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See newsletters for the latest national and international environmental information.

June/July, 1998

• Dr. Peter Montague makes a persuasive argument that a variant of Mad Cow Disease may be rampant in the United States in Rachel's Health and Environment Weekly #607.

• The Houston Chronicle has published a series of articles on the PVC industry, revealing industry silence in the face of evidence of harm to employees. See Houston Chronicle for more information.

• Ogden-Martin, the operator of the incinerator at Lawrence, MA, abruptly and permanently closed the facility the evening before a press conference scheduled the next day at the facility by the Merrimack Valley Environmental Coalition. Part of that press conference, actually held the next week, was the release of a major paper, The Case For Closure, which documented dioxin and mercury contamination of the Merrimack Valley by incinerators clustered in the valley, and which called for closure of the Lawrence plant and the much larger NESWC incinerator located in North Andover, MA.

April, 1998

• Two award-winning investigative reporters at the Fox-owned television station in Tampa are blowing the whistle on a story they say WTVT (Ch 13) and its corporate bosses preferred to coverup rather than broadcast honestly and accurately. The story, documented in a lawsuit the reporters filed Thursday, reveals the widespread use of a controversial Monsanto product, Bovine Growth Hormone, that Florida dairymen have been secretly injecting into their cows. Though legal since approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1993, the artificial hormone commonly known as BGH has been linked to cancer and is banned throughout Europe and unapproved in several other countries because of human health concerns. See rBGH.

March, 1998

• New report: Burned, The Life and Times of Spokane's Incinerator by investigative reporters Larry Shook and Tim Connor, documents a history of pollution and dirty deals for Spokane's incinerator operator and city officials. Rising From The Ash by Ted S. McGregor, Jr. reviews some of the sordid civic history of the incinerator.

February, 1998

• Comments on the Shintech PVC Factory are due by February 23. The facility, proposed for the small Afro-American town of Convent, Louisiana, in an area already overburdened by toxic industries, is opposed by the overwhelming majority of area residents and their supporters nationwide. But the governor of Louisiana wants the plant. See Shintech.
• Public comments on a proposed toxicological profile for dioxin are due February 17. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is in the process of officially downgrading the toxicity of dioxin, by upgrading the maximum tolerable dose (referred to as the Minimal Risk Level) to 1 picogram/kg/day. The EPA's dose limit, published in the 1985 Dioxin Assessment, 1988 Dioxin Reassessment, and 1994 Dioxin Reassessment, is 0.006 picogram/kg/day. See ATSDR and commentary.

January, 1998

• High levels of dioxin were found in milk in the north of France - up 16 parts per trillion (ppt) in milkfat. Three local incinerators have been closed and the milk has been banned for sale. See Dioxin in Milk. A French version is also available.

• A new study shows that household use of chlorpyrifos products can lead to exposures well above the level considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), even when used according to the manufacturer's instructions. The study suggests that children have a particularly high risk of being exposed to dangerous levels of chlorpyrifos.

• Boston University's School of Public Health/ Department of Environmental Health has recently launched an additional exhibition on their Internet/WEB Photography Galleries. They are now hosting six photographic exhibitions relating to occupational & environmental health. Gallery VI Debuts photographs and text from the recently published book,  "Memories Come to Us In The Rain and The Wind: Oral Histories and Photographs of Navajo Uranium Miners & Their Families." The book represents the culmination of the work of a large number of people & organizations over the course of 2 plus years. The project was organized by Doug Brugge, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine.

December, 1997

• Book reviews and other articles in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine may be biased, say authors Paul Brodeur and Bill Ravanesi. The Journal published a book review by one Dr. Jerry H. Berke that was extremely critical of a recent book, Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber. Messrs. Brodeur and Ravanesi easily counter the arguments made by Dr. Berke, such as his assertion that there is no apparent epidemic of cancer. Suspicious of Dr. Berke's arguments and the general tone of the review, the authors reveal who Dr. Jerry Berke is and why he may be so intent on convincing us that toxic chemicals are not the cause of our health problems. See NEJM and related stories.

November, 1997

• Dramatic sperm count declines during the last 30 years are real. A new study - a re-evaluation of raw data from 61 different original studies, confirms that human male sperm count is indeed declining, and worse than originally reported. Shanna Swan, chief of the reproductive epidemiology section at the California Department of Health Services, who led the study, said "I think this study will change the debate about sperm decline from 'if' to 'why'." See sperm count.

• A new study led by Dr. David Hunter, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, purports to show that there is no correlation breast cancer and levels of DDE (the breakdown product of DDT) and PCB exposure. However, a quick analysis of the design and methodology of the study reveals serious flaws, and the conclusion that DDT and PCB do not have any causal relationship to the development of breast cancer may not be warranted. See breast cancer.

October, 1997

• Indonesian fires, set by timber and plantation companies, have now consumed nearly 2 million acres of forest land. It is considered to be one of the major environmental catastrophies of the century. The Indonsian government has suspended the timber licenses of numerous companies.

• The U.S. EPA has announced a proposal to allow the sale of radioactive metals from government and commercial nuclear installations to the scrap industry. A letter-writing campaign has begun to stop this insane proposal, focusing on the profound implications for health and the threat to the computer industry. See nuclear scrap.

