| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Michelle Malkin" |
| Date: |
15 Sep 2005 03:23:00 AM |
| Object: |
Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins In New Orleans |
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/09/con05330.html
Is anyone surprised? This shows exactly how insincere Bush's
claim about accepting responsibility is. He doesn't give a damn
how many people die - even those trying to help the victims.
--
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
Michelle Malkin (Mickey) aa list#1
BAAWA Knight & Bible Thumper Thumper
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins In New Orleans |
14 Sep 2005 11:26:01 PM |
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In article <1fidneROvayRdLXeRVn-ow@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/09/con05330.html
Is anyone surprised? This shows exactly how insincere Bush's
claim about accepting responsibility is. He doesn't give a damn
how many people die - even those trying to help the victims.
Bush cares about his oil buddies who own the refineries spewing out
toxic materials. He will do whatever he can to protect them. Here's more
on the dangers and the EPA response:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3354612
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins In New Orleans |
18 Sep 2005 04:08:33 PM |
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On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:26:01 -0700, johac <jhachm@ixpres.com> wrote:
In article <1fidneROvayRdLXeRVn-ow@comcast.com>,
"Michelle Malkin" <hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/09/con05330.html
Is anyone surprised? This shows exactly how insincere Bush's
claim about accepting responsibility is. He doesn't give a damn
how many people die - even those trying to help the victims.
Bush cares about his oil buddies who own the refineries spewing out
toxic materials. He will do whatever he can to protect them. Here's more
on the dangers and the EPA response:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3354612
AN ECOLOGICAL HAZARD
Report offers 'grave' view of impact on environment
By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Drums full of hazardous medical waste and industrial chemicals float
in the tainted floodwaters.
As the water recedes, it leaves behind a sludge so laden with
petroleum that federal officials are having trouble analyzing it.
Millions of gallons of oil have spilled from refinery storage tanks.
And at least one hazardous waste site ? an old New Orleans landfill ?
is submerged, increasing the risk that chemicals buried long ago could
escape.
These are the early signs of the environmental destruction wrought by
Hurricane Katrina, a storm that struck one of the most industrial and
polluted areas of the country when it made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
Along the hurricane's path sat 31 hazardous-waste sites and 466
facilities handling large quantities of dangerous chemicals. What
impact ? if any ? the storm had on these areas is still being analyzed
by the hundreds of personnel deployed, including those aboard mobile
laboratories and in air-pollution-scanning aircraft.
"This is the largest natural disaster that we believe the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and nation has faced," EPA
Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said during a media briefing
Wednesday.
"We are concerned about the water, we are concerned about the land,
but we are also concerned about the air," he said.
"It is certainly a volume problem," he said referring to the debris,
"but in other cases, it is a hazardous materials problem that needs to
be dealt with."
Reaction to the report
The briefing was the grimmest and most comprehensive picture of the
hurricane's toll on the environment offered by the EPA since the storm
struck 2 1/2 weeks ago .
The status of the air, water and soil in the affected areas will help
determine when it will be safe for people to return. Already, the
agency has issued advisories warning people not to wade in or drink
the floodwaters based on early tests that found it contained high
concentrations of bacteria and the toxic metal lead.
Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works, said the briefing he got Wednesday from
the EPA was a "a grave and sobering assessment."
"We heard that the degree of environmental damage is considered
catastrophic," Jeffords said.
Among the developments revealed Wednesday:
?More recent tests on floodwaters detected a new suite of chemicals,
including hexavalent chromium, a chemical used in metal plating, and
arsenic, which is used to treat wood.
?More than 5,000 containers, containing everything from gas to medical
waste, have been collected.
?The EPA has instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use booms
to prevent the oil and gasoline floating on top of the water from
entering canals, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.
Aerators ? blowing oxygen in the water ? have been set up in some
canals to help fish breathe.
?On flights over the area, officials detected the industrial chemical
chloroacetic acid leaking from a 55-gallon drum, a gas-well fire and
numerous oil spills and sheens, although monitoring detected no
chemicals above federal workplace standards.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in charge of the 16
now-closed wildlife refuges along the Louisiana coast, said the storm
reduced one ? the 18,273-acre Breton National Wildlife Refuge ? to
half its size and caused $94 million worth of damage to its
facilities. About 50 sea turtle nests were lost on the Alabama coast.
And dunes harboring an endangered mouse, and trees that are home to
endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, have been destroyed.
