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Toxicity
& Wyoming Elks
RAWLINS—A little plant that is part fungus and
part alga is responsible for the deaths of nearly 300 elk near here. The
plant is a lichen known as Parmelia that is
abundant in desert soils around the state.
“We had lichen on the list of toxic plants
that our veterinarians were investigating,” said Tom Reed, spokesperson
for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. “We were faintly optimistic
that this may have been the cause, but didn’t want to get our hopes up.”
This past weekend, tests revealed that the lichen was indeed the cause of
the strange affliction that had taken down 295 elk in a month’s time.
Wyoming Game & Fish Department
“Usnic acid, found in many
“lichens” including the parmelia molliuscula, doesn't have an ill effect
on muscle tissue.” by Mitch Battros (ECTV) EarthChangesTV
I have received a couple emails for ECTV
members I thought worth sharing. Although the Wyoming Game and Fish
Department would like to shut the door on the 300 mysterious elk deaths,
I would have to say ‘it’s just beginning’.
From Pat Ross:
Dear Mitch,
Well, here I am again. Once upon a time
I was an animal biology major who wanted to go into research, but I
digress.
Here's the problem: Usnic acid, found in
many “lichens” including the parmelia molliuscula, doesn't have an ill
effect on muscle tissue. Any toxicity from it would be derived IN THE
LIVER from large, concentrated doses ingested by animals. It's suspected,
though not confirmed, that toxicity in the liver can build up in as
little as 2 weeks -- 3 months. Incidentally, usnic acid as derived from
various lichens has been successfully used as a component in many herbal
& alternative remedies for thousands of years.
It's also been used in topical
veterinary medicine compounds to fight infections of the skin. Oh, and
it's used in toothpaste, mouthwash, creams, deodorants, and sunscreens,
among other things. Usnea is claimed to be effective against bacteria
like staphylococcus and streptococcus. And research is being done on it
as effective against tuberculosis. It also has antiviral, antiprotozoal,
antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
"Ecological effects, such as antigrowth, antiherbivore (Herbicide)
and anti-insect properties, have also been demonstrated.
"
It's received some bad press lately
because of its use in dieting compounds (so the subconscious association
would be "ah, yes, it breaks down muscle tissue" just like Fish
and Game said), but in fact, in those cases it's suspected to
cause/contribute to LIVER failure.
Effects of Aluminium toxicity on Cattle
Stop
Flouridation-rvi.net
In 1959,
Reynolds Metals Company had built an aluminium smelter on the south bank
of the St. Lawrence River near Massena,
New York State. Cornwall Island is downwind of the smelter
at least 60 per cent of the time. Angus Lazores dates his problems on the
Island to 1962,
just three years after the smelter became operational.
In that year,
cattle became lame and developed swellings on their legs, eventually the
lameness became so severe that the animals could no longer graze
normally. They laid down to eat on pasture and
then crawled to the next place to eat. With increasing age the cows had
difficulty drinking cold water, and chewing was obviously painful. The
animals would grab hay but let it go after unsuccessful attempts at
mastication.
"Airborne
fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than any
other air pollutant." - US
Department of Agriculture. Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of
Domestic Animals. Agricultural Handbook No. 380. Revised. 1972. p. 109. Flouride Alert.org
Impacts of Uranium In-Situ Leaching
Antenna.nl
In the case of in-situ leaching (ISL), or solution mining, the
uranium-bearing ore is not removed from its geological deposit, but a
leaching liquid is injected through wells into the ore deposit, and the
uranium bearing liquid is pumped from other wells. In-situ leaching gains
importance for the exploitation of low grade ore deposits, for its low
production cost. Many new projects for uranium in-situ leaching are being
planned at present.
Existing and Proposed Uranium In-Situ Leaching
Sites
The USA
produced 1684 t U from in-situ leaching in 1996,
this corresponds to 93% of all uranium produced in that year. The ISL
operations are mainly located in Wyoming,
Texas and Nebraska.
