True Left

New report reveals unexpected source of lead contamination: ‘We never knew about it so we never acted on it’

Environmental groups are calling on the government to further investigate.

Yahoo News · yahoo.com

Abandoned telephone cables are contaminating soil and waterways throughout the U.S. with toxic lead, according to an in-depth report from the Wall Street Journal.

The investigation found thousands of lead-covered cables left behind by major telecom companies have been polluting the environment for decades, posing a hidden threat to communities from coast to coast.
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After researchers tested hundreds of sites nationwide, environmental samples revealed lead contamination near playgrounds, schools, and major waterways. A sample from Lake Tahoe reported levels 2,533 times the EPA limit for drinking water, posing significant danger to swimmers, wildlife, and nearby communities.

Lead - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In the New World, lead production was recorded soon after the arrival of European settlers. The earliest record dates to 1621 in the English Colony of Virginia, fourteen years after its foundation.[173] In Australia, the first mine opened by colonists on the continent was a lead mine, in 1841.[174] In Africa, lead mining and smelting were known in the Benue Trough[175] and the lower Congo Basin, where lead was used for trade with Europeans, and as a currency by the 17th century,[176] well before the scramble for Africa.

Scientists make a startling connection between toxic ‘forever chemicals’ and our immune system: ‘If a person is exposed …’

"That is a real problem."

Yahoo News · yahoo.com

A new study suggests per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as forever chemicals or PFAS, reduce the activity of human immune cells.
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“PFAS are poorly to hardly biodegradable — and that is a real problem,” Herberth said. “They therefore accumulate in the environment — in soils and bodies of water. They can even be found in Antarctica. They can enter the human body via food, drinking water, or the air.”

Herberth went on to say, “Studies have shown that PFAS can be detected in the blood of almost everyone in the world. What this means for our long-term health is not yet known.”

In the study, the immune cells were exposed to PFAS mixtures for 20 hours and then stimulated before their activity was measured. The cells that were exposed to PFAS showed “significantly lower activity than untreated cells,” according to the study.

“The strongest effects occurred when all six PFAS were mixed,” indicating a compounding effect, Herbeth said.
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PFAS are “water-, stain-, and grease-resistant” and “toxic at extremely low levels (i.e. parts per quadrillion),” according to the National Resources Defense Council.

A 2021 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health stated that PFAS were invented in the 1930s

This is our comeuppance for making these chemicals.

Proof of how stupid mankind is. People came up with these

Asbestos is banned in around 70 countries in the world. But some continue to use the toxic fibers. With fatal consequences. But how dangerous is asbestos really? Where are people most in danger? And how could its use be stopped?

Industrial era

The large-scale asbestos industry began in the mid-19th century. Early attempts at producing asbestos paper and cloth in Italy began in the 1850s but were unsuccessful in creating a market for such products. Canadian samples of asbestos were displayed in London in 1862, and the first companies were formed in England and Scotland to exploit this resource. Asbestos was first used in the manufacture of yarn, and German industrialist Louis Wertheim adopted this process in his factories in Germany. [36] In 1871, the Patent Asbestos Manufacturing Company was established in Glasgow, and during the following decades, the Clydebank area became a centre for the nascent industry.[37]

Industrial-scale mining began in the Thetford hills, Quebec, from the 1870s. Sir William Edmond Logan was the first to notice the large deposits of chrysotile in the hills in his capacity as head of Geological Survey of Canada. Samples of the minerals from there were displayed in London and elicited much interest.[36] With the opening of the Quebec Central Railway in 1876, mining entrepreneurs such as Andrew Stuart Johnson established the asbestos industry in the province.[38] The 50-ton output of the mines in 1878 rose to over 10,000 tonnes in the 1890s with the adoption of machine technologies and expanded production.[36][39] For a long time, the world's largest asbestos mine was the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec.[40]

Asbestos production began in the Urals of the Russian Empire in the 1880s, and the Alpine regions of Northern Italy with the formation in Turin of the Italo-English Pure Asbestos Company in 1876, although this was soon swamped by the greater production levels from the Canadian mines. Mining also took off in South Africa from 1893 under the aegis of the British businessman Francis Oates, the director of the De Beers company.[41] It was in South Africa that the production of amosite began in 1910. The U.S. asbestos industry had an early start in 1858 when fibrous anthophyllite was mined for use as asbestos insulation by the Johns Company, a predecessor to the current Johns Manville, at a quarry at Ward's Hill on Staten Island, New York.[42] US production began in earnest in 1899 with the discovery of large deposits in Belvidere Mountain.

