DoomsdaysCW<p>Not just human health! The <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Toxic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Toxic</span></a> Blend of LA’s Urban <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WildfireSmoke" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WildfireSmoke</span></a> Will Have Lasting Health Consequences </p><p>Los Angeles residents are breathing bits of "cars, metal pipes, plastics."<br /> <br />By Zoya Teirstein, January 22, 2025</p><p>“These fires are different from previous quote-unquote ‘wildfires,’ because there are so many structures that burned,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. 'Everything in the households got burned — cars, metal pipes, plastics.'</p><p>"<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Wildfiresmoke" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Wildfiresmoke</span></a> is toxic. Burning trees and shrubs produce very fine <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/particulatematter" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>particulatematter</span></a>, known by the shorthand PM 2.5, which burrow deep into the lungs and can even infiltrate the bloodstream, causing cold- and flu-like symptoms in the short term, and heart disease, lung cancer, and other chronic issues over time. </p><p>"But the fires that raced through Los Angeles burned thousands of homes, schools, historic buildings, and even medical clinics, blanketing the city in thick smoke. For several days after the first fire started, the city’s air quality index, or <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AQI" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AQI</span></a>, exceeded 100, the threshold, typically seen during wildfires, at which air becomes unhealthy to breathe for children, the elderly, and those with asthma. In some parts of the city, the AQI reached 500, a number rarely seen and always hazardous for everyone. </p><p>"At the moment, air pollution experts know how much smoke fills the air. That’s shown improvement in recent days. But they don’t know what’s in it. 'What are the chemical mixtures in this smoke?' asked Kai Chen, an environmental scientist at the Yale School of Public Health. 'In addition to fine particulate matter, there are potentially other hazardous and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carcinogenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carcinogenic</span></a> organic compounds — gas pollutants, trace metals, and microplastics.'</p><p>"Previous research shows that the spikes in unhealthy air quality seen during such events lead to higher rates of hospitalizations for issues like asthma, and even contribute to heart attacks among those with that chronic disease. A 2024 study on the long-term effects of smoke exposure in California showed that particulate matter from wildfires in the state from 2008 to 2018 contributed to anywhere from 52,000 to 56,000 premature deaths. A health assessment of 148 firefighters who worked the Tubbs Fire, which burned more than 36,000 acres in Northern California in 2017 and destroyed an unusually high number of structures, found elevated levels of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PFAS" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PFAS</span></a> known as forever chemicals, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HeavyMetals" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HeavyMetals</span></a>, and flame retardants in their blood and urine.</p><p>"The L.A. County Department of Public Health has formally urged people to stay inside and wear masks to protect themselves from windblown toxic dust and ash. Air quality measurements don’t take these particles into account, which means the air quality index doesn’t reveal the extent of contaminants in the air. </p><p>"Zhu and her colleagues have been collecting samples of wildfire smoke in neighborhoods near the fires. It’ll be months before that data is fully analyzed, but Zhu suspects she will find a dangerous mix of chemicals, including, potentially, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/asbestos" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>asbestos</span></a> and lead — materials used in many buildings constructed before the 1970s. </p><p>"The risk will linger even after the smoke clears. The plumes that wafted over the landscape will deposit chemicals into drinking <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/water" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>water</span></a> supplies and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/contaminate" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>contaminate</span></a># soil. When rains do come, they’ll wash <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ToxicAsh" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ToxicAsh</span></a> into streams and across the land, said Fernando Rosario-Ortiz, an environmental engineer and interim dean of the University of Colorado Boulder environmental engineering program. 'There’s a lot of manmade materials that are now being combusted. The potential is there for contamination,' he said, noting that little research on how toxic ash and other byproducts of wildfires in urban areas currently exists. 'What we don’t have a lot of information on is what happens now.'</p><p>"After the Camp Fire razed Paradise, California, in 2018, water utilities found high levels of volatile organic compounds [<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/VOCs" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>VOCs</span></a>] in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DrinkingWater" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DrinkingWater</span></a>. Similar issues have arisen in places like Boulder County, Colorado, where the Marshall Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 structures in 2021, Rosario-Ortiz said, though the presence of a contaminant in a home doesn’t necessarily mean it will be present in high levels in the water. Still, several municipal water agencies in Los Angeles issued preemptive advisories urging residents not to drink tap water in neighborhoods near the Palisades and Eaton fires. It’ll be weeks before they know exactly what’s in the water. </p><p>"As wildfires grow ever more intense and encroach upon urban areas, cities and counties must be prepared to monitor the health impacts and respond to them. 'This is the first time I’ve ever even witnessed or heard anything like this,' said Zhu, who raised her daughter in Los Angeles and has lived there for decades, said. 'Even being in the field studying wildfires and air quality impacts, I never imagined that a whole neighborhood, a whole community in Palisades, would burn down.'"</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-toxic-blend-of-las-urban-wildfire-smoke-will-have-lasting-health-consequences/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=flipboard_rss&utm_campaign=znetwork" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-t</span><span class="invisible">oxic-blend-of-las-urban-wildfire-smoke-will-have-lasting-health-consequences/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=flipboard_rss&utm_campaign=znetwork</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirPollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AirPollution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterPollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WaterPollution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AirIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ToxicMaterials" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ToxicMaterials</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalDisaster" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EnvironmentalDisaster</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalDamage" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EnvironmentalDamage</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Pyrocene" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Pyrocene</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PyroceneEra" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PyroceneEra</span></a></p>
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#carcinogenic
