'Very stupid': New York Times beclowns itself with botched 'fact-check,' proving RFK Jr.'s point



Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's proposed Health and Human Services secretary, has pledged to "Make America Healthy Again" primarily by tackling the "chronic disease epidemic" and the corporate capture of federal regulatory agencies.

The environmental lawyer's adjacency to the Republican president and his recent criticism of experimental gene therapies have made him a frequent target for criticism by lawmaking recipients of Big Pharma lobbying money and the liberal media. In their efforts to dunk on Kennedy, establishmentarians have in many cases exposed their true loyalties as well as their aversion to inconvenient facts.

The New York Times is now among the outfits that has risked such exposure in its desperation to characterize Kennedy as "wrong."

'The science shows that these dyes cause hyperactivity in children, can disrupt the immune system, and are contaminated with carcinogens.'

By attempting to miss a point that Kennedy was making in a recent interview, the Times' Christina Jewett and Julie Creswell unwittingly defended his thesis. Critics have since descended upon the liberal publication, mocking it over its botched fact-check.

At the outset of their article, titled "Kennedy’s Vow to Take On Big Food Could Alienate His New G.O.P. Allies," Jewett and Creswell wrote, "Boxes of brightly colored breakfast cereals, vivid orange Doritos and dazzling blue M&Ms may find themselves under attack in the new Trump administration."

After highlighting why food titans that produce unhealthy products are "nervous" about the incoming administration, Jewett and Creswell tried nitpicking through some of Kennedy's concerns, zeroing in on his recent remarks about the ingredients of Kellogg's Froot Loops cereal.

In September, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) moderated a four-hour round table discussion on Capitol Hill about American health and nutrition.

During her presentation, Vani Hari, a critic of the food industry who founded FoodBabe, shared the ingredient lists for multiple food products in the U.S. versus in Europe and stressed the need for limits on additives and dyes in breakfast cereals.

Together with Jason Karp, founder and CEO of the healthy living organization HumanCo., Hari highlighted the color difference between the Froot Loops cereal produced for American consumption and the version produced for consumption in Canada.

The brighter artificial colors are more attractive to children — and helpful with sales — but apparently harmful to their health.

Hari recently told Blaze News:

The science shows that these dyes cause hyperactivity in children, can disrupt the immune system, and are contaminated with carcinogens. There are safer colors available made from fruits and vegetables, such as beets and carrots. Food companies already don't use artificial dyes en masse in Europe because they don’t want to slap warning labels on their products that say they 'may cause adverse effects on attention in children.' If food companies like Kellogg's can reformulate their products without artificial dyes to sell in other countries, there is no reason why they can’t do that also here in America.

The food activist added, "As there are over 10,000 food additives approved for use in the United States, while Europe only allows 400, the [incoming] administration should prioritize taking control of the alarming amount of food additives in our food supply."

'This is of particular concern for fetuses and babies under the age of 6 months, whose blood-brain barrier is not fully developed.'

Kennedy appeared on Fox News the following day and referenced Hari's presentation, saying, "A box of Froot Loops from Canada or from Europe ... has a completely different group of ingredients. It's actually colored with vegetable oils, which are safe. Ours are colored with chemical oils, which are very, very dangerous."

Following the election, Kennedy revisited the example in a MSNBC interview, saying offhand, "Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada and it's got two or three?"

The Times seized on Kennedy's critique of Froot Loop, writing:

Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version. But he was wrong. The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada's has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used "for freshness," according to the ingredient label.

In the same paragraph that the Times claimed Kennedy was wrong about Froot Loops having more artificial ingredients in Canada than in the U.S., the liberal publication effectively pointed out he was right on the money.

According to the National Library of Medicine, butylated hydroxytoluene — used as a preservative in fats and oils as well as in packaging material for fat-containing foods — has been shown in animal studies to increase serum cholesterol, reduce growth in baby rats, and increase absolute liver weight. The NLM and the Canadian government also recognize BHT as harmful to the environment.

