Laser Sniffs Out Toxic Gases From Afar

http://today.duke.edu/2014/12/gassensor
Durham, NC - Scientists have developed a way to sniff out tiny amounts of toxic gases -- a whiff of nerve gas, for example, or a hint of a chemical spill -- from up to one kilometer away.

The new technology can discriminate one type of gas from another with greater specificity than most remote sensors -- even in complex mixtures of similar chemicals -- and under normal atmospheric pressure, something that wasn’t thought possible before.
The researchers say the technique could be used to test for radioactive byproducts from nuclear accidents or arms control treaty violations, for example, or for remote monitoring of smokestacks or factories for signs of air pollution or chemical weapons.
“You could imagine setting this up around the perimeter of an area where soldiers are living, as a kind of trip wire for nerve gas,” said lead author Henry Everitt, an Army scientist and adjunct professor of physics at Duke University.
The technique uses a form of invisible light called terahertz radiation, or T-rays.
Already used to detect tumors and screen airport passengers, T-rays fall between microwaves and infrared radiation on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Zapping a gas molecule with a terahertz beam of just the right energy makes the molecule switch between alternate rotational states, producing a characteristic absorption spectrum “fingerprint,” like the lines of a bar code.
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Is this our generation’s Agent Orange?

BURN PITS

Community mourns loss of children’s advocate

http://www.thestylus.net/news/view.php/857393/Community-mourns-loss-of-childrens-advoc
As a global serviceman, war veteran, author, a teacher, Associate Professor of Social Work for the College at Brockport as well as a voice for those who have nothing, Ken Herrmann’s legacy is one of strong impact.

Ken Herrmann was an Associate Professor at the College at Brockport 

After battling pancreatic cancer, Herrmann passed away in his home, Nov. 2, at the age of 71. 
Herrmann was a member of the college’s community for 37 years. Through 1960 to 1969, he was a battalion leader in the war in Vietnam where he earned a Bronze Star for his efforts. His tour in Vietnam would forever change the Buffalo, New York, native. Herrmann spent the majority of his life advocating for the citizens in Vietnam who still struggle today with the aftermath of the war.
The war in Vietnam included new and modern tactics for defeating enemies, which included the use of a toxic chemical called Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a herbicide used to remove foliage and make the enemies more visible. The chemical infected the water and crops of Vietnamese farms, which was then eaten by the natives. The effects of this ingested toxin was evident in the following generations.
The poison has had a lasting impact on the people of Vietnam as it infected the drinking water, causing mutations carried down through the generations. Fixing this blot on American history has been at the forefront of Herrmann’s philanthropy and life’s work.
Herrmann has written many books about the people of Vietnam affected by Agent Orange. His latest book, printed in January 2014, “Child Welfare Practice: A Conversation About Reality” focuses on his experience in the American childhood.  He draws on his expertise from being on the board over more than half a dozen boards regarding childcare and mental health.
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We need more data on what's sprayed on food

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20141130/we-need-more-data-on-whats-sprayed-on-food
I am so grateful that Humboldt County said "No to GMOs" with Measure P.
In an October 2014 decision, the Environmental Protection Agency approved "Enlist Duo" to be sprayed on genetically modified "Enlist Duo Ready" soybeans and corn. The adorable name, Enlist Duo, masks the seriousness of the ingredients. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup has been married to Dow Chemical's 2,4-D, a chemical comprising 50 percent of Agent Orange from the Vietnam War. The new herbicide is called "Enlist Duo."

