Natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) are highly complex minerals (aluminosilicates) of volcanic origin possessing very useful properties. As so often in research, there are widely differing opinions regarding the value and use of  zeolite in the healthcare industry. On the other hand, there is widespread agreement among international researchers that the sum of its useful properties and the broad spectrum of therapeutic applications in the human body mean that silicon natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) should be counted among the more important medically and therapeutically relevant naturally-occurring resources.

Numerous studies have shown that the characteristic molecular structure of natural zeolite means it can be used to bind and filter out heavy metals, radioactive nuclides (e.g. caesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90) and other harmful and waste materials (e.g. sulphate and ammonium ions, methane) in living organisms.

Using zeolite to reduce radioactive contamination, tested in Harrisburg 1979, Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011

The best-known medical use of zeolite (clinoptilolite) occurred in the aftermath of the tragic reactor failure in Chernobyl in 1986; physicians and the rescue services made widespread use of natural zeolite to successfully detoxify and decontaminate people exposed to the radiation. The knowledge gained from this has been collected and thoroughly documented. There are also records relating to the use of zeolite to filter strontium and caesium out of the human body after the Three Mile Island catastrophe near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1979. Japan, China and Russia are all currently making use of natural zeolite and/or products containing zeolite as they deal with the consequences of the meltdown at Fukushima-Daiichi caused by the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. In addition to being used to mitigate radiation-related damage and to decontaminate humans, zeolite is also being used to clean up the environment.

The decisive aspect here is once again zeolite’s (clinoptilolite) ability to exchange ions and absorb radionuclides (isotopes), releasing e.g. calcium ions in their place. The specific crystal structure of zeolite (clinoptilolite), in particular its innumerable cavities and large surface area, means that radionuclides can be trapped and – in living organisms – be evacuated from the body.
 The structure of zeolite allows it to absorb up to 95 % of the commonly found radionuclide caesium-137 and up to 80 % of strontium-90 (filter function). Studies show that by adding zeolite (clinoptilolite) to food, caesium-137 can be removed from the human body three to five times more effectively. The zeolite is not digested or absorbed by the body; instead, the organism excretes the mineral after it has absorbed the toxic radionuclides.

Key aspects of medical research on zeolite

In many countries, the use of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) is not limited to its indisputable function as a filter, however. Zeolite can in fact achieve much more. There have been studies carried out in Russia, Japan, the Czech Republic and Germany which show that zeolite is capable of releasing up to 80 different trace elements and electrolytes such as silicon, iron, selenium and fluoride. These and other studies have also investigated the oft-reported beneficial effects of zeolite (clinoptilolite) for both human and animal bodies. The main avenues of investigation are:

• The influence zeolite has on the function of the enzymes and hormones in the body
• The effects that the use of zeolites have on the immune system
• The beneficial impacts natural zeolite can have on the exchange of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates

The studies have come to different yet generally positive conclusions, although it must be noted that some are not based on a representative data set. On the other hand, the influence of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) on the gastrointestinal tract, particularly in its function as an enterosorbent, has been thoroughly researched and adequately substantiated. The main focus of research here has been the stabilizing function that zeolite has on pH values in cases of over-acidification, as these effects play a significant role in the immune system.

Pharmacological properties and applications of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite)

Scientific studies and practical testing of the pharmacological characteristics of natural zeolite have shown that zeolites may be very useful as a medium for delivering therapeutically active ingredients. Zeolite is already widely employed to provide the required technological properties for medical preparations, boosting both their action and their therapeutic effectiveness.

Natural zeolites are also used in many countries as a basis for dressings for wounds that heal poorly, inflammations and burns. Studies state that natural zeolite’s contribution to the dressings’ effectiveness derives from its ability to absorb certain toxins produced in the wound by bacteria and fungi (e.g. mycotoxins) and its ability to stimulate the body’s own self-healing processes.

A further field where the application of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) promises much is in the treatment of fungal dermatoses and atopic eczemas such as neurodermititis. One effective use that is much reported in practical studies is to apply natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) to the skin to provide relief from pruritus (itching).

The resulting releasing of radiation would turn North America into a “dead zone” for humans… mutated (and failed) crops, radioactive groundwater, skyrocketing infant mortality, an explosion in cancer and infertility… this is what could be unleashed at any moment from an earthquake in Japan. Such an event could result in the release of 85 times the Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl catastrophe, say experts (see below). And the Chernobyl catastrophe made its surrounding regions uninhabitable by humans for centuries.

Yet, astonishingly, the usual suspects of deception are saying absolutely nothing about this problem. The mainstream media (the dying dinosaur media, actually) pretends there’s no problem with Fukushima. President Obama says nothing about it. Federal regulators, including the NRC, are all but silent. It’s as if they think their silence on the issue somehow makes it go away.

Perhaps these professional liars in the media and government have become so used to idea that they can simply spin their own reality (and get the public suckers to believe almost anything) that they now believe they can ignore the laws of physics. That’s why they have refused to cover the low-level radiation plumethat continues to be emitted from Fukushima.

The fate of the world now rests on reactor No. 4

“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No.4 reactor.” – Mitsuhei Murata, Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal, Executive Director, the Japan Society for Global System and Ethics

Mr. Murata’s stunning statement should be front-page news everywhere around the world. Why? Because he’s right. If reactor No. 4 suffers even a minor earthquake, it could set off a chain reaction of events that quickly lead to North America becoming uninhabitable by humans for centuries to come. Imagine California, Oregon and Washington states being inundated with radiation — up to85 times the radiation release from Chernobyl. We’re talking about the end of human life on the scale of continents.

Here’s how this could happen, according to Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy:

“The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident. The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters.”(http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/nuclear-expert-fukushima-spent-…)

Note: He says “10 times” the Cesium-137 of Chernobyl. Others say up to 85 times. Nobody is 100% certain of what would actually occur because this has never happened before. We are in uncharted territory as a civilization, facing a unique and imminent threat to our continued survival. And both governments and the corporations that assured us nuclear power was safe are playing their “cover my ass” games while the world waits in the crosshairs of a nuclear apocalypse.

Fukushima Facts

To better understand the severity of this situation, read these facts about Fukushima reactor No. 4 which I have assembled from available news sources:

• Reactor #4 contains 1,535 spent fuel rods which remain highly radioactive.
• These fuel rods currently hold the potential to emit37 million curies of radiation.
• Those fuel rods are stored in a concrete pool located 100 feet above the ground, inside the structurally compromised reactor building, effectively making the pool open to the air.
• The pool holding these fuel rods is “structurally damaged.”
• “If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.” – Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy.
• “The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors.” – Mr. Alvarez.
• Just 50 meters from reactor No. 4, a much larger pool of spent fuel rods contains 6,375 fuel rods, all of which remain highly radioactive.
• All these fuel rods are, astonishingly, exposed to the open air. They are not held inside any containment vessel.
• The total number of spent fuel rods across all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site is 11,421.
• If reactor No. 4 suffers a structural failure, the release of radiation from the 1,535 spent fuel rods would make it virtually impossible for work to continue on the site, potentially resulting in an inability to halt a massive radiation release from all the other rods.
• In all, the 11,421 fuel rods held at the Fukushima Daiichi facility contain roughly336 million curies of “long-lived radioactivity.” Roughly 134 million curies of that is Cesium-137.
• “Reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.” – Mr. Robert Alvarez, U.S. Dept. of Energy
• This amount of Cesium-137 radioactivity held in the full collection of fuel rods at Fukushima is 85 times the amount released at Chernobyl.
• The release of this amount of Cesium-137 would “destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is an issue of human survival.” (http://akiomatsumura.com/2012/04/682.html)
• The mainstream media operates in atotal blackoutof this news, refusing to even acknowledge the existence of this immediate threat to human civilization.
• The mainstream media is, in large part, owned by General Electric, the very company that designed the Fukushima reactors in the first place. It is clear that GE is diligently running atotal media blackouton this news in order to cover its own ass and prevent people from asking questions about the faulty engineering and nuclear facility site selection that led to this catastrophe.

