http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/5155


Informant: NHNE



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

Sidney Blumenthal writes that for Dick Chaney's entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him - and he's not about to give it up.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505N.shtml

Max J. Castro writes, "They are at it again. Anyone who hoped that the images of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, which made the extent of squalor in America visible and dramatized the life-and-death consequences of inequality, would stir the conscience of our ruling party was wrong. Dead wrong."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505M.shtml

Jonathan Schell writes that the most critical question has been whether American democracy, severely eroded but still breathing, would bring down the Republican machine, or whether the Republican machine - call it the budding one-party global empire - would bring down American democracy. This week, it looks as if democracy, after years of decline, has gained the upper hand.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505L.shtml

Court documents filed by prosecutors lay out an extensive conspiracy in which Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff, identified in the documents only as Lobbyist A, sought to defraud clients - mainly Indian tribes with gambling interests - and win legislative help from lawmakers in exchange for campaign donations, trips, dinners, greens fees and jobs.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505K.shtml

The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called for an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge." John Pilger writes that the insurrection is well under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of people are turning away from the traditional sources of news and information and toward the world wide web, convinced that mainstream journalism is the voice of rampant power.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505I.shtml

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Revolution

By John S. Hatch

There is within the mythology America finds so indispensable something so sick and downright evil, but so pervasive that even after all the revelations of torture and rape and murder sanctioned at the highest levels of government, even now the numbness persists, and writers still insist on thinking that America is somehow a shining example of decency.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11146.htm

"Versuch der Bestechung": Strafanzeige gegen Umweltminister Gabriel und VW-Manager (25.11.05)

Gegen die Volkswagen-Manager Bernd Pischetsrieder und Ferdinand Piëch, VW-Aufsichtsrat Klaus Liesens sowie gegen den neuen Umweltminister Sigmar Gabriel ist Strafanzeige bei der Staatsanwaltschaft Braunschweig erstattet worden. Gabriel wird Verschleierung einer illegalen Scheintätigkeit für den Volkswagen-Konzern, Meineid und ein Verstoß gegen die Geschäftsordnung des niedersächsischen Landtages vorgeworfen, wie die Tageszeitung "Die Welt" berichtet. Gabriel wies die Anschuldigungen zurück. Den VW-Managern wird in der Strafanzeige offenbar Untreue vorgeworfen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12379

"George, My family is spending our 2nd Thanksgiving without Casey, thanks to you and your lies. I am spending the day crying on a plane on my way to Crawford to again ask you for a meeting." - Cindy Sheehan

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505Y.shtml



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

Breast Cancer, Tamoxifen and EMFs

How often have you been told that there are no biological effects of weak EMFs that can be replicated in more than one lab?

Like much of what you hear about EMFs, this is propaganda that seeks to cut off further research.

In past commentaries, we have described how WHO and industry officials refuse to acknowledge that EMFs can cause DNA breaks. Here is another example:

German researchers recently reported that a 12mG magnetic field could neutralize the ability of tamoxifen to inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells. This is the seventh group to find this particular type of low-level EMF effect.

Take a look at our latest commentary and you will learn what happens to those who dare challenge the orthodoxy. It is not a pretty picture.

The EMF-tamoxifen work has potential implications for women being treated for breast cancer. Please pass this message on to your friends and associates. The only way that EMF research will be allowed to resume in the U.S. and in Japan is if the public demands it.

Check out "When Enough Is Never Enough" at:
http://www.microwavenews.com/fromthefield.html#12mGx7

Best, Louis Slesin

Louis Slesin,
PhD Editor,
Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
Phone: +1 (212) 517-2800;
Fax: +1 (212) 734-0316
E-mail: mwn@pobox.com ;
Internet: http://www.microwavenews.com
Mail: 155 East 77th Street,
Suite 3D
New York, NY 10021,
U.S.A.

