In 1971, a clinic in Brazil bought a radiation therapy machine. Fourteen years later, the practice closed and was abandoned. On September 13th, 1987, two men sold the inner canister of the machine for scrap. Upon breaking it open, a scrapyard employee found sparkling, glowing blue powder. It was distributed to family and friends, who used for decorative and magical purposes.
Sixteen days later, 112,000 people were in Olympic stadium, being tested for radiation poisoning. [more inside]
posted by nevercalm
on Mar 31, 2011 -
123 comments
Picher, Oklahoma was part of a
major lead mining area in the central US until the middle of the last century, when the
mines closed down. It is now the
epicenter of the
Tar Creek Superfund site. Residents live among mountains of
mine tailings known
as chat. Heavy metal poisoning is endemic in the area. With fits and starts, things do begin to get done about it, but only very slowly.
To add insult to injury, Picher was
struck by an
EF-4 tornado on May 10th, 2008. The residents are finally
suing over the long in
coming
buyout plan. Shockingly, the buyout plan was put into place with urgency not because of the lead, zinc, and cadmium poisoning,
but because the mines are
in danger of caving in. There is still word on when the
mountains of debris will be removed, or the acid mine drainage stopped. Despite attempts to prevent further contamination in the 1980s and 90s, the waste is still
poisoning local creeks and
wildlife.
posted by wierdo
on Apr 9, 2009 -
15 comments
SOS-arsenic.net has excellent recipes, visuals, articles and information about life, history, living in
Bangladesh, which borders India, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam, Burma and is near the Himalayan country of Bhutan. Among the many interesting things included in this site is disturbing information:
mustard oil, whose production and consumption were until recently integral to India's way of life, has been banned, so as to provide a market for Monsanto's soya oil and
the poisoning of between 85 and 125 million people with arsenic.
posted by nickyskye
on Dec 7, 2007 -
20 comments
Following up on a
previous discussion of the goings-on in Ukraine, it's now a CNN front-page story:
Viktor Yushchenko was, in fact, poisoned with dioxin.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said. "What we can say at this point is that this concentration constitutes an amount which is 1,000 times above the normal levels that you would find in blood or tissue... We have made a final diagnosis as well as an additional diagnosis, that we suspect a cause triggered by a third party. So there is suspicion of third party involvement... We can state that there has been an oral intake," he said, adding that it was not known if it was from eating or drinking.
I am currently smoothing the crinkles out of my tin-foil hat in preparation for its constant use throughout the rest of my life. (Or do you think it works better if it's crinkled?)
posted by logovisual
on Dec 11, 2004 -
28 comments
