Entries by tag: mercury
The current retrograde is supposed to last until September 22. It's a long one. Lots of people think that this planetary phenomenon is the reason that things haven't been going their way. You're not supposed to make any major decisions or stick your neck out during a retrograde. Why? Superstition, in a word.
Most people who believe this bunk don't understand what the mercury retrograde really is. They think it's something serious, when it is really just an optical illusion in the sky. Mercury appears to be going backwards because of our perspective from here on earth, and the relative movements of the other planets. For a sky-watcher, it's interesting. For the superstitious person, it's momentous. Like zodiac signs in astrology, it guides their choices and gives meaning to events.
People who embrace "new age" spirituality are the most likely to believe in the negative effects of a mercury retrograde. They also tend to believe in karma and reincarnation. These beliefs are indicative of the overall ignorance of our populace. People think that because they have shed institutionalized religion that their new superstition must be better. Too many people seek explanations for what they experience, and then latch onto them without further consideration.
How is reincarnation any more plausible than heaven and hell? Are we capable of living with "I don't know" as our answer? Is intellectual laziness really our future?
Most people who believe this bunk don't understand what the mercury retrograde really is. They think it's something serious, when it is really just an optical illusion in the sky. Mercury appears to be going backwards because of our perspective from here on earth, and the relative movements of the other planets. For a sky-watcher, it's interesting. For the superstitious person, it's momentous. Like zodiac signs in astrology, it guides their choices and gives meaning to events.
People who embrace "new age" spirituality are the most likely to believe in the negative effects of a mercury retrograde. They also tend to believe in karma and reincarnation. These beliefs are indicative of the overall ignorance of our populace. People think that because they have shed institutionalized religion that their new superstition must be better. Too many people seek explanations for what they experience, and then latch onto them without further consideration.
How is reincarnation any more plausible than heaven and hell? Are we capable of living with "I don't know" as our answer? Is intellectual laziness really our future?
Here's a list of the excipients in US vaccines, compiled by the CDC and last updated almost a year ago.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf
http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Vaccines/36480
Looks like we'll keep having mercury in multiple-use vials of vaccines for the foreseeable future, because we don't have a better preservative to put in there, and not all nations have refrigeration.
Looks like we'll keep having mercury in multiple-use vials of vaccines for the foreseeable future, because we don't have a better preservative to put in there, and not all nations have refrigeration.
Clinical applications for EFAs
Tori Hudson, ND
Hosted by Nordic Naturals
( notes from lecture 1/23/12Collapse )
Tori Hudson, ND
Hosted by Nordic Naturals
( notes from lecture 1/23/12Collapse )
The EPA's new rule is a compromise between public health and corporate profits. Nothing comes for free. Particulates cause increased cardiovascular and respiratory disease and have neurological effects as well. The new rule is called MATS: Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Obama can't get anything done through congress, but he is still working his evil socialist ways via agencies designed to protect public interests. I for one appreciate some attention given to public health: better to have some reasonably devised limits than to simply let industry poison us for greater profit, even if we WANT the product of that industry.
The EPA proposal incorporates three separate limits: one for mercury, a second for acid gases and a third for particulate matter, which is used to target emissions of metals such as chromium, selenium and cadmium.
In its March proposal, it said the regulation could prevent 17,000 premature deaths from toxic emissions. Today it lowered that estimate to 11,000, according to the statement. Jackson said improved estimates for benefits from a rule to combat pollution across state borders leaves the mercury standard with fewer toxics to remove.
The changes announced today include easing off on mandatory controls for particulate matter, dispatching with pollution caps when plants are starting up or shutting down, and allowing companies greater leeway to average mercury emissions across units. Those changes will save utilities about $1 billion annually, EPA said in a fact sheet.
For more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/epa-issues-air-toxics-cap-for-u-s-coal-fired-power-plants.html
For the rule straight from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/airquality/powerplanttoxics/actions.html
The EPA proposal incorporates three separate limits: one for mercury, a second for acid gases and a third for particulate matter, which is used to target emissions of metals such as chromium, selenium and cadmium.
In its March proposal, it said the regulation could prevent 17,000 premature deaths from toxic emissions. Today it lowered that estimate to 11,000, according to the statement. Jackson said improved estimates for benefits from a rule to combat pollution across state borders leaves the mercury standard with fewer toxics to remove.
The changes announced today include easing off on mandatory controls for particulate matter, dispatching with pollution caps when plants are starting up or shutting down, and allowing companies greater leeway to average mercury emissions across units. Those changes will save utilities about $1 billion annually, EPA said in a fact sheet.
