The tomato ban was really tough on some farmers (Photo by J. Beavers, courtesy of the USDA)
The Food and Drug Administration continues
to investigate the source of tainted tomatoes that
sickened more than 160 people. It’s narrowing down
the source of the salmonella bacteria, and has lifted
a ban on tomato sales in many states. Julie Grant
reports on how the ban has affected tomato growers:
Transcript
The Food and Drug Administration continues
to investigate the source of tainted tomatoes that
sickened more than 160 people. It’s narrowing down
the source of the salmonella bacteria, and has lifted
a ban on tomato sales in many states. Julie Grant
reports on how the ban has affected tomato growers:
It’s been a tough June for Florida tomato growers – who
grow 90% of the nation’s tomatoes. It’s not that they’ve
been working too hard – it’s that they haven’t been able to
work.
Lisa Lochridge is with the Florida Fruit and Vegetable
Association.
“Business pretty much ground to a halt for Florida tomato
growers. There were tomatoes out in the fields left, there
were tomatoes in the packing houses just sitting there, there
were tomatoes on trucks that were being turned away.”
Lockridge says Florida growers will have lost 500-million
dollars as a result of the ban. Now that the ban has been
lifted in Florida, she says growers are restarting business
and shipping tomatoes to the stores, cafeterias and
restaurants that want them.
A federal judge in Missouri says the EPA’s standards for lead pollution are out of date. And he’s given the agency about two months to figure out how much lead is too much. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Sepic
reports:
Transcript
A federal judge in Missouri says the EPA’s standards for lead pollution are out of date, and he’s given the agency about two months to figure out how much lead is too much. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Matt Sepic reports:
Under federal law, the EPA is supposed to review lead standards every five years, but Judge Richard Webber said the agency “blatantly disregarded Congress’ mandate.”
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon filed the suit on behalf of a couple from Herculaneum, Missouri, who claim their son was poisoned by a nearby lead smelter. Nixon says the EPA last changed its airborne lead rules fifteen years ago.
“EPA sets what’s allowable as far as lead in the air. We think science has moved forward over the years to show that is very dangerous both for young kids in older housing as well as around smelters and lead operations.”
An EPA spokeswoman says the agency did not ignore the issue, but instead of updating emissions standards, regulators decided instead to focus on specific sources of lead pollution.
Not only are birds affected by Type E Botulism, but fish are also killed by it. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Ray Bierbower and a colleague pick up a dead seagull at Presque Isle State Park near Erie, Pennsylvania. Tens of thousands of birds on Lakes Erie, Ontario and Huron have died from botulism poisoning. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Some of the seagulls that have been nursed back to health after becoming sick from botulism poisoning. (Photo by Lester Graham)
For several years now, a strain of botulism has been killing shorebirds along parts of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. Tens of thousands of birds have died on Lake Erie in the last several years. But there’s one place where some sick birds are taken to be nursed back to health. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:
Transcript
For several years now, a strain of botulism has been killing shorebirds along parts of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. Tens of thousands of birds have died on Lake Erie in the last several years. But, there’s one place where some sick birds are taken to be nursed back to health. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
(Sound of an engine)
We’re crawling along sand dunes in a three-wheeled cart. Ray Bierbower is taking me to Gull Point. It’s an area on a spit of land called Presque Isle that juts out into Lake Erie at Erie, Pennsylvania. This area is part of a state park that gets four million visitors every year. But here, except for birds, it’s deserted.
“A lot of the shorebirds come through here, migrating, and they want to leave it alone. It’s shut off to the public. Basically, there’s just a select few that are allowed out in this area and we’re one of the groups that are allowed.”
We’re here to pick up some dead birds. A couple of years ago you might have found dozens of dead birds at a time. Today, only five seagulls. Well, parts of them: two heads and some rotting carcasses.
“We haven’t been out here for two weeks. So, this is not too bad considering before.”
