INTERESTING TIMES

The EPA's new rule is a compromise between public health and corporate profits. Nothing comes for free. Particulates cause increased cardiovascular and respiratory disease and have neurological effects as well. The new rule is called MATS: Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Obama can't get anything done through congress, but he is still working his evil socialist ways via agencies designed to protect public interests. I for one appreciate some attention given to public health: better to have some reasonably devised limits than to simply let industry poison us for greater profit, even if we WANT the product of that industry.

The EPA proposal incorporates three separate limits: one for mercury, a second for acid gases and a third for particulate matter, which is used to target emissions of metals such as chromium, selenium and cadmium.

In its March proposal, it said the regulation could prevent 17,000 premature deaths from toxic emissions. Today it lowered that estimate to 11,000, according to the statement. Jackson said improved estimates for benefits from a rule to combat pollution across state borders leaves the mercury standard with fewer toxics to remove.

The changes announced today include easing off on mandatory controls for particulate matter, dispatching with pollution caps when plants are starting up or shutting down, and allowing companies greater leeway to average mercury emissions across units. Those changes will save utilities about $1 billion annually, EPA said in a fact sheet.

For more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/epa-issues-air-toxics-cap-for-u-s-coal-fired-power-plants.html

For the rule straight from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/airquality/powerplanttoxics/actions.html

Obviously Mercola has been studying hard on fluoride lately, because he keeps posting about it. Unfortunately it is becoming apparent that we are ingesting this toxin with our food, not just from drinking water. And as usual the EPA, FDA and business have danced their dance, compromising the health of the people for the profits of business. Fluoride is in a fumigant used on produce, especially walnuts and raisins out of California, and other foods are also suspect. Bottom line: whole organic food is just about your only way to avoid all the nasty shit that industry puts on food. Better yet: whole organic local homegrown food.

SOURCE
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/11/sulfuryl-fluoride-what-is-it-the-story-so-far.aspx?e_cid=20110811_DNL_art_1

A GOOD ORG where you can find answers to legal questions and TAKE ACTION
http://www.fluoridealert.org/

The EPA has told BP that they must use a less toxic form of dispersant for the remainder of the oil bleed in the gulf. If this mess had happened under Shrub, do you think the EPA would have done that? I think that Obama's intelligent, rational influence is pervasive in our government, and that each and every agency is gradually stepping up to the plate to serve the people of this nation better. Those who blame him for the fact that BP (and other oil companies) have done little/nothing to insure the safety of their extraction procedures neglect to notice that the wholesale extraction without regard for consequences has been going on for fifty years.

Human hormones are being altered by the hormonal inputs to foods we eat, the containers we store our food in, and toxins that we are exposed to in everything from our drinking water to our air. The endocrine system guides our development, and great trouble can be caused by manipulating children's hormones. Bovine growth hormone, which is used in nearly all commercial beef, causes kids to grow to be giants. This problem is only going to get more visible, as more children turn into mutants. The EPA was supposed to create a screening program a decade ago but according to Mercola it was blocked by chemical manufacturers. Hmmmm.

This link mentions a couple of very young children who began to grow pubic hair (we're talking kindergarten age) because........their father was using a testosterone cream and they absorbed it through their skin. It also offers a list of how you can minimize your own exposure to endocrine-altering chemicals.

http://www.mercola.com/2006/oct/31/why-are-kids-entering-puberty-before-they-enter-school.htm

And here's another one about kids hitting puberty in their very early years:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=2610353