On November 4, 2005, federal health officials warned California farmers to improve the safety standards of the produce they grow. This warning came just shy of a year before the most recent E. coli contaminated spinach outbreak, which was officially announced by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) on September 14. This announcement advised that already 50 people in eight states had already been infected by E. coli as the result of bagged fresh spinach contamination.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that all fresh spinach is again safe for human consumption. However, this outbreak was not the first time we saw this type of E. coli contamination and will not be the last. Dating back to 1995, this most recent E. coli poisoning episode is the 20th occurrence linked to spinach, lettuce and other salad greens.

This type of bacterial contamination has been happening for many years, and the problem does not appear to be going away any. This new outbreak is especially nasty as it involves a particularly dangerous strain of the bacteria – Escherichia coli 0157:H7.

Individuals infected with Escherichia coli 0157:H7 will typically begin experiencing symptoms between two to eight days after exposure to the bacteria. The infected person will experience severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Although, occasionally, E. coli 0157:H7 causes non-bloody diarrhea or no noticeable symptoms. Typically, there will be little or no fever present.

The symptoms of E. coli 0157:H7 usually begin to resolve within five to 10 days. For some individuals, particularly children under five years of age and the elderly, E. coli can cause a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). When HUS is present, the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. In the United States, HUS is the primary cause of acute kidney failure in children, with most HUS cases being caused by E. coli O157:H7.

We all have a form of E. coli bacteria in our intestinal tracts, which aid our bodies in converting our food into useful vitamins and nutrients. However, E. coli 0157:H7 is a particularly dangerous strain from the Enterobacteriaceae family. In fact, it is the exact same strain found in Washington state’s E. coli outbreak in 1993, which involved beef served at Jack in the Box restaurants. That outbreak alone infected 700 people and killed four.

So far and as October 6th, 199 people have been infected with E. coli O157:H7 in 26 states. Among the ill, 102 have been hospitalized, 31 have developed HUS and at least three people have died as a result of this food contamination.

There are additional deaths, which officials consider “suspect cases.” Suspect cases are not known to have been infected with the outbreak strain, so are not included in the confirmed case count. Stool sampling can be done to determine whether or not the E. coli present in the stool sample has the “DNA fingerprint” of the potentially deadly 0157:H7 strain.

With such a serious epidemic of contaminated produce recurring over the years, there are obvious problems with farming regulations. One problem is that the FDA is unable to regulate farms until people actually start getting sick. The FDA must attempt to manage hazards, such as E. coli contamination, by asking the produce growing industry to make voluntary changes. It is obvious that voluntary compliance is not the answer.

The initial thought is that the agency needs to be equipped with better tools of detection, stronger authority to take preventative actions prior to outbreaks along with more people and resources to enforce rules both on farms and in packing and processing plants.

The FDA may want to learn a vital lesson from the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA, after severe E. coli outbreaks involving beef during the mid-1990s, took a necessary and powerful action. The department implemented new, more rigorous rules and quality standards.

For the beef industry, the problem of E. coli in ground beef has dramatically declined. To the contrary, the produce producing industry, being regulated by the FDA, has seen a continual rise in the number of E. coli cases over this same time period.

One reason may have to do with cooking. With meat, proper cooking will kill any dangerous bacteria. But, no one wants to cook their salads. While washing our veggies will reduce bacteria, it will not completely eliminate or kill it.

This is the very reason why the produce farms need to be the ones held accountable for the contamination of their produce. There is no household resolution for this problem, which means the solution must come from the farms, before the produce ever finds it way to our supermarkets.

Going back to 1998, the FDA issued “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fruits and Vegetables.” The Guide contained voluntary guidelines, which were supposed to help farmers and produce packing plants implement safety practices. Even with knowledge of the contamination problem, the FDA only relied on these voluntary measures. As you can guess, the safety practices were not implemented on any notable scale.

CONTAMINATION CULPRIT

The FDA has announced that, so far, all spinach associated with the most recent E. coli outbreak has been traced to Natural Selection Foods, LLC located in sunny San Juan Bautista, California. This discovery was based on laboratory as well as epidemiological evidence obtained by several states and coordinated by the CDC. Natural Selection Foods issued a recall of 34 brands of suspect fresh spinach products on September 15.

These products were distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. According to Natural Selection, all of the contaminated produce was non-organic spinach. The company packages both conventionally grown and organic spinach at the San Juan Bautista, California plant, although they are handled in separate areas. States feeling the effects of this outbreak include California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Four other companies also issued secondary recalls as a result of receiving their fresh spinach directly from Natural Selection. It is noteworthy to mention that spinach processed by other produce plants have not been involved in the outbreak.
As history shows, since 1995, there have been 19 other food poisoning outbreaks connected to fresh spinach and lettuce. Of these 19, at least eight were definitively linked to produce grown in California’s Salinas Valley. In all, these outbreaks involved greater than 400 illnesses and two deaths.

