07 Health – Page 122 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/03/172013/03/26

Berto Jongman: Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the Frog in Boiling Water — An Anthropological Perspective on the Deceived, the Forgotten, & the Dying

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Government

Fukushima isn’t Chernobyl? Don't Be So Sure

by SARAH D. PHILLIPS

CounterPunch, Weekend Edition March 15-17, 2013

The March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused the deaths of approximately 16,000 persons, left more than 6,000 injured and 2,713 missing, destroyed or partially damaged nearly one million buildings, and produced at least $14.5 billion in damages. The earthquake also caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s eastern coast. After reading the first news reports about what the Japanese call “3.11,” I immediately drew associations between the accident in Fukushima and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 in what was then the Soviet Union. This was only natural, since studying the cultural fallout of Chernobyl has been part of my life’s work as an anthropologist for the past 17 years. Knowing rather little about Japan at the time, I relied on some fuzzy stereotypes about Japanese technological expertise and penchant for tight organization and waited expectantly for rectification efforts to unfold as a model of best practices. I positioned the problem-riddled Chernobyl clean-up, evacuation, and reparation efforts as a foil, assuming that Japan would, in contrast, unroll a state-of-the-art nuclear disaster response for the modern age. After all, surely a country like Japan that relies so heavily on nuclear-generated power has developed thorough, well-rehearsed, and tested responses to any potential nuclear emergency? Thus, I expected the inevitable comparisons between the world’s two worst nuclear accidents to yield more contrasts than parallels.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the Frog in Boiling Water — An Anthropological Perspective on the Deceived, the Forgotten, & the Dying”

2013/03/142013/03/26

Eagle: America’s Retirement Crisis

03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

America's Retirement Crisis

Decades of class war leaves most Americans nearing retirement woefully unprepared.

Since the mid-1970s, real wages haven’t kept pace with inflation. Benefits steadily eroded. High-paying jobs disappeared. Improved technology forces wage earners to work harder for less.

So-called “free” markets work only for those who control them. A handful of winners benefit at the expense of most others. Conditions get progressively worse.

Wealth disparity extremes are unprecedented. Neoliberal harshness force-feeds austerity when stimulus is needed. Public needs go begging.

American inequality is institutionalized. Bipartisan complicity assures it. Class war rages. America’s social contract is targeted for destruction.

Both sides agree. They support giving bankers, war profiteers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites greater wealth at the expense of most others.

A May 2012 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) study highlighted America’s retirement crisis. American workers face trouble.

Read full article.

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2013/03/032013/03/03

Koko: Fukushima Radiation Update for US West Coast

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 11 Society, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

2013-02-20 U.S. bluefin tuna still contaminated with Fukushima radiation — Study: Cesium found in 100% of small, recently migrated tuna tested

Forbes, Feb. 20, 2013: […] Last week one of the authors of the study from last year, Daniel J. Madigan from Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station—along with five other scientists— published a new follow-up study. The main question that this new study wanted to answer: Would the migratory Bluefin tuna show up again a year later off the coast of California carrying radiation from Fukushima? The answer was yes. That means, ultimately, that there is still a high level of radiation in the waters near the Fukushima plant most likely because, as marine chemist, Ken Buessler, asserts, the plant is still leaking radiation into the ocean nearly two years later. […]

2013-01-22 The Radiation Warnings You Won’t Get from the Mainstream Propaganda Machine

After the North American governments refused to fund testing, oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass, along with Nicholas Fisher, a marine sciences professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and other concerned scientists, managed to secure private funding for a Pacific research voyage. The results?

Cesium levels in the Pacific had initially gone up an astonishing 45 million times above pre-accident levels. The levels then declined rapidly for a while, but after that, they unexpectedly levelled off.

In July, cesium levels stopped declining and remained stuck at 10,000 times above pre-accident levels.

This means the ocean isn’t diluting the radiation as expected. If it had been, cesium levels would have kept falling.

The finding suggests that radiation is still being released into the ocean long after the accident in March, 2011.

Continue reading “Koko: Fukushima Radiation Update for US West Coast”

2013/03/022013/03/02

Owl: New Eugenics Vaccine + Herpes Activator + Eugenics Meta-RECAP

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government

New Eugenics Weapon: FluBlok Insect Based Vaccine

Kenny Valenzuela

Activist Post, Friday March 1, 2013

EXTRACT:

“FluBlok is the latest concoction being created by Protein Science Corporation which was bailed out in 2009 by the United States taxpayers in order to continue the research and development of this new population reduction weapon. Pumping tens of millions of dollars into this eugenics corporation will help to further the advancements and profit margins of the pharmaceutical industries killing machines by creating more customers identified in trials as ‘severe adverse effects’. Clinical trials have shown that this insect-based influenza vaccination has caused cardiac problems, respiratory disorders, and in one case the death of a trial participant…The name FluBlok would give you the impression that it blocks you from getting the flu, but instead it really blocks your ability to fight the flu. Bill Gates has said on numerous occasions that if they can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of vaccinations they would be able to lower populations by 10 to 15% worldwide. The vaccines are designed to injure and damage your immune system making you more susceptible to bacteria and viruses encountered in the wild. We’re living on a modern-day Island of Dr. Moreau injecting the populace with genetically modified medicines that create new allergies, diseases and illnesses while the media spin them as medical miracles.”

