Image via WikipediaChemical 'Warfare': Who's Who and What's at Stake
In December, for the first time since the Toxic Substances Control Act was adopted in 1976, EPA proposed to create a list of chemicals that present "an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment." Although the list is not a legal ban, an EPA spokesman said it does serve as a signal to the marketplace that the agency wants these substances phased out. Since then, EPA has developed "action plans" for phthalates, flame retardants, Bisphenol A (known as BPA) and benzidine dyes, among other chemicals. The action plans call for a quick government evaluation, followed by a likely phase-out, restrictions on use, or a ban. Businesses say being on the list unfairly stigmatizes them and opens them up to legal liability. They also maintain that their products are safe.
But EPA is relying on studies that show these chemicals do threaten public health. Recent reports show that exposure to phthalates harms the reproductive system in male animals and may do so in humans, and they are associated with behavioral problems in baby girls; flame retardants may pose neurological, developmental and reproductive problems; BPA is an endocrine disrupter that mimics estrogen in the body, and has been linked to decreased brain function, cancer, reduced sperm count and heart disease, among other problems; benzidine dyes can metabolize into substances that cause cancer. Businesses that manufacture or use many other chemicals are worried that their products will be added to the list. In a separate move, there are congressional proposals to ban BPA, to reduce mercury emissions, and to further reduce lead exposure.
Major Trade Groups and Businesses Working on This Issue: American Chemistry Council, Bromine Science and Environmental Forum, Chemtura Corp., Chep USA, Del Monte, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, Grocery Manufacturers of America, Koch Industries, Kraft Foods Co., North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Sabic Innovative Plastics, and Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates.
.....EPA began cracking down on companies that claim "trade secrets" to avoid revealing which chemicals they use in manufacturing or put in their products. These claims have long gone unchallenged, with the result that both EPA and the public have been in the dark about chemicals that may pose hazards to people and the environment.
Critics have been concerned that businesses have been able to hide the names of chemicals that were already the subject of substantial risk notices. EPA now promises to go back and review past claims.
Meanwhile, EPA also sent out a challenge to businesses, asking them to reduce their current "voluminous claims." EPA is also proposing to add 16 chemicals to its list of those in the Toxic Release Inventory -- a list of carcinogenic and otherwise harmful substances. If a company works with a chemical on the inventory, it must inform the public of any chemical releases in the community.
In August, in another move to increase transparency, EPA proposed an Inventory Update Rule. Currently, manufacturers that process at least 300,000 pounds of a chemical per site have to report specific information, such as the number of workers likely to be exposed, the locations of their facilities and the presence of the chemical in products intended for use by children. Under the proposed rule, businesses that produce just 25,000 pounds or more will have to comply. Industry attorney Lynn Bergeson wrote a paper noting the proposed changes "could substantially increase industry's reporting obligations and burdens...while many of the changes come as no great surprise as EPA did a good job in announcing plans previously, actually seeing them in the federal register is another matter and has caused anxiety in the chemical community."
Critics have been concerned that businesses have been able to hide the names of chemicals that were already the subject of substantial risk notices. EPA now promises to go back and review past claims.
Meanwhile, EPA also sent out a challenge to businesses, asking them to reduce their current "voluminous claims." EPA is also proposing to add 16 chemicals to its list of those in the Toxic Release Inventory -- a list of carcinogenic and otherwise harmful substances. If a company works with a chemical on the inventory, it must inform the public of any chemical releases in the community.
In August, in another move to increase transparency, EPA proposed an Inventory Update Rule. Currently, manufacturers that process at least 300,000 pounds of a chemical per site have to report specific information, such as the number of workers likely to be exposed, the locations of their facilities and the presence of the chemical in products intended for use by children. Under the proposed rule, businesses that produce just 25,000 pounds or more will have to comply. Industry attorney Lynn Bergeson wrote a paper noting the proposed changes "could substantially increase industry's reporting obligations and burdens...while many of the changes come as no great surprise as EPA did a good job in announcing plans previously, actually seeing them in the federal register is another matter and has caused anxiety in the chemical community."
Corporate Crime Reporter
The Case Against Ken Feinberg
Kenneth Feinberg is an expert.
His expertise?Collusive class actions.
Limiting the liability of toxic tortfeasors.
And covering up corporate and governmental wrongdoing.
Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime
Public Corruption in the United States
HARRY KELBER ON THE FAILURE OF THE AFL, THE DECLINE OF UNIONS, AND HOW TO TURN IT AROUND
WHITE & CASE’S TERWILLIGER CALLS FOR FCPA SAFE HARBOR
You just have to admire the corporate community’s non-stop drive toward criminal amnesty.
Ten years ago, most cases against large corporations were resolved with plea agreements.
Today, most cases are resolved with deferred and non prosecution agreements.
Tomorrow, the captains of industry will park their behemoths in safe harbors – completely protected from criminal prosecution.
At least, that is the way it will be if it is left up to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
BILLION DOLLAR FALSE CLAIMS ACT SETTLEMENTS CLOG THE PIPELINE
AT CAPITO HEARING ON TOO BIG TO FAIL, TOO CONFLICTED TO GOVERN
At a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday on “too big to fail” banks, both corporate parties were posturing.
Strutting their stuff.
Ripping into each other.
But the reality?
When push came to shove, both didn’t have the guts to do the right thing to prevent another bailout.
That would be – limit the size of the big banks so that they are no longer “too big to fail.”
“Too big to fail” means exactly that.
The banks are too big to fail.
If they fail, we must bail them out.
Or the economy goes down in a spectacular flameout.
Less than 6% of 1,400 chemicals that threaten human health are tracked
A 5-2-2000 Congressional Report is linked into blog of 1-23-10
As an Environmental Technologist I can not imagine a health care system that could be viable when it ignores toxic chemical exposures
Revelations On Toxic Sun Tanning Lotions, Nutrition and Genetic response Modifications
Work in progress concerning my "opinion" on this:
This is complicated and obscured by the fact that over
one third of the vitamins and supplements on the
But as a report from 1999 shows (5 pdf page 60 )
this has been known for over a decade and I doubt
that it is about to change any time soon.
Admittedly, I do not have "the credentials" for this.
But my independent research on this (and the above
blog) has been aided by my room mate Wayne Hull,
the grandson of Clark Leonard Hull
Another "complication" that can obscure this situation
is the manner in which toxic chemical combination's
can work with infectious agent combination's.
by scrolling down to the section that starts with;
"To simplify the complexity of this controversy"
Toxic Revelations;
and nutritional reaction variations of the
epigenetic responses. These combination's
often multiply and divide as opposed to
adding and subtracting - The Toxic Lotto
Editing, link updating and research in progress at
http://sites.google.com/site/
http://sites.google.com/site/
Additionally;
Sun exposure (in moderation) is needed for "good health" (1) and
you need certain nutrients that help to protect your skin (2). So
while many sunscreens are ineffective and some are even contain
toxic chemicals (3) just as about one half of the personal care
products that are labelled "organic" or "natural" that you put on
your skin, have been found to contain cancer causing toxic
chemicals (4). There is another issue of many of the vitamins
and nutritional supplements being toxic, ineffective and over
priced (5 with 5 related articles of June 17, 2011»).
An independent laboratory has conducted a study of the 50 most
popular multivitamins and revealed that one in three does not contain
the amount of nutrients they claim (5a, 5b, 5c, 5d ,5e). But do not
expect that change any time soon. This has been known for over a
decade and battles over "Overhauling the fda" have resulted in bogus
legislation called "The Food Safety Act".
The "revelations" of this combined information has caused scientists
to finally reverse their stance on sun exposure causing cancer (6).
How ever, another issue is "The Organic Scam" of our food supply. A
part of the"behind the scenes battle" is now posted with reports on the
"political interference of science" in government agencies of the
Center for Disease Control, The Foods and Drug Administration,
the Environmental Protection Agency and a host of others. While
the current battle of the "Chemical Safety Legislation" roars with
the silence of the main stream news media, I tell the plainly, know
thine enemies and know thy friends.
Thankfully, the Coast To Coast AM Talk Radio has been addressing
many of these issues with a listener bas of over 15 million listeners
and broadcasting to over 500 cities in the USA, alone. Tune in to
that show, for current information. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
The "news guests" that they have on at the beginning of the show
that are often added right before the show goes "on air" are always
linked in at the shows Twitter page http://twitter.com/#!/
Regards,
Tom Krohmer
Environmental Technologist
Tom Krohmer
Environmental Technologist
Sunlight - Amazon
Van Doos Packing Up In Afghanistan As Kandahar Mission Comes To Bittersweet End
Luck is a subject most combat troops don't like to talk about in the field — and certainly not on the night they go home.