Red dye 40 is made from petroleum and has been approved by the FDA for use in food and drinks. It has been linked in some studies to hyperactivity disorders in children. The Cleveland Clinic indicated that red dye 40 also has various potential side effects, including depression, irritability, and migraines.

Yellow dye 5 or tartazine is another synthetic food colorant linked to numerous adverse health effects. It is reportedly restricted in Austria and Norway owing to the allergies, asthma, skin rashes, hyperactivity, and migraines it can apparently cause.

A 2021 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Nutrition noted that blue dye 1 has been found to cause chromosomal aberrations and "was found to inhibit neurite growth and act synergistically with L-glutamic acid in vitro, suggesting the potential for neurotoxicity. This is of particular concern for fetuses and babies under the age of 6 months, whose blood-brain barrier is not fully developed."

'This is beyond absurd.'

The paper noted further that having found blue dye 1 to have cytotoxic and genotoxic effects, some researchers "advise that caution must be exercised when using it for coloring food."

Children are the biggest consumers of such artificial food dyes.

Critics blasted the Times over its bizarre "fact-check," which said he was wrong then unwittingly explained why he was right.

"This is what passes for a 'fact check' at The New York Times," wrote Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. "The media lie a lot, but fortunately for us, they are also VERY stupid."

"Americans are being poisoned under the status quo food and health institutions, and regime media wants you to believe that Bobby Kennedy pushing for reform is somehow the problem. Make it make sense!" added Kirk.

Molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University tweeted, "I read the paragraph multiple times yesterday, trying to make sense of what the idiot writer had written. I could only conclude that the idiot writer had written the equivalent of '2 + 2 = 5.'"

One critic quipped, "'As you see, the ingredient list is just completely identical, except the US product contains formaldehyde, cyanide, and nearly undetectable levels of saxitoxin."

"Crazy," tweeted Elon Musk.

Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman wrote, "This is beyond absurd. The @nytimes says @RobertKennedyJr 'was wrong' about Froot Loops having too many artificial ingredients compared to its Canadian version, and then goes on to explain the artificial colorings and preservatives in the U.S. vs the Canadian version. @RobertKennedyJr is right and The NY Times is an embarrassment."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) noted, "In their defense, their comedy writers are really strong."

The Times has since blamed an "editing error" and rewritten its Orwellian paragraph to read:

Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many ingredients. In an interview with MSNBC on Nov. 6, he questioned the overall ingredient count: 'Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients and you go to Canada and it has two or three?' Mr. Kennedy asked. He was wrong on the ingredient count, they are roughly the same. But the Canadian version does have natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness, according to the ingredient label.

The New York Times' credibility has taken a massive hit in recent months and years. After all, it was an exponent of the Russian collusion hoax; falsely claimed Trump supporters killed U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with a fire extinguisher; falsely reported on the basis of terrorist propaganda that Israel blew up a Gazan hospital; and suggested that the Babylon Bee, a satire website, was a "far-right misinformation site."

Despite its trouble getting the facts right, it recently teamed up with Media Matters to get BlazeTV hosts censored, citing concerns over "misinformation."

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Alex Jones was right to worry? Doctor warns Joe Rogan about infamous pesticide that emasculates frogs



Dr. Casey Means, the Stanford University-educated chief medical officer of the metabolic health company Levels, further vindicated Alex Jones' longstanding concerns about atrazine, an endocrine disruptor and one of America's most widely used pesticides, in Tuesday's episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience."

When asked about the increasing commonality of early onset puberty, Means said, "We are living in this wildly estrogenic environment that is created by humans."

Means suggested that the ingestion of plastics — which behave like xenoestrogens when broken down — has proven hugely impactful, affecting humans as early as in the womb. She indicated further that pesticides have also played a starring role, particularly those that increase aromatase — "the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen."

The physician called out one pesticide by name: atrazine.

