-Caveat Lector- [HardGreenHerald] # 12 "Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." --Dr. Seuss, 'The Lorax' --A RadTimes production-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --------------- --Militant environmental group targets FBI, others --What Are They Hiding? --British Foot-Mouth Virus Epidemic Mimics US Simulation --The Hidden Threat Of Agro-Terror --Reader commentary --New Acid Rain Study Finds Northeast Is Not Recovering --U.S. Sheep Seized in Mad Cow Scare --Sea Shepherd Brazil Assembling Oiled Wildlife Rescue Team --CJD deaths due to traditional butchers --Butchers' Knives 'Caused CJD Cluster' --Scientists look to 'traditional knowledge' to help understand climate change --Mad Sheep Seized in Vermont --Anti-nuclear protesters step up attacks in Germany --Millions dying needlessly from dirty water =================================================================== Militant environmental group targets FBI, others By SAM STANTON Scripps-McClatchy Western Service / Sacramento Bee March 13, 2001 SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Two weeks after claiming responsibility for its first arson attack in California, the Earth Liberation Front has issued a nationwide call for "militant direct action" against FBI offices and other federal buildings. The militant environmental group, which the FBI has called the nation's most dangerous domestic terror organization, on Tuesday issued a statement asking its followers to engage in actions against the federal government on April 5. That date coincides with the scheduled pretrial hearing of Frank Ambrose, who has been charged in Bloomington, Ind., with tree-spiking and is suspected to be an ELF member. Ambrose has denied the charges and his case has become a rallying point for environmental activists who believe he is being unfairly targeted by FBI agents anxious to win a court victory against an alleged ELF follower. Sacramento FBI spokesman Nick Rossi said his agency had little to say about the ELF announcement or FBI security efforts. "We evaluate each threat on a case by case basis," Rossi said. The announcement calls for protests at a time of year when federal agencies typically are at a heightened state of alert because of the April 19 anniversaries of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing and the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The call for action on April 5 came through e-mail messages sent to individuals who have asked to be updated on ELF activities. The messages are forwarded by a group of activists based in Portland, Ore., who deny any membership in the group. One of the activists, Lesliejames Pickering, said Tuesday that he believed the latest announcement indicated there would be demonstrations of "support for radical action." "Militant means more organized, more strategic," Pickering said. "There are going to be protests nationwide." He added that he expected protest sites to include either Sacramento or San Francisco. The shadowy organization, which has no official members, says it is a worldwide group that includes anyone who takes action to protect the environment without injuring or killing anyone. The group claims to have caused at least $37 million in damages to various timber operations, ski resorts and other entities ELF members believe have hurt the environment. In one of its latest efforts, the ELF claims to have set a Feb. 20 pre-dawn fire at a cotton gin near Visalia that caused $700,000 in damage. The group claimed it targeted the plant because it contained genetically engineered cotton seeds. But officials said there were no such seeds at the gin, and a fire investigator said Tuesday that officials have not been able to corroborate the group's claims of setting the blaze. The ELF claimed to have placed barrels containing a total of 20 gallons of gasoline and other fuel around the inside of the plant. Capt. Mike Davidson of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said a dog trained to detect accelerants at arsons was sent inside the cotton gin and found no scent of the fuel. "I personally believe that if there were 20 gallons of accelerant inside the dog would have smelled it and the firefighters would have smelled it (when they arrived on the scene)," Davidson said. "I can't eliminate the possibility that the Earth Liberation Front set the fire; I can say that they didn't do the fire the way they said they did." However, FBI officials have said the group's previous claims of responsibility for such actions generally have been accurate. And officials are concerned that the fire in Visalia and the recent announcements indicate ELF followers are planning to increase the number and frequency of such attacks. =================================================================== What Are They Hiding? http://www.gefoodalert.org/ Are you the gambling type? What do you think the odds are that the cereal you ate for breakfast this morning contains untested and unlabeled Genetically Engineered foods? 100 to 1? 50 to 1? 