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DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LandBack" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LandBack</span></a> at <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Barnhart" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Barnhart</span></a>:<br />Contextualizing the Re-occupation of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BarnhartIsland" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BarnhartIsland</span></a> in Shared Legacies of Struggle</p><p>From <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TurtleIsland" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TurtleIsland</span></a> to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Palestine" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Palestine</span></a>, the struggle at <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Akwesasne" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Akwesasne</span></a> is rooted in the shared struggle of all <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/OppressedPeoples" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>OppressedPeoples</span></a> of the world who are opposing the illogic of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SettlerCapitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SettlerCapitalism</span></a> and the endless violation of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lands" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>lands</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/waters" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>waters</span></a> that our current economic system necessitates.</p><p>By Jennifer Lee<br />June 25, 2024</p><p>"On May 21, 2024, a group of eight Kanien’kehá:ka (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Mohawk" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Mohawk</span></a>) community members from Akwesasne were arrested at Niionenhiasekowa:ne (Barnhart Island). Certain individuals among the '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Akwesasne8" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Akwesasne8</span></a>' had originally gone to Barnhart to exercise their right to build a hunting and gathering shelter on their own territory, in part to protest an ongoing land claim settlement that threatens to hand over Kanien’kehá:ka title to this island, among other traditionally held territories, to New York State. The settlement is being negotiated between New York entities and three Akwesasne government councils.</p><p>"Presently, the settlement negotiations would require the extinguishment of Mohawk title to Barnhart Island, which would be effectuated through an act of Congress. By asserting their right to the land, the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Akwesasne8" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Akwesasne8</span></a> have sent a clear message to both negotiating parties. Barnhart Island, like all other territories illegally stolen and swindled from their community, is not for sale—particularly not by collaborationist band and tribal council entities that purport to represent the full community but that were in fact historically imposed upon it at gunpoint.</p><p>"The fact that a group of eight community members was surrounded within just a few hours by approximately 35 police agents (including both border patrol agents and state troopers) is a clear indication of the strategic significance of this island to the interests of settler-capital. As Taiewennahawi (Marina Johnson-Zafiris), one of the eight arrestees, explains in her article 'Akwesasne and the History of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Hydropower" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Hydropower</span></a>,' the Moses-Saunders <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/hydrodam" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>hydrodam</span></a>, located at the east end of Barnhart Island, is one of the many dams along the St. Lawrence Seaway that has supplied 'cheap' electricity to an unending procession of heavily <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/polluting" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>polluting</span></a> factories since the 1950s. </p><p>"For decades, dirty plants like <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Alcoa" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Alcoa</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GeneralMotors" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>GeneralMotors</span></a>, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReynoldsMetals" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReynoldsMetals</span></a> harnessed the immense power of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Kaniatarowanenneh" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Kaniatarowanenneh</span></a> (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SaintLawrenceRiver" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SaintLawrenceRiver</span></a>) at the Moses-Saunders dam to manufacture aluminum, a cheap, abundant, and malleable building material that requires vast amounts of power to extract and process. Not only was hydropower-fueled aluminum production critical to New York’s economic development, it was central to the national pride and independence of so-called <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Qu%C3%A9bec" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Québec</span></a>. Eager to assert its autonomy from Anglophone capital in the 1960s, the province began damming rivers on <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Indigenous" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Indigenous</span></a> land in a frenzy of hydropower nationalism. </p><p>"Upstream on the St. Lawrence, the aluminum plants at Akwesasne used a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/toxic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>toxic</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sludge" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sludge</span></a> containing polychlorinated biphenyls (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PCBs" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PCBs</span></a>) as a hydraulic fluid during the production process. These PCBs were manufactured by the infamously litigious <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/corporation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>corporation</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Monsanto" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Monsanto</span></a>, which continues to evade public <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/accountability" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>accountability</span></a> for discharging this known <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carcinogen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carcinogen</span></a> into the St. Lawrence River and onto Kanien’kehá:ka soil. The <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carcinogenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carcinogenic</span></a> soup was left exposed on the very grounds where the children of Akwesasne played and where families grew their vegetables. Today, Akwesasne sits downstream and downwind of three heavily <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/polluted" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>polluted</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/superfund" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>superfund</span></a> sites, and residents of Akwesasne report that almost everyone they know has a friend or family member suffering from a rare <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cancer" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>cancer</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MetabolicSyndrome" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MetabolicSyndrome</span></a>, or <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/autoimmune" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>autoimmune</span></a> disorder. Rare, life-threatening illnesses exist at Akwesasne at rates that the public would never consider normal or acceptable in any non-Indigenous community.