Provocations

Canadian doctors encourage US citizens to go for real health care

A little truth to dilute the poisonous lies being spread in the US.

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care systems.

The Kaslo Food Security Project

A good example of a community approach to food security:

Planting the Seeds from Hadas Levy on Vimeo.

Public health care in Canada

Recent use by conservative US political groups to cast the Canadian health care system in a poor light has given Canadians an opportunity to once again clarify their own thinking on the actual state of our health care system. This interview (with additional clips) does a pretty good job of that:

A Blueprint for Restoring Fragile Ecosystems

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans - and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

About Willie Smits
Willie Smits has devoted his life to saving the forest habitat of orangutans, the "thinkers of the jungle." As towns, farms and wars encroach on native forests, Smits works to save what is left.

Watch this remarkable and inspiring 20-minute video.

Swine Flu and US-owned Smithfield Farms in Vera Cruz, Mexico

UPDATE,Grist, May 22: Biotech industry group alights on La Gloria to test backyard pigs

The bad news is that the scientists aren’t from the World Health Organization or some other neutral international group. Indeed, one of the two scientific teams that have arrived in La Gloria is funded by the biotech industry - and rather than investigate the large-scale concentrated-animal feedlot operations that lie at the villages perimeter, they’re focusing on backyard hog raising as the culprit.

UPDATE, TIME, May 15:  H1N1 Virus: The First Legal Action Targets a Pig Farm

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I watched a CNN interviewer this morning "interviewing" US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, asking whether the US-owned (Smithfield Foods) hog farm in Vera Cruz could be responsible for the current swine flu outbreak. Vilsack took the opportunity to go on at length on how safe US pork is,  either ignorantly or deliberately avoiding the matter of pig-human transfer of the virus.  Equally unaware or incompetent, the interviewer allowed herself and her network to be used to convey Vilsack's message and avoid the critical issue of accountability.

Whether there's something to this story is another matter but we need to have the answer to questions like this, and we need media staff to have the understanding and intellectual rigour to ask - and stay with - the question.

Here's the one article currently asking the question. It also points out the current lack of coverage of this story: Swine-flu outbreak could be linked to Smithfield factory farms

Pesticide monitoring system wins award

Tech Museum Awards: 2008 Health Award Laureate

Pesticide Action Network North America

Laureate Country: United States
Project Countries: Germany, the Philippines, South Africa, United States
Website: http://www.panna.org/drift/catcher

The Pesticide Action Network devised air-monitoring technology that allows people to detect and fight toxic pesticide exposure.

Five billion pounds of hazardous pesticides are applied to crops each year. The chemicals are a major source of toxic air pollution. As a result, farm workers and others near agricultural sites experience high rates of cancer, asthma, miscarriage, and birth defects.

The Pesticide Action Network developed the Drift Catcher, a monitoring system that allows people without scientific training to test their air for pesticides. The device captures airborne pesticides on a resin filter, which is then analyzed in a lab to determine the quantity and types of pesticides present. With these scientific results in hand, vulnerable communities have won legislation to force the use of safer pest management and reduce hazardous exposures.

Many air fresheners contain a dangerous chemical

Nearly a third of air fresheners contain phthalates, used to make the scent last longer. This according to an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). They are the same family of chemicals found in many water bottles. Air fresheners and related products are used by about 60% of Canadians.  Some stores in Europe and the US are starting to remove some of these products from their shelves.

If there's one prop of "civilization" we can do without, surely this is it: the illusion of cleanliness.

Hospital drips over-used

Even in Canada - known for its functioning public health system - quality and availability of service is falling. It's always been important to play an active role in ones own healing process and doctors are gradually getting used to us more activist-type patients.  However - with doctors and support staff increasingly pressured to produce more results - treatment and even surgeries, can feel more like assembly lines. The process can tend to become so standardized and "efficient" that any adjustment for specific patient needs is kept to a minimum. Take, for example, that almost standard procedure of inserting the "drip" (or cannula) as soon as you get that gown on.  Surprise! It turns out that about a third of us do not need this little device which can also add to the risk of infection and blood clots. This according to a BBC report on a study in the UK, so I guess results would vary somewhat in other "developed" countries. From the BBC report:

Of the patients studied - who were all treated in the acute medical assessment unit of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - 91% of patients had a cannula inserted. But 28% of the tubes were never used. The researchers also found that in 71% of patient records there was no documentation of a cannula being inserted, while in 57% there was no documentation of it being removed. Four patients had developed blood poisoning, which infection control specialists said was likely to be linked to the cannula.

It may be time to begin asking: "Do I really need that?"

Older brain has more information to choose from

With increasing age, I've found my ability to remember data like names and phone numbers has definitely decreased. However, I continue to acquire new information without much trouble: learning web design, including the HTML code; learning the names and appearance of the 60+ birds that visit our home and many of the plants too. I've often though and sometimes said that it's just that I have more information to sort through than a twenty year-old. And (fanfare) here's a report of recent research that says just that - and a lot more:

OLDER BRAIN REALLY MAY BE A WISER BRAIN
By Sara Reistad-Long
New York Times May 20, 2008

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Read on

Energy Action Coalition Fossil Fool Awards

The coalition reports that " over 6,000 people voted for the individuals keeping us most addicted to fossil fuels. " . . and here are the Fossil Fool award winners:

• Fossil Fool of the Year:  Ken Lewis, Bank of America
  With a solid 30% of the votes, the message from you was clear. NO NEW COAL. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach came in a close second for his reckless support of tar sands expansion
   
• Most Inauspicious Newcomer:   Patricia Woertz, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland
  A landslide victory is letting ADM know that the public is no longer fooled by false solutions.

• Lifetime Achievement Award:  George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, President and Vice President of the United States   
  Even with fierce competitors like Joe Manchin and William Clay Ford, Jr in the running, President Bush and Vice President Cheney received an overwhelming number of your votes (63%) for their career-long efforts to deny the reality and impacts of global climate change.

• Biggest Human Toll: Gregory R. Page, CEO of Cargill
  Winning by a narrow margin, Cargill's displacement of frontline communities throughout South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific gave them the edge over big name, 1st runner up Chevron.

• Outstanding Performance in Corporate Greenwashing:  Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors 
  GM might have fooled some with their Corporate Greenwashing, but not you voters.  You've decided that a clean and just energy future will not be coming from empty lip-service.

For the full results, check out http://energyactioncoalition.org/foolies/

Read about the Fossil Fool award winner and nominees at www.energyactioncoalition.org/newsroom.