Further investigations are underway by the State of California, the CDC, the FDA and the USDA. These investigations include continued inspections and environmental sample collections in produce facilities, the surrounding environment and water as well as assessments of animal management and water contamination.

The FDA’s investigation has focused on spinach growers in three California counties. Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara have been under strong scrutiny. Aside from Natural Selection Foods, River Ranch Fresh Foods has been named as a second company implicated in the outbreak.

According to the FDA, River Ranch acquired salad greens, including spinach, from the first company offender; Natural Selection. River Ranch’s spinach was passed on to the public using the brand names Farmers Market, Hy-Vee as well as Fresh and Easy.

Natural Selection initially denied allegations that its packaged spinach, which were sold under such brand names as Dole, Earthbound Farm and Trader Joe’s, was a responsible party in the outbreak. However, many of the consumers stricken by E. coli O157:H7 have said they ate one of these brand named spinach products prior to becoming ill.

The FDA also contends that detecting and pinpointing the exact source of E. coli contamination is often very tricky. In many cases, the cause of the outbreak is never truly known, although likely culprits are suspected.

What typically happens during the investigations following an E. coli outbreak is the process of talking to the victims, if they are physically able to communicate with investigators. This method, called the epidemiological method, is an expected and accepted tool used by public health agencies, especially since no physical evidence remains after contamination and chemical testing is usually futile.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

E. coli, which travels via animal feces, can contaminate produce by getting into water used in farming irrigation. Aside from feces contaminating the water used in farming, animal manure used in organic farming as natural forms of fertilizer is also a good source of E. coli contamination. This could mean a lot to farmers who make their living growing and selling organic foods.

As it turns out, fresh produce is often contaminated with Salmonella, E. coli as well as a variety of other potentially deadly microorganisms. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), produce effluence comes from the use of irrigation water sickened by fecal waste from animal agriculture farms, the use of untreated, natural manure fertilizer and the accidental exposure to dangerous bacteria at the processing plants.

California animal and produce farmers as well as food safety officials have a lot on their plate when it comes to preventing future E. coli contamination. So far, no particular instance of E. coli sickness has been linked to one particular farmland, which was irrigated by any one river.

Additionally, no concise evidence has been presented charging Natural Selection Foods, or any other processing plant investigated, with failing to use proper handling methods.

In fact, this particular E. coli outbreak may have little to do with the farmers who grow the produce and the processing plant workers. A strong link naturally leads right back to what many would consider a dissimilar food industry – cattle farms.

Consider first that E. coli is typically a harmless germ found in vast numbers in the guts of all healthy humans and cows. Usually, if you are exposed to the typical, most common strains of E. coli, the acid in your digestive tract will attack and usually be strong enough to kill it. In other words, you won’t get sick.

The problem with this most recent outbreak, however, is that E. coli O157:H7 can be deadly for humans. The acid in our stomachs is usually not strong enough to eliminate this microbe, which can result in the onset of physical symptoms and, in some cases, death.

One vital fact to remember is that not all cattle farms contribute to the contamination of E. coli 0157:H7. In fact, 0157:H7 is not even found in the gut of cows raised on a natural diet consisting of hay, grass and other fibrous feeds.

O157:H7 does live in the unnaturally acidic digestive tracts of cows fed on grain, which is the classic ration on most industrial cattle farms. As a result of this diet, the contaminated cow manure pollutes the groundwater and transfers the dangerous bacteria to produce, such as spinach, being grown on surrounding farms.

Because bacteria thrive in water and past E. coli outbreaks have been linked to tainted water in the Salinas Valley, produce farmers must ensure that their irrigation water for crops is not derived from sources containing runoff from cattle farms.

The Journal of Dairy Science reported in 2003 that as much as 80 percent of all American dairy cows carry E. coli 0157:H7. The Journal’s report also proposed a means of prevention based on straightforward research. When cows were fed a diet of hay, instead of grain, for just five short days, the presence of E. coli 0157:H7 in the animals’ digestive tracts declined 1,000-fold.

Does this mean that the 1993 outbreak involving the Jack in the Box restaurants could have been prevented? It is suggested that if the diet of beef cattle was changed, from grain to grass and hay seven days before slaughter, there would be a noticeable reduction in E. coli contamination from manure.

It would take much more than just a week to diminish contamination in ground and floodwaters as well as rivers, which are the main irrigation sources for California’s spinach farms. Much needs to be done to prevent future food poisoning caused by E. coli-infected feces originating from industrialized cattle farms.