The palpable sense of relief they feel upon leaving the bomb-laced fields of Afghanistan, a country where life and death can often seem maddeningly random, is not something they share very easily.Many troops at barren outposts will quickly hush anyone who tries to describe their survival in terms of luck, as though its invocation is somehow a curse or a jinx.
To bring it up as they board the plane is to remind them that some of their buddies are not coming home.
HMCS Vancouver, Canada Warship, Bound For Mediterranean To Take Part In Libya Mission
The frigate HMCS Vancouver is preparing to leave for the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the NATO-led mission in Libya.
Vancouver, a Halifax-class frigate, carries about 250 officers and crew and includes a CH-124 Sea King helicopter and air detachment.The ship will replace HMCS Charlottetown, which has been on patrol with NATO forces in the region since the early spring.
In March, Canada sent fighter jets, patrol planes, aerial tankers and the warship to join a United Nations-sanctioned mission to protect civilians from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The mission includes bombing by NATO countries who are trying to drive Gadhafi from power.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visited Libya this week after Canada recognized rebels fighting Gadhafi as the legitimate government of that country.
( Brilliant. Do you know who they are ? Let's try that again : are you telling ? )
Who are the Libyan rebels? U.S. tries to figure out
Middle East policy watchers note a glaring disconnect between the buoyant expectations of some rebel supporters that the international military coalition will provide direct air support for their armed struggle, and the insistence of U.S. military commanders that their mandate allows for no such thing.
Who is backing the rebels in Libya? If it is one or more of the following, can the rebel's armaments indicate?
Clearly there is big money buying this stuff and poor, oppressed Libyans couldn't afford that stuff on their own. Nobody seems to know what their long-term goals are, who is arming them or much of anything.
Anti-American Extremists Among Libyan Rebels U.S. Has Vowed To Protect
on a per capita basis, no country sent more young fighters into Iraq to kill Americans than Libya -- and almost all of them came from eastern Libya, the center of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion that the United States and others now have vowed to protect, according to internal al Qaeda documents uncovered by U.S. intelligence. ( There's a flag for b.s. of the first water )
Who Are the Rebels Fighting Libyan Government Forces?
Retired Air Force General Mike Dunn, who commanded airmen patrolling no-fly zones, also asks - who are the rebels?
"It’s a poorly defined group of mutually hostile and suspicious tribes and factions that have thus far, at any rate, failed to coalesce into a meaningful military force," said Dunn. "We’d like to think this is a group of democratic Jeffersonian type of people that just are fighting for their freedom, when in reality we don’t know a lot about them."
Ambassador Ginsberg agrees with General Dunn that the rebels are not a cohesive military entity.
"The opposition is not an army," he said. "The opposition barely has any military means to accomplish the goal of fighting. Look how far they have to go: they have to go from Benghazi back across 450 miles [720 kilometers]of desert to attack Tripoli with what? All they have is at best, at best at this point in time, trucks with machineguns on them. We don’t know in the end what Gadhafi has in reserve and he has money to bring in mercenaries from southern Africa."
Experts agree that without the help of the fighter planes and missiles from the international coalition, the ill-equipped and poorly trained rebel force would have been defeated by now or be on the verge of defeat. Some analysts say the international coalition has become in essence, the rebels’ air force.
The undertones of the Libyan revolt are tinged with religious fundamentalism, rather than liberal democracy.
It is clear that the conflict has been started and sustained by a mass uprising. (It is not a coup d'etat and most of the state apparatus has remained loyal.)
The facts are well documented, and at odds with wishful thinking. This is no Solidarnosc movement. The revolt was started in Benghazi on February 15-17th by the group called the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition. The protests had a clear fundamentalist religious motivation, and were convened to commemorate the 2006 Danish cartoons protests, which had been particularly violent in Benghazi.
The NCLO web site (Arabic) carries a document (Arabic; Google Cache; legible in automatic translation) dated February 15th (the day the protests began), which clearly spells out NCLO's objections to Qaddafi's rule. The main points of "Qaddafi: Islam's no. 1 enemy" are as follows:
- Qaddafi has closed an Islamic university and a seminary, has forbidden some Islamist publications, and has thrown thousands of Islamist activists into jail.
