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Tag: Health

Teflon Pollutes The World: Deadly Chemical Spreads Into Global Water Supplies
A river near Dordrecht, Netherlands, one of the regions where PFOA has been found in the water. (Flickr / Paul van de Velde)
April 21, 2016
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Teflon Pollutes The World: Deadly Chemical Spreads Into Global Water Supplies

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Earlier this month, climate and health activists from West Virginia and Ohio met with their Dutch counterparts to discuss the pollution caused by a chemical that was once a key ingredient in the non-stick coating Teflon.

Members of Keep Your Promises, DuPont, a group targeting contamination caused by PFOA, also known as C-8, in the United States, traveled to Dordrecht, Holland, to compare notes on this toxic chemical once dumped from a factory there. That factory, once owned by DuPont, was sold to Chemours, a spinoff company, last year.

PFOA has become so ubiquitous in water and food supplies that 98 percent of the U.S. population has trace amounts in their bloodstream, but amounts rise dramatically for factory workers and even residents who live in proximity to factories where PFOA was produced.

Read moreTeflon Pollutes The World: Deadly Chemical Spreads Into Global Water Supplies
Jill Stein: US Politics Are ‘The Mother Of All Illnesses,’ Third Parties Could Be Cure
In this Sept.17, 2012 photograph, Dr. Jill Stein speaks during a demonstration on Bowling Green, New York City, at the 1 year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. (Flickr / Paul Stein)
April 9, 2016
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Jill Stein: US Politics Are ‘The Mother Of All Illnesses,’ Third Parties Could Be Cure

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

In a recent TV appearance, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein insisted that American politics, and the nation, are gravely ill.

Interviewed on Monday by Abby Martin, host of The Empire Files on TeleSur English, Stein said that she became a politician, after years as a physician, because she realized that “our democracy is really on life support.”

Despite being the fourth largest party in terms of registered voters, Green Party candidates are virtually shut out of elections, only appearing on the ballots in 20 states. During her 2012 campaign, Stein was arrestedwhile trying to gain access to the presidential debates.

“The political establishment has no credibility, and they are terrified that we the people would start to get together outside the two corporate parties,” she told Martin.

Read moreJill Stein: US Politics Are ‘The Mother Of All Illnesses,’ Third Parties Could Be Cure
Local Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha tells Democracy Now! how she fought to expose the poisoning of kids in the Flint Water Crisis. (YouTube screenshot)
January 30, 2016
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Local Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Though widespread outcry has only recently erupted over the people of Flint, Michigan, being poisoned by lead in the city’s tap water, activists and local medical experts had been sounding the alarm about the issue well before it became a national headline. Lead poisoning leads to irreparable brain damage and may be linked to a recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.

Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency earlier this month amid widespread demands for his resignation after it became apparent that the people of Flint have been drinking lead-contaminated water for two years.

Flint’s water crisis stretches back to April 2014, when Darnell Earley, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, switched Flint’s water supply to the polluted and corrosive Flint River. In January 2015, the city warned 100,000 residents that their water may contain toxic levels of trihalomethanes, or THMs, a byproduct of chlorination that has been linked to cancer, kidney and liver failure, and birth defects.

Residents had been getting sick for months prior to that warning, according to an April 2015 report from Laura Gottesdiener. Writing for Al-Jazeera America, Gottesdiener relayed the experiences of one Flint family:

Read moreLocal Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August
Environmental Justice Report: 81% Of Products Tested At U.S. Dollar Stores Are Unsafe
Protesters in hazardous material-handling suits gathered at a Family Dollar discount store in Austin, Texas on July 1, 2015 to demand “independence from toxic products.” It was part of a national day of action highlighting a report showing over 80% of products tested at dollar stores were unsafe.
July 3, 2015
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Environmental Justice Report: 81% Of Products Tested At U.S. Dollar Stores Are Unsafe

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On July 1, activists gathered at dollar stores nationally to declare their “independence” from toxic chemicals, after a report earlier this year suggested products sold by these discount chains could be hurting consumers.

To produce the report, issued in February by Environmental Justice for All’s Campaign for Healthier Solutions, researchers tested 164 products from multiple discount chain stores nationwide and found that 133 contained “at least one hazardous chemical above levels of concern,” meaning that 81% of tested products were hazardous. These include chemicals identified to be carcinogenic, capable of causing developmental disabilities in children, or were otherwise found at levels considered toxic. Unlike major chains like Wal-Mart and Target, no major dollar store chain has a formal policy on selling or disclosing toxic ingredients in products.

In Austin, Texas, the campaign partnered with local activists from Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) and Texas Campaign for the Environment. Dressed in white hazardous material-handling suits, they gathered in front of a Family Dollar store on the south side of the city to chant and hold protest signs and banners.

Read moreEnvironmental Justice Report: 81% Of Products Tested At U.S. Dollar Stores Are Unsafe