community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Rustbelt Radio for April 16, 2007
by Pittsburgh IMC: Rustbelt Radio collective
Monday, Apr. 16, 2007 at 10:08 PM
radio@indypgh.org (email address validated) 412-923-3000 WRCT 88.3 FM
On this week's show... * The Coalition of Immokalee Workers declares victory against McDonald's in their fight for dignity and fair wages * Environmental action against deforestation of the Rospuda Valley in Poland * Rustbelt Radio visits the Steel Mills to Windmills rally on the National Day of Climate Action * and more in our local and global headlines
audio link: 
MP3 at 27.4 mebibytes
Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of the news from the grassroots, news overlooked by the corporate media.
On today's show...
Rustbelt Radio airs live every Monday from 6-7 PM on WRCT 88.3 FM in Pittsburgh, PA, and again on Tuesday mornings 9-10 AM. We're also on Pacifica affiliate WVJW Benwood, 94.1 FM in the Wheeling, West Virginia area, on Thursdays from 6-7 PM. And we're on WPTS -from 10-11 AM on Wednesday mornings on 92.1 FM from the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
We're also available on the internet, both on WRCT's live webstream at W-R-C-T dot ORG and for download, stream or podcast at radio dot I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot org.
We turn now to local headlines.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom will be at the Squirrel Hill post office, at Darlington and Murray, from noon until 4pm on Tuesday. The Raging Grannies will perform at 2pm.
For more on local news, you can visit pittsburgh dot I-N-D-Y-M-E-D-I-A dot org.
You are listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news overlooked by the corporate media. We turn now to news from other independent media sources around the world.
Despite earlier warnings from the European Commission, Poland continues with plans to extend their highway system into the Rospuda Valley region in the northeast part of the country.
The controversial bypass is planned to run through a region of the valley which is currently classified as a Special Protection Area of the European Nature Ecological Network. This region is home to a variety of endangered plants, and also serves as breeding grounds for various species of birds, some of which are protected.
The European Commission has asked the Polish government to halt any further development plans and investments until its possible negative effects on the area are studied and understood.
The Commission's spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich had this to say during an interview with Polskie Radio:
According to scientists and ecological organizations, the planned expressway, along with the noise and pollution associated with its construction, will cause irreparable environmental damage to the area, and displace its wildlife.
During an interview with Polskie Radio, Paulina Dzierza (PRONOUNCE: 'z' sounds like soft 'j': Djier-jah) from Save Wetlands Association, explained the ecological importance of the area:
The European Commission is not the only group who has the interest of the Rospuda valley at heart, scores of young activists camped in the remote valley last month and threatened to chain themselves to trees to stop bulldozers clearing land for the highway. Throughout February, young Poles hauled tents, backpacks and climbing equipment into the snow-covered valley; growing the manifestation into the biggest environmental protest in Poland since the fall of communism.
Under pressure from activists and the European Union, the Warsaw government decided to put the matter to a referendum.
For more information on the Rospuda Valley development, visit the Environmental News Network at www (dot) E-N-N (dot) com, or Polskie Radio at www (dot) polskieradio (dot) pl .
Before a crowd of Thousands the Coalition of Immokalee Workers rejoiced in their victory.
That was just Lucas Benitez speaking from the Coalition of Immokalee Carnaval that took place in Chicago over the weekend.
Rustbelt Radio brings you a radio news update from The New Standard.
That was The New Standard radio news update.
You're listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
As global warming speeds up, some Pittsburgh residents are stepping up. Last Saturday, over 150 people met in lower Frick Park at the corner of Forbes and Braddock Avenues for Steel Mills to Windmills. One of over 1400 events around the US as part of the Step It Up Project, this gathering called on the United States Congress to cut carbon emissions by at least 80% before the year 2050.
Joshua Bellin, a literature professor at LaRoche College, organized the event with support from local youth and non-profit organizations. The name Steel Mills to Windmills draws attention to histories of environmental degradation in Western Pennsylvania while hinting at a creative solution for sustainable living. Penn Future’s Sharon Pillar, on the global consequences of choices made locally:
Congressional proposals often threaten to compromise environmental justice in the name of business interests. Bob Reiland, a local high school physics teacher, shared his analysis of bills to watch out for:
Along with speakers, the event featured music by the local band Life in Balance, and local groups tabling with letters to legislators and information on grassroots projects. Among them, Free Ride, The Big Idea Bookstore, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. A staff member at Global Solutions:
Many wonder about the best steps to take in the fight against global warming, from using compressed lightbulbs to driving hybrid cars to biking instead of driving. Rustbelt Radio asked people for strategies. Here’s what they had to say:
Food industries impact the climate on a large scale. More on this from a representative of the Association for India's Development:
Another perspective on the relations between humans and nature:
Other Step It Up actions around the state last Saturday included a film festival in Bloomsburg with continuous screenings of"An Inconvenient Truth", "KilowattOurs", and "Too Hot Not to Handle"; a mass planting of over 40 trees in West Philadelphia; and an Appalachian trail hike in the Delaware Water Gap.