Agent Orange has a history. The Veterans Administration has, after decades of losing litigation, finally compiled a list of the "presumptive diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange" for our Vietnam vets. The vets were late teens or adults when they were subjected to aerial spraying of Agent Orange. The list of "presumptive" diseases includes at least nine forms of cancer. The VA also acknowledges that Agent Orange is a mutagen, i.e. the vets' kids who were born with spina bifida have that condition resulting from their fathers' exposure to Agent Orange.
Although it appears to be true that the more toxic ingredient of Agent Orange was 2,4,5-T because of the creation of dioxins in the less than perfect manufacturing of it, it is also true that we cannot know for decades the long-term synergistic effects of all the chemicals comprising Enlist Duo on almost anything: nearby plants, soil organisms, pollinators, livestock, wildlife, gestating babies, growing children, or adults.
For folks who aren't sure of the differences between genetically modified organisms as food (GMO) and hybridized plants it is, crudely put, this. With hybridization, plants have been modified by crossing them with very similar plants e.g. different species within the same genus (e.g. two kinds of tomatoes or two kinds of Chrysanthemums) or crossing plants within the same Family of plants even though one may be a shrub and one a biennial (like the hot new perennial Digiplexis.)
With GMOs you are breaking the seeds' reluctance to admit intruders into their DNA from non-plant material (in Enlist Duo it would be a chemical compound) by inoculating them with DNA from bacteria, e.g. Agrobacterium tumefaciens or E-coli or even viruses. All of these have been used by GMO scientists for food crops to force the seeds to accept the herbicide in order that the plant ultimately becomes impervious to the herbicide. In addition, viruses are known mutagens. There is a reason these food crops are called GMOs — genetically modified organisms — since they are no longer strictly plant material.
Both Japan and Western Europe have mostly embargoed our GMO food products. They also have one tenth the autism rate that exists in the U.S. Perhaps they are less willing to diagnose autism or perhaps they suspect Roundup as a food additive. Since autism has skyrocketed here, wouldn't it be wise to look at probable causes?
Wouldn't it be prudent to reject 2,4-D as a food additive until all the data are in?

EPA falling short on cleanup

http://mtstandard.com/news/opinion/epa-falling-short-on-cleanup/article_889f8913-7acd-58f4-91e3-23f9494703d2.html

While the Berkeley Pit is the most obvious manifestation of the environmental devastation left by mining in Butte and is the most visible testimony to an EPA that has become ossified and unresponsive to the public in its approach to cleanup, the Pit is not alone as a threat to Butte’s public health and future economic development. The EPA is playing Russian roulette with Butte’s future in its “cleanup” attempts. The problems we see with the Berkeley Pit cleanup—failure to thoroughly test cleanup technologies, failure to respond in a meaningful way to public input, failure to provide for a margin of error, failure to look at fresh cleanup technologies, failure to critically re-evaluate past decisions, failure to consider the adverse effects, such as scaling, of the Pit cleanup on Silver Bow Creek and failure to consider that their estimates/models of what will happen in the Pit may be wrong—are seen as well in the EPA’s approach to stormwater runoff, the Butte Hill, the Parrott Tailings and the Montana Pole Plant.

Parrott Tailings

EPA based its cleanup decision for the Parrott Tailings on a model which has been thoroughly and completely invalidated. Even so, in an exercise of wanton hubris, the EPA clings to that invalid/discredited model, even in the face of overwhelming evidence from several sources that the Parrott Tailings are a clear and present danger to Butte’s already challenged groundwater. The migration of Parrott Tailings water is not conforming to the EPA model. The Parrott Tailing’s cleanup decision belies EPA’s claim that it bases its decisions on “good science.” It seems EPA is more prone to basing decisions on poor guesses. Scarce state restoration dollars will have to be spent to fix the problem.

Montana Pole Plant

The EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) are content to leave highly toxic dioxin on site at the Montana Pole Plant as a perpetual threat to public health. Dioxin, the active ingredient in “agent orange,” is one of the most potent carcinogens on Earth; even the EPA says there are no safe levels of exposure. Yet, the EPA and the MDEQ want to cover the dioxin on site with a little dirt and some vegetation, even though the capping of toxic waste has a dismal record of effectiveness. Routinely, stormwater runoff flows over the contaminated soil, carrying contaminants to the creek. The EPA audaciously calls this protective.
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Vietnam scrambles to squash Taiwanese rumor about dioxin-tainted tea

http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/vietnam-scrambles-to-squash-taiwanese-rumor-about-dioxintainted-tea-34589.html

The authorities in Lam Dong Province have sought government help to put a stop to false Taiwanese rumors about dioxin contamination in Vietnamese tea.

The Central Highlands province is home to around 3,000 hectares of high-quality tea plantations whose tea leaves are exported to the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe.

In a statement sent to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday, Lam Dong People’s Committee said the rumor has cut the province’s tea exports to Taiwan by half in the course of several months.

Consumers in other countries have also grown hesitant to buy Vietnamese-grown tea following the promulgation of the dioxin rumor in the Taiwanese media, the statement said.

The provincial leaders called on the government to order ministries of foreign affairs, environment, agriculture, trade, and communication to inform media outlets and government authorities in Taiwan that Lam Dong's tea plantations are dioxin-free.

“In addition, we ought to launch a media campaign to set the record straight about Vietnamese tea,” the committee said in the statement.

Based on maps of the US' war-era defoliation campaign and other related documents, Lam Dong’s Military Command affirmed that the province's tea plantations couldn't possibly have been affected by dioxin.

