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http://www.texemarrs.com/
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Cancer cells killed by chemotherapy may cause cancer to spread
(NaturalNews) Chemotherapy is known to come with a long list of side effects -- from debilitating nausea and hair loss to extreme fatigue -- and in many cases, it does not cure or even stop cancer from progressing. But what if chemotherapy does something no one has realized before during all the decades it has been in use? What if chemo actually encourages cancer to spread throughout the body, the process known as metastasis?
Researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center and UAB Department of Chemistry have just been awarded a $805,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program to see if the answer to those questions is "yes". The study is investigating the very real possibility that dead cancer cells left over after chemotherapy spark cancer to spread to other parts of the body.
"What if by killing cancer cells with chemotherapy we inadvertently induce DNA structures that make surviving cancers cells more invasive? The idea is tough to stomach," Katri Selander, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology and co-principal researcher on the grant, said in a statement to the media. "Fundamentally this question must be answered to advance the knowledge base and to know all the risks and benefits of cancer treatment. This research has the potential to reach across numerous scientific disciplines, and may one day improve the lives of patients worldwide."
The UAB scientists are concentrating on inactivated or altered genetic material (DNA) left in the body after breast-cancer cells are exposed to chemotherapy. The research team stated that the resulting altered DNA could be the deadly factor that sparks the dreaded process of metastasis through a specific molecular pathway. Finding out whether chemotherapy could cause cancer spread is hugely important to the field of oncology because metastasis is the number one cause of cancer recurrence and treatment failure.
Dead cancer cells have been found to activate a pathway in the body mediated as a protein dubbed toll-like receptor 9, or TLR9, that is present in the immune system and in many kinds of cancer. "If TLR9 boosts metastasis, then researchers will work on finding targeted therapies that block or regulate this molecular pathway," Dr. Selander stated.
For more information:
http://main.uab.edu/Sites/MediaRela...
http://www.naturalnews.com/chemothe...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunscreen scam: We spend millions on protection, so why is skin cancer still on the rise?
By PETA BEE
Last updated at 7:09 PM on 21st June 2010
Slathering on suncream at the first hint of sunshine has become commonplace - as a nation, we're far more sun safety conscious than a decade ago and spend £259 million a year on products designed to ward off the sun's rays.
Despite this, cases of skin cancer are continuing to rise and the main cause remains overexposure to the sun. Could it be that the creams we use, or misuse, can cause as many problems as they attempt to solve?
Most suncreams are broad spectrum, providing protection against the ageing UVA rays, which cause skin damage and premature wrinkles, and the stronger UVB rays that cause sunburn.
Sun safety: Could the creams we use, or misuse, be causing as many problems as they attempt to solve?
Consumers can choose between a physical block, which sits on the surface of the skin causing UV rays to bounce off, or chemical sunscreens, which are absorbed by the skin and deactivate sunlight when it comes into contact with the body's surface.
The latest creams combine the best of both. But the paradox is that, in fusing the cream of sunbattling ingredients, manufacturers have created new health concerns.
Some experts have found the chemicals used to deactivate UV rays (most commonly cinnamates, benzophenones and amino benzoic acid) react adversely with sunlight when they are absorbed, possibly causing DNA damage.
Research by the University of California suggested that chemical filters in popular suncreams can triggerthe kind of free-radical damage that could pre-empt skin cancer. The adverse effects seemed to happen only when UV rays hit sunscreen that had penetrated the skin.
Concern has also been raised about the chemical preservatives used in sunscreens, and other ingredients, seeping through the top layer of the skin.
A Swedish study found benzophenone-3 (or B-3), a popular suncream ingredient, in the urine of people who had applied no more than the recommended dose of suncream up to 48 hours before.
Should we be worried about such chemical infiltration of our bodies? 'Even if molecules are detected in urine, the levels are so low that they are not going to cause harm,' says Professor Brian Diffey, a leading expert in sun-protection research.
SKIN DEEP
More than 10,300 cases of malignant melanoma are diagnosed in Britain every year
What is less clear is whether the trend for using nanotechnology in sun products is bad news. In recent years, manufacturers have developed techniques that shrink particles of physical sunblock ingredients, such as titanium oxide and zinc, to a thousandth of the size of a human hair.
However, there are suggestions that the shrunken substances could enter human cells with worrying results.
Dr Michael Prager of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors believes there is an alternative: antioxidant-based protection.
'The antioxidants in our skin can fix UV damage to DNA, which causes pigmentation and even skin cancer.'
Controversially, Prager suggests that 'in our climate there is simply no point' in wearing an SPF and that topical antoxidant serums should be used as protection.
However, those within the industry dismiss his beliefs. 'Worn alone, antioxidant-based creams are not enough to protect against the sun,' says Dr Emma Meredith, spokeswoman for the UK Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association.
Yet, there could be something in the antioxidant claim.
Studies have shown that tomatoes, which are rich in antioxidants and the lycopene, could prove a weapon against sun damage.
When 20 people were given 5tbsp of tomato paste every day for 12 weeks while they were exposed to ultraviolet light, there was a significant improvements in their skin's ability to protect itself.
'We know an antioxidant-rich diet is important as part of overall sunprotection, but eating tomatoes will not make you invincible' says Birch-Machin.
'Used alone, antioxidants in any form just wouldn't provide the necessary filtering levels.'
However, suncreams of the future will almost certainly contain antioxidants, with labels detailing a product's DNA protection levels and its ability to boost the skin's immune system.
'In the meantime, we have an array of sun protection at our disposal,' says Birch-Machin. ' Sunscreens are important, but so are diet and the clothes we wear. '
Undoubtedly, though, the best advice and the most important factor in fighting sun damage and skin cancer is our own sun behaviour.
