Toronto-area nuclear plant spills water TORONTO, Dec. 23 (UPI) – Nuclear officials were monitoring water supplies east of Toronto Wednesday after a nuclear plant leaked 52,000 gallons of tritium-laced water into Lake Ontario.

Toronto-area nuclear plant spills water – UPI.com

The country’s nuclear power stations no longer have room to store much more than the 6,700 tonnes of spent fuel rods they have accumulated.

Spain mulls extending nuclear plant working lives Reuters 23 Dec 09 - “……………..Although the Socialist government had recently suggested it would extend the plants’ working lives, it has also repeatedly said it will not support building new ones.Neither major party proposed building new nuclear plants in elections last year, however the opposition Popular Party says it will keep Garona working past 2013 if it is returned to power.Greenpeace spokesman Carlos Bravo said the bill ran contrary to another recent bill which proposes underpinning long-term economic growth with booming renewable energy sources.”The Ministry bill contradicts the provisions of the Sustainable Economy Bill. This makes no sense, it is incoherent,” he said.Spain has become the world’s third-largest producer of wind power and the second-biggest of solar in a bid to cut its heavy dependence on imported fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.The bill also proposed a long-delayed call for bids from local authorities to house a centralised site for storing nuclear waste for up to 60 years.

The country’s nuclear power stations no longer have room to store much more than the 6,700 tonnes of spent fuel rods they have accumulated.

The government has estimated the ATC — as the project is known in Spanish — will cost 540 million euros ($773 million) and cover 20 hectares.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, last year recommended Spain step up efforts to find a dedicated site for storing high-level nuclear waste. (Editing by Keiron Henderson)

Spain mulls extending nuclear plant working lives | Markets | Reuters

Quaker Indian Committee disavows Doctrine of Discovery, affirms Declaration Indian Country Today By Gale Courey Toensing  Dec 17, 2009 PHILADELPHIA – Inspired by the actions of the Episcopal Church, a Quaker group has disavowed the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and voiced its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends issued a Minute – analogous to a resolution – at its September meeting.

The committee “renounces the Doctrine of Discovery, the doctrine at the foundation of the colonization of Indigenous lands, including the lands of Pennsylvania. We find this doctrine to be fundamentally inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus, with our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals and peoples have received from God, and inconsistent with Quaker testimonies of Peace, Equality, and Integrity,” the Minute reads.
The Doctrine of Discovery was a principle of international law developed in a series of 15th century papal bulls and 16th century charters by European monarchs. It was a racist philosophy that gave white Christian Europeans the green light to go forth and claim the lands and resources of non-Christian peoples and kill or enslave them – if other Christian Europeans had not already done so.

The doctrine institutionalized the competition between European countries in their ever-expanding quest for colonies, resources and markets, and sanctioned the genocide of indigenous people in the “New World” and elsewhere.

As a spiritual corollary of the renunciation, the Indian Committee also expressed its support for the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the General Assembly Sept. 13, 2007. The Declaration presents indigenous rights within a framework of human rights.

Only the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia – countries with large populations of indigenous peoples with huge aboriginal land claims – voted against the Declaration’s adoption. Australia has since adopted it.

Quaker Indian Committee disavows Doctrine of Discovery, affirms Declaration | Indian Country Today | Content

Japan-US secret nuclear deal discovered: reports Full Story Tokyo, Dec 22 (AFP) A secret agreement under which Japan allowed the US military to bring nuclear weapons to the Asian nation has been uncovered despite years of denial of its existence by Tokyo, media reports said today.

The 1969 contract, signed by then US President Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, was kept by the Sato family, said the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, which showed a picture of the two-page document.

The existence of the agreement has been denied for decades by past conservative administrations, which issued a complete ban on nuclear weapons, including transporting of such items by its main ally, the United States.

fullstory

Nuclear safety HARPER BIZARRO (Canada) December 22, 2009 …On January 15, 2008 – in the dead of the night – Stephen Harper and Gary Lunn fired Canada’s world-respected nuclear regulator, Linda Keen.

They then appointed a career bureaucrat to head up the Nuclear Safety Commission. They wanted to silence the regulatory arm of Canada’s nuclear industry. They have succeeded, apparently.

