CDC/ATSDR Issues Revised Great Lakes Report for Public Comment

WHO:

Dr. Henry Falk, Director, Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

WHY:

On Wednesday, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) issued a revised report on what is known about environmental contaminants and human health in 26 Great Lakes Areas of Concern. This report responds to a request from the International Joint Commission (IJC) to define the threat to human health from critical pollutants found in the Great Lakes basin. The report analyzes many sources of data on environmental exposures and on human health in the Great Lakes basin.

Key conclusions of the revised report include: 1) available environmental health data provide a useful but only a partial picture of the burden of chemical exposures people in the region face; 2) current health and environmental data collection cannot define the threat to human health from critical pollutants in the Great Lakes region; and 3) need for additional data collection and analysis to permit scientists, decision makers, and members of the public to define the threat to human health from pollutants in the Great Lakes basin.

The report is available on the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/grtlakes/. The report is open for public comment for 60 days.

The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh water lakes in the world and are shared by the United States and Canada. The Great Lakes make up 95% of the surface freshwater in the contiguous United States and have 10,000 miles of coastline–more than the contiguous United States, Pacific, and Atlantic coastlines combined. The lakes are a system of transport and shipping, as well as a place of recreation. Traffic on and around the lakes is currently threatening the lakes’ ecological stability.

TORONTO, Can. – Lakes Michigan and Huron have permanently lost a foot of water because of erosion in the St. Clair River caused by dredging and other man-made meddling, according to a recently-released study.

Water is permanently being sucked from Lakes Huron and Michigan because of ongoing erosion caused by dredging and other human activities in the St. Clair River — the drain that funnels water out of the lakes — according to a study.

It is a sad state of affairs when there is such a disconnect between lifestyle and environmental consequences. It is way too easy to be more concerned with consumption of product that sustaining the conditions that made that product possible. The next generation of humans will inherit the results of mindless now thinking. Thinking that natural resources in infinite terms has allowed escalated destruction of those same resources. The education of American consumers stops at the cash register. Future students must step beyond the now and understand exactly what the natural cost of their purchases really are.

Gathering, harvesting, processing, packaging, and transporting is only the beginning of the whole process. Then after consumption, there is the waste. Few can see beyond the trash can. The Great Lakes have become the trash can for the upper mid-west. The chemical and biological consequences of mixing countless pollutants and bio-matter is beyond comprehension. The simplest conclusion is that the best source for fresh drinking water is not only at risk, but that water is becoming hazardous.

Water resources are taking more and more time and energy to treat and filter in order to make it useful again. Humans are made up of water.

Water is important to all living things; in some organisms, up to 90 percent of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60 percent of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water. About 83 percent of our blood is water, which helps digest our food, transport waste, and control body temperature. Each day humans must replace 2.4 litres of water, some through drinking and the rest taken by the body from the foods eaten.

• Aquatic biology
• Drinking water use
• Hydrology
• Water chemistry
• Water properties
• Contamination and pollution
• Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water…
• Lead In Drinking Water
• bacteria, parasites, and viruses

Celebrate National Drinking Water Week, May 4 - 10, 2008

Original water concerns:

The Trash We Drink Changes Us, Water Wars Imminent

2007 Presidential Primary Polls

National Survey Findings For Children’s Agenda

• Voters across the country believe that political leaders are not doing enough to ensure the health, education and well-being of children and that the next President and Congress need to give a higher priority to the country’s children and spend less time on other issues. This concern permeates voters regardless of partisanship or region of the country.
• Nearly half of voters nationally say that the health, education and well-being of children in America in the last 10 years have gotten worse (45%). Only 44% believe things for children have improved. Looking towards the future, just 44% think the conditions for children will get better while 41% say they will get worse.
• A significant share (38%) of voters say children’s issues will be more important to them personally in the presidential election than in past elections. Children’s issues will play a greater role with Independents (46%) than either Democrats (35%) or Republicans (33%). Independents also are most pessimistic that when today’s children in the United States grow up, they will not have the same opportunities that the current generations had (59% pessimistic compared to 40% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans).

Four Key Early Primary/Caucus States Survey Findings

• Voters in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada want candidates for President to provide a comprehensive agenda of how they would address the needs of children.

• Voters in the early primary and caucus states believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and are pessimistic about the future of the nation’s children. 67% of voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction compared to just 19% who believe it is on the right track.
• Voters believe that Washington DC is failing America’s children and working families. Three-fifths (62%) agree with that statement that “the needs of children are regularly elbowed off the table by stronger special interests. The Congress, the administration, and the federal government need to be doing a lot more on behalf of the nation’s children and working families.” Only 20% think the federal government does a lot to help working families.
• After the war in Iraq, Democratic primary and caucus voters rank the improvement of the health, education, and safety of children more important an issue for the next president to address than homeland security, immigration, global warming, and the economy.
  
• Half of primary and caucus voters don’t know where their preferred candidate for President stands on children’s issues.
• Children’s issues could play a key role in this election since many voters say they could change their minds and vote for a different candidate if that person presented a specific platform on children’s issues that agrees more with the respondent’s vision.
• Addressing the issue of child abuse and neglect will pay significant dividends to the candidates who choose to talk about it.

About the Every Child Matters Education Fund
The Every Child Matters Education Fund is a non-partisan Washington, D.C. based 501(c)(3) organization created to raise the visibility of children and family issues in elections.

Children and Environment – we are squandering our future

• American policies give great lip service to the health, welfare and education for the children in this country – whether they were born here or brought here, children in America are subject to scrutiny for entitlement.
• American policies hint at responsibility and give token lip service to the environment we hand to the generations that follow ours.
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