'And that means wearing a hat and finding a tree whenever it gets hot.'
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
New research: Electropollution can cause diabetes (type-3)
Most people are familiar with type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes, but did you know researchers have discovered a third type of diabetes? Type-3 diabetes, as they are calling it, affects people who are extra sensitive to electrical devices that emit "dirty" electricity.
Type-3 diabetics actually experience spikes in blood sugar and an increased heart rate when exposed to electrical pollution ("electropollution") from things like computers, televisions, cordless and mobile phones, and even compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Dr. Magda Havas, a PhD from Trent University in Canada, recently published the results of a study she conducted on the relationship between electromagnetic fields and diabetes in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. In it, she explains how she and her team came to discover this about why electropollution is so dangerous for many people.
Blood sugar goes haywire
One of the most interesting finding in her study was that electro-sensitive people whose blood sugar decreases when they go for a walk outdoors actually experience an increase in blood sugar when walking on a treadmill.Treadmills, you see, are electrical devices that emit electrical pollution. But interestingly, even the physical exertion of walking on the treadmill did not make up for the blood sugar spiking effect of the EMFs emitted by the treadmills. Despite the exercise, in other words, type-3 diabetics experienced significant spikes in blood sugar when walking on the treadmill.
Dirty electricity is bad for everyone, but it is especially bad for people who are type-3 diabetics. And Dr. Havas explains in her study that even having an electrical device plugged into the wall near someone who is type-3 diabetic can cause them problems.
We have to rethink environmental influences of modern living
I find this research fascinating, not only because it proves that electromagnetic waves impact blood sugar and heart rate, but because there could be thousands, if not millions, of diabetics who may be suffering from a diabetes misdiagnosis right now.The reason I'm bringing this up is because a 54 year-old pre-diabetic man who participated in the study was found to experience serious blood sugar spikes only when he was working in an urban environment around power lines or on his computer. When he was out camping away from the city, his blood sugar was just fine.
The man tested his blood sugar every morning in different situations and his levels were always higher when electrical fields were nearby. On one of the mornings, he forgot to test himself prior to beginning work on the computer. His blood sugar levels were higher than normal, registering around 205 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). But after stepping away from the computer for only ten minutes, his levels dropped nearly 20 mg/dL.
The degree to which electromagnetic pollution affects the body is clearly quite astonishing, and this study illustrates that. But it makes you wonder how many people have diabetes simplybecause of EMF pollution (and not solely due to their diet or lack of exercise, as we have been taught).
High EMFs gave this woman diabetes
Take the case of the 80 year-old woman whose house tested high for EMF pollution. Prior to installing a system of filters around her house designed to reduce "electro-smog" levels, her blood sugar was high and she was using insulin each day in order to balance her blood sugar levels. After installing the filters (which reduced EMF pollution by roughly 98 percent), the woman's blood sugar levels dropped by 33 percent and her insulin requirements plunged a whopping 75 percent!This idea that reducing the electropollution of your house could drastically reduce a patient's need for insulin has never even registered in conventional (mainstream) medicine. Yet it could be a crucial understanding for tens of millions of diabetics around the world.
The study mentioned here classifies the type of diabetes caused by electromagnetic pollution as type-3 diabetes. While those with type-1 or type-2 diabetes can also have type-3, the data seems to indicate that a person can also exclusively have type-3 without any overlay of the other two types. In other words, their diabetes may be solely due to electromagnetic pollution.
And since pre-diabetics can be pushed over the edge by EMF pollution, there is no telling how many people actually have type-3 rather than type-2 diabetes.
If you ask most mainstream medical "professionals", they will deny that type-3 diabetes even exists. According to most of them, the idea that electromagnetic pollution contributes to disease is some sort of whacked out conspiracy theory. But there's more to the study that you need to know...
Wireless signals interfere with the heart
For one portion of the study, Dr. Havas had patients lie down on a bed with a cordless phone placed two feet away from their heads. The phone was plugged into the wall, but for each testing session, the electricity was either on or off.Neither the patient nor the doctor administering the test was aware of whether or not the phone was live or dead during each session. (This is what is known as a double-blind study, the type most respected in clinical trials).
At the completion of that part of the study, researchers observed that EMF-sensitive patients experienced significant increases in their heart rates during the sessions when the phone was being powered and emitting radio signals. When it was turned off, these same patients returned back to their normal heart rates almost instantaneously.
Why is this important? First of all, a double-blind study is the litmus test used in the medical profession to verify that a study is legitimate. Since nobody involved knew when the power was on or off, the results are completely unbiased and hold a lot more sway than if it had been conducted a different way.
Secondly, it illustrates that EMF pollution really does speed up the heart rates of certain people. And since a rapid pulse is one of the many symptoms of diabetes, it seems reasonable to suspect that EMF pollution could be a fundamental cause of diabetic symptoms for a significant portion of the diabetic population.
This makes you wonder about the harm caused by mammograms, CT scans and other medical scanning technologies that blast the body with electromagnetic radiation, doesn't it?
Electromagnetic radiation leads to many diseases, including cancer
Our bodies are constantly barraged by electromagnetic radiation from numerous electronic sources, and most people don't think twice about this high level of exposure (probably because many don't even realize it's there), but the truth is that all this EMF pollution is leading to widespread illness.Most of the recent research on EMF pollution has focused on cell phones, which makes sense because people take their cell phones with them everywhere they go and when they use them, they often hold them right next to their skulls. Cell phone radiation is probably one of the most dangerous EMF polluters because the devices remain in very close contact with the body for long periods of time.