If these birds are like hundreds of others tested, they died from botulism poisoning. Researchers are figuring out how the botulism got into the food chain. The theory is that massive beds of zebra mussels and quagga mussels – both invasive species brought into the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ocean going ships – are causing conditions that rob oxygen on the bottom of the Lakes.
That encourages botulism bacteria to flourish and give off toxins. The mussels aren’t hurt by them, but round gobies, another invasive species, eat the mussels. When they get sick, they become easy pickings for the birds. Then, the birds get sick.
Sometimes, Ray Bierbower and his fellow summer interns find a bird that’s sick, but not beyond saving. The state park doesn’t have the facilities to help the birds, so they take them to a wild bird rehabilitation center in town.
The center, called Wild Wings is looks like some of the other two story houses in this blue-collar neighborhood. But once you’re inside, there’s no doubt that you’re in the right place.
(Sound of birds)
A man is dropping off four tiny wrens from the nest. Their mother stopped coming to feed them and he figures a cat must have killed her.
Wild Wing’s director, Wendy Campbell, takes them in. She’s a whirlwind of activity as she flits from cage to cage. She makes sure birds have water. She gives some of them medicine. And now with the tiny wrens here she makes sure they don’t miss feeding time.
In the basement, chickens, crows, an owl, and some pigeons are separated by chicken wire walls. She checks on a couple of seagulls in one the pens. Campbell is helping them recover from botulism poisoning.
“What you do is provide them with supportive care. You want to keep the birds out of sunlight, because sunlight perpetuates botulism toxin. And by re-fluiding them, because they’re usually dehydrated. And a lot of times, too, we can use Phillips Milk of Magnesia because that binds with botulism toxin and draws it out of their system. And many of the birds recover.”
Campbell says after she’s sure they’re fully recovered, she’ll release these gulls back into the wild.
“There’s no danger of them spreading it, because I’ve asked the Wildlife Health Center to make sure that I could release these birds that have recovered from botulism that they weren’t now going to be carrying it. And he said absolutely not. It’s out of their system.”
Wendy Campbell is quick to add that it doesn’t mean that the gulls can’t contract the botulism toxin again. Campbell says if this were a natural phenomenom, she would let nature take its course. But it’s not; humans brought the zebra mussels and quagga mussels that are causing the problem in the Great Lakes.
“Over ninety percent of the time, it’s as a result of human activities. We don’t believe in interfering with nature. But when they get hurt because they get hit by a car or they get poisoned by lawn care chemicals, that’s not nature. And so, somebody has to help them, and that’s why I do this.”
Campbell says the authorities in her area are doing a good job of cleaning up the bird carcasses along the lake beaches. If they’re not picked up, flies lay eggs, maggots are infected by botulism, and other birds eat the maggots, causing the botulism problem to spread.
Campbell says of the one thousand birds brought into Wild Wings center each year, only a handful of them are sick from botulism. That’s because most of them die from it before they can be helped.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to release
new rules on March 15th regarding mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Many expect the EPA will allow power plants to trade emissions credits to achieve mercury reductions. Critics say that approach puts the interests of industry before the health of people and the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to release new rules on March 15th
regarding mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Many expect the EPA will
allow power plants to trade emissions credits to achieve mercury reductions. Critics say
that approach puts the interests of industry before the health of people and the
environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Environmental groups are expecting the EPA will announce a cap-and-trade program.
Pollution trading might not make every power plant cleaner, but nationwide mercury
pollution would be reduced.
John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council says the government should
instead require plants to install technology that cuts mercury emissions. Walke says a
cap-and-trade program would delay clean-up for much longer.
“The Bush Administration through the EPA has absolutely bowed to the wishes of power
plants who want to continue to pollute at dangerous levels without spending the money
on the pollution controls that will protect the public from mercury poisoning.”
The EPA has said a trading program would achieve a 70% reduction in mercury
emissions by 2018. But further analysis by an agency within the Department of Energy
shows those reductions would not actually be achieved until some time after 2025.