On Monday, there was a tritium leak at the Darlington nuclear facility. There was no public mention of this spill until some 24 hours later when it appeared in a local story from Durham Region and in other sources, like the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star. It is also noteworthy that Northumberland Today reported earlier this afternoon that the town of Port Hope had been notified of the spill late Monday night…by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.OPG press releases through the CNW Group did not begin until almost 24 hours after the spill. Though there is a link to one announcement supposedly from yesterday on the CNSC web site, as well as one on the OPG web site. Apparently, that initial news release was issued at some time after 3:00 pm on Monday, but, since neither agency has a time stamp on the release it is difficult to know exactly when.
It would be good to know just what the requirements are for “public disclosure” of spills like this and just who is supposed to make them. It appears that the Ontario MOE made some attempt to notify local officials in a timely manner. But otherwise, in this case to date, the national regulator is merely a conduit for OPG press releases.

HarperBizarro: Nuclear safety…

Compensation will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Victims are to submit a claim to a committee

France to compensate people who suffered health problems from nuclear tests Google News By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 23 Dec ARIS — France’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. The law cleared France’s Senate on Tuesday, its final legislative hurdle following approval in the National Assembly in June……………….The text, hammered out with help from victims’ associations, recognizes the right for victims of France’s more than 200 nuclear tests to receive compensation……………….

Some 150,000 people, including civilian and military personnel, were on site for the 210 tests France carried out, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.

Compensation will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Victims are to submit a claim to a committee made up of seven representatives of the state and two members from outside the government, which will make a recommendation to the Defence Ministry. The ministry will then notify victims of its decision.

The Canadian Press: France to compensate people who suffered health problems from nuclear tests

Reactor shutdown opens door to Russia plans By GARY PEACH (AP) Associated Press Writer Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, contributed to this report.– 23 Dec 09 ISAGINAS, Lithuania — To the European Union, Lithuania’s Soviet-built nuclear power plant is a gigantic safety hazard that needs to finally shut down this New Year’s Eve…….……the EU-ordered shutdown of the plant’s last working reactor — considered too similar to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986 — is making Lithuanians uneasy. They now face the prospect of importing energy from Russia, considered an unreliable energy partner by many after its state-owned gas company shut off supplies through Ukraine last year and in 2006 over price disputes……………

The EU wanted the 1980s plant shut down as a condition of EU membership because the two RBMK-1500 model reactors are too similar to the RBMK-1000 version that exploded at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, casting a radioactive cloud over Europe. Ignalina’s first reactor was shut down in 2004, while the second will be disconnected from the power grid an hour before midnight Dec. 31……………

Russia is ready to fill the gap, and is gearing up to build a two-reactor nuclear plant just 10 miles from the Lithuanian border in Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania……………….The construction of a nuclear power plant is very expensive — the economic costs of waste disposal and environmental risks are huge,” said energy specialist Claudia Kemfert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. “So I do not believe that all the planned projects will be realised because of economic costs………..The Russians have fast-tracked the Kaliningrad project, squeezing 4-7 years of environmental impact studies and licensing into less than two years.

Public opinion in Kaliningrad is against the project, says Alexandra Koroleyva, who heads the region’s branch of Eco-Defense, an environmental group opposed to nuclear energy. “There’s a lot of people who moved here from Chernobyl, so you’ll rarely meet someone on the street who’ll say they want an atomic power plant,” said Alexandra Koroleva.

“I hope I’m not around when it begins operating,” said resident Ivan Trutnev, 72

The Associated Press: Reactor shutdown opens door to Russia plans

NASA, Don’t Expose Monkeys to Radiation!
Care 2 Petition Site NASA has announced that it plans to expose approximately two dozen squirrel monkeys to dangerous space radiation in a cruel and frivolous experiment that purportedly aims to study the health effects of radiation in deep space. Space-radiation exposure in monkeys can cause them to suffer from fatal types of cancer, including brain tumors, and other illnesses.
Because of drastic biological differences between species, radiation experiments on monkeys won’t tell scientists anything about how astronauts will react to deep space……

NASA, Don’t Expose Monkeys to Radiation! – The Petition Site

What’s that? Holding a powerful UHF radio transmitter against your head can be dangerous enough to warrant putting a warning on said transmitter? OMG! Who would’ve thunk it?

Yes, that’s right. A state (Maine) is getting closer to recognizing the probable cancer risk posed by cell phones. Rep. Andrea Boland of Maine is proposing the addition of warning labels to cell phones to remind users of the radiation the devices emit; the proposal will be discussed in January. Apparently the mayor of San Francisco is leading a similar effort, with an emphasis on displaying the specific absorption rate next to each phone.

It’s interesting to note that the units for specific absorption rate are Watts per kilogram; integrated over time, this becomes Joules per kilogram, perhaps better known simply as Gray. Admittedly, the effects of the relatively low-energy radiation emitted by cell phones wouldn’t be as dramatic as, for example, gamma radiation. Still, the exposure would add up over a length of time, eventually having similar effects. It’s sort of like the difference between being injected with a fatal dose of nicotine all at once versus smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for the rest of one’s (still considerably shortened) life.

Speaking of which, the CTIA maintains that cell phones are completely safe. Where have I heard that one before? Oh well, I guess if the people who benefit the most from the continued growth of the cell phone industry say they’re safe, they must be okay. There’s no way that giant corporations would willfully put the public in danger to protect their profit margins, right? And they certainly wouldn’t lie to us…

I found one thing in the story to be particularly funny: it mentions “James Keller of Lewiston,” who has some rather interesting ideas. His cell phone is his only phone, and he thinks that “people can’t live without cell phones” (and yes, that is a direct quote from the news story). Funny, I’ve managed to survive for years without a cell phone, as have plenty of people I know. At least he doesn’t oppose the warning labels, even if he does think they’re “a little silly.”

Regardless, society does seem to be moving in the right direction on this issue, albeit very slowly. I’m guessing that safety concerns will get more and more frantic over the next few decades as the long-term effects of frequent cell phone use become apparent. To give the skeptics credit, it isn’t really their fault; this is a very new technology we’re dealing with, even newer than the personal computer. It’s possible (if unlikely) that the radiation is fairly harmless to most people, and that the worst symptoms most texting addicts will ever experience is cell phone elbow.

Yeah. I’m not convinced either.

The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children  Top Documentary Films  15 Dec 09 An award winning documentary film produced for German television by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn.The film exposes the use and impact of radioactive weapons during the current war against Iraq. The story is told by citizens of many nations.

It opens with comments by two British veterans, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called depleted uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children.

Dr. Siegwart-Horst Gunther, a former colleague of Albert Schweitzer, and Tedd Weyman of the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) traveled to Iraq, from Germany and Canada respectively, to assess uranium contamination in Iraq.

The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children | Watch Free Documentary Online

Indigenous Peoples in Copenhagen: Ruling out the Nuclear Option — Neither Clean nor Green Nuclear Reaction  15 Dec 09 COPENHAGEN – Remembering the words of Chief Seattle, Indigenous Peoples and people of color at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen sent a message to the world to rule out nuclear energy, which is neither clean nor green. The statement, “The Legacy of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Upon US Indigenous and Communities of Color,” was released by communities of Indigenous Peoples and people of color, in partnership with the Peace Development Fund. Together, they form the Building Action for Sustainable Environments Initiative (BASE).

“We are citizens who represent some of the communities in the US who bear the legacy of 50 years of nuclear energy and weapons production.

We are indigenous nations, we are Latino citizens and farm-workers, and we are African American communities living near nuclear power and weapon production sites. “Reducing and eliminating the wasteful and dangerous means of producing nuclear energy and bringing renewable green energy production and jobs to our communities are the goals in which our communities have a major stake.”

While Indigenous Peoples from throughout the world rallied, marched and educated the world in Copenhagen this week, the Base communities gave voice to the legacy of death that uranium mining and the nuclear industry have brought to Indigenous Peoples and people of color.’

Nuclear News: Indigenous Peoples in Copenhagen: Ruling out the Nuclear Option —

Photo courtesy of lpi.usra.edu

Hey Guys!

