Tag: sickness

Common Vaccines Contain Toxic Chemical

When you go to get your flu shot, there’s a good chance you’ll also be getting a dose of a toxic chemical. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

When you go to get your flu shot, there’s a good chance you’ll also be getting a dose of a toxic
chemical. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


Thimerosal long has been used as a preservative in vaccines. But it contains mercury, and mercury
is not good for anyone. In children it can damage intellectual and nervous system
development. The mercury preservative has been removed from many vaccines, but Barbara Loe
Fisher with the National Vaccine Information Center says it’s still used too often.


“We still have it in influenza vaccine, diptheria-tetanus, some hepatitis B vaccines. Those are all
given to children. And there’s a pneumococcal vaccine that’s given to sick children that also has
Thimerosal, so, you know, on any given day a child could get more mercury than they should be
exposed to because the manufacturers just haven’t gotten it out of all the vaccine.”


Loe Fisher says manufacturers can produce the vaccines in single dose vials, eliminating the need
for the preservative, but the pharmaceutical companies have been resistant because it’s cheaper to
produce multi-dose vials with the mercury preservative.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Water Filter to Reduce Beach Closings?

Beaches throughout the Great Lakes have long been plagued by bacteria that can make people sick. For the first time in the region, researchers will test a filter designed to guard a swimming beach from hazardous bacteria. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:

Transcript

Beaches throughout the Great Lakes have long been plagued by bacteria that can make people
sick. For the first time in the region, researchers will test a filter designed to guard a swimming
beach from hazardous bacteria. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports:


Next April, the Chicago Park District plans to install and test an eighteen-hundred foot-long
floating filter system. A similar technology was used to protect fish hatcheries during the 1989
Exxon Valdez oil spill. And studies show the system has been successful in decreasing bacteria
levels at New York beaches.


Jim Miner is the Executive Vice-President of Gunderboom Incorperated, the company that makes
the filter. He says the filter will surround the beach like an underwater curtain:


“What is underwater, the fabric curtain, will not be seen by the swimmer and it is a non-intrusive,
fabric-filtered barrier that goes from the surface to the bottom and it’s anchored there and
protected so that only filtered water can get into the swimming area.”


The technology could reduce swimming bans at city beaches.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Managing Unwelcome Geese

Growing numbers of Canada geese are taking up residence in the Midwest instead of migrating in the spring and fall. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports, government officials and environmental groups are coming up with creative ways to control the growing population:

Transcript

Growing numbers of Canada Geese are taking up residence in the Midwest instead of
migrating in the spring and fall. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie
Macdowell reports – government officials and environmental groups are coming up with
creative ways to control the growing population:


Canada geese are becoming a familiar sight on front lawns and in retention ponds across
the Midwest. Goose excrement is a nuisance to residents and bacteria in their feces can
make people sick. Vid Rapsys owns an Illinois franchise of the “Geese Police.” This
special force uses border collies to gather and frighten geese away from private property
without hurting them.


“Tell the dog to come by while it’s in the water. It’s going to swim in a clockwise motion
around the geese in the water. The geese become very unnerved when animals come in
the water after them. Especially animals that looked like they were stalking them on land
and now there’s someone after them in water.”


But Rapsys adds the Border collies don’t offer a permanent solution. Usually the birds
just fly a couple of miles away and settle in someone else’s lawn or pond. More
permanent options involve shaking goose eggs or covering them with vegetable
oil, which stops the growth of the embryo. But aside from killing geese during hunting
season, people are not allowed to harm a Canada goose. They’re protected by a law
written in the early 1900s.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie
MacDowell.

Eliminating Sources of Beach Contamination

  • This bread was dumped at a park along a Great Lakes beach for the gulls, geese, and squirrels that live there. Beach visitors often assume high bacteria levels that close beaches to swimmers are solely due to sewer overflows, but animals that defecate in the area also contribute to the problem.

This past summer beaches around the Great Lakes were closed in record numbers because of high bacteria counts. One government study indicates part of the problem might be animal feces, but the public does not seem to be aware that of the connection. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

This past summer beaches around the Great Lakes were closed in record numbers
because of high bacteria counts. One government study indicates part of the problem
might be animal feces, but the public does not seem to be aware that of the connection.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


High levels of bacteria in the water can make swimmers sick. Cameron Davis is with the
watchdog group, the Lake Michigan Federation. He says more can be done to stop the
contamination if sewer plants are improved and if beach visitors were more aware that
leaving food waste and feeding gulls and geese adds to the problem. That’s because the
birds defecate more, causing higher levels of bacteria along the shore.


“So, we’ve got the sewage treatment agencies saying ‘Oh, no. It’s the geese and the
gulls,’ and we’ve got the people feeding the birds saying ‘Oh, no. It’s sewage treatment
plants.’ So, you can see, it’s a combination of sources and there are things — I don’t care
what anybody says — there are things we can do to help solve the problem with all those
different sources.”


Davis says local governments need to start identifying and eliminating those sources of
beach contamination, starting with improving sewer plants and getting people to clean up
after their visits and to stop feeding wildlife at the beaches.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

More Disease With Climate Change?

A recent report looked at the potential health effects of climate change on people in the Niagara region. The report predicts increased exposure to malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever in coming years. The report was released by the environmental group Pollution Probe, and was done in partnership with the health and environment departments of the Canadian government. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:

Transcript

A recent report says people in the Niagara region expect increased exposure to malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever in coming years because of climate change. The warning is contained in a new report by the environmental group, Pollution Probe. The report was done in partnership with the health and environment departments of the Canadian government. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:


The report says the diseases are projected to spread because climate change favors the northward movement of disease carrying birds, insects and rodents. Quentin Chiotti of Pollution Probe says the sudden spread of the West Nile Virus is an example of what to expect.


“Now though, there’s some uncertainty about predicting just when that will happen, without a
doubt the conditions are going to be ripe for these kinds of disease outbreaks.”


Chiotti says there are already twenty confirmed cases of the West Nile Virus in Canada, compared
to none last year. And more than three thousand in the U.S.


Chiotti also says the number of excessive heat days could double to thirty each summer by the
year 2030. He says that could lead to more deaths – as many as four hundred people each
summer in the region.


Pollution Probe says the predictions show the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions as soon as
possible.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Indoor Environment Can Be a Headache

A so-called "sick building” can do more than make workers ill — it can
also cause headaches for the building’s owners and managers. If the
situation isn’t handled right, they risk widespread panic,
evacuation…and even major lawsuits. But now a new book offers
caretakers of sick buildings some practical guidance. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports:

A Mother’s Crusade

Lead poisoning has been called the number one environmental health hazard for children. While low-income families are most affected, lead poisoning can happen to anyone. And the damage it does is permanent. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson recently met a family that’s been forever changed because of lead: