the things corporations do ... and don't do by 1kiki

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

the things corporations do ... and don't do

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Friday, December 14, 2012 09:12
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Thursday, December 13, 2012 7:35 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

pollution - exposure from corporate products and practices

Study Finds High Exposure to Food-borne Toxins
Wednesday, November 14, 2012

In a sobering study published in the journal Environmental Health, researchers at UC Davis and UCLA measured food-borne toxin exposure in children and adults by pinpointing foods with high levels of toxic compounds and determining how much of these foods were consumed. The researchers found that family members in the study, and preschool children in particular, are at high risk for exposure to arsenic, dieldrin, DDE (a DDT metabolite), dioxins and acrylamide. ...

The researchers used data from the 2007 Study of Use of Products and Exposure-Related Behavior (SUPERB), which surveyed households in California with children between two and five to determine how their diets, and other factors, contribute to toxic exposure. Specifically, SUPERB homed in on 44 foods known to have high concentrations of toxic compounds: metals, arsenic, lead and mercury; pesticides chlorpyrifos, permethrin and endosulfan; persistent organic pollutants dioxin, DDT, dieldrin and chlordane; and the food processing byproduct acrylamide. Toxin levels in specific foods were determined through the Total Diet Study and other databases.

The study also highlights a number of policy issues, such as how we grow our food and the approval process for potentially toxic compounds. Though the pesticide DDT was banned 40 years ago, the study showed significant risk of DDE exposure.

"Given the significant exposure to legacy pollutants, society should be concerned about the persistence of compounds we are currently introducing into the environment," said Bennett. "If we later discover a chemical has significant health risks, it will be decades before it's completely removed from the ecosystem."

transportation - the failure of the libertarian model

Orange County toll roads under review by California
With ridership and revenue on Orange County's toll roads falling short of projections, the state of California has launched a formal inquiry into their economic viability.

When it opened during the 1990s, Orange County's $2.4-billion tollway system was touted as an innovative way to build public highways without taxpayer money.

... a government oversight panel chaired by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer has launched a formal inquiry into whether the roads can cover mounting interest payments to private investors who purchased tollway bonds.

The review was prompted by former Orange County Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer, who questions whether the debt-laden toll road agency is “viable as a going concern.”

Wall Street ratings agencies have reduced the San Joaquin Hills toll road's bonds to junk status and the notes for the Foothill-Eastern corridor to the lowest investment grade.

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Friday, December 14, 2012 9:12 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Depressing, both of them. The second one kind of highlights, to me, how there are some things the government does better than the private sector, and how screwed we'd all be if the righties got their way and EVERYTHING got privatized.

But the first one is more depressing.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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