Electronic Warfare

We are doomed! It seems the United States Navy is planning Electronic Warfare training which will send EMFs across Washington State. It's bad enough there are so few places on this earth where cell phone towers and Wi-Fi are not found, but this is purposefully using high levels of electronic radiation to pollute an area filled with people and wildlife. How many people already have EMF sensitivities? And the studies on bats, birds, and bees showing how EMFs affect their own natural radar and directional systems? What is the fall-out of such experimentation? Has anyone in the government or in the military even considered the ramifications of this? I doubt it.

Here is the article from the November 2014 issue of the Environmental Health Bulletin (EHB) a newsletter edited by Melinda Honn from Arizona:

Briefly, the Navy is proposing to turn a large part of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, as well as a portion of northeastern Washington, into Electronic Warfare training ranges.  A giant antenna resembling a house-sized golfball will be installed at the Naval Station at Moclips, just outside the Quinault Indian Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula.   

According to the data in the Environmental Assessment, I calculate that it will have an effective power of 5 million watts. It will be capable of sending 64 simultaneous beams at frequencies of between 2 and 18 GHz. The golfball will only be 40 feet off the ground.  In addition, three mobile, truck-mounted antennas will be moved around between 15 different sites in the Olympic National Forest, and three more mobile antennas will operate from 8 different locations in the Okanagan and Colville National Forests in northeastern Washington. They will each have a power of 100,000 watts, and will be in use 260 days a year, 8 to 16 hours a day. The city of Forks will be directly in the line of fire, right between three of these locations and the Pacific Ocean.  The locations in the Colville National Forest are next to the Colville Indian Reservation, about 70 miles orthwest of Spokane, and one is only 3 miles from the city of Oroville.  In addition, UHF transmitters will be added to an existing tower on Octopus Mountain in the Olympic Peninsula for communication with aircraft and ships.  Needless to say, the peace of the Olympic Peninsula will be destroyed forever. The radiation in both locations will impact predominantly native Americans.

You may voice your opinion until the end of this month:

https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=42759

I don't want EMF sensitivities nor do I want to be forced to live in a desert surrounded by car-eating rats secluded in a house lined with foil, but I might as well pack my bags for Snowflake now!

Damn.

To Be a Bee: Where to Live?

The bees are disappearing. Hives are collapsing. It's an international crisis. Without bees, there is no pollination. Without pollination, there is no food. Without food, well...you get the picture.


WHY are the bees leaving? Bees are smart AND chemically sensitive. It seems researchers in France have found they are being poisoned by herbicides and bees are not happy about it. Of course, chemical companies in the United States are denying this and, in fact, controlling research to their advantage, but the French don't give a rat's ass about American money and have been filing lawsuits against some of the big international chemical companies in hopes of getting these chemical poisons banned. If the bees don't like the environment, they leave. They are smart.

Leaving, however, means going somewhere else. The question is WHERE? Where is it safe to live? Escaping environmental pollution is nearly impossible but you can make better choices to minimize exposure with a little research. Here are some issues to be aware of:

City  Living in a city with the overpopulation of people smells, vehicle exhaust, and industry is a health concern for everyone not just MCSers.  That brownish-yellow haze on the horizon is your first clue. There were days when driving on the freeway for no more than ten minutes would make me so ill I would have to exit, go home, and go to bed for the rest of the day!    Now that I live in the country, just driving into the city limits during the summer on the freeway makes my lungs and head hurt.  I've met other city transplants who moved to the country and their lifetime of headaches disappeared. Cities are quagmires of poison.

Moving out of the city is often the goal for anyone who is chemically sensitive, however, the country is no longer the safe haven we imagine:

Agriculture  Unless it's certified organic, expect any agricultural business will be spraying toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers several times a year. When I was shopping for a safe place to live I found this beautiful five acre property with a little house, barn, a field of blueberries and a little grove of forest. It was perfect. As I peered through the trees, just beyond the forest I could see a cranberry bog. Oh, how delightful!  I love cranberries! Then my brain kicked in, kicking and screaming, hoping against all odds these were organic cranberries. I drove down the road and saw one of the neighbors in her yard with her young children playing nearby so I stopped and asked about the property. "Oh, they only spray three times a year, but they send around letters to everyone so we know to stay inside for two weeks."  She was so nonchalant about it.  I have driven by cranberry farms as they are spraying. The sprayers are decked out in orange bio-hazard suits. Not a pretty sight! Besides vegetable and berry production, be aware of turf farms, golf courses, livestock ranches or factory farms, and tree farms, too. No one ever considers the dangers of a lovely apple orchard or a sweet Christmas tree farm nearby.