What this means to taxpayers is that we are currently funding agricultural policies that treat the symptoms of this pollution problem, but does not offer a solid solution. Currently, the USDA recognizes the hazards associated with the vast amount of contaminated animal waste. The Department shells out roughly 75 percent of the confinement cattle farmers’ costs of building watertight manure pits.

The one truly long-term fix for this problem is obvious, although not likely to occur. Farmers need to stop feeding grain to their cows and give them a more natural diet, which will be better for the health of the cattle as well as to the consumers.

CAN’T BLAME IT ON THE COWS ALONE

Because E. coli can be spread numerous ways, the diet of dairy and beef cattle is not the sole contributor to this problem. In addition to manure and contaminated irrigation water, E. coli can be spread by farmhands using the field as a toilet, by insufficient produce washing by processors and by inadequate refrigeration, which promotes bacteria growth in the sealed bags of fresh salad greens.

Although California produce farmers are required by law to provide hand washing and toilet facilities for all of their field workers, the workers are not always willing or able to get to these facilities and still meet their employer’s work requirements. Even though the bathroom facilities are supposed to be within either a five-minute walk or one-quarter mile from the work site, workers, for whatever reason, do not always utilize these facilities.

Once harvested, the spinach is transported to a packing plant to be washed with water containing chlorine and another similar chemical. These chemicals are not supposed to destroy any bacteria already on the produce. They are only intended to prevent already contaminated plants from passing the pollution to other healthy plants. Once washed, the produce is then bagged and sealed.

Next come the refrigerated trucks and warehouses, which are responsible for keeping the harvested produce cold. When not kept cold enough, E. coli will thrive in the neatly sealed plastic bags.

It is clear that there are many players in the potentially deadly, food poisoning threat associated with E. coli 0157:H7. Until all players are working on the same team, these devastating outbreaks will continue.
While it may not be possible to prevent all E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, dramatic improvements in prevention and in the current methods of farming plants and animals are an absolute must.

The Hudson River is beautiful. It begins in the Adirondack mountains, a little over 4200 feet from the base of New York State’s highest peak, Mt. Marcy, and flows for 315 miles; past the extraordinary rock formations known as the Palisades, to the southern tip of Manhattan, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.

At the lower end of the Hudson, the freshwater from the mountain mixes with salt water from the Atlantic, forming an estuary. Past home to a variety of commercial fisheries, the Hudson River has been known to contain up to 200 different types of fish.

Yet despite its natural beauty, the Hudson River is a very dangerous place. Beneath the pristine surface is a PCB graveyard, where deposits of the known carcinogen have settled into the sludge that sits at the bottom of the river. For years environmentalists have been working to get it cleaned up. There is just one problem: the company responsible for the majority of the PCB deposits that pollute this national treasure is a very big company, with very close friends in Washington.

That company, General Electric Company (GE), has spent millions of dollars trying to convince Congress and the public that the proposed cleanup of the Hudson River will actually make the PCB problem worse.

Their main reason for resisting the original EPA-sponsored cleanup proposal, projected to cost in excess of $500 million, is a “moral” argument, not a financial one, says GE spokesperson, lawyer, and former CEO Jack Welch. He insists the cleanup is not necessary because PCB deposits have settled into the muck at the bottom of the river, which Welch says means that “the river is cleaning itself.” Scientists, environmentalists, and a variety of non-profit organizations (with no ties to GE ) say otherwise.

Despite the passage of the 1976 Toxic Substance Control Act, which banned PCB manufacturing and required any use of PCBs be done within “totally enclosed systems,” numerous tests for PCB concentration have continued to yield extremely high levels of the contaminant throughout the Hudson River. In 1992, Department of Environmental Conservation(DEC) fish sampling data revealed a 300% increase in PCB levels of fish in the Upper Hudson.

As far back as 1977, when the EPA’s Clean Water Act made it illegal to dump any PCBs into navigable waters, the Hudson was becoming known as a toxic river. Yet six years later, an EPA study of the “PCB problem” in the Hudson River resulted in a Record of Decision (ROD) calling for no action. This caused extreme concern in the environmental community as it came even as the FDA reduced the limit for ppm PCBs in fish fit for human consumption, from 5 to 2, in response to new data.

In 1989, DEC took the lead and asked the EPA to reconsider their 1984 ROD of “no action.” DEC followed their recommendation by releasing the Hudson River PCB Action Plan, which would have required 250,000 pounds of PCBs be dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. It has been 20 years since that recommendation was made, but no dredging has ever been done.