Following this notice, Taiwanese customs agencies cleared 200 tons of Lam Dong’s Oolong tea worth roughly VND140 billion (US$6.5 million) last week after holding them for two months based on the spurious media reports.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted Han Wen Te, director of Taiwanese tea firm Fushen, as saying the dioxin contamination rumor was spread to cripple competition.

Imported Vietnamese Oolong is four times cheaper than domestic tea, Han said.

Guam & Agent Orange - TCE

This site http://www.guamagentorange.info/home is for people to share their accounts of Agent Orange, TCE, Radiation, or any other contamination on Guam.

 

Veterans, Civilians and Contractors are all welcome. Thank You!

Drums of Herbicide Were Stored Here in 1969-70 and the POL Depot Used the Rig Below to Spray Weeds Covering a Large Area On and Off Andersen AFB 

http://www.guamagentorange.info/home

Camp LeJeune Adverse Birth Outcomes Study Results

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/AdverseBirthOutcomesStudy.html
Evaluation of contaminated drinking water and preterm birth, small for gestational age, and birth weight at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: A cross-sectional study

The purpose of this study was to determine if maternal exposures to contaminants in drinking water at Camp Lejeune were associated with preterm birth and fetal growth retardation. This study is a reanalysis of a previous study, which incorrectly categorized as “unexposed” some maternal exposures before June 1972 based on information available at the time.

Besides considering the re-categorized births to exposed women, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) recreated monthly estimates of past levels of drinking water contamination using computer models. These estimates were not available when the first study was conducted.
Drinking water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene, 1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE) and vinyl chloride from the 1950s through 1985.
The study included live singleton births 28-47 weeks gestation weighing 500 grams or more. The births occurred between 1968 and 1985 to women who resided on base for at least one week before giving birth. These years were chosen because computerized birth certificates in North Carolina became available in 1968 and the contaminated wells on base were shut down in 1985. The authors cross referenced birth certificate data for Onslow County, NC, where Camp Lejeune is located, with Camp Lejeune housing records and identified 11,896 births that met the study criteria.
Outcomes of interest in this study were preterm birth and fetal growth retardation. Fetal growth retardation was measured by reduced mean birth weight (MBW), term low birth weight (TLBW), and small for gestational age (SGA). Information about these outcomes was obtained from birth certificates. Preterm births were defined as births occurring at less than 37 weeks of gestation. Gestational age was calculated using date of mother’s last menstrual period from the birth certificate. TLBW was defined as full-term babies (37 weeks or more gestation) weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth. SGA births were defined as births weighing less than the 10th percentiles using sex- and race-specific weight by gestational week norms. For the MBW analysis, only full-term infants were included.
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NIH scientists determine how environment contributes to several human diseases

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/nov2014/niehs-25.htm
Using a new imaging technique, National Institutes of Health researchers have found that the biological machinery that builds DNA can insert molecules into the DNA strand that are damaged as a result of environmental exposures. These damaged molecules trigger cell death that produces some human diseases, according to the researchers. The work, appearing online Nov. 17 in the journal Nature, provides a possible explanation for how one type of DNA damage may lead to cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and lung disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Until this paper, no one had actually seen how the polymerase did it or understood the downstream implications.”

Time-lapse crystallography was used by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) researchers to determine that DNA polymerase, the enzyme responsible for assembling the nucleotides or building blocks of DNA, incorporates nucleotides with a specific kind of damage into the DNA strand. Time-lapse crystallography is a technique that takes snapshots of biochemical reactions occurring in cells.
Samuel Wilson, M.D., senior NIEHS researcher on the team, explained that the damage is caused by oxidative stress, or the generation of free oxygen molecules, in response to environmental factors, such as ultraviolet exposure, diet, and chemical compounds in paints, plastics, and other consumer products. He said scientists suspected that the DNA polymerase was inserting nucleotides that were damaged by carrying an additional oxygen atom.
“When one of these oxidized nucleotides is placed into the DNA strand, it can’t pair with the opposing nucleotide as usual, which leaves a gap in the DNA,” Wilson said. “Until this paper, no one had actually seen how the polymerase did it or understood the downstream implications.”
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Happy Thanksgiving

Vietnam, Agent Orange, and GMOs

http://thediplomat.com/2014/11/vietnam-agent-orange-and-gmos/

An Agent Orange maker is being welcomed back to Vietnam to grow genetically modified organisms.