10 to 1? In 1999, one-fourth of American crops were Genetically Engineered, and Consumer Reports says that as many as two-thirds of all items on supermarket shelves may have Genetically Engineered food products in them. That means that every time you put that spoonful of cereal in your mouth, you're taking a big gamble, one that could adversely affect your health. It's bad enough that Genetically Engineered foods have not undergone extensive testing. What's worse is that the companies making the foods we eat won't even label the use of Genetically Engineered foods. What are they hiding? Here's a short list of SOME of the possible side affects of Genetically Engineered foods: Genetic Engineering may set off allergies In 1996, scientists discovered that soybeans that had been modified with genes from the Brazil nut triggered an allergic reaction in people allergic to Brazil nuts. Testing on animals did not reveal this flaw, and the release of the modified soybeans was halted just in time. Genetic Engineering can create dangerous new toxics In 1989, a genetically engineered dietary supplement, tryptophan, was released to the public. Thirty-seven Americans died, 1,500 were disabled permanently, and 5,000 became sick when the supplement produced a toxic contaminant in their bodies. The Food and Drug Administration recalled to supplement, but not before these tragedies ran their course. Genetic Engineering can cause antibiotic resistance Virtually all Genetically Engineered contain "antibiotic resistance markers" which help the producers identify whether the new genetic material has been transferred into the host food. The Food and Drug Administration's large-scale introduction of these antibiotic marker genes into the food supply could render important antibiotics useless in fighting human diseases. The bottom line is that Genetically Engineered foods need to be tested and labeled. We deserve to know the affects of Genetically Engineered foods, and to know what's in our food so we can make informed choices. =================================================================== British Foot-Mouth Virus Epidemic Mimics US Simulation <http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-03-18/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-103822.asp> 3-18-2001 WASHINGTON - Three months before Britain's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, health officials in the United States, Mexico and Canada tested their ability to respond to a similar epidemic. The results weren't promising. Within four days of a simulated detection of the virus in a small, south Texas swine herd, the virus would have spread through 15 Texas counties and Mexico, a scenario eerily similar to the way a real epidemic now is playing out in Europe. The British government found itself caught yesterday between efforts to control its outbreak and farmers angry that hundreds of thousands of healthy animals are to be slaughtered. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals joined opposition to the slaughter, which calls for healthy sheep and pigs to be destroyed within 2 miles of infected sites in northern England and southern Scotland. Plans for the expanded slaughter have divided farmers. The National Farmers' Union supports the move, but the lobbying group Farmers For Action said it would take legal action to stop the cull. =================================================================== The Hidden Threat Of Agro-Terror <http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/26705.htm> Sunday, March 18,2001 By DEBORAH ORIN Think how easily a few bad guys could spark an outbreak of wildly contagious foot-and-mouth disease like the one now devastating Britain's livestock. It's the latest fear on the terrorism front: agricultural terrorism. Experts say there's no sign that terrorists caused the disaster in Britain - where a million animals may have to be destroyed - but it could easily happen here. Or anywhere. "We know it can be simple. We know it can be anonymous. We know we don't have any good way to detect it," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. Adds military analyst Dan Goure: "We should be quite worried. For something as infectious as foot-and-mouth, all it takes is to run across a field or smear cow dung from sick cows on your boots, hide your boots in your luggage, then start tromping around Iowa." He says that until now, terrorists have targeted people or buildings, so hitting cows or sheep didn't seem "as sexy" - but a "clever terrorist" could see the potential. Foot-and-mouth doesn't hurt humans, but it's so contagious it can spread 50 miles on the wind, on shoes, on clothes, on car wheels. Entire herds are being destroyed in Britain because a single cow was exposed. An agro-terrorist attack could devastate farmers, scare Americans about the safety of their food supply and threaten an industry that accounts for 13 percent of U.S. gross national product. And foot-and-mouth is far from the only disease that terrorists could use. A Pentagon report this January listed over 20 diseases that could be used to devastate U.S. farms - from soybean rust to anthrax. So far, there hasn't been a verified case of international agro-terrorism - but fears are growing. That's why the National Security Council now serves on a working group on agriculture and food safety - agro-terrorism is seen as a weapon of mass destruction just like bio, chemical and nuclear weapons. But this year, only $30 million is being spent on U.S. research. "Did you ever think of agriculture as part of the national security system?" asks a U.S. official who says intelligence is the best protection but it isn't perfect, any more than it is for embassy bombings. The official says "psychological impacts" are a special worry. A country can be paralyzed if people fear the food they eat; a few years ago, apples suddenly became an object of fear over the alar scare. Even more worrisome, the official adds, is the risk of phony agro-terror scares. Last year, there were 400 false anthrax scares across the country, and every single one had to be taken seriously. Actually, agro-terror is nothing new. A CSIS report says Germany tried to infect French and U.S. livestock in World War I. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union weaponized diseases such as foot-and-mouth. Saddam Hussein's Iraq "seriously explored" ways to use wheat rust and camel pox to attack Iran. Today, experts say any country with modern veterinary medicine could develop agro-terrorism. =================================================================== From: Walter Miale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >The GNW Interview: Patrick Moore > > The founding director of Greenpeace says eco-activists > are killing biotech with junk science. It's always amusing to read what my former employer Patrick Moore has to say these days. For those who don't know, he is now a logger and salmon farmer and public relations flack for the timber industry. Every time he opens his mouth his nose grows, like Pinocchio. For a laugh and a half see these delightful Web pages: http://www.fanweb.org/patrick-moore/index.shtml http://www.fanweb.org/patrick-moore/liar.html =================================================================== March 20, 2001 New Acid Rain Study Finds Northeast Is Not Recovering News Advisory: WHAT: Press Briefing/Breakfast (RSVP 301-365-9307) TOPIC: The nation's most prominent acid rain researchers, including the scientist who discovered the problem of acid rain in North America, will announce findings of their latest study. The study reveals that, while some progress has been made in cutting emissions that cause acid rain, the cuts are not adequate to achieve recovery of sensitive lakes, streams and forests in the Northeast and other acid-sensitive regions. The report, entitled Acidic Deposition in the Northeastern United States: Sources and Inputs, Ecosystem Effects and Management Strategies, is the most comprehensive analysis done since the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990 in an effort to remedy the problem of acid rain. At a Washington, D.C., press briefing, the scientists will detail their findings, which will be published in the March 2001 issue of the journal BioScience. (March 26 embargo) The study is based on data generated at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the forest where acid rain was first discovered in North America in 1972. The report is authored by ten leading scientists in the field and is the result of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation's Science Links program. Science Links is a new program aimed at bridging the gap between science and policy. WHEN: March 26 -- 9:30 a.m. WHERE: National Press Club, Lisagor Room 529 14th St. NW, 13th floor Washington, D.C. SPONSOR: Hubbard Brook Research Foundation SPEAKERS: -- Charles T. Driscoll, Ph.D. is distinguished professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University. -- Gene E. Likens, Ph.D. is director of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., and president-elect of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. -- Gregory Lawrence, Ph.D. is a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Troy, N.Y. -- Kathleen Fallon Lambert, M.S. is executive director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation in Hanover, N.H. She will discuss current political efforts regarding acid rain. VISUALS: Large colorful graphs and charts will illustrate key findings of the report. B-roll available. WEB SITES: Two web sites will be available on March 26. The BioScience article can be viewed at: http://www.aibs.org/biosciencelibrary/vol51/mar01special.ldml A summary of the BioScience article and Acid Rain Revisited, a new 20-page report that translates the article for a lay audience, can be seen at http://www.hbrook.sr.unh.edu/hbfound/hbfound.htm =================================================================== Wednesday, March 21, 2001 U.S. Sheep Seized in Mad Cow Scare <http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/3-21-2001/20010321160025440.html> GREENSBORO, Vt. (AP) _ Federal officials on Wednesday seized a flock of sheep feared infected with a version of mad cow disease, the first such seizure of any U.S. farm animals. Houghton Freeman's flock of 234 sheep is one of two at the center of protests over the Agriculture Department's order last July that they be seized and destroyed. The department says the sheep, imported from Belgium, could be carrying a disease akin to mad cow disease and had quarantined them since 1998. A lawyer for Freeman who was monitoring the seizure called it "sad, depressing and a rushed judgment. "This is so unnecessary," said Thomas Amidon, who had hoped the federal government would delay the seizure until after a federal appeals court heard arguments next month. USDA spokesman Ed Curlett said inspectors arrived shortly after 6 a.m. Two trucks were loaded by 11 a.m. and left the farm. The sheep were to be taken to federal laboratories in Iowa so samples can be taken from their brains for study. The animals will eventually be destroyed. Curlett said the seizure was the first of any cow or sheep in the United States under suspicion of having an illness related to mad cow disease. The second disputed flock, believed to be about 140 sheep, is owned by Larry and Linda Faillace of East Warren. Those animals were to be seized later, and the owners