</p><p>"Dana-Leigh Thompson, one of the Akwesasne 8, lived about 3,000 feet from the PCB <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/dumpsite" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>dumpsite</span></a> of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GeneralMotors" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>GeneralMotors</span></a> (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GM" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>GM</span></a>) factory for a decade. She calls what is happening to the community nothing short of an '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/environmental" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>environmental</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>genocide</span></a>.'"</p><p>Read more:</p><p><a href="https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/online/land-back-at-barnhart/#easy-footnote-15-16285" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">magazine.scienceforthepeople.o</span><span class="invisible">rg/online/land-back-at-barnhart/#easy-footnote-15-16285</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalRacism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EnvironmentalRacism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Ecocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Ecocide</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>2019: <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Gut" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Gut</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/microbiota" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>microbiota</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/neurological" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>neurological</span></a> effects of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/glyphosate" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>glyphosate</span></a> </p><p>Abstract: "There are currently various concerns regarding certain environmental toxins and the possible impact they can have on developmental diseases. Glyphosate (Gly) is the most utilised herbicide in agriculture, although its widespread use is generating controversy in the scientific world because of its probable <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carcinogenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carcinogenic</span></a> effect on human cells. Gly performs as an inhibitor of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phospate synthase (EPSP synthase), not only in plants, but also in bacteria. An inhibiting effect on EPSP synthase from intestinal microbiota has been reported, affecting mainly beneficial bacteria. To the contrary, Clostridium spp. and Salmonella strains are shown to be resistant to Gly. Consequently, researchers have suggested that Gly can cause dysbiosis, a phenomenon which is characterised by an imbalance between beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms. The overgrowth of bacteria such as <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/clostridia" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>clostridia</span></a> generates high levels of noxious metabolites in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/brain" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>brain</span></a>, which can contribute to the development of neurological deviations. This work reviews the impact of Glyphosate-induced <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/intestinal" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>intestinal</span></a> dysbiosis on the central nervous system, focusing on emotional, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/neurological" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>neurological</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/neurodegenerative" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>neurodegenerative</span></a> disorders. A wide variety of factors were investigated in relation to brain-related changes, including highlighting <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/genetic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>genetic</span></a> abnormalities, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/pregnancy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>pregnancy</span></a>-associated problems, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/diet" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>diet</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/infections" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>infections</span></a>, vaccines and heavy metals. However, more studies are required to determine the implication of the most internationally used <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/herbicide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>herbicide</span></a>, Gly, in behavioural disorders."</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RoundUp" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RoundUp</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Herbicides" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Herbicides</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Soy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Soy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Wheat" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Wheat</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Corn" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Corn</span></a></p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31442459/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/314424</span><span class="invisible">59/</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>Ohio Train Derailment Could Bring Cancer Risk, Millions in Damage</p><p>(Bloomberg)</p><p>"Nearly two weeks after a train carrying <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carcinogenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carcinogenic</span></a> chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, the extent of the damage to the nearby community is still unclear. Railroads face a traffic backlog and operator Norfolk Southern Corp. could rack up tens of millions of dollars in costs. </p><p>"Though residents have been allowed to return to their homes, many remain concerned about the long-term environmental effects of the Feb. 3 accident. Some of them watched from a distance as a fiery cloud blazed above the wreckage after Norfolk Southern, in conjunction with authorities, decided to intentionally vent and burn some of the railcars to avoid a potential explosion.</p><p>“'I’ve had discussions with some people who live right near ground zero who are hesitant to come back,' said James Wise, a local attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern on behalf of some residents. 'There are people with young children and they don’t know what effects it’s going to have.'"<br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Ohio" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Ohio</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrainDerailment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>TrainDerailment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EastPalestine" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EastPalestine</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateGreed" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CorporateGreed</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Coverups" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Coverups</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Environment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Environment</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalCatastrophe" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EnvironmentalCatastrophe</span></a> </p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/ohio-train-derailment-could-bring-cancer-risk-millions-in-damage/ar-AA17vTPA?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=5af9fe2bd7e944c4b31c2bd98c190919" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">msn.com/en-us/money/other/ohio</span><span class="invisible">-train-derailment-could-bring-cancer-risk-millions-in-damage/ar-AA17vTPA?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=5af9fe2bd7e944c4b31c2bd98c190919</span></a></p>
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