Great Lakes DANGER Zone -- Suppressed C D C Report -- MUST READ

[Octafish]

This is your government on Republicans:

Great Lakes Danger Zones?

Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle—and the story behind it.

By Sheila Kaplan
The Center for Public Integrity

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

Researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

Since 2004, dozens of experts have reviewed various drafts of the study, including senior scientists at the CDC, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies, as well as scientists from universities and state governments, according to sources familiar with the history of the project.

“It raises very important questions,” Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago and one of three experts who reviewed the study for ATSDR, told the Center. While Orris acknowledged that the study does not determine cause and effect—a point the study itself emphasizes—its release, he said, is crucial to pointing the way for further research. “Communities could demand that those questions be answered in a more systematic way,” he said. “Not to release it is putting your head under the sand.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.publicintegrity.org/GreatLakes/index.htm

Gee. This would be news if the BFEE didn't own it.

Sorry if this is a dupe. I searched GD under "Lakes" and got zilch.

If this isn't a dupe, it ought to be.

[Kurovski]

1. K&R. Yep, it's a dupe, and a damn good dupe at that.

:kick:

[Octafish]

40. Endocrine Disruption.

Some of the nastiest pollutants mimic the human body's chemistry.

http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/hormone-disrupting-chemicals-found-in-infants.aspx?googleid=29406

To the body, the chemicals seem to be the same thing as the hormone or whatever, even though they are not. The end result is that we absorb things that make the body go haywire.

I live near Detroit. Most everyone I know has experienced problems or have family members have had problems. My own son and daughter...

It would be nice to have had this report earlier.

[Kurovski]

42. Don't get me started.

My family lived near the steel mills in Chicago. Including aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents.

Cancers, life-threatening "ideopathic" disorders, disability.

And who really seemed to be giving a shit when the standard reply was "you gotta die of something", or "you'll have to learn to live with it."

Thanks as always, Octafish. :thumbsup:

[MichiganVote]

2. K&R

[Octafish]

41. Bill Moyers -- ''Trade Secrets''

The journalist discovered Big Chem paid big bucks to stay out of the public eye...

Ronald Reagan was petrochemical's favorite Presidential candidate. And four of the top five Senate recipients of the industry's largesse were Republican challengers who defeated incumbents.

http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/

[SlipperySlope]

3. K&R

[seemslikeadream]

4. It's only a test

:cry:

[Karenina]

5. . .

:kick:

[tavalon]

6. I know there's a Thomas Verstraeten, in there somewhere,

unless Merck wouldn't allow him off his $600,000 a year leash long enough to go doctor up another CDC study. He's really good at it. That bastard makes me wish that the Christians were right and that there was a hell. I like to imagine his skin being burned off of his body over and over and over again. I'm not a torturephile, but a mother who was unable to get adequate help for her son, in part, because of that man's non existent scientific rigor or morales. This just seems like the perfect venue for him to redo his shit statistical shell game.

[Time for change]

7. Thank you

This is what you get when a president politicizes the whole federal government and Congress sits by and acts as if our Constitution isn't being ripped apart.

[jazzjunkysue]

8. Here are 3 more links to this story. Took all of 8 minutes. This is real.

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20080207185821137

Great Lakes Coverup - elevated infant mortality, cancer, & death rates
Contributed by: a free mans life

Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle—and the story behind it.

Great Lakes - Danger Zones
By Sheila Kaplan
The Center for Public Integrity &
Nation Institute Investigative Fund

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=59863§ion=News

Group says feds are hiding data on Great Lakes health concerns
John Myers Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, February 08, 2008
A nonprofit public interest group says a report that charts human health problems near Great Lakes toxic sites has been hidden by the U.S. government for seven months because the findings might be too controversial.

The Center for Public Integrity obtained the 400-page report conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and released parts of the draft on Thursday.

The report found evidence of increased infant mortality and cancer rates near 25 of 26 toxic hot spots around the Great Lakes, the so-called “areas of concern’’ that are in various stages of cleanup.

Caitlin G. Johnson, OneWorld US
Fri Feb 8, 11:01 AM ET


( Yahoo-forgot to copy the link)
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (OneWorld) - A much-delayed U.S. government report has been obtained by journalists, raising allegations that officials may be suppressing politically inconvenient data that, if released, could help protect the health of millions living in the Great Lakes region of the country.



A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states was scheduled for publication in July 2007 but it has not yet been made public.

The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of the report and is raising questions about why despite several years of study and peer review, it was suddenly pulled back for revision -- and why its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, was removed from the position he held since 1992

[Blarch]

9. Great. Thats me. I drink that water everyday.

As soon as my house sells, I am fleeing to the Keys. Fuck winter and the toxic water.

[live love laugh]

10. Factories line the lakes in Illinois and Wisconsin and dump god knows what into them

The water in Wisconsin is like, navy blue and even appears black at times--highly abnormal. The lake in Illlinois does not have that color.

It's no wonder. I will also bet that there are other effects--like MS for instance and neurologically related impairments--I know people in my family who have been hit with these recently and we have no history maternally or paternally of these diseases.

[mzmolly]

11. Can anyone find where these problem areas are? I've looked at the PDF files and didn't see anything

specific?