Today is Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. It has been a landmark day for thousands of years in many different cultures’ calendars, since it has to do with the natural rhythms of nature and is not a manmade date. I believe when there is much darkness on the outside, it is a good reminder to be in touch with the light within. Our inner light is always there, no matter how dark it is on the outside. Today I had my yoga students hold some poses for a while with their eyes closed, to feel the inner light. And as we move through this time, and find the light in unexpected places and where we didn’t think it could be- the light then starts to come back, more and more.

Besides Winter Solstice, the topic of cell phones was on my mind. I saw a story yesterday that a Maine state legislator is pushing to have a warning on cell phones that they may cause brain cancer.

My mother has been preaching to me about cell phone dangers for years, when I first even got a cell phone. She insists on me sticking an anti-radiation button thing on my phone, which is supposed to help reduce the massive amounts of radiation that cell phones emit. Well who knows if it really works or not, but I’ll take all the help I can get! What’s chilling to me is that we have to remember that back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, information that tobacco was extremely harmful was not widely reported. People smoked away, only to learn decades later how carcinogenic smoking really was.

Everyone's gotta have a cell these days.... Photo courtesy of phillyburbs.com

Of course, the Wireless Association claims cell phones are safe. But we do all have to look out for our own health. After all, foods laden with toxic chemicals and additives are also legally considered “safe.”

The fact is that our cell phones are microwave transmitters. Microwave energy oscillates at millions to billions of cycles per second. The Journal of Cellular Biochemistry reports that these frequencies may cause cancer and other diseases by interfering with cellular DNA and its repair mechanisms. Microwave promotes rapid cell aging. Italian scientists have recently demonstrated that cell phone radiation makes cancerous cells grow aggressively. Cordless phones marked 900 megahertz or 2.4 gigahertz emit the same dangerous microwave radiation as cell phones.

Research by University of Washington professor Dr. Henry Lai shows brain cells are clearly damaged by microwave levels far below the U.S. government’s “safety” guidelines. Dr. Lai notes that even tiny doses of radio frequency can accumulate over time and lead to harmful effects. He warns that public exposure to radiation from wireless transmitters “should be limited to minimal.”

Independent tests show that cell phones can also leak huge amounts of radiation from the keypad and mouthpiece. This radiation deeply penetrates brain, ear and eye tissues, which are especially susceptible to microwave damage. Belt clip cases allow cell phones to deliver radiation to the liver or kidney areas.

Recent studies confirm that cell and cordless phone microwave can: Damage nerves in the scalp, cause blood cells to leak hemoglobin, cause memory loss and mental confusion, cause headaches and induce extreme fatigue, create joint pain, muscle spasms and tremors, create burning sensation and rash on the skin, alter the brain’s electrical activity during sleep, induce ringing in the ears, impair sense of smell, precipitate cataracts, retina damage and eye cancer, open the blood-brain barrier to viruses and toxins, reduce the number and efficiency of white blood cells, stimulate asthma by producing histamine in mast cells, cause digestive problems and raise bad cholesterol levels, stress the endocrine system, especially pancreas, thyroid, reproductive organs. GEEZ! ANYTHING ELSE??

There is a lot of research on the cell phone subject in Europe. Spanish researchers have shown that cell phones can alter electrical activity of a child’s brain for hours, causing drastic mood changes and possible behavior and learning disabilities. Insurance studies in England showed that an average driver talking on a cell is actually more impaired in function and reaction time than a drunk. Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority reports that one hour of exposure to mobile phone radiation can cause human cells to shrink. Researchers believe this is due to increased protein activity, an indicator of cell damage. Studies done in Sweden that date back five or six years concluded that there is not an increased brain tumor risk from using cell phones, he says.

Brain cancer rates in USA have increased by 25% since 1975. In 2001, 185,000 Americans were diagnosed with some form of brain cancer. A grade four brain tumor can grow from the size of a grape to tennis ball size in just 4 months.

Scary! Photo courtesy of artpredator.files.com.

Could cell phones today be what tobacco was 70 years ago?

The National Cancer Institute says studies until now have turned up inconsistent results. “Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn,” says the NCI’s Web site. Hmmm….

