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The Relationship Between Trees and Human Health

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“SCANT TESTING FOR ARCTIC BLOWOUT CAPPING SYSTEM — Safety Agency Can Produce Only One Page of Notes to Demonstrate Cap Reliability

Washington, DC — The key system for preventing a repeat of the massive Gulf of Mexico blowout in the sensitive waters of the Arctic underwent only partial and cursory testing with no independent analysis of the results, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which obtained the federal testing data. As a result, federal overseers are again completely relying upon industry assurances of safety as Royal Dutch Shell prepares to begin drilling this week in the remote Chukchi Sea.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all “records pertaining to results of Shell oil company’s testing of its well-head capping stack that would be used in response to a well-head blowout in its Arctic drilling program,” the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE is an arm of the Interior Department, formerly within the Minerals Management Service) could produce only one document – a one-page set of notes. This slim production belied the agency’s claim in press statements that it had conducted “comprehensive” testing to meet “rigorous new standards.”
The field-testing took place over less than two hours in Puget Sound on June 25th and 26th and involved only two BSEE officials and Shell. The first day, they lowered the capping stack to a depth of 200 feet, but did not try to attach it to a simulated wellhead and blowout preventer (BOP), as would be necessary in a real-world blowout.” Read full article at Peer.org

In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer-lobbyist, as Food Safety Czar in the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), and Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s former Biotech Governor of the Year as Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture. Mr. Vilsack’s award was conferred by an industry organization representing Monsanto and the other genetic engineering companies.

May 26 will mark 20 years since the FDA decided, at the request of the biotech industry and corporate agribusiness (and most recently under the leadership of Michael Taylor) to prevent Americans from knowing if their food has been genetically engineered or not. Due to the efforts of Michael Taylor, genetically engineered foods do

not

have to be safety tested or labeled. The Food & Drug Administration conducts no premarket review or approval engineered foods, as long as Monsanto (and other industry members such as Dow, Dupont, Syngenta, BASF) concludes that the genetically engineered substance is not “materially different” from normal food.

Michael Taylor’s FDA has rubber-stamped Dow Chemical Corporation’s conclusion that their Agent Orange Corn (genetically engineered to resist the herbicide 2,4-D used in Agent Orange) is somehow comparable to normal corn.

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Tom Vilsack’s USDA is ready to give Agent Orange Corn final approval. Soon, we will be eating corn engineered with genes from a soil bacterium that isn’t killed by 2,4-D herbicide: A “food” which human beings have never eaten before, has never been tested for safety, and marketed without any indication that it is a genetically engineered product.

2,4-D is currently the 7th largest source of dioxin pollution in the US and is toxic to the eye, thyroid, kidney, adrenals, ovaries/testes, and neurological system. Agent Orange Corn is projected to increase 2,4-D use 50 times over.

Click here to take action and STOP un-labeled genetically altered food products from entering our marketplace and our bodies.

“We’re designed to withstand the greatest threat that we can calculate,” said Jennifer Manfre, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison, the utility which operates the plant.

Manfre says the plant is actually designed to withstand more force than Japan’s facility.

Operators could not say their safety rank but said the governing committee says they are up to safety standards.They also noted that the world is ripe with radiation, which is said even be found in bananas.

The power plant also generates much more than power. It is responsible for 3,000 jobs.

“It’s very much a part of the local economy,” said Manfre. – 10 News.com (click for article)