Industry  This form of environmental pollution might be little easier to recognize with the bellowing air pollutants or smell, but in some cases the poisons are invisible contaminating the ground or ground water. The movie Erin Brockovich is but one example of how deadly toxic environments can be. I recently read Buffalo, New York, has the highest rate of autoimmune diseases which is thought to be caused by the local industry.

Water Sanitation  Getting information on the local water supply is like pulling teeth, but keep in mind, all public water works are treated with chemicals for bacteria, parasites, and mud. Yes, mud! There is a chemical used to break up mud washes during the winter.  Chlorine and fluoride are the most common additives. Check out their testing schedules and treatment methods. I've heard through the gossip channels the chemicals added to my town's  water supply aren't even measured...the amounts are just guessed and dumped in. I get the impression city water is much more regulated. If you opt for acreage, having your own well is ideal and there are safer options for private water quality treatments.

Nuclear Waste and Radioactivity This warning sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but there are unbelievable environmental hazards due to nuclear testing from years ago.  I've read about a desert in Nevada used for atom bomb testing and the movie The Conqueror was filmed nearby. The radioactive fallout is blamed for cancer deaths of 91 out of the 220 cast and crew. Among those who died were John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead. Property is really cheap there!  Amidst the greenery of the Northwest,  nuclear waste contaminating ground and water is well-kept secret and studies show breast cancer and multiple sclerosis in this area are the highest in the country.  Coincidence?

So many of these environmental toxins are invisible, but they are there. Do as much research as possible before you move anywhere and don't rely on government sources. Ask the neighbors what they know, but keep it mind most are fairly ignorant believing if it wasn't safe, it wouldn't be happening. Once you realize there is no truly save place to live, you may need to opt for the lesser of evils.

The MCS mascot is a canary. I think it should be a bee.  What do you think?

Service Day

A few years ago President Obama declared Martin Luther King Day as Service Day. As someone who is chemically sensitive, I am limited in my service options so I considered in what ways would I be able to volunteer and still avoid exposure to chemicals. Volunteering with people and feeling that solidarity and camaraderie would be lovely, but OUT. People stink.

As I pondered my options that day, I went for a walk at the park located down by the river and a block away from my home. At the far end of the park is very short wetlands trail. If I look up at the cliff, I can see my house. The rusty cans, toilet paper, cigarette butts, candy bar wrappers and used condoms littering the area called to me. (Yes! I said used condoms! Litterbugs are sex fiends.) My service project was born. I adopted the wetlands trail.

The Wetlands Trail

I try to go down at least once a year and do a little clean up. Sporting two layers of rubber gloves and carrying  a long weapon-stick in one hand and a large garbage bag in the other, I trudge through the thicket. Litterbugs are shifty. They do their damnest to hide their garbage by throwing it in the bushes, blackberry stickers,  marsh grasses, and in the water. I wear my indestructible rubber rain boots so I can go nearly anywhere. During the winter is the best time for service work because the foliage has died back and you can see the garbage better. Unfortunately, if surrounded by a prison of thick blackberry vines, the trash can be impossible to retrieve even with my weapon-stick. All I can do is stare and feel frustrated.

Garbage in Prison

The first year I took a small plastic grocery bag and had to come back for more. I ended up filling four of them with lots of old cans, large pieces of plastic, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, used condoms and a deflated soccer ball. I rolled an old tire out of the swamp and up the hill. Before I left I stopped to visit with the litterbugs fishing at the dock and gave them a piece of my mind about using the trash can right next to them instead of throwing it in the bushes. I should have lectured them on using the bushes for a toilet, too. I draw the line at picking up used toilet paper.


This year's adventure was strangely different. The wetlands sign had been removed and the trail was overgrown suggesting the city is no longer maintaining it. They also removed the garbage can at the dock. No one used it anyway. I think the overgrowth discourages litterbugs and sex fiends. I filled only a half of a large garbage bag, and no used condoms. I did find a huge piece of old plastic to drag out. SCORE!

River view from the trail.

It amazes me people respect nature so little they don't care where they throw their garbage. It pollutes the river, kills the fish, injures wildlife, and I can't even imagine the damage those used condoms do to the environment!

I do have a confession - I always forget about Service Day until President's Day. I get confused and think MLK Day is in February maybe because February is Black History Month. Oh well, better late than never. Besides it's difficult to pick up garbage in the snow.

What do you do for service?