--------

Following on from Louis Slesin’s message on Breast Cancer, Tamoxifen and EMFs, below is the link to an old paper that I wrote on this subject that was published in Hansard, 27 October 1997. Looks like now is the time to dust it off for a major re-write….

Don Maisch


The Breast Cancer/EMF connection: Melatonin, Tamoxifen,
50-60 Hertz Electromagnetic Fields and Breast Cancer

An Australian Senate discussion Paper, 27 October 1997 (published in Hansard)

Don Maisch, EMFacts Consultancy.

According to recent statistics, breast cancer in Australia effects one in 14 women, kills one in 27 and is increasing at a rate of 3% annually. These figures reflect a growing community concern and as a consequence, in 1995 the Federal Government allocated $3 million over a 3 year period, solely for breast cancer studies.

It is unfortunate however, that apparently no current Australian breast cancer research is examining the growing evidence that low level exposures to 50-60 hertz electromagnetic fields (EMF) may block melatonin’s ability to suppress breast cancer cells and reduce the pineal gland’s nocturnal production of melatonin, thereby increasing susceptibility to breast cancer. This evidence consists of both human and laboratory studies, some of which are summarised in this paper. Almost all of these studies have been conducted only within the last few years and are still awaiting the peer review process which can take years to complete. As a result, many of these studies do not yet constitute part of the body of substantiated scientific evidence, often referred to by national and international expert regulatory groups, such as the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
snip/

Full paper is available at:
http://www.emfacts.com/papers/melatonin.html

Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=327

--------

Breast cancer and radiofrequency exposure

At the end of my October 1997 Senate paper (last message) I briefly mentioned evidence that suggests that malignant breast cancer tissue is far more sensitive to RF/MW than other types of cancerous tissue (reproduced below). This is one thing that Dr. John Holt from West Australia (do a Google search) has stressed as an important consideration for breast cancer patients. Now in Australia we have a situation in Brisbane where a whole array of antennas is mounted on the side of a 2 story building in a city public square. Directly opposite 70 meters away is a three story office building where, if you look out the third story windows, you look slightly down on the antennas. I sent one affected business on the third floor Alasdair Philip’s excellent Com and A Com meters and the tenents were able to determine the level of RF in their offices. They are now shielding the rooms and plan on moving out as soom as possible. Now the relevant point I’m trying to make is that when the person took the meters out on the public square in front of the building with the antennas, he found that he was getting RF readings from every metal object in that square, including his metal watch band. This would also be the case for any woman in that square (many work there) who might be wearing an underwire (metal) bra. That underwire would be acting as a slave antenna re-broadcasting RF directly into the breast. This would tend to act as a promoter of any cancerous cells in the breast. As cities are all becoming wireless wonders the situation in Brisbane must be repeated many times. At the very least, simple advice to breast cancer patients to not wear metal underwire bras would seem a sensible precaution.

Unfortunately Cancer Councils find it impossible to think this stuff through for themselves. Much easier to just blindly follow the written statements of the Repacholis of this world and not risk being attacked by the cell phone industry.

Omega see under: "WHO, EMF, Electromagnetic Radiation and Mobile Phones" http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1194586/

Don Maisch


“Although this paper only deals with powerline EMFs, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from radiofrequency and microwave emissions are also now being implicated in breast cancer.

Besides some epidemiological studies, such as one showing a significant increase in breast cancer for female radio operators, there is evidence that breast cancer tumors absorb significantly more EMR than other cancers, or healthy tissue. To quote from one study, conducted at Duke University, North Carolina, USA, in 1993.

“In general, at all frequencies tested [50 to 900 MHz], both conductivity and relative permittivity were greater in malignant tissue than in normal tissue of the same type. For tissues of the same type, the differences in electrical properties from normal to malignant were least for kidney (about 6% and 4% average differences over the frequency range in permittivity and conductivity, respectively), and these differences were the greatest for mammary gland (about 233% and 577% average differences in permittivity and conductivity, respectively) “(27)

The ability of breast cancer tumors to absorb significantly more EMR than normal tissue should be of concern when compared to an official joint statement, made in the Information sheet, Safety of Mobile Phones and Towers - The Answers (Nov.1995) by the Australian Radiation Laboratory, Spectrum Management Agency, Austel and the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, (under the heading, Is Cancer an issue?)