Well what can we do to protect our own health? Since the reality is that we are all going to use cell phones anyway (including me)!

-    Use a wired headset whenever possible. Avoid using Bluetooth, which will continue to attract radiation. Be sure to get wired headsets for your children, which are especially susceptible to radiation. The other option is to try to use speaker phone in private settings as much as you can (you don’t want to be that annoying person doing that in public of course!).

-    Text when you can instead of making more calls! Texting doesn’t expose you to the same level of radiation, because we obviously aren’t pressing the phone right up to our head!

-    Use your land line when you are home (of course a lot of us New Yorkers, such as myself, don’t even have a land line! So this one doesn’t apply to us).

-    When you’re talking on your cell, periodically switch your phone from ear to ear.

I hope this helps information helps protect you and your family, and that you start to employ some of these precautions!

Something to think about in the new year coming ahead. Happy Holidays!

In health and love,

Kimberly

OK, so it’s probably a good thing that I’ve been far too exhausted and far far too busy to update for the past forty-eight hours because the plan had changed about forty-eight times since then. Well, no, it’s not the plan that’s changed so much as the details of the plan. But now I think we have it and I think it’ll stick, except of course for the unforseen detours we’ll undoubtedly take due to Austin’s health on any given day or week.

The basics: We are not starting chemo or radiation until Monday, December 28. Which means that yes, we will all be home, together under one roof, for Christmas.

We were released yesterday (Sunday) morning after what was an extremely long and scary night (for me at least) in which I felt certain, at several different points, that Austin’s kidney had just up and failed because he wasn’t peeing enough. I was literally lying in bed next to him, with my heart pounding in my chest, checking his diaper for wetness and feeling his belly for an imagined hardness that, in my own sleep-deprived and suddenly paranoid mind, meant he was filling up with fluid because his kidney could no longer filter it out. It took two separate calls to the nurse who then made two separate calls the doctor to calm me down and convince me that he simply hadn’t had a lot to drink that day. Actually he had had almost nothing to drink because he wasn’t allowed in the long and delayed lead-up to his surgery and then was groggy and only sipping in the after-math of anesthesia. It almost seems silly looking back on it except that I can see that these next few months are going to be filled with moments of concern that turn quickly into moments of panic.

Anyway, we’ve been home now for 36 hours and most of them have been spent holding Austin or dealing with a vicious cycle of constipation, cramping and diarrhea.  It seems such a minor discomfort in the face of all that’s to come but I so badly want him to get well and be well and gather his strength that this setback has been both frustrating and heartbreaking. He does seem to finally be doing better and has had some really great moments, especially this afternoon at Braedan’s birthday party.

This party was the single sacred event this week that I told the doctors was completely off-limits. “Start chemo on Christmas Eve if you want, keep us overnight on Christmas itself but give me my son’s birthday party. Let me just be there.” Well, it was more than just me who was there. It was all four of us together, with a slightly dazed and definitely slower Austin enjoying the festivities as much as any other kid.

The rest of this week will be spent returning to the hospital over and over each day for all the necessary tests and appointments leading up to next week. Tomorrow, we have a quick visit to flush his mediport and remove the tube draining out of his incision site. Wednesday, he’ll have a six-hour long “nuclear scan” (I despise that name) to measure his kidney function in order to tweak his chemo dosages to a level his kidney can (hopefully) tolerate. Thursday is a much quicker audiogram to give us a baseline hearing level because one of the drugs can cause permanent hearing loss.  I know, what the fuck, right? Funny the things that strike your heart, but I actually got over that one pretty quickly. We will take the boy deaf if that’s what we get.

And then three days of no hospitals, no doctors, no procedures, just family and feasting and presents and playtime and hopefully (for mom and dad, at least) a little peace and rest.

