50 Humpbacks Face Death

DATE SET TO DECIDE HUMPBACKS' FATE
The International Whaling Commission has set Dec. 8 - 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA for a meeting that will decide whether Greenland will receive a quota to kill 50 humpback whales. BlueVoice opposes this quota in the strongest terms. Most people are not aware of this impending slaughter. We are distributing flyers suggesting ways to protest the hunt on whale watching boats around the United States and will soon begin efforts to get state governors to declare humpbacks animals of high cultural and economic importance to their coastal towns. To help us distribute flyers email us at contact@bluevoice.org.

Humpback whales are large brained, highly communicative sentient creatures. We must make the oceans safe for such magnificent creatures.

Hardy Jones

Genetic Links between Toxins and Cancer

The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) has published a report that describes a genetic link between environmental toxins and bone disease in multiple myeloma, a form of blood/bone cancer. Once considered a disease of the elderly, and a rare one at that, myeloma is increasingly being diagnose in patients under 45. The big question is "why, when many cancers are being reduced in incidence, is myeloma increasing and penetrating lower age groups?

One possible explanation is the increase in environmental toxins. But what is the connection between the toxins and the disease?

Researchers with the IMF gene bank (Bank on a Cure) have identified changes in SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that are part of DNA sequences. These changes reduce a person's ability to process chemical toxins such as Dioxin and may lead to cancer.

The finding, published in the latest issue of the journal Leukemia, authored by Dr. Brian Durie, chair of the IMF, - http://www.myeloma.org - provide a possible link between myeloma and environmental toxins.

As these toxins rise in the marine food chain we are seeing more cases of cancer in dolphins, types of cancer never before identified in these marine mammals. Dolphins should be seen as sentinels warming us to the dangerous levels of pollution accumulating in our oceans.

If we analyse the status of disease and pollution in dolphins worldwide we can conclude only that a global pandemic exists that now threatens dolphins and more and more is a menace to human health.

Hardy Jones

U. S. Military Says Climate Change A Threat

An ultraradical left wing group is saying that global climate change poses a security threat to the United States. Oh WAIT! That's actually the National Intelligence Council and the Pentagon saying it. They're concerned that whole regions may become destablized by extreme weather, including drought, violent storms and mass migrations of people - even pandemics. That's not to mention food and water shortages, and catastrophic flooding. The military and intelligence experts who produced this information will testify next month when the Senate addresses new climate and energy legislation already passed by the house.

There are still some nitwits who argue that global climate change has nothing to do with combustion of fossil fuels. They have their paid experts who try to obfuscate the climate debate the way "scientists" paid for by the tobacco companies cast doubt on the dangers of smoking. They claim that the current rise in temperatures is a natural and cyclical event. And they are partially right. But also dead wrong.

The fact is the earth tracks around the sun in an elliptical rather than circular orbit. Earth is now moving closer to the sun and thus will experience warming. Another factor is that the earth wobbles a bit on its axis, not something we'd notice at the individual level, but important in that it tilts the Arctic closer to the sun.

So now is the worst time to add the creation of greenhouse gases to an already warming planet. Do we want to create a perfect storm of climate change?

Dolphins Show Exposure to West Nile Virus

During the past two years highly alarming reports have appeared showing dolphins have developed resistance to many antibiotics. The work, conducted by Dr. Greg Bossart et al reflect research on dolphins in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina and the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. The research shows that common antibiotics have been ingested by dolphins to the extent that the dolphins have developed resistance to them. This leads to the possibility that super strains of viruses or bacteria could develop among dolphins.

Now Dr. Bossart and his colleagues have detected evidence of Eastern, Western and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses along with West Nile Virus in at least one of the two dolphin populations. The research team also detected Brucella or brucellosis, a widely feared disease in cattle, caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals, or close contact with their secretions. Brucellosis is a zoonose - an infectious disease that can be transmitted from animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to other animals.

The combination of these two discoveries indicate the possibility of health problems of an alarming nature.

The entire report may be found at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/eaam/am/2009/00000035/00000002/art00002

Hardy Jones

Scientists Study Massive Debris in Pacific

Marine scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography are en route to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of square miles of sea north of the Hawaiian Islands called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

The expedition will study how much debris is collecting in what is known as the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, and how that material - mostly tiny plastic fragments - affects marine life.

The debris is concentrated by circular ocean currents within a vast "convergence zone" roughly midway between Japan and the West Coast of the United States.

"The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain," Bob Knox, deputy director of research at Scripps, said after the ship had spent its first full day at sea.

Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants.

Pesticide tied to Obesity and Diabetes

A new report indicates a tie between the widely used pesticide Atrazine and obesity and diabetes. Atrazine, according to Mary Turyk et al, affects insulin signaling and induces insulin resistance. The report says "Atrazine or its metabolites might be introduced into humans through corn syrup and other corn-derived foods. Turke had previously found the odds of developing diabetes is highest in persons with high levels of DDEs and PBDEs. For details: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/diabetes-and-environmental-contaminants

by Hardy Jones