The “self-cleaning” nature of the Hudson, according to Welch, makes it dangerous to dredge the river. All that muck will come up, he says. Welch believes that if we leave it alone, river water will just naturally keep getting cleaner and cleaner.

Reality, however, does not support this argument.

In 1993, more than 15 years after PCB dumping stopped, DEC found an “oily liquid” at the GE site at Allen Mills that contained 72% pure PCBs. They also found seven GE PCB-laden capacitors in the water near GE’s Hudson Falls plant. This prompted DEC to order GE to clean up the land around the river, but they have yet to require any cleanup of the river, itself.

Meanwhile, scientists discovered that evaporation of PCBs allows them to become airborne–meaning PCBs in the sediment of the river, which are exposed at low tide, can potentially be breathed in by residents or tourists. This prompted research into PCB levels in locals. The results were not good.

High PCB levels were found in the bodies of people who do not eat fish. Additional studies showed high levels of PCBs in tree swallows and a 16-week old bald eagle tested for PCBs was found to have 71 ppm PCBs in its body fat.

Since then, a Natural Resources Damages Claim has been made, and the EPA has begun work on a feasibility study to outline the scope of work involved in a Hudson River cleanup. In 2002, they came up with a comprehensive plan that included removing “enough PCB-laden muck to fill more than 800 Olympic swimming pools from the bottom of the river.”

The cost of the program was estimated at more than $500 million. But in October of 2005, EPA announced a Consent Decree, which would, if accepted, allow GE to limit their cleanup to the first two phases of the original 2002 dredging plan, which would only cover about 10% of the site.

Since then, two separate lawsuits have been filed to force the EPA to disclose documents pertaining to the discussions they have had with GE and the White House, regarding the proposed Hudson River cleanup. But so far, mum’s the word. For political reasons the EPA prefers to keep secret the information that explains their sudden reversal of policy regarding a comprehensive cleanup of the Hudson river.

GE is putting an enormous amount of time and money into avoiding responsibility for the cleanup, despite the fact that they used and dumped PCBs into the land and water long after they knew they were one of the most toxic substances known to science.

For almost 40 years, beginning in the late 1940s, large quantities of uranium were mined on their land. Many Navajo still suffer related physical ailments. They are none too eager to open up their land to an industry they have been ravaged by, however safe and efficient they are told it will be. Unfortunately, they may have no choice. HRI has been working in conjunction with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to get a license to mine the land since the late 1990s, and it looks like they’re about to make a move.

The Navajo Nation covers a big piece of land, about 27,000 square miles, and stretches over parts of three states: Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. It is estimated to contain one of the largest uranium ore deposits in the world. That’s why, back in 1948, when the demand for uranium was high, the Navajo Nation seemed like a good place to get it. In addition to large deposits, the uranium in Navajo country is found in sandstone, making it ideal for the less invasive in situ method of extraction. Even this method is likely to create problems, however, according to the WISE Uranium Project. Among them: “the risk of spreading of leaching liquid outside of the uranium deposit, involving subsequent groundwater contamination; the unpredictable impact of the leaching liquid on the rock of the deposit; the impossibility of restoring natural groundwater conditions after completion of the leaching operations.” The report goes on to say “in-situ leaching releases considerable amounts of radon, and produces certain amounts of waste slurries and waste water during recovery of the uranium from the liquid.” No wonder the Navajo are worried. The land HRI plans to mine supplies the only source of drinking water for some 15,000 residents, many living below poverty level.

When HRI began their campaign to mine in Indian country they sent a request to the NRC. The NRC responded in March of 1997. Their response refers to an evaluation process that included a review of the environmental impact of the proposed mining project. The content of the review or Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is not included as part of the docket entry, nor is it accessible online. Based on the FEIS, the NRC granted HRI a license to mine uranium, in situ, in McKinley County, New Mexico (aka: Indian country).

Interestingly, the Navajo people requested a complete study of the impact of uranium mining on the same stretch of land that they own. The study was never conducted. The rationale was that since uranium mining was not then taking place, there was no need to conduct such a study. This is despite the fact that “. . . Navajos have suffered from high cancer rates and respiratory problems. One study found that cancer rates among Navajo teenagers living near mine tailings are 17 times the national average. ”

The suffering of the Navajo due to uranium mining was so extreme it prompted Harry Tome, a Dineh activist, to work tirelessly throughout the 1980s to force the U.S. government to provide relief to minors and their families, who suffered as a result of the exposure to radiation. His efforts were long and arduous, largely because there were no extensive studies to document the full effects of the mining industry on the Indian nation. Still, in 1990, with the help of Stewart Udall (former U.S. Secretary of the Interior), the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed. Remediation programs covered in that act have still not been fully implemented. When HRI wanted to start mining again, they got their special study, and pronto. They even got the NRC to approve a mining license, and all without consulting the Navajo Nation Council.