- Qaddafi has urged to put the Qur'an on the shelf, as no longer appropriate for this age.
- Qaddafi has made fun of the Islamic veil, calling it a "rag" and a "tent".
- Qaddafi has dared to say that Christians and Jews should be allowed to visit Mecca.
- Qaddafi has rejected the Hadith and Sunnah, and said he follows the Qur'an alone.
- (The last claim involves a curious episode. At one point, Qaddafi declared himself a follower of the "Qur'an alone" movement, which rejects orthodox Muslim punishments, like stoning for adultery, death penalty for homosexuals etc. This got him into some serious trouble. An international committee of scholars went to discuss the issue with Qaddafi. After being told that "if he did not repent and take back his statement, he would fall under the law of renegades and infidels [...] which would force true Muslims to kill him", Qaddafi "repented and took back his statement".)
America's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels
Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi
The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.
But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain – even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.
Le Figaro daily said on Wednesday that in early June French aircraft dropped “a large number” of weapons in the Jebel Nafusa region, south of Tripoli. The supply included rocket launchers, assault rifles, machineguns and missiles, said the paper by citing non-identified sources.
Following the news, the spokesperson with the French armed forces, Thierry Burkhard said that “there were some drops because the humanitarian situation (in Libya) worsened as it reached a point that civilians were being threatened since they were not able to defend themselves.”
“For this reason, France also sent them some equipment for the civilians to defend themselves, which included light weapons and munitions,” said Burkhard who noted that such supplies that took place in early June also included medications and foodstuffs.
According to the spokesperson, the equipment was made up of “weapons that can be used by civilians, light infantry weapons, like rifles.”
| ||||
Following the news, the spokesperson with the French armed forces, Thierry Burkhard said that “there were some drops because the humanitarian situation (in Libya) worsened as it reached a point that civilians were being threatened since they were not able to defend themselves.”
“For this reason, France also sent them some equipment for the civilians to defend themselves, which included light weapons and munitions,” said Burkhard who noted that such supplies that took place in early June also included medications and foodstuffs.
According to the spokesperson, the equipment was made up of “weapons that can be used by civilians, light infantry weapons, like rifles.”
The Trouble With Unconstitutional Wars
Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other countries. However, while attention has been focused on the administration’s disastrous economic policies, its equally disastrous foreign policies have exacerbated our problems overseas. Especially in times of economic crisis, we cannot afford to ignore costly foreign policy mistakes. That’s why it is important that U.S. foreign policy receive some much needed attention in the media
Getting in bed with Israel has now made Greece morally bankrupt too
40-50 Americans being held in a barbed wire pen in Greece at behest of Israeli and (apparently) US governments
Clinton: NATO mission in Libya is on track
Please forgive me, but has this woman gone absolutely barking mad, to make such a statement?!?The military campaign is in an absolute stalemate, and without the dispatch of NATO ground troops, cannot be won at this time.
There are reports (unconfirmed at this time, but credible) that the US is getting ready to send those ground troops Obama swore would never be deployed to fight in Libya.
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/06/nato-preparing-ground-war-libya
A World Overwhelmed By Western Hypocrisy
It is Gadaffi for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants. Western powers are using the International Criminal Court, which is supposed to serve justice, for self-interested reasons that are unjust.What is Gadaffi’s crime ? His crime is that he is attempting to prevent Libya from being overthrown by a US-supported, and organized, armed uprising in Eastern Libya that is being used to evict China from its oil investments in Eastern Libya.
Libya is the first armed revolt in the so-called “Arab Spring.” Reports have made it clear that there is nothing “democratic” about the revolt. http://www.english.rfi.fr/print/95867?print=now
The West managed to push a “no-fly” resolution through its puppet organization, the United Nations. The resolution was limited to neutralizing Gadaffi’s air force. However, Washington, and its French puppet, Sarkozy, quickly made an “expansive interpretation” of the UN resolution and turned it into authorization to become directly involved in the war.
Gadaffi has resisted the armed rebellion against the state of Libya, which is the normal response of a government to rebellion. The US would respond the same as would the UK and France. But by trying to prevent the overthrow of his country and his country from becoming another American puppet state, Gadaffi has been indicted. The International Criminal Court knows that it cannot indict the real perpetrators of crimes against humanity–Bush, Blair, Obama, and Sarkozy–but the court needs cases and accepts the victims that the West succeeds in demonizing.