The Centers for Damage Control are doing their jobs quite well.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Yup, we're living it.

I lost two good friends within six months of each other to cancer while another fellow teacher was fighting her own breast cancer. Most everyone in my stepmom's family, long-time Michiganders all, has either had or died from cancer or both. I had a weird kidney tumor that they finally decided wasn't cancer even though it looked and acted like it. My mother-in-law's a cancer survivor, and I've had many knitting friends fight off cancer. It's a full-on epidemic here. Maternal death rates in Michigan are up, and it's just plain crazy.

Between our environmental problems and the economy, we're FUBAR. Where are the politicians, the leaders, the fixers? They're sure as hell not here. Our politicians are embroiled in constant in-fighting, and the national politicians could care less about our state.

[Quantess]

13. I wonder why republicans don't care about pollution?

[BearSquirrel2]

32. Bottled water ..

The people who are actually in the know and outside the media umbrella just want their money. Once in their gated communities, they can use bottled water. After that, it's someone else's problem. They got their money.

The rest are in the Conservatively Biased Media snowblow that claims you can pump whatever you want into anything without causing any damage.

I frequently walk on the Dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. I drink from municipal water taken from that lake. With the greatest supply of fresh water in the world and Western and Southern states suffering from droughts, it's insidious to me that we aren't serious about protecting it.

[Quantess]

35. Good points, except for the fact that most republicans live in poverty.

You're talking about the rich republicans. Rich republicans (top %10) have good cushy jobs and they suck up to their masters. They may or may not have an interest in deregulation or lax pollution standards. Probably the majority of the wealthiest republicans get zero return from Bush's rollback of EPA standards.

Not all republicans directly benefit from deregulated business. The ones who benefit the most from deregulation and lax EPA standards are the bigwig polluters themselves. Everyone else gets hurt. Everyone and everything on the planet.

People are just stupid.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.

[progressoid]

15. Yeah, but what about the new Paris Hilton movie?

[vanboggie]

16. Perfect response

That about sums it up! Did I type that right? Can't tell since I'm in Michigan and have 14 eyes and no fingers.

[fascisthunter]

17. But, "Whatever is Good for the Economy, is Good for Us."

I guess it's just another talking point we can bury.

[SpiralHawk]

18. "This is more of that fact-based science shit, ain't it?" - Commander AWOL

"Puh-lease don't disturb me with facts, I have strategerized a plan to Nation Build, and bring joy and freedom to Iraq and it's underexploited oil-profits potential. So sit down and shut up about putrid big sea shining waters Gitchee Gumee, and deformed children, and republicon corruption stinkola deviancy. I am the deciderer. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[SpiralHawk]

19. The lament of Hiawatha

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[bleever]

20. And the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe

despite the tons of airborne asbestos and other toxins.

The scale of the criminality is astounding.

K&R.

[MelissaB]

21. Damn! I just moved to the UP in Michigan because I lived in a cancer zone in

Alabama. After my mom died of cancer I told my husband to apply for jobs and get us out of there. :cry:

[MelissaB]

24. Article referenced above:

A lady in the hospital room next door to my mom who's husband had the exact kind of brain cancer gave me a copy of this article.

Despite clamor, fallout study still unreleased

By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A government study estimating that about 15,000 Americans died from cancer as a result of Cold War nuclear fallout has been withheld from the public for nearly a year. The $1.85 million study, which occupied several top-notch scientists for two years, has been sitting in administrative limbo since early last summer while a host of local health officials, citizens groups and researchers have been clamoring to see it. "The process seems aimed at slowing down information release and minimizing the consequences," says Bob Schaeffer of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of local and national citizens groups.

"This study can help identify people at risk, and that could save lives if those people can get screening or early treatment for some of these cancers," says Schaeffer.

Portions of the still-unreleased study were obtained by USA TODAY. It was prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. Its release has been delayed for "internal reviews" at the Department of Health and Human Services, which controls the two research institutions. Officials say the scramble to deal with terrorism-related duties in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks also has held up the study's release.

That has done little to assuage those waiting to see it, including members of Congress.

"Some federal government bureaucrat has been holding onto this information for the past months and years," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who was instrumental in launching the study in 1998. "No more stalling. We need to fully assess the threats posed by the radioactive (fallout)."

The study's delay is straining the already tense relationship between the agencies responsible for producing the study and the groups and public officials waiting to see it. And the resulting distrust could have a significant bearing on the debate over what the government should do in response to the study's findings.


More:http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/02/28/usat-nuke-sidebar.htm


If you click the link make sure you look at the maps.

[knitter4democracy]

29. Welcome to Michigan! It's still a gorgeous state.

I love the UP. Whereabouts are you guys? Marquette is really nice.

[MelissaB]

36. We're in Sault Ste Marie.

:hi:

[knitter4democracy]

38. I've always wanted to go there.

For some reason, it's never worked out. I've heard good things, though. My stepdad went to Lake Superior State and loved living there.

