Tests Now Being Conducted for Corexit and Oil ... Results Not Very Reassuring

BP-Gulf Oil Disaster

Real testing is starting to be conducted on dispersant and oil in the Gulf, the results are not looking so good:

* U.S. Government press release says NOAA, FDA now testing for dispersant: Corexit ingredient DOSS found in 13 samples — Up to 500 ppm allowed in shrimp, crabs, oysters ["DOSS" stands for Dioctyl Sulfosuccinate Sodium Salt - which might be nastier than BP is telling us]

* Crab containing 8,815 ppm of hydrocarbons had NO smell or sight of oil — “We were astonished there were levels like that”

* Research team “uncovered a PAH bonanza” — And just 190 parts per BILLION of PAHs is “considered pretty toxic” says professor at NASA installation

* Scott Milroy, a marine scientist at the University of Southern Mississippi, said seafood samples he gathered in September along the Mississippi coast showed levels… hundreds of times higher than the levels the government tests found

Washington's Blog

Fishermen Report Illness From BP Chemicals

Fishermen Report Illness From BP Chemicals - Health News Story - WDSU New Orleans

Marine toxicologist Riki Ott said the chemicals used by BP can wreak havoc on a person's body and even lead to death.

"The volatile, organic carbons, they act like a narcotic on the brain," Ott said. "At high concentrations, what we learned in Exxon Valdez from carcasses of harbor seals and sea otters, it actually fried the brain, (and there were) brain lesions."

Chinese drywall deaths

New Orleans Times-Picayune March 03, 2010

Chinese drywall is believed to emit sulfur gases that corrode metal and make people sick.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is asking two federal agencies to investigate reports of eight deaths that may be linked to use of toxic drywall from China.

The Looming Crisis in Human Genetics

The looming crisis in human genetics:
Some awkward news ahead
by Geoffrey Miller
Author of Spent

Human geneticists have reached a private crisis of conscience, and it will become public knowledge in 2010. The crisis has depressing health implications and alarming political ones. In a nutshell: the new genetics will reveal much less than hoped about how to cure disease, and much more than feared about human evolution and inequality, including genetic differences between classes, ethnicities and races.

About five years ago, genetics researchers became excited about new methods for “genome-wide association studies” (GWAS). We already knew from twin, family and adoption studies that all human traits are heritable: genetic differences explain much of the variation between individuals. We knew the genes were there; we just had to find them….

In 2010, GWAS fever will reach its peak. Dozens of papers will report specific genes associated with almost every imaginable trait—intelligence, personality, religiosity, sexuality, longevity, economic risk-taking, consumer preferences, leisure interests and political attitudes. The data are already collected, with DNA samples from large populations already measured for these traits. It’s just a matter of doing the statistics and writing up the papers for Nature Genetics…

World's water supply 'running low'

From 2003 but it has only gotten worse.
World's water supply 'running low'

The world's natural supply of underground water, on which two billion people depend, is being run down, according to the United Nations.

Water tables are falling by about three metres a year across much of the developing world, according to a study by the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER

Unsurprisingly our government is doing nothing to protect us from dangerous imports.
From June 2009
Radioactive cheese grater found in Flint illustrates lack of federal oversight

U.S. Military Preparing for Domestic Disturbances

A new report from the U.S. Army War College discusses the use of American troops to quell civil unrest brought about by a worsening economic crisis.

The report from the War College’s Strategic Studies Institute warns that the U.S. military must prepare for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” that could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.”

Entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development,” the report was produced by Nathan Freier, a recently retired Army lieutenant colonel who is a professor at the college — the Army’s main training institute for prospective senior officers.

December 23, 2008