“There is yet insufficient scientific knowledge of many aspects of health effects of radio waves. One common question is: Do radio waves from mobile phones increase the risks of cancer? The answer is that there is no experimental evidence that radio waves directly cause cancer. Laboratory studies on animals suggest that where cancer exists, radio waves may accelerate its growth.”

For this reason, acting under the Precautionaly Principal as mentioned prevously, one should also consider radiofrequency and microwave exposures as a possible risk factor to be avoided.”

Reference 27: Joines W.T., Zhang Y., Chenxing L., Jirtle R.L. (1993)The measured electrical properties of normal and malignant human tissues from 50 to 900 MHz Medical physics, Vol. 21, April 1994, p.547-550.

Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=329

--------

Additions to the Breast cancer file on this list

From Andy Davidson

Don Maisch


Just a couple of articles that when read together might make sense? Sorry; still batting on about EMR inducing nitric oxide, and it still keeps stitching things together. All I need is a full-time researcher to help me!

Andy

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16315602&query_hl=1

Effects of ELF magnetic fields on protein expression profile of human breast cancer cell MCF7.

Li H, Zeng Q, Weng Y, Lu D, Jiang H, Xu Z.

Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310031, China.

Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF MF) has been considered as a “possible human carcinogen” by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) while credible mechanisms of its carcinogenicity remain unknown. In this study, a proteomics approach was employed to investigate the changes of protein expression profile induced by ELF MF in human breast cancer cell line MCF7, in order to determine ELF MF-responsive proteins. MCF7 cells were exposed to 50 Hz, 0.4 mT ELF MF for 24 h and the changes of protein profile were examined using two dimensional electrophoresis. Up to 6 spots have been statistically significantly altered (their expression levels were changed at least 5 fold up or down) compared with sham-exposed group. 19 ones were only detected in exposure group while 19 ones were missing. Three proteins were identified by LC-IT Tandem MS as RNA binding protein regulatory subunit, Proteasome subunit beta type 7 precursor and Translationally Controlled Tumor Protein. Our finding showed that 50 Hz, 0.4 mT ELF MF alternates the protein profile of MCF7 cell and may affect many physiological functions of normal cell and 2-DE coupled with MS is a promising approach to elucidating cellular effects of electromagnetic fields.

So MCF7 and nitric oxide?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10631110&dopt=Abstract
Nitric oxide nitrates tyrosine residues of tumor-suppressor p53 protein in MCF-7 cells.

Chazotte-Aubert L, Hainaut P, Ohshima H.

International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, Lyon Cedex 08, 69372, France.

It has been reported that mammalian cells incubated with excess nitric oxide (NO) accumulate p53 protein but concomitantly this p53 loses its capacity for binding to its DNA consensus sequence. As nitration of tyrosine residues in various proteins has been shown to inhibit their functions, we examined whether NO nitrates tyrosine residues in p53 protein. MCF-7 cells expressing wild-type p53 were incubated with S-nitrosoglutathione for 4 h and cellular extracts were immunoprecipitated with an anti-p53 antibody. Western blot analyses of immunoprecipitates for p53 or for nitrotyrosine revealed low levels of nitrotyrosine in p53 from untreated cells. Incubation with 2 mM S-nitrosoglutathione induced a significant increase in the nitrotyrosine level in p53 protein compared to nontreated cells. These results suggest that excess NO produced in inflamed tissues could nitrate p53 protein, playing a role in carcinogenesis by impairing functions of this tumor-suppressor protein.

