Depressing/Infuriating
angrytoxicologist | August 13, 2008Terry Box wrote an piece in the WP the other day about how despite the melting glaciers and rising gas prices, he's not giving up his muscle cars. Terry, I have to admit that I love cars. I always have and always will. The thrill of a powerful car or truck can get your adrenaline going and put a smile on your face. For those of a mechanical bent, it's also a source of wonder. That said, I'll also have to admit that, Terry, you're a complete jerk.
Juliet Eilperin wrote a response to Terry in yesterday's WP, but I think it only partially hits the mark by only focusing on the selfish part. There…
angrytoxicologist | February 8, 2008For those of you in any field that deals with health, you may know this feeling.
Fortunately this is rare but in the past two weeks I've been completely exasperated at 3 different meetings and discussions I've been to. Without going into specifics, I'd like to say that as a group, us scientists are a short sighted bunch. We pay attention to the facts at hand, and the justifcation of any action, not the impact of decisions made. So many discussions about environmental health, drugs, war, poverty, consumer safety,...etc seem to exist in a bubble. For one of these meetings (not one where I work…
angrytoxicologist | November 9, 2007Elizabeth "never met a toxic chemical I didn't like" Whelan of ACSH fame posted on HuffPo Wed. an interesting little post that ripped the EPA for funding a study to figure out if/what environmental factors among children, over their childhood, contributed to their disease. To sum up her argument, there is no link so why are we wasting the money. Now, isn't that putting the cart before the horse. She also says there is no toxicological evidence that children are more susceptable to toxicants. Um, ozone? breathing particulate matter? Phthalates? Cough and cold medicine to be up to the minute?…
angrytoxicologist | October 31, 2007If you haven't seen it yet, USA Today is doing a series called "toxic legacy". First was lead, then mercury, and today, plastics. Well, really it's about BPA. We've dicussed BPA here before and I'm not going to rehash it. The article is good but doesn't give a lot of new information if you have been following this issue. One of the things that most people what to know is who to believe. And when you have two committees (NIEHS & CERHR) coming up with different takes on it, you don't know who to trust. You know how I feel about it. A great look into how the different panels reached their…
angrytoxicologist | October 15, 2007PUR water wasn't content with removing impurities from your water so they decided that they would put some back in...and then charge you for it!
I am talking about PUR Flavor Options. No joke, after they filter your water they add artificial flavors. All over the website are testimonials about how much "water" their kids are drinking now. One even has this to say: "My son asked for flavored water more than juice.". Great. First, I'm not sure it's a good thing that kids are loading up on a non-nutritive drink over juice. Now a lot of parents over do the juice, but if it's something like OJ in…
angrytoxicologist | August 29, 2007I saw a good documentary on Libby MT (the town that got pummled with asbestos from the surrounding vermeculite mines) last night on PBS's P.O.V. program. You should check it out, there are rebroadcasts in most areas for taping it. Check it out here: P.O.V.
What happend in Libby is really a good learning tale for two reasons:
1) It shows how evil corporations can be and how the employees can be blinded to that fact
2) It shows how toothless the EPA is when a company really wants to butt heads.
3) It shows how easy it is to forget the impact on people's lives when you aren't seeing them or…
angrytoxicologist | August 13, 2007To get right to the heart of the matter, Salon did an article about the risks of bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics. From the land where nothing is harmful, a reply came from Trevor Butterworth (real name) who is an editor at STATS. If you don't know what STATS is, they are a non-profit attached (in what way, I don't know) to George Mason Univ, who I believe are industry funded, who 'dubunk' bad science news/media (they don't list their funding but have an office in downtown DC in the midst of lobbyists offices). Unfortunately, they are as about as unscientific as the rest of the media. They twist…
angrytoxicologist | August 2, 2007The last of the ELF (Earth Liberation Front) arsonists was sentenced yesterday for the burning down of a Redmond OR horse slaughterhouse in 1997. Thank goodness. I'm concerned abou the environment and I guess I would classify myself as an environmentalist but I certainly don't want to be associated with these guys. They are like the distant cousin that everyone hopes doesn't show up at the family reunion, get drunk, and pick a fight with Aunt Ellie.
Actually, ELF is more like George Bush. That analogy should really burn those guys up.
-No rational thinking; It conflicts with my ideology, darn…
angrytoxicologist | July 25, 2007I'm angry so today you get what you came for...
I wrote a post on Autism and Vaccines a while back that went through why there are people still arguing about this and took the position that I don't think that there is a link between autism and thimerosal but that some of the arguments that people on the other side make do have some validity, though not compelling. I specifically ended the post saying that I fully believe that all children should get vaccinated, that mine are, and that in any event thimerosal isn't in the single dose shots anymore. I won't go into the whole thing here but…
angrytoxicologist | July 18, 2007Gee, ya think?
At Al Gore's daughter's wedding he, gasp, ate some Chilean Sea Bass, which is endangered. A lot of people are getting in a huff about this.
Hmm...Possibly, possibly it could be because Mr Gore didn't look over, research, and approve every aspect of his daughter's wedding?
C'mon, just because the guy stands up for what he believes in doesn't mean that every little thing somehow connected to him has to do right by the entire ecosystem. Who among us can say they can control every bit of their lives to always do the right thing? I can't and I would guess that my life is much less…
angrytoxicologist | June 4, 2007Do you ever get the feeling that we're not really living in the first world but in the third? I was thinking so when I read this LA Times article (excellent piece for its short size).
Illegal dumps are spread across the Torres Martinez reservation like ugly wounds, making it the most polluted tribal land in California, Nevada and Arizona. Vast swaths of desert have been transformed into toxic trash heaps threatening the tribe and nearby communities. There are at least 26 illegal dumps here, including the largest one in the state. Federal officials struggle to shut them down, but new ones…