18,000 dead so far and hundreds of millions at risk: The media cover-up

“The executive branch and multiple federal agencies, agencies tasked with keeping the American public safe, did their best to hide and to cover-up information about a deadly radioactive plume and ensuing fallout that was headed for the West Coast of the United States from Japan,” says Alexander Higgins. (http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/01/plumegate-media-silent-fe…)

He goes on to state “The evidence obtained in the FOIA request indicates that right from the start, the NRC had a clear idea of the significance of the disaster that was unfolding, but concealed the truth from the American public. The results of the plume and fallout can be measured in the rise of infant mortality rates: cells of unborn and newborn children are dividing at a much higher rate than those of a mature adult, thus the amount of damage is greatly increased and hence more detectable. Conservative estimates place the number of stillborn following the Fukushima accident at over 18,000.”

See the FOIA documents here:
http://www.houseoffoust.com/NRC/ML11269A172.pdf

and here:
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A106.pdf

The conspiracy cover-up of the radioactive plumes still being emitted from Fukushima is now being called “Plume-Gate.” This issue needs to be front and center on all our radar screens. There may quite literally be nothing more important for the survival of the human race than dealing with this runaway issue of Fukushima radiation in the immediate term, and the larger issue of the scientific fraud of nuclear power “safety” thereafter.

As Higgins explains, “It is this author’s opinion that any media source not shouting about Plume-Gate as loud as they can are likely controlled by the powers-that-be.” He’s got a point. Thisshouldbe our No. 1 issue, and NaturalNews is re-shifting priorities right now to help raise the alarm on the impeding Fukushima disaster for the obvious reason thateverything else pales in comparisonto the importance of dealing with this.

Take action now

http://fukushima.greenaction-japan.org/2012/05/01/an-urgent-request-o…

This petition calls for two actions:

1. The United Nations should organize a Nuclear Security Summit to take up the crucial problem of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool.
2. The United Nations should establish an independent assessment team on Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 and coordinate international assistance in order to stabilize the unit’s spent nuclear fuel and prevent radiological consequences with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Sources include:

Japanese letter:
http://akiomatsumura.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Letter-to-Prime-M…

Fukushima Update
http://fukushima.greenaction-japan.org/

Arnie Gunderson – one of the most important scientific voices of truth and reason on this issue
http://www.fairewinds.com/

Alexander Higgins:
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/01/plumegate-media-silent-fe…

Source:http://www.naturalnews.com/035789_Fukushima_Cesium-137_Plume-Gate.html#ixzz1uC0tZE6f

How can victims of radiation detox from this insidious insult? The answer lies in the use of natural zeolites, a class of natural minerals from volcanic ash that can help the body get rid of heavy metals and detox radiation sickness, even up to uranium 238! Containing a unique, negatively charged, crystalline structure, the zeolite captures these dangerous elements from the body into a molecular cage that the body excretes. Simple and safe to take, zeolite can be taken in liquid with little to no taste and requires little more than a few drops on the tongue at a time. No dangerous drugs. No painful shots. No hard to swallow pills. No nasty tasting drinks. No risk of unpleasant or dangerous side effects.

Using zeolites to clean up radioactive compounds is not new. At the Hanford Nuclear Facility in Richland, Washington, radioactive strontium-90 (Sr 90 ) and cesium-137 (Cs 137 ) have been removed from radioactive waste solutions by passing them through tanks packed with the natural zeolite clinoptilolite. Zeolites have also been used to clean radioactive wastes from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant site and elsewhere

And zeolite’s uses extend far beyond cleaning up radioactive waste. They are used in crops and pastures for higher yield by making fertilizers more effective and for long term soil improvements. They decrease ammonia levels in ponds and tanks and filtrate water for cleaner tanks by soaking up sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), a pollutant produced by burning high-sulfur coal. Coming from waste toxic gases, sulfur dioxide is the major cause of acid rain. In fact, zeolites are the most effective filters yet found for absorbing sulfur dioxide from waste gases and are helping to clean the air of gases coming from energy plants which burn high-sulfur fossil fuel at the Ohio River Valley and other regions, as well as for purifying the air in mines.

For years, zeolites have been used to detox animal waste, and even deodorize litter boxes, and as a water softener to remove calcium. They are also used in hydrogenating vegetable oils. Moreover, recent uses of liquid zeolite to detox heavy metals from the body have been shown to alleviate Candida Albicans, to help alkalize the body and to reduce viruses, bacteria and other pathogens from the system making it an effective immune system booster.

Related Articles:

• http://www.articlealley.com/article_2038881_17.html?ktrack=kcplinkOve…
• http://www.waiora.com/products/pro_ncd_rick.php

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/032265_zeolites_radiation.html#ixzz1tuT9PT81

The letter, which many experts see as the ominous writing on the wall for the grave severity of the circumstances, offers a disturbing glimpse into what is really going on across the Pacific Ocean that the mainstream media is apparently ignoring. While referencing the fact that all four of the affected reactors are still “badly damaged,” Sen. Wyden seems to hint in his letter that Reactor 4, which has reportedly been on the verge of collapse for many months now, could be nearing catastrophic implosion.

Imminent collapse of Reactor 4 could create a mass extinction event of both humans and animals

According to Christina Consolo, an award-winning biomedical photographer and host ofNuked Radio, Reactor 4 has remained in such bad shape that even a very small earthquake could quickly level the building, sending the fuel from more than 1,500 unused fuel rods into the environment. And with Reactor 4 still filled with the highest levels of radioactive MOX and other fuels, the consequences of this potential collapse could be far worse than anything that has happened thus far as a result of the earthquake and tsunami.

“[Sitting at the top of [Reactor 4], in a pool that is cracked, leaking, and precarious even without an earthquake, are 1,565 fuel rods (give or take a few), some of them ‘fresh fuel’ that was ready to go into the reactor on the morning of March 11 when the earthquake and tsunami hit,” writes Consolo. “If they are MOX fuel, containing six percent plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people.”

Sen. Wyden is also asking U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jaczko to assess how much additional assistance their agencies might be willing to provide to help Japan, and the entire world, avoid a nuclear catastrophe of Biblical proportions.

“The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected and the scope of the challenges to the utility owner, the government of Japan, and to the people of the region are daunting,” wrote Sen. Wyden in his letter, dated April 16, 2012. “The precarious status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance.”

