+ organizations that also say climate change is the result of human activity. 13 countries have also released a statement to the same effect.


Source
Skeptical Science.