Globe is blowing it right in your face, too:
"The FDA issues a warning: Teen vaping is ‘an epidemic’" by Jonathan Saltzman and Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff September 13, 2018
The head of the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that teenage use of flavored electronic cigarettes has become “an epidemic” and ordered the five biggest manufacturers to say within 60 days how they will address it or face removal of their products from the market.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb sent letters to the companies that control 97 percent of the e-cigarette market. He said manufacturers have paid lip service to previous entreaties to halt sales to teens.
“I’ve been warning the e-cigarette industry for more than a year that they needed to do much more to stem the youth trends,” he said in a statement. “In my view, they treated these issues like a public relations challenge rather than seriously considering their legal obligations, the public health mandate, and the existential threat to these products.”
Health officials in Massachusetts, which has been in the forefront of efforts to combat teen use of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products, welcomed the crackdown.
Just wondering who put him there.
Didn't the very same officials vigorously protest his appointment?
E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among middle- and high-school students, said the survey. About 2.1 million students said they used electronic cigarettes, compared with 1.4 million who smoked traditional cigarettes. Of those students who used tobacco, many reported also using e-cigarettes.
They call it vaping.
An 18-year-old sophomore at Clark University in Worcester told the Globe she has no trouble buying a four-pack of JUUL pods containing nicotine for about $16 at a gas station near campus, even though Worcester has set the legal age at 21.
She said JUUL e-cigarettes are addictive but better than the ones she used to smoke.
“I would rather have a JUUL and use it occasionally than smoke cigarettes at the rate I used to,” said the student, who asked not to be identified. “There’s a super-high nicotine content in JUUL pods, but it’s not all the tar and the disgusting fillers that are in cigarettes.”
Dr. Michael B. Siegel, a professor and tobacco researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health, said he supports enforcing laws against youth vaping but worries that a potential ban on flavored e-cigarettes could imperil millions of adult former smokers who have relied on them to quit. Without flavors, e-cigarettes will taste like tobacco.
“It’s going to be a constant reminder every time they vape about how much they enjoy that tobacco,” Siegel said. “The most likely thing that will happen is they’ll revert back to smoking.” And smoking is deadly, while vaping, although addictive, “isn’t killing anyone,” he said.
Found a diamond in the rough, did ya'?
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They want you to put on a patch and go into therapy.
Related: Globe's Family Juuls
What is that stink?
"Marijuana dispensary slams state for pesticide bust" by Dan Adams Globe Staff September 13, 2018
Members of the Massachusetts medical marijuana industry are warning that a state crackdown on their use of pesticides — including natural compounds used widely on organic food — would cripple growing operations and threaten the supply of cannabis to patients who rely on the drug.
They have ways and ways again to slow down the smoking.
Regulators at the state Department of Public Health ordered Colorado-based medical marijuana company Good Chemistry to close its growing and processing operation in Bellingham and its dispensary in Worcester after a routine inspection earlier this month.
Inspectors for the department said in a cease -and-desist order that workers at the Bellingham facility had applied unapproved pesticides to its cannabis crop, and that marijuana flower and other products derived from the crop posed “an immediate or serious threat” to public health and safety. It referred the investigation to the state Department of Agricultural Resources, or MDAR, which regulates the use of pesticides on crops including, as of last year, marijuana.
So that is what made the gas lines blow up!
Good Chemistry, however, insists there is no threat.
Still going to have to “destroy the crop!!”
Industry members say the Department of Public Health previously allowed the use of pesticides for marijuana that had been approved by the federal government for use on organic food, but last year, the health department ceded oversight of pesticides to MDAR amid a broader set of regulatory adjustments.
MDAR has ruled that cannabis growers can only use pesticides approved for use on marijuana by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA, a federal agency, has refused to approve pesticides for use on marijuana because the drug remains illegal under federal law. MDAR’s policy, therefore, amounts to a de facto ban on any pesticides.
Not that I care, but it is comforting to know that sick and ill people will have to suffer longer.
Maybe you can get 'em on a pill from Big Pharma.
Katie Gronendyke, an MDAR spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that her department “is committed to ensuring that all pesticides used in the Commonwealth undergo rigorous testing, and as a result requires that all pesticides be registered with the federal Environmental Protection Agency before being considered for approved use.”
For once!
They don't care about the GMOs in the food or all the other chemicals bestowed upon the food that runs into the groundwater, etc, etc, etc. It's always this hokey-finokey climate change carbon tax $h!t presented as the most immediate threat (yeah, never mind the massive methane leaks from fracking along with the decrepit infrastructure).
That is not to say I want my food or any other thing covered in pesticides, either, but that is not the concern of the $tate. They didn't like any of this from the start, not even the medical.
DPH officials said the department had in fact never allowed the use of pesticides, natural or otherwise, and that its updated regulations make the rule clear.