will receive notice the night before the seizure, as Freeman did, Curlett said. "We assume they're coming tonight," Linda Faillace said Wednesday, standing in her small barn surrounded by several dozen sheep. She said she felt "anger, frustration, disbelief," and accused the USDA of failing to heed science. "That's what makes us so angry. USDA builds up public hysteria over a species that doesn't get the disease," she said. USDA veterinarian Linda Detwiler said the agency stands by its tests. While the seizure was a first, another flock of 21 sheep from the same family of sheep was voluntarily turned over to government officials last summer by their Lyndonville owner. The sheep were destroyed. The seizure at the Freeman farm came one day after supporters of the owners held their latest protest, marching to the Vermont offices of the state's three congressional delegates. All three _ Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Republican Sen. James Jeffords and independent Rep. Bernard Sanders _ have supported the seizure. "Too little is yet known about this disease, but we do know that it is deadly and that it has the potential to spread quickly, widely and insidiously if not handled early. We wish there was a sound alternative to the removal of these flocks, but there is not," they said in a joint statement last week. The government says the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow disease through contaminated feed before they were imported from Europe in 1996. The owners say the sheep are healthy and the tests are not conclusive, and they have urged more extensive tests. After losing their case in U.S. District Court in February, the Faillaces and Freeman appealed and asked that the seizure order be put on hold until the case had worked its way through the courts. The circuit court refused to stay the seizure order last week but said it would hear the appeal. The USDA maintains that four sheep from Freeman's flock showed signs of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. That is a class of neurological diseases that includes both bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and scrapie, a sheep disease that is not harmful to humans. The government says the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow disease through contaminated feed before they were imported from Europe in 1996. The human version of BSE, which like the animal version has a lengthy incubation period, has killed almost 100 people in Great Britain since 1995, when it virtually wiped out the British beef industry. Scrapie has been in the United States since at least 1947, but there are no known domestic cases of mad cow disease. USDA says destroying the sheep would eliminate them as a possible source of BSE. BSE has been transmitted to sheep experimentally through the feeding of small amounts of infected cattle brain. Testing to determine whether the Vermont sheep have scrapie or BSE would take two to three years to complete, USDA says. ---------------- On the Net: USDA Web site on this issue: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/tse/index.html =================================================================== Sea Shepherd Digest #160 - Wednesday, March 21, 2001 Subject: SEA SHEPHERD BRAZIL ASSEMBLING OILED WILDLIFE RESCUE TEAM From: "Andrew Christie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> March 20, 2001 SEA SHEPHERD BRAZIL ASSEMBLING OILED WILDLIFE RESCUE TEAM -Slick from sunken oil rig heading for dolphin, seabird areas Captain Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd International, announced today in Porto Alegere, Brazil, that Sea Shepherd Brazil is sending an emergency response team to assist PetroBras (Brazil`s state owned oil company) in rescuing wildlife at risk from the one million liters of crude oil spilling from the sunken PetroBras oil platform P-36, which sank earlier today 120 kilometers off the Brazilian coast. Sea Shepherd Brazil Director Alexandre Castro, a professor of Biology from Unisinos University in Porto Alegere, will be leading the team. Last year, Sea Shepherd Brazil drafted Brazil`s first oil spill wildlife rescue plan for Petrobras in the wake of the major Petrobras spill in Rio de Janeiro Bay. "We have three or four days to organize an effective response to minimize wildlife casualties from this spill," said Castro. The slick is now over seven miles long and five miles wide and is drifting toward the Brazilian coast. It is estimated that the slick may reach the coast in three days. The slick is heading for an area heavily inhabited by spinner dolphins and dotted with numerous small islands that are nesting colonies for seabirds. Captain Watson will be addressing the Forum of the Waters Conference in Chapeco in Santa Catarina State on Thursday, March 22. He will be specifically addressing the problems that Petrobras has had over the last year, this being the third large spill since January 2000. Sea Shepherd International P.O. Box 2616 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (360) 370-5500 http://www.seashepherd.