Make Political Candidates Choose Between Your Vote and Polluters ... by gimleteye

I wrote the following for Bullsugar.org

Make your choice at the ballot box a referendum FOR candidates who will support disclosure and fixing the extent and cause of neurotoxins in our waterways, rare pediatric cancer clusters in our communities, and the spread of methyl mercury through the application of sulfur on more than half a million acres of sugarcane.

Thursday, June 22, 2017     Remember how Big Sugar said the problem in Florida’s estuaries was septic tanks adjacent to the Indian River? They say the same about the mercury problem in the Everglades and Florida waterways: it’s someone else’s fault. Not of course that Big Sugar fails to clean up its pollution. The same sort of wizardry applies to how Big Sugar talks about mercury. Let’s break it down: For mercury contamination to pollute aquatic ecosystems, the mercury must first be transformed to the powerful neurotoxicant methylmercury. Once methylmercury is formed, it can readily enter the base of aquatic food chains and accumulate at increasingly higher concentrations up the food chain from algae to predatory fish and ultimately to terrestrial wildlife such as wading birds and mammal species, including the endangered Florida panther. This process is known as bioaccumulation and can easily result in concentration increases of methylmercury in fish by factors of over one million relative to methylmercury concentrations in the water column of the Everglades. How does it happen? The bacteria largely responsible for producing methylmercury require sulfate to support their metabolism.   Sulfate concentrations are elevated across much of the Everglades. The magnitude of this contamination can reach factors up to and greater than 50 compared to background levels, depending on location. Those excess concentrations of sulfate are largely due to one source: farming practices involving the drainage of flooded soils and the use of elemental sulfur as a soil amendment in the Everglades Agricultural Area. In short, sulfate is a primary driver of the production of methylmercury. The pervasive and high levels of sulfate contamination–largely due to EAA farming practices–are believed by most scientists to have greatly exacerbated the methylmercury problem. Just like water policies protecting Big Sugar first are wrecking our estuaries, rivers and bays, farming practices tolerated by the state of Florida are spreading pollution into Florida’s most treasured wetland. Because the muck soils in the EAA are both low in essential micronutrients, and because limestone present in the soils binds phosphorus, the farmers need to apply sulfur to acidify the soils and release these nutrients. The problem with sulfur is that it doesn’t stay on sugar fields; it flows into the Everglades. So, how have the State of Florida and the South Florida Water Management District reacted to the scientific realities of methylmercury? Sugar’s position, as usual: "Don’t tell us how much water we need or when we can have it, don't tell us we can't drain our fields dry even if it endangers local communities and causes toxic discharges, and don’t tell us how to use sulfur or any other soil additive.” The simple truth is that, either through benign ignorance or willful indifference, the state of Florida and the district do not even require sugar farmers to report how much sulfur they are using. Big Sugar represents a secret sulfur source: "The amount of total sulfur used in various soil amendments, fertilizers, and fungicides in the EAA is unknown.” ('Sulfur in the South Florida Ecosystem,' Orem et al., Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 3 March 2011, page 262.) A more recent estimate of the amount of sulfur applied to the EAA is nearly 19,000 tons per year (Landing, 2014). When you consider that the practice of applying sulfur as a soil amendment has been occurring over a period of many decades in the EAA, you get the idea.  "Overall, it appears that much or most of the sulfate present in EAA canals originates from the EAA lands. The broad use of sulfur in agriculture (present and legacy sulfur in soil), and the elimination of other sulfur sources (groundwater, wet/dry deposition) as inputs to canals suggests that soil oxidation and present sulfur use in the EAA accounts for the major proportion of the sulfate load to the Everglades." (Orem et al, page 263) Methylmercury is one of the most potent toxicants known to man. It is so powerful that “do not eat” fish warnings are posted throughout the South Florida landscape. Methylmercury is particularly damaging to fetuses and young children. But it not just infants who are at risk.  Indigenous peoples living in the Everglades and relying on fish for food, people in glades communities who depend on fish to supplement their diets, and recreational anglers also are at risk. So why aren’t the facts of methylmercury more widely broadcast to the public? For the same reason that the state ignored the science of water quality and allowed Big Sugar to dictate a deep reservoir in the Everglades in the recent session of the legislature, and not the addition of significant lands for water treatment and cleansing purposes. Big Sugar makes money at your expense, literally, from your wallet and in threats to your health. Not idle threats. Methylmercury is deadly serious business, and Big Sugar routinely buries its cost in your waterways. -Alan Farago Bullsugar.org http://www.bullsugar.org/ P.S. Bullsugar.org supporters have already made a difference in Florida's fight for a clean water future. If you can, please click here to make a donation to help us hold our government accountable for the promises they made this year.         Bullsugar.org http://www.bullsugar. org/     Template by Mosaic • Created with NationBuilder

Something super obscene: the failure of regulation in Florida under Gov. Rick Scott ... by gimleteye

Martin County, winter 2015/2016

Every day Gov. Rick Scott is governor of Florida, the unthinkable is routinely occurring.