They regularly lie right to your face up here so you can grab your salt shaker.
“The use of pesticides of any kind by a Registered Marijuana Dispensary in the cultivation of medical marijuana is prohibited under both Department of Public Health and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources regulations,” a DPH spokeswoman said in a statement. “DPH does not condone the use of pesticides of any kind, including organic pesticides, and continues to work with its partners at MDAR to educate the industry on meeting the regulatory requirements of both agencies.”
Before the department rewrote its rules last fall, its regulation stated that the “application of any non-organic pesticide in the cultivation of marijuana is prohibited. All cultivation must be consistent with US Department of Agriculture organic requirements.”
Jay Youmans, a lobbyist for Good Chemistry and other marijuana companies who previously worked at DPH and helped draft its regulations, disputed officials’ assertion that pesticides have never been allowed.
No!
“DPH’s intention in drafting these regulations was absolutely to incentivize and allow for organic cultivation practices,” Youmans said.
Who you gonna believe?
According to publicly available records, Good Chemistry disclosed its intention to use the three organic pesticides before it opened — once in its license application to the health department, and again in later filings describing the details of its growing operation.
Public records show that several other dispensaries also told regulators they planned to use similar organic pesticides — yet only Good Chemistry has been shuttered by the state. Smith, the company’s lawyer, said Good Chemistry was punished because it studiously documented the chemicals applied to its plants on a checklist reviewed by inspectors, while other operators have worked to hide their use of pesticides during inspections.
“Being a transparent company, Good Chemistry kept a complete log of everything they do to every plant, and they showed the log to DPH,” said Jim Smith, a lawyer for Good Chemistry. “It’s unfair and harmful to their reputation.”
So which well-connected pol or fop did they offend?
However, Smith conceded that Good Chemistry should have separately applied to the state for permission to use the pesticides.
Oh, okay, he admits guilt. Keep 'em closed. Put 'em out of business.
Two marijuana executives from other companies, including one at a marijuana testing lab, said DPH regulators earlier this year verbally reassured cannabis operators they could use organic pesticides — as long as the results from required lab tests showed the products didn’t contain any of the nine synthetic pesticides explicitly banned by the state for use on marijuana. The executives asked to remain anonymous because they feared retribution from regulators.
Think of that for a minute.
It's like the "regulators" -- meaning government -- is a crime boss.
Why would anyone fear retribution from government, especially in the bluest-of-the-blkue states? Or anywhere in AmeriKa for that matter?
I mean, we are constantly told by the lying and looting politicians and the mouthpiece pre$$ organs how they are doing the people's will in our lovely democracy (unless their candidate doesn't win).
Why would anyone fear retribution from that or for blowing whistles on problems in this tran$parent paradi$e?
Officials did not respond to that assertion, or to questions about whether the health department was aware that Good Chemistry and other operators disclosed their intention to use pesticides in applications and other required submissions to the state.
Because they don't have to!
Now believe what they say!
Marijuana cultivation experts said that because of New England’s climate, it’s nearly impossible to grow cannabis without using pesticides and still meet tight state limits on the presence of microbes in marijuana.
Adam Gendreau, a growing and processing consultant who works with marijuana companies in Massachusetts and other states, said pesticides similar to those used by Good Chemistry are staples at cultivation operations here and across the country.
“They’re completely common,” Gendreau said. “Especially in Massachusetts — this is a very humid environment in which there is lots of ambient yeast mold in the air. You’re growing these very dense, heavy, moist flowers, and they tend to be strong breeding grounds for it to grow.”
The Good Chemistry flap is only the latest incident to shine a spotlight on the state’s troubled marijuana-testing regimen. The Globe reported last month that testing labs are divided over how to accurately test for microbes in marijuana, and that state regulators have done little to reconcile disparities in their results.
They held on to the damn joint until it burned down to the end.
Steve Hoffman, chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission, said in a recent interview with WGBH that the commission was aware of the problems and would work to solve them.....
Yup.
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
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Related:
"Boston police Tuesday seized a package containing 20 bags of suspected marijuana that had been mailed to a Dorchester building housing several FM radio stations, including 92.9 FM, 96.9 FM, and 105.7 FM, officials said. The seizure of the suspected pot occurred around 6:45 p.m. at 55 Morrissey Boulevard, according to Boston police. The marijuana was addressed to a specific person who does not work in the building or for the company that owns the stations, police said. Authorities declined to disclose the name of the intended recipient. Marijuana is legal in Massachusetts, but individuals can only possess 1 ounce or less in public. Sales are only permitted by licensed dispensaries....."
I wonder jwho it might be.
They took the pot and “forwarded it to the State Lab for analysis.”
