The greatest difficulty locally is the lack of political will and commitment in allowing the range of chemical residue monitoring to be undertaken in Tasmania.

Ordinary people suffer the health consequences of these acts of omission!

The general public would be very disappointed and perhaps shocked that their State Government (through its bureaucracies) has obfuscated and obstructed not only any meaningful participation in national persistent organic pollutant residue surveys but also in the necessary risk management and risk communication that such data demands of democratically-elected Government.

“We knew nothing” defense - used by the defendants at the Nuremberg WWII war trials - to absolve Government of accountability is no longer acceptable Public Policy in the 21st Century.

This is yet another reason why Tasmania needs an Environment Protection Agency with teeth and an Anti-Corruption Commission.

I urge Tasmanians to forget about all the disturbing stuff about Tasmania’s industry-led health system. Flick on the telly, and enjoy “Strange Days on Planet Earth” on ABC TV tonight, (Tuesday,29/1).

John Hayward

“The Korean scientists found that people were more at risk of diabetes if they were thin with high levels of POPs in their blood than if
they were overweight but with low levels of POPs.”

People with high levels of POPs in their blood are more likely to develop insulin resistance, a precursor for type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers in Korea that is cited by Jones and Griffin. Previous research by the same group found a link between POPs and type 2 diabetes. This study confirms that background exposure to chemicals such as organochlorine pesticides and PCBs is also associated with insulin resistance among people who do not yet have diabetes.

Intersting Article

Karri Ramu et al. 2007, “Asian Mussel Watch Program: Contamination Status of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Organochlorines in Coastal Waters of Asian Countries”, Environ. Sci. Technol., 41 (13), 4580 -4586.

Abstract:
Mussel samples were used in this study to measure the levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and organochlorines (OCs) in the coastal waters of Asian countries like Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. PBDEs were detected in all the samples analyzed, and the concentrations ranged from 0.66 to 440 ng/g lipid wt. Apparently higher concentrations of PBDEs were found in mussels from the coastal waters of Korea, Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines, which suggests that significant sources of these chemicals exist in and around this region. With regard to the composition of PBDE congeners, BDE-47, BDE-99, and BDE-100 were the dominant congeners in most of the samples. Among the OCs analyzed, concentrations of DDTs were the highest followed by PCBs > CHLs > HCHs > HCB. Total concentrations of DDTs, PCBs, CHLs, and HCHs in mussel samples ranged from 21 to 58 000, 3.8 to 2000, 0.93 to 900, and 0.90 to 230 ng/g lipid wt., respectively. High levels of DDTs were found in mussels from Hong Kong, Vietnam, and China; PCBs were found in Japan, Hong Kong, and industrialized/urbanized locations in Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India; CHLs were found in Japan and Hong Kong; HCHs were found in India and China. These countries seem to play a role as probable emission sources of corresponding contaminants in Asia and, in turn, may influence their global distribution.

Wonder what levels are in Tasmanian aqua foods and agricultural produce??

Speaking of the incredible environmental problems of Asia (many of which are actually global in nature) have you heard what the deputy director of the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration has to say?

His name is Pan Yue.  Here are some quotes:

—“The environmental crisis has become a new means of transferring the economic crisis”

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/493—The-rich-consume-and-the-poor-suffer-the-pollution-

“This [Chinese] miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace.”

China’s environmental suicide: a government minister speaks
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-climate_change_debate/article_2407.jsp

“..China’s circumstances, in particular the imbalance between its population, resources and environment, mean that traditional western industrial civilisation is not an option. China is a socialist country and cannot engage in environmental colonialism, nor act as a hegemony, so it must move towards a new type of civilisation. Ideas such as the scientific view of development and building a harmonious, resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society, as put forward by the Central Committee in recent years, have laid the foundation for doing so.

A significant number of people see a scientific view of development as simply a change in the mode of economic growth, even believing that establishing a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society is merely a matter of technology. But that is only one aspect. The scientific view of development seeks a comprehensive and sustainable change of politics, economics, society, culture and theory – a transformation of civilisation. And so, the period between now and 2020 will be crucial in determining whether China can complete this transformation from traditional to eco-industrial civilisation. . .”