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] =================================================================== CJD deaths due to 'traditional' butchers <http://itn.co.uk/news/20010321/britain/07cjd.shtml> 03/21/01 Butchers using traditional techniques passed on the human form of mad cow disease to five people from Leicestershire who later died of it, a report has found. Leicestershire Health Authority commissioned the study into the cluster of deaths from new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) around the village of Queniborough. Report author Dr Philip Monk found the victims had all eaten beef that had been contaminated by animal brains infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The inquiry into the deaths was launched last summer in the hope that it would unlock the key to how BSE, the brain-wasting disease in cows, was passed to humans. Over 80 people have died in Britain from vCJD, the devastating condition which leads to the gradual loss of co-ordination and speech and ultimately death. The report into the unusual cluster was read out to a packed meeting at Queniborough village hall. Dr Monk first outlined how BSE, made notifiable in 1986, developed and how vCJD was officially recognised in 1996. The investigation found that many cows in the area intended for beef production had been fed with meat or bonemeal at an early age - a factor blamed for causing BSE. Dr Monk said: "It is possible that a small number of cattle in this area could have been incubating BSE at the time of slaughter in the early 1980s." While most cows were slaughtered in large abattoirs with modern techniques, a number were killed in small abattoirs or in butchers with a slaughterhouse attached He said that it was likely that it was the way that these cows were slaughtered that passed on the disease. Dr Monk said their skulls were split so the brains could be sold and a "pithing rod" - designed to stop the cows kicking in the enclosed space of a small slaughterhouse - was inserted into the spine. This, he said, was "an extremely tricky and messy process" in which there was a tendency for material from the brain to ooze out. "These were traditional craft butchering practices carried out by people who were experts in their tradition. None of them were illegal. The were both legal and crafted processes that were going on in the 1980s," he said. And added: "The people who had vCJD were exposed to the BSE agents through the consumption of beef which had been processed from butchers where there was a risk of cross-contamination of bovine brain material during the boning and cutting process in those butchers premises where the skull was split to remove the brain." He added that this may not have been the only way that people were exposed to the disease. Tim Healey, chairman of Leicestershire Health Authority, paid tribute to the victims' families for taking part in the "painful experience" of investigating the deaths. =================================================================== Butchers' Knives 'Caused CJD Cluster' Traditional practices at small slaughterhouses and butchers were today blamed for a cluster of deaths from the human form of mad cow disease. A public health report into vCJD deaths in the Leicestershire village of Queniborough said the five people who died all ate beef that had been contaminated by knives used to cut BSE-infected animal brains. Sainsbury's today announced that it is set to become the first UK food retailer to test its beef for BSE. Full story - Ananova http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_249600.html?menu=news.latestheadlines Related story: Expert dismisses CJD report - BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1233000/1233145.stm Comment: vCJD deaths were avoidable - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/bse/article/0,2763,460639,00.html Background: BSE inquiry http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/ Background: CJD - Department of Health http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/ Special report: BSE - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/bse/0,8250,388290,00.html Key player: National CJD surveillance unit http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/ Source document: CJD investigation - Leicestershire health authority (Word) http://www.leics-ha.org.uk/cjd/cjdbrief.doc =================================================================== Scientists look to 'traditional knowledge' to help understand climate change <http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/03/21/climate010321> Wed Mar 21 18:14:30 2001 SACH'S HARBOUR, NWT - Aboriginal people and scientists are starting to talk the same language when it comes to climate change in the Arctic. Dramatic shifts in weather, ice and animal behaviour have been reported by many First Nations in the North. In scientific terms, that's called 'traditional' or 'anecdotal knowledge' and it hasn't been given much weight in the past. But that's starting to change. Aboriginal people have a name for the scientists who jet into the North, spend the summer doing research, never talk to the locals and fly home when winter arrives. They're called 'snowbirds.' Until recently, researchers didn't give much scientific weight to tales told by elders who keep an eye on the land, who measure climate change in the thickness of an animal's fur or the thinning of the sea ice. Andy Carpenter watches over his community of Sach's Harbour, on the edge of the Beaufort Sea. "Different kinds of birds are coming up," he says. "There's other species of fish that we've never gotten before, like the pink salmon. There's less ice. You know it's warmer waters I guess." Stewart Cohen, who is one of Canada's leading scientists on the climate change file, says researchers are starting to value that kind of information. "You can't dispute the fact that if permafrost is