State reaches agreement in another Dookhan lawsuit
There was massive corruption over there before the Globe discovered the state troopers, and the costs are now reaching into five figures.
Btw, what was a “bag of crack doing on the desk of the guy in charge?”
What do you mean they never prosecuted and the beer flowed at the afterparty?
Speaking of pesticides:
"Court orders ban on harmful pesticide, says EPA violated law" by Michael Biesecker Associated Press August 09, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping the widely used pesticide chlorpyrifos on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies’ brains.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days.
A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued last year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruits, apples and other crops. The attorneys general for several states joined the case against EPA, including California, New York and Massachusetts.
In a split decision, the court said Thursday that Pruitt, a Republican forced to resign earlier this summer amid ethics scandals, violated federal law by ignoring the conclusions of agency scientists that chlorpyrifos is harmful.
This is why the ethics scandals were fake news.
‘‘The panel held that there was no justification for the EPA’s decision in its 2017 order to maintain a tolerance for chlorpyrifos in the face of scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children,’’ Appeals Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in the majority’s opinion.
What about the rest of us?
EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said the agency was reviewing the decision. It could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Environmental groups and public health advocates hailed the court’s action as a major victory.
‘‘Some things are too sacred to play politics with, and our kids top the list,’’ said Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council. ‘‘The court has made it clear that children’s health must come before powerful polluters. This is a victory for parents everywhere who want to feed their kids fruits and veggies without fear it’s harming their brains or poisoning communities.’’
Just don't drink the water at school.
Chlorpyrifos was created by Dow Chemical Co. in the 1960s. It remains among the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the United States, with the chemical giant selling about 5 million pounds domestically each year through its subsidiary Dow AgroSciences.
Dow did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. In past statements, the company has contended the chemical helps American farmers feed the world ‘‘with full respect for human health and the environment.’’
Chlorpyrifos belongs to a family of organophosphate pesticides that are chemically similar to a chemical warfare agent developed by Nazi Germany before World War II.
They are spraying that on the food?
As a result of its wide use as a pesticide over the past four decades, traces of chlorpyrifos are commonly found in sources of drinking water. A 2012 study at the University of California at Berkeley found that 87 percent of umbilical-cord blood samples tested from newborn babies contained detectable levels of the pesticide.
GREAT!
All from the very same authorities who care so much about our health and the environment all these years, right?
Under pressure from federal regulators, Dow voluntarily withdrew chlorpyrifos for use as a home insecticide in 2000. EPA also placed ‘‘no-spray’’ buffer zones around sensitive sites, such as schools, in 2012.
If only the Palestinians could get one of those.
In October 2015, the Obama administration proposed banning the pesticide’s use on food. Pruitt reversed that effort in March 2017, adopting Dow’s position that the science showing chlorpyrifos is harmful was inconclusive and flawed.
He just proposed it (after seven years in office!!), meaning it wasn't banned on his watch.
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Yeah, it's still all Trump's fault.
"Glyphosate, top-selling weedkiller, wins EU approval for 5 years" by Danny Hakim New York Times November 28, 2017
The herbicide, glyphosate, is the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and in weedkillers made by other companies.
Germany, which had abstained in a previous round of voting on reauthorizing the chemical’s use, appeared to help sway the outcome. Although Angela Merkel has been unable to form a coalition government after the country’s recent election, the caretaker government swung its support in favor of the weedkiller.
Sven Giegold, a member of the European Parliament representing Germany’s Green Party, posted a message on Twitter saying that the German vote was “a slap in the face for the environment and consumers!”
As long as it doesn't sicken migrants!
Glyphosate use has soared in the United States during the past couple of decades because it has been paired with crops that have been genetically modified to be resistant to it, allowing farmers to use it to kill weeds after crops emerge from the ground. Although Europe has largely eschewed genetically modified crops, glyphosate has also been the best-selling weedkiller there as well.
Organic starting to look pretty good, huh?
The herbicide’s use became engulfed in controversy after the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, declared it a probable carcinogen in 2015. That spurred a federal case in the United States over claims that it caused cancer, and prompted California to declare it a carcinogen.
The international agency’s finding has been disputed by many other government bodies. The latest major study, published this month by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, “observed no associations between glyphosate use and overall cancer risk.”
Can't challenge global warming, 'er, climate change, though.
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Looks like the chemical industry scored a big win at the EPA.
Sorry to dump this on you:
"‘Dioxin lawyer’ poised to lead Superfund program" by Hiroko Tabuchi New York Times July 28, 2018
NEW YORK — Peter Wright, the lawyer nominated to run the Superfund toxic cleanup program, is steeped in the complexities of restoring polluted rivers and chemical dumps.
