Thanks to Franke James:

Severe pollution causing disease outbreaks, cancer, birth defects and decreasing male births in Great Lakes Communities according to a suppressed CDC report:

MONTREAL GAZETTE

Leaked report on the Great Lakes is a wake-up call

High levels of pollution pose a health threat. U.S., Canadian
decision-makers keep public in the dark for fear of lawsuits, expensive
cleanups, scientist says
WILLIAM MARSDEN The Gazette
Thursday, February 14, 2008

At least 9 million people living on the United States side of the Great
Lakes basin may be in danger from high levels of chemical pollution,
according to a secret study that has been withheld from the public.
The study was kept secret from the public for seven months until this week
when it was leaked to the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

The 400-page study was done by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention on behalf of the International Joint Commission, which oversees
issues relating to the joint management of the Great Lakes.
The study shows there are 26 “areas of concern (AOC),” where there are
elevated levels of illnesses that can be traced to pollution.

These areas of concern are spread out through all five of the Great Lakes
with particular intensity in Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. More than 9
million people live inside the boundaries of these AOCs.
The report states that illness in the populations “compares unfavourably …
with the U.S. population.”
For instance, the report identifies elevated levels of infant mortality in
26 AOCs, and of premature births in four AOCs.
The study also identified 108 hazardous waste sites, of which 71 are or
could be public health hazards.
Powerful lake currents can distribute the chemical and hydrocarbon
pollutants including dioxins throughout the Great Lakes system and down the
St. Lawrence River. Migratory marine life such as eels, which swim from Lake
Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, also distribute the pollutants.

The study mirrors a series of reports previously done by Health Canada in
the 1990s that revealed 17 Canadian AOCs, where there were elevated levels
of illnesses that could be traced to pollution.
When the Canadian reports were printed in 1998 they also were kept from the
public. In this case, Health Canada circulated them only to public health
officials in the 17 AOCs.

One study was leaked to a reporter in Windsor, Ont., in 2000, forcing Health
Canada to release the rest.
The Americans have claimed that their study was suppressed because the
science was substandard.
Michael Gilbertson, a former International Joint Commission scientist who
was one of three scientists to peer review the U.S. study, said the reasons
behind the suppression were political.

“Their real reason is that in the States and also in Canada at the moment
there is really a reluctance within the governments to acknowledge that
there are any effects of these chemicals on fish or wildlife or on human
health,” he said.
Gilbertson said the governments are afraid of lawsuits and expensive
cleanups.
“I mean you can find sources of chemicals in the environment,” he said. “But
if you actually find effects, this has a connotation of liability.
Governments are extremely reluctant to allow their scientists to start
making statements about the effects of chemicals on fish, wildlife or on
humans. Particularly on humans.”

The Canadian study, for example, found a series of outbreaks of Minamata
disease in Thunder Bay, Collingwood, Sarnia and Cornwall. Minamata disease,
which includes cerebral palsy among its symptoms, is caused by mercury
poisoning.
Each of the affected areas had large chlor-alkali plants that used mercury
for making chlorine. At various times between 1948 and 1995, these plants
released 742 tonnes of mercury into the Great Lakes. Mercury dumped in
Sarnia went down the St. Claire River to Lake St. Claire and then down the
Detroit River to Lake Erie.

Canadian research has also found an inexplicable drop in the male-female
ratio on the Aamjiwnaang Reserve near Sarnia. The number of male babies had
dropped 40 per cent in the mid-1990s. The reserve is surrounded by 46 large
chemical plants and refineries.

Furthermore, Health Canada studies showed, the Windsor area suffered from
much higher mortality and morbidity rates than in the rest of Ontario.

The federal government and the province of Ontario launched a program in
2000 to reduce pollution in the Great Lakes.
So far, two areas - Collingwood and nearby Severn Sound - have been removed
from the AOC list.
wmarsden@thegazette.canwest.com

- To see the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report go to
www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx
C The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

Kevin of Desmogblog has put together a document that actually shows the entire White House hatchet job on this critical CDC report on the effects of global warming on disease.

His biggest discovery? 50% of the report was redacted, over 1500 words. This is criminal and unscientific. Disease outbreaks are going to be a major negative result of climate change and it is the CDC’s mission to plan for them so that stockpiles of medicine can be prepared, hospitals prepped in advance and immunization programs launched. By censoring the message of this report the White House may be taking actions that could result in thousands of deaths in the future.

“SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the water supply for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running out. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater, and the water table is sinking fast.

Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. One new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.”

1 in 500 people in China have unfettered access to safe drinking water. The NYTimes article quoted above basically says that developers are building like crazy without considering availability of water. When the billions of people in China without water start looking for it there will be a major economic panic. Unlike oil, we cannot live without water. Disease spreads rapidly in water-depleted areas because you cannot prevent the spread of germs. There is no international water distribution system and water-reclamation technology is woefully backward and inefficient.
These factors and many more set the stage for economic wars over what should be this planet’s most bountiful and valued resource. Water issues are going to sneak up on us and there is no giant industry associated with them to hide the problem through disinformation campaigns designed to maximize profit opportunities.
Here in the US water is taken for granted in most areas, especially the northeast where I live. Yet we are in the midst of a severe drought right now that has lasted all summer and now is going into fall.

This trailer is a compelling brief look at a film that may eclipse An Inconvenient Truth in relevance right now. I am not a celebrity cause fan but by all reviews de Caprio has made a very important film that is frightening, provocative and relentlessly positive in its belief that we can change the world for the better. I can’t wait to see it.