By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-14

BEIJING – Health experts have warned the public that pollution and environmental deterioration are behind rising cancer rates among Chinese children aged under 14.

The Chinese mainland now has more than 32,000 children aged under 14 suffering cancer of various kinds, which translates into a prevalence of 104 in 1 million, Zhang Guangchao, general secretary of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and an expert in childhood cancer, said on Thursday.

“Notably, the fatal disease, long considered a problem in senior years, is striking more and more children. Major risk factors include pollution and unhealthy lifestyles,” Zhang told China Daily at an awareness-raising event held on Thursday by sohu.com, one of the biggest online news portals in China.

The most common kinds of cancer among children are leukemia, lymphoma and brain cancer, he said.

The incidence of bone cancer is higher among teenagers than younger children, he added.

“Personally, I’ve seen more cases of children developing leukemia after home decoration,” he said.

“Long-term exposure to harmful chemicals from decoration materials would substantially raise the cancer risks, particularly for children,” he said.

Similarly, parents’ occupations are also related, studies have found.

People such as drivers and painters are more likely to be exposed to lead and this means their children face higher risks of cancer, experts said.

Child cancer patients show common symptoms, including persistent low fever, weight loss for unknown reason and nose bleeds, said Zhi Xiuyi, a Beijing-based lung cancer expert.

Zhi also warned parents that unhealthy lifestyles greatly increase the risk of cancer, which is “a lifestyle chronic disease”.

It has been scientifically proven that factors such as obesity, physically inactive lifestyle and high-calorie diet are also factors in the development of childhood cancer, he said.

“Early intervention in children’s unhealthy lifestyles will greatly lower their risk of developing cancer both in childhood and adulthood,” Zhang said.

For instance, without intervention, overweight children, who are usually meat lovers, often become obese adults, who face much higher risks of breast and colon cancers, he said.

“Cancers of the breast, skin and colon are more related to unhealthy lifestyles than lung and liver cancers,” he said.

“The rates of these cancers are rising rapidly among Chinese people, who have become richer in recent decades and have then adopted a Western lifestyle,” said Zhi.

read online

Michio Kaku on January 11, 2011
Dr. Kaku’s Universe
BigThink.com

The Internet has been burning up this past week as massive groups of animals around the world have been suddenly dying en masse. We hear reports from Sweden, Louisiana, Arkansas, etc. and the list grows every day. We are starting to see similar incidents all over the world and it seems each week brings new reports. A recent story from AOL World News states “Other animal die-offs in the past two weeks include reports of 40,000 dead crabs washing ashore near Kent, England, hundreds of snapper fish dead in New Zealand, 150 tons of red tilapia dead in Vietnam, 500 jackdaws crashing to their death in Sweden, more than 450 birds falling onto a Louisiana highway and a mass of dead fish in a Florida creek.” Another incidence happened just recently when thousands of turtle doves fell from the sky.

Upon examinations of the dove’s, scientists have discovered that there was a small blue stain inside it’s beak. It was thought that the blue stain could have been caused be a lack of oxygen or some type of poison but the full results should take about a week.

Conspiracy theories are rampant, and it’s been suggested that the deaths could be a result of UFOs, government tests, or even secret weapons.

But there are three real possibilities behind this mystery:

a) Toxic Chemicals

b) Pathogens and Disease

c) Trauma

The first possibility (toxic chemicals) can be safely ruled out—at least in one case—since 95% of the 100,000 fish that died in Arkansas recently were of one species: bottom-feeding drum fish. The mature male drum fish have a series of muscles that are uncommon amongst other fish. When the fish is swimming, those muscles can vibrate against the swim bladder making a noise that doesn’t sound far off from a drum in the distance. We can assume that it wasn’t poisons that killed this one species because poisons would have affected many species as well. So disease is probably the reason behind the fish die-off, though it will take a month or so to culture the pathogens and determine for sure. We are also hearing stories of dead fish washing up on shores at an alarming rate. Over two million dead fish have reportedly washed up on shores of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay recently. The Chesapeake Bay area is experiencing their coldest December in almost 25 years and the state’s Environmental Department reported that it rapid temperature drop in the water. Other reports are showing up in Europe, Brazil, and Asia; Not to mention that on Wednesday, thousands of fish washed ashore on Folly beach in South Carolina.

For the 5,000 red-winged blackbirds that suddenly died recently in Arkansas, the cause was probably blunt trauma. Autopsies show massive internal bleeding near the breast, consistent with a violent collision. But, what caused it? Red-winged blackbirds are a bit different from other birds. They are extremely common (200 million in the U.S.), have poor eyesight, and also fly in tight formation (to save energy). But if the lead bird is disoriented (due to thunderstorms, lightning, fireworks, or downdrafts or micro bursts), it can plow into the ground or into houses, taking the entire flock with it. So most likely, the culprit is mass suicide caused by the disorientation of the lead birds, causing the entire flock to plow into the ground, trees, buildings, each other, etc. Micro bursts or sudden downdrafts may have also disoriented the birds. These are violent downdrafts which are very unpredictable. In the past, fatal airline accidents have been linked to these micro bursts, which will actually push a plane into the ground as it lands, causing a crash.

