Posts by mark taslov
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Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Our family found the whole experience beyond depressing.
I hear you, adjectives are ineffectual.
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Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Yes, that report makes for very depressing reading. Likewise Valent Bioscience’s patents raise further questions about this:
Hon. MARIAN HOBBS (Associate Minister for Biosecurity), on behalf of the Minister for Biosecurity: Mr Gear was taken by surprise by that question, hence his response. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has now consulted the spray’s manufacturer, which has advised that it does not knowingly use ingredients containing genetically modified (GM) material.
10/10/2002
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Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to tussock,
The 2008 research was related to the recent findings in relation to Grant’s case. Grant is ONE PERSON and leukemia is an under-diagnosed condition:
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). With CLL, the most common chronic adult leukemia, you may feel well for years without needing treatment.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). This type of leukemia mainly affects adults. A person with CML may have few or no symptoms for months or years before entering a phase in which the leukemia cells grow more quickly.
This 14 year old was undiagnosed until 14 hours before death.
From the Ombudsman’s report:
13.38 Dr Watts asserts that there is a systematic discounting of reported effects of Btk and Foray 48B exposure throughout the reports. She points out that where data is lacking the assumption is made that the effect will be absent. She also refers to the assertion made that the risk is small, but this cannot be justified on a scientific basis.
[Dr Watts] “The assessment should say that because data on long-term exposure is lacking, the risks from long-term exposure cannot be ascertained. Instead it concludes the risks are small. It seriously underestimates exposure.
WRT:
The “silent crisis” people aren’t saying there’s an increase,
This was neither my conclusion nor my point, I directed attention to this to highlight New Zealand’s relative high blood cancer rates against all cancers worldwide. Poverty does, as you point out, correlate with reduced life expectancy but regardless:
Leukemia is the most common cancer in children worldwide, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common subtype, accounting for 80% of all cases(6%)
note that most people diagnosed with leukemia are over 50 years old and yet:
New Zealand Maori have an increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (RR 1.5 in the age group 25-49 and RR 1.31 in the age group 50-74), relative to New Zealand Caucasians. New Zealand Pacific Islanders have an increased risk of chronic myeloid leukemia (RR 2.13 in the age group 25-49 and RR 1.52 in the age group 50-74)
None of these statistics can be taking at face value, but cumulatively a compelling case can be made:
Leukaemia is the 11th most common cancer worldwide, with around 352,000 new cases diagnosed in 2012 (2% of the total). Leukaemia incidence rates are highest in Australia/New Zealand and lowest in Western Africa, but this partly reflects varying data quality worldwide
Back to the spraying, as the Ombudsman noted:
14.1 I refer now to the Government’s response to the issues which arose in the wake of the use of Foray 48B. In my draft report I characterised the official approach to that substance as being that it was “benign and harmless to people”, but I also noted that the Government had set aside some $6 million for healthcare and associated issues.
Please note Tussock that in exploring this stuff, which is all pretty new to me, my initial motivation was to attempt to create reasonable doubt as to the findings informing the decision against Grant, spurred by Rosemary this has lead to more general assumptions about New Zealand’s position with regard to these issues.
Like, the one farmer who gave himself a hundred doses every couple weeks for two years, that’s not how people in Auckland were exposed.
Based on the Ombudsman’s analysis of Ms Sally Lewis’s testimony, I don’t find any reason to discount the relevance of that sample:
For present purposes, however, it is significant that on 23 October 2002 Ms Lewis was told that spraying had taken place over her house by helicopter and by plane on five occasions during the course of a spray operation which apparently lasted from 6:30 a.m. through to 5:45 pm. Again on 3 December 2002 her house was said to have been sprayed over 10 times in the course of the operations on that day. On 17 February 2003 spraying had been carried out over her house seven times in the past two days. In all she calculated that during the course of the spray operations through to 30 September 2003 the house was in the spray path 53 times.
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This is an interesting read from the time capsule, how things have changed.I’m enthused by what Little has to say, also:
1988 Labour prime minister David Lange joked that Clark “was so dry she was combustible"
Ideally Little could work closely with Parker to stave off any fire hazard.
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That study is damning Rosemary. In stark conflict with the worldwide trend of men being more likely to develop leukemia and lymphoma than women, elevated odds ratios for vegetable growers and nursery growers/workers appear greater in women.
