Report opens door to seeds engineered to resist ingredient

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Report+opens+door+seeds+engineered+resist+ingredient/9348631/story.html

The U.S. Department of Agriculture opened the door Friday to commercial sales of corn and soybean seeds genetically engineered to resist the weed killer 2,4-D, which is best known as an ingredient in the Vietnam Warera herbicide Agent Orange. The U.S. military stopped using Agent Orange in 1971, and it has not been produced since the 1970s.
Scientists don't believe 2,4-D, which is legal and commonly used by gardeners and some farmers, was responsible for the health problems linked to Agent Orange.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a draft environmental impact statement Friday as part of the process for potential deregulation of the seeds, which can now be used only in tightly controlled field trials.
Deregulation would allow commercial development of the seeds and presumably lead to greater use of the herbicide.
The USDA has oversight over the seeds, not the herbicide.
The public has 45 days to comment on its report. The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a separate review of 2,4-D, although it previously found it safe to use.
READ MORE: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Report+opens+door+seeds+engineered+resist+ingredient/9348631/story.html

General Mills says no more GMOs in Cheerios

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-cheerios-general-mills-no-gmo-20140103,0,470209.story#axzz2pXqALmyh

By Jenn Harris

January 3, 2014, 11:44 a.m.

General Mills announced Thursday that it will no longer use genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) in its Cheerios breakfast cereal, and says the cereal will taste the same.  

The company says the cereal formula has not changed, only the way its ingredients are handled and sourced. Cheerios have always been made with no GMO oats but the small amount of corn starch used will now come from non-GMO corn and the sugar, non-GMO pure cane sugar. 
GMOs are foods that have been scientifically altered to tolerate herbicides. Some believe this process can cause health problems and environmental damage.
Cheerios will now have the words "not made with genetically modified ingredients" printed on the boxes.
"Why change anything at all?" asked General Mills vice president of global communications Tom Forsythe in a blog post.  "It’s simple. We did it because we think consumers may embrace it."
Forsythe claims the move was not brought on by public pressure or by safety concerns and referred to an earlier statement outlining the company's stance on GMO ingredients.   
"On safety – our number one priority – we find broad global consensus among food and safety regulatory bodies that approved GM ingredients are safe," read the statement.  
General Mills has not moved to expand the no-GMO policy to any of its other cereals. 

READ MORE: http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-cheerios-general-mills-no-gmo-20140103,0,470209.story#axzz2pXqALmyh

Birth Defects and Childhood Cancers Study

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/update.html

Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water and Specific Birth Defects and Childhood Cancers at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina 
Study Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine if maternal exposures to the drinking water contaminants at Camp Lejeune increased the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs), oral clefts, and childhood hematopoietic cancers. This study also examined whether children exposed to contaminated drinking water during the first year of life had an increased risk of childhood cancers.  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. 
What Was Studied
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) surveyed the parents of 12,598 children during 1999-2002 to identify potential cases of birth defects and childhood cancers. ATSDR asked parents if their child had a birth defect or developed a childhood cancer. To be eligible for the survey, the mother had to reside on base some time during her pregnancy and children had to be born between 1968-1985.
The survey’s participation rate was approximately 76% (ATSDR 2003).  Survey participants reported 106 cases: 35 NTDs, 42 oral clefts, and 29 childhood hematopoietic cancers. ATSDR made extensive efforts to obtain medical information from health providers to confirm reported cases.  ATSDR was able to confirm 15 NTDs, 24 oral clefts, and 13 cancers. Only confirmed cases from the survey were eligible for the study.  Based on the survey results, the study focused on NTDs (spina bifida and anencephaly), oral clefts (cleft lip and cleft palate), and childhood hematopoietic cancers (leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma [NHL]) diagnosed before 20 years of age.
READ MORE: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/update.html

Tell Congress to Strengthen Federal Research Funding

Tell Congress to Strengthen Federal Research Funding Some good news for this busy time of year:  we have a budget deal that sets the broad parameters for spending for the next two years! However, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees must still come together to determine exactly how much funding each agency and program will receive in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 – and they don’t have much time. We see an opportunity for at least limited increases for programs that are critically important to the Parkinson’s community. It is essential that we speak out now to strengthen funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Defense Parkinson’s research program – all of which support efforts to deliver new treatments to people with Parkinson’s. Work on these agency allocations will continue throughout the month of December and into the New Year, and our voice needs to be well represented among the many interests that will be reaching out to Congressional leaders. Contact your Members of Congress today to tell them to strengthen these programs that are important to the Parkinson’s community! Click here to take action.

USDA clears way for more GMO crops resistant to herbicides

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_12294.shtml
Story by M.L. JOHNSON / AP
Posted by Scott T. Smith / CBS12 NewsMILWAUKEE -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture opened the door Friday to commercial sales of corn and soybean seeds genetically engineered to resist the weed killer 2,4-D, which is best known as an ingredient in the Vietnam War-era herbicide Agent Orange.
The U.S. military stopped using Agent Orange in 1971, and it has not been produced since the 1970s. Scientists don't believe 2,4-D, which is legal and commonly used by gardeners and some farmers, was responsible for the health problems linked to Agent Orange.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a draft environmental impact statement Friday as part of the process for potential deregulation of the seeds, which can now be used only in tightly controlled field trials. Deregulation would allow commercial development of the seeds and presumably lead to greater use of the herbicide.
The USDA has oversight over the seeds, not the herbicide.
The public has 45 days to comment on its report. The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a separate review of 2,4-D, although it previously found it safe to use.
Some corn and soybean farmers have eagerly anticipated a next generation of herbicide-resistant seeds as weeds immune to Monsanto's Roundup, known generically as glyphosate, become more common. Most corn and soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered, usually with the Roundup resistant trait.
But some scientists and environmentalists regard the development with alarm, noting 2,4-D can easily drift beyond the area where it is sprayed, threatening neighboring crops and wild plants.
READ MORE: http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_12294.shtml

Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contamination at Danang Airport Progress Report

http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1861/project_report_14-danang_airport_remediation_Nov2013.pdf

New Warning About Excessive “Agent Orange” Toxin in Baby Formula and Breast Milk

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/03/infants-ingest-nearly-80-times-safe-level-of-dioxin.aspx
The Environmental Protection Agency has held public hearings to review a proposed safe exposure limit for dioxin, a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor.
Dioxin is nearly impossible to avoid, as women exposed to it pass it on to fetuses in the womb, and both breast milk and formula have been shown to contain it.
Research done has shown that a nursing infant ingests an amount 77 times higher than what the EPA has proposed as safe exposure. Adults are exposed to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA suggests is safe.
According to Inhabitots:

"Because dioxin is such a common pollutant -- it's a waste product of incineration, smelting, chlorine bleaching and pesticides manufacturing -- its health effects are well documented ...
[S]tudies have shown that ongoing low-level exposure can result in heart disease, diabetes, cancer, endometriosis, early menopause and reduced testosterone and thyroid hormones."

READ MORE: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/03/infants-ingest-nearly-80-times-safe-level-of-dioxin.aspx

The Curtis Bay incinerator will endanger Marylanders [Commentary]

The proposed trash-burning "power plant" should not be built

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-incinerator-20131219,0,52959.story#ixzz2p4tFrLJz

By Gwen DuBois

11:52 a.m. EST, December 19, 2013

The students at Benjamin Franklin High School have it right. They have organized against Energy Answers' waste-to-energy incinerator planned for a location within one mile of three schools in Curtis Bay.
Not only should it not be built so close to their school, it should not be built at all. Calling it a trash-burning "power plant" doesn't make it safe or change the fact that it incinerates industrial waste including old tires, plastics and construction materials — up to 1.4 million tons a year.
This industrial waste produces dangerous emissions such as mercury and other heavy metals, dioxin and other chlorinated chemicals. When mercury deposits in waterways, it gets converted to methyl mercury and concentrated in fish. When pregnant women and children consume the fish, neonates and children can suffer neurological damage and diminished IQ. Some heavy metals like cadmium, chromium and nickel increase the risk of lung cancer. Dioxin, one of the most dangerous chemicals, is formed when chlorinated organic compounds are incinerated, and hence, incinerators are the major source of dioxin in the environment. In addition to causing cancer, it weakens immunological response to infection and can disrupt hormonal action, including reproductive function. It accumulates in our fat and doesn't go away.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-incinerator-20131219,0,52959.story#ixzz2p4t43WTo

How ordinary feminine care products could be hurting women

We talk about toxins in food and cosmetics -- but the dangerous chemicals inside tampons and pads are being ignored

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/22/toxic_tampons_how_ordinary_feminine_care_products_could_be_hurting_women/

(Credit: Jiri Hera via Shutterstock)

Laura Kiesel

Nowadays, we hear a lot about the noxious cocktail of chemicals that can be found in our food, furniture, cleaning products and even our cosmetics. Yet we never really hear about what might be included in some of the most intimate personal care products women use.

http://www.weact.org/tabid/180/Default.aspx

Best Wishes

The staff and volunteers of Agent Orange Zone wish you all a Happy Holiday season with family and friends.
Keep up the good work and we'll see you next year.

Tell Congress to Strengthen Federal Research Funding

Tell Congress to Strengthen Federal Research Funding Some good news for this busy time of year:  we have a budget deal that sets the broad parameters for spending for the next two years! However, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees must still come together to determine exactly how much funding each agency and program will receive in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 – and they don’t have much time. We see an opportunity for at least limited increases for programs that are critically important to the Parkinson’s community. It is essential that we speak out now to strengthen funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Defense Parkinson’s research program – all of which support efforts to deliver new treatments to people with Parkinson’s. Work on these agency allocations will continue throughout the month of December and into the New Year, and our voice needs to be well represented among the many interests that will be reaching out to Congressional leaders. Contact your Members of Congress today to tell them to strengthen these programs that are important to the Parkinson’s community! Click here to take action.

The Toxins That Affected Your Great-Grandparents Could Be In Your Genes

Smithsonian magazine

The Toxins That Affected Your Great-Grandparents Could Be In Your Genes

Biologist Michael Skinner has enraged the chemical community and shocked his peers with his breakthrough research 

Michael Skinner’s biggest discovery began, as often happens in science stories like this one, with a brilliant failure. Back in 2005, when he was still a traditional developmental biologist and the accolades and attacks were still in the future, a distraught research fellow went to his office to apologize for taking an experiment one step too far. In his laboratories at Washington State University, she and Skinner had exposed pregnant rats to an endocrine disruptor—a chemical known to interfere with fetal development—in the hope of disturbing (and thereby gaining more insight into) the process by which an unborn fetus becomes either male or female. But the chemical they used, an agricultural fungicide called vinclozolin, had not affected sexual differentiation after all. The scientists did find lower sperm counts and decreased fertility when the male offspring reached adulthood, but that was no surprise. The study seemed like a bust.

By accident, though, Skinner’s colleague had bred the grandchildren of those exposed rats, creating a fourth generation, or the great-grandchildren of the original subjects. “It’s OK,” Skinner told her. “You might as well analyze them.” If nothing else, he thought, the exercise might take her mind off her mistake. So she went ahead and studied the rats’ testes under a microscope.

READ MORE: Smithsonian Magazine - Toxins