"So atrazine ... is banned in Europe, but we spray 70 million pounds of it per year in the U.S.," said Means. "We buy it from other countries. So China and Germany and other countries are selling us a chemical of which 70 million pounds are spread on our food — invisible and tasteless, which up-regulates aromatase and converts testosterone to estrogen."

"How are we allowing this to happen? Of course it's affecting boys too," continued Means. "It's not like there's a bunch of exogenous testosterones, right. It's not like the plastics are also stimulating testosterone."

Means is hardly the only person in the burgeoning Make America Healthy Again movement willing to discuss atrazine and other apparently ruinous pesticides.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently told Dr. Jordan Peterson, "The second-most used chemical in this country, pesticide in this country, is atrazine. It's banned in Europe, banned all over the world, but we use it here. It's in 63% of our drinking water."

"We don't know what impact it's having on our children," Kennedy later added.

Kennedy noted in June 2022 on his own podcast, "If you expose frogs to atrazine, male frogs, it changes their sex, and they can actually bear young. They can lay eggs, fertile eggs."

'They have zero chance of reproducing.'

"And so the capacity for these chemicals that we are just raining down on our children right now to induce these very profound sexual changes in them is something we need to be thinking about as a society," added Kennedy, who warned elsewhere that the entire Midwest's water supply is "coated" with atrazine.

Atrazine was the chemical Alex Jones was alluding to in his now-famous 2015 rant, in which he yelled, "I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that turn the frigging frogs gay!"

Jones, like Kennedy, was referencing the finding by University of California, Berkeley endocrinologist and amphibian biologist Tyrone Hayes that atrazine "wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females."

"These male frogs are missing testosterone and all the things that testosterone controls, including sperm. So their fertility is as low as 10 percent in some cases, and that is only if we isolate those animals and pair them with females," Hyes told UC Berkeley News in 2010. "In an environment where they are competing with unexposed animals, they have zero chance of reproducing."

Some male frogs morphed into hermaphrodites and mated with other males.

'Do you want to take a chance, what with all the other things that we know atrazine does, not just to humans but to rodents and frogs and fish?'

Hayes said, "We have animals that are females, in the sense that they behave like females: They have estrogen, lay eggs, they mate with other males. Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."

The university paper noted:

Some 80 million pounds of the herbicide atrazine are applied annually in the United States on corn and sorghum to control weeds and increase crop yield, but such widespread use also makes atrazine the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water, according to various studies. More and more research, however, is showing that atrazine interferes with endocrine hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone – in fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, laboratory rodents and even human cell lines at levels of parts per billion. Recent studies also found a possible link between human birth defects and low birth weight and atrazine exposure in the womb.

Syngenta, an agricultural company that makes the pesticide, tried downplaying the findings.

According to the New Yorker, a freelance science columnist whose nonprofit organization received tens of thousands of dollars from Syngenta, wrote a Fox News hit piece attacking Hayes, trying to characterize his paper in the journal Nature as junk science.

Hayes doubled down, saying, "Not every frog or every human will be affected by atrazine, but do you want to take a chance, what with all the other things that we know atrazine does, not just to humans but to rodents and frogs and fish?"

When Alex Jones picked up on Hayes' findings, much of the ire previously assigned the scientist was redirected.

CNBC, for instance, characterized Jones' suggestion that "chemicals in the water are turning frogs gay" as one of his "5 most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories."

In a piece disputing Jones' claims that the government could manipulate the weather and that fluoride in the drinking water can dumb people down, Forbes also suggested that Jones had misinterpreted the results of Hayes' study.

'One of the most significant health issues that affects couples is infertility.'

The unfortunate truth about atrazine has clearly survived such distortion efforts by Big Ag and the corporate media.

Just months ago, the esteemed peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports published a study confirming that "atrazine exposure is toxic to the testis and affects the normal structure of the seminiferous tubules and sperms."

"Pesticides like atrazine which are frequently present in everyday surroundings, have adverse impacts on human health and may contribute to male infertility," said the study.