A 2008 study published in New Scientist revealed that cell phone radiation causes human cell proteins to improperly express themselves. Similar studies also found that the radiationdamages living DNA, creates leakages in the blood-brain barrier, and increases estrogen and adrenaline levels, disrupting hormone balance.
According to one statistic from a 2008 study, adults who use a cell phone over the course of a decade increase their chances of developing brain cancer by 40 percent. Even worse, a Swedish study found that people who start using a cell phone before the age of 20 increase their risk of developing a brain tumor by 500 percent!
Mainstream science holds conflicting views (as usual)
Of course, many in the medical establishment simply deny that electro-smog has anything to do with health or disease. And it doesn't matter how many studies are conducted on the matter; many continue to insist that there is not enough evidence that EMFs cause any harm.Not everyone feels this way, of course, but sadly most of today's experts seem unable (or unwilling) to put two and two together and make the connection between electromagnetic pollution and disease.
There are many contributors to disease in our environment. EMFs represent just one. But to deny that electromagnetic pollution is harmful is quite narrow minded. Dr. Havas' study provides more than enough evidence that at least some people are suffering because of the electrical devices that surround them.
Our world, of course, is full of electromagnetic devices -- and some of them may surprise you. A typical hair dryer, for example, emits an explosion of electromagnetic radiation that's usually aimed right at the skull. Typical office environments shower employees with electropollution from fluorescent lighting, and even exercise gyms can subject visitors to a dense field of electromagnetic pollution (from all the electronic exercise machines).
It all gives credence to the idea of getting into nature more often, doesn't it? If you're sensitive to electropollution, the farther away you get from the city, the better you'll feel. No wonder most people innately gravitate to such natural environments like forests, lakes and ocean beaches.
So, does all this research mean we should all get rid of our phones and computers and return to the pre-information age? You could always join an Amish community. They're remarkably healthy, and part of that may be due to their lack of electropollution.
But for mainstream people, a more practical solution is to install some EMF filters around your home.
Some solutions for electromagnetic pollution
As mentioned in the study, home EMF filters are one of the best ways to reduce or eliminate the stray electrical signals that plague your house. These filters will capture electrical "noise" from things like televisions, computers and phones, and return it back into the line or into the ground. These can be connected to the outlets where these devices are plugged in.Keeping Wi-Fi devices like cell phones and wireless routers away from your body as much as possible is another good idea. If you have a wireless router at home, place it away from areas where people sleep or spend a lot of time. Even having it just a few feet farther away can make a big difference in a reduction of the electropollution exposure from it.
When charging your cell phone, plug it in across the room from you. Especially at night when you are sleeping, it is best to turn off as many electrical devices as possible and to keep them away from your bed when sleeping. And beware of electric blankets: They produce a very strong electromagnetic field.
Try to use the speakerphone as much as possible when talking on the phone, or use an "air-tube" device that stops the signal short before it reaches your head. Never walk around with an idle bluetooth attached to your head, because these devices deliver a steady stream of EMF radiation directly into your head. I would recommend not using one at all, but if you do use one, take it off when not in use.
It's also a good idea to keep your phone in your pocket or purse only when necessary, and to keep it away from your body at all other times. Cell phones are intermittently communicating with network towers, so the closer they are to our bodies, the more radiation we are exposed to. So if you're not going to be using it for a while, just turn it off.
Finally, it is crucial to maintain a healthy diet and get plenty of outdoor exercise. Eating lots of nutrient-rich foods, drinking plenty of clean water, and minimizing intake of toxic preservatives, food additives, and refined sugars will do wonders to build a strong and vibrant neurological system that will resist some of the impact of electromagnetic pollution.
The reason I mention outdoor exercise is because, just like in the study, certain indoor exercise equipment like treadmills can actually cause more harm than good (for certain people). So go outside and take a walk or a jog. The sunshine will boost your vitamin D levels and the fresh air will help rejuvenate your system. (Just be sure to stay away from the power lines.)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
You're well...oops, no...you have H1N1
KUALA LUMPUR – With the Influenza A (H1N1) scare still unabated, a family here went to get nasal swabs at a private hospital to check on their health.
Furthermore, said Ezura Nasarudin, one of her sisters-in-law had already been tested H1N1 positive and had been admitted to the hospital on June 2.
As a precaution, she took six other members of her husband's family back to the hospital later that day when they showed symptoms of fever, like coughing, runny nose and high body temperature.
Among the family group was another of Ezura's sister-in-law, Aliza Norzuriani Mohd Ali.
The hospital is known to be a reputable one, with 40 resident consultants and 20 visiting consultants, supported by a 370-strong staff. It claims to have treated more than 150,000 inpatients and over a million outpatients since its inception in 1984.
With such credentials, Ezura did not expect any doctor to give the patients a wrong diagnosis.
'Robbed' by the hospital
She said the seven of them in the family took the swab tests at 9.30pm on June 2 and obtained the results at about 3am the next day.
Nevertheless, they felt relieved to be informed by the doctor in the emergency room that none of them was tested positive for H1N1.
Ezura said she paid about RM1,000 for the nasal swabs and another RM500 for a week's supply of Tamiflu vaccine -Tamiflu Vaccine Leaves Thousands Suffering- for the family.
Initially, she said, she did not mind the long wait and the medication cost but subsequent events made her feel like she had been robbed by the hospital.
Advisors received kickbacks from H1N1 vaccine manufacturers
Doctor ordered another test
Relating the issue to Malaysian Mirror, Ezura said the next day she again went to the hospital because her 21-months-old daughter, Puteri Rania Allesha Mohd Irwan Rizal, was not well.
Accompanying Ezura and her child to the hospital were her mother-in-law, Noorilam Baharudin, and Aliza.
