NT$168 mil. payout for dioxin victims

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2015/12/08/452940/NT$168-mil.htm

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- China Petrochemical Development Corp. (CPDC, 中石化), previously a state-owned enterprise, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA, 經濟部) must compensate 304 affected residents in proximity to the firm's former chemical factory with a payout totaling NT$168.17 million, the Tainan District Court ruled on Monday.

The legal battle has spanned nearly seven years, and the sum of government compensation is the largest in Taiwan's history, according to local media.
Residents said they would deliberate on whether to continue the trial against CPDC, since the amount is far from the NT$340 million they initially demanded.
According to prosecutors, the former power plant in Tainan caused mercury pollution to the surrounding environment and emitted carcinogenic dioxin. In 2003, researchers found that fish and shrimp in nearby bodies of water contained mercury and dioxin levels that exceeded safety levels.
Residents near the former chemical plant filed a lawsuit against the corporation for allegedly causing the dioxin contamination in 2008.

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Remember

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! CALL IN DAY

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9

Call 202-224-3121, give the operator your state and ZIP Code and you will be connected with your elected representatives office. Ask to speak with the Legislative Aide for Veterans Affairs.

Be clear that you are calling as a constituent, asking for their support of H.R. 1769 and S. 901, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015.

Do it for your children, and their children. 

Time is running out.

WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR?

Monsanto CEO on debate over GMO and food labeling

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/monsanto-ceo-on-debate-over-gmo-and-food-labeling/

Genetically modified organisms have been part of our diet for years. The Grocery Manufacturers Association says up to 80 percent of processed food sold in the U.S. is genetically modified and mostly unlabeled. Monsanto, one of the world’s largest producers of genetically modified seeds, is committed to innovation in agriculture, but critics say it should be more transparent. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant joins “CBS This Morning” to address the ongoing debate over GMOs and questions surrounding their herbicide, Roundup.

 

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant on CBS This Morning

Unfortunately  you will have to suffer through a 30 second commercial for Estee Lauder before the video begins. Use that time to take some deep breaths before listening to Monsanto's CEO Hugh Grant defend his company. 

EPA tosses aside safety data, says Dow pesticide for GMOs won't harm people

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-gmo-crops-pesticide-resistance-met-20151203-story.html

When Monsanto genetically engineered corn and soybeans to make them immune to its best-selling weedkiller, the company pitched the technology as a way to reduce overall use of herbicides and usher in an environmentally friendly era of farming.

Instead of relying on older, more harmful chemicals, farmers could douse their fields with Roundup, a product that Monsanto once advertised as less toxic than table salt.

Two decades later, overuse of Roundup has spawned weeds that can survive spraying to grow 8 feet tall with stems as thick as baseball bats. To kill those so-called superweeds, chemical giants are giving the next wave of genetically modified crops immunity to the weedkillers of generations past.

The technology that was supposed to make those older herbicides obsolete soon could make it possible for farmers to use a lot more.

For use on its new genetically engineered corn and soybeans, Dow Chemical Co. is reviving 2,4-D, a World War II-era chemical linked to cancer and other health problems.

If these crops are widely adopted, the government’s maximum-exposure projections show that U.S. children ages 1 to 12 could consume levels of 2,4-D that the World Health Organization, Russia, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Brazil and China consider unsafe.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had considered that exposure dangerous for decades as well. But the Obama administration’s EPA now says it is safe to allow 41 times more 2,4-D into the American diet than before he took office.

To reach that conclusion, the Tribune found, the agency’s scientists changed their analysis of a pivotal rat study by Dow, tossing aside signs of kidney trouble that Dow researchers said were caused by 2,4-D.

The EPA scientists who revised that crucial document were persuaded by a Canadian government toxicologist who decided that Dow — a company that has a $1 billion product at stake — had been overly cautious in flagging kidney abnormalities that she deemed insignificant.

When Dow later published this study, the company’s scientists likewise dismissed their earlier concerns and changed the most important measure of the chemical’s toxicity so it agreed with the EPA’s less stringent view.

These decisions paved the way for the EPA to approve Dow’s weedkiller Enlist Duo last year and reassure the public that a surge in 2,4-D use wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Girding that reassurance are two calculations: How much of the herbicide is safe for human health, and how much will Americans wind up consuming? There are ways to tweak each of those risk calculations. With 2,4-D, the Tribune found, the EPA’s math favored a dramatic increase in the weedkiller.