HRI, a subsidiary of Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI) estimates that the area in question, which is located near two Navajo communities, Church Rock and Crownpoint, contains close to 100 million pounds of uranium. One can only imagine the kind of money that’s worth. So, in addition to working with the NRC, the folks at HRI have been actively recruiting Navajo residents to support their mining plan by offering large sums of money.

According to a recent airing of Democracy Now, HRI has coupled offers of big pay-outs with misleading propaganda campaigns designed to convince residents who live on the reservation there are no serious health risks to minors or their families. With no formal studies to prove HRI’s claims of safety suspect, those who stand to make a great deal of money are naturally leaning toward supporting the deal. This has, apparently, created a huge rift between those who fear the ultimate cost of allowing uranium mining and those who seek immediate compensation for the use of their land. Still, despite the contention among the Navajo, the Navajo Nation Council managed to pass a law banning uranium mining. One would think that would be the end of that. It is their country, after all. Or is it?

In January 2006, HRI submitted a request to the NRC suggesting that the land HRI wishes to mine be reclassified as “not Indian country under 18 U.S.C.§ 1151(b)…”. If the NRC grants the request, the land in Church Rock (referenced in the letter as “HRI’s Church Rock”) would be under the jurisdiction of the State of New Mexico, making any laws passed by the Navajo Nation, regarding the use of the land, inapplicable. And once again uranium mining will take place in Indian country.
Check-mate.

Karimov’s human rights record is abysmal. He has been known to boil political dissenters alive. He has repressed religious rights, ostensibly as part of the war on terror. When it comes to human rights in Uzbekistan, there aren’t any. Karimov has detained human rights workers and ordered his troops to fire into crowds of demonstrators. Political opponents end up in prison and are tortured or killed.

The violent restriction of human rights grows from the paranoia so commonly seen among totalitarian dictators. Karimov even banned the playing of billiards because he was afraid that people would talk about politics while playing. While that may sound humourous, it goes a long way towards demonstrating the depth of Karimov’s paranoia.

Despite all of the well-documented problems in Uzbekistan over a decade of Karimov’s rule, the United States and allies such as Britain welcomed Karimov into the war against terror. In exchange for military aid, the US received the use of the Karshi-Khanabad air base and facilities for 800 US troops. The Bush administration ignored criticism of having such a brutal regime as an ally until last year.

Even with the criticism of their relationship with Karimov, a relationship that echoed the Reagan administration’s relationship with Saddam Hussein, The US maintained a relationship with Uzbekistan while choosing to ignore Karimov’s abuses in exchange for his cooperation. While the need for an ally in the war on terror is often cited, Uzbekistan is strategically located between Russia and China and has sizable natural gas reserves, estimated in 2005 to be 1.875 trillion cubic meters, and a small amount of oil. Considering the strategic importance of energy in the area, relations with Uzbekistan could have more to do with natural gas reserves than the war on terror.

The relationship between Uzbekistan and the US, as well the European Union did finally begin to sour in 2005, however. A small armed uprising in the province of Andizhan was followed by a large, peaceful demonstration. Reports vary, and there may or may not have been a few armed militants among the protestors, but the Uzbek military responded to the demonstration by firing into the crowd. The true extent of the casualties is not known, but human rights experts have responded to the incident as being on a par with the Tiananmen Square massacre. The government crackdown on political opponents and human rights advocates since the massacre is brutal and repressive, with torture, disappearances, and politically-motivated murder becoming commonplace.

After the incident in Andizhan, pressure began to grow in the EU for sanctions to be put in place against Uzbekistan and the accounts of officials in the Karimov regime frozen, although no comprehensive action was taken. There was little reaction in the United States, with aid ( $91.6 million in 2005) continuing to flow, but some harsh words about human rights from the Bush administration caused Karimov to kick the US military out of the Karshi-Khanabad air base. Since that time, both Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and Congressman Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey) have introduced bills calling for an end to all aid to Uzbekistan and the freezing of foreign accounts and travel restrictions for Uzbek officials.

Karimov is now currying favour with Russia and China, who have far less interest in human rights abuses than western countries claim to have, and are even more likely to ignore, or partake in, gross abuses to gain access to energy reserves or strategic military advantage.

The spectre of further human rights abuses and the poverty that is so pervasive under totalitarian regimes points to an unhappy future for the people of Uzbekistan, but making things worse is trying to eke out a living in a country that has suffered serious environmental damage.

