Garden soil on the Big Island has elevated levels or arsenic

In Hawaii elevated levels of arsenic have been found in Garden soil near sugar fields on the Big Island. The arsenic is thought too have come from the use of herbicides in the sugar fields back in the 1920’s until the 1940’s. A recent study has concluded that vegetables grown in the arsenic laden garden soil are safe to eat.

How sad is it too think that even in a tropical paradise such as Hawaii pollution is harming the environment and putting peoples health at possible risk.

West Nile Virus

For most of the United States and Canada mosquitoes have always been a summer pest but their bite never really carried a health risk other then the itching they caused. Now with the arrival of West Nile Virus which originated in the Middle East people are afraid to let their children play without insect repellent. For the past few summers several people have died each year from West Nile infection.

West Nile Virus is a potentially fatal disease that is spread by mosquitoes. West Nile Virus was first found in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has spread thought the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Zebra Mussles

Zebra mussels are an invasive species to the Great Lakes region. Zebra mussels first appeared in Lake St. Clare in 1988 and has since spread throughout the Great Lakes and tributaries.

Zebra mussels are voracious filter feeding organisms. Which simply means, they remove particles from the water column for food. By removing particles from the water column indigenous species have to compete with the Zebra mussels for food resulting in a stress through out the food chain.

It’s unclear what the long term effect Zebra mussels will have on the eco system of the great lakes…All we can do for now is wait and see…

Thanks for reading

Love Canal 30 years latter

Love Canal is a working class community in Niagara Falls, New York. 30 years ago this summer the community came to world wide attention because it was built on top of a chemical waste dump.

The elementary school was located just 3 blocks from the chemical dump. A couple now in their 40’s who attended the school remember playing with ooze bubbling up on the playground.

That ooze was Phosphorous rocks that would exploded like a firecracker when the children threw them on the sidewalk. In fact many of the children attending the school suffered phosphorous burns from playing on the playground.

A former kitchen lady and cancer survivor who used to work at the school has compiled a list of 25 former workers at the school who have died from cancer.