The cormorant population is booming in the region, and some anglers say they're competing too hard with the birds for fish. (Photo courtesy of Steve Mortensen, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)
Don Schreiner is the DNR's manager of fisheries for Lake Superior. Every year, the hatchery at Knife River rears thousands of rainbow trout. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Robin Whaley likes to fish in the Knife River in Minnesota. Behind her is Knife Island, where officials are trying to keep cormorants from nesting. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Anglers around the Great Lakes are eager for a summer of fishing. Everyone wants to catch the big one. But they’re getting some competition. It comes in the form of the double-crested cormorant. The big black birds with long necks are fish eaters. Cormorants were nearly wiped out by the now-banned pesticide, DDT, in the 1970’s. But now cormorants are back in big numbers. Some anglers feel there are too many cormorants now. And they say the birds are eating too many fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on one experimental effort to control cormorants:
Transcript
Anglers around the Great Lakes are eager for a summer of fishing. Everyone wants to
catch the big one, but they’re getting some competition. It comes in the form of the
double-crested cormorant. The big black birds with long necks are fish eaters.
Cormorants were nearly wiped out by the now-banned pesticide, DDT, in the 1970’s. But
now cormorants are back in big numbers. Some anglers feel there are too many
cormorants now, and they say the birds are eating too many fish. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports on one experimental effort to control
cormorants:
(sound of waves)
Robin Whaley often fishes here on Knife River. It’s the biggest spawning ground for
rainbow trout on the north shore of Lake Superior. But today she’s watching the
cormorants on Knife Island, a quarter-mile offshore.
The cormorant population is booming. About a hundred cormorants lived on the island
last year.
“I guess they’re just coming up into this area in the last few years and becoming a
problem, for degrading habitat and for eating little fish.”
Cormorants are native to this area, but they haven’t been around much in the last few
decades, because of poisoning from the pesticide DDT.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocks rainbow trout here. This year
they put 40,000 young fish into the river. Anglers like Robin Whaley hope the little fish
will grow big enough for them to catch someday.
The little fish face a lot of predators and hazards and the cormorants are one more threat.
Some people would like to reduce that threat. It’s illegal to kill cormorants. They’re
protected by law because they’re a migratory bird.
But a new federal rule says if they’re threatening a resource, people can fight back in a
different way.
Bill Paul runs the Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services Program in Minnesota. He
sent workers onto Knife Island to try to keep the cormorants from nesting. Their methods
are experimental – but they’re pretty basic.
“We put up some flapping tarps in wind, a couple of yellow raincoat scarecrows, we also
put up ten flashing highway barricade lights, we also have a light siren device out there
that goes during the night.”
The workers also used special firecrackers shot by guns at passing birds to scare them
away.
They did this for two weeks during the cormorants’ nesting season. Bill Paul says even
with all that noise and commotion it wasn’t easy to scare them away.
“They seem to be fairly smart birds and real persistent at coming back to Knife Island.
So we’re uncertain yet whether our activities are actually going to keep them off there
long-term.”
As part of their study, researchers had permission to kill 25 cormorants to find out what
they’d been eating. They wanted to see how much of a threat the birds were to game fish
like the rainbow trout.
They found fish in the cormorants’ stomachs all right. But not the kind most people like
to catch and eat.
Don Schreiner supervises the Lake Superior fishery for the Minnesota DNR. He says
he’d need more than just a few samples to really know what the birds are eating.
“My guess is that cormorants are opportunists and if there’s a small silver fish out there
and he’s just hanging out and the cormorant has that available to eat, he’ll eat it. The
question becomes, is this a significant part of the population that they’re consuming, or
isn’t it?”
Despite the concerns of some anglers, researchers have been studying cormorants for
years, and so far they haven’t been able to prove the birds are harming wild fish
populations.
John Pastor is an ecologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He says the study at
Knife River won’t prove anything useful either.
He says it ignores the bigger picture. Pastor says you can’t just look at one predator and
come to any firm conclusions. There could be lots of reasons why there aren’t many
steelhead, or rainbow trout.