During the Soviet era the excessive use herbicides, pesticides, defoliants, and other chemicals combined with the diversion of water for irrigation from two major rivers devastated the environment. The diversion of the Amu Darya and Syrdariya Rivers has caused the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest inland body of fresh water, to shrink in size. The Aral Sea is now less than half the size it was in the 1960s, holding only about one third of the water it once did.

Widespread irrigation has contaminated what water still exists with agricultural chemicals. Naturally occurring soil salt, has become concentrated from excessive irrigation. The dried lake bed where large portions of the Aral Sea used to be now produces dust storms full of agricultural and industrial chemicals which, combined with the salt, blow for up to 800 miles. The contaminated dust in these storms kills plant life, causing desrtification.

The environmental devastation continues. Although Uzbekistan is a signatory to several environmental treaties, including clean air and water agreements and the Kyoto protocol, less than half of the smokestacks in the country have filtration devices. The most common method of chemical disposal remains dumping it into a rudimentary sewer system if one exists in the area.. Only about 50% of urban areas and 25% of rural villages have sewers in Afghanistan, so chemicals are often just dumped in the nearest ditch or river.

The result is that most of the underground water supplies are contaminated and the rivers and ditches are basically open sewers. Water-borne illness is common and chemical-related disease is not unusual. Respiratory illness is common in both rural and urban areas.

All indications are that the environmental situation will continue to worsen under the reign of Islam Karimov. Those who speak out against it risk imprisonment, torture, and death. Complaints from international agencies have little impact on the Karimov regime and local activists are silenced, so the environmental issues worsen with the human rights abuses.

There is no end in sight to the suffering of the people of Uzbekistan. The west failed to help them for strategic and economic reasons. Russia and China have shown even less of a compunction to use their influence to better human rights or environmental conditions. Unless some way is found to intervene, Uzbekistan will continue to be one of the worst places on earth in the foreseeable future.

In 1964, a report produced by the Tennessee Department of Public Health stated that the Chattanooga Creek was “without a doubt, the most grossly polluted stream in the Chattanooga area.”

In 1969, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare determined that Chattanooga, Tennessee had the poorest air quality in the nation. This was due, in large part, to a heavy manufacturing industry that included chemicals and pesticides.

Many cities have faced these same challenges. Many cities still do. But Chattanooga’s responses and solutions have been unique, and very successful.

One of the first things the city did was create, and have approved by the state, the Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau. The Bureau was charged with establishing air quality regulations for the city. In an effort to ensure compliance of these regulations, the Bureau worked directly with the manufacturing sector. At the time, the primary need was for smokestack “scrubbers”, which remove most of the toxic by-products typically released by industrial smokestacks.

The manufacturing sector responded quickly and creatively. Not only did they agree to the $40 million in renovations that was needed, but local entrepreneurs chose to build the scrubbers in town. Today the scrubbers are still being manufactured, and are being exported worldwide. Thus, a profitable industry was created, while simultaneously improving air quality.

The city began holding “community visioning” meetings, seeking resident assistance with the environmental and economic troubles it was facing. One outcome of those meetings was the creation of the Moccasin Bend Task Force. This task force studied the 22-mile long Tennessee River and, with the input of hundreds of local citizens, developed the Tennessee River Park Master Plan. The Master Plan eventually resulted in the development of a 23-mile River Walk. The city maintains it through a yearly River Rescue clean-up effort, and it has enabled Chattanooga residents and tourists to enjoy the river again. The Master Plan didn’t just focus on the banks of the Tennessee River. It also included strategies for cleaning up and beautifying the banks of the creeks that feed into the river. In addition, a water treatment facility was built farther upstream, to aid in purifying the streams and lake. Now, where “no swimming” signs used to be the prominent feature, you can instead see people swimming, boating, or simply walking along the river’s edge.

From the river, the environmental revitalizing moved to the downtown district. Trees were planted along the streets. Not just for aesthetic purposes, but to help reduce pollution. The trees are purchased from a local, private nursery. Street pavers were built to help reduce the effects of storm water run-off. Air and traffic pollution have been reduced with the introduction of an electric mass transit system. The technology and vehicles were developed and built locally, and are now being exported globally. People who work downtown can park in garages at the edge of the downtown district, then take electric shuttles to their final destinations. The money generated from the parking garages helps cover the cost of the electric vehicles.

One of the most aggressive and innovative projects is the South-Central business district. Being built as an eco-industrial park, the goal is zero emissions. This means that the waste products from one industry become resources for another within the district.

Chattanooga has excelled at developing a sustainable community, because it has re-integrated the human element. At the heart of most of its initiatives has been the Chattanooga citizens themselves. The community vision meetings were the cornerstone for most of the changes that have been made. But the citizens don’t just offer ideas, they help implement and maintain them. This is done, not only through clean-up efforts like River Rescue, but also through everyday activities. The Orange Grove Recycling Center is a perfect example.