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=337

--------

From Robert Riedlinger:

BREAST CANCER IN WOMEN, HIGH-VOLTAGE POWER LINES AND MELATONIN

by Roger Santini

[National Institute of Applied Sciences - Laboratory of Biochemistry Pharmacology, 20, Av. A. Einstein-69621 VILLEURBANNE (France).]
http://www.bioelectromagnetics.org/newsletter/news144.html#santini

In a recent study, Feychting et al. (1) observe that among estrogen receptor-positive women (younger than 50 years) the relative risk for breast cancer is significantly increased if those women are living near high voltage power line (exposure cutoff point for ELF magnetic fields >0.1 yT) [I think it is supposed to be microTesla (uT)-Don]. In their article, Feychting et al. (1) discuss the role of melatonin as an oncostatic agent and propose that electromagnetic fields from high-voltage power lines decrease melatonin which may be a mechanism correlated with cancer development (2).

A publication of Danforth et al. (3) has shown that women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer have a nocturnal increase in plasma melatonin significantly lower than control subjects.

From those results, we can propose that women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer have a nocturnal increase in plasma melatonin significantly lower than control subjects.

These results could indicate that in women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, the specific decrease of melatonin in those subjects (3) is a supplementary factor which can have a synergistic action with the melatonin decrease due to the electromagnetic fields. This synergistic decreasing action on melatonin may contribute to potential breast cancer development in estrogen receptor-positive women living near high-voltage power lines.

1. Feychting M, Forssen U, Rutquist LE and Ahlbom A(1998): Magnetic fields and breast cancer in Swedish adults residing near high-voltage power lines. Epidemiology 9:392-397.

2. Rieter RJ (1994): Melatonin suppression by static and extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields: relationship to the reported increased incidence of cancer. Rev Environ Health 10:171-186.

3. Danforth D, Lichter A, Demoss E, Cohen M, Chabner B, and Lippman M (1982): Decreased nocturnal plasma melatonin peak in patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Science 216:1003-1005.

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=339

Auch der Europarat befasste sich nun mit den CIA-Geheimgefängnissen, in die Häftlinge zu Folter und Verhör weltweit überführt werden, und forderte NATO, EU und UNO auf, die Aufklärung zu unterstützen. Bundesjustizministerin Zypries, die bereits unter der letzten Bundesregierung bereitwillig amerikanischen Aufforderungen zum Abbau von Buergerrechten folgte, sieht keinen Handlungsbedarf: Abwarten und Hoffen auf ein Statement der US-Regierung, die sich mit dem Thema nicht befassen möchte und bisher schweigsam blieb, ist ihre Devise. Unter Zypries war bereits das Gesetz zum EU-Haftbefehl zustande gekommen, das vom Verfassungsgericht im Sommer als verfassungswidrig erklärt wurde.



G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: www.hh-online.com?lid=23073 und
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23073


Infopool / metainfo hamburg www.hh-online.com

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article329181.ece


Informant: binstock

"What was good for our country," a former president of General Motors once declared, "was good for General Motors, and vice versa." GM, which has been losing billions, has announced that it will eliminate 30,000 jobs. Is what's bad for General Motors bad for America?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112505Z.shtml

Plans to fit mobile phone equipment on the BT building in Bury St Edmunds are once again up for discussion.

Two previous applications were thrown out by local planners and appeal inspectors in 2002 and 2004 – including one plan for an aerial disguised as a flag-pole – after residents voiced strong opposition.

Now, Vodafone hopes to install two camouflaged wall aerials and another on the roof disguised as a small chimney, on the redundant Whiting Street building.

St Edmundsbury borough councillor Paul Farmer, who campaigned against the last application, said he predicted further local opposition.

"Quite apart from the usual safety and visual concerns, any installation which extends the life of this building is a setback for those who wish to see it replaced with more appropriate residential development," said Cllr Farmer.

"Vodafone may not be the only company interested. Once one aerial is allowed, how many more will follow?

"I shall be passing on these concerns to the agent and will certainly support the views of residents when this becomes a planning application."