Related Links:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TI_MawmZZE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4M4ZIGCAc
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9028333/Camera-sent-inside-Japans-leaking-Fukushima-nuclear-reactor.html
• http://www.wyden.senate.gov
• http://enenews.com
• http://endthelie.com
• http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html

Source:http://www.naturalnews.com/035731_Fukushima_radiation_America.html#ixzz1tdADFqqz

Independent researchers at Cornell University discovered that sick building syndrome (SBS), which causes many occupants to suffer similar health issues, occurred mostly in recently built airtight structures without adequate internal air cleaning systems. They ran out of research funds and couldn’t continue.

A couple of decades ago, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a medical wing of the Department of Labor, made an alarming discovery regarding man made mineral fibers (fiberglass). They determined that the fibers created DNA damage, which leads to chronic illness and is carcinogenic.

An anti-regulatory Congress that encouraged the rapid rise of biotech industries, such as Monsanto, threatened to abolish NIOSH around that time. Meanwhile, the large suppliers of fiberglass insulation claim they’ve done their own research.

They publicly assert all is well and reports to the contrary are based on faulty research. The foxes are in the hen house.

A whistleblower claims fiberglass fibers are as dangerous as asbestos

Paul Ayers was a Certified Hazardous Materials Supervisor involved with the removal of industrial hazardous waste for several years. He quoted a 1974 position paper by Dr. Mearl Stanton of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that was sent to a non-profit activist group called Victims of Fiberglass.

That quote is: “asbestos causes cancer not because it is asbestos, but because it is a Respirable Durable Fiber (RDF). RDFs completely unrelated to asbestos such as fiberglass and rock wool are equally carcinogenic.”

Dr. Mearl Stanton stated later in 1977 that it’s not the physical property of the fibers, but their sizes and shapes that determine hazards to the lungs. When long, thin sharp fibers are inhaled, they can deeply penetrate sensitive lung tissues and begin a process leading to emphysema, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), or cancer.

Animal testing in Scotland and Switzerland proved that certain fiberglass types used in the aerospace industry can even cause mesothelioma, the dreaded, aggressive lung cancer that is attributed to breathing in asbestos fibers.

Fiberglass actually comes from glass. Microscopic glass shards are created from sand in special furnaces then coated with phenol-formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde resins. It’s used in those pink rolls of insulation you’ve seen on construction sites or TV commercials. There is also the loose pink foamy stuff that can be sprayed into attics for insulation.

Even cigarette filters have used fiber glass. Instead of protecting against nicotine, the tiny shards from the filters can cut into the lungs and allow more nicotine to penetrate the lungs. There have been tooth pastes using fiber glass fibers as abrasives. The tiny coated shards cut the gums enough to allow toothpaste fluoride to penetrate directly into the bloodstream.

When it comes to solid fiberglass items, the workers in those manufacturing plants have the highest exposure from working and sanding fiberglass products. But where does all that fiberglass dust go from those plants? Paul Ayers and the Victims of Fiberglass point to an increase in outdoor airborne fiberglass fibers in some areas.

Fiberglass insulation is used throughout office buildings, apartment buildings, and homes. You can check your home or office for airborne fiberglass content by partially taping over central air vents. Take the tape off and look for tiny shiny particles with a flashlight.

The fiberglass industry is circling their wagons, and you can’t rely on government agencies. Protect your health yourself (source below).

Sources for this article include:

• http://www.sustainableenterprises.com/fin/Health/dna.htm
• http://preventdisease.com
• http://www.nytimes.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiberglass

Source:http://www.naturalnews.com/035686_fiberglass_lung_diseae_cancer.html#ixzz1t9ZCH4Es

“You’re living here and you have no idea of what’s really in your ground, what’s in your backyard,” Marshall says now. “It’s just kind of scary to think that you’re sending your kids out to play in an area that’s hazardous.”

Hundreds of soil tests by USA TODAY in neighborhoods near former lead factories show numerous areas where the dirt is so contaminated that children should not be playing in it.

Yet they are.

INTERACTIVE: Explore more than 230 lead-factory sites

VIDEO: USA TODAY’s soil testing findings

PHOTOS: Philadelphia’s Hedley Street neighborhood

Hazardous levels of lead were found in the dirt under a tricycle in Minneapolis; in the dusty doorway of a little girl’s playhouse in Hammond, Ind.; near a dropped baseball bat in a suburban Milwaukee yard; in the outfield of a baseball diamond in New York City.

The soil tests, part of an ongoing USA TODAY investigation, revealed potentially dangerous lead levels in parts of all 21 neighborhoods examined across 13 states. Although results varied house to house, the majority of the yards tested in several neighborhoods had high lead levels — in some cases, five to 10 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency considers hazardous to kids.

Children who play regularly in lead-contaminated soil, just by putting dust-covered hands or toys in their mouths, are exposed to a poison studies show lowers intelligence and reduces academic achievement, delays puberty and causes other health problems.

In response to the newspaper’s soil test results, regulators in Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin already are taking actions at five old factory sites.

At the national level, EPA assistant administrator Mathy Stanislaus said in a statement the agency will “review USA Today’s information to determine what steps can be taken to ensure Americans are not being exposed to dangerous levels of lead.”

The federal government had been warned a decade ago about the poison likely left behind by more than 400 companies. The factories, often referred to as “smelters,” had operated mainly from the 1930s to 1960s, but federal and state officials did little to find many of the sites, alert residents or test the soil nearby, USA TODAY reported Thursday.

Parents were shocked to learn that factories closed decades before their kids were born could pose a danger. They didn’t know that the fallout of lead particles from factories that melted lead batteries or processed lead in furnaces for pipes and other products could remain for hundreds of years in the top few inches of soil.

The EPA knew about the smelters near Marshall’s home a decade ago but never warned people living nearby and still has not done the soil tests recommended by its own contractors in February 2007.

USA TODAY’s tests throughout Marshall’s neighborhood found potentially dangerous levels of lead in multiple locations — including the small backyard where her children play.

The EPA says there is no immediate threat in Marshall’s neighborhood and that it will begin another round of assessing the safety of the area late this year or early next year.

“EPA does not notify residents of potential contamination based solely on the possibility that past industrial activities may have occurred. This type of approach would unnecessarily alarm residents and community members,” the agency’s Philadelphia regional office said in a written response to USA TODAY’s questions.

The EPA noted it is not uncommon to find high levels of lead in soil in large urban areas because of decades of pollution from sources including flaking lead-based paint and dust from vehicles burning leaded gasoline, as well as by lead smelters and other factories. The EPA is authorized to clean up soil only if it can prove the lead came from a specific industrial release.

The lead found by USA TODAY’s testing likely comes from a mixture of these sources, though old lead factories have proven to be significant polluters.

Regardless of where the lead in soil came from, the human body treats it as poison, particularly if you’re a kid.

The soil tests — and the hazards they revealed

Explore more than 230 old lead-factory sites nationwide, historical maps, soil testing results.

USA TODAY reporters spent two months testing soil in multiple spots in yards, with the permission of residents. The reporters also tested soil at public parks, schools, athletic fields as well as street-side strips of public land within a mile of the sites. Air-blown lead particles often drop in the immediate vicinity of factories, but the toxic dust can travel for miles.