The science behind it
Assessment of the storm's environmental damage was delayed for more
than a week while federal officials charged with keeping tabs on
public lands and waters helped with rescue operations. The EPA took
its first water tests Sept. 3. Earlier this week, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration sent a research vessel into the Gulf to
begin assessing the storm's effects on the fish, water and sediments.
"We have had some reports of fish kills. But there were also some
prior to the hurricane from some harmful algal bloom activity," said
Peter Ortner, the chief scientist for NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic
and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami.
But he cautioned that with more time, Katrina could wreak more havoc,
including in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, another
locale officials will be studying.
The science itself has been hampered by the storm. Analysis of air
pollution was hindered since some of the state's monitors were down,
either from damage or no electricity, according to the EPA. Flooding
has restricted access to some sites and limited soil testing. And the
National Marine Fisheries Service laboratories in Pascagoula, Miss.,
were severely damaged.
The EPA is just beginning to assess the water quality in Lake
Pontchartrain, the Gulf and Mississippi River, receptacles for the
tainted soup that covered New Orleans.
The largest oil spill documented to date occurred at the Murphy Oil
Corp. refinery in Chalmette, La., where floodwaters lifted a storage
tank off the ground. When the steel tank settled, the structure
crumpled and 819,000 gallons of oil spilled into the refinery and
surrounding St. Bernard Parish, a company spokesman said.
"The vast majority was contained in refinery boundaries, but an
undetermined quantity did go beyond that. It could have affected some
of the neighboring houses in the area, but we will have to see," said
Mindy West, a spokesman for Murphy, which processes 125,000 barrels ,
or 5.25 million gallons, of crude oil per day.
Avoiding politics
On Wednesday, Johnson vowed to employ the latest scientific techniques
to monitor the area's soil, water and air. The EPA ? which has been
criticized in the past for having its science influenced by politics ?
has appointed scientific advisory boards to help the agency determine
how best to conduct the analysis.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also gave the EPA more than
$100 million ? enough to conduct the assessment, for now, Johnson
said.
"Everyone is looking to the EPA for what are the results and are these
being done in a scientifically appropriate and sound way," Johnson
said. "We don't want to be bureaucratic, we want to be sure that they
are results we can stand by."
Chronicle reporter Colin McDonald contributed to this report.
dina.cappiello@chron.com
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins In New Orleans |
18 Sep 2005 04:25:07 PM |
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3357472
Sept. 17, 2005, 6:15PM
HEALTH RISK
For buildings left standing, next major menace is mold
Spores awakened by Katrina's waters are multiplying
By BETH DALEY
Boston Globe
When Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters poured into the Gulf Coast ?
saturating walls, shoes, sofas, floors and roofs ? billions of dormant
mold spores woke up.
Now, fueled by moisture and temperature, those spores are growing
furiously.
For the buildings left standing by the winds and waters, for the
houses that escaped serious damage from the toxic soup of bacteria and
chemicals still sloshing in Katrina's wake, the next plague coming,
experts say, is mold.
"These are the most successful organisms on the Earth. ... They have
this amazing ability to survive," said Michael Rinaldi, director of
the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor of pathology and medicine
at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "Many
of those houses ... are going to have to be rebuilt."
Mold is a type of fungus that can weaken buildings, make people sick
and streak walls.
While debate continues over how dangerous household molds may be,
people with allergies, asthma or weakened immune systems can suffer
severe respiratory problems when they breathe in spores. Some fungal
organisms feed on wood for their growth, leaving a gooey, structurally
unsound beam behind.
A boost in humidity
Residents in hot and humid New Orleans have long lived with the creep
of mold and fungus everywhere from bathrooms to barroom walls, keeping
it at bay with dehumidifiers, air conditioners and bleach.
But day-to-day humidity levels are not nearly as hospitable to mold
growth as the past two weeks have been. Most air conditioners and
dehumidifiers haven't been turned on since Katrina struck the Gulf
Coast on Aug. 29 ? and the mold has kept multiplying.
Mold had already begun to spawn in Sandy Guild's spacious Gulfport,
Miss., home when she returned to it just days after the storm. In each
spot, the mold started out gray then turned black and spread like a
weed, she said. She and her family worked furiously to rip out all the
wallboard and insulation on the flooded first floor of the house. She
bleached her kitchen cabinets.
"I had to get it out," said Guild, who owns a gift shop. "I feel sorry
for a lot of people who don't even have Sheetrock out by now," she
added. "They are going to be in trouble."
After floods, federal agencies often urge homeowners to strip homes of
wet carpets and furniture and dry the building out within 48 hours to
stop mold infestation ? but there are no guidelines for what to do
with a house that has been partly submerged for weeks.