And then it begins. Monday we return for five days of in-patient chemo and radiation (the radiation is only in-patient because we are). Unlike his initial six months of chemo, which was administered once a week as an out-patient, this kind is administered each day for a series of days (sometimes five, sometimes three depending on which combination of drugs). Sounds to me like the real reason for being in-patient is for symptom control. At first, I thought, “No way, we can handle this at home. We’d always rather be at home.” But just these past two days of being here, when what he’s suffering from is pretty minor in comparison, I know it will be easier to be in the hospital. With people at the ready twenty-four hours a day to help us: change the sheets, clean the puke, make the decisions about what medicine to offer. We won’t have to wonder if a reaction is normal or if it’s dangerous, we won’t have to guess at how to best treat something, we won’t have to juggle the immediate needs of the sick child with the immediate needs of the healthy one.

Chemo will last anywhere from 18 to 30 months, depending on how much Austin (and his bone marrow) can tolerate. We’ll have one week on followed by two weeks off for “count recovery,” which allows his blood cells and bone marrow to multiply before being destroyed yet again. His immunity will be quite a bit weaker than it was the last time and we do expect to pull him out of school. This particular chemo regimen is actually designed to last for 90 weeks but few children are able to make it that far because their bone marrow is so thoroughly depleted. We are committed to 18 weeks and then may add the second 12-week cycle if he’s able and if we all deem it necessary.

So, having a plan is helpful, lets me prepare, both mentally and practically (new meal and playdate requests will come in a few more days). But more than anything, I am scared. Scared scared scared. Scared for how it’s going to be, scared for what it’s going to do, scared for what it might not do. I am trying to look at the one small inch in front of me, just one tiny step, one day at a time. And I know we’ll do it. But I am terrified.

Nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion Nuclear Reaction Justin on December 21, 2009 Thanks to the Boing Boing website, we’ve found these very cool cutaway diagrams of nuclear reactors. They’ve been executed with love and care, and point to a future that was supposed to promise unlimited, clean and safe electricity.

Unfortunately, the diagrams lack the individual reactor designs’ histories. So, here is the handy cut-out-and-keep Nuclear Reaction nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion……. (just 4 listeed here – check their website for All of them – Christina Macpherson)

5. Grand Gulf, US
Two reactors were planned but only one was built, opening in 1982 but not reaching full operating capacity until 1985. The second reactor was cancelled due to the massive construction costs and its concrete containment building still stands on the site. The completed reactor is thee subject of the paper ‘Excess infant mortality after nuclear plant startup in rural Mississippi’.

6. Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant, China
Opened in 1993 and 1994, the two reactors at China’s Daya Bay produced 37.7 tonnes of nuclear waste in 2008 alone.

7. Oskarshamn, Sweden
The 1 and 2 reactors at Oskarshamn are of an indentical design to the one that came dangerously close to a meltdown at Sweden’s Forsmark reactor in 2006.

8. Snupps: Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System, US
Designed for four US utility companies but built by only two (at Callaway and Wolf Creek), the Snupps design was also the basis for Sizewell B, the last reactor to be built in the UK. The nine offshore wind farms currently being proposed for the UK have a combined electricity output of 21 Snupps.

Nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion – Nuclear Reaction – A Greenpeace blog about nuclear power

Univ. of Ariz. plans to shut down research reactor Google News By BOB CHRISTIE (AP)22 Dec 09 The University of Arizona plans to shut down its 51-year-old nuclear reactor by mid-2010, ending a half-century of specialized nuclear research and training at the Tucson school.The writing has been on the wall for the reactor’s demise since the late 1990s, said the professor who runs the UA Nuclear Research Lab. That’s when falling demand for nuclear engineers led the university to end specialized degree programs that had fed hundreds of engineers into the nuclear Navy and private nuclear industry.The reactor’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expires next year, and with a rigorous re-licensing process, the decision was made to shut the reactor down.

Over the pre-Christmas weekend there was health related news about the Health Bill passing and two other pieces of interest to me:

• Autism now affects about 1% of children.  Vaccination opponents say messing with the immune system early in life is one of the components.  Others suspect nutrition, preservatives, food dies and other chemical challenges to the body.
• Cell phone dangers have not been proven to produce brain cancers in Scandinavia where cell phone are ubiquitous.  But a World Health Organization study suggests there is a risk.  Maine is considering written warnings (article).  Opponents of cell phone use fear the emission of the signal so close to the brain can lead to increased brain cancers.

