Banned Pesticide Use Remains High in CA Strawberry Fields - New America Media

Banned Pesticide Use Remains High in CA Strawberry Fields - New America Media

An analysis of state pesticide-use data revealed that in Monterey County, the state’s main strawberry production area, methyl bromide use has fallen only 24 percent over the decade, from roughly 1.7 million pounds in 1999 to to 1.3 million pounds in 2009. 

Adjacent Santa Cruz County, another top strawberry-producing region, saw a similar percentage drop in usage, to about 400,000 pounds from 564,000 pounds in 1999. San Luis Obispo County actually saw an up tick, to roughly 125,000 pounds in 2009 from 110,000 pounds a decade earlier.

“While overall the use of methyl bromide has declined in recent years in California, [its] use in certain crops, including strawberries, has declined very little," said Michael Marsh, a Salinas-based attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., a public interest law firm  that advocates on behalf of farmworkers. "And when you look at overall use of fumigants, including methyl bromide, chloropicrin and Telone, you find that the amount of dangerous fumigants used is much higher than it was 20 years ago."

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UV blocker curtails male hormone made in human cells, mice. — Environmental Health News

UV blocker curtails male hormone made in human cells, mice. — Environmental Health News

Benzophenone (BP) chemicals absorb and thus filter out ultraviolet light. The one known as BP2 is added to cosmetics and personal care products to prevent sunlight from breaking down the products. Perfumes, lipstick, hair and skin care products and plastics for packaging can contain BP2. People can be exposed as BP2 has been detected in human urine.

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Common plasticizer alters an important memory system in male rat brains. — Environmental Health News

Common plasticizer alters an important memory system in male rat brains. — Environmental Health News

This is the first research to connect phthalate exposure at a critical time of development with these cell and nerve effects in the hippo-campus. Although not measured in the study, the brain effects may result in impaired cognitive functioning and could result in significant behavioural changes throughout life. In people, disruptions in development of the hippo-campus may result in poorer memory, which can impact learning ability and even IQ.

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Supreme Court rules Drug Companies exempt from Lawsuits

Supreme Court rules Drug Companies exempt from Lawsuits:

In 2004, Karen Bartlett was prescribed the generic anti-inflammatory drug Sulindac, manufactured by Mutual Pharmaceutical, for her sore shoulder. Three weeks after taking the drug, Bartlett began suffering from a disease called, ‘toxic epidermal necrolysis’. The condition is extremely painful and causes the victim’s skin to peel off, exposing raw flesh in the same manner as a third degree burn victim.

Karen Bartlett sued Mutual Pharma in New Hampshire state court, arguing that the drug company included no warning about the possible side effect. A court agreed and awarded her $21 million. The FDA went on to force both Mutual, as well as the original drug manufacturer Merck & Co., to include the side effect on the two drugs’ warning labels going forward.

Now, nine years after the tragedy began, the US Supreme Court overturned the state court’s verdict and award. Justices cited the fact that all generic drugs and their manufacturers, some 80% of all drugs consumed in the United States, are exempt from liability for side effects, mislabeling or virtually any other negative reactions caused by their drugs. In short, the Court ruled that the FDA has ultimate authority over pharmaceuticals in the US. And if the FDA says a drug is safe, that takes precedent over actual facts, real victims and any and all adverse reactions.

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The posts l provide are my views of good recipes and also are shared from a number of contacts, news and blogging services. They are not always tried and tested by me unless it states that l have cooked any myself,whereby it will be noted on the post accordingly. Please tweet at #AceFoodNews or email News & Views Thank you, Chris [Chef]

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EWG releases Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning

Even if you don't get headaches from conventional cleaning products, the chemicals used in them aren't good for the environment and they aren't good for your health – especially if you have allergies. To help out people who want to use healthier ...

See all stories on this topic »

Mother Nature Network (blog)

This is our opinion and feelings about the the posts added to this blog by ourselves and writers who have asked to write on our blog network and does not necessarily represent our agreement or disagreement with the writers concerned.Tweet at #AceHealthNews and email your " News & Views" to our "Ace News Desk" be published in featured posts.

Thank you, Ian [Editor]