The study makes no secret of the adverse impacts the pesticide can have on reproductive systems:

In adult females, atrazine consumption has been linked to early onset of pituitary and mammary cancers, extension of the estrous cycle, decreased weight gain caused by estradiol in the uterus, reduced uterine cytosolic progesterone receptor binding, and reduced estradiol-caused uterine weight growth. Male adults who are exposed to atrazine may experience reduced weights in the anterior pituitary, the prostate, and the hypothalamus, decreased levels of dihydrotestosterone attaching to the androgen receptor, as well as decreased spermatozoa quantity and motility. One of the most significant health issues that affects couples is infertility. Around 30% of these cases are caused by male factors. There are other factors including chemotherapy, environmental toxins, and drug use that can harm spermatogenesis and affect normal sperm production.

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Britain bans private prescriptions of puberty blockers to kids, citing 'serious danger to health'



Britain has managed in recent months to break the stranglehold of gender ideology. This liberation has been expedited by the April release of Dr. Hilary Cass' final report entitled, "The Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People."

The report, the result of a multiyear investigation now referred to as the Cass Review, was commissioned by National Health Service England in 2020. To the chagrin of LGBT activists and other radicals, the Cass Review effectively demolished gender ideologues' arguments in favor of genital mutilation, puberty blockers, and other so-called "gender-affirming care."

The Cass Review noted, for instance, that the "systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence."

It also indicated that while puberty blockers "exert their intended effect in suppressing puberty," they compromise bone density and have no apparent impact on "gender dysphoria or body satisfaction."

Among the report's various recommendations was a call for a moratorium on prescriptions of puberty blockers to kids.

The British government heeded Cass' suggestion this week, banning puberty blockers in private clinics.

'Today I have taken bold action to protect children.'

British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkins tweeted, "Today I have taken bold action to protect children following the Cass Review, using emergency powers to ban puberty blockers for new treatments of gender dysphoria from private clinics and for all purposes from overseas prescribers into Great Britain."

The drugs in question, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, also known as GnRHa, have long been used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

Blaze News previously reported that these sex offender drugs were rebranded in recent years as puberty blockers and offered to confused children despite evidence showing that such treatments deplete victims' bone density, create sexless adults, hamper cognitive development, and produce mood disorders.

National Health Service England banned them in public clinics in March, recognizing them as neither safe nor effective.

The health minister's Wednesday order, "The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024," will now spare children from the sex offender drugs outside the government system as well, prohibiting the sale or supply of GnRH analogues.

The order, which goes into effect on June 3, states that the ban is necessary "to avoid serious danger to health."

"Our children deserve health care that is compassionate, caring, and careful, and that is what a Conservative Government would deliver," said Atkins, who indicated the ban will also close prescription loopholes.

Gender ideologues and other radicals sporting pronouns in their profiles lashed out at Atkins as they had at Cass, recycling the now-debunked claims about "gender-affirming care" saving lives.

Chris Noone, a researcher at the University of Galway and a board member on the National LGBT Federation, for instance, said the government's decision to protect children from sex offender drugs was "cruel, heartless & rash. The Cass Review should not dictate policy considering its serious flaws & you have now suddenly taken away a vital support for many children without considering the very likely & very significant harm you will cause them."

The ban was celebrated by others, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who wrote, "This is very welcome. I've met parents in Fareham whose children were put on puberty blockers, regretting it years later. Children must not be placed on puberty blockers as a way of treating gender dysphoria. Child safeguarding must always come first, not gender ideology."

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Cancer-causing chemicals found in East Palestine soil as high as hundreds of times greater than past EPA safety recommendation



The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the soil in East Palestine does not contain dangerous levels of a cancer-causing chemical. However, a past scientific recommendation from the EPA contradicts that assertation.

Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator Debra Shore said there were "very low levels" of dioxins during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

"We detected very low levels, which very quickly went even down to non-detect. Without those primary indicators, it was a very low probability that dioxins would have been created,” Shore told Congress. "They are secondary byproducts of the burning of vinyl chloride, but we were listening to the community and they expressed significant concerns about toxins."