I had to check that WHO comparison I made above. There’s not too much information available for free, but assuming the wikipedia citations are accurate, in 2012 worldwide lymphoma deaths were 305,000, leukemia killed a further 265,000 and around 80,000 deaths were attributable to myeloma. Combining for a total of 650,000 still only puts this combination at number 5 on that WHO list. A trend backed up elsewhere, e.g. New Zealand coming in at number 9 on a list of countries with the highest death rates for leukemia.
WRT the MAF spraying, reading back over this thread for the first time, I’m struck by the emphasis on psychosomatics alongside the uncontested fact that MAF were actually relocating people.
Fortunately Foray 48B instructions are available online:
Users should:
•Remove clothing/PPE immediately if pesticide gets inside. Then wash thoroughly and put on clean clothing.
• Remove PPE imediately after handling this product. Wash the outside of gloves before removing. As soon as possible, wash thoroughly and change into clean clothing.As are Valent Bioscience’s patents.
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Hard News: Terror panics and the war imperative, in reply to Sacha,
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Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
It is shocking Rosemary. Though this is in some ways inconclusive, it is explicitly clear about the chemical’s proclivity to absorption: a detailed summary of Chloramphenicol:
it was determined that acceptable levels in food could not be established.
From John’s link above:
A letter from the then-clinical head of the department of clinical pathology at Auckland City Hospital to the GP said there was no “credible evidence” that exposure to the spray was linked to any kind of leukaemia or to any endocrine disorders.
coupled with:
One occupational case probably involved inhalation and skin contact. It occurred in a shepherd applying a chloramphenicol spray to the feet of sheep for treatment of foot rot. He had treated the animals twice a week with the spray, which contained 10 g of the drug in 100 ml of solution, for two years. Each dose contained 10 mg (Del Giacco et al., 1981).
…in light of the discussion on the election promises thread, and in particular Marc’s link paints a horrendously dark and convoluted picture of our allegedly 100% pure nation.
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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (also called CLL) is a blood and bone marrow disease that usually gets worse slowly. CLL is one of the most common types of leukemia in adults. It often occurs during or after middle age; it rarely occurs in children.
Summary Statistics
Reports of CHLORAMPHENICOL causing CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA: 1
Reports of any side effect of CHLORAMPHENICOL : 526
Percentage of CHLORAMPHENICOL patients where CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA is a reported side effect: 0.19011406844106%FDA reports of any drug causing CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA : 1420
Average percentage for all medicated patients where CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA is reported as a complication: 0.0088997217583469%The Silent crisis Blood Cancers in New Zealad(PDF), recognised problems:
Cancer Registry data reporting is delayed, and outdated
in the subclassification of lymphoma and other blood
cancer subtypesClinical databases are practically non-existent to record
treatments, and track outcomesPlus:
When combined, blood
cancers are the fifth most common cancer diagnosed
annually in New Zealand, and the third most common
cause of cancer death at over 900 deaths per yearCompared to WHO stats:
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.2 million deaths in 2012. The most common causes of cancer death are cancers of:
lung (1.59 million deaths)
liver (745 000 deaths)
stomach (723 000 deaths)
colorectal (694 000 deaths)
breast (521 000 deaths)
oesophageal cancer (400 000 deaths) -
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to tussock,
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Tangentially, on this day in history exactly 750 years ago, the Kingdom of Castile conquered the city of Jerez which had been under Muslim occupation since 711. Though it was not until 1492 that the combined forces of Castile and Aragon captured the Emirate of Granada, ending the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule in Iberia.
The Medieval Inquisition had begun in the 12 century, and the defeat of Islamic Iberia presented new opportunity. Pope Sixtus IV published the Papal bull, Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus, through which he gave the monarchs exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms, paving the way for the Inquisition new wave: the Roman Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Portuguese Inquisition and so on and so forth:
The last execution of the Inquisition was finally carried out in Spain on July 26, 1826. This was the execution of the school teacher, Cayetano Ripoll, for the teaching of Deism in his school. In Spain the practices of the Inquisition were finally outlawed in 1834.
The Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was rebranded Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in 1908 and then in 1965 it became The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as it remains to this day.
García Cárcel estimates that the total number of people put on trial by inquisitorial courts throughout their history was approximately 150,000, of which about 3,000 were executed – about two percent of the number of people put on trial. Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras studied the records of the Spanish Inquisition, which list 44,674 cases of which 826 resulted in executions
Also on this day in history, in 1981 France abolished capital punishment, though the guillotine was still the official method of execution in France, the last individual to face this method was Hamida Djandoub at Baumettes Prison in Marseille at 4:40 a.m 10 September 1977.