thawing, climate has had something to do with this. You can't dispute the fact that if you've got strange species of wildlife showing up on your doorstep that you haven't seen in 50 years, climate has had something to do with that. And these are very powerful messages." Cohen says it's impossible to understand this complex issue and knowledge of the past is becoming vital to scientists as they try to predict the future of climate change. =================================================================== Mad Sheep Seized in Vermont <http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-01.html> MONTPELIER, Vermont, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - A flock of sheep infected with a condition closely related to mad cow disease has been confiscated from a Vermont farm by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Acting under the authority of a U.S. District Court ruling, agricultural officials early this morning removed the flock of 233 quarantined sheep from Houghton Freeman's farm in Vermont, said USDA spokesman Ed Curlett. The sheep are en route to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, where they will be euthanized. Tissue samples will be collected from the sheep for diagnostic testing. The tests must be performed on carcasses because there are no live tests for the disease. The sheep are believed to be infected with scrapie, a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. There is no simple laboratory test that can definitively distinguish between mad cow disease and scrapie in animals. Vermont sheep with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (Photo courtesy USDA) The sheep, imported from Belgium and the Netherlands in 1996, were placed under federal restrictions when they entered the country as part of USDA's efforts to control scrapie. In 1998, USDA officials learned that it was likely that sheep from Europe were exposed to feed contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease. At that time, the state of Vermont, at the request of USDA, imposed a quarantine on these flocks, which prohibited slaughter or sale for breeding purposes. On July 10, 2000, several sheep from the flock tested positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). TSE is a class of degenerative neurological diseases that is characterized by a very long incubation period and a 100 percent death rate. Two of the better known varieties of TSE are BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep. Unlike BSE, there is no evidence that scrapie poses a risk to human health. Based on current testing methodology, there is no way to determine whether the sheep have BSE or scrapie. On July 14, 2000, USDA issued a declaration of extraordinary emergency to acquire the sheep. This action was contested by the flock owners. In February, a federal district court judge ruled in favor of USDA based on the merits of the case. The flock owners appealed to the Second Circuit Court requesting a stay, which was denied. Another flock of Vermont sheep imported from Belgium and the Netherlands at the same time as the Freeman sheep will also be seized by USDA agents "in the near future," said Curlett. The owners will be compensated for the fair market value of the sheep, USDA officials said. "While we understand this is a very difficult time for the flock owners, USDA has no choice but to take this decisive action based on the threat the sheep pose to the health of America's livestock nationwide," said Craig Reed, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "The current BSE situation highlights USDA's important role in safeguarding America's livestock from such devastating foreign animal diseases," he said. In the laboratory, the scrapie agent has been transmitted to hamsters, mice, rats, voles, gerbils, mink, cattle, and some species of monkeys. But the USDA says there is no scientific evidence to indicate that scrapie poses a risk to human health. There is no epidemiologic evidence that scrapie of sheep and goats is transmitted to humans, such as through contact on the farm, at slaughter plants, or butcher shops. BSE is a progressive and ultimately fatal neurological disorder of adult cattle. The disease was first diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 1986 and is thought to have been caused by farmers feeding their cattle meat and bone meal supplements that had become contaminated with the disease agent. Without human intervention, cattle are vegetarians. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is the human form of mad cow disease. The victims of vCJD may have succumbed to the disease because they ate contaminated beef when they were suffering from a bout of tonsillitis or a simple sore throat. This theory has been advanced by a leading American scientist, Professor Stephen DeArmond, of the University of California at San Francisco. A fatal brain ailment similar to mad cow disease was found last fall in a captive Oklahoma County elk herd, forcing Colorado officials to put 140 of the animals under quarantine. State Department of Agriculture veterinarian Gene Eskew said "chronic wasting disease" (CWD) has been found in five elk that died, and a few others in the herd are suspected to have the disease. The agriculture department is watching for additional deaths so the tissues can be sent for testing to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa. An ongoing testing program conducted by the Colorado Division of Wildlife has found that chronic