• While President Clinton is in Japan to discuss efforts to curb global warming, the coal and oil industry have been blowing hot air onto the airwaves, claiming that global warming is not harmful (or nonexistent, depending on which scientist paid by the coal/oil companies you talk to). Meanwhile, simple conservation measures in the industrialized countries could cut greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions 20-30%, three times as much as being proposed in Kyoto, while increasing profitability and decreasing costs (albeit not for oil and coal companies...).

September, 1997

• The El Niño current is now showing signs that it will surpass all records for climate effects.

• Boston, MA. The 23-member board of the NorthEast Solid Waste Committee (NESWC) acknowledged that re-contracting of the NESWC incinerator - built and operated by a Wheelabrator subsidiary - was moot, because the Town of Acton had rejected the terms of the amended contracts. The chairman of Acton's Board of Selectmen was quoted as saying that the relationship between Wheelabrator and the Town of Acton had been "rapacious." Both the original contract (to which the 23 towns are still bound) and the proposed new contracts have Guaranteed Annual Tonnage clauses, which force towns to produce trash or pay higher fees, a dis-incentive to recycling. Furthermore, Wheelabrator arranged for the towns - not the company - to buy the bonds to build the incinerator. Several towns in this "trash collaborative" are facing extremely serious financial hardship because of the incinerator. Costs in the next five years are projected to be upwards of $200 per ton of trash. Furthermore, the NESWC incinerator is the largest single polluter of mercury in the state, and one of the largest dioxin polluters as well. A group of residents of North Andover, where the incinerator is located, has called for permanent closure.

• Virulent e. coli.bacteria: U.S Food and Drug Administration officials have asked for pasteurization labeling for apple cider, in the wake of recent contamination of cider with the virulent e. coli bacteria, called O157:H7 by researchers. Some cider mills and orchards have ordered their own pasteurization equipment, while others are sending their cider to local dairies for pasteurization. See O157:H7. Massachusetts health authorities are publicly recommending drinking only pasteurized product or boiling cider that is not pasteurized. The contamination is apparently spread through use of cow manure from infected cows in the apple orchards. (Boston Globe Northwest Weekly, 9/21/97)

• Diet pill recall: Fenfluramine (Pondimin or Redux), often used in combination with the drug Phentermine for weight reduction, has been voluntarily recalled by its manufacturers. The combination, popularly called fen/phen, was identified the likely cause for heart valve damage in many patients who used it. See fenphen. (Boston Globe, 9/16/97)

August, 1997

• Beef recall: Many Burger King outlets and supermarket chains in the west and midwest went without beef for several days, the result of contamination of beef from the same virulent O157:H7 e. coli bacteria found in apple cider in the Northeast. 25 million lbs of beef were recalled by Hudson Foods, Inc., the largest recall of beef in U.S. history. (N.Y. Times, 8/22/97, New Haven Register, 8/23/97)

• Success in Belgium! MSW incinerator project canceled - August 5, 1997. The Flanders Region, a part of Belgium which surrounds Brussels, shall not build a 225,000 t/y MSW incinerator at Drogenbos, a village upwind of and close to the Belgian capital city. Minister Kelchtermans says he'll drop the project if Brussels cleans the Senne river which crosses the city and which deserves it. Opposition to the incinerator project had been very strong in Brussels and in the suburbs. MSW produced in the Flanders Region will be incinerated in an existing facility, waste sorting, reduction and recycling having significantly decreased the MSW quantity to be "treated". The Walloon Region (the Southern half of Belgium) also has wanted, for years, to build a new MSW incinerator 3 km upwind of the small city of Ciney. But the Drogenbos issue is considered a precedent which cannot be ignored, claim the opponents to the Walloon project.

June-July, 1997

• The Chemical Manufacturers Association has targeted the Massachusetts Toxic Use Reduction Act (TURA) for demolition. This law, which has become a national model, requires industrial and commercial users of toxic substances to file reports to the DEP on what, if any, toxic substances they use, how much of each substance is used, how much ends up in products, how much is goes into the environment, and how much is shipped away as waste. It also asks that the companies voluntarily submit a plan for toxic use reduction, if any reduction is possible. TURA has been enormously successful: in ten years, toxic use has decreased 20% and emissions 60%. Given the incentive to merely report what toxics were in use, Massachusetts companies analyzed this use and found ways to easily reduce their use of toxics, saving themselves money and making their operations safer. Chemical industry opposition to this law is fierce, because success of their business model requires increased use of toxics. See TURA testimony of Jon Campbell to the Massachusetts joint Committee on Natural Resources.

• Meanwhile, federal and state governments are deregulating the electric power industry. There is a push in the bond markets and the media for the building of new large-scale natural gas powered electric plants, to replace the aging nuclear facilities, some of which are offline indefinitely. There is, of course, no need for such plants: the same arithmetic about energy conservation, cogeneration, and renewable sources that was applicable twenty years ago is still applicable today. The intervening years of Reaganomics did not change the economics or environmental hazards of new power plants, nuclear or not. One new twist is that there is an attempt to breath life into the floundering incinerator industry, by declaring incinerators as a "renewable" energy source (which of course is bunk). See Energy Testimony of Jon Campbell to the Massachusetts House Committee on Science and Technology.