“Changes in land use. All the adult steelhead out there eating the young of the year
steelhead. Maybe it’s some pollutant in the lake. You never know. But it’s easy to fix on
the predator as the problem, because people see a cormorant dive down and come up with
a fish, and they say to themselves, I could have caught that fish.”
Pastor says even if the cormorants are eating lots of young rainbow trout, it doesn’t
necessarily mean the birds are hurting the overall trout population.
And even for an angler like Robin Whaley, the concern about the trout is mixed with a
feeling of respect for the cormorant.
“I admire the bird very much, but human beings, we’re in the business of controlling
habitats and populations, and this is just another case of that.”
For many anglers, the ultimate question in this competition between predators is simple.
It’s about who gets the trout – cormorants or humans.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.
Lead is a toxic metal that has been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological impairment, even at low exposures. But a new study suggests that when high levels of another metal are present in the environment, it might reduce the amount of lead absorbed into the bloodstream. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erika Johnson has more:
Transcript
Lead is a toxic metal that has been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and
neurological impairment, even at low exposures. But a new study suggests that when
high levels of another metal is present in the environment, it might reduce the amount of
lead absorbed into the bloodstream. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erika Johnson
has more:
The study published in the journal Nature compared lead levels for children living near
industrial and non-industrial sites. Researchers found that children exposed to high levels
of environmental zinc from a nearby smelter absorbed less lead.
Curtis Noonan is an epidemiologist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry. He co-authored the study.
“But I think it’s important to note also that in our study, high levels of environmental
zinc, while they may have altered the strength of the association between environmental
lead and blood lead, environmental zinc did not ultimately protect children from lead
exposure.”
Noonan says that because children are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults,
parents should be aware of the risks of lead in the home, even when environmental zinc is
high.
Noonan says that future research should also take into account dietary exposures to zinc,
as well as a person’s overall nutritional status.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erika Johnson.
A new study indicates that more children might be at risk from the effects of lead in their environment than previously thought. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
A new study indicates that more children might be at risk from the effects of lead in their
environment than previously estimated. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has
more:
Elevated levels of lead in a child’s bloodstream are known to cause mental development
problems. The question is…how much lead is too much? Today, the danger level is set at 10
micrograms per deciliter of blood. But new research published in the New England Journal of
Medicine shows that levels below ten micrograms might also cause problems. Richard Canfield
is a researcher at Cornell University. He headed up the latest study:
“Instead of finding that as lead levels increase the power of lead to cause
problems increases, which most people would think, we found that most of the
damage seems to be done at the low levels.”
Canfield and his group found that IQ levels in young children dropped even at lead levels below
the current standard. He notes that, on the whole, the problem of lead poisoning in children is
decreasing, but it’s still a major concern.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
Children are typically exposed to lead in older homes with lead based paint or lead in the home’s
piping system, and by playing in soil next to roadways contaminated by cars that burned leaded
gasoline in the past. To find out more about lead poisoning visit the Center’s for
Disease Control’s website at www.cdc.gov.
Terrorism prevention experts say the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., are reminders of how vulnerable the U.S. is. However, they say utilities and cities can take simple steps to safeguard natural resources such as forests and water resources against terrorist attacks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Terrorism prevention experts say the attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. are reminders of how vulnerable the U.S. is. However, they say utilities and cities can take simple steps to safeguard natural resources such as forests and water sources against terrorist attacks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.
The terrorist attacks prompted alarm across the nation, and even people in areas that will likely never be the targets of terrorism are wondering aloud about their vulnerability.
Peter Beerings is the terrorism prevention coordinator for the city of Indianapolis, and speaks on the subject across the nation. Beering says because the U.S. has such great wealth well beyond its cities, it is vulnerable.
“We have vast expanses of natural resources, forests, parks, things that we consider to be natural treasures are just as easily national targets. But, it is important, I think, to remember that while we are vulnerable by virtue of our size, that this is not particularly something of interest other than to, perhaps, a single issue aggressor.”