Mass suicides are actually not uncommon in the animal kingdom. Look at lemmings: thousands will commit suicide by walking over a cliff, following their leader. In fact, over the past 30 years, about 16 mass die-offs of blackbirds have been recorded in the U.S.—about one every other year, involving over 1,000 blackbirds each time.

So these events really do happen all the time, except we are unaware of them, until something pushes these events into the national media, such as simultaneous die-offs. In fact; In the past eight months, the United States Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin reports that it “has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that’s probably a dramatic undercount… The list includes some 900 turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California. On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.”

read online

Other articles:

Overeating and indigestion blamed for 1,000 turtle doves falling dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks. UK Daily Mail. 1/11/2011.

Puzzling demise of Arkansas’ red-winged blackbird
All Things Considered, NPR. 13 January 2011.

Aflockalypse Now: The ongoing extinction crisis
By David Suzuki, with Faisal Moola. Canadian Press. Opinion, 12 January 2011.

Dugway Proving Ground: Dugway Sheep Kill Incident
In March 1968, 6,249 sheep died in Skull Valley, an area nearly thirty miles from Dugway’s testing sites. When examined, the sheep were found to have been poisoned by an organophosphate chemical. The sickening of the sheep, known as the Dugway sheep incident, coincided with several open-air tests of the nerve agent VX at Dugway.

DDT and Birds by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye

NECA note: It seems like a good time to re-read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT:

“It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.”

BBC

Newly released test results on a batch of contaminated German animal feed suggest it contained more than 77 times the approved amount of dioxin.

Some 4,700 German farms have been shut after tests in Schleswig-Holstein found excessive levels of the toxic chemical.

Initially the scare was confined to Germany, but then it emerged that a batch of eggs had been exported to Holland and from there to Britain.

South Korea has blocked imports of German pork and poultry products.

German officials are investigating possible “illegal activity” after a company allegedly supplied 25 animal feed makers with 3,000 tonnes of contaminated fatty acids.

Officials have traced the contamination to the Harles und Jentzsch plant in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, where oils intended for use in biofuels were distributed for use in animal feed.

“The first indications point to a high level of illegal activity,” said a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner on Friday.

“There are indications that the company was not even officially registered, in order not to expose itself to official controls,” he added.

Egg ban
A sample test from the plant last March had found more than double the acceptable level of 0.75 nanograms of dioxin per 1kg of fatty acids used in animal feed.

The latest test results to be released by the state of Schleswig-Holstein’s agriculture ministry found the much higher levels.

Health officials only learned about the excessive level on 27 December, said a spokesman for the state agriculture ministry. The cause of the delay between the test results and the notification of the ministry remains unclear.

The extent of the problem was only revealed earlier this week when German officials said 3,000 tonnes of feed had been affected. They say the closures – mostly affecting pig farms in Germany’s Lower Saxony region – are only a precaution.

Authorities believe some 150,000 tons of feed for poultry and swine containing industrial fat have been fed to livestock across the country.

A doctor from the town of Havixbeck, near Munster, has lodged a criminal complaint of attempted murder and severe injury against Harles und Jentzsch, saying the company had acted out of greed.

Last week, more than 1,000 German farms were banned from selling eggs after dioxin was found in eggs and poultry.

Germany’s agriculture ministry said most of the closed farms were ones raising pigs.

The ministry said the farms would not be allowed to make any deliveries until they had been checked and found to be clear of contamination.

There were no immediate reports of health problems connected to the contaminated feed, it added.

Victor Furman, op-ed
Press & Sun-Bulletin

The State of Delaware has confirmed a link between a coal-burning plant and an increase in cancer among exposed residents. The Delaware News Journal reports that years after citizen activists first asked the state to investigate the problem, the Delaware Division of Public Health has finally confirmed what the activists suspected: There’s a cluster of cancer cases near a coal-burning plant, the state’s worst polluter.

The coal-burning plant is NRG Energy Inc.’s Indian River complex and is located in Millsboro, Delaware. The study was conducted by examining the cancer cases in a six ZIP code area around the plant. The areas examined were Dagsboro, Frankford, Georgetown, Millsboro, Ocean View and Selbyville.

The Division of Public Health study showed an incidence of 553.9 cancer cases per 100,000 residents of this area between 2000 and 2004 compared with the Delaware state rate of 501.3 and the U.S. rate of 473.6 cancer cases per 100,000 residents. Thus, this study confirmed that the rate of cancer cases in this area is 17 percent higher than the national average.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory, coal-burning power plants in Delaware release large amounts of toxic hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, ammonia and hydrogen fluoride, along with lead, nickel and mercury compounds and other chemicals that may cause cancer or linger in human tissues or the environment.

No government study would be complete without a qualification blaming the exposed people. The Delaware study is no exception. In the study, the highest incidence of cancer among the exposed residents was lung cancer, which accounted for 19.5 percent of the cases. The Division of Public Health said that it is not sure whether the higher incidence of lung cancer could have been caused by tobacco or by people having moved into the area from a different environment.