Vietnam continues to roll out the red carpet for foreign biotech giants, including the infamous Monsanto, to sell the controversial genetically modified (GM) corn varieties in the country. Critics say that by welcoming Monsanto, Vietnam has been too nice to the main manufacturer of Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used during the Vietnam War that left a devastating legacy still claiming victims today.
According to Vietnamese media reports, in August that country’s agriculture ministry approved the imports of four corn varieties engineered for food and animal feed processing: MON 89034 and NK 603, products of DeKalb Vietnam (a subsidiary of U.S. multinational Monsanto), and GA 21 and MIR 162 from the Swiss firm Syngenta.
The Vietnamese environment ministry has to date issued bio-safety certificates for Monsanto’s MON 89034 and NK 603 corn varieties and Syngenta’s GA 21, meaning farmers can start commercially cultivating the crops. The ministry is considering issuing a similar certificate for the other variety, MR 162. Given the current political landscape, it seems that approval is just a matter of time.

In 2006, the Vietnamese government formulated an ambitious plan to develop GM crops as part of a “major program for the development and application of biotechnology in agriculture and rural development.” Under the blueprint, Vietnam is looking to cultivate its first GM crops by 2015 and have 30-50 percent of the country’s farmland covered with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by 2020.
Environmental activists have noted the irony that just as Americans and people elsewhere around the world are revolting against GMOs in greater numbers, Vietnam is throwing away its great advantage as a non-GMO producer. “Increasingly countries around the world are rejecting GMOs, with public opposition growing daily. Across Europe and much of Asia, Latin America and Africa, people and often their governments are rejecting GMO seeds as an old technology that has failed to deliver on its promises,” said Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist at the U.S.-based Pesticide Action Network North America.
The has been an unprecedented surge in consumer rejection of GMOs in the U.S., with food companies scrambling to secure non-GMO supplies, according to the New York Times. Europe forced its entire food industry to jettison GMOs altogether. In one prominent case, European authorities shut down 99 percent of corn imports from the U.S. at a time when only 25 percent of the corn was genetically engineered. Last year, China rejected 887,000 tons of U.S. corn because it contained Syngenta’s GM maize MIR 162 – the very same variety that has just been licensed for use in Vietnam.
The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development report, considered the most exhaustive analysis of agriculture and sustainability in history, concludes that the high costs of seeds and chemicals, uncertain yields, and the potential to undermine local food security make biotechnology a poor choice for the developing world. GMOs in their current state have nothing to offer the cause of feeding the hungry, alleviating poverty, and creating sustainable agriculture, according to the report. Six multinationals – Monsanto, Syngenta, Du Pont, Bayer, Dow, and BASF – now control almost two-thirds of the global market for seeds, three quarters of agro-chemicals sales, and the entire GM seed market, according to a report by Friends of the Earth International, an international network of environmental organizations in 74 countries.

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Excavation begins in Okinawa field where barrels previously found

http://www.stripes.com/news/excavation-begins-in-okinawa-field-where-barrels-previously-found-1.315392

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Workers began excavation Friday on an additional 66 spots at the Okinawa City soccer field where barrels containing toxic herbicides were found last year.

The announcement to investigate the magnetic anomalies — thought to be more barrels or other metal objects — was made Thursday by the Okinawa Defense Bureau. Should any barrels or substances that indicate the presence of defoliants be found, the bureau plans to notify the city and prefectural governments immediately.

The excavation comes on the heels of a report released by the Japanese government in July that found while 83 barrels already unearthed in the reclaimed land adjacent to the Kadena Air Base fence line contained ingredients used in Agent Orange, they were of the incorrect consistency and quantities however, leading officials to instead believe they were used in a common herbicide.

The barrels caused a stir amongst both locals and U.S. military personnel and dependents when they were found. Veterans who have claimed exposure to Agent Orange while stationed on Okinawa said it confirmed what they had been saying all along. Parents of students at the nearby Amelia Earhart Intermediate School, Bob Hope Primary School and the Kadena middle and high schools expressed concern. Activists and local media also seized on the issue.

The U.S. military’s position has been that Agent Orange — which defoliated jungles during the Vietnam War and has been blamed for a slew of health problems in veterans — was never stored, shipped through or used on Okinawa. A study commissioned by the DOD has backed that assertion. The military discontinued use of Agent Orange in the early 1970s.

The defense bureau has said it was unlikely the barrels posed a health risk. Tests have shown the air and water, on and off base, are safe.

The excavation report will be released by the end of March, a bureau spokesman said.