GreenWatch

B. McPherson Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. They have the honour of being the first South American country to host them. The Games were awarded to Rio amid much hoopla and celebration. It is now likely that some of the Olympic Committee are having second thoughts. There is no debate about the stunning setting that Rio has with a combination of ocean, lagoons and mountains. Over six million people call it home. And many hold their nose while doing so. You can imagine the garbage and sewage that six million people produce daily. Now imagine the mess if two thirds of the people have no garbage pickup and two thirds of the sewage is not treated, but is allowed to drain into waterways and canals. It is not just those unfortunate to live in the slums that dump untreated sewage directly into nearby waterways. This weekend past, hundreds of people demonstrated their anger over a modern condominium block contributing to the city’s stench. Y...

B. McPherson Mad cow disease can cause this CJv in humans An animal destined for the beef market was found in Alberta to carry mad cow disease. This is the first case of mad cow since an isolated case in 2011. The public has been assured that the sick animal never made it to the slaughter house. During the initial outbreak of mad cow in 2003 in Canada the beef industry in Canada took a huge economic hit. This is not expected to be the case with this incident. While it is early days in this investigation, there is speculation that cattle feed pre-dating tighter restrictions was fed to the animal in its first year. In 1997 the Canadian government mandated that feed formulas be changed to exclude the processed remains of ruminant animals. Protein is a valuable commodity in the agricultural industry and it was routine to feed cattle processed “waste” from slaughtered carcasses of cattle and sheep. Mad cow disease is known by other names: bovine spongiform encephalitis, BSE, ...

B. McPherson Compact fluorescent light bulbs are in most people’s homes in Europe and Canada. Governments mandated the switch from conventional incandescent light bulbs to the CFLs in order to save electricity. Incandescent bulbs are no longer available for sale. There was a bit of a hullaballoo about infringement on choice, but generally the old style hot bulbs were consigned to history. Some people bought lifetime supplies of their favorite hot bulbs. They were generally regarded as slightly touched. Perhaps it was ourselves who were. Environmentalists pointed out that the CFLs contained mercury, a toxic heavy metal. The safe disposal of the new bulbs was going to be a problem. We were assured that there was so little mercury in them that it would never be a problem. Your old light bulbs main hazard was the possibility of broken glass, so wrapping in newspaper and placing in the garbage was sufficient. In the province where I live, BC, the electrical company advise...

B. McPherson Is glyphosate on your food slowly poisoning you? Over the past decade many people have discovered that they are intolerant to the protein gluten. Gluten found in wheat, barley and rye that are staples in many western based diets. It seems as if an epidemic of gluten intolerance has broken out. Some people have mused that people are using the gluten intolerance as the latest fad. But these people really are sick. The question arises as to whether there are more sick people or better diagnosis of symptoms. Maybe a bit of both. Now a troubling new paper published online by Interdisciplinary Toxicology draws possible connections between trace amounts of glyphosate in the gut and gluten intolerance, a condition that now affects about 5% of the N. American and European population. Scientists have had glyphosate on their radar for a while now, suspecting it of causing birth defects and cancers. While it is not particularly toxic to humans, small amounts over ...

B. McPherson One might ask why two poisons are now being sprayed on our food crops. While the federal officials would say that routine reviews are done on pesticides the cynic would say that they were pressured into it by the Ecojustice Foundation . The Pest Management Regulatory Agency has announced that they will review the safety of 383 products that contain 23 active ingredients. These are chemicals currently in use in Canada. While many of these chemicals have exotic sounding names, one, 2,4-D is familiar to farmers and householders alike. It is used on golf courses and GM food crops to kill broadleaf plants. This plant hormone causes broad leafed plants to outgrow their roots. This is the major ingredient in Agent Orange. It has become the go to chemical to kill broad leaf weeds. According to the American EPA, the annual usage in that country is 46 million pounds of 2, 4-D. While the links between 2,4-D exposure  and cancer, kidney failure, spontaneous abor...