"We showed the doctor in attendance the results of the previous night's swab tests.
"To our dismay, however, the doctor said Aliza needed to take further tests.
"I was shocked to learn Aliza's results showed positive for influenza virus type A (antigen).
"Yet, we were told the previous night that it was only a normal flu and that we had nothing to be worried about," lamented Ezura.
Negligence can lead to death
She hopes that by highlighting the issue the management of the hospital - and other hospitals - will be aware that such incident had occurred.
Ezura said the hospital should assign more experienced doctors to man the emergency room.
"Obviously, when we talk about the emergency room, the doctor in charge will have to attend to all kinds of emergencies, such as accidents and illnesses.
"But H1N1 is a silent killer. We do not know whether we will be the next casualty, except if we go to the clinics or hospitals," she said.
Another 'bad experience'
Ezura added it was not the first "bad experience" that she had encountered at the hospital.
"When my daughter was about nine months' old, I brought her to this hospital to get medication.
"The night doctor prescribed a medicine for a cold, which was actually meant to be given to an adult.
"Luckily, I had the number of the child specialist who usually sees my daughter and sought her advice.
"She quickly told the doctor to change the medicine for my child."
Officials at the hospital were not immediately available for comments.
Ministry reviews vaccine supplies
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said it is reviewing whether there is a need to increase supplies of the Influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.
About 43,000 doses are currently available, said Deputy Health Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin.
“So far, 323,703 people, including health and frontline staff, have been vaccinated,” she told reporters after attending a Kaamatan celebration at SMK Limbanak in Penampang, ndear Kota Kinabalu, on Saturday.
She said the illness was still prevalent in the country, adding that people in the high risk group should get the vaccination which was available in government hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Those not in the high-risk group could obtain the injections at private clinics and hospitals for between RM50 and RM80, she added, disclosing that 532 people were being treated currently for H1N1 throughout the country. —Malaysian Mirror
Furthermore, said Ezura Nasarudin, one of her sisters-in-law had already been tested H1N1 positive and had been admitted to the hospital on June 2.
As a precaution, she took six other members of her husband's family back to the hospital later that day when they showed symptoms of fever, like coughing, runny nose and high body temperature.
Among the family group was another of Ezura's sister-in-law, Aliza Norzuriani Mohd Ali.
The hospital is known to be a reputable one, with 40 resident consultants and 20 visiting consultants, supported by a 370-strong staff. It claims to have treated more than 150,000 inpatients and over a million outpatients since its inception in 1984.
With such credentials, Ezura did not expect any doctor to give the patients a wrong diagnosis.
'Robbed' by the hospital
She said the seven of them in the family took the swab tests at 9.30pm on June 2 and obtained the results at about 3am the next day.
Nevertheless, they felt relieved to be informed by the doctor in the emergency room that none of them was tested positive for H1N1.
Ezura said she paid about RM1,000 for the nasal swabs and another RM500 for a week's supply of Tamiflu vaccine -Tamiflu Vaccine Leaves Thousands Suffering- for the family.
Initially, she said, she did not mind the long wait and the medication cost but subsequent events made her feel like she had been robbed by the hospital.
Advisors received kickbacks from H1N1 vaccine manufacturers
Doctor ordered another test
Relating the issue to Malaysian Mirror, Ezura said the next day she again went to the hospital because her 21-months-old daughter, Puteri Rania Allesha Mohd Irwan Rizal, was not well.
Accompanying Ezura and her child to the hospital were her mother-in-law, Noorilam Baharudin, and Aliza.
"We showed the doctor in attendance the results of the previous night's swab tests.
"To our dismay, however, the doctor said Aliza needed to take further tests.
"I was shocked to learn Aliza's results showed positive for influenza virus type A (antigen).
"Yet, we were told the previous night that it was only a normal flu and that we had nothing to be worried about," lamented Ezura.
Negligence can lead to death
She hopes that by highlighting the issue the management of the hospital - and other hospitals - will be aware that such incident had occurred.
H1N1 Flu - Vaccination, Profit, Population Control and Murder!
"Let us hope nobody dies because of such negligence," she said, adding that the service the hospital provides should be compatible to the expensive cost it charges its patients.Ezura said the hospital should assign more experienced doctors to man the emergency room.
"Obviously, when we talk about the emergency room, the doctor in charge will have to attend to all kinds of emergencies, such as accidents and illnesses.
"But H1N1 is a silent killer. We do not know whether we will be the next casualty, except if we go to the clinics or hospitals," she said.
Another 'bad experience'
Ezura added it was not the first "bad experience" that she had encountered at the hospital.
"When my daughter was about nine months' old, I brought her to this hospital to get medication.
"The night doctor prescribed a medicine for a cold, which was actually meant to be given to an adult.
"Luckily, I had the number of the child specialist who usually sees my daughter and sought her advice.
"She quickly told the doctor to change the medicine for my child."
Officials at the hospital were not immediately available for comments.
Ministry reviews vaccine supplies
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said it is reviewing whether there is a need to increase supplies of the Influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.
About 43,000 doses are currently available, said Deputy Health Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin.
“So far, 323,703 people, including health and frontline staff, have been vaccinated,” she told reporters after attending a Kaamatan celebration at SMK Limbanak in Penampang, ndear Kota Kinabalu, on Saturday.
