Did Missing Chalk River Physicist Know Too Much?

“You expect me to talk, Goldfinger?”
“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”
From Lachlan Cranswick’s Personal Homepage

The Canadian towns of Chalk River and Deep River are in the northern region of the Ottawa Valley, nestled between Algonquin Park to the west, and the Ottawa River to the east.

Deep River is a small community that boasts an network of hiking, biking, and skiing trails. Chalk River is the location of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) laboratories.

Lachlan Cranswick, 41, was a physicist who worked there. On Jan. 18, he finished work and went to his home in Deep River. At some point that evening or the next day, he took the garbage out, and vanished.

How much tritium escaped into the environment?  Did Lachlan Cranswick know? 

Was he about to blow the whistle?    read full story at Heroin and Cornflakes

Posted via email from ann's posterous

Heroin and the 'Fat Tax'

Heroin is an opiate drug that is synthesized from morphine extracted from the seed pod of the poppy plant. Produced in Mexico and Asia, heroin is reported to be widely available throughout the U.S.

The latest form of this addictive substance sweeping middle America is a semi-processed type of Mexican heroin known as black-tar; so called because it’s sticky and dark.

Users need not venture into dangerous neighborhoods for their fix. Instead, they phone in their orders and drivers take the drug to them......

read full article at Heroin and Cornflakes

Fish, Mercury and the Incurable Condition

The most pervasive physical handicap in America today is an invisible condition — hearing loss. Howard E. “Rocky” Stone.

Today, hearing loss is the number one disability in the world, and
approximately 28 million Americans, suffering some type of hearing
loss, help fuel this statistic.

Of this number, only a few million are considered ‘deaf’ and the
remainder are hard of hearing. In addition, 15 of every 1,000 people
under the age of 18 have a hearing loss.

In a landmark study, ‘The Impact of Untreated Hearing Loss on Household Income,’ The Better Hearing Institute estimate that the annual cost in lost earnings due to untreated hearing
loss is $122 billion, with the Federal government losing $18 billion in
taxes.

This situation is not improving. ‘The Better Hearing Institute’ also reports that America’s hearing loss population is growing at a rate of 160% of the overall population growth.

Wow, that’s a pretty high growth rate.

What’s sustaining it? Is there an increase in older folk, or are there other influences at play?
 

Let’s take a closer look......read more at Heroin and Cornflakes

Posted via email from ann's posterous

The Sun Tan Industry: Whiter than White?

 

Newfoundland and Labrador is a province of
Canada on the country’s Atlantic coast in northeastern North America.

When faced with bankruptcy in 1933, representative institutions were
suspended in favor of an appointed Commission that governed for fifteen
years without an elected assembly.

One of the Commission’s primary goals upon entering office was to
improve the country’s health-care services. It established a series of
government-subsidized cottage hospitals in 1935 to make affordable
medical services more accessible in rural communities.
Government officials also tried to reduce malnutrition rates by
including brown flour instead of white in dole rations, and by
distributing a vitamin-rich beverage ‘Cocomalt’, a chocolate mix, to schoolchildren for free.

According to the vintage ad above, ‘Cocomalt’ provided the Vitamin D kids need to develop “well formed, husky bodies.”

Why is this of interest today?

Well, in North America,someone dies from skin cancer every hour.

Are these deaths preventable and do people know about the dangers they face?.....

read more at Heroin and Cornflakes

Posted via email from ann's posterous

9/11: Case for the Prosecution?

Starting on May 18, 2010, a series of trials will be held to hear
the claims of a dozen 9/11 health cases, chosen out of 10,000 lawsuits
filed, who state they’ve been condemned to death by toxins,
incorporated within Ground Zero’s dust cloud, whilst working through
the debris.

These cases include some who have spent the greatest amount of time searching for remains, cleaning up. They are among the greatest heroes and they bear the brunt of illness because of those efforts. The dozen cases are a mix of
New York City firefighters, cops and transit workers, said Paul Napoli, a lead lawyer for many of the plaintiffs.
They were chosen from nearly 10,000 health lawsuits filed and will act as a road map for future settlements. All claim that their exposure to contaminates at Ground Zero in Manhattan or at the Fresh Kills Landfill left them chronically sick, or, in one case, killed them.

Have they got much of a case?

Let’s take a closer look........read more at 'Heroin and Cornflakes'

Posted via email from ann's posterous

Children in Need, Stay in Need

As the number of hungry and malnourished people passes one
billion, a new UNICEF report identifies lack of food as one of the
largest causes of death amongst children.

Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition says that
under-nutrition in mothers and children is a factor in a third of all
deaths of children under five. 

Ethiopia could soon be contributing to these figures. After a
disastrous series of crop failures, the number of Ethiopians needing
emergency aid has jumped from 4.9 million to 6.2 million in the past 10
months.

Twenty-five years after Ethiopia’s famine killed a million people
and spurred a massive global aid effort, the government has appealed for help for more than six million facing starvation.

State Minister for Agriculture, Mitiku Kassa said the
drought-stricken country needed 159,000 tonnes of food aid worth 121
million dollars between now and year’s end for 6.2 million people.

“Since… January, the country continues to face several humanitarian
challenges in food and livelihood security, health, nutrition, and in
water and sanitation,” he said.Geda Shenu, a 50-year-old farmer says;

“We are between life and death.”.......read full article at Heroin and Cornflakes

Posted via email from ann's posterous

Circumcision, AIDS and Human Rights

Circumcision that is performed for any reason other than
physical clinical need is termed ‘non-therapeutic’ (or sometimes
‘ritual’) circumcision.

Some people ask for non-therapeutic circumcision for religious
reasons, some to incorporate a child into a community, and some want
their sons to be like their fathers.

Most circumcisions are performed during adolescence. In some countries, they are more commonly performed during infancy.  The United States circumcises a majority of its male infants. Circumcision is an American cultural value and is accepted as “normal.”

In Canada, statistics show more Canadian parents are not having
their infant sons circumcised. The rate for male infants in Canada has
dropped from about 50% in 1998, to about 20% in 2000. The overall
incidence of male circumcision for all of Canada declined to about 13.9
% for the year 2003.

It is the position of the Canadian Children’s Rights Council that
“circumcision” of male or female children is genital mutilation of
children........

............read more at Heroin and Cornflakes

Posted via email from ann's posterous