This August, the Step It Up campaign is planning a Climate Summer, in which youth will march across states calling for 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, starting immediately with 2 percent reductions a year.
Shell to Sea is a community-led campaign opposing the building of an inland gas refinery and high pressure pipeline in county Mayo in the West of Ireland. On Saturday April 14th in an ongoing series of actions about thirty people trespassed onto Shell’s controversial oil refinery site. Six were arrested. The Shell to Sea campaign has employed trespassing as a tactic because workers are legally obligated to halt activity when people without safety passes enter the area. The last major mass trespass occurred on February 16th when about one hundred seventy-five people infiltrated the site in a spontaneous action shortly after an organized march and demonstration simply by walking through a gap in the fence. On this occasion protesters occupied the site for about two hours. They were allowed to walk out the front gates without being harassed by either Guards -Irish police- or by Shell’s private security force. The site has been occupied by local people on several subsequent occasions, citing specific concerns about the contamination of water. On Friday April 13th, fourteen women from both the local community and from around Ireland organized a women’s trespass, remaining on the site for much of the day. In light of this sustained action, Shell has been forced to intensify its response, resulting in Saturday’s arrests. One of the protesters, Ellen Pierson, explains what happened:
Ellen also speaks about the significance of the arrests and of continuing Guarda surveillance:
The issues surrounding the Mayo pipeline are multi-fold. The proposed pipeline is actually experimental; nothing of its kind has been tried inland before. The pipeline design was never evaluated by any competent health and safety authority and concerns about mercury or lead poisoning continue to be pressing concerns for community members. Furthermore, the terms that multinational oil companies including Shell, Statoil, and Marathon are allowed to work under in Ireland are arguably the world’s most favorable towards oil companies. Gas in the Corrib field is worth about fifty billion euro, but this gas is owned one-hundred percent by oil companies.
As peat removal on the Shell site began a few weeks ago, this spring and summer will mark a critical period for the campaign to stop Shell. Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caimhe (kee-va) Kerins said of this weekend’s actions: [quote] “Today’s action is part of a broader campaign to highlight both the criminal giveaway of Ireland’s gas reserves and the bully boy tactics being used by Shell and the state to impose this unwanted pipeline and refinery on the community of Rossport and the surrounding area. …Hopefully this marks the start of a long, hot summer for Shell. [end quote] The next major protest will be held outside of Shell Headquarters in Dublin on Friday April 27th….”
Many events have been planned in Pittsburgh this spring to honor of the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth. Carson’s pioneering book “Silent Spring” brought about a revolution in our understanding of how chemicals can impact the health of humans, and how their toxic effects are pervasive throughout ecological systems. In honor of Carson, Rustbelt Radio will air a series of features examining another paradigm shift in our understanding of chemical toxicity, that is just now emerging through new scientific research: the realization that many common chemicals seriously affect our health by disrupting our hormone systems.
The industrial age has spurred the development of an unprecedented number of synthetic chemicals, many of which are produced on a massive scale and ubiquitously disseminated into our environment. However, the push to develop new chemicals available has outpaced efforts to understand their potential health impacts. Typically that understanding comes only after massive production and widespread exposure makes apparent an unnatural pattern of disease. Originally, toxicity was recognized only when exposure caused an immediate, visible response- for example, convulsions and death resulting from arsenic poisoning. The work of Rachel Carson and others in the 60s and seventies was revolutionary because it led to the understanding that chemicals which have no immediately observable effects can still cause cancer decades later. Compounds such as asbestos and DDT were banned after grassroots campaigns turned public outrage into protective policies. Today we are in the midst of a new revolution: an increasing body of research over the last decade has brought to light that an enormous number of commonly used chemicals may be mimicking our hormones, causing a wide range of health effects— from cancer and obesity, to diminished reproductive capacity and birth defects.