She said the illness was still prevalent in the country, adding that people in the high risk group should get the vaccination which was available in government hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Those not in the high-risk group could obtain the injections at private clinics and hospitals for between RM50 and RM80, she added, disclosing that 532 people were being treated currently for H1N1 throughout the country. —Malaysian Mirror
Bob Ostertag: Causes and Consequences of the BP Oil Catastrophe: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and What We Will Never Know
Visualizing the BP Oil Spill Disaster
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/causes-and-consequences-o_b_599257.html
President Obama stood before the nation and world last week and, as oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, announced that his administration was "moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again." OK. There is one, and only one, way to ensure that deep water oil drilling never again leads to catastrophe, and that is to discontinue all deep water oil drilling. Period.
The oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico was not caused by greed, corporate crime, or lax government oversight. This is not a pleasant truth to confront. It is far more comforting to blame BP's greed in rushing the operations at the Deepwater Horizon in order to move on to other profitable endeavors. Or the corners that were cut on the back-up systems. Or the gutting of regulatory oversight by eight years of Bush-Cheney. All true. Easier still to focus on the mind-numbingly callous statements of BP executives, or the aloof and seemingly disconnected response of the Obama administration. All true again.
These are more comforting answers because they give us a culprit at which to direct our anger, and they also allow us to optimistically hope that by designing better back-up systems, prosecuting criminals, reforming regulations, and tightening bureaucracies, catastrophes like this can be avoided in the future.
Tragically, this is not true. It is tragic because all of our instincts seem to point us to these conclusions which turn out to be false. Better back-up systems, criminal prosecutions, strict regulation, and more efficient oversight may well make "catastrophes like this" less frequent, but will never ensure that they "never happen again."
The BP catastrophe is what sociologist Charles Perrow termed a "normal accident," and others have called "system accidents." Perrow is referring to accidents to accidents in a very particular kind of technology. He means technologies that are complex, involving systems with lots of components. By "components" he means parts, but also procedures and operators. "Component failure" can thus be a piece of hardware, an operator error, or a flawed procedure. Component failure is an inevitable aspect of any technology. Give a sufficiently complex system of components enough time, and eventually two or more components will fail at the same time. When they do, the failures will interact, and when they do they will interact in ways that no one anticipated. Perrow noticed that some technologies are not only complex but also tightly coupled, meaning that the technology involves processes which happen very fast and cannot be turned off once they get going. If a technology is both complex and tightly coupled, the inevitable failures of the complex system will escalate into catastrophe.
A common misconception is that back-up systems can solve this dilemma. But back-up systems are often complex, tightly coupled systems themselves. Overlaying one complex system with another actually multiplies the number of unforeseen ways in which multiple failures can interact. The problems of complex systems cannot be solved by making them even more complex.
We could have a detailed discussion of any piece of this argument, but basically that's it. Quite simple really. Understanding it does not require an engineering degree or any other specialized knowledge. And it is irrefutable. But unintuitive, in the sense that the catastrophes that result from complex, tightly coupled technologies always involve hardware failure, operator error, greedy ownership, inept management, flawed procedures, or faulty designs, but none of these actually cause the catastrophe. It is a "system accident" in that the cause is the nature of the system itself. And it is a "normal accident" in that it is the result of the normal or expected functioning of the system.
By metaphor think of a firing squad. A line of soldiers with identical guns aims at a victim. All guns but one are loaded with identical bullets, but no one knows who has the blank. All fire at once. Who was the murderer? The question cannot be answered. The firing squad is a system (with parts, procedures, and operators) that is deliberately designed to make it impossible to attribute the murder to any one soldier. This is why it has been such a common method of execution since the invention of firearms.
Given enough time, complex, tightly coupled technologies inevitably arrive at a moment in which multiple components fail at the same time, interacting in a way that leads to catastrophe. But here the displacement of responsibility from component to entire system as a whole is not intentional. Instead, it results from the surprising way in which the failures interact. This confuses us, and we angrily demand to know which failure "caused" the catastrophe.
This kind of "normal accident" might be quite rare. Well-designed complex systems with multiple back-up systems may run for a very long time before multiple simultaneous failures interact in a surprising way resulting in a tightly coupled reaction that cannot be stopped. And in cases where the consequences of such a failure are limited, this is something society as a whole can live with. But if the consequences are hugely catastrophic, the fact that the failure only happens once every ten, or twenty, or fifty years is no consolation. Our bodies are comprised of multiple overlapping, complex, tightly coupled systems. We live many years before we die in an instant. Compared to living, dying is vanishingly rare. But die we must.
Fortunately, when one person dies, massive environmental catastrophe does not ensue. Our world is now full of technologies that are systemically both complex and tightly coupled, yet do not result in catastrophe when they experience "normal accidents." The computer you are reading this in is one such system, and as you are no doubt aware, computer systems crash. Billions of dollars has been spent trying to prevent your computer from crash, yet still it crashes away. Often times, the least stable computer systems are the ones that have been around long time and have been patched over and over with "back-up systems" intended to make the system more stable but have no such effect. As long as all you are doing with your computer is surfing the Web, when the system crashes all that will ensue is frustration.
But there are other technologies where system accidents result in catastrophe. Perrow singled out technologies involving (1) chemical reactions, (2) high temperature or pressure, or (3) air, vapor or water turbulence as being catastrophe prone. The Deepwater Horizon had all three. In the actual event, the pressure one mile below sea level seems to have been critical. The rig involved overlapping complex technologies with lots of parts, procedures, and operators. The simultaneous failure of multiple components interacted in an unexpected way." There were back-up systems that were thought to improve safety but only increased the complexity.
All of which is to say that this catastrophe was, first and foremost, inevitable. Not in the sense that an explosion caused by this particular combination of failures at this particular rig was inevitable, but if technology this complex and tightly coupled is going to be used to drill for oil at such extreme ocean depths, sooner or later a catastrophe of this magnitude will occur.
