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Ecuador: Ombudsman warns of the risk of chemicals in banana

Ecuador: Ombudsman warns of the risk of chemicals in banana.

“Know where your fruit comes from and what has been sprayed on it!”

The Office of the Ombudsman urged the ministries of Health and Agriculture to conduct research on the environmental and physical effects that 17 chemicals used in banana plantations (including glyphosate) produce, according to resolution 010 of the entity.

The document was the result of research conducted since 2010, after Jorge Acosta Orellana submitted a complaint.

Acosta pointed out the alleged existence of abuse by employers, lack of state control and severe health problems in both the banana plantations and the nearby population caused by aerial and manual spraying.

The resolution of the Office of the Ombudsman, which includes the steps taken, states that “the reports from the Ministry of Health,  Magap and the IESS are overwhelming. They put in evidence that respiratory and poisoning cases are accentuated in populations exposed to the use of chemicals in the crop dusting, whose danger and health risks are highly evident.”

Therefore it was established among its recommendations and exhortations to carry out an investigation to determine the health risks of chemicals like siganex 600, volley, opal, tunic, still, tilt, mancozeb II, calixin, gramoxone and glyphosate.

The use of glyphosate raised questions from Ecuador to Colombia, because of the use of crop dusting to eradicate coca plantations in the border area.

Julio Escala, president of Simon Bolivar Agricultural Center, said that in the country this product is used to kill weeds and is applied by land. He said that workers should wear protective equipment during use.

Meanwhile, Pompilio Espinoza, representative of the banana produces from Cañar, said it is a priority to create an organism that conducts research on the effects of chemicals on humans and the environment. Currently when those chemicals are
applied the concentration is only regulated.

DannyQuah

Pessimism on China’s continuing economic growth emerges from, among other reasons on offer, that billion-people economy’s aversion to institutional reform.  In this view, China’s governance structures remain irresponsibly distant from liberal democracy; as a result, they hobble economic and political progress. China’s current institutions of governance allow an extractive elite to benefit themselves and to thwart meritocracy, thus crushing the social good.

[Personally, I like the alternative perspective given in Unz (2012) but at this point Unz’s views constitute still only exactly that, an alternative perspective criticizing conventional thinking.]

Indeed to confirm this conventional view, the popular consciousness can now recount incident after incident of the excesses of those elites.  This month alone there was the high-flying businessman Mr X killed in a confrontation involving armed guards outside a luxury house. The case involved influence over political constituencies covering hundreds of millions of people, the convergence of money and political power…

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eFoodAlert

Here is today’s list of food safety recalls, product withdrawals, allergy alerts and miscellaneous compliance issues. The live links will take you directly to the official recall notices and company news releases that contain detailed information for each recall and alert.

If you would like to receive automatic email alerts for all new articles posted on eFoodAlert, please submit your request using the sidebar link.

For current information on retail distribution of peanut butter products recalled due to Salmonella Bredeney, please consult the Trader Joe’s/Sunland Peanut Butter Recalls tab.

For current information on retail distribution of beef products containing Canadian beef recalled due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination please consult the Canada/USA Beef Recall tab.

United States

  • Allergy Alert:Whole Alternatives, LLC recalls Harris Teeter brand Dried Apricots (6 oz pkg; UPC 7203670494) and Harris Teeter brand Dried Golden Raisins (8 oz pkg; UPC 7203670490), because the products contain undeclared…

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Our Voices Matter in, out and Beyond Elections « Nuestra Vida, Nuestra Voz

Somos Poderos@s and our voices matter. They matter even if we are Latin@s. They matter even if we have had an abortion(s). They matter even if we are LGBTQ. They matter even if we are undocumented. They matter even if we are disabled. Our voices matter regardless of any identity or socioeconomic standing. Our voices matter in, out and beyond election day.

via Our Voices Matter in, out and Beyond Elections « Nuestra Vida, Nuestra Voz.

No reporting or checking facts in UK or US anymore – just headlines that will attack readers – truth matters – nope; profit and propaganda

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the UK press)

Hats off to fullfact.org for their tireless exposure of the lies in the gutter press about there being 120,000 ‘problem’ families in the UK.

By gutter press, I’m referring of course to The SunThe Daily MailThe GuardianThe Daily StarThe TelegraphThe IndependentThe Daily ExpressThe Timesthe BBCITV and Sky – click the above links for examples of their so-called ‘articles’ about it.

What fullfact.org discovered was that the real figure of 120,000 for the number of ‘problem’ families in the UK was a little bit of an exaggeration and is actually much lower than that. Well, quite a bit lower actually.

16 to be exact.

Unfortunately, the corrections the press were forced to make were not exactly given the same priority and exposure as the original lies.

Here’s an example…

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eFoodAlert

“Since 2009, your firm has distributed lots of peanut butter and nut butters that were positive for Salmonella. The following is a list of products since 2009 that have been manufactured by your firm, have tested positive for Salmonella by your firm’s internal testing program, and were at least partially distributed by your firm.”

– FDA Form 483, issued October 29, 2012

It’s Peanut Corporation of America all over again.

Earlier today, FDA released a series of Enterprise Inspection Reports and Form 483 reports issued following inspections of Sunland Inc.‘s production facilities in Portales, New Mexico from as long ago as 2007.

The company, whose peanut butter was definitively linked to an outbreak of Salmonella Bredeney that sickened at least 41 people from 20 states, has known about its Salmonella contamination problems since at least June 2009. Somehow, this information escaped the notice of the company’s customers – including…

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