Though it could use machinery to separate the recyclable materials that come in from the nearly 60,000 homes and municipal drop-off sites, the Center instead employs about 100 developmentally disabled adults. Not only does manual sorting reduce industrial pollution, but it also gives an often-ignored part of the population a sense of purpose and belonging. The workers are paid for their time, and are given the opportunity to become and integral part of this community’s sustained environment.

Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise was yet another result of the community vision meetings. It is currently creating a mixed-use, mixed-income development in a part of downtown Chattanooga’s Southside district. Included is an elementary school that will allow children in the area to walk to school for the first time in years.

While most cities, nationally and globally, make an effort to reduce negative affects on the environment; few (if any) have attained the level of success enjoyed by Chattanooga. Here, industry is not the enemy, but instead has offered viable and effective solutions. Here, the citizen and the government official aren’t at odds. Rather, they work together to creatively address the environmental challenges the city has faced.

Chattanooga has become one of the few cities designated as an EPA attainment city. This has been due, in large part, to combined efforts of Chattanooga citizens and city officials.

From “most polluted city in the nation” to one of the best (possibly the best) models of an environmentally healthy and sustainable city, in under 40 years. Not bad.

Sources: Chattanooga Horizon Plan 2010, RiverCityCompany.com, CneInc.org

The city of Portland, Oregon has had a long history of pouring raw sewage into the Williamette River that continues to this day. Once considered dead in the 1960s, the river is now slowly recovering with the assistance of local citizens.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has fined the city of Portland $449,800 for numerous raw sewage overflows into the Willamette River and several streams that flow into the Willamette.
A total of 67 discharges over a period of about four and a half years occurred from the city’s sewage collection system at multiple locations throughout Portland. Discharges also were reported to the Columbia River and Columbia Slough. The 67 discharges totaled about 1,875,000 gallons of sewage.
Portland Business Journal Nov 21 2005

Although the Clean Water Act was passed over 30 years ago to protect and restore water quality, approximately 40 percent of the nation’s assessed waters are unsafe for fish, wildlife, and people. In some areas the problems are more widespread: nearly 80 percent of Oregon’s waters are too warm for salmon; 97 percent of the Great Lakes shorelines are impaired by chemicals. These unsafe pollution levels reflect harmful land practices, excessive water withdrawals, pollution from industries and cities, air deposition of chemicals, and waste disposal.Northwest Environmental Advocates

There is a plaque installed by the Portland Development Commission overlooking the Willamette River near Portland’s RiverPlace Marina that states that the Willamette was made clean for swimming in 1972. It is more than ironic that just below this plaque is a “Combined Sewer Overflow” or CSO. The lingo masks the fact: this is a pipe from which raw sewage, sometimes mixed with storm water, flows into the Willamette River.

There’s a lot of raw sewage, human excrement, industrial wastes, condoms, syringes, tampons, toilet paper and the toxic pollution from city streets- in our local rivers. The City of Portland discharges completely untreated sewage from over 56 pipes and concrete bunkers into the Willamette River and the Columbia Slough.

The end result is that, contrary to the statement on the plaque, the Willamette never was made fit for swimming. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) data shows that the lower Willamette sometimes is, and sometimes isn’t, safe. DEQ calls this “partially supported” for water contact. What all of this really means is that you’ll never knows which days are safe and which aren’t. (Some days, it is a lot less safe than others!)

The fact is that river users are not told that these pipes are dumping raw sewage into the rivers and that they should be careful. Careful not to step on the syringes, careful not to touch the water, careful not to put hands to mouth after touching the water. And there’s an awful lot of water contact that goes on even if you aren’t swimming, wading or water skiing.
Freshwater News, May 1991 By Nina Bell

When it passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, Congress created a regulatory program to clean up and protect water quality. The law requires that where too much pollution is entering a stream, all sources must restrict their contribution of pollution and habitat damage to the extent necessary to meet water quality standards.
Northwest Environmental Advocates

In 1985, the Willamette/Slough system contained 56 pipes and concrete bunkers discharging raw sewage, industrial wastes, and toxic pollutants from city streets, into the urban waterways. Despite complaints from citizens, in 1990 the Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) still poured billions of gallons of rainwater runoff and sewage annually into the Willamette River and the Columbia Slough.
source

Since last June there have been three times when filthy and stinking SEWER WATER has backed up into basements of residents. . . In September we suffered 6 inches of foul stinking filthy sewer water covering our entire basement floor. Petitions were signed by more than 600 people urging the City to DO something — they did nothing!! Then Jan 22nd, just last month, we this time had 12 inches of the same filth in our basement. . . . NOW, WE DEMAND THAT SOMETHING BE DONE ABOUT IT!!
Loren C. Mabee, north Portland resident, 1970 source

With that great American crop, corn, threatened, so was the livelihood of our all-American corn farmers. Enter High Fructose Corn Syrup – the new sweetener that would drive up demand for corn and provide a super cheap new form of sweetener for packaged foods, breads, cereals, sodas, spaghetti sauce, ketchup – you name it, HFCS would be in it. The future looked sweet indeed.