So, should BP be prosecuted? Sure. If it were up to me I would prosecute their CEO for criminal arrogance alone. Dismantle the regulatory agency? Why not? It was hopelessly screwed up. Fire some government officials? Couldn't hurt. But don't think for a minute that any of this will prevent eventual catastrophe if we continue drilling for oil a mile below the surface of the ocean.
As Perrow noted at the end of the last century:
Catastrophes have always been with us. In the distant past, the natural ones easily exceeded the human-made ones. Human-made catastrophes appear to have increased with industrialization as we built devices that could crash, sing, burn, or explode. In the last fifty years, however, and particularly in the last twenty-five, to the usual cause of accidents... was added a new cause: interactive complexity in the presence of tight coupling, producing a system accident. We have produced designs so complicated that we cannot anticipate all the possible interactions of the inevitable failures; we add safety devices that are deceived or avoided or defeated by hidden paths in the systems. The systems have become more complicated because either they are dealing with more deadly substances, or we demand that they function in ever more hostile environments or with greater speed and volume. And still new systems keep appearing... We seem to be unable to learn from chemical plant explosions or nuclear plant accidents. We have have reached plateau where our learning curve if nearly flat.
***
No one in the Obama administration seems to be aware of this kind of reasoning. It is shocking how long it took the Obama administration to grasp the scale of the catastrophe. Nearly a month after the rig exploded, the President was making absurd gestures like sending Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and a team of five scientists "with reputations for creative problem solving" to "deal with the crisis." Chu said the team would develop "plan B, C, D, E and F" and find a way to plug the well. None of Chu's team specialized in geology, oceanography, geology, chemistry, or extractive industries. One, Jonathan I. Katz, is a prominent global warming denialist whose published papers include titles like "In Defense of Homophobia" ("The human body was not designed to engage in homosexual acts... I am a homophobe, and proud") and "Anyone Who Bombs Baghdad Gets My Vote" ("Many lines of evidence argue that Al Qaida carried out the attacks of September 11, 2001 in cooperation with, and perhaps at the behest of, Saddam Hussein and Iraq"). Upon completion of their trip to the Gulf, Chu announced, "Things are looking up, and things are getting much more optimistic."
Two weeks later the administration was scrambling to spin a new tone. President Obama promised that he was "moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again," and would "continue to do whatever is necessary to protect and restore the Gulf Coast." The President added, "Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios."
Then, after BP's effort to "top kill" the well failed and it seemed likely that oil would gush throughout the summer, Carol M. Browner, President Obama's climate change and energy policy adviser, announced that the administration was "prepared for the worst. We have been prepared from the beginning."
What, exactly, is the "worst-case scenario" the administration is now prepared for, or rather, has been prepared for from the beginning? What would it take for oil companies , the federal government, or anyone else to "have their act together when it comes to worst-case scenarios?
No one knows.
And we can actually divide the things we don't know into tow parts: things we merely don't know now, and things we will never know.
We do not know know how much oil has gushed into the ocean. We have estimates. Independent scientists who actually have relevant expertise are now on the case and agree that the original estimate made by BP and accepted by the Obama administration was wildly low. The administration is now using a much higher estimate. But the number is still an estimate, and an estimate of flow per day at that. The more days the flow continues, the greater the margin of error in our estimate. It now looks like the the well won't be sealed until August, and even then may continue to leak at a lower level indefinitely. No one will ever know how much oil will gush into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon well.
Then there are the chemical dispersants BP has added to the mix. As of today (June 2, 2010), BP has added about a million gallons. BP has used two dispersants, COREXIT EC9527A and COREXIT 9500. NALCO, the company which makes these products, alleges that the chemical composition of the stuff is a "trade secret," so no one outside the company knows exactly what is involved. The company's disclosure statement for COREXIT EC9527A says, "No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product."
But even if extensive toxicity studies had been done, and we could pry the recipe from NALCO's greedy hands, there would still be much we would not know about what a million gallons and counting of the stuff will do in the Gulf of Mexico. There is currently a heated debate within the scientific community concerning how the toxicity of many industrial chemicals are measured. The debate is not over whether the measurements that are used are accurate, but concern what the resulting numbers mean. Ultimately, these debates lead to deep philosophical questions that are the underpinnings of science and which may never be resolved. Much of the toxicity debate comes from research done on animals which have been the focus of decades of study under laboratory conditions. If scientists cannot agree on chemical toxicity in lab rats, how will they agree on what effect chemical dispersants have on sea life a mile below the surface? Some of these life forms we have only recently begun to study. Many more are completely unknown.
Note that in Charles Perrow's anatomy of technological catastrophe, the dispersants constitute a "back-up system" that will now begin to interact with the ongoing catastrophe in completely unknown ways. And as is often the case with back-up systems, there is no actual evidence that the dispersants are improving the situation in any way. The only thing that is certain is that the dispersants are making the oil that has gushed harder to see from the surface and to track underwater. Which is probably why BP is using them in such massive amounts.
But we are not dealing only with the dispersant chemicals, or gushing oil. Rather, we are dealing with a mixture of millions of gallons of the two, concocted in deep sea conditions we only sketchily understand and spread by currents we cannot fully track. Some of the chemicals known to be in the dispersants are bioaccumulative, meaning that they gradually concentrate in living tissue and work their way up food chains. Hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico officially begins today. Chemicals from this catastrophe could eventually end up in any number of living organisms across a vast geographical expanse.
