Tag Archives: health
Court Orders First Handover of Chevron’s Ecuador Assets
ENS
Oct. 17, 2012
QUITO, Ecuador, October 17, 2012 (ENS) – An Ecuadorian court has frozen are all bank accounts owned by Chevron, Texaco, and their subsidiaries in partial payment of a $19 billion pollution damages judgment against Chevron.
Indigenous people and villagers living in the Ecuadorian Amazon were granted a court order this week that allows them to collect $200 million of Chevron’s assets in the country.
“This is a huge first step for the rainforest villagers on the road to collecting the entire $19 billion judgment,” said Pablo Fajardo, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Fajardo said the assets would be used to begin a cleanup of the ecological disaster left by Texaco, consistent with the mandates laid out by the Ecuador trial court.
Iraq records huge rise in birth defects
The Independent
Oct. 14, 2012
By Sarah Morrison
It played unwilling host to one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war. Fallujah’s homes and businesses were left shattered; hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed. Its residents changed the name of their “City of Mosques” to “the polluted city” after the United States launched two massive military campaigns eight years ago. Now, one month before the World Health Organisation reveals its view on the legacy of the two battles for the town, a new study reports a “staggering rise” in birth defects among Iraqi children conceived in the aftermath of the war.
High rates of miscarriage, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects ranging from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs have been recorded. Even more disturbingly, they appear to be occurring at an increasing rate in children born in Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.
There is “compelling evidence” to link the increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military assaults, says Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after British troops invaded, according to the new research.
Russia Suspends Import, Use Of Genetically Modified Corn
Dow Jones
Sept. 25, 2012
LONDON–Russia’s consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Tuesday it has suspended the import and use of genetically modified corn made by Monsanto Co. (MON) following a study’s allegations that the crop causes cancer.
Rospotrebnadzor said the country’s Institute of Nutrition has been asked to assess the validity of the study, while the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health & Consumers has also been contacted to explain the European Union’s position.
The study, conducted by the University of Caen in France, alleged that rats fed over a two-year period with the U.S. chemical company’s genetically modified NK603 corn, developed more tumors and other severe diseases than a test group fed with regular corn.
French Study Finds Tumors and Organ Damage in Rats Fed Monsanto Corn
Truthout
Sept. 19, 2012
By Mike Ludwig
Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company’s popular Roundup herbicide developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage, according to a French study released on Wednesday.
The study could have a big impact on the battle over a California ballot proposal that would require groceries containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled as such. Monsanto has already donated $7.1 million to the campaign to defeat the proposal, known as Proposition 37.
The study, published in a reputable American journal, links varying levels of both the Roundup herbicide and the transgenes in Monsanto’s patented NK603 corn to mammary tumors and severe liver and kidney damage.
58 cancers receive 9/11 fund coverage
CNN
Sept. 10, 2012
(CNN) — Federal health authorities Monday added 58 types of cancer to the list of covered illnesses for people who were exposed to toxins at the site of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The addition finalizes a recommendation from Dr. John Howard, administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program. Howard proposed in June that the program accept the recommendations of its Science/Technical Advisory Committee and add some cancers to the coverage list — 14 categories in all.
Firefighters responding to 9/11 at increased cancer risk
The advisory committee review called for expanded “coverage for certain types of cancer resulting from exposure to toxins released at Ground Zero.”