Mike Ames, borough councillor for Abbeygate Ward, was also against the previous applications.

"Although they have altered the design from the previous application, the basic principle of objection still stands," said Cllr Ames.

"I don't think this is a suitable building or site. It is in the St Edmundsbury Borough Council plans as a suitable site for domestic purposes – in other words it is a brownfield site designated for residential use. If you allow anything to be put on there it jeopardises the policy St Edmundsbury Borough Council planners have got."

Vodafone agent National Grid Wireless is consulting local people before submitting a formal planning request.

25 November 2005

http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=843&ArticleID=1266384

Hugo Chavez is perhaps the most familiar incarnation of Bolivar's elan vital as he defies the neocolonial policies of the United States, a nation which has supplanted the European colonial empires as looters of Latin American bounty.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_234.shtml


From Information Clearing House

John Bolton, threatened U.N. member states, specifically the 132 developing nations, that if they don't play ball with the United States, Washington may look elsewhere to settle international problems.

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=16236


From Information Clearing House

It is four years since the fall of the Taleban regime. The United States has spent billions of dollars on its operations in Afghanistan - but what does it have to show for it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4457876.stm


From Information Clearing House

The CIA planes have been spotted at airports in Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden, raising questions whether they are being used to convey suspects subjected to extra-judicial detention and torture.

http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Andre+sprog/English/2005/11/23/164026.htm



Tenn. Office Linked to CIA Renditions:

The law office of Douglas R. Beaty sits in a small business park near the city's more prosperous suburbs. Nothing on the front door says anything about the CIA or airplanes.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/23/national/w094209S94.DTL



CIA 'may have flown prisoners across Austria':

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) may have flown detained terrorist suspects across neutral Austrian airspace in 2003, said a newspaper report on Wednesday.

http://tinyurl.com/add6r


From Information Clearing House

There's not an American in sight, but the sprawling Soviet-era facility has become a key focus of a European investigation into allegations the CIA operated secret prisons where suspected terrorists were interrogated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5436648,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The United Nations envoy who investigates torture allegations said the United States has "something to hide" at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the German weekly Die Zeit reported in its latest edition.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2005-daily/24-11-2005/world/w12.htm


From Information Clearing House

Catherine Green, whose pilot brother, Philip, was a British casualty, explains why she backs today's High Court action pressing for an independent investigation into the conflict.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article328960.ece


From Information Clearing House

Tony Blair was "doubled crossed" by US President George W Bush's aides in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to the former diplomat at the centre of a political crisis engulfing the White House.

http://tinyurl.com/dqffx


From Information Clearing House

British newspapers Wednesday, November 23, accused their government of threatening to prosecute them if they published a leaked document claiming US President George W. Bush threatened to bomb the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-11/23/article06.shtml



Qatar shock at al-Jazeera bombing report:

Qataris, including senior officials, reacted with shock on Wednesday to newspaper reports in Britain suggesting that George W Bush, the US president, had discussed bombing the Doha headquarters of the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/92fad322-5c58-11da-af92-0000779e2340.html



Wife To Sue U.S.:

THE widow of an al-Jazeera journalist killed in Iraq by an American attack is considering suing the US Government.

http://tinyurl.com/dmeso


From Information Clearing House

The three faced the choice of defying Pelosi (and, in McKinney’s case, the CBC leadership’s similar attempts to put forward a face of unity without purpose) or to take advantage of the only chance available since October, 2002 to express an unqualified NO to the Iraq war.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/160/160_cover_see_war_clearly.html


From Information Clearing House

By Timothy J. Freeman

Those who have taken our freedom for granted and have not dared to question authority and think for themselves, those who allowed this nation to be led blindly over the cliff and into the abyss of this unnecessary and unjust war, have not paid the price of freedom.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11132.htm

The Bush Plan to Bomb Al-Jazeera

By Stephen Soldz

Wars are always dirty. Those engaged in war seldom admit the truth about the brutal means they are using. Those conducting an unpopular occupation are tempted to use all possible means to suppress those who resist occupation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11130.htm