The sites tested came from a list of more than 400 potential lead smelters believed to be unknown to federal regulators because they operated before the creation of the EPA. The list was developed by environmental scientist William Eckel, who published a 2001 article in the American Journal of Public Health warning that the forgotten factories might have contaminated surrounding properties.

Because most of the old smelters had operated for decades without any regulatory oversight and are now gone, little was known about the size of each factory, where they were located, how much lead they processed and how much pollution they left behind.

VIDEO: USA TODAY’s soil testing findings

USA TODAY focused its testing on 21 neighborhoods, a mix of locations that varied from the urban cores of big cities to a small Midwestern town.

The reporters were trained to use $41,000 handheld devices called XRF analyzers to test more than 800 samples of surface soil — the top layer that children’s hands are most likely to touch. The devices shoot X-rays into the soil, which causes the chemicals present to give off a unique fluorescence — like a flash — that is measured by the device. The XRF analyzer is a widely accepted method of testing soil.

Elizabeth Southerland, director of the EPA’s assessment and remediation division in its headquarters Superfund program, said the agency will take a close look at the newspaper’s test results.

To further confirm the validity of the XRF readings, reporters collected nearly 200 soil samples and shipped them to a lab run by soil sampling expert Howard Mielke at Tulane University for a different type of chemical analysis, with the expense covered by USA TODAY.

Under natural conditions, lead is found only in very small amounts in soil. The average inU.S. surface soils is just 19 parts per million (ppm), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The soil samples tested using the XRF devices showed several neighborhoods had lead levels greater than 2,000 ppm, topping 3,400 ppm in Cleveland, Portland, Ore., and Carteret, N.J. Mielke’s lab often found higher levels in samples than what the devices showed in the field.

The EPA considers soil a potential hazard in children’s play areas at levels above 400 ppm. Soil below the EPA threshold isn’t necessarily safe: California has set a much lower standard, 80 ppm, using computer models to find a level they say is more protective of children. Of the 21 smelter neighborhoods, 80% had median soil lead levels above California’s benchmark in the XRF tests.

The EPA is aware of the changing science around low-level lead exposures and is awaiting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before any change would be considered to the federal soil hazard level, Southerland said.

Lead levels in the soil samples collected by USA TODAY were generally highest in places like Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia — where old inner-city neighborhoods mingled with industrial sites. In addition to lead from old smelters, these densely populated cities would have had far more cars burning leaded gasoline than smaller cities.

In some smelter neighborhoods, the tests found few spots with high lead levels. In St. Paul, the smelter site was near the Mississippi River flood plain, where lead particles may have long ago washed away or been buried by flood-control efforts. Lead levels in tested samples were also generally low around sites in Jacksonville and suburban Tampa.

The addition or removal of dirt in any area, especially through construction or landscaping, can affect how much lead remains at the surface where people —especially children — are most likely to be exposed.

The danger posed to kids

What blood tests show

A blood test can measure a child’s lead exposure, which at low levels produces no obvious symptoms. Whether children are routinely tested can depend on where they live and on perceptions about their risk for lead poisoning. Many children who should be tested aren’t. Even when tested, parents may not be alerted to early signs of danger.

What you can do

Insist on results: When your child receives a blood-lead test, make sure the health care provider gives you specific results. Too many providers tell parents a lead test is “negative”or “normal” — when the result shows a low, but potentially worrisome level of lead. Parents need “to obtain the exact number of their blood-lead value,” said John Rosen, professor of pediatrics at theChildren’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York City.

Beware of old standards: Many parents aren’t alerted if a blood-lead level is below 10, a standard set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991. In January, scientific advisers to the CDC recommended reducing that standard to 5. Lead poisoning researcher Bruce Lanphear says children should have a blood-lead level of 1 or less, but those living in older homes with deteriorating paint or in areas with contaminated soil will have more difficulty avoiding exposure.

Know the new science: A recent review of studies by the National Toxicology Program, a federal health agency, found “sufficient” evidence that exposure by children to small amounts of lead — in some cases less than half the CDC’s 20-year-old action level — is associated with decreased intelligence and academic achievement, and an increased incidence of ADHD, behavioral problems and other health issues.

“The evidence in this report is that the elimination of all lead exposure in our environment is our best course of action,” said Andrew Rooney, a senior health scientist at the program.

Prevent exposure: Don’t wait for a blood test to show that your child has been exposed before taking simple actions to look for lead hazards and make your home and yard safe. “Waiting for them to hit a number, whatever number, is too late,” said Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC’s lead poisoning prevention branch. Keep children away from bare soil by planting grass or covering it with a thick layer of mulch; make sure their hands and toys are washed frequently; inspect homes for flaking lead-based paint; and wet-mop floors and windowsills regularly to reduce contaminated house dust.

Even trace amounts of lead — particles so tiny they’re barely visible — are enough to cause irreversible health problems in kids who ingest or inhale them.

Swallowing just 6 micrograms of lead particles a day over about three months can raise a child’s blood-lead level by up to 1 point — which in turn can result in the loss of up to 1 IQ point, according to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. That’s why the state lowered its soil standard to just 80 ppm.

To visualize how little lead that is, picture a packet of artificial sweetener, which contains 1 gram of powder. A microgram is one-millionth of a gram.

“Just touching the surface (of the soil), you get enough to make a difference in exposure,” Mielke said.

A study Mielke published several years ago found children’s hands picked up high levels of lead — up to 30 micrograms during a play session outdoors in soil at day care centers in inner-city New Orleans.

Children 6 and younger are at greatest risk because they routinely put things in their mouths. Their growing brains are also the most susceptible.

“They absorb much more (lead) than an adult … probably because it mimics calcium and iron,” said Bruce Lanphear a leading researcher on lead poisoning at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

That’s why parents in neighborhoods in and around historical smelter sites in places like Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., and West Allis, Wis., have reason to be concerned.

In Philadelphia, a worried mom’s story 

Kathleen Marshall’s row house is among dozens in the potential fallout zone of two old lead factories that operated for decades along Hedley Street near theDelaware River. USA TODAY’s tests of soil in the area showed dangerous levels of lead contamination.

Across the street from her house, the Thos. F. Lukens Metal Co. made lead pipe, solder and a type of mixed metal called babbitt, from at least 1940 through 1956, and was a battery lead smelter from about 1960-63, according to the Standard Metal Directory.

Less than a quarter-mile away was an even larger factory complex: White Brothers Smelting Co., according to a historical Sanborn fire insurance map. The sprawling complex was listed in the directories as a manufacturer of babbitt and solder, metals that often included lead.

To look at the area today, residents would never know that either factory existed. The land where White Brothers once stood is largely vacant; a couple of small businesses sit atop the Lukens site.

MORE: Map, video, photos of Thos. F. Lukens site

USA TODAY tested 35 samples of soil around homes in a two-block stretch of Hedley Street. Twenty-seven of the samples contained elevated amounts of lead, ranging up to more than 2,000 ppm.

“Something’s got to be done. It’s got to be fixed,” said Joseph Gallagher, whose 4-year-old son, Brady, used to play in the bare dirt of their home’s small backyard. USA TODAY tested three spots in his yard, which showed 476 ppm to 771 ppm of lead.