The EPA waited a month before ordering dioxin testing near the toxic Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Pace Analytical, an independent lab based in Indiana, released a report on whether there were dangerous concentrations of chemicals in soil samples from East Palestine.

The Guardian reported, "Regulators establish the toxicity of dioxins in a soil sample by calculating the 'toxicity equivalence' of all dioxins in the soil compared with the most toxic dioxin compound, called 2,3,7,8 TCDD. East Palestine soil showed levels of '2,3,7,8 TCDD toxicity equivalence' of 700 parts per trillion (ppt)."

Since 1998, the EPA determined that dioxin soil concentrations of less than 1,000 parts per trillion (ppt) were safe for residential areas and between 5,000 ppt to 20,000 ppt in commercial and industrial soil. Anything above those levels would trigger a cleanup.

However in 2010, the EPA proposed drastic reductions in what concentration of dioxin the agency determined to be safe based on the "best available peer-reviewed science." The concentration of dioxins in the East Palestine soil samples is as much as hundreds of times greater than the threshold from the EPA's safety recommendation from 2010.

The EPA declared in 2010, "Based on a consideration of oral and dermal exposures to dioxin, EPA has developed the following draft recommended interim PRGs for dioxin in soil: 72 ppt for residential soil and 950 ppt for commercial/industrial soil."

The environmental agency stated, "EPA believes that these draft recommended interim PRGs would generally provide adequate protection against non-cancer effects, and generally should protect against cancer effects."

However, the EPA also considered lowering the threshold far more to protect Americans against cancer and other health issues.

"EPA is considering (and requesting comment on) an alternative concentration of 3.7 ppt TEQ in residential soil and 17 ppt TEQ in commercial/industrial soil as draft interim preliminary remediation goals," the agency said in its Draft Recommended Interim Preliminary Remediation Goals for Dioxin in Soil.

The EPA proclaimed that the 3.7 ppt concentration "would be protective for cancer and non-cancer effects."

Mathy Stanislaus, EPA assistant administrator for solid waste and emergency response, said in 2010: "We're driven by the need to protect against excessive risk of both cancer and non-cancer health concerns. We believe (the current standards) are not sufficiently protective and more stringent numbers are needed."

The Obama administration killed the proposed decrease in the dioxin threshold at the time, according to Global News.

Dioxin concentrations that require cleanups are much lower in several states, including 90 ppt in Michigan, and 50 ppt in California.

The EPA released a statement regarding the soil samples, "The available data, analyzed and validated by an independent laboratory, shows the waste from East Palestine that went to Indiana does not contain harmful levels of dioxins."

Linda Birnbaum, a leading dioxins researcher, toxicologist, and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said the burning of vinyl chloride from the train derailment could have created dioxins.

Birnbaum added, "The levels are not screaming high, but we have confirmed that dioxins are in East Palestine's soil. The EPA must test the soil in the area more broadly."

Carsten Prasse, an organic chemist at Johns Hopkins University, told The Guardian, "I certainly wouldn't be comfortable living there."

The EPA website notes that dioxins are persistent organic pollutants that "take a long time to break down once they are in the environment."

The EPA warns: "Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones."

The World Health Organization states, "Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system, and reproductive functions."

A paper published in Environmental Sciences Europe – a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering environmental science – warns of the dangers of endocrine-disrupting dioxins:

Dioxins are a group of highly persistent lipophilic chemicals produced as a by-product to several industrial and natural processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper and pulp, in production of some pesticides, biomedical and plastic waste incineration. Chemically it is 2,3,7,8- tetrachlorodibenzo para dioxin (TCDD) and is considered a “dirty dozen” that is a cluster of hazardous chemicals also known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) as they resist biological and environmental degradation. They are of concern because of their highly toxic nature and ability to get absorbed by fat tissue and stored in the body for long periods (7–11 years). They are known to cause serious reproductive, developmental, and cancer problems.

