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The health care reform legislation that Congress should pass, but won't

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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Well, let's just say that once you realize where the "fluoride" really comes from (it's a toxic waste chemical scraped off the emissions scrubbers of coal-fired power plants), you start to understand the magnitude of the fluoridation scam. Any genuine health care reform should start with one simple principle: stop poisoning the people. Sorta simple, isn't it? Too simple for politicians to grasp, of course, especially when they're confused by all the special interest groups screaming at them.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

James Howard Kunstler
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Coal is linked to asthma. coal-fired power plants are chiefly responsible for acid rain. Perhaps these are prices that Americans will be willing to pay in order to enjoy high levels of electricity consumption in the future. It is certainly possible to clean up the emissions from coal-fired power plants, but it makes electricity more expensive, and the political will to clean up the industry may not be there in a more austere economy.

The Autoimmune Epidemic

Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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In the United States, coal-fired power plants alone spew about fifty tons of mercury into the air each year. Dry particles of mercury travel effortlessly in effluent clouds across the American landscape—migrating from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest to points often thousands of miles away, where they literally rain out of the sky in what environmentalists commonly refer to as "mercury polluted rainstorms." Once mercury particles shower to earth, they lace every acre, from forest floors to neighborhood parks to rippling ocean waves.

The greenwashing of toxic consumer products

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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And since coal-fired power plants release mercury into the atmosphere, the use of less energy means less overall mercury is being introduced to the environment. While this sounds sensible at first, it's still junk logic: How does harming the planet slightly less than before deserve a "green" claim of any kind? If I poke you with ten sharp sticks, and then reduce it to just five sharp sticks, I cannot claim that my actions are suddenly "good for your health!" It's still a harmful action with negative consequences.

BanTheBulb.org promotes energy efficient lighting, but neglects LED lights

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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That's an enormous amount of mercury, and almost half of the total amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants. Many state governing agencies have even adopted their own regulations regarding fluorescent lights. In California, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, it is unlawful for anyone to dispose of fluorescent bulbs as universal waste, according to LightBulbRecycling.com. So far, BanTheBulb.org fails to offer mercury-free alternative to fluorescent lights, such as my own company's high-efficiency LED lighting products found at www.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs contaminate the environment with 30,000 pounds of mercury each year

Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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Astonishingly, that's almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America (not to mention the oceans). Controlling the waste Many state governing agencies have adopted their own regulations regarding the disposal of fluorescent lights.

The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps

Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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Arsenic: Pesticides, smog, tobacco smoke, a by-product of metal ore smelting and coal-fired power plants, wood preservatives in lumber and playgrounds, green pigment used in toys, curtains, carpets, colored chalk ?Platinum: Some dental gold, automobile exhaust Below is a targeted program for detoxifying heavy metals, among the most difficult toxins to eliminate from the body.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

James Howard Kunstler
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It is certainly possible to clean up the emissions from coal-fired power plants, but it makes electricity more expensive, and the political will to clean up the industry may not be there in a more austere economy. In any case, even if heavy metals and particulates are taken out of the emissions, coal will still produce large quantities of carbon dioxide, the chief suspect in global warming. In 2003, the Bush administration, in fact, eased pollution standards for the power industry.5 Coal mining is also very destructive to the landscape and habitats.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements

Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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Coal-fired power plants in China and other areas of Asia are not even equipped with rudimentary stack scrubbers. A few other industrial processes, including some paper mills and smelters, also produce SO2 (from the odor, people generally know where they are). Like the oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide is a major contributor to acid rain and smog. Corrosive acids (such as sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid) formed in the air can rain down to cause massive damage to wildlife, vegetation, streams, rivers, and lakes.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century

Alex Steffen
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A major cause of that pollution is China's continued reliance on aging coal-fired power plants, which generate 75 percent of the country's electricity, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Coal is also burnt to heat many private homes. Cars are the other leading cause of air pollution, and the situation may get much worse. According to an article on Chinadaily.com, Chinese officials expect to have 140 million cars on the road by 2020, seven times the number of cars now in China, and more cars than now exist in the United States (September 4, 2004).
The Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues is constructed from fly-ash concrete, a by-product of coal-fired power plants and an effective substitute for standard cement. Not only does the use of fly ash in construction put this waste product to use, it helps to reduce emissions by cement-manufacturing operations. The Vancouver Convention Centre: Canada's Largest Green Roof The Vancouver Convention Centre is being expanded to accommodate the media during the 201 o Olympics. The roof of the complex will feature a six-acre preserve of native coastal plants.
U.S. Congress and made to face angry politicians. Imagine the cigarette hearings of the 1990s, with an even angrier citizenry. We could see international lawsuits from communities most affected by global warming (and least to blame for it), backed by the threat of economic sanctions from bigger powers. Inuit groups have already filed suit [see Polar Regions, p. 527] against the United States for causing the melting of Arctic lands; even if that lawsuit is thrown out, it won't be the last one filed.

Reinheriting the Earth: Awakening to Sustainable Solutions and Greater Truths

Brian O'Leary
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The IPCC's warmer revision comes from the reduction of sulfate emissions from factories and coal-fired power plants that block sunlight and cool the atmosphere. This once compensated for global warming significantly. Things could get even worse. A special issue of The Ecologist points out insidious feedback loops that could trigger a runaway greenhouse effect. The human destruction of trees on land and phytoplankton in the oceans is reducing the Earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives

Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA
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Released by coal-fired power plants into the atmosphere, mercury falls with rain into lakes and streams. Microorganisms consume the mercury, and from that point it moves up the food chain and into ocean waters as fish eat the microorganisms, larger fish eat the smaller fish, and so on. Fish at the top of the marine food chain are the most contaminated, with mercury levels in their flesh that can exceed one part per million (ppm). The FDA has recommended that pregnant women completely avoid swordfish, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel.

The Healthy Home: An Attic-to-Basement Guide to Toxin-Free Living

Linda Mason Hunter
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Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been used for decades in coal-fired power plants to capture fine ash particles from smokestack gases. Home air cleaners employ the same principle: An array of wire electrodes give incoming airborne particles a positive electrical charge. Downstream, negatively charged metal plates attract the particles, which cling to the plates. ESPs can be highly effective in removing particulates from the processed air, and they are easy to wash. Air cleaners not equipped with ESPs typically use a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter instead.
The greatest risk to large populations is found near large coal-fired power plants on urban sites, near nuclear power plants that regularly vent emissions or have accidents, and around nuclear weapons factories, nuclear waste dumps, and uranium mines. WATER POLLUTION We Americans are not accustomed to worrying about our water. We just turn on the tap and there's enough water to take care of whatever task we need it for, from boiling vegetables to bathing to washing the family car.
ALUMINUM—HOT WIRING Saving energy is just one consideration when it comes to electricity. Safety is another concern. What kind of wiring does your house have? If you have aluminum, or aluminum sheathed in copper, it is not a safe house. Copper was scarce and expensive after World War II. To save money and keep up with demand, manufacturers of electrical wiring began to use aluminum as a substitute for copper conductors. Some aluminum wiring was used as early as 1947, and the practice was widespread by the 1960s.



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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.

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