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Dow Chemical a step closer to disposing sediment from dioxin cleanup in Midland landfill

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/dow-chemical-a-step-closer-to-disposing-sediment-from-dioxin/article_2b6ec9af-cd1b-58bc-a614-b0ea2c23b5df.html

The Dow Chemical Co. is one step closer to being able to dispose of more than 200,000 tons of river sediment and flood plain soils from the Tittabawassee River dioxin clean-up.
In 2001, Midland County adopted the Midland County Solid Waste plan stating that no waste other than material used for daily cover as specified in the plan may enter or leave Midland County. Earlier this year, Dow requested to import up to 227,000 tons per year of sediment and floodplain material from Saginaw County, requiring an amendment to the plan.

“Their reasoning is the landfill is closer to the cleanup sites, saving on fuel and transportation expense and we have a very good relationship with them and I think they feel more comfortable placing it here than in private sector landfills,” City of Midland Utilities Director Noel Bush said.

The county board needed to appoint a 14-member committee to review the recommended amendments and make a recommendation back to the Midland County Board of Commissioners for approval. That recommendation was unanimously approved this week.

The amended plan now goes to each local government entity for approval.

“Once we have 67 percent of those bodies’ approval, we can then forward it to the MDEQ for approval and inclusion into the state solid waste management plan,” Bush said.

The 14-member committee included representatives from the following companies: Bierlein, Billy’s Contracting and Servinski Sod, along with Scott O’Laughlin, Midland Landfill superintendent. Other members included: Esther Williams, Midland Recyclers; Brady News or CM Rubber recycling volunteer; County Health Director Mike Krecek; Bush; Lincoln Township Supervisor Kevin Wray; Republic Waste or Waste Management designee; Kip Cosan, The Dow Chemical Co.; contractors Jason Long and Jeff Weckesser; and Walter Kienbaum from Bear Carpet & Restoration Services.

Vietnamese ignore health risks, catch fish from dioxin-polluted lakes for sale

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/vietnamese-ignore-health-risks-catch-fish-from-dioxinpolluted-lakes-for-sale-54456.html

A group of 20 men sneak into an airbase in the southern province of Dong Nai. 

They climb up a tree, jump over a fence and start to catch fish from the lakes inside Bien Hoa Airbase. 

After around seven hours, they leave with more than a hundred kilograms of fish. Then they drive their motorbikes for around an hour and stop on a sidewalk to sell the fish. 

Their buyers never know that the fish have been caught illegally, from lakes heavily contaminated by extremely dangerous chemicals. 

The airbase, which is around 30 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, is one of the sites with the severest and longest lasting dioxin pollution in the world.

During the Vietnam War, the US stored a huge amount of toxic compounds including Agent Orange, Agent White, and Agent Blue there to use as defoliants and clear the forests to attack Vietnamese revolutionary forces.

Between 1969 and 1970, 2,500 liters of Agent White and 25,000 liters of Agent Orange were dumped into the environment, including lakes, according to official figures.

Locals who live near the area said strangers from other provinces have continued catching fish there for around three or four years despite notices warning that the lakes are polluted and eating anything from them will endanger one’s health.

Locals said they are highly aware of the danger, but people coming from other places just overlook the risks.

The fishers that Thanh Nien reporters followed last Sunday said they are migrants from the Mekong Delta’s Soc Trang Province. They work at factories and go to the lakes to catch fish during the weekend.

“No one ever stopped us,” one of them said.

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An answer for Agent Orange?

http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20151203-INDIAN-OCEAN-CURRENTS/Tech-Science/An-answer-for-Agent-Orange

Forty years after the end of the Vietnam War, parts of the country remain contaminated by the defoliants the U.S. military used to deny its enemy the cover of the jungle. Now, technology developed in Japan may be poised to help cleanse the land. 

     Japanese construction company Shimizu in late October brought contaminated soil from Vietnam to Japan for purification experiments. The company's technology proved effective in cleaning up soil contaminated by the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011. The Vietnamese government is paying close attention to the tests.

LINGERING DANGER   During the war, the U.S. military had an airfield in Bien Hoa, in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai -- about an hour's drive from Ho Chi Minh City. The airfield, now used by the Vietnamese Air Force, is "the most dioxin-contaminated place in the world," according to Vietnamese daily Bao Thanh Nien.

     U.S. military planes that sprayed chemical defoliants -- the most notorious being Agent Orange -- were washed at the airfield after returning from their missions. The location remains so contaminated possibly because the water used to wash the planes penetrated deep into the soil, carrying dioxins and other toxic substances with it.