wasting disease is still confined to a small portion of northeastern Colorado. It has not spread to deer herds elsewhere in the state. "Based on our testing, CWD is still confined to the endemic area in northeastern Colorado," said Colorado Division of Wildlife veterinarian Mike Miller said on February 16. The discovery that mad cow disease in British cattle had spread to other European countries in February caused alerts to be issued by countries all over the world. A seven point plan announced in February by the European Commission to tackle the continent's BSE crisis called for organic farming methods to be used. On February 8, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned countries around the world of the risk of mad cow disease appearing in the food chain and entering the human population. In a statement in Lagos, Nigeria through the Information Department of the Embassy of the United States, the FAO recommended adoption of surveillance and monitoring systems to detect the disease in cattle herds, meat industries, and animal feed operations. ------------- To find out more about BSE visit the USDA website at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/bse/ =================================================================== March 22, 2001 Anti-nuclear protesters step up attacks in Germany BERLIN (AP) _ Vandals smashed dozens of windows at a German railway building early Wednesday in an apparent protest against the planned resumption of nuclear waste transports to Germany, police said. Nearly 80 windows were broken in the predawn attack in eastern Berlin, and graffiti at the scene criticized the national railways for helping transport radioactive waste that originates at German nuclear power plants, police said. No one was in the building at the time of the attack. The assailants were at large. German nuclear waste shipments are due to resume next week with a transport from a reprocessing plant in France to a storage site in northern Germany. The German government suspended transports in 1998 out of safety concerns but has since tightened safety rules. Anti-nuclear protesters have called for rail blockades to disrupt the shipment and police in several German states are on alert. In the 1990s, nuclear waste transports often led to battles between police and demonstrators. Germany's Greens party, which grew out of the anti-nuclear movement and now sits in the government, has endorsed only peaceful demonstrations. Rebecca Harms, one of the party's most prominent anti-nuclear activists, called Wednesday's attack ``dumb and dangerous.'' Interviewed on InfoRadio, she said such vandalism hurt the Social Democrat-led government's continuing effort to press German utilities to phase out nuclear power. =================================================================== Millions dying needlessly from dirty water <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/03/03212001/reu_water_42633.asp> Wednesday, March 21, 2001 By Robin Pomeroy More than one billion people have no access to clean water and 3.4 million die every year from diseases that could be easily remedied by better supplies and sanitation, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The world's poor pay more than the rich for worse water up to 20 percent of household incomes but are more at risk from water-borne illnesses, the WHO said during a news conference to mark World Water Day on Thursday. "Over the past 10 years we have been running to stand still," said Jamie Bartram, the WHO's water, health and sanitation coordinator. "In 1990 1.1 billion people were without access to improved water even just a covered well. In 2000 the number was the same." He said that 2.4 billion people had no basic sanitation in 1990 and that the situation was the same in 2000. As well as increasing diseases like diarrhea and malaria, the lack of safe water condemns many women and children to poverty, denying them education or gainful employment as they are forced to spend several hours a day carrying water. The challenge of getting clean water to all is increasing, the WHO said, due to an increasingly urbanized world population, and the threat of climate change bringing more floods and spreading tropical diseases to formerly temperate regions. But in a report, "Water for Health, Taking Charge," the WHO said easy and inexpensive efforts to purify water and improve personal hygiene could massively reduce deaths caused by dirty water. Microbes responsible for many diarrheal illnesses can be killed through chlorinating water in households, or by using sunlight to disinfect water stored in plastic bottles. Diarrhea can also be cut by up to 35 percent by encouraging people to wash their hands, the study said. Malaria can be tackled by local clean up of mosquito breeding grounds. The WHO estimated that such low-cost initiatives could halve the number of people suffering from poor water and sanitation by 2015. "About $16 billion is spent on the provision of safe water and sanitation throughout the world," Wilfried Kreisel, executive director of the WHO's European Union Office, said. "In order to halve the number of people suffering from diseases due to contaminated water, it would be necessary to spend $23 billion. "(The $7 billion difference) is one tenth of what Europeans spend annually on alcoholic beverages," Kreisel said. =================================================================== "Treat the Earth well. 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