[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Project Censored Alerts

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>Project Censored Alerts
>Edited by Tina Tambornini
>
>Teflon: Potential Health Risks
>
>Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is being found in the drinking 
>water around the United States and it could potentially cause health 
>risks. PFOA is a chemical that is used in the manufacturing of 
>Dupont's Teflon. Teflon is a type of plastic that is used to make 
>fire resistant cables, the thin white tape used in plumbing, Gor-Tex 
>and other waterproofing membranes, as well as non-stick coatings for 
>pots and pans.
>
>The problem with this chemical is that it easily dissolves in water, 
>allowing for easier consumption by the public. This chemical has 
>been in use in industry for fifty some years, and Dupont-lead 
>studies have found no PFOA in pots or pans. However, current 
>research has shown that this "Teflon Chemical" is found in people's 
>blood (in the parts per billion range), around the nation as well as 
>around the globe. The risk is that the chemical is potentially 
>dangerous, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now 
>showing a greater concern with the chemical than before. Recent 
>government studies have shown that PFOA can cause developmental 
>effects in laboratory animals at low levels. Other research has 
>shown that PFOA may be linked to cancer as well as pose risk for 
>birth defects. Researchers suspect that most of the PFOA in our 
>blood may come from the breakdown of telomers, which are produced 
>when Teflon is dissolved in water. The Plastics industry is 
>completely denying that PFOA causes cancer and/or birth defects, 
>maintaining additionally that the manufacturing of this chemical 
>does not account for the widespread human exposure to PFOA.
>
>Source: Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Journal
>"Teflon Chemical: It's in Your Pots and Pans and it's probably in you"
>by Cheryl Hogue Synopsis by Brent Kidder
>
>Corporations Granted Relief from Pollution Regulations
>
>The thirty companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in 
>the country have raised 6.6 million for President Bush and the 
>Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from 
>pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars. 
>This is because these companies hired at least sixteen lobbying 
>firms, which met with Dick Cheney's energy task force to help 
>formulate the country's energy and pollution policies. In addition, 
>some plant industry executives were given key positions at the 
>Environmental Protection Agency, which has attempted to exempt many 
>of these corporations from the pollution control requirements by 
>relaxing the rules. Some of the emissions that these companies 
>release include sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, which pose higher 
>risks to Americans in terms of asthma attacks, lung ailments, and 
>premature death.
>
>Source: Asheville Global Report No. 278, May 13-19, 2004
>By Finn Finneran Synopsis by Deanna Murrell
>
>Computer Chips in your Drivers License
>
>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Oct. 6th urged Virginia 
>not to become the first state in the nation to place radio frequency 
>identification chips in its driver's licenses. RFID tags are 
>computer chips attached to tiny antennae that are capable of 
>broadcasting their data wirelessly to anyone with an RFID reader. 
>They are currently used for "contactless" applications such as 
>tollbooth speed passes. Almost everyone carries a driver's license, 
>and RFID chops allow people to be tracked. This proposal would allow 
>anyone to set up a reader and capture the identities and personal 
>information of every person who comes within range. FBI agents, for 
>example, could sweep up identities of everyone at a political 
>meeting, protest march, gun show or Islamic prater service.
>
>Source: Asheville Global Report "ACLU against Chips in VA Driver's: Licenses"
>Credit ACLU October 14-20 No. 300 Synopsis by Allison Lewis
>
>Women's situation much worse than before the fall of Hussein.
>
>Since the fall of the Ba'ath regime women have been under siege. 
>They now live in constant fear of abduction, assault and death. 
>Abductions are now so common that daughters are being kept home from 
>school and women cannot leave the house without the accompaniment of 
>male relative. Women who have been abducted are often quietly killed 
>by their families to clear the shame. There are also no statistics 
>because reporting to the police would often times mean death. Those 
>who are not released after abduction are often sold into the 
>flourishing business of prostitution. The poverty that has been 
>afflicted upon these women has left them no other options but 
>prostitution, but those who are thought to be prostitutes are often 
>beheaded.