President Joe Biden has not visited East Palestine since the toxic train derailment happened on Feb. 3. More than two weeks ago, Biden promised that he would "be out there at some point."

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Skittles, Campbell's soup, Hostess donuts, jelly beans, more could be banned under proposed bill



A California lawmaker introduced a bill banning additives used in Skittles, jelly beans, Campbell's soup, some bread brands, and more, Cnet and other outlets reported.

"Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals," said California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D) in a press release.

Gabriel is the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection.

"This bill will correct for a concerning lack of federal oversight and help protect our kids, public health, and the safety of our food supply," the lawmaker also said of Assembly Bill 418.

If enacted, beloved candies, soups, and breads would become illegal to manufacture or sell in the state. Foods on the chopping block include Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, jelly beans, Trident sugar-free gum, Pez, Hostess desserts, Campbell's soup, Old El Paso queso sauce, certain brands of bread, and more.

The bill would be the first in the United States to ban the use of the named additives in processed foods. Gabriel notes that processed foods and candies containing the substances are "marketed to children, low-income consumers, and communities of color."

Gabriel's bill proposes a prohibition on "manufacturing, selling, delivering, distributing, holding, or offering for sale" food containing any of five substances. The substances are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl paraben, red dye 3, and titanium dioxide.

The targeted substances are already banned in the European Union over public health concerns, according to Gabriel's statement. Those health risks, Gabriel says, include an increased cancer risk, behavioral issues for children, reproductive harm, and damage to the immune system.

"Why are these toxic chemicals in our food?" said Susan Little, the Environmental Working Group’s Governmental Affairs Senior Advocate for California.

"We know they are harmful and that children are likely eating more of these chemicals than adults. It makes no sense that the same products food manufacturers sell in California are sold in the EU but without these toxic chemicals. We thank Assemblymember Gabriel’s efforts to remove these toxic additives from California’s food supply," Little also said.

Directors from companies including the National Confectioners Association, California Grocers Association and the American Chemistry Council oppose the bill, the Daily Mail reported. The groups say the bill is premature and that the targeted substances are safe.

"All five of these additives have been thoroughly reviewed by the federal and state systems and many international scientific bodies and continue to be deemed safe," the letter says.

The confectionery industry creates $7.7 billion of economic impact in California, according to the National Confectioners Association. The industry provides over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Golden State.

"We create good-paying jobs manufacturing chocolate, candy, gum and mints and support thousands of additional American jobs through the sourcing of our raw materials and distribution and sale of finished products," the organization says.

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Researchers at Texas A&M contradict Biden official, reveal toxic pollutants still airborne in East Palestine could pose long-term risks



Independent analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data concerning the fallout of the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has revealed that, contrary to previous claims made by EPA officials, there continue to be abnormally high levels of airborne toxins that could jeopardize the long-term health of residents in the area.

A team of researchers from Texas A&M have scrutinized EPA data and found elevated levels of chemicals known to cause not only various symptoms including headaches and eye and lung irritation, but possibly also cancer.

Researchers noted in a Friday Twitter post that the levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene — "a group of volatile chemicals referred to as 'BTEX'" — appeared to be similar to "normal" levels.

However, they also noted that "some concentrations in East Palestine (OH) for 9 out of ~50 chemicals EPA reported are higher than 'normal.' If these levels continue, they may be of health concern (especially acrolein)."

The CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry noted that acrolein, a pesticide, is "used to make chemical weapons" at higher concentrations.

If breathed in at low levels for a short time, then individuals exposed may experience watery eyes and sore throats. Those exposed to higher levels may see their lungs "affected more severely and for a longer time. Breathing in very high levels of acrolein might affect your lungs so severely that you might die."

The agency indicated, "No one knows if breathing or eating acrolein or spilling it on your skin causes birth defects, affects your ability to have children, or causes cancer. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has not classified acrolein as to its carcinogenicity."