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3674/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Residents have criticised Warwick District Council for posting a planning notice for a 15m phone mast out of site from the public. Posters about the application by Vodafone have been placed on the gates of an electricity station in Scott Road, Kenilworth, where the mast could be built. This site can be accessed by a service road but residents believe it is too far away from the main street for them to spot easily. People living close to the site are now protesting about the application and say they have been given less time to make an objection to the plans which could go to a committee early next month. Clinton Primary School in Caesar Road has also objected. The mast and equipment cabin would back onto gardens in Oaks Road and could be seen by residents in The Mews.

Mel Elkington, of Rounds Hill, has children who attend Clinton Primary School. She said: "I am appalled at the notice which has been given. It should be where everybody can see it. I am extremely angry and worried about the plans. We do not yet know about the health issues."

Joe Rukin, of Caesar Road, added: "Where we live, we would expect to have adverse health effects, according to some reports - but we have had no notification on this. It is also close to two schools."

Debbie Flowers, of The Mews, will be able to see the mast from her house. She said: "I don't think this kind of mast should be put up in a built-up area. There are loads of sites where it can go and I don't want to see it from my bedroom window. "We have to look out for our children. There are enough horrible things in the world - we don't want another." Mrs Flowers said she only found out about the plans while she was talking to a neighbour.

Clinton Primary deputy head Sam Pater said: "We support the parents' concerns and would ask that the mast is re-sited away from a residential area." But Warwick District Council head of development control John Edwards said: "It was not easy to find a place for the site notice where it would stand out. But it has not prevented people from responding. Over all, we do feel that there was a reasonable level of publicity."

Vodafone spokesman Jane Frapwell said there are no regulations about where a mast can go. She added: "If there is a choice in a residential area where we can minimise the visual effect, we take it. But we cannot stop it completely because then there would not be mobile phone service in the area. Nine per cent of households rely on a mobile phone at home, so we have to provide this service."

25 November 2005

http://www.kenilworthtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=698&ArticleID=1267471

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,69626,00.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/11/24/do2401.xml


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon70.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpa/news/articles/press_releases/2005/051122_EAreport.htm

Press Statement

22 November 2005

Environment Agency report on Environment and Health

The Health Protection Agency welcomes the publication of the Environment Agency’s (EA) report Better Environment, Healthier People (1). It recognises the impact of the environment on health and well-being and in particular the effects of flooding and climate change, poor air quality, chemicals, inequalities and outdoor recreation.

There are approximately 30,000 chemicals in common use and less than 1% of these have been subject to assessment of toxicity and health risk (2). In addition, the long-term consequences of low level, chronic exposure to most chemicals and poisons are poorly understood although about 8-9% of the total disease burden has been estimated to be attributed to pollution (3). Consequently, the Health Protection Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with EA, and the Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division of HPA is working jointly with the EA on a range of environmental health issues including the development of an Environmental Public Health Tracking System (4).

The Health Protection Agency provides authoritative scientific and medical advice to the NHS, the EA and other bodies about the known health effects of chemicals, poisons and other environmental hazards

(5). This advice covers issues such as:

* personal protective equipment
* decontamination and evacuation
* toxicological and epidemiological advice on impact on public health
* clinical advice on antidotes and medical treatment
* the public health impact of industrial sites
* health effects from chemicals in the environment
(including water, soil, waste)

Guidance is available round-the-clock from medical toxicologists, clinical pharmacologists, environmental scientists, epidemiologists and other specialists. The Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division also operates the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) which provides advice to doctors and nurses on the best way to manage patients who have been poisoned (6).

References and weblinks

1. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/yourenv/857406/1218772/

2. Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Chemicals in products: safeguarding the environment and human health. 24th Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. London: Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, 2003.

