Pesticide

In this article it talks about how congress is now passing further regulations on the existance on fluoride in drinking water. Thought in the past to be beneficial to children's teeth, experts are saying now that over exposure to fluoride can cause both tooth and bone decay. The pesticide being regulated is known as sulfuryl fluoride and it is used in treating cocoa products and dried fruits. It was also used for the 50 years prior to 2004 as an anti-termite insecticide. However, now experts are coming to the conclusion that we have been over exposed to fluoride all of this time and that we need to change this by first cutting the amount we are exposed to in our drinking water.



http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/01/11/11greenwire-epa-proposes-phaseout-of-fluoride-based-pestic-97414.html?scp=1&sq=pesticide&st=cse

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Friday:
-Pack of blueberry poptarts and glass of 2% milk
-Egg bagel w/ butter & Bottle of water
-12 inch flatbread sub (turkey, ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce) & Iced Tea
-4 soft tacos (homemade not from taco bell) & iced tea

Saturday:
-2 Packs of blueberry poptarts and milk
-pack of strawberry poptarts
-12 inch flatbread sub & iced tea
-grilled chicken and seasoned potatoes & iced tea

Sunday:
- Egg sandwich
- chips ahoy cookies & milk
- turkey ham and cheese wrap
- sweet & sour chicken w/ fried rice & iced tea

Man With Aids, Cured?

I remembered seeing a story about this on the news about a month ago, so i looked online for an article about it. Basically, a man living in germany with both HIV, and Leukemia, has been cured of both illnesses. After receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor, and intense chemotherapy the man was unsuccessfully cured of leukemia. However, after a second stem cell transplant from the same donor, the man was cured of his leukemia and has now tested negative for HIV as well for the last 3 years. The reason this happenned is because the donor had a rare 1 in a million gene mutation that attacks HIV cells. This has since opened a door for new gene therapy research and the possibility of finding a more realistic cure for HIV. Although in this case, the man was cured of HIV it is not practical for large scale use because there was a 30% chance that he could have died while undergoing the treatment. Also, he would have never been given the opportunity for the stem cell transplant if he had not had leukemia as well.

Nuclear Waste Dumping in Texas

After reading this article about the dumping of nuclear waste in Texas, I was quite taken back. According to the article, there was a previous agreement between Vermont and Texas that would allow the states to dump low level nuclear waste into a dump site in Texas. However, a new dump site in Andrews, Texas, near the New Mexico state line is now proposing the ability for 36 other states to dump their waste there as well. This would be bad for vermont because it is planning on shutting down its nuclear powerplant the Vermont Yankee which would create a large amount of nuclear waste. However, with 36 other states now invited to use the new dump site that means there is less available space for vermont to dump.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/a-last-minute-choice-by-texas-and-vermont/?ref=science

MAKE UP BLOG FOR WEEK OF 12/13