In our post-Orwellian times, everyone who resists or even criticizes the US is a criminal. For example, Washington considers Julian Assange and Bradley Manning to be criminals, because they made information available that exposed crimes committed by the US government. Anyone who even disagrees with Washington, is considered to be a “threat,” and Obama can have such “threats” assassinated or arrested as a “terrorist suspect” or as someone “providing aid and comfort to terrorists.” American conservatives and liberals, who once supported the US Constitution, are all in favor of shredding the Constitution in the interest of being “safe from terrorists.” They even accept such intrusions as porno-scans and sexual groping in order to be “safe” on air flights.
The collapse of law is across the board. The Supreme Court decided that it is “free speech” for America to be ruled by corporations, not by law and certainly not by the people. On June 27, the US Supreme Court advanced the fascist state that the “conservative” court is creating with the ruling that Arizona cannot publicly fund election candidates in order to level the playing field currently unbalanced by corporate money. The “conservative” US Supreme Court considers public funding of candidates to be unconstitutional, but not the “free speech” funding by business interests who purchase the government in order to rule the country. The US Supreme Court has become a corporate functionary and legitimizes rule by corporations. Mussolini called this rule, imposed on Americans by the US Supreme Court, fascism.
My $0.02/Saturday: Females are Fabulous (all the moreso during Fourth of July weekend)
Here’s to the modern fabulous woman, based on the theory that women can compete in a man’s world instead of having to do stupid pet tricks to be recognized! For this weekend’s roundup, I’m going to stick mostly to items about women who are doing just that. Which means–you guessed it–a whole lotta Hillary.Gloria Steinem: How the CIA Used Feminism to Destabilize Society
"In the 1960's, the elite media invented second-wave feminism as part of the elite agenda to dismantle civilization and create a New World Order."
Since writing these words last week, I have discovered that before she became a feminist leader, Gloria Steinem worked for the CIA spying on Marxist students in Europe and disrupting their meetings. She became a media darling due to her CIA connections. MS Magazine, which she edited for many years was indirectly funded by the CIA.
Women and the CIA
US: Clarify Position on Targeted Killings
The idiocy of drone strikes
An unnamed military source confirmed to the Washington Post yesterday that last week’s airstrike in Somalia was carried out by a US drone. While there have been previous reports of drone strikes in Somalia, as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports, this is the first time that such a strike has been confirmed.The drone strike was aimed at members of al-Shabab group which the US alleges is building close ties with al-Qaeda. A ‘senior US military official’ told the Post that “they have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities.”
‘Inhibiting the activities of groups which have become emboldened’ is a fine euphemism for a drone strike - and one that we may hear more often due to the new counter terrorism strategy that was revealed by the White House this week.
Unveiling the new strategy, John Brennan, counter terrorism advisor to President Obama, stated (while heroically keeping a straight face) that “Al Qaeda seeks to bleed us financially by drawing us into long, costly wars that also inflame anti-American sentiment.” Cleverly avoiding this trick (!) the US will instead, as the LA Times put it:
“pursue a war in the shadows, one relying heavily on missile strikes from unmanned aerial drones, raids by elite special operations troops, and training of local forces to pursue terrorists.”When challenged about whether targeted killing was appropriate, Brennan, a former CIA officer went on to argue that in the past year, “there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.” However, as even the LA Times itself pointed out, it was just last month that two US servicemen were mistakenly killed by a US drone strike. Tactfully the LA Times suggested that Mr Brennan must mean drone strikes in Pakistan. However even if Brenan’s claim is limited to drone strikes in Pakistan, it is extremely difficult to square with the myriad of civilian casualty reports from there.
'Gender-neutral' pre-school accused of mind control
At the Egalia pre-school, staff avoid using words such as "him" or "her" and address the 33 youngsters as "friends" rather than girls and boys. From the colour and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail is planned to make sure the children are not exposed to sexual stereotypes.
The taxpayer-funded pre-school, which opened last year in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm, is among the most radical examples of Sweden's efforts to engineer equality between the sexes. Breaking down gender roles is a core mission in the national curriculum for pre-schools, underpinned by the theory that even in highly egalitarian-minded Sweden, society gives boys an unfair edge.
TSA Abuses: Seeing the Forest and the Trees
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