Miners’ Rights at the Forefront

When I arrived at the Mine Safety and Health Administration in October 2009, one of my top priorities was to educate miners about their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, specifically those rights that pertain to their safety and health.  According to Section 105(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, a miner cannot be discharged, discriminated against or interfered with in the exercise of statutory rights because he or she has filed a complaint alleging a health or safety violation.
Some mine operators, however, have disregarded this law, suspending, laying off or taking adverse action against a miner who became too vocal about mining conditions.  In fact, issues relating to fears of discrimination and retaliation came to light during congressional hearings held in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. Statements from miners and family members of the miners who died indicated that mine employees had been reluctant to speak out about safety conditions in existence prior to the April 2010 explosion, fearing retaliation by management.
Thus, the critical need to better educate miners about their rights and to promptly and thoroughly investigate discrimination complaints.  Those efforts are working.  The number of requests for temporary reinstatements the Labor Department submitted on behalf of miners who filed discrimination complaints more than tripled from the period of fiscal years 2007-2009 to the period of FY 2010-2012 (through July 31, 2012), increasing from 22 to 71. Furthermore, the Labor Department filed 70 complaints alleging mine safety discrimination during the period of FY 2010-2012 (through July 31, 2012), up from 39 from FY 2007-2009.
In June 2011, MSHA released new Web-based training tools to help miners better understand their rights and responsibilities, including “A Guide to Miners’ Rights and Responsibilities“; an electronic form for filing an anonymous hazard complaint; a discrimination complaint packet; information about black lung benefits and resources; and a compendium of online videos addressing miners’ concerns about unsafe working conditions, hiring decisions, how to refuse unsafe work, the role of supervisors and the role of miners’ representatives who travel with federal inspectors.
MSHA has instituted other measures to enhance enforcement of miners’ rights, including a reorganization of the Office of Assessments, Accountability, Special Enforcement and Investigations to provide enhanced efficiency, staffing, oversight and training of special investigators.
A guide for miners’ representatives explaining their rights under the Mine Act is slated for completion this fall. The publication will include information on inspections and investigations, filing a hazardous condition complaint, accessing information using MSHA’s Data Retrieval System and becoming a miners’ representative.
All miners have the right to a safe workplace, and the right to identify hazardous conditions and refuse unsafe work without fear of discrimination or retaliation.  We at MSHA take the rights of miners and our responsibility to enforce them very seriously, and will continue to work to ensure they are upheld.
Joseph Main is the assistant secretary for mine safety and health.

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Awareness Raising Works

Awareness Raising Works:

A young Beninese girl, approximately 6 years old, carries stones across a quarry.

Educating parents and communities can help protect children from the worst forms of child labor – work that threatens their health, thwarts their education and limits their futures. This tale of three villages in Benin, a country in West Africa, shows how effective raising awareness can be.
All three villages are poor, and in all three, people earn their living working in quarries. And in all three, the Department of Labor is funding a project called “ECOWAS II.”
Ask parents in these villages what they think of their children – some as young as three – breaking rocks with pick axes, breathing heavy dust and straining to carry heavy loads of rubble, and you will get three different answers.
In the first village, where awareness raising under the project began just this month, parents say, “They are not in danger. Sure, they should go to school, but we can’t afford that.”
In the second village, where awareness raising efforts have had more time to take root, you hear a different story: “I am so happy my children are in school and not in the quarries where it is dangerous.” Yet, parents still ask, “What am I supposed to do when the project leaves?”

Two young Beninese boys work together to move a stone to the appropriate stone pile in a quarry.

In Lokossa, a village where the project has been in place for nine months and children regularly attend school, parents are adamant that they want their children in school where they are safe.  Even if the project ends, they say, their children will not work in quarries. They are even organizing “neighborhood watch” groups to guard against it.
Like many projects supported by the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, ECOWAS II uses a variety of strategies to protect vulnerable children. It improves access to school and helps parents increase their incomes so that they no longer need to rely on their children’s earnings. But in Benin, as elsewhere, raising awareness is key. The more parents are informed, the better choices they make for their children.

A project partner discusses the hazards of quarrying with parents and their children in a stone quarry in Zakpota, Benin.

Approximately 1 million children work in mines or quarries worldwide. In Benin, as in many other countries, such activity is illegal and underreported.  But the problem and its dangers, though often hidden, are very real. In the quarries, children inhale dust from the rocks, which causes a chronic and potentially fatal respiratory illness. Some fall into pits or get injured lifting rocks; others are crushed under falling stones.
Parents may put their children in harm’s way for lack of better alternatives. In Benin, where nearly half the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, stone quarrying is a family affair, employing the father to dislodge the rocks and the mother to sift out the dirt. Leaving small children at home is not an option, and schools are typically too expensive and may be too far away. Many families are so poor that they need the extra hand.

Beninese children and their mothers use grates to sift stones from dirt.

Projects like ECOWAS II – which supports children in Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire – aim to break this cycle of poverty. They educate families, businesses and communities about the hidden dangers of quarrying and lasting value of sending children to school. And they bring that education within reach for poor families, by paying for books, uniforms and other expenses. The project has also produced a documentary shown on local television and it will soon begin helping parents raise their incomes without their children’s help.

The Labor Department supports these children in Zakpota, who are able to attend school and have learned the importance of education.

As a result, children in Benin are beginning to move from lifting rocks to toting schoolbooks, from a life steeped in hazard to one empowered through awareness.

This is our opinion and feelings about the the posts added to this blog by ourselves and writers who have asked to write on our blog network and does not necessarily represent our agreement or disagreement with the writers concerned.Tweet at #AceHealthNews and email your " News & Views" to our "Ace News Desk" be published in featured posts.

Thank you, Ian [Editor]