License Violations at Power Resources, Inc. Highland Uranium
Project, Wyoming, USA High Violation
Feb. 8, 2004:
500-1000 gallon spill of injection fluid
(1.1 mg/L U308)
December 20, 2003:
Spill of 600 gallons of injection fluid
containing approx. 1.5 mg/L of uranium
October 20, 2003:
Spill of 2800 gallons of injection fluid
containing approx. 1.5 mg/L of uranium
September 29, 2003:
Spill of 5000 gallons of injection/recirculation
fluid containing approx. 2.0 mg/L of uranium
March 13, 2003:
Spill of approx. 1100 gallons of
wellfield injection fluid
License
Violations at License violations at Smith Ranch in-situ leaching site Wyoming, USA High Violation
Feb. 11, 2004:
400-600 gallon spill of injection fluid (1.3
mg/L U308)
Oct. 15, 2003:
5,000 gallon spill of injection fluid
containing about 47 mg/L of U3O8
Sep. 29, 2003:
5,000 gallon spill of injection fluid
containing about 2 mg/L of U3O8
Sep. 6, 2003:
20,800 gallon spill of injection fluid
containing about 1.1 mg/L of uranium
Feb. 9, 2003:
500 gallon spill of production fluid
containing about 2 mg/L of uranium
Decommissioning Projects - Wyoming, USA. Antenna.nl
New Scientist.com – Depleted Uranium
Last week, the US Department of Energy (DOE) backed the
melt-and-dilute technique as the best method of dealing with most of the
48 tonnes of aluminium-clad fuel made in the US and used by research
reactors in over 30 countries. Of this, 20 tonnes is already stored at Savannah River, while the remaining 28 tonnes is
due to be delivered there over the next 35 years.
In lab experiments at Savannah River, which is run by the power
company Westinghouse for the DOE, aluminium and low-grade uraniumuranium
depleted of the fissile isotope uranium-235have already been melted
together and made into ingots. "You get a very nice homogeneous
product," says Natraj Iyer, the spent-fuel technology manager at the
site.
A pilot furnace, due to be completed in 2003, will heat spent fuel
and depleted uranium to 850 C, about 200 C above the melting point of
aluminium. This will reduce the volume of waste by up to 70 per cent by
removing all the pockets of air, while the proportion of uranium-235 will
fall from as high as 70 per cent to less than 20 per cent. The resulting
ingots will still have to be stored in an underground repository, says
Iyer.
He says that the technology could be used for any aluminium-based
fuel, which may include that made by Russia for research reactors
in eastern Europe. But he thinks that there would be problems melting and
diluting spent fuel from nuclear power stations because most of it is
clad with zirconium alloys with melting points over 2000C. The New Scientist
How does fluoride effect the environment?
Most processes which take raw materials from the earth's crust and
subject them to high temperatures liberate fluorides. Fluorine compounds
are involved in the production of aluminium, steel, uranium, beryllium,
bricks, cement, pottery, enamel, plastics etc. The aluminium industry
produces the highly poisonous by-product fluo-spar from aluminium slag.
Hydrogen fluoride and
elemental fluorine are also used in the nuclear industry in uranium
production. For many of these industries fluorides
present the biggest waste disposal problem. This begs the question who will be making profit by selling fluoride to our
municipalities which would otherwise be very costly to dispose of?
Industries (mostly steel and aluminium
plants) emitting fluoride air pollution have been blamed for destroying
crops and laming
cattle. EarthLife.org
Fluoride
and National Security
TOXIC SECRETS - Fluoride & the A-Bomb Program
During the ultra-secret Manhattan
Project, a report was commissioned to assess the effect of fluoride on
humans. That report was classified "secret" for reasons of
"national security".
A massive Manhattan
Project pollution incident in New Jersey
sparks secret wartime U.S.
research on fluoride safety.
The
documentary trail begins at the height of World War II, in 1944, when a
severe pollution incident occurred downwind of the E.I. du Pont de
Nemours Company chemical factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. The factory
was then producing millions of pounds of fluoride for the Manhattan
Project, the ultra-secret U.S.
military program racing to produce the world’s first atomic bomb.
The
farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their high quality
produce—their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Their
tomatoes were bought up by Campbell’s
Soup. But in the summer of 1943, the farmers began to report that their
crops were blighted, and that "something is burning up the peach
crops around here."
Poultry
died after an all-night thunderstorm, they reported. Farm workers who ate
the produce they had picked sometimes vomited all night and into the next
day. "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff to
work," these reporters were told by Mildred Giordano, who was a
teenager at the time. Some cows were so crippled that they could not
stand up, and grazed by crawling on their bellies. APFN.org
Hydrogen Floride, China
& Uranium
Yet, there are already deeply troubling indications that China is
not living up to its non-proliferation promises. Earlier this year, less
than a month after President Clinton submitted his certification of China to Congress,
U.S. intelligence
agencies found that the state-run Chinese Nuclear Energy Industry Corp., was planning a secret sale to Iran of hundreds of tons of
anhydrous hydrogen flouride
(AHF), a chemical needed to enrich natural uranium to
weapons-grade. The material was to be shipped to Iran's Isfahan
Nuclear Research
Center, identified by U.S.
intelligence as a key installation in the Iranian nuclear weapons
program. Nuclear-Control
Institute
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© 2006 by St.Clair
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