>
>Women in Iraq once were much better off, and held an enviable status 
>in the Middle East. The Iraq constitution declared the equality of 
>women in 1979, and in the early 80's women were 40% of the work 
>force. Equal pay and benefits were mandated, but in 1991 at the time 
>of the invasion of Kuwait, women's rights began to erode. In 1990, a 
>new penal code was enacted to allow honor killings of women. Article 
>409 permitted men to kill female relatives who were raped to restore 
>family reputations and any women who were suspected of adultery or 
>engaging in premarital sex could be murdered.
>
>Since the fall of the Ba'ath regime, Islamic fundamentalist groups 
>have emerged with the intent of imposing their views and taking 
>control of Iraq. They are not allowing women to go to work, forcing 
>them to wear veils, and making them second-class citizens. The U.S. 
>government chose the members of the puppet government in Iraq, 
>effectively placing the fundamentalists in power and imposing these 
>sanctions on the women of Iraq. If the Iraqi people had been able to 
>vote and choose their government these people never would have come 
>to power, because few people would have voted for them. America has 
>put Iraqi women in this position, and as long as profits are insured 
>for western investors, change for them is unlikely. A government 
>like the one that has been imposed is less threatening to western 
>profits, with little regard for the women and other people it is 
>ruining.
>
>Source: Covert Action Quarterly Spring 04
>"Assault on Iraqi Women"
>by Gregory Elich Synopsis by Amanda Pyle
>
>Miami Profiteers Evicting Alameda CA Renters
>
>Protests at Alameda City Hall are becoming a normal ritual lately 
>because so many low-income families are being threatened with forced 
>relocation due to a lack of fair housing laws. A Miami-based 
>corporation is evicting at least 1,200 people from their homes in 
>the Harbor Island Apart complex.
>
>Harbor Island is a group of 10 buildings that were bought by Mark 
>and Ian Sanders of the Fifteen Group out of Miami, Florida, back in 
>1996. Waiting until the surrounding neighborhood had become 
>gentrified; the brothers recently decided that the time was right to 
>evict the community from their homes to maximize profits by 
>renovating the complex and bringing in a whole new group of higher 
>income renters.
>
>In their mid-30's, Mark and Ian Sanders, owners of Harbor Island and 
>the Miami-based Fifteen Group, own or operate at least 14,700 rental 
>housing units across the nation, have approximately 375 employees 
>and pull in more than $100 million a year between them. Not shy of 
>exposure and apparently proud of themselves, the Sanders brothers 
>have left a trail of displaced renters in their wake as they 
>continue to build their profiteering empire.
>
>Regina Tillman, originally from San Francisco, has lives at Harbor 
>Island since 1978 when the rents were only $117 a month for a 
>two-bedroom unit. The complex had two popular swimming pools then. 
>"It's a modern-day lynching going on here," Tillman said, "a modern 
>day lynching of the community. They're destroying the future of a 
>community and all the families that have resided here for so many 
>years."
>
>Protestors from Harbor Island and supporters have been showing up at 
>recent City Council meetings to demand that the evictions be halted, 
>but little more than lip service has been offered by city officials 
>to denounce the evictions. In addition, no effort has been made 
>through the years to enact a just cause anti-eviction ordinance to 
>stop this kind of tragedy from occurring in Alameda. At this point, 
>only 150 renters remain at Harbor Island. The renters who remain at 
>Harbor Island are determined to stay in their homes somehow and 
>figure out how to fight the Sanders Brothers as best as they can.
>
>Source: San Francisco Bay View August 25, 2004
>"Miami Profiteers evicting Alameda renters"
>by Lynda Carson Synopsis by: Travis Byrne
>
>--
>Support  Project Censored
>http://www.projectcensored.org/


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/north-nv-greens/attachments/20041118/9803488a/attachment.html