For more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/epa-issues-air-toxics-cap-for-u-s-coal-fired-power-plants.html
For the rule straight from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/airquality/powerplanttoxics/actions.html
That's what it sounds like from the letter behind the cut (at bottom), anyway. Then I searched and found that there are some senators working to strengthen the Clean Air Act on some specific pollutants, specifically with regard to coal. And frankly, I'm all for it. We need clean air. Clean air makes all the difference. I come from East Tennessee, the land of acid rain and asthma. And I have lived where the air is clean. I know the difference.
The specific proposals are to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 80% by 2018, mono-nitrogen oxides by 53% and mercury by 90% by 2015. I don't know a thing about the technology involved, but if these adjustments ARE technologically feasible we absolutely should require that our plants do them. Even knowing that we have to pay for it. Sulfur dioxide is the main thing that causes acid rain, and acid rain kills the trees and depletes the soil and turns the land into waste. It is the nightmare that people have when they think about nuclear devastation, only it happens. Nitrogen oxide contributes to acid rain. Mercury is just plain old toxic, neurotoxic and hard to get rid of. If we can stop plants from blowing mercury into the air, it won't get rained into the water, and it won't concentrate in the fish or come pouring through our taps. We won't be so poisoned.
Oh, you say, you're not poisoned? Don't check your own heavy metals if you don't want to know.
On the subject of fossil fuel dependence, here's a short history from the Post Carbon Institute.
( this letter from CREDO action in my email inbox todayCollapse )
The specific proposals are to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 80% by 2018, mono-nitrogen oxides by 53% and mercury by 90% by 2015. I don't know a thing about the technology involved, but if these adjustments ARE technologically feasible we absolutely should require that our plants do them. Even knowing that we have to pay for it. Sulfur dioxide is the main thing that causes acid rain, and acid rain kills the trees and depletes the soil and turns the land into waste. It is the nightmare that people have when they think about nuclear devastation, only it happens. Nitrogen oxide contributes to acid rain. Mercury is just plain old toxic, neurotoxic and hard to get rid of. If we can stop plants from blowing mercury into the air, it won't get rained into the water, and it won't concentrate in the fish or come pouring through our taps. We won't be so poisoned.
Oh, you say, you're not poisoned? Don't check your own heavy metals if you don't want to know.
On the subject of fossil fuel dependence, here's a short history from the Post Carbon Institute.
( this letter from CREDO action in my email inbox todayCollapse )
Because mercury bio-accumulates, and otters are SO carnivorous, they are like the canary in a coalmine for the detection of mercury. The Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources asked all the otter trappers for the carcasses and tested various tissues for mercury levels. The levels were highest in fur, with descending concentrations in these tissues: liver, kidney, muscle, and brain. Methyl-mercury made up a greater percentage of total Hg in brain and muscle compared to liver and kidney tissue. So far none of the otters appears to be sickened by their mercury load. The levels in the fur are directly related to the levels in internal tracking, so I suspect future research may follow living otters to see what they're taking in. "A gradient" in tissue concentrations was noted from north to south, but they don't say which way the gradient goes. Perhaps more to the south, like in fish? We shall see.
SOURCES
http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/pbt/research/OtterSummaryAbstract.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m4pg0184615kr4hk/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17926081
Also, at http://www.glc.org/glad/projects/basu09/ they are monitoring eagles and otters for biomarkers. The specific aims of this proposal are: 1) Exposure Assessment : to determine tissue mercury and PBDE levels in river otters and bald eagles from several Great Lakes states, with a focus on animals collected from existing statewide monitoring programs in Michigan and Wisconsin; 2) Health Assessment : to determine river otter and bald eagle health status by means of neurochemical biomarker studies on key receptors (muscarinic, glutamate) and enzymes (monoamine oxidase, cholinesterase) in physiologically important brain regions; 3) Risk Characterization : to determine if there is a statistical association between mercury and PBDE exposure (Aim #1) and alterations in neurochemical biomarkers (Aim #2); and 4) Education and Capacity Building : to build capacity among academic researchers and government/state managers and to disseminate results to scientific and regulatory communities.
SOURCES
http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/pbt/research/OtterSummaryAbstract.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m4pg0184615kr4hk/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17926081
Also, at http://www.glc.org/glad/projects/basu09/ they are monitoring eagles and otters for biomarkers. The specific aims of this proposal are: 1) Exposure Assessment : to determine tissue mercury and PBDE levels in river otters and bald eagles from several Great Lakes states, with a focus on animals collected from existing statewide monitoring programs in Michigan and Wisconsin; 2) Health Assessment : to determine river otter and bald eagle health status by means of neurochemical biomarker studies on key receptors (muscarinic, glutamate) and enzymes (monoamine oxidase, cholinesterase) in physiologically important brain regions; 3) Risk Characterization : to determine if there is a statistical association between mercury and PBDE exposure (Aim #1) and alterations in neurochemical biomarkers (Aim #2); and 4) Education and Capacity Building : to build capacity among academic researchers and government/state managers and to disseminate results to scientific and regulatory communities.
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