Nay-sayers respond:

• Autism type conditions  are counted differently which makes the numbers larger.
• Phone company say there are still no proven dangers from cell phone use.

Dr. Miller responds:

I have concerns in both areas.  If your child has autism and you were the one parent who followed the medical model and got all the vaccinations and your child reacted and developed autism… what would that be like?  One of my patients had a child that reacted to vaccines and has been in an institution since he was a child.

Another patient, an all day cell phone user recently passed away from a brain cancer that was operated on several times and just kept growing.  If he there was even a slight chance that we might  be sensitive to the radio waves close to the brain… shouldn’t we be warned.

Assessing risks? The challenge with the news is how to think about it. How to assess the risks.  It gets exhausting as proponents battle their position in the news.

The debate on Vaccines: Putting foreign substances directly into your body (vaccines)… or letting nature take its course with childhood diseases that challenge the immune system? I tell my children that these conditions strengthen their immune system though they don’t like the temporary discomfort of a flu, measles, chicken pox or the common cold. Every time a fever breaks, or they beat another cold I am glad their immune systems are working well… and I tell them so.  Is this the way you think of your body when its working as created?

With vaccinations, whatever your choice, you should know ALL the risks.  And at least THINK about the as yet undetermined risks.

With cell phones most people would agree that having something near your head that emits any kinds of waves may not be good for you.  Even if we can’t show it or prove it yet.   Our bodies’ don’t come with warning labels for who of us might get cancer.   Common sense says we should use hands-free when we can and keep an eye  on the debate.

This is BIG.

A discussion that I’ve started and held so many times, I can’t count, I wonder if we should all be worried about these devices that we hold so near and dear to us, literally.

This article featured on yahoo news centers around a decision being presented in Maine to impose a legal requirement that there be a health warning about the long term effects of cell phone radiation and it’s possible contribution to Brain Cancer. Maine isn’t alone, San Fran wants to raise awareness just as much. While the experts still contests the proof of cell phones causing Cancer is not substantial or consistent. Why are they not at least making the public aware of the probability?

Here’s the full article;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091220/ap_on_re_us/us_cell_phone_warnings

I guess common sense would tell you that whatever powers this small box that can allow you to talk worldwide, play videos, film and take pictures has to be something that can burrow through your brain tissue tho. Anyone who’s been on a long conversation and felt the phone get hot can attest to this.

I’ve debated about this with my little sister, and posed this question to friends and strangers.

I was so relieved when late last year both of my parents stopped wearing their beloved wireless cellular earpieces. Although my little sister assured me that there’s less to be worried about as she did a study for school that proved that the earpieces don’t send out near as much radiation as the phones themselves. But understand, my parents would wear these stupid things in their ears day in, day out, everyday.

All I could think about is when we learned the radiation charts in Chemistry class back in high school and middle school. And tho I know that computers and phones emitt the lowest levels of radiation on the scale, it is still radiation. And since these technologies have not been around long enough in human history, we don’t really have a solid understanding or grasp on what the true long term effects will be. In a way, we’re all guinea pigs to an advent that has changed our lives for the better, but may send us all to an early grave. Who can imagine modern life without a cell phone? it’s so implemented into our daily routines, even children carry them.

I often wonder if all of this sitting up late night so close to this computer screen is killing me slowly. I try not to think about it because it’s such a necessary evil at this point in my life, but I can’t help but to remember back in my days as a Real Estate Agent, watching everyone on their laptops while on their cell phones.

One of my teammates there, a real ambitious and super smart guy from Israel who always had his cell phone handy, stopped me one day as I had my ear piece out (with the wire of course) and asked me how it’s been working for me. he was one of those guys who always would phrase big questions in a simple way or set them up to make a profound point with a friendly, knowing smile on his face.

I said”‘fine”,

then he proceeded to show me an e-mail he had recently received about a study done overseas where two cell phones were sat across from each other with an egg inbetween them for the duration of a 60 minute conversation. At the end of that conversation, the study showed that the egg was hardboiled inside.

Now this has since been denounced as a hoax or urban legend, and I didn’t know whether or not it was just too sensational to believe, but it did push me to think. What are we doing to ourselves?