Read full post with comments and additional research links.

Anonymous said…So we have simian virus 40 [causing cancer] from polio shots, avian flu & swine flu from animal cells in vaccines; aborted fetus cells in a dozen vaccines this year & now we will get insect diseases ! One of their big “selling points” on this vaccine [besides the speed at which they can make it] is that it has no mercury. What they don't tell you is that they are using Cytomegla virus to “activate” the vaccine. Cytomegla virus is herpes that never goes away. Makes Mononucleosis look like a day at the beach. Can also cause limbless& sightless babies if you have an active case while pregnant.

Continue reading “Owl: New Eugenics Vaccine + Herpes Activator + Eugenics Meta-RECAP”

2013/03/012013/03/01

SchwartzReport: 9 Surprising Facts About Junk Fund

03 Economy, 07 Health

9 Surprising Facts About Junk Food

Riffing on his new book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, ace New York Times investigative reporter Michael Moss is suddenly everywhere—he's out with a blockbuster article in the Times Magazine and just appeared on Fresh Air.

I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but I've skimmed it, and it looks excellent. Here are nine quick takeaways:

SUB-TITLES ONLY:

1. The Cheeto is a modern miracle.

2. Subverting “sensory-specific satiety” is the key to junk-food success.

3. At least since 1999, the industry has known its products are contributing to a massive public-health crisis.

4. Like the agrichemical industry, the food industry has become adept at selling questionable solutions to the problems it has generated.

5. First you find a product that sells, then you find the right cheap ingredients to make it profitable.

6. Your brain reacts to sugar and cocaine in very similar ways.

7. “Food manufacturers now spend nearly twice as much money on advertising their [breakfast] cereals as they do on the ingredients that go into them.”

8. Tang wasn't developed for astronauts.

9. Many of the cereals of my childhood were composed of 50 percent sugar or more.

Read full article.

2013/02/242013/02/24

Berto Jongman: Endocenes as Ground Zero in Anthropocene Impact on BioSphere

01 Agriculture, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society

Global assessment of the state-of-the-science of endocrine disruptors

Detailed Table of Contents and Preface

Book is Free Online

1.1 Purpose and Scope of Document

The last two decades have witnessed growing scientific concerns and public debate over the potential adverse effects that may result from exposure to a group of chemicals that have the potential to alter the normal functioning of the endocrine system in wildlife and humans. Concerns regarding exposure to these EDCs are due primarily to 1) adverse effects observed in certain wildlife, fish, and ecosystems; 2) the increased incidence of certain endocrine-related human diseases; and 3) endocrine disruption resulting from exposure to certain environmental chemicals observed in laboratory experimental animals. These concerns have stimulated many national governments, international organizations, scientific societies, the chemical industry, and public interest groups to establish research programs, organize conferences and workshops, and form expert groups and committees to address and evaluate EDC-related issues.

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2013/02/24

SchwartzReport: Corrupt and Inept US Government Allows Rampant Food Substitution and Mislabeling — As High as 52% — California and New York City the Worst

03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society

Today's issue is a selection of the many stories I have found showing the results arising from the efforts of the Theocratic Right to shape the world as they wish it. I want to be clear that this is only a selection. I could have picked 10 other stories.

Because many of these efforts are either esoteric assaults on regulatory agencies, or programs at the state level, and they get little national discussion, I don't think most people quite realize how pervasive these efforts have been.

This all gets down to voting. All of us who want our country to choose a compassionate and life-affirming course must not only vote, we must take on the responsibility of counseling and assisting others of like mind to vote.

We have to take this very seriously.

— Stephan

ONE STORY ONLY:

Seafood Fraud Study By Oceana Reveals Widespread Mislabeling Nationwide

Oceana, an international ocean advocacy group, has released a report on national seafood fraud [pdf], and the results are disconcerting. The report, which is one of the largest on seafood fraud to date, found that one-third of fish was mislabeled.

Oceana performed DNA testing from 2010 to 2012 on 1,215 fish samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states. In this study, Oceana found seafood fraud everywhere it tested, with rates hitting as high as 52 percent in Southern California. Here are the full results:

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Corrupt and Inept US Government Allows Rampant Food Substitution and Mislabeling — As High as 52% — California and New York City the Worst”