I have to comment that as someone who moved to Tasmania eight years ago I’m disturbed at how much cancer has become part of my experience. This may simply be that I’m getting older, so my peer group is more prone to this type of thing but it seems that everyone I know has cancer stories about either themselves or close relatives.
It’s this, combined with the dubious assesment process, which will see myself and family hightailing it out of here should this mill actually be built.

Steve, you don’t happen to live in George Town do you?
A third of all the cancer patients in the LGH come from that town.
And I’m not surprised that there are many in Comalco and Temco who aren’t in favour of the mill…

So, what are the equivalent statistics for Tasmania? Does anyone know? What are the jobs that put most Tasmanians at increased risks of cancer?
How does working at pulp mills equate to working with pesticides, as in agriculture or timber plantations?
Who is going to do this information gathering and tell us?
Dr Alison Bleaney

Thousands dying of work-related cancers. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are in jobs that put them at increased risk of cancer but neither they nor their doctors know it. Auckland Sunday Star Times, New Zealand.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4385107a6442.html

Seattle study shows striking toxicity gulf between kids who ate organic and conventional foods. Really “conventional” equates to food grown with the aid of and contaminated by, pesticides.
What proportion of kids in Tasmania eat “conventional” foods, and what are the total “body burdens” of all artificial chemicals of these kids?
Are we able to moniter the consequences of
different diets and toxic loads over the next decades?
Absence of evidence does not mean absence of harm.
Dr Alison Bleaney

Posted by The Oregonian January 30, 2008 06:59AM
Categories: Puget Sound
Whether or not it was up to harmful levels is unclear. But kids on Mercer Island who ate organic ended up free of pesticides that stayed with kids who ate mainstream. The Post-Intelligencer’s investigative reports Andy Schneider has the grocery goods.

Government promises to rid the nation’s food supply of brain-damaging pesticides aren’t doing the job, according to the results of a yearlong study that carefully monitored the diets of a group of local children.
The peer-reviewed study found that the urine and saliva of children eating a variety of conventional foods from area groceries contained biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.

When the same children ate organic fruits, vegetables and juices, signs of pesticides were not found.

“The transformation is extremely rapid,” said Chensheng Lu, the principal author of the study published online in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

“Once you switch from conventional food to organic, the pesticides (malathion and chlorpyrifos) that we can measure in the urine disappears. The level returns immediately when you go back to the conventional diets,” said Lu, a professor at Emory University’s School of Public Health and a leading authority on pesticides and children.

Within eight to 36 hours of the children switching to organic food, the pesticides were no longer detected in the testing.

The subjects for his testing were 21 children, ages 3 to 11, from two elementary schools and a Montessori preschool on Mercer Island.

The community has double the median national income, but the wealth of Mercer Island made no difference in the outcome, he said.

“We are confident that if we did the same study in poor communities, we would get the same results,” he said. The study is being repeated in Georgia.

(8—9)
    i’m in full agreement with all you have said Alison, I, having posted on this subject previously, but, with no response, i would imagine that somone ! and or dept MUST have been doing such investigations.
    The trick is how does one find out who ! and access the information ?
                 
                    d.d.

The letter below is a copy of that I sent to Tasnmania’s three newspapers , please note that it would have had much more “cred” had names addresses been included, in spite of that it may get a run, one can only hope, also i would be interested in if the two posters have actually written of their concerns to the papers in question?
 
  Remember ! we must make every post a winner !                     

                    d.d.

        =======EDITOR======

  THE ISSUES BELOW ARE BUT THREE OF THE MANY CONCERNS   THAT ARE BEING ASKED ABOUT THE BUILDING OF THE PULP MILL .

  IS IT NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ! THEREFORE THE DUTY OF THE EXAMINER , MERCURY @ THE ADVOCATE TO AT LEAST ENDEAVOUR TO INVESTIGATE AND REPORT ON THESE VERY REAL CONCERNS ?

  I have to comment that as someone who moved to Tasmania eight years ago I’m disturbed at how much cancer has become part of my experience. This may simply be that I’m getting older, so my peer group is more prone to this type of thing but it seems that everyone I know has cancer stories about either themselves or close relatives.
It’s this, combined with the dubious assesment process, which will see myself and family hightailing it out of here should this mill actually be built.