It took decades to sort out the health consequences from the chemical defoliants the US military used in the Vietnam war, and there is still no scientific consensus as to the nature of Gulf War Syndrome suffered by veterans of the first invasion of Iraq twenty years ago. Both of these catastrophes involved human victims eager to participate in research that might pinpoint the cause of their problems, who could be readily located by their records of military service. The bird and sea life that will come into contact with the stuff spewed from the Deepwater Horizon and dispersed by BP are on no one's address list. They will not bang on the doors of VA hospitals to make themselves available to research. Much of this life is located so far beneath the ocean that research can only be done by robots. What we are looking at is decades of acrimonious debate as to what constitutes a "proven" health consequence of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. As usual, the debate will be largely framed by lawyers working in the service of the huge financial interests involved.
And Carol Browner claims that the administration is "prepared for the worst. We have been prepared from the beginning." What a laugh!
Sir Martin Rees, England's Royal Astronomer and one of the top astrophysicists of our day, anticipated catastrophes like this when he wrote a book titled Our Final Hour: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century - On Earth and Beyond. Rees calculated that "the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that our present civilization on Earth will survive to the end of the present century." Rees even placed a bet on Long bets.org, a web site where scientists publicly put their reputations on the line with predictions about the future. Rees bet that by 2020, a single catastrophe would lead to one million casualties. It is unclear whether Rees meant for birds and fish to be included in his "million casualties from a single event." If he did then he may have just won his bet. But then, how would we even know?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/causes-and-consequences-o_b_599257.html
savethemales.ca - Slow Death: Brazilian MD Speaks Out On Vaccines
by "Charles London"
(for henrymakow.com)
I am a Brazilian doctor who is suffering the consequences of whistle blowing on the Brazilian government and its heinous health policies.
Our President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is selling our country, erasing our boundaries, facilitating the bandits and intruders. Selling our country to Illuminati interests, especially the European branch of the Illuminati.
The Chatham House Prize 2009 that Lula received was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company called GSK. Brazilian tax-payers bought this ignominious prize for Lula by taking 40,000 venomous shots of H1N1 vaccine costing US $200M.
"There have been no controlled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with FLULAVAL [see clinical studies (14)]". ( www.fda.gov/downloads/.../
Year by year, an expensive, unnecessary and criminal vaccine campaign is inflicted on the Brazilian population. Timerosal is given to children at 2 th month, 4th month, 6 th month, before 1 year, and again before the 4 th year.
These result in a variety of diseases: SNC - autism spectrum disease, ADDH, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental retardation by encephalitis, and other vaccine sequels. They are ignored by doctors, pediatricians, neurologists, psychologists, nurses, teachers.
All those cases are misdiagnosed and evident symptoms and signals are ignored. Thimerosal (mercury in 46%) is totally liberated in any Brazilian vaccine. Glutamic acid, formaldeid, alluminium, squalen, don't receive attention by the doctors. They don't know the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine study about the mercurial degeneration of the SNC cells. Mercury is venomous in any quantity; it is incompatible with life. See
DEPOPULATION AND STERILIZATION
Our government has a huge conflict of interest with WHO, Rockfeller's UNFPA (United Nations Population Funds), and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). All of them are sterilization and de-population programmers. Nowadays Brazilians authorities prefer the European Illuminati branch, over interests from Turkey, Russia, China.
The WHO, and Health Pan-American Organization have an equal interest with big pharma, richer year over year. A three member coalition was formed: corrupts governments, big pharma, and health organizations. God blesses us all. Our expenditure,for example, with thebig pharma reached US$ 1,000,000,000 since last year, just in the H1N1 case and propaganda materials alone. Many people enriched in Brazil and in Sanofi Pasteur. Brazil loves to negotiate with the Frenchs Rafale$ and Frenchs vaccine$.
In Brazil sterilization programs begun in the 90's with the leftists Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his Health Secretary José Serra, the latter an "opposition" candidate for the next election.
SEX ADDICTION, HOMOSEXUALITY & DRUGS
"The Day After pills" are common. Homosexuality today is preached in schools; abortion campaigns are the most prefer issue of Lula govern and his Partido dos Trabalhadores; premature teaching of sexuality since 6 years old in TV, schools in mass media and general culture, are the rule, no exception.
Our present Health Secretary, José Temporão, only thinks of sex. He recently recommended on network TV five sexual intercourse a week! "It's good for blood pressure"! He seems to be a sex-pathological individual. Condoms and rubber penis are distributed in schools for "educational" proposes.
Soon it will be condoms machines at reach of any children at schools! I'm not kidding! Mr. Temporão also is a rabid defender of the drugs harm reduction politic, a program to increase popularity of illegal drugs.
Well, Mr. Evo (cocaine) Morales thanks him effusively! Our Health Minister displayed in 2007 his Manual of Harm Reduction in a gay parade: how to sniff or snort cocaine; where are the needle optimal points; to avoid cash money to sniffing, etc, etc. With that disposition is easy to comprehend our situation. A victory for cocainecracy! This man commands our vaccination programs.
All governments, in all levels, state governs, mayors, all do the same. They are afraid to lose the federal grants. The poor people are afraid to lose their U$ 50 by month (Bolsa FamÃlia), a beggar, assistance program.
Nobody wants to work anymore. In northern Brazil, the deep born country of redneck Lula nobody works. Votes for? Ah, too much votes for Lula and her successor! By the way, Comrade Dilma Roussef participated of the U.S. Army Captain Charles Chandler murdering in October, 1968, in São Paulo.
http://www.time.com/time/
She also was a robber bank to fund communist guerrilla in the 60', or as she said proudly to my democratic project.
CONCLUSION
The situation is getting worse. We Brazilians have the highest criminality and murder rate of the world. Since 1984, year of our "democratization", to 2004 (source: Justice Secretary), 600,000 people died by violent deaths, shoot-outs between drug gangs, personal assaults, homicides. Most of the victims were 18-32 years old. Annually, we have 56,000 homicides.