Science, fact, and government regulation are being buried by an executive branch that puts the public health at severe risk. At a recent meeting of the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee, a physician from Martin County testified that hospital admissions for cardiac events went up 50% after the diseased water from Lake Okeechobee spewed all over Florida's estuaries in the winter of 2015/2016.

Watch the video, below. Another example -- even more blatant -- of Florida politicians failing to protect people from special interests.

"Florida is the Wild West of pediatric cardiac surgery right now."

"This is about a corrupt system where politicians put special interests above the well being of families."

What about the issue rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida, including Miami? Silence. Silence from the county and silence from the state.

Gov. Rick Scott believes Floridians will deliver him to the US Senate in 2018. And why shouldn't Floridians reward failure with success? We re-elected Marco Rubio despite evidence of Rubio's failure to fix diseased waterways and the tremendous public health costs his politics have inflicted on Florida.

Voters, only, can redress these injustices.

Rigged: The Politics of Cancer ... rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida ... by Alan Farago

I can't tell you where Jessica Whelan lives or anything else about her daughter who is suffering from cancer, beyond her photo that has gone viral.  If you are not moved by Ms. Whelan's photo and her words, which could belong to anyone in the state of Florida, you have a heart of ice.

What I have to say about that photo is political -- and it has to do with how Florida votes on Tuesday.

My exposure to pediatric cancer didn't start out as political. It began when I was fifteen or sixteen, nearly half a century ago. A child only four years old leaned on me when he had pediatric leukemia and suffered greatly for a few more years. I still carry the mark where he leaned on me.

My last words to Nathan Cobb were about love. I couldn't do or say anything else for him. I couldn't assuage his suffering or his pain.

Imagine if your child had cancer. Now imagine knowing the state was withholding data of a cluster of rare pediatric cancers. You would be furious, no?

It is happening in Florida now. Click on this Fox News report out of Fort Myers. The transcript begins:

(WFTX) – Research that identifies child cancer clusters west of the Everglades and in Miami-Dade county is raising concerns among some parents in Southwest Florida and Southeast Florida. "We believe state (of Florida) has a duty, first, of all to inform people of this," says Simon Strong whose son, Oliver, died from Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

I wrote about the silence of the state over a year ago, and the silence continues. It continued through a toxic election cycle where substantive public health issues failed to even appear on campaign radars. The children don't vote, and they suffer worst of all.

It is not enough to go on corporate runs to stand in solidarity with cancer victims or to wear pink ribbons.

Carry this kernel of awareness to the ballot box, because Florida's Republican leadership ought to be held to account.

Gov. Rick Scott and Senator Marco Rubio --  and government agencies -- not only refuse to advocate tougher regulations against toxics, they won't even support the science to protect your health because the science could lead to more effective regulation against toxics. That conflicts with their ideology: protect polluters over people. In fact, the candidate they support for president, Donald Trump, wants to loosen all those regulations.

Here is what the state should do and hasn't: share its data on rare pediatric cancers with the nation's pre-eminent statistical association and allow independent experts to verify the state's claim there are no cancer clusters in Florida. Trust us, Florida's Republican leadership says.

In the meantime, vote AGAINST incumbents who sat on their hands, refusing to put light on rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida.

Jessica Whelan, on Facebook:

This is the hardest photograph I have ever made, it is in fact my own four year old daughter. A few days ago she was given what is most likely only a few weeks to live after a battle against cancer that has been waged for over twelve months. This photograph was made in a moment that we as parents could offer her no comfort, her pushing us away whilst she rode out this searing pain in solitude. This sadly, for us as a family, is not a sight that we see rarely. This is now a familiar sight that we see regularly through each day and night, its frequency now more often. This is the true face of cancer, my baby girls blood vessels protruding from beneath her skin, a solitary tear running down her cheek, her body stiffened and her face contorted in pain.

I could try and use a thousand words to describe this image that we as parents are confronted with on a daily basis but these words would fall short of truly depicting the sight we see. With this photo I do not mean to offend or upset, I do mean however to educate and shock those that see it in it’s context. Perhaps by seeing this photo people not in our position will be made aware of the darkness that is childhood cancer, perhaps these same people may be able to do something about it so that in the future no child has to suffer this pain, so that no parent has to bear witness to their own flesh and blood deteriorating daily.