By single issue aggressor, Beering means these areas aren’t likely to be the targets for international terrorists, but are occasionally targeted by fanatics for single causes. For example, forest fires have been ignited to protest development near wilderness areas, and an extortionist threatened to poison the water in Phoenix.
A small town about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis also has been a target of a terrorist group. Dave Rollo sits on the Bloomington, Indiana Environmental Commission. Last year, environmental terrorists repeatedly hit Bloomington, destroying highway construction equipment, burning a house under construction in a sensitive watershed, and spiking trees in a nearby state forest to prevent logging.
“It really brought terrorism home to a small town such as
Bloomington when this sort of activity usually takes place elsewhere. So, I think that public officials, especially, had to rethink many things about how we– how Bloomington has to safeguard the community from these acts.”
Rollo says one thing is certain. Bloomington lost its complacency about the possibility of terrorism. After a period of fear and confusion, the city is now struggling with the proper security measures.
“How does one go about safeguarding a forest from deliberate arson, or how does one go about safeguarding a water supply the size of Lake Monroe which is the largest lake in Indiana. It’s an enormous challenge.”
And it’s a challenge that governments have been unwilling to talk about publicly, at least until now.
Jim Snyder is a researcher at the University of Michigan. At the direction of the President’s commission on critical infrastructure protection, he co-authorized a report on protecting water systems, possibly the most vulnerable target. But instead of getting information to the water purification plants across the nation, the government buried it, fearing that it might cause panic or give radical ideas.
“Some ten years ago we wrote a manual on how to secure water supplies for the EPA, but because they’re always worried about getting that notion into the public eye –which of course now any of these things are in the public eye– but they basically decided not to distribute that manual.”
Snyder says the manual outlined simple things, such as an emergency response plan, locking gates in sensitive areas and securing wells, and having guards on duty at water plants, things that would dissuade vandals or disgruntled employees. However, Snyder says, there’s little to prevent a determined terrorist with the right knowledge from poisoning a water system, undetected with contaminants small enough to fit in a backpack.
“It is certainly possible to put something in the water (which would go) which would be odorless, colorless, tasteless, uh, and not detected. And, your best indication that you have a problem are sick people or dead people.”
The terrorism prevention experts say no one can predict or prevent all acts of terrorism. But cities and utilities can make it more difficult, and that might be enough to dissuade some of these single-issue aggressors. Peter Beering in Indianapolis says natural resources have one more thing going for them.
“The good news is that these are comparatively uninteresting targets to an aggressor. And, as we learned, unfortunately, in New York and in Washington, that certainly there are much higher profile targets that are of much greater interest to people who are upset with the United States.”
Beering adds that should not be an excuse to ignore the risks to natural resources. He recommends every municipality assess its risks and take proper measures to secure its vulnerable areas.
Terrorism prevention experts who’ve been calling for better security at vulnerable targets now have the public’s attention. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Terrorism prevention experts who’ve been calling for better security at vulnerable targets now have the public’s attention. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.
The experts say although a determined attack by a terrorist probably cannot be stopped. Security measures can be taken that would cause them to look for an easier target. Jim Snyder at the University of Michigan has co-authorized reports on water protection for the defense department. He says natural resources such as community water supplies and forests can and should be better protected.
“There’s lots of security measures that can be taken that are, compared to the value of the asset, is relatively minor expense. So, I suspect, because of this latest incident in New York and Washington, that there probably will be a renewed attention to all kinds of infrastructure.”
Snyder and other terrorism protection experts urge local governments to assess their risks and secure vulnerable areas. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
As the weather gets warmer, migratory birds head north from
their winter homes and fly through the Midwest to nesting sites in the
Great Lakes Region. Along their journey, rivers like the Illinois
provide
habitat, food, and shelter for the birds. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports on one small research station on the
Illinois River that tracks these birds to learn more about the
environment
we live in:
The tomato ban was really tough on some farmers (Photo by J. Beavers, courtesy of the USDA)
