Project Censored Alerts
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Teflon | Corporations Granted Relief from Pollution Regulations |
Computer Chips in your Drivers License | Women's situation much worse
than before the fall of Hussein | Miami Profiteers Evicting Alameda
CA Renters
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 11:45:20 -0800
From: Peter Phillips
Subject: Project Censored Alerts
Project Censored Alerts
Edited by Tina Tambornini
Teflon: Potential Health Risks
Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is being found in the drinking water
around the United States and it could potentially cause health risks.
PFOA is a chemical that is used in the manufacturing of Dupont's
Teflon. Teflon is a type of plastic that is used to make fire
resistant cables, the thin white tape used in plumbing, Gor-Tex and
other waterproofing membranes, as well as non-stick coatings for pots
and pans.
The problem with this chemical is that it easily dissolves in water,
allowing for easier consumption by the public. This chemical has been
in use in industry for fifty some years, and Dupont-lead studies have
found no PFOA in pots or pans. However, current research has shown
that this "Teflon Chemical" is found in people's blood (in the parts
per billion range), around the nation as well as around the globe.
The risk is that the chemical is potentially dangerous, and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now showing a greater
concern with the chemical than before. Recent government studies have
shown that PFOA can cause developmental effects in laboratory animals
at low levels. Other research has shown that PFOA may be linked to
cancer as well as pose risk for birth defects. Researchers suspect
that most of the PFOA in our blood may come from the breakdown of
telomers, which are produced when Teflon is dissolved in water. The
Plastics industry is completely denying that PFOA causes cancer
and/or birth defects, maintaining additionally that the manufacturing
of this chemical does not account for the widespread human exposure
to PFOA.
Source: Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Journal
"Teflon Chemical: It's in Your Pots and Pans and it's probably in you"
by Cheryl Hogue Synopsis by Brent Kidder
Corporations Granted Relief from Pollution Regulations
The thirty companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in
the country have raised 6.6 million for President Bush and the
Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from
pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars.
This is because these companies hired at least sixteen lobbying
firms, which met with Dick Cheney's energy task force to help
formulate the country's energy and pollution policies. In addition,
some plant industry executives were given key positions at the
Environmental Protection Agency, which has attempted to exempt many
of these corporations from the pollution control requirements by
relaxing the rules. Some of the emissions that these companies
release include sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, which pose higher
risks to Americans in terms of asthma attacks, lung ailments, and
premature death.
Source: Asheville Global Report No. 278, May 13-19, 2004
By Finn Finneran Synopsis by Deanna Murrell
Computer Chips in your Drivers License
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Oct. 6th urged Virginia not
to become the first state in the nation to place radio frequency
identification chips in its driver's licenses. RFID tags are computer
chips attached to tiny antennae that are capable of broadcasting
their data wirelessly to anyone with an RFID reader. They are
currently used for "contactless" applications such as tollbooth speed
passes. Almost everyone carries a driver's license, and RFID chops
allow people to be tracked. This proposal would allow anyone to set
up a reader and capture the identities and personal information of
every person who comes within range. FBI agents, for example, could
sweep up identities of everyone at a political meeting, protest
march, gun show or Islamic prater service.
Source: Asheville Global Report "ACLU against Chips in VA Driver's: Licenses"
Credit ACLU October 14-20 No. 300 Synopsis by Allison Lewis
Women's situation much worse than before the fall of Hussein.
Since the fall of the Ba'ath regime women have been under siege. They
now live in constant fear of abduction, assault and death. Abductions
are now so common that daughters are being kept home from school and
women cannot leave the house without the accompaniment of male
relative. Women who have been abducted are often quietly killed by
their families to clear the shame. There are also no statistics
because reporting to the police would often times mean death. Those
who are not released after abduction are often sold into the
flourishing business of prostitution. The poverty that has been
afflicted upon these women has left them no other options but
prostitution, but those who are thought to be prostitutes are often
beheaded.
Women in Iraq once were much better off, and held an enviable status
in the Middle East. The Iraq constitution declared the equality of
women in 1979, and in the early 80's women were 40% of the work
force. Equal pay and benefits were mandated, but in 1991 at the time
of the invasion of Kuwait, women's rights began to erode. In 1990, a
new penal code was enacted to allow honor killings of women. Article
409 permitted men to kill female relatives who were raped to restore
family reputations and any women who were suspected of adultery or
engaging in premarital sex could be murdered.
Since the fall of the Ba'ath regime, Islamic fundamentalist groups
have emerged with the intent of imposing their views and taking
control of Iraq. They are not allowing women to go to work, forcing
them to wear veils, and making them second-class citizens. The U.S.
government chose the members of the puppet government in Iraq,
effectively placing the fundamentalists in power and imposing these
sanctions on the women of Iraq. If the Iraqi people had been able to
vote and choose their government these people never would have come
to power, because few people would have voted for them. America has
put Iraqi women in this position, and as long as profits are insured
for western investors, change for them is unlikely. A government like
the one that has been imposed is less threatening to western profits,
with little regard for the women and other people it is ruining.
Source: Covert Action Quarterly Spring 04
"Assault on Iraqi Women"
by Gregory Elich Synopsis by Amanda Pyle
Miami Profiteers Evicting Alameda CA Renters
Protests at Alameda City Hall are becoming a normal ritual lately
because so many low-income families are being threatened with forced
relocation due to a lack of fair housing laws. A Miami-based
corporation is evicting at least 1,200 people from their homes in the
Harbor Island Apart complex.
Harbor Island is a group of 10 buildings that were bought by Mark and
Ian Sanders of the Fifteen Group out of Miami, Florida, back in 1996.
Waiting until the surrounding neighborhood had become gentrified; the
brothers recently decided that the time was right to evict the
community from their homes to maximize profits by renovating the
complex and bringing in a whole new group of higher income renters.
In their mid-30's, Mark and Ian Sanders, owners of Harbor Island and
the Miami-based Fifteen Group, own or operate at least 14,700 rental
housing units across the nation, have approximately 375 employees and
pull in more than $100 million a year between them. Not shy of
exposure and apparently proud of themselves, the Sanders brothers
have left a trail of displaced renters in their wake as they continue
to build their profiteering empire.
Regina Tillman, originally from San Francisco, has lives at Harbor
Island since 1978 when the rents were only $117 a month for a
two-bedroom unit. The complex had two popular swimming pools then.
"It's a modern-day lynching going on here," Tillman said, "a modern
day lynching of the community. They're destroying the future of a
community and all the families that have resided here for so many
years."
Protestors from Harbor Island and supporters have been showing up at
recent City Council meetings to demand that the evictions be halted,
but little more than lip service has been offered by city officials
to denounce the evictions. In addition, no effort has been made
through the years to enact a just cause anti-eviction ordinance to
stop this kind of tragedy from occurring in Alameda. At this point,
only 150 renters remain at Harbor Island. The renters who remain at
Harbor Island are determined to stay in their homes somehow and
figure out how to fight the Sanders Brothers as best as they can.
Source: San Francisco Bay View August 25, 2004
"Miami Profiteers evicting Alameda renters"
by Lynda Carson Synopsis by: Travis Byrne
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