Zika Secrecy: it is not about a mosquito, it is about cancer clusters in Florida ... by gimleteye

An extraordinary Miami Herald report today, "Mayors say state told them to keep Zika sites secret", points in the direction of the Florida Department of Health and the Rick Scott administration's steadfast refusal to disclose information related to cancer clusters in Florida; specifically, rare pediatric cancer clusters.

The state is withholding very important information from citizens, taxpayers and voters because five separate, independent statistical analyses have concluded that cancer clusters are real, and that at least one rare pediatric cancer cluster is in Miami-Dade. The state, in the Herald report, cites the prohibition against releasing public health data for "ongoing epidemiological investigations".

The state's tactic -- secrecy -- is to keep cancer incidence, rates, and locations "ongoing" so that the people running around wearing pink ribbons and jogging shorts aren't also armed with facts.

If the state releases information on Zika sites, it cannot continue to stonewall against release of rare pediatric cancer sites. Right now, the reason that the public is quiet on the cancer cluster issue is that the state will not release the block level census data that would allow -- like with Zika -- a vector map.

The Miami Herald report also catches Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam in a lie. The mayors claim that Putnam was one of the state officials who told them to keep the Zika sites, secret. Now, Putnam appears to be "dumbfounded". (The Herald doesn't call it, a lie.) That's Adam Putnam, who wants to be the next governor of Florida. That's Adam Putnam, who took secret trips to the King Ranch in Texas -- hosted by one of the state's biggest polluters -- and who slammed the door in a reporter's face when questioned.

If you are not outraged, voters and taxpayers, you are not paying attention.

Miami Herald sues to obtain Zika case locations, but not rare pediatric cancer cluster? ... by gimleteye

It is an outrage that the State of Florida Department of Health is blocking disclosure where rare pediatric cancers are occurring in Miami-Dade County, and more so that Miami-Dade County takes at face value single-sentence denial by the state that a cluster of rare pediatric cancers even exists in Miami-Dade.

Five independent reviews of available data by the American Statistical Association -- all verifying rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida -- have been ignored for years. Why isn't the Miami Herald pursuing this story in the courts, with the same zeal as with the location of Zika cases?

Help Eye On Miami ask the question! Demand answers.

Vote out of office those elected officials who do not make this issue an urgent priority in November and who are silent. It is not enough to go on corporate runs and wear pink ribbons to show your affinity: cancer is political, and there will be no action until you demand it.

Zika Mosquitos in Florida! Kill Them! Rare Pediatric Cancer Clusters in Florida! Ignore Them! ... by gimleteye

The Florida Department of Health is sitting on data involving rare pediatric clusters in South Florida. One is in Miami-Dade County. One is in the region of Lake Okeechobee. That's according to analyses of available data by a team led by University of West Florida professor Raid Amin and five independent confirmations of that work by the American Statistical Association.

Purposely, the Florida Department of Health -- under directions of Gov. Rick Scott's administration -- has refused to release the exact locations of families with children suffering from rare cancers.

Why is government so quick to release detailed maps of Zika clusters, but not rare pediatric cancer victims? In Rick Scott's silence there is an answer. No one argues against killing disease-causing mosquitos. If the state "finds" rare pediatric cancer clusters, it has to address the question: "why, here?"

In a summer when billions of dollars of coastal real estate, when the personal health of hundreds of thousands of residents has been put at risk by water management policies embraced by the state that dump trillions of gallons of toxics in the environment, it is no wonder that rare pediatric cancer clusters is swept under the rug.

If you are a mother or father of a child who is suffering or who suffered from cancer, you are desperate to know why. If you are a politician who could and should have done more -- except it runs against your ideologies -- you are desperate to hide the facts.

We should deeply care about rare pediatric cancer clusters. Fox 4 News in Fort Myers recently ran a series of reports on this issue. Here is why we should care: children's undeveloped immune systems are bellwethers for toxics. When children get critically ill, in statistically significant numbers, we should all care.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Department of Health could easily put this controversy to rest.

Under a confidentiality agreement, share with the American Statistical Association the state's complete data set including street and block location. The data is sitting in a spreadsheet at the Sylvester Cancer Center in downtown Miami.

But Gov. Rick Scott doesn't want anything in the way of cost-cutting agendas involving public health regulation and the environment. As a former entrepreneur in health care, Scott understands how statistical analyses are used by either plaintiffs or defendants in costly, big-dollar tort litigation. With Zika mosquitos, politicians have an insect that can't fight back. With rare pediatric cancers, politicians are scared of what the evidence could turn up.