He spent more than a decade on one of the nation’s most extensive cleanups, one involving Dow Chemical’s headquarters in Midland, Mich., but while he led Dow’s legal strategy there, the chemical company was accused by regulators, and in one case a Dow engineer, of submitting disputed data, misrepresenting scientific evidence, and delaying cleanup, according to internal documents and court records as well as interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the project.
Wright was nominated in March by President Trump to be assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing the Superfund program, which was created decades ago to clean up the nation’s most hazardous toxic waste sites.
He is working at the agency in an advisory role as he awaits congressional approval. If confirmed, Wright would also oversee the emergency response to chemical spills and other hazardous releases nationwide.
EPA officials pointed to Wright’s expertise in environmental law and his tenure at Dow as valuable qualifications. The White House on Saturday referred questions to the EPA.
He spent 19 years at Dow, one of the world’s largest chemical makers, and once described himself in a court deposition as “the company’s dioxin lawyer.”
He was assigned to the Midland cleanup in 2003, and later became a lead negotiator in talks with the EPA. It was during his work on the cleanup that the agency criticized Dow for the cleanup delays, testing lapses, and other missteps.
For more than a century, the Dow complex manufactured a range of products including Saran wrap, Styrofoam, Agent Orange, and mustard gas.
Not the kind you eat.
Over time, Dow released effluents into the Tittabawassee River, leading to dioxin contamination stretching more than 50 miles along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and into Lake Huron.
Dow, which merged with rival DuPont last year, is among the companies most affected by Superfund cleanups nationwide, EPA data shows.
Wright has pledged to recuse himself from cleanups related to his former employer, a move welcomed by even one of the administration’s congressional critics.
Dow finally came to terms with the EPA in 2010, during the Obama presidency, and a cleanup is underway that cost Dow $24 million last year. “Peter was notable for his professionalism, candor, cordiality, and grace under pressure,” said Leverett Nelson, an EPA regional counsel who worked with Wright on that agreement.
EPA officials also stressed that Wright’s recusal wouldn’t restrict him in the job, since he would still be able to work on the vast majority of Superfund sites. They also credited Wright with helping to forge the eventual cleanup agreement in Michigan.
In a statement, a Dow spokeswoman, Rachelle Schikorra, described Wright as “a highly skilled and conscientious attorney who provided valuable guidance to Dow on environmental compliance matters for almost 20 years.”
She said Wright retired in June and the company had no role in his nomination. Wright referred questions to the EPA.
The Superfund program began in 1980 as an ambitious effort to fix thousands of toxic sites — factories, chemical dumps, abandoned mines — left scattered across the US landscape in the age of industrialization.
It grapples with profound complexities: Companies disappear or change hands, and the science on toxicity and cleanup methods is often contested, making progress contentious and uncertain, but the progress came after years of pushback.....
They have to go back over ten years ago for the progress!!!!!!!
Obama was a polluter!
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And if you thought Kraninger was secure, think again. He's fond of nicknames, and there are new documents available regarding her reincarnation.
"EPA curb on nonstick chemical may have reduced number of babies with low birth weight" by Brady Dennis Washington Post November 29, 2017
Efforts to phase out a chemical used in nonstick coatings have resulted in fewer US babies being born underweight in recent years, according to findings published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.
Researchers at New York University based their findings on an analysis of blood samples of new mothers that were gathered between 2003 and 2014 as part of a national health study to examine levels of exposure to the synthetic chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, long used in a variety of consumer products, from stain-resistant carpets to nonstick pans, pizza boxes, and Gore-Tex fabrics, has been associated with a range of potential health problems, including cancer.
Researchers suggest developing fetuses exposed to the chemical are particularly at risk for birth defects and lower-than-normal birth weights. Such concerns were a driving force behind a 2006 agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and US manufacturers to decrease and eventually halt the production of the chemical by 2015.
For years, PFOA had been nearly ubiquitous in the United States, with much of it traveling unregulated through water supplies.
‘‘All too often we talk about the failure of EPA or other agencies to regulate chemicals,’’ the study’s lead investigator, NYU School of Medicine professor Leonardo Trasande, said in an interview. ‘‘But we don’t give enough credit when an agency does the right thing and works with industry proactively to phase out a chemical of concern.....
OMG!
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And if they make it and grow into adolescence:
■ Methamphetamine and cocaine use climbed in young adults, ages 18 to 25.
■ Young adults have increasing rates of serious mental illness, major depression, and suicidal thoughts.
■ Marijuana use climbed in all age groups except young teenagers."
Well, you can't blame that for their problems anyway, and the pot people don't prey on them like the vapers.
Maybe we smoke 'em peace pipe?
"Stanley Sturgill, a retired miner, recounted a Native American proverb, and urged the policy makers at EPA to take it to heart: ‘‘When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, only then will you realize you cannot eat money.’’
He says ‘‘this is about the kind of world that we want to leave for our children.’’