Marshall and her family live less than a block away. Tests of four soil samples in their small backyard — strewn with toys and bicycles — had lead levels of 501 ppm to 842 ppm.

“They’re always digging in it — the baby, too,” she said.

Marshall’s baby, Kevin, had his blood tested Aug. 6, at 19 months old. It showed his blood-lead level was 7.5. That level of lead exposure is associated with decreased IQ and an increased incidence of ADHD and other issues, medical studies show.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where the tests were done, didn’t call Marshall to let her know. She learned the results from USA TODAY, which got them with Marshall’s permission from information the hospital filed with the state health department. Children’s Hospital doesn’t routinely notify parents unless a child’s blood-lead level is a 10 or higher, said Lisa Biggs, the hospital’s medical director of primary care. That’s because the CDC set 10 as the level of concern back in 1991 — before more recent studies showed significant harms at lower levels. In January, CDC scientific advisers recommended lowering the blood-lead action level for children from 10 to 5.

“The whole thing is crazy,” Marshall said. “I think if there’s any lead in their system you should be notified.”

Contractors for the EPA went looking for the White Brothers factory in 2005, federal records show. The agency produced no records showing it looked for the nearby Lukens Metal factory.

The 2007 contractor’s report erroneously placed White Brothers about a quarter-mile northeast of where it was. The contractors fingered what was actually the former site of a different manufacturing plant, historical maps show. They recommended the EPA do soil sampling in the nearby neighborhood. In a written response to questions, the agency acknowledged the sampling never happened and said it plans to reassess the site later this year or early next year.

In the meantime, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health is taking a closer look at lead poisoning around smelter sites featured in USA TODAY’s investigation, said Nan Feyler, the department’s chief of staff. The city’s health department has traditionally focused on deteriorating lead-based paint, which it considers the primary risk to residents.

“We do take seriously, desperately seriously, the risk of lead poisoning of Philadelphia’s children,” Feyler said.

The smell Fred Kuolt will never forget

It’s made breathing hard for his wife and forced him to shut the windows in his suburban Milwaukee home.

Fred Kuolt remembers horrible smells that wafted from Allied Smelting through his suburban Milwaukee neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s, making it difficult for his wife, Lorraine, to breathe.

“When the wind was blowing from the north or northwest, you would get that odor of sulfuric acid,” said Kuolt, 94. “We had to close our windows in the summertime.”

Allied Smelting recycled lead and lead-acid batteries, and performed lead smelting and other kinds of metal smelting from about 1950 through 1975. Another firm, Grey Iron Foundry, was at the property from about 1946 to 1950, according to state and historical records.

Today, the property is occupied by a window replacement company.

MORE: Allied Smelting map, soil sample results

Private soil tests on the former smelter property in 1996 found lead levels as high as 210,000 ppm, according to results filed with regulators at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. A tree-lined neighborhood of tidy homes, including Kuolt’s, is just across West Lincoln Avenue, to the south of the site.

In 2005, state regulators told representatives for the former smelter property’s owners that they needed to do more tests for soil and groundwater contamination in the area, state records show. The testing was never done and for years regulators never followed up, according to department records.

USA TODAY tested soil in the neighborhood and found potentially dangerous levels of lead in the yards of nearby homes, particularly just south of the smelter in the 2300 block of South 52nd Street. Eight of 14 samples from the yards of two homes had lead levels above the EPA’s hazard standard for children’s play areas.

People living at the homes tested said they had no idea a smelter used to operate nearby or that their yards might be contaminated.

Kuolt said many of his younger neighbors moved in after the smelter closed. “These people today would not even know that that existed,” Kuolt said. Even back then, residents weren’t worried about lead — they were focused on the acid smell, he said.

City building inspection records show that in the 1960s neighborhood residents complained to the city about particulate emissions from the plant, sulfuric acid fumes, noise and other issues.

Following USA TODAY’s inquiries, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in December notified the owner of the former smelter property that soil should be tested in the neighborhood and specifically along South 52nd Street, where USA TODAY found elevated lead levels, records show.

The property owner’s environmental consultant has told state regulators it isn’t his client’s responsibility to do off-site testing for a smelter he didn’t operate, records show. The property owner did not respond to interview requests, including by certified letter.

Paul Biedrzycki, environmental health director for the City of Milwaukee Health Department, said the levels of lead USA TODAY found near the former smelter aren’t surprising and that health officials have long known of the potential for lead to be in urban soils from a variety of sources.

The levels above 400 ppm, especially if children are playing in bare soil, do raise concerns, he said. Yet with limited resources, Milwaukee’s health department, like others around the country, focuses its efforts on lead-based paint, Biedrzycki said.

“The cumulative effect of many of these secondary sources may be the next challenge for public health,” he said. “But I’d say there’s still quite a bit of work to do on addressing lead-based paint as the primary source for high levels in children.”

Lead in a Brooklyn baseball field

Baseball fields in Brooklyn?s Red Hook Park, built atop a historical lead-smelter site, have been temporarily closed while New York City officials inspect and take steps to minimize the risk of lead exposure.

For decades, children had poured onto the baseball fields at Red Hook Park in Brooklyn after school, running the base paths and shagging fly balls. There had been no hint of the potential danger that lies just beneath that grass, where the soil is laced with lead.

It’s been more than 60 years since Columbia Smelting and Refining Works ran its eight furnaces where the fields now sit. Today, lead concentrations in the soil are up to five times greater than the EPA’s hazard level for play areas.

There’s also lead in the nearby grass courtyards of the Red Hook Houses, Brooklyn’s oldest and largest public housing complex, which sits across the street. The sprawling neighborhood of unpainted brick high-rises was built in the 1930s — when the smelter still operated — and today is home to about 6,000 people.

In March, New York City officials closed four ball fields in Red Hook Park after learning from USA TODAY the area was a former smelter site where the newspaper had found elevated levels of lead. The city could have learned a decade earlier that a smelter once occupied the property — both the U.S. EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation knew about it, but city officials said they weren’t told.

MORE: Columbia Smelting and Refining Works soil results, photos, map

In 2002, the EPA sent an inspector to look at Columbia Smelting’s former location as part of an effort to examine hundreds of suspected smelting sites that had come to its attention. However, the inspector was tasked only with determining whether Columbia was still operating and in need of a waste permit. “HQ smelter initiative, nothing at site,” the inspector wrote in his report on the visit to Red Hook Park.

That marked the beginning and end of any federal effort to determine whether there were lingering effects from the smelting operation.

“The purpose of these visits was to determine if lead smelters were present at these locations and, if so, if these facilities were in compliance” with waste disposal laws, saidJohn Martin, a spokesman in EPA’s Region 2 office in Lower Manhattan, which did the visits. He said the site visits were “not about going out and doing sampling or doing a risk assessment.”

The EPA did share its list of suspected smelter sites, including the Red Hook Park location, with the New York DEC. But the department said it had no records of investigating or visiting the Red Hook Park site.

USA TODAY tested soil in the park and found elevated levels of lead in six of eight samples taken from the ball fields stretching across the site where the smelter was located. Four of those soil samples, all taken just beneath the ball fields’ outfield grass, showed lead concentrations above 2,000 ppm — five times the EPA’s hazard level for children’s play areas. Elsewhere in the park, levels were generally lower.