That's why the newspapers and TV reports are filled with maps showing where Zika has spread but not rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida. It is a black mark on, especially, Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP majority in the Florida legislature.

Cancer is blind, and so -- apparently -- are voters.

Florida's Crooked Universe: Big Sugar sends $100K to NC Senator Richard Burr ... by gimleteye

It is a drop in the Big Sugar bucket, but a drop worth note. In May, the Big Sugar oligarchy sent $100K to a PAC supporting US Senator Richard Burr (R-NC). Burr is a notable recipient of Big Sugar's largesse for many reasons.

Consider: in Florida Big Sugar is funding an initiative to support local communities around Lake Okeechobee, "Glades Lives Matter". Glades being the poor, predominantly African American community of Belle Glade. Big Sugar is using African Americans to front for its profit motives and to fight back against a major voter and taxpayer rebellion that is urging acquisition of Big Sugar lands to save economies, jobs, public health and billions in property values downstream of toxic Lake Okeechobee.

The North Carolina US Senator Big Sugar gave $100K to has an abysmal record on civil rights. Interesting. "Glades Lives Matter" only if you are not paying attention to what Big Sugar does.

The NAACP recent scorecard for Burr is 22%. That grade would send a kid back a year in school. But Burr isn't a kid: he's a Republican who also supports voter suppression laws -- like requiring a photo ID to vote in federal elections -- that a federal court angrily dismissed last week for deliberating targeting African Americans.

"Grow NC Strong, Inc." is the PAC name, and the question is: what business do the oligarchs (Fanjul billionaires and US Sugar Corporation) have in North Carolina that they would contribute within a week of each other?

The implicit answer: Senator Burr is a "for" vote in the US Senate to continue the corporate welfare that keeps Big Sugar's profits intact. No less an authority than GOP champion and anti-tax leader Grover Norquist calls the sugar subsidy; "cronyism in its undiluted, inexcusable majesty".

It is not clear how Norquist views Senator Burr, but this much is clear: without the sugar subsidy, the oligarchs would not be quite so rich, Floridians choking on so much nutrient pollution puking out of Lake Okeechobee, and poor African Americans so completely bamboozled by tactics like "Glades Lives Matter".

Perhaps it is no surprise Florida's Big Sugar is supporting the North Carolina status quo. The state fiercely protected Big Tobacco until its role as a cancer agent could no longer be ignored. Hundreds of thousands died as a result. If Glades lives mattered so much, Big Sugar would not be standing in the shadows behind Gov. Rick Scott who is stonewalling disclosure of data surrounding rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida, including one in the Lake Okeechobee area identified by six separate reviews by the American Statistical Association.

That should matter to Florida's besieged families, but apparently it is a value that doesn't count in Florida's crooked political universe.

Zika! Carcinogens! Toxic Algae! Don't worry! FL Gov. Rick Scott is doing everything he can and (Trump) EVERYTHING IS FINE ... by gimleteye

Donald Trump, passing through Florida, said, "Don't worry. Everything is fine. Gov. Rick Scott is doing everything about Zika." If you've been paying any attention at all in Florida with respect to toxics and environmental threats, we've got some problems.

Never mind that Scott, the most tone-deaf governor in Florida history, was peeved when President Obama recently declined to deliver emergency aid for toxic algae infested counties. Scott lead the charge of politicians AGAINST strengthening federal pollution control of nutrients, the cause of the toxic algae catastrophe. "We want states' rights!", was the Scott and polluters' rallying call.

Rick Scott's failure of leadership lead to Florida's toxic waterway nightmare. Scott and his PAC, "Let's Get To Work!" has taken millions from Big Sugar, whose domination of Florida's water management infrastructure and water quality rule-making in the legislature is to blame. Hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors are being exposed to filthy waters puking from Lake Okeechobee, filled with toxic algae. People are getting very sick.

From that crisis, then Scott delayed requesting federal aid from the Center for Disease Control while Zika-bearing mosquitos began multiplying in Miami. "We can take care of Zika, but we can't take care of toxic algae."

Now the mainstream media is getting wind of another health care threat: a rare pediatric cancer cluster in the Miami area.

This should not be news. A year ago, at a regional meeting in Seattle of the American Statistical Association, the nation's most prominent statisticians discussed an unprecedented series of independent analyses of pediatric cancer clusters in Florida, including an identifiable pediatric cancer cluster in Miami and the Lake Okeechobee area. Check out: Fox News, "Pediatric Cancer Cluster in SW Florida".