The USA had 56,000 casualties in a ten years war in Vietnam. We are at war against ourselves! This is democracy, Communist democracy. Later or soon, we will experience the consequences of the criminal vaccine programs...
The sum of murders, by diseases or drug wars, civilian battles, more a big degeneration of our youngsters; the absence of religion, of God, communist churches, MST (communist rural guerrilla), corrupt politicians, FARC conubio, and we have the entire picture of real Brazil. We became the paradise of the criminal refugees of the world. Our boundaries are open to all. We have lots of illiterate in schools. They get diplomas, certificates, degrees. Notwithstanding, are illiterate, like our lazy and illiterate president. Brazil became the face of Lula.
I don't want be a pessimist. But what can I do if not tell the true?
The pandemic that never was: Drug firms 'encouraged world health body to exaggerate swine flu threat' | Mail Online
By FIONA MACRAE
Last updated at 11:49 PM on 4th June 2010
Comments (46)
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Widespread warnings were issued about the swine flu 'pandemic'
Declaring a swine flu pandemic was a 'monumental error', driven by profit-hungry drug companies spreading fear, an influential report has concluded.
It led to huge amounts of taxpayers' money being wasted in stockpiling vaccines, it added.
Paul Flynn, the Labour MP charged with investigating the handling of the swine flu outbreak for the Council of Europe, described it as 'a pandemic that never really was'.
The report accuses the World Health Organisation of grave shortcomings in the transparency of the process that led to its warning last year.
Last updated at 11:49 PM on 4th June 2010
Comments (46)
Add to My Stories
Widespread warnings were issued about the swine flu 'pandemic'
Declaring a swine flu pandemic was a 'monumental error', driven by profit-hungry drug companies spreading fear, an influential report has concluded.
It led to huge amounts of taxpayers' money being wasted in stockpiling vaccines, it added.
Paul Flynn, the Labour MP charged with investigating the handling of the swine flu outbreak for the Council of Europe, described it as 'a pandemic that never really was'.
The report accuses the World Health Organisation of grave shortcomings in the transparency of the process that led to its warning last year.
The MP said that the world relied on the WHO, but after 'crying wolf', its reputation was in jeopardy.
The report questions whether the pandemic was driven by drug companies seeking a profit. Mr Flynn said predictions of a 'plague' that would wipe out up to 7.5million people proved to be 'an exaggeration', with fewer than 20,000 deaths worldwide.
Britain braced itself for up to 65,000 deaths and signed vaccine contracts worth £540million.
The actual number of deaths was fewer than 500 and the country is now desperately trying to unpick the contracts and unload millions of unused jabs.
Britain braced itself for up to 65,000 deaths and signed vaccine contracts worth £540million.
The actual number of deaths was fewer than 500 and the country is now desperately trying to unpick the contracts and unload millions of unused jabs.
The focus on swine flu also led to other health services suffering and widespread public fear.
Pharmaceutical companies, however, profited to the tune of £4.6billion from the sale of vaccines alone.
Mr Flynn said: 'There is not much doubt that this was an exaggeration on stilts. They vastly over-stated the danger on bad science and the national governments were in a position where they had to take action.
'In Britain, we have spent at least £1billion on preparations, to the detriment of other parts of the health system. This is a monumental failure on the WHO's part.'
The Council of Europe inquiry heard allegations that the WHO had downgraded its definition for declaring a pandemic last spring - just weeks before announcing there was a worldwide outbreak.
Critics said the decision to remove any need to consider the deadliness of the disease was driven by drug companies desperate to recoup the billions of pounds they had invested in developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares.
But the WHO said its basic definition of a pandemic never changed.
Mr Flynn said: 'It doesn't make any sense as to why they should have changed the definition a month before declaring an outbreak.
'In this case, it might not just be a conspiracy theory, it might be a very profitable conspiracy.'
Critics said the decision to remove any need to consider the deadliness of the disease was driven by drug companies desperate to recoup the billions of pounds they had invested in developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares.
But the WHO said its basic definition of a pandemic never changed.
Mr Flynn said: 'It doesn't make any sense as to why they should have changed the definition a month before declaring an outbreak.
'In this case, it might not just be a conspiracy theory, it might be a very profitable conspiracy.'
A Daily Mail investigation earlier this year revealed more than half of the swine flu taskforce advising the Government on its strategy had ties to drug companies.
Eleven of the 20 members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies had done work for the pharmaceutical industry or are linked to it through their universities.
Concerns about drug companies' influence are also highlighted by a separate investigation by the British Medical Journal and the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
It found that key scientists behind the WHO's advice on stockpiling pandemic flu pills such as Tamiflu had financial ties with the drug companies that stood to profit. The WHO last night firmly rejected all the criticism.
It found that key scientists behind the WHO's advice on stockpiling pandemic flu pills such as Tamiflu had financial ties with the drug companies that stood to profit. The WHO last night firmly rejected all the criticism.
Spokesman Gregory Hartl said: 'There is no question of this being a fake pandemic. If fits the criteria for a pandemic, which is a new virus to which human beings have little or no immunity and which has spread around the world.
'It spread from zero to 74 countries in the space of 9 weeks - that's a pandemic.'
He said that not all ties to drug companies were necessarily conflicts of interest.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284133/The-pandemic-Drug-firms-encouraged-world-health-body-exaggerate-swine-flu-threat.html#ixzz0q1WuSNv9
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284133/The-pandemic-Drug-firms-encouraged-world-health-body-exaggerate-swine-flu-threat.html#ixzz0q1WuSNv9
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