The use of asbestos became increasingly widespread toward the end of the 19th century when its diverse applications included fire-retardant coatings, concrete, bricks, pipes and fireplace cement, heat-, fire-, and acid-resistant gaskets, pipe insulation, ceiling insulation, fireproof drywall, flooring, roofing, lawn furniture, and drywall joint compound. In 2011, it was reported that over 50% of UK houses still contained asbestos, despite a ban on asbestos products some years earlier.[43]

In Japan, particularly after World War II, asbestos was used in the manufacture of ammonium sulfate for purposes of rice production, sprayed upon the ceilings, iron skeletons, and walls of railroad cars and buildings (during the 1960s), and used for energy efficiency reasons as well. Production of asbestos in Japan peaked in 1974 and went through ups and downs until about 1990 when production began to drop dramatically.[44]

Asbestos - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium).[10] The area most commonly affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall.[1][3] Less commonly the lining of the abdomen and rarely the sac surrounding the heart,[11] or the sac surrounding the testis may be affected.[1][12] Signs and symptoms of mesothelioma may include shortness of breath due to fluid around the lung, a swollen abdomen, chest wall pain, cough, feeling tired, and weight loss.[1] These symptoms typically come on slowly.[2]

More than 80% of mesothelioma cases are caused by exposure to asbestos.[3] The greater the exposure the greater the risk.[3] As of 2013, about 125 million people worldwide have been exposed to asbestos at work.[13] High rates of disease occur in people who mine asbestos, produce products from asbestos, work with asbestos products, live with asbestos workers, or work in buildings containing asbestos.[3] Asbestos exposure and the onset of cancer are generally separated by about 40 years.[3] Washing the clothing of someone who worked with asbestos also increases the risk.[13] Other risk factors include genetics and infection with the simian virus 40.[3] The diagnosis may be suspected based on chest X-ray and CT scan findings, and is confirmed by either examining fluid produced by the cancer or by a tissue biopsy of the cancer.[2]

Mesothelioma - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Study discovers concerning side effect of using microwaves: '[This] should be a wake-up call'

"People also deserve to know."

Yahoo News · yahoo.com

Study uncovers disturbing side effect of using microwaves: ‘[This] should be a wake-up call’
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Our “just pop it in the microwave” mentality is unleashing hordes of tiny plastic particles —  more than 2 billion nanoplastics and 4 million microplastics per square centimeter (almost one-sixth of a square inch), in some cases — the experts found.
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Nebraska researcher Kazi Albab Hussain and his team microwaved FDA-approved plastic baby bottles as part of a study that began in 2021. They were filled with water and other liquids simulating food and zapped for three minutes.

The results showed that the children would be ingesting microplastics as a result.
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The experts exposed kidney cells to the microplastics released during their bottle-microwaving experiment. They said about 75% of the cells were killed — a possible link to how microplastics might be harming our kidneys.

Steaming - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties have been found to retain significantly better through steaming than through boiling or microwaving.[19]

Microwave oven - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The invention of the cavity magnetron made possible the production of electromagnetic waves of a small enough wavelength (microwaves). The magnetron was a crucial component in the development of short wavelength radar during World War II.[8] In 1937–1940, a multi-cavity magnetron was built by British physicist Sir John Turton Randall, FRSE and coworkers, for the British and American military radar installations in World War II.[9] A higher-powered microwave generator that worked at shorter wavelengths was needed, and in 1940, at the University of Birmingham in England, Randall and Harry Boot produced a working prototype.[10] They invented a valve that could produce pulses of microwave radio energy at a wavelength of 10 cm, an unprecedented discovery.[9]

Sir Henry Tizard traveled to the U.S. in late September 1940 to offer the magnetron in exchange for their financial and industrial help (see Tizard Mission).[9] An early 6 kW version, built in England by the General Electric Company Research Laboratories, Wembley, London, was given to the U.S. government in September 1940. The magnetron was later described by American historian James Phinney Baxter III as "[t]he most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores".[11] Contracts were awarded to Raytheon and other companies for the mass production of the magnetron.
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In 1945, the heating effect of a high-power microwave beam was accidentally discovered by Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine. Employed by Raytheon at the time, he noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a Mr. Goodbar candy bar he had in his pocket. The first food deliberately cooked with Spencer's microwave oven was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters.[12][13]

To verify his finding, Spencer created a high-density electromagnetic field by feeding microwave power from a magnetron into a metal box from which it had no way to escape. When food was placed in the box with the microwave energy, the temperature of the food rose rapidly. On 8 October 1945, Raytheon filed a United States patent application for Spencer's microwave cooking process, and an oven that heated food using microwave energy from a magnetron was soon placed in a Boston restaurant for testing.[14]

Another early discovery of microwave oven technology was by British scientists, including James Lovelock, who in the 1950s used it to reanimate cryogenically frozen hamsters.[15][16][17]

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X (formerly Twitter) · x.com

Marcy Borders was a legal assistant who worked for Bank of America in the World Trade Center. She survived 9/11 & emerged from the building covered in dust. She became known as the "Dust Lady." Borders died of stomach cancer in August 2015, she believed was caused by the dust.

Abandoned fishing gear, often called "ghost gear," is breaking down in our oceans and adding to the problems brought by plastics and microplastics. But there was a recent effort to get the United Nations to enforce tougher regulations, and a coalition announced new funding to remove some debris in the Gulf of Maine. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.