"The problem we are wrestling with is even if we eliminate the water
.... there will still be moisture present because we don't have air
conditioning or a way to dry it out," said Michael McGinnis, director
of the Medical Mycology Research Center at the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston.
"The mold will get into the cracks in the ceiling, behind the paint,"
McGinnis said. "It really creates difficulty because there is going to
be lots and lots of mold growing."
Air currents carry spores
With enough moisture, mold spores can germinate in just hours and
begin eating wood, wallboard, wallpaper glues and other organic
material.
Within days, a few spores can produce millions more, which are then
carried to other locations by air currents. By the time mold is
visible ? which can take from a day to several weeks after germination
? it often has taken root in walls and may be impossible to get out.
Scientists worry many poor homeowners will spend tens of thousands of
dollars attempting to get rid of mold, only to find that their efforts
have failed.
® 2005 Boston Globe
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins In New Orleans |
18 Sep 2005 04:04:49 PM |
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On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:23:00 -0400, "Michelle Malkin"
<hypatiab7@comcast.net> wrote:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/09/con05330.html
September 13, 2005
Government Coverup of Dangerous Toxins in New Orleans
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
from Marc Maron and Mark Riley, Morning Sedition, Air America Radio
Hugh Kauffman, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Environmental Protection
Agency who specializes in emergency response, told Morning Sedition
hosts Marc Maron and Mark Riley that a government cover-up is taking
place right now, as we speak, to hide information about the dangerous
toxins in the flood waters of the Gulf Coast region. Kauffman, a
35-year EPA veteran who has served in Republican and Democratic
administrations, says that the Bush administration is preventing the
EPA from releasing information that oil and chemical companies are
mandated by law to provide. Kauffman says the Bush administration’s
cover-up is endangering residents and relief workers throughout the
Gulf Coast region, who are being exposed to dangerous levels of
toxins, some of which have been proven to cause cancer and birth
defects. Kauffman, who was the chief investigator for the 9/11 clean
up, also said that the Bush administration engaged in the same
practice after 9/11—covering up the truth about the dangers in the air
and water and lying to the public in the weeks after the disaster.
Kauffman said that over 75% of the heroes who responded to 9/11 have
gotten sick and in some cases have died because of exposure to toxins
at Ground Zero, and that he fears a similar fate will befall relief
workers and residents in the Gulf Coast now.
* * *
Click the > to play. Right-click (PC) or CTRL-click (Mac) HERE to
download
Transcript from HUGH KAUFFMAN interview
with MARC MARON and MARK RILEY
9-13-05
2 minutes long
MARC: Is the government being honest with the people about the safety
of the air and water in New Orleans right now?
HUGH: No, they’re not. All of the oil and chemical companies that own
storage tanks, facilities in that area that were flooded or impacted
are required to publish with our regional office in Dallas
instantly—whenever there’s a release; whenever there’s a breakage from
pipelines, from storage tanks, refineries. The regional office, under
orders, is not releasing that information to the public, and the
Society of Environmental Journalists has sued EPA and the Federal
Government to try and get that information released, so the public
will see the full magnitude of how much toxic material they are being
exposed to in that region of the country.
MARC: So, Hugh Kauffman, Senior Policy Analyst from the EPA, you’re
telling me they have that information. The EPA office in Louisiana has
that information, and you are absolutely sure that that information is
horrendous, but they are keeping it under lock and key, because they
don’t want the people to know the truth of what’s really going on down
there on a toxic level?
HUGH: That’s correct. And that’s why the Society of Environmental
Journalists are suing under the Freedom of Information act to try and
get that information.
MARC: So the government is actively lying to the people about what’s
going on there, and that is their policy now.
HUGH: That’s the policy as of last night at eleven o’clock when I went
to sleep.
MARC: And that is the policy that happened in Nine Eleven as well,
isn’t it, Hugh Kauffman?
HUGH: Same policy in Nine Eleven. That’s correct. The heroes went in
to try to help—were working for months in there—no respirators, no
protective clothing, and now, four years later, over 75 % of those
responding heroes are sick as dogs and they’re starting to die off,
and I’m worried that that’s going to happen down the line down there.
That’s why there are billions of dollars of law suites as a result of
Nine Eleven, because of the government cover-up.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
Is anyone surprised? This shows exactly how insincere Bush's
claim about accepting responsibility is. He doesn't give a damn
how many people die - even those trying to help the victims.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
.
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