I begged my parents each to cut the earpiece usage down when they used to wear it all day. And I’ve recently been trying to keep mine away from me when I’m not on it. I prefer skype and texting.

Some people are Aids activists. I am scared to death of Cancer of all forms. Mostly, because I feel it may be the only natural disease. Natural in the sense that it is the resulting by-product of every thing we have done on this planet to live more convenient, comfortable modern lives.

So while there may not be any way to stop it, it can surely be fought. And I intend to fight it every little way that I can. One step at a time.

You should too.

One inch above or one inch below would’ve killed you.  The fact that it rolled right over your stomach and no other place on you,  saved you.    You were meant to survive.

 All my life,  You’ve always held a place of strength and fight in my eyes. 

    I know this treatment is sucking for you… I hate to hear what you are going through.   One time in 1986,  My son had gone to the states with his dad to spend Christmas.

I felt sorry for myself, because I was all alone in the Army barracks without my 9 month old kid on Christmas.  I thought that christmas sucked…

but,

 I cannot even begin to imagine going through this and especially at such a time as Christmas of all times.  

 I just wanted to tell you that I love you. 

 Now go out there and kick Cancer’s ass. 

In another *facepalm* moment, the state legislature in Maine will soon be considering a bill that would require cell phones to carry warning labels that they, you guessed it, might cause brain cancer.  Ugh – I have posted about this topic before (in my post “Electromagnetic Fields & Cancer Myths”), and I cannot state strongly enough that there is no evidence that cell phone use causes cancer!  Not only is there no conclusive evidence that cell phone radiation causes cancer, but according to the known laws of physics there is no physical mechanism by which this is even possible. But that won’t stop some non-scientifically minded nut with political clout from pushing this nonsense into a useless law…

Maine to consider cell phone cancer warning

A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.

The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation’s first to require the warnings.

Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors’ bills.

And here’s my favorite part of the article…

While there’s little agreement about the health hazards, Boland said Maine’s roughly 950,000 cell phone users among its 1.3 million residents “do not know what the risks are.”

Ahem, Rep. Boland, this is an argument that is essentially begging the question… the assumption is that there is a risk, despite there being any conclusive evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship (not to be confused with correlation) between cancer & cell phone use AND a lack of any kind of physical mechanism to even facilitate that process.  Folks, this is what happens when you mix political power with the Paralyzing Precautionary Principle. Now this may be crappy science, but I’m sure it’ll raise Rep. Boland’s political profile – too bad she couldn’t just stick to the actual science as opposed to pushing pseudoscientific & fear-mongering woo woo.

Folks, if you live in Maine, please take a moment to contact your state representatives and ask them to – for the sake of good science & sound legislative policies – just throw Boland’s bill in the trash heap where it belongs.  I’m sure there are far better, more important, and real issues the Maine legislature could be dealing with on behalf of that state’s citizens.

Rep. Boland, this one’s for you…

Light from billions of stars and radiation from our own sun fill the outer space; we cannot say it is vacuous.

 As even photons are attracted by the sun, they too have mass. The distinction between matter and energy is purely imaginary, as pointed out by Einstein. So the concept, that velocity of light is constant in space, is also not logical, as it is subjected to the pull of a number of particles, including electrons, coming from all other suns.

In the formula E = M (C squared), C is assumed to be constant. This is a wrong assuption.

Think of it.

Dave Castaneda from the HypeMachineD twitter page just informed me if you text “chattattack” (without quotes) to 41411 you’ll receive an update on the SUPER SECRET HOUSE SHOW OF THE weekend. (plus deals from Best Buy apparently) Yeah, that’s right, you heard me, where’s fluffy man?

Straight from Dave himself, proclaiming to have Taxicab Racers and Fly Golden Eagle confirmed for the event. This alone should psych us up to be texting away on our RAD phones. Get it? Radiation phones? Because cell phones give you cancer. Duh.

It’s still up in the air as to where it’s going to be which is a big inconvenience to writers such as myself, but I’ve given you a means of getting information. So use it.

I personally think this is a inconvenient way of hosting a concert, but it does add to the excitement.

WhatNoogans, what do you think?