Powerline update. The 765,000-volt powerline that AEP says is necessary to provide power to the eastern states (who have to spend more to generate electricity since they have to meet EPA clean air standards and AEP does not). It looks very much like government sponsored unfair competition. The new route which has preliminary approval from the Virginia State Corporation commission would go through Tazewell, Bland and Wythe Counties in Virginia. No one has said anything about the impacts on West Virginia counties, supposedly Wyoming and McDowell. The proposed route in Virginia will have negative impacts on 18 homes, karst topography in the region and the Wolf Creek Indian Museum. (October-November 2000 New River Free Press report). ª

Dangerous Toxins in Environment. Although the chemical companies have been waging a war of disinformation for years spending millions in advertising to downplay the serious hormonal toxicity of phthalates, a synthetic chemical used to soften plastics, out comes a new study which squarely puts the blame sexual development irregularities on this chemical which are the most abundant synthetic chemicals in the environment. A billion pounds a year are manufactured to add to plastic materials. In investigating why nearly one percent of baby girls under two years old in Puerto Rico have premature breast development, a major study over a 20 year span points quite conclusively to phthalates as the cause. On the average children in the US consume 5.8 milligrams of DEHP, the most potent phthalate. They get this dose mainly from food and water that have been stored in plastic containers or plastic wrap from plastic toys and teethers, inks used to print on plastic, cardboard and foil. The 30-year decline in sperm production in men in industrialized counties is though to be caused by phthalates or other similar chemical which act as hormones. The fetuses of pregnant woman are especially vulnerable to genital abnormalities and other birth defects. (From News on Earth, October 2000). ª

Dioxin in Arctic. Inuit women from Northern Canada have twice the levels of dioxin in their blood as those from Southern Quebec. It has been shown that 70 to 82 percent of the dioxin sources originate in the US. Most of this dioxin comes from medical; waste incinerators, from hazardous waste incinerators and metal processing facilities since the Inuit diet consists largely of fatty animals that have collected the toxins in their fat, they are more susceptible to this kind of poisoning. (From News on Earth, Oct. 2000) ª