Lovely area. :hi:

[MelissaB]

39. It's beautiful here and

hubby works at LSSU. Come on up. :hi:

[knitter4democracy]

44. Maybe this summer.

Last summer, Hubby took me to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac for our tenth anniversary. Best trip I've ever had. We've been talking about taking the kids to the UP for a short trip sometime this summer since they enjoyed their trip with my mom and stepdad to St. Ignace and over to the island.

When I was in Russia in college, it felt like home. It looks just like the UP and northern lower. I think I was one of the only ones who really felt comfortable there. I finally understood why so many Russian immigrants moved there in the last century. It's just like their home. :)

[bleever]

43. I've almost been there!

Rode my bicycle from Chicago up to Mackinac Island when I was a teenager. :hi:

[SlowDownFast]

31. Consider yourself upstream from most of the polluted waters.

I'm in the da UP, also. Welcome!

Lake Superior is the cleanest of 'em all, though some parts of the UP suffer from old copper mine pollution. But as far as the Great Lakes go, living in the UP is pretty much UPSTREAM:

http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module08/GreatLakesFlow.htm

[MelissaB]

37. Thanks for the link!

I'm walking distance to the locks... about 3 blocks.

[Snarkoleptic]

22. Nearly all of the 6million residents of Cook County (Chicago metro)

get their drinking water from Lake Michigan.
Due to mercury and other toxins, there are frequent warnings about eating fish from the lake.
The fishing charter business is struggling due to this and a dimished supply of fish.
Every summer we have numerous beach closures due to high bacteria counts (thanks to raw sewage pumped by our friends to the North in Milwaukee).
It's not a pretty picture.

[orleans]

27. according to wiki

there are 118 suburbs that also get their water from lake michigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_crib

[DearAbby]

23. I weep at what we are doing to this beautiful blue planet .....nt

[debannbull]

25. Lets not forget the PBB laced animal feed of the late 70's

Still waiting on that bill to come in. (PBB incident: livestock feed contaminated with fire retardant.) Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember that a study in the late 1990's showed that 80%(?) of Michigan women of child bearing age had detectable levels of it in their breast milk. Horrible birth defects resulted in animals, ie: extra and/or deformed limbs, stillbirths. My county (Kalkaska) being 45% state land (and holding firm the last few decades in the bottom 5% in Per Capita Income, we were lucky ones: "chosen" to be the burial ground for tens of thousands of animals, from chickens to pigs & cows & everything in-between. Not to mention that we are smack in the middle of the "Niagaran Reef" - geologic home to that precious black crude, and land of disposal wells for oil & gas waste products. But I digress....

[caraher]

26. It's a bit late as less than a year remains until the end of an error,

but it could be interesting to use Ronald Reagan against the Bushbots.

For instance, the article cited in the OP ends with these words from Barry Johnson, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and a former assistant administrator of ATSDR:

"I don’t understand why this work has not been released; it should be and it must be released. In 37 years of public service, I’ve never run into a situation like this.”

Of course the Reagan presidency was an environmental disaster; who can forget James Watt? But it's telling that not even Reagan politicized the use of science the way the "faith-based" buffoons in this White House have. Would it be possible to shame them with "WWRD?" challenges? (hmmm... probably not... they have no sense of shame or honor)

With this crew, the Reagan years sometimes feel like the "good old days..."

[Divine Discontent]

28. if this were the America of even 10 years ago, this would be major news n/t

[frog92969]

30. K&R

Wouldn't an honest government be a nice thing?

[dmr]

33. Bush* Just Slashed More Than 56 Million for the Great Lakes

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-ODIw25Bd0quZCOhTno1ouSZgyQD8UL3RLO1

- Snip -
According to the group's analysis, the president requested $297.6 million for Great Lakes programs, down from $353.76 million appropriated for this year.

- Snip -
Bush proposed a small increase — from $34.5 million to $35 million — for the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which cleans up toxic sediments in the region's most heavily polluted harbors.

But programs for preventing sewage contamination and fighting invasive species would absorb deep reductions.

The president would cut the region's share of Clean Water State Revolving Fund money by nearly 20 percent — from $250 million this year to $201.5 million. The program helps communities upgrade wastewater treatment systems.

- More at above link -


I hate that bastard. He made promises to protect the Great Lakes during his last campaign. When he visited Traverse City in 2004, he made a point to tell his vetted crowd of supporters that he would do everything possible to protect these Lakes. Not a man known for keeping his word, they shouldn't have believe him. But he told these people what they wanted to hear, and got away with it.

Thank you for making this post. I blew my stack last week after learning Bush* slashed the budget, and, right now, your post has left me numb. I love these Lakes. I love Michigan, and this news just breaks my heart all the more, as well as scare the beejeebers out of me.

Here's a couple of good GL links:

The Great Lakes Basin Compact
http://www.glc.org/

Great Lakes Information Network
http://www.glin.net/news/

[SpiralHawk]

34. "Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"My republicon oil and munitions cronies need that money to bring (smirk) freedom (smirk) to other countries. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[knitter4democracy]

45. Heck, when he says he's for something, you know it's going to get cut.

It's his standard M.O. He loves education, so he cuts the education budget. He cares about vets and the VA, so he cuts their budget. He cares about the Great Lakes, so he cuts the cleanup budget. It's what he does.