     Areas around former U.S. air bases in Danang and Phu Cat, in the central and southern parts of Vietnam, are polluted for similar reasons. Along with Bien Hoa, they are known as the "three hot spots."

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Let's Do It Again! - December 9 Call in day - H.R. 1769 & S. 901

CALL IN DAY ON THE HILL

DECEMBER 9, 2015 

Call 202-224-3121, give the operator your state and ZIP Code and you will be connected with your elected representatives office. Ask to speak with the Legislative Aide for Veterans Affairs.

Be clear that you are calling as a constituent, asking for their support of H.R. 1769 and S. 901, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015.

Do it for your children and their children.      

Upcoming Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

http://www.vva.org/calendar.html

January 23, 2016

Breese, Illinois

Maurice Zurleine 618-920-5222

January 23, 2016

Anoka, Minnesota

Contact: Richard Bergling 763-202-1099

Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

February 13, 2016

Mesa, Arizona

Contact: Michael Marks

480-266-7883

March 11, 2016

Elizabeth Town, Kentucky

Contact: David Cowherd

270-312-0463

herd437@gmail.com

April 23, 2016 

Rockford, Illinois

Contact: Chris Carlson

ccarlson324@comcast.net

Dan Loyson

1 (815) 874-1729

“Agent Orange” Herbicide Pulled by EPA

http://www.anh-usa.org/agent-orange-herbicide-pulled-by-epa/

After initially receiving the agency’s rubber stamp, a dangerous pesticide has been removed, at least temporarily, from the market.

Following a lawsuit filed by a coalition of groups led by the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated that it is revoking the registration of Enlist Duo, a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D.

Approved a year ago by the agency, Enlist Duo was created by Dow Agrosciences for use on the next generation of GMO crops.

The basis of the legal challenge was that, in approving Enlist Duo, the EPA had failed to consider the impact of the herbicide on threatened and endangered plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, which requires that agencies consider the impact their actions will have on endangered species.

Dow’s Enlist Duo—and Monsanto’s combination of dicamba and glyphosate, Xtend—are the biotech industry’s answer to “superweeds” that are now resistant to Roundup, the herbicide that has been increasingly dumped on American crops. To kill this new generation of weeds, Dow turned to 2,4-D, which, as we’ve reported in the past, is one of two active ingredients in Agent Orange, the chemical that wreaked havoc on the Vietnamese population and US troops alike during the Vietnam War and which is linked to a long list of horrible diseases and health conditions.

It is extremely disconcerting that it takes a legal action under the Endangered Special Act to compel the EPA, charged with protecting the public from these kinds of dangers, to conduct thorough safety reviews of dangerous chemicals. At this rate, it will be humans who are endangered. Bravo to the Center for Food Safety for holding the agency accountable—and shame on the EPA for making such actions necessary.

UK Agent Orange activist Len Aldis dies

http://vietnamnews.vn/society/279249/uk-agent-orange-activist-aldis-dies.html

LONDON (VNS) — Secretary of the Britain-Viet Nam Friendship Society (BVFS) Len Aldis has passed away at his home at Tomlins Grove Street, London, the United Kingdom. He was 85.

A peace campaigner known throughout the world, Aldis made great efforts to help Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin victims in Viet Nam.

In a statement last Saturday, local police said they were called by Aldis's friends who were worried that he had not answered or responded to phone calls recently. The campaigner was then found inside his house and pronounced dead at the scene.

Aldis first came to Viet Nam in 1989 and returned annually to assist people who had suffered in wars, particularly those living with the effects of Agent Orange, a toxic chemical the US sprayed on Viet Nam during the war.

The British man worked hard to raise funds for the victims, even braving the cold on winter days to sell souvenirs to raise funds. Since 1989, Aldis has raised around 56,000 British pounds and sent the amount to help the disadvantaged through the Viet Nam Red Cross.

In 2009, Aldis launched a website to gather and send signatures to US President Barack Obama and US congressmen to demand justice for the AO/dioxin victims.

Aldis has often been invited to UK universities to talk with students about the AO-related issues. He also raised the matter during his meetings with the local people in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France.

He said there was much work to be done to support the AO victims, adding that he would continue performing activities to help the British people as well as international organisations better understand the serious consequences that AO has caused to Vietnamese people.

In a letter to Aldis on his 80th birth day in 2010, the then Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem said that the people and the Government of Viet Nam would always hold Aldis' personal as well as the BVFS's friendship and support for Viet Nam in high regards.

The campaigner was honoured with a Friendship Order by the Vietnamese President in recognition of his work. — VNS