3. Briggs D. Environmental pollution and the global burden of disease. British Medical Bulletin, 68:1-24, 2003.

4. http://www.hpa.org.uk/chemicals/tracking.htm

5. http://www.hpa.org.uk/chemicals/default.htm

6. http://www.hpa.org.uk/chemicals/npis.htm

Sent by Sylvie

Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=325

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2285782005

The consequences of "staying the course".

SR


From ufpj-news

A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE POWER OF ENTERPRISES

View trailer: http://www.thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=46


SYNOPSIS

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Winner of 24 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, 10 of them AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS including the AUDIENCE AWARD for DOCUMENTARY in WORLD CINEMA at the 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. The long-awaited DVD, available now in Australia and coming in March to North America, contains over 8 hour of additional footage.

The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.

THE CORPORATION - DETAILED SYNOPSIS In THE CORPORATION, case studies, anecdotes and true confessions reveal behind-the-scenes tensions and influences in several corporate and anti-corporate dramas. Each illuminates an aspect of the corporation's complex character.

Among the 40 interview subjects are CEOs and top-level executives from a range of industries: oil, pharmaceutical, computer, tire, manufacturing, public relations, branding, advertising and undercover marketing; in addition, a Nobel-prize winning economist, the first management guru, a corporate spy, and a range of academics, critics, historians and thinkers are interviewed.

A LEGAL "PERSON" In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal "person." Imbued with a "personality" of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw the corporation's rise to dominance. The corporation created unprecedented wealth. But at what cost? The remorseless rationale of "externalities"-as Milton Friedman explains: the unintended consequences of a transaction between two parties on a third-is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.

THE PATHOLOGY OF COMMERCE: CASE HISTORIES To more precisely assess the "personality" of the corporate "person," a checklist is employed, using actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the DSM-IV, the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. The operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social "personality": It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, clearly demonstrate harm to workers, human health, animals and the biosphere. Concluding this point-by-point analysis, a disturbing diagnosis is delivered: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a "psychopath."

MINDSET But what is the ethical mindset of corporate players? Should the institution or the individuals within it be held responsible?

The people who work for corporations may be good people, upstanding citizens in their communities - but none of that matters when they enter the corporation's world. As Sam Gibara, Former CEO and Chairman of Goodyear Tire, explains, "If you really had a free hand, if you really did what you wanted to do that suited your personal thoughts and your personal priorities, you'd act differently."

Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, the world's largest commercial carpet manufacturer, had an environmental epiphany and re-organized his $1.4 billion company on sustainable principles. His company may be a beacon of corporate hope, but is it an exception to the rule?

MONSTROUS OBLIGATIONS

A case in point: Sir Mark Moody-Stuart recounts an exchange between himself (at the time Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell), his wife, and a motley crew of Earth First activists who arrived on the doorstep of their country home. The protesters chanted and stretched a banner over their roof that read, "MURDERERS." The response of the surprised couple was not to call the police, but to engage their uninvited guests in a civil dialogue, share concerns about human rights and the environment and eventually serve them tea on their front lawn. Yet, as the Moody-Stuarts apologize for not being able to provide soy milk for their vegan critics' tea, Shell Nigeria is flaring unrivaled amounts of gas, making it one of the world's single worst sources of pollution. And all the professed concerns about the environment do not spare Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists from being hanged for opposing Shell's environmental practices in the Niger Delta.

The Corporation exists to create wealth, and even world disasters can be profit centers. Carlton Brown, a commodities trader, recounts with unabashed honesty the mindset of gold traders while the twin towers crushed their occupants. The first thing that came to their minds, he tells us, was: "How much is gold up?"

PLANET INC.

You'd think that things like disasters, or the purity of childhood, or even milk, let alone water or air, would be sacred. But no. Corporations have no built-in limits on what, who, or how much they can exploit for profit. In the fifteenth century, the enclosure movement began to put fences around public grazing lands so that they might be privately owned and exploited. Today, every molecule on the planet is up for grabs. In a bid to own it all, corporations are patenting animals, plants, even your DNA.