B. McPherson The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing a change in how antibiotics are used in the agriculture industry. If accepted, sweeping changes will be made in the way food animals are raised in the USA.   You may have noticed TV ads recently touting fast food outlets bragging about their meat being antibiotic and hormone free. Few people realize that the majority of antibiotics produced today are given to food animals, not because the animals are sick, but because the judicious application of antibiotics promotes faster growth and more efficient use of animal feed. The constant low-level dosing of animals destined for the dinner plate has resulted in the gradual loss of effectiveness of medically important antibiotics. Bacteria are adept at adapting to changing conditions and dosed at low levels can fairly quickly develop resistant strains. Tetracyclines, penicillin, azithromycin are unable to curb many bacterial infections due to overuse, mainly in the a...

B. McPherson A group of 85 scientists, academics and physicians have issued a statement that there is no consensus on the safety of GM foods. This move was prompted by claims from some scientists and GM Corporations that the food is safe. The statements made by the supporters of the biotech food are not scientifically based. Here is what one scientist had to say about the claims: Another signatory, Professor C. Vyvyan Howard, a medically qualified toxicopathologist based at the University of Ulster, said: “A substantial number of studies suggest that GM crops and foods can be toxic or allergenic, and that they can have adverse impacts on beneficial and non-target organisms. It is often claimed that millions of Americans eat GM foods with no ill effects. But as the US has no GMO labelling and no epidemiological studies have been carried out, there is no way of knowing whether the rising rates of chronic diseases seen in that country have anything to do with GM food consumption ...

B. McPherson Air pollution affects us all. Harbin China is choking on thick, poisonous smog. The financial success of the PRC is exacting a heavy toll on its citizens. The northern Chinese city has been hit with early cold weather and city authorities have responded by ramping up electrical production. The source of energy to produce electricity is coal fired plants which spew pollution. A perfect brew of conditions has served to create this health crisis. The cold weather necessitating a ramp up in coal burning, farmers burning off stubble in their fields, factories that ignore pollution guidelines, high humidity and a lack of wind have all contributed to the situation. Visibility is down to only a few metres in the soupy air. According to the official Chinese news source, Xinhua , sight is limited to 100 metres or less, but in the pictures they show, visibility fades out within about 10 metres. People who venture onto the streets are attempting to filter some of the po...

B. McPherson Troubling research  Starlink corn(maize) developed by Aventis and taken over by Bayer has been banned for more than ten years, yet testing of food in Saudi Arabia shows its unwanted presence. Starlink was never approved for human consumption because of its potential to set up allergic reactions. It was approved only for cattle feed and industrial uses. Starlink was developed to have a built in pesticide that would kill corn ear worm and root worms. The whole plant then engineered to be poisonous to the pests. Unfortunately, it had a possibility that humans would react badly to the corn as well. The bacterial gene inserted into the corn DNA is labelled  Cry9C. Approval for widespread US planting was granted by the EPAin 1998 . Testing in 2000 showed the presence of the modified corn in taco shells, indicating that the Starlink had entered the human food supply. Aventis promptly withdrew its production of the GM corn. The FDA became involved and test...

B. McPherson The wrecked Fukushima power plant in Japan is continuing to contaminate the environment with radioactive materials. High levels of tritium and strontium-90 have been detected in the groundwater beneath reactor 2. Tepco officials are maintaining their record of incompetence and obfuscation by speculating that the high levels likely leaked via the turbine building. The ground water levels of strontium-90 have increased 100x since December 2012(measurments taken in May). Strontium-90 is a dangerous radioactive element that the body incorporates in the same way as it incorporates calcium. It was prevalent in the atmosphere during the post WWII Cold War, when many nations were doing nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. The half-life for strontium-90 is 28 years, so it continues to release radiation for many years. Tepco is now partially owned by the Japanese government. In a clever way to spread the costs of the attempted cleanup, the Japanese governmen...

B. McPherson Throw a previously undetected viral gene into the GMO mix and you've got a whole new experiment. Independent researchers at the University of Liege Belgium have discovered the presence of a viral gene present in the majority of GM plants that they investigated. They have dubbed the gene Gene VI. It is significant that this group of investigators have revealed the presence of the virus particle in the genetically altered organisms because they were independent, neither opposing the proliferation nor supporting their use. These scientists were working for the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA). Genetic engineers use viruses that are generally believed to be harmless to people to carry foreign genes into the cell’s nucleus. Theoretically, the virus will disappear entirely as the GM plant reproduces. Now this group of researchers in Belgium have found numerous incidents where this is not the case. The researchers are not speculating on the possible t...