The report also said that new state rules intended to reduce emissions “are a major step forward in providing a clean environment.” With this, we agree.

Does any of this sound familiar? As you may know, citizen activists first uncovered an unusual cluster of polycythemia vera cases along the Ben Titus Road in the Still Creek area of Rush Township. Polycythemia vera is a rare bone marrow cancer.

Two cancer studies by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH) left the affected residents with little information of significance about the rates of cancer in the area or the cause of the polycythemia vera. The PA DOH attributed any increases in the incidences of cancer that did appear in its two studies to life style, specifically smoking and diet. The PA DOH was partially correct. The increases can be attributed to life style but in these studies the life style relates to living in an area contaminated with imported hazardous wastes and to being exposed to a toxic chemical soup.

A reporter, Sue Sturgis, from North Carolina has reviewed the PA DOH’s data of reported cases of polycythemia vera by county for the years 2001 through 2003 and suggests a possible association between polycythemia vera and power plants that burn waste coal www.hometownhazards.com. It is amazing to us that a reporter from North Carolina has done more investigating into the basis of our problems than the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Finally, a recent article reported that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), part of the federal Department of Health and Human Resources, is completing a study on the incidence of polycythemia vera in Carbon, Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. The article reported that the ATSDR has found an almost quadrupling of the incidence of polycythemia vera in the area.

The primary purpose of all government is to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. When will our government begin to protect our health, safety and welfare from the toxic emissions of coal-fired power plants? We are not asking that these plants be shut down but we are asking that our legislators stop giving these toxin-emitting plants licenses to pollute. We are demanding that they be operated in a manner that reduces the risks of toxic emissions for the people living near these plants.

*We thank Jill McElheney of the Ministry to Improve Child and Adolescent Health (MICAH’s Mission: Micahmission@aol.com), P.O. Box 275, Winterville, GA 30683, for calling our attention to the study by the Delaware Division of Public Health..

SO YOU thought smoking cigarettes was bad for your health? Try living next to a coal-fired power plant.

That’s the diagnosis that Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) relayed to the public in a comprehensive medical study released on November 18 called “Coal’s Assault of Human Health.” In it, the organization, comprised of physicians and public health experts, claims that coal pollutants damage every major organ in the human body and contribute to four of the top five leading causes of death in the United States.

Not since NASA’s James Hansen rang the global warming alarm about coal’s major contribution to climate change has there been a more dire call to shut down coal operations in the United States. It is not simply about cleaning up the coal process; it is about halting its production altogether in order to immediately save lives.

From an article in the Socialistic Worker.org:

At every stage in its life cycle, coal can negatively impact human health, from mining operations, cleaning, transportation to burning and disposing of the combustion waste. PSR reports that many Americans are being affected daily by coal and the exposure is contributing to horrible health problems; heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes and asthma, among others.

“The findings of this report are clear: while the U.S. relies heavily on coal for its energy needs, the consequences of that reliance for our health are grave,” said Dr. Alan H. Lockwood, a principal author of the report and a professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo.

From Victor Furman:

As individuals responsible for our own carbon footprint we must look at the feet of the entire energy industry. Coal has the biggest set of feet of all other sources combined. I as many readers know, am an advocate for natural gas and natural gas drilling. I argue points and research every report of any source of problems that are connected to the hydro fracturing process. There are not any reports of water contamination or earth destroying mountain top removal scenario’s to where one can point a finger and say this was caused by fracking. There have been surface spills and production mishaps that were quickly contained and remedied but nothing, I mean nothing that compares with the intentional destruction of lands connected to the minning of coal. There is no comparison to the damage to our lands deforestation and no comparison to the many many many water tables, rivers lakes and streams that have intentionally been polluted by the by prodoct of coal, “coal ash” which has been said to contain more radioactive material then waste from a nuclear power plant as well as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury and other Total dissolved solids that are harm full to our environment and health.

We are afforded a great opportunity to begin to lift the feet of coal from the surface of our planet for a fossil fuel that is 47 percent cleaner, uses much less water to obtain, and need not have to tear down our mountain tops. and killing our waterways through mining and coal ash dumps. This is not just a bridge to Cleaner Energy, this the cleaner energy to bring us to the promise and development of greener technologies.

Yes I am an advocate for what some are calling a gift from God. And yes I do have land and stand to make money from signing a lease. I welcome those of you who might say my advocacy for natural gas is based on greed to check the deeds office and see that the vast amount of land I own that has promised, according to some, to bring me life changing wealth. What I own is 5 acres of highly taxed land. My real goal is not the monies, but the thought of reducing the carbon emissions that are destroying our earth through anyway necessary so that my grand children wont have to watch there mother or father die of diseases brought on by energy pollution. My family and I lived near a coal fired power plant, My wife died at 42 from cancer of the endocrine system, my daughter was cured from mouth cancer at the age of 15. My other daughter suffers from thyroid problems. was it coal and coal ash dust…. I believe so. Drilling for Natural Gas beats the heck out of drilling and mining for coal.

read online