Posted by Steve on 30/01/08 at 08:23 PM
        Steve, you don’t happen to live in George Town do you?
A third of all the cancer patients in the LGH come from that town.
And I’m not surprised that there are many in Comalco and Temco who aren’t in favour of the mill…

Posted by Mike Adams on 30/01/08 at 08:54 PM
      So, what are the equivalent statistics for Tasmania? Does anyone know? What are the jobs that put most Tasmanians at increased risks of cancer?
How does working at pulp mills equate to working with pesticides, as in agriculture or timber plantations?
Who is going to do this information gathering and tell us?
Dr Alison Bleaney

Thousands dying of work-related cancers. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are in jobs that put them at increased risk of cancer but neither they nor their doctors know it. Auckland Sunday Star Times, New Zealand.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4385107a6442.html

Don davey

32 eardley st

launceston

03 63431531

The diabetes rate of this State is recognised to be higher than the national rate.
What steps is the Tasmanian State Government taking to ensure the exposure reduction of the population to pesticides and POPs?
Why has the Review of the Code of Practice for Aerial Spraying (initiated mid 2005) stalled? When will another set of provisional recommendations be produced for a further round of public comment?

Further information on the possible cuases of diabetes with the comment: (see below) -  ‘A new study in the British medical journal, The Lancet, provides more evidence that pesticide exposure may play a role in development of diabetes.The study’s authors urged researchers to focus on the role of environmental pollutants, challenging the long-held assumption that diabetes is primarily linked to “genetics and the Westernization of dietary habits and lifestyle.”
Dr Alison Bleaney

PANNA
Pesticides linked to diabetes: A new study in the British medical journal, The Lancet, provides more evidence that pesticide exposure may play a role in development of diabetes. The study’s authors urged researchers to focus on the role of environmental pollutants, challenging the long-held assumption that diabetes is primarily linked to “genetics and the Westernization of dietary habits and lifestyle.” An analysis of the US National Health and Examination Survey from 1999-2002 found a “strong correlation between insulin resistance and serum concentrations of persistent organic pollutants, especially for organochlorine compounds,” such as the pesticide DDT and it’s breakdown chemicals. A 2007 article in Human and Experimental Toxicology reported similar findings. In addition, a Swedish study of 380 men and women exposed to organochlorine compounds showed “a strong association with the occurrence of diabetes,” as did comparable research in Belgium. Studies of US Air Force Vietnam War vets also “suggest an adverse relation between dioxin exposure (via the defoliant Agent Orange) and symptoms of diabetes.”

“We knew nothing”
No excuse!

“The Korean scientists found that people were more at risk of diabetes if they were thin with high levels of POPs in their blood than if they were overweight but with low levels of POPs.”

Interesting srudy. It is general idea that people whgo are overweight are at more risk of developing type 2

If gene functioning affects our risk of developing diabetes, and many toxic chemicals - many fat soluble - affect gene functioning (epigenetic effects), would it not be appropriate to regulate for the use of these chemicals using precautionary measures?
In Tasmania alone the death rate from diabetes is predicted to double over the next 5 years.
Eventually the risk to health from diseases and cancers due to environmental toxins will be discussed openly - as smoking is at present. It seems to take forever to develop protective and preventative public and environmental health initiatives. Meanwhile, we are all exposed….
As the song says “Let’s do it!”
Dr Alison Bleaney

Scientists discover gene variant that raises diabetes risk
Half of the US population has a gene variant that impairs glucose tolerance, putting them at risk of diabetes.
Diabetes is an increasing problem, so there is great interest in predisposing factors. Although we know that lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet can contribute to diabetes, genetic factors may also be involved. A team at Saint Louis University has now discovered a gene variant that may increase the risk of diabetes.

They studied a variant of a gene called FABP2 which is involved in the absorption of fat from food. In the study, participants consumed a very rich milkshake and the researchers studied how their bodies processed its fat content. Those with the variant burned more fat, which may have hindered their ability to remove sugar from the bloodstream. This kind of inefficiency in removing sugar can raise the risk of diabetes. The researchers say that half of the US population probably has the FABP2 gene variant. But it does not, in itself, cause diabetes and other genes will also be involved. The study is another step forward in understanding how genes and lifestyle factors contribute to the development of diabetes.

Source
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition January 2007