More stable than sugar against the disintegrating elements (such as moisture), foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup can literally travel thousands of miles and sit on the shelf of your local convenience store forever and (almost) never go bad. Cheaper ingredients meant cheaper groceries for the good American consumer. A win- win situation, it seemed.

Because of the unusually long shelf life of HFCS, store-bought cakes, cookies, brownies, mixes, breads, sodas, juices, tomato sauce and all of the rest could be sold with practically no expiration date. HFCS, despite misleading labels that read “all natural,” is an ENTIRELY man-made substance. It’s almost indestructible. Like Styrofoam, eternal and immortal.

The pornographic underbelly of all this (and there always is one, it seems, where money and government and conflicting desires come into play) is that in laboratory tests High Fructose Corn Syrup causes male rats to never fully develop their testicles. And High Fructose Corn Syrup also causes the hearts of female rats to expand until they burst. Exit pornography, enter horror flick.

But is this a rat tragic story or a human tragedy? Well, hold into your seats because the seemingly innocuous little sweet nothings that Secretary Butz so gracefully introduced to our bellies in the seventies are now linked to obesity, diabetes, and yes, even cirrhosis of the liver. And as if the above were not enough, there is also some preliminary evidence that HFCS is carcinogenic.

In his groundbreaking book FatLand, Greg Critser breaks down exactly how HFCS is metabolized by the human body. In short, because our bodies have absolutely no way of understanding this highly engineered substance…they convert it into storage material and chuck it away…hence we are fattened up.

The explanation goes like this: glucose molecules, which are the building blocks of sucrose, can be metabolized (used, eaten) by any and every cell in the human body. This is not so with Fructose. It has to be metabolized through the liver. Hence, your liver ends up releasing triglycerides into your bloodstream and generally has trouble dealing with this weird substance. Fructose, which used to be advised for diabetics because it did not stimulate insulin production, really does appear to do a lot of fancy footwork with enzymes and other hormones, too. It does not allow the release of the hormone that tells the brain you are full. Hence, you overeat.

Now, what about the HFCS advocates who maintain that High Fructose Corn Syrup really is an “all-natural ingredient” because, they say, it is made from corn and fructose is the sugar naturally occurring in fruit? Well, wine and isopropyl alcohol both contain alcohol. However, the rubbing stuff for cotton balls should never go in your wineglass. Get it?

Let’s look a little more closely at how this stuff is made. Saying that HFCS is an all- natural substance is like saying two celebrities naturally bumped into each other and fell in love – when more often their PR agents set them up. HFCS is set up as follows: Corn starch is boiled, distilled, and generally messed with until you get a corn syrup with a big jacked-up amount of fructose…HFCS could have as little as 45% fructose or as much as 85%…the “hard stuff”…

So, the absolutely spine-tingling fact is that shortly after the 1970s, and especially throughout the 1980s, HFCS began to replace sucrose (table sugar, cane sugar, or beet sugar) in almost everything. This means that for the last 25 years — a lifetime for some reading this — this jacked-up, messed up “all-natural” toxic sweetener has been in all of our foods as we developed into the fat ADD-riddled little monsters that we are.

Too often we as consumers are under the spell of the idea that our health depends on our own free will. That is, what we do or do not do for ourselves makes all the difference in our health. Watching a new commercial for Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers on TV, I am struck by how easy, offhand and rampant this assumption is. If only each American could do their part to reverse the obesity epidemic through personal self-control and initiative? And yet this is not entirely true. What we don’t know can hurt us.

I heard recently the claim that health depends less on how we take care of ourselves than how we take care of each-other. This speaks directly to the need for more accurate public health and nutrition information and corporate responsibility. The Land of the free? I don’t know. Freedom from accurate information, freedom from healthy food…these do not really seem like freedoms at all.

Watching the food channel, I recently heard that the most delicious pork comes from Spain, where the swine are fattened up on an all-corn diet. This little tidbit reminded me of we Americans. Surely Americans are often enough referred to as pigs, but who knew we held so much in common with this lowly animal? It seems we and they are being fattened up for some strange slaughter yet to come.