"In animal studies, ingestion of very large amounts of acrolein during pregnancy caused reduced birth weights and skeletal deformities in newborns. However, the levels causing these effects were often fatal to the mother," revealed the ATSDR.

According to the Texas A&M researchers' analysis of the EPA data, the "[hazard quotient] for median in East Palestine" after the derailment was 7. The "[hazard quotient] for highest in East Palestine" was 40.

Both these figures are significantly higher than the norm. The "HQ for median county in USA (EPA NATA 2014)" was 0.89, and the "HQ for highest county in USA" was 6.1.

\u201cUpdate (2/3) Compared to EPA National Air Toxics data (NATA 2014), some concentrations in East Palestine (OH) for 9 out of ~50 chemicals EPA reported are higher than \u201cnormal.\u201d If these levels continue, they may be of health concern (especially acrolein).\u201d
— Texas A&M Superfund Research Center (@Texas A&M Superfund Research Center) 1677253607

Weihsueh Chiu, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology at Texas A&M, told the Washington Post that while the EPA publicly posted the data it had collected between Feb. 4 and Feb. 21, it provided it without context that shows "potential concern about long-term health effects."

"We can’t say whether these levels are causing the current symptoms," said Chiu, adding that the EPA "would want to definitely make sure that these higher levels that are detected would be reduced before they left and declared everything cleaned up."

Michael Regan, the Biden-nominated administrator of the EPA, claimed in the wake of Norfolk Southern's release of various toxins, including a gas used as a weapon of mass slaughter in World War I, that "if your home has been tested and you've been given the green light, the air is safe."

Regan doubled down this week, telling NPR, "With the air quality analysis we've done — and we're using some of the most, you know, high-experience technology that we have for both air and water — the data is coming back demonstrating that there are no levels of concern for adverse health impacts."

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New reports on Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick's possible cause of death could rule out murder charges



The FBI is exploring whether U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died from a fatal reaction to bear spray or mace, after video emerged showing the officer being sprayed with a chemical substance during the Jan. 6 attack on the building according to several reports.

One outlets says that a "potential assailant" has been singled out in the investigation, and the new speculation over Sicknick's cause of death could rule out a murder charge in the case.

What are the details?

Officer Sicknick defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 during the attack from a pro-Trump mob, and passed away the next day from causes that remain a mystery. Earlier reports stated that he was struck with a fire extinguisher during the siege, but Sicknick's mother dismissed those claims earlier this week, saying, "He wasn't hit on the head, no. We think he had a stroke, but we don't know anything for sure. We'd love to know what happened."

Authorities have remained mum on the issue, still refusing to release autopsy or toxicology reports more than seven weeks later.

But sources leaked to several news outlets Friday claiming that investigators are focused on a video that shows Sicknick being sprayed with a chemical substance.

CNN first reported on the video two weeks ago, saying that "federal authorities have narrowed down to a handful the number of suspects" in Sicknick's death and that "one leading theory that investigators are considering is that the suspects sprayed an irritant, perhaps bear spray, that caused Sicknick to suffer a fatal reaction."

According to The Washington Post:

The video could offer prosecutors a path to charging someone in connection with Sicknick's death — though they still have to identify the assailant and would then have to establish that the spraying proved fatal. Prosecutors, instead, might consider bringing assault charges.

The New York Times reported Friday that the FBI "has singled out a potential assailant" according to sources, calling it "a significant breakthrough in the case."

The Times claims that the unnamed suspect was "seen on video of the riot [attacking] several officers with bear spray, including Officer Sicknick, according to the officials. And video evidence shows that the assailant discussed attacking officers with the bear spray beforehand, one of the officials said."

Times reporter Katie Benner tweeted, "FBI pinpointed Officer Sicknick's assailant, a man seen on video wielding bear spray. Murder looks unlikely, but prosecutors could build a case around assaulting an officer, w.seriously increased penalties because Sicknick died."