Across the street, in grassy areas of the Red Hook Houses, six of 16 soil samples tested from throughout the public housing complex had lead levels above 400 ppm.

New York City officials said they were unaware a lead-smelting business had once occupied a portion of the park. The city did its own soil tests and confirmed USA TODAY’s findings, identifying lead concentrations as high as 2,000 ppm at the ball fields.

The fields will be closed for six to eight weeks while the city puts clay and new grass over exposed dirt as interim steps to minimize lead exposure risks, said Deputy Parks and Recreation Commissioner Liam Kavanagh. Ultimately, “we’re looking for a more permanent solution, which will probably involve reconstructing the fields so you would eliminate any elevated lead readings.”

In response to public records requests from USA TODAY, neither the EPA nor the DEC produced documents indicating that information gathered in 2002 about former smelting sites was shared with local officials in New York City or other communities.

“If we had known that there was a potential for some soil contamination as a result of a prior use of the site, I’d like to think that we would have taken the actions we’re taking now,” Kavanagh said.

A 30-year veteran of the city parks department, he said he was “surprised” to learn about the smelter and soil contamination at Red Hook Park from USA TODAY.

The risk of significant lead exposure to children playing in the area is low, because the ball fields don’t tend to be used by toddlers, who are likely to handle the dirt or put toys and fingers in their mouths, said Daniel Kass, deputy commissioner at the city’sDepartment of Health and Mental Hygiene. Risks are similarly low in the residential development across the street, he said, because children’s play areas are paved and young children don’t dig in the grassy courtyards where USA TODAY found elevated lead levels.

Kass also noted that lead poisoning rates for children in the neighborhood have been lower than many other parts of the city and no cases have been traced to contaminated soil. Still, he added, city officials “would have liked to have known” about the old smelter site when state and federal officials first became aware of it 10 years ago.

“We take all potential sources of exposure seriously,” Kass said. He noted that the parks department’s immediate closing of the contaminated ball fields was appropriate and the city would have “responded quite similarly” if it had learned of the problem in 2002.

“It’s always better to have the information,” Kass said.

In Carteret, N.J., the dust ‘was everywhere’

Alex Marciniak’s grandmother used to complain about the dust that spewed from the smelting plant across the street from her home in Carteret, N.J. When the wind blew towardsthe modest row houses in their working-class neighborhood, the dust would foul laundry hanging in the yard. It coated people’s cars, blew into their houses. It was everywhere.

“We’d have to close all the windows in the house because it was hard to breathe,” Marciniak, 43, recalled of his childhood.

The smelting operation for 80 years “spewed forth enormous amounts of contaminating materials,” a federal judge concluded in a June 2009 ruling on a lawsuit over the impact of the plant’s historical operation on parts of the site it once occupied. “Even after (pollution) controls were put in place, the controls were inadequate, defective, and often non-functional.”

At the height of its operations, more than 500,000 tons of scrap metal were fed into its smelters each year, state records and court documents show.

“Observed heavy … emissions (100% opacity) from the smelter building,” an inspector from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reported after a 1982 inspection. “The observations … were not unusual. I have been observing and reporting these problems for at least three years now.”

Local regulators found similar problems. In 1984 alone, the Middlesex County (N.J.) Department of Health cited U.S. Metals for 134 violations of air-quality standards due to excessive emissions from smelter smokestacks.

MORE: U.S. Metals photos, video, map, soil sample results

In 1988, U.S. Metals signed a legal agreement to clean up the smelter site; subsequent soil tests on the property showed lead levels as high as 90,000 ppm. Tons of contaminated soil were removed from the factory property.

But regulators never checked to see whether the yards of homes across the street or down the block were contaminated.

Unlike most of the smelter sites on Eckel’s list, U.S. Metals continued operating until 1986 — long enough to hit the radar of regulatory agencies.

USA TODAY tested 41 soil samples from eight yards and public rights-of-way in and around the Chrome neighborhood, which begins across the street from the U.S. Metals site. Twenty-one of those tests showed lead concentrations of 400 ppm to nearly 1,000 ppm.

In response to USA TODAY’s findings, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has ordered soil testing in the neighborhood later this year. The work will be done by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which became the corporate parent of U.S. Metals more than 20 years after the smelting plant was shut down.

“We reached out to the responsible party as a result of USA TODAY’s inquiry,” said Lawrence Hajna, a department spokesman.

Freeport-McMoRan said in a statement that it is cooperating with the state DEP and expects to take several months to set up a testing program. It noted that lead found by USA TODAY could be from other industries, lead-based paint from older houses or long-ago emissions from vehicles using leaded gasoline.

In the meantime, Alex Marciniak worries about his daughter, still in elementary school. Waving toward the vacant lot, green and inviting, behind his house, he said: “I wouldn’t let her play back there.”

Hilda Rosa Burgos, a nurse with a 6-year-old son, echoed his concerns after being informed about elevated lead levels in her yard. “My son used to … go out and play in the dirt, play back in the corner of the yard, and now we can’t do that. … I’m confused, I don’t feel safe.”

Test results prompt Kentucky to investigate

The blockish two-story brick building next to a row of homes along West 12th Street in Newport, Ky., does little to call attention to itself. Nearly all of the windows are covered with plywood, painted gray to match the brick.

A sign is tacked above a boarded-up doorway: “L&H Tool & Die Co.”

In 1910, however, it was the Newport Foundry Co., historical fire insurance maps show. From at least 1949 to 1954, industry directories show the site was home to Certified Metals Mfg. Co., which made babbitt and solder, mixed metals that often contained lead.

Soil tests in nearby residential yards showed lead levels that could be hazardous to children. Of 30 samples taken at five homes within about two blocks of the former foundry, 19 topped 400 ppm on the XRF analyzer and reached as high as 1,084 ppm.

MORE: Newport soil sample results, photos, map

The soil was wet from days of rain at the time USA TODAY did its XRF sampling, and water in soil can cause the device to undercount lead. Six samples collected from the same area and sent to Tulane University showed even higher levels, up to 2,485 ppm, in all but one case.

People who live near the old factory said they never knew it once made lead products and are now concerned about the lead in nearby yards.

“If it’s a problem, I want it taken care of,” said Debra Winkle, who lives a few doors down. Although no children currently play in her yard, she hopes someday to have grandchildren who will. “I want them to be safe,” she said.

Environmental regulators at the Kentucky Division of Waste Management said they were unaware of the former foundry site until they were contacted by USA TODAY — despite it being on Eckel’s list.

After hearing about the soil test results, the state has opened an investigation of the site and potential sources of lead contamination in Newport, said Tim Hubbard, the division’s assistant director.

“Looking at the data overall, the results are not too surprising for what you might expect to see in lead levels in an urban area,” Hubbard said. “Obviously some were higher than one would like to see in any kind of setting.”

One of the difficulties of the investigation, Hubbard said, is that the lead found by USA TODAY’s tests could have come from a variety of sources. A scrap metal firm is also nearby.

Hubbard said his department could be put in a difficult spot if it finds dangerous levels of lead in residential yards — and if no obvious polluter can be definitively held responsible for a cleanup. Kentucky has only about $400,000 a year to spend on state-funded cleanups.