Around things too precious, vulnerable, sacred or important to the public interest, governments have, in the past, drawn protective boundaries against corporate exploitation. Today, governments are inviting corporations into domains from which they were previously barred.

PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT

The Initiative Corporation spends $22 billion worldwide placing its clients' advertising in every imaginable - and some unimaginable - media. One new medium: very young children. Their "Nag Factor" study dropped jaws in the world of child psychiatry. It was designed not to help parents cope with their children's nagging, but to help corporations formulate their ads and promotions so that children would nag for their products more effectively. Initiative Vice President Lucy Hughes elaborates: "You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying your products. It's a game."

Today people can become brands (Martha Stewart). And brands can build cities (Celebration, Florida). And university students can pay for their educations by shilling on national television for a credit card company (Chris and Luke). And a corporation even owns the rights to the popular song "Happy Birthday" (a division of AOL-Time-Warner). Do you ever get the feeling it's all a bit much?

Corporations have invested billions to shape public and political opinion. When they own everything, who will stand for the public good?

THE PRICE OF WHISTLEBLOWING

It turns out that standing for the public good is an expensive proposition. Ask Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, two investigative reporters fired by Fox News after they refused to water down a story on rBGH, a controversial synthetic hormone widely used in the United States (but banned in Europe and Canada) to rev up cows' metabolism and boost their milk production. Because of the increased production, the cows suffer from mastitis, a painful infection of the udders. Antibiotics must then be injected, which find their way into the milk, and ultimately reduce people's resistance to disease.

Fox demanded that they rewrite the story, and ultimately fired Akre and Wilson. Akre and Wilson subsequently sued Fox under Florida's whistle-blower statute. They proved to a jury that the version of the story Fox would have had them put on the air was false, distorted or slanted. Akre was awarded $425,000. Then Fox appealed, the verdict was overturned on a technicality, and Akre lost her award. [For an update on the case see Disc 2 where we learn that at one point, Jane and Steve became liable for Fox's $1.8 million court costs, later to be reduced to $200,000.]

DEMOCRACY LTD.

Democracy is a value that the corporation just doesn't understand. In fact, corporations have often tried to undo democracy if it is an obstacle to their single-minded drive for profit. From a 1934 business-backed plot to install a military dictator in the White House (undone by the integrity of one U.S. Marine Corps General, Smedley Darlington Butler) to present-day law-drafting, corporations have bought military might, political muscle and public opinion.

And corporations do not hesitate to take advantage of democracy's absence either. One of the most shocking stories of the twentieth century is Edwin Black's recounting IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany-one that began in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continued well into World War II.

FISSURES

The corporation may be trying to render governments impotent, but since the landmark WTO protest in Seattle, a rising wave of networked individuals and groups have decided to make their voices heard. Movements to challenge the very foundations of the corporation are afoot: The corporate charter revocation movement tried to bring down oil giant Unocal; a groundbreaking ballot initiative in Arcata, California, put the corporate agenda in the public spotlight in a series of town hall meetings; in Bolivia, the population fought and won a battle against a huge transnational corporation brought in by their government to privatize the water system; in India nearly 99% of the basmati patent of RiceTek was overturned; and W. R. Grace and the U.S. government's patent on Neem was revoked.

As global individuals take back local power, a growing re-invigoration of the concept of citizenship is taking root. It has the power to not only strip the corporation of its seeming omnipotence, but to create a feeling and an ideology of democracy that is much more than its mere institutional version.

THE DVD

Along with the groundbreaking 145-minute theatrical version of the film, the two-disc set has eight hours of never-before-seen footage. All of your favourite heroes and villains are back. In addition to two commentary tracks, deleted scenes, Q's and A's, additional languages and descriptive audio for the visually impaired, 165 never seen before clips and updates are sorted "by person" AND "by topic." Get the details you want to know on the issues you care about. Then, check out the web links for follow-up research and action.


From InfoNature.Org