This phenomenon, called “endocrine disruption”, not only affects humans, but is also widely observable among many animal species. Amphibians are dying in epidemic numbers all over the world; species high on the food chain such as dolphins and alligators are experiencing bizarre epidemics of disease, and failing to reproduce. In an echo of Rachel Carson’s warnings that the chemicals causing the decimation of bird species would cause health problems for people too, many wildlife biologists today are asking people to take heed that these problems also signal trouble. Although thousands of common chemicals are potentially involved in these newly detected epidemics, today we will focus on one particularly illustrative example of the serious and pervasive impacts of endocrine disruptors in the natural world and on human health. Dr. Tyrone Hayes spoke at Carnegie Mellon University, about his research linking the epidemic of frog deaths to the common pesticide atrazine.
The studies showed that atrazine caused male frogs to develop severe abnormalities in their reproductive organs. Males grew multiple sets of testes, and also grew ovaries in their testes. Hayes describes the results they found in lab tests with the African clawed frog.
Furthermore, when the researchers tested wild populations of leopard frogs, they found a 100% correlation between the occurrence of developmental abnormalities and the use of atrazine, while at sites where there was no atrazine, the frogs had no developmental abnormalities. Hayes also conducted tests to more closely mirror real-world conditions, where many different chemicals are often present together in the water:
Hayes says yes- because frogs often lay eggs in ephemeral ponds that can dry up completely in just a few days.
Furthermore, Hayes found that the pesticides also affect the frogs’ immune systems. 70% of frogs exposed to the pesticide mixture in the lab developed weaning disease, a type of flavo-bacterial meningitis. Animals not exposed to the pesticides were also infected with the pathogen, but did not get sick.
Hayes’ graduate degree research documented a link between high levels of the hormones the body produces in response to stress and suppression of the immune system. He tested this link in the frogs, and found that stress hormone levels increased as frogs were exposed to more pesticides.
Hayes tested the link between pesticides, stress, and disease in the field by examining frogs upstream and downstream of the Salinas Valley in California.
Hayes and his team found that frogs downstream exhibited all the symptoms he found in the lab, but the frogs upstream did not.
They tested immune response by injecting animals upstream and downstream of the agricultural valley with a very mild pathogen: bread yeast.
Hayes then shifted gears to talk about why he felt that government policies and regulatory agencies are not protecting people against real dangers from pesticides.
He described how the EPA and industry representatives have fought the public presentation of his research.
Hayes maintained that although there is an elaborate bureaucracy that has been created to test and regulate such chemicals, its effectiveness is compromised because a few powerful people employed by the chemical industry also fill key roles within the EPA and the (quote) “independent” testing agencies.
Hayes described why he titled his talk “From Silent Spring to Silent Night”
Hays cited research showing that atrazine also affects mammals; it reduces the testosterone levels and the sperm counts of rats. The effect carries over to humans too:
he also showed data on atrazine levels of men who work in agricultural fields and who apply atrazine:
Exposure to atrazine is also linked to increased risk for breast and prostate cancer.
Hayes described the results of research he had just published documenting the molecular mechanism by which aromatase, the enzyme turned on by atrazine, caused estrogen-related cancers. The mechanism is the same in all vertebrates- frogs, dogs, cats, and humans.
Although the data on atrazine’s negative health effects are abundant, the EPA insists that further testing is necessary. Hayes maintains that this is because the EPA is lobbied heavily by industry. Industry lobbyists prevent protective regulations by taking advantage of the complexity of the science surrounding environmental toxicology to continually assert that more research is necessary, and they have succeeded in establishing a set of requirements within the EPA that unnecessarily prolong research for decades.
Legislation is pending to ban atrazine in three states. Hayes urged his audience to write letters and express concerns to the EPA in support of this legislation.
And now we present the Indymedia Calendar of Events:
[ Outro Music ]
Thanks for tuning in to Rustbelt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WVJW Benwood and WPTS Pittsburgh.
Our hosts and contributors this week are Andalusia Knoll and Jessica McPherson with additional contributions from Thiago Herson, Diane Amdor, Vani Natarajan Ellen Pierson.
This week's show was produced by Donald Deeley. Special thanks to all of our hosts, producers, and contributors.
You can get involved with Rustbelt Radio! To contact us, or to send us your comments, email RADIO at I-N-D-Y-P-G-H dot ORG. All of our shows are available for download or podcast on our website at RADIO dot INDY-P-G-H dot ORG and this show can be heard again Tuesday morning on WRCT at 9 AM after Democracy Now!
Tune in next week at this time for another edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's weekly review of news from the grassroots.
Rustbelt Radio for April 16, 2007 (ogg vorbis)
by Pittsburgh IMC: Rustbelt Radio collective
Monday, Apr. 16, 2007 at 10:08 PM
radio@indypgh.org 412-923-3000 WRCT 88.3 FM
audio: ogg vorbis at 24.4 mebibytesaudio: ogg vorbis at 24.4 mebibytes
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