“If we determine there are levels out there that need to be addressed and it is not safe to leave them where they are … then something will be done. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

L&H Tool and Die is a division of a Cincinnati metalworking firm, Seilkop Industries. Dave Seilkop said his company bought L&H Tool and Die, which produces aluminum stampings, in 1998, and was unaware of the Newport property’s previous uses.

State health department reports show the area where the foundry once operated has been considered a high-risk area for lead poisoning. Local health officials said they think the biggest problem in the area is lead-based paint, which was widely used until the 1950s and banned from residential use in 1978. Newport, which is across the Ohio Riverfrom Cincinnati, was founded in 1792.

“If it’s in the soil … an obvious primary factor is paint coming from the house structure,” said Steve Divine, environmental health director for the Northern Kentucky Health Department.

When investigating cases of lead-poisoned children, the department doesn’t always test the soil, Divine said. Sometimes there is no yard, or the yard has a good cover of grass over the soil, he said.

Since 2001, the department has investigated cases of lead-poisoned children at 27 homes in Newport’s 41071 ZIP code, where the former smelter is located. Of those, 13 homes had their soil tested by the inspectors, and 10 yards had lead levels above the 400 ppm hazard standard.

Still, Divine said: “Our experience is the primary culprit has been the lead paint in the structure.”

Hazards in a suburban Portland neighborhood

Barbee Williams has lived next door to a former smelter site in Portland, Ore., for 22 years. Three soil tests showed lead levels over 1,000 ppm in her yard.

The lawns on and around the site of the old Multnomah Metal Works in Portland, Ore., are green and well tended, rolling out from homes that can fetch $250,000 or more. There’s no sign of the smelter that operated in the neighborhood for 65 years.

The old smelter building was demolished in 1975; the next year, a duplex home was built there, state records show. Regulators from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) discovered there had been a smelter at the site in 2002, while investigating another Multnomah Metal Co. address that turned out to be an office and storage yard.

Inspectors took four soil samples on the site in 2003 and all were above the EPA’s residential hazard standard for children’s play areas — including one spot that showed 5,120 ppm.

“Given the … consistently high lead concentrations across the site, I consider the soil unacceptable for industrial/commercial or residential use,” DEQ toxicologist Mike Poulsen wrote to agency officials in a 2003 e-mail. “Further characterization of onsite and possibly offsite soils is warranted.”

MORE: Multnomah Metal Co. soil sample results, video, photos

In a separate memo, Christopher Blakeman, a DEQ project manager, noted that “children … may be exposed to potentially threatening levels of lead in soils and/or dirt transferred into the home. Pregnant women may also face similar exposure threats.”

The state did no further testing. It never told the neighbors about the contamination or forced a cleanup, the DEQ acknowledged in response to USA TODAY’s questions. The department’s only follow-up action was to list the site on its public registry of contaminated properties.

The DEQ can issue a legal order requiring a site on the registry be cleaned up, and it generally would be the property owner’s responsibility, said Chuck Harman, a DEQ remedial-project manager who helps supervise properties on the list. The department has taken no legal action on the Flower Street property.

USA TODAY’s testing at the former smelter property and in nearby yards found high levels of lead. Tests in the yard of the duplex that sits atop the former smelter site found lead levels that peaked above 7,400 ppm. All 14 soil samples tested from the property showed lead levels above 400 ppm. At two nearby homes, 11 of 17 samples showed lead levels ranging from 400 ppm to above 1,100 ppm.

In response to USA TODAY’s test results, the DEQ has reopened discussions with the owner of the former smelter site about addressing the lead contamination, Harman said this month. It is unclear whether the state will sample any soil on neighboring properties, he said.

The results of the state’s initial soil tests in 2003 “are not really acceptable (lead) numbers,” Harman added. “I’m not sure why back then we didn’t make that decision to pursue that (site) more strongly.”

The site’s owner did not respond to interview requests or a certified letter.

Brian Morgan, a medical student who lives with his wife in one side of the duplex on the smelter property, said he was unaware of the site’s history. “We don’t have kids … so I’m not too worried, ” he said.

Neighbors were concerned, especially that the state didn’t tell them about the 2003 test results.

“Nobody ever has mentioned anything to me about it, I’ve never gotten a letter, nothing,” said Barbee Williams, who has owned a home next to the smelter site for 22 years. Three tests showed lead levels over 1,000 ppm in the soil of her yard.

Williams wonders about the berries, grapes, apples and plums she has grown in soil that might be contaminated. “I wouldn’t have planted a lot of things to eat if I had known that,” she said. “My grandchildren played out there — my grandson was a little boy with trucks, so he played in the dirt quite a bit.”

The DEQ posts its registry of contaminated properties on the Internet and people can search by ZIP code to see whether a polluted site is nearby. Notices generally aren’t sent to neighbors. “There’s not in state law a public notification process for informing neighbors at the time a site is listed,” Harman said.

If the state determines that neighboring properties are contaminated, officials typically would inform the owners, Harman added. But because the state did no off-site sampling around the old smelter, there was no evidence of a problem.

Now Portland residents like Williams understand there is a problem — an awareness she shares with Kathleen Marshall of Philadelphia, Debra Winkle of Newport, Ky., and Fred Kuolt of West Allis, Wis., each of whom was unaware, until now, of the poison in the ground.

The experiment started at the day of parturition and lasted for 10 d. All calves were fed with the same mixture of frozen colostrum for the first 36 h after calving and thereafter with bulk tank milk twice a day. Specific antibody levels against E. coli were determined in blood serum samples of calves at birth, 12, 24 and 48 h after calving. All calves were monitored daily for incidence of diarrhea throughout the experiment. Blood serum antibody levels were higher (P<0.05) in calves that were fed clinoptilolite compared to controls, and those of Z2 were higher (P<0.05) than Z1 throughout the experiment. Administration of clinoptilolite reduced (P<0.05) the incidence of diarrhea.

Supplementation of clinoptilolite at 1 g/kg or 2 g/kg BW/d in the colostrum initially, and milk afterwards, during the first 10 d after calving can be effectively used to enhance intestinal absorption of antibodies against enterotoxigenic strains of E. coli, and to reduce the incidence and duration of diarrhea in calves.

Click here to read the full study.

C. Glenn Begley, a former head of global cancer research at drug giant Amgen and author of the review, was unable to replicate the findings of 47 of the 53 studies he examined. It appears as though researchers are simply fabricating findings that will garner attention and headlines rather than publishing what they actually discover, which helps them to maintain a steady stream of grant funding but deceives the public.

“These are the studies the pharmaceutical industry relies on to identify new targets for drug development,” said Begley about the false studies. “But if you’re going to place a $1 million or $2 million or $5 million bet on an observation, you need to be sure it’s true. As we tried to reproduce these papers we became convinced you can’t take anything at face value.”

Begley says he cannot publish the names of the studies whose findings are false. But since it is now apparent that the vast majority of them are invalid, it only follows that the vast majority of modern approaches to cancer treatment are also invalid.

Back in 2009, researchers from the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Cancer Center also published an analysis that revealed many popular cancer studies to be false. As can be expected, one of the primary causes of false results was determined to be conflicts of interest that tended to favor “findings” that worked out best for drug companies rather than for the people.