The State of Florida did not even send a representative to the meeting, yet Gov. Scott happily takes dozens of cronies to trade show boondoggles in France, Spain, Chile and elsewhere.

Can't you just hear him: "Cancer in kids in Miami? Oh skip that! Cancer is for losers. I've got the best seafood restaurant in Madrid!"



For YEARS, the state of Florida Department of Health has been sitting on data, failing to provide a close analysis of where -- by street and block census level -- these cancers are occurring. (This, of course, leads to a question: why hasn't Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the county commission INSISTED on an accounting of where rare pediatric cancers are occurring in a cluster, in Miami.)

Gov. Rick Scott wants to be Florida's next US senator. He is aiming to take on Bill Nelson in two years. Scott is all-in with Donald Trump and he is all-in with polluters. Zika, toxic algae, pediatric cancer clusters?

This November it is time for voters to take back Miami and Florida.

Here is a message from Florida Clean Water Network:


URGENT! CONTACT THE ERC AND THE EPA!
View this email in your browser

STAND UP FOR FLORIDA WATERS!

As most of you know by now, three members of the Environmental Regulation Commission took their marching orders from the Governor’s office and approved the DEP’s proposed regulations from Human Health Based Toxics Criteria (HHTC). With 23 of these current criteria going up, you have to wonder, “what in the world are they thinking?” They won’t get invited to the next cocktail party at the Governor’s mansion if they don’t do what they are told? Nevermind that we are all exposed to enough toxic chemicals everyday anyway. We don’t need their help getting cancer or any other number of serious health problems.

Who knows what went through their minds, but they voted to increase toxic chemicals in our water and adopted criteria for 90 toxic chemicals that are less protective than EPA recommends. We all know that EPA is not exactly overboard about protecting us either. So, EPA’s recommendations are bare minimum in my book.

So what’s next? EPA must approve or disapprove these crazy, cancer-causing criteria (CCCC) before they go into effect. Whew! Thank goodness for the layers of bureaucracy between us getting more poisoned and the whimsical votes of three people. By the way, who are these three people? Here’s the list of ERC members who voted to add to our body burden of toxic chemicals:

Sarah Walton, attorney from Pensacola – Call her!!! (850-470-0091)
Cari Roth – attorney in Tallahassee – call her!!! (850-999-4100)
Craig Varn – attorney in Tallahassee – ignore him. He’s hopeless and a waste of time.

The EPA has apparently set up a special email address where we can send out complaints about Rick Scott’s new Cancer Lottery for Florida – and that’s exactly what this is. DEP likes to call it their “Monte Carlo” methodology. Well, it will definitely be a gamble for those of us who like to drink water and eat fish.

You can send your comments to EPA at this address: floridahhc@epa.gov

Don’t delay!!! We will be sending an official comment letter within the next week or so and you will all have an opportunity to circulate it and sign on. But for now, send your comments about this outrageous pandering to polluters and Rick Scott’s corporate buddies to EPA today!! Please.

Thank you in advance for standing up for what’s right. Together we will overcome this temporary insanity that has overtaken our Capitol.

For all of Florida’s Waters!

Linda Young

Florida Death Panel Fails Floridians By Even Considering Loosening Standards On Cancer-Causing Toxics ... by gimleteye

Today, appointees of Gov. Rick Scott -- on the state Environmental Regulatory Commission -- could vote to allow carcinogens in our drinking water. Be afraid. Very afraid.

Mary Ellen Klas, for the Miami Herald, writes:

A state panel will decide Tuesday whether to allow polluters to increase the level of toxic chemicals they dump into Florida rivers and lakes as part of the first update of the state’s water quality standards in 24 years.

The governor-appointed Environmental Regulatory Commission will vote on a rule proposed by state regulators that would increase the number of regulated chemicals allowed in drinking water from 54 to 92 chemicals and raise the allowed limits on more than two dozen known carcinogens — all currently regulated — from levels that are from 20 percent to 1,100 percent higher than current standards. The agency is reducing the allowed limits on 13 currently regulated chemicals, two of which are considered carcinogens.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article91731227.html#storylink=cpy

Klas and the Herald ought to train their attention to another abject failure: statistical evidence of rare pediatric cancer clusters in Florida. We wrote about it, here, a year ago: "Cancer Clusters in Florida: The Silence Of The State".

The callous lack of interest, curiosity, or willingness to extend a helping hand to Floridians frightened by toxins in the environment is breathtaking. The Environmental Regulatory Commission is a Death Panel, if it approves the loosening of rules governing toxics. But if it does, it will only be following the orders of the worst governor in Florida history: Rick Scott.