Published research for other conditions also found to be invalid

The Nature study also confirms what was previously uncovered by Dr. George Robertson from Dalhousie University, who found the same inconsistencies in published research studies on Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Just like with cancer, it appears that the foundation upon which drugs for these conditions have been developed is fallacious as a result of phony research.

And scientists working for drug giant Bayer have run into similar problems in other areas as well, which they outlined in a 2011 paper entitled Believe it or not. According to their findings, much of the published data with which they were expected to develop new drugs could not be reproduced, either.

“The scientific community assumes that the claims in a preclinical study can be taken at face value,” add Begley and his colleague Dr. Lee Ellis in their review. This published research also assumes that “the main message of [papers] can be relied on [...] Unfortunately, this is not always the case.”

Ironically, the only thing all these scientists have been able to successfully reproduce over the years is research showing that much of modern science is unsound. Whether it is funded by drug companies or by agenda-driven federal grants, the so-called “gold standard” of science has been debunked as a greed-driven myth.

Sources for this article include:

• http://news.yahoo.com
• http://www.naturalnews.com/031121_medical_research_fraud.html

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• The Case for Homeopathic Medicine: Consider the Historical and Scientific Evidence
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• Scientific studies conclude GMO feed causes organ disruption in animals
• False Foundations of Science: Can Vaccine Studies Be Trusted?

Source:http://www.naturalnews.com/035616_cancer_industry_scientific_fraud_studies.html#ixzz1sUlSXy00

Not tied to the processed food industry or any other corporate player that might taint or bias his findings, Dr. Monte’s interest in the subject of methanol toxicity comes purely from a genuine concern about protecting human health. And his many years of experience studying food ingredients for use in specialized health care food products has afforded him a wealth of knowledge on this important subject that rarely, if ever, gets publicized by the corporately-funded mainstream media.

Methanol, the chemical trojan horse responsible for many modern diseases

In his study entitled Methanol: A chemical Trojan Horse as the root of the Inscrutable U, Dr. Monte evaluates the role that methanol plays in human health. Since methanol is a relatively new addition to the human diet, thanks to processing methods and chemical syntheses that did not exist prior to 1800s, it is vitally important to determine how this chemical substance affects the human body.

What Dr. Monte discovered is that methanol is converted by the body into formaldehyde, a highly toxic substance known to cause cancer in humans. He also uncovered the fact that methanol metabolizes in organs of the body other than just the liver which, based on all available evidence, is directly responsible for causing what Dr. Monte has termed “diseases of civilization” (DOC).

“Methanol is particularly dangerous to humans, more so than any other animal,” says Dr. Woodrow C. Monte on his websiteWhileScienceSleeps.com. “When humans consume low doses of methanol it is metabolized directly into formaldehyde which is a cancer producing agent of the same level of danger as asbestos and plutonium.”

Where Dr. Monte’s research diverts from the mainstream view of methanol’s toxicity has to do with the way dietary methanol is processed by the body. Rather than dissipate as is widely believed, methanol-induced formaldehyde tends to lodge itself into certain areas of the body that avoid filtering through the liver — and these are the same areas of the body where DOCs tend to appear.

“Once methanol runs the gauntlet of first-pass metabolism, its detoxification is no longer exclusive to the liver,” writes Dr. Monte in his study. “Methanol transports its potential to become formaldehyde past normal biological barriers in the brain and elsewhere that environmental formaldehyde itself cannot usually penetrate … [formaldehyde] can then be produced within the arteries and veins, heart, brain, lungs, breast, bone, and skin.”

Aspartame, a primary source of toxic methanol in the American diet

Where is all this toxic, methanol-induced formaldehyde coming from? It turns out aspartame is one of the primary sources in the American diet today. According to Dr. Monte, every molecule of aspartame, which is also marketed under the names NutraSweet, Equal, Canderel, 951, and AminoSweet, converts into a molecule of methanol when consumed. And in its dry form, aspartame is 11 percent methanol by weight.

This means that people who regularly consume “diet” foods and beverages laced with aspartame are taking in high amounts of a formaldehyde-producing, chemical poison that is drastically increasing their risk of developing chronic illnesses.

“As aspartame eventually became a major source of methanol in the civilized human diet, the incidence of DOC gradually began to rise,” says Dr. Monte’s report. “In addition to aspartame, and canned vegetables, fruits, and their juices, a major source of the methanol entering the modern civilized human body is cigarette smoke, causatively linked to atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other DOC.”

“It is my belief that diet soda has contributed to the rise of breast cancer and multiple sclerosis that has been preceded by the use of Aspartame as a food ingredient in every country that has allowed its use.”

Helpful tips for avoiding methanol

Avoiding all “diet” and “low-fat” food and beverage products that contain aspartame or any other artificial sweetener chemical is an absolute must for keeping toxic methanol out of your diet. Cigarette smoke, canned fruits and vegetables, smoked meats, and overly-ripe fruits and vegetables are also major methanol culprits that you will want to avoid.

Sources for this article include:

• http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/
• http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/methanol.faq
• http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Aspartame_Truth_NaturalNewsInterview.Blaylock.pdf
• http://www.xpressnet.com/bhealthy/aspartrick.html
• http://dorway.com/
• http://www.colorado.edu/UCB/AcademicAffairs/ArtsSciences/PWR/occasions/articles/Smith_The%20Bitter%20Truth%20of%20Aspartame.pdf

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/035606_methanol_aspartame_toxicity.html#ixzz1sOmab7f2

Last year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a public advocacy group, filed a regulatory petition with the FDA to have caramel color that contains 4-MI banned from food. Not only does 4-MI-laden caramel color serve “a non-essential, cosmetic purpose” in food, but caramel color also does not have to be produced using 4-MI in the first place, which means banning the chemicalized form of caramel color is really a no-brainer when it comes to protecting public health.

But it has been more than a year since the original petition was filed, and the FDA has done nothing so far to protect the public from 4-MI in beverages, which in some tests was nearly five times higher in certain beverages than the California legal limit allows for the chemical. California’s Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires that cancer-causing agents be publicly identified when they exceed a certain level, which means that beverages containing 4-MI caramel color legally have to be labeled as causing cancer

According to the LA Weekly, Coca-Cola and Pepsi plan to slightly modify their recipes for producing caramel color in order to meet California’s requirements, as well as to quell the public relations nightmare that is quickly brewing for these two beverage giants. But these modifications will only slightly reduce the amount of 4-MI in caramel color rather than eliminate it completely, a move that will still needlessly expose the public to a carcinogenic chemical.

“Carcinogenic colorings have no place in the food supply, especially considering that their only function is a cosmetic one,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson in an earlier statement, noting that the National Toxicology Program (NTP) says there is “clear evidence” that 4-MI, as well as 2-methylimidazole, another chemical byproduct of caramel color production, can cause cancer in humans.

“Coke and Pepsi, with the acquiescence of the FDA, are needlessly exposing millions of Americans to a chemical that causes cancer,” he added during a recent statement to Reuters.

Source:http://www.naturalnews.com/035240_caramel_color_soda_cancer.html#ixzz1sJ08NALS