The EPA’s Unconscionable Silence
Saturday December 09
By Andrew Robbins
CSMS Magazine Staff Writer
The outcome of inhaling mineral particulate is a vast array of predictable diseases. For example, asthma, blood clot, many types of cancer, erectile dysfunction (impotence), congestive heart failure, and heart attack begin forming when inhaled earthen minerals (dust) enter through the lungs into the patient’s blood and lymph fluids.
For decades, federal and state health officials have known that breathing inorganic matter results in these illnesses and many other preventable diseases. Yet, “Who in government is responsible for sounding the alarm and awakening a sleeping public?”
At a meeting sponsored by the Indiana Chapter of the American Lung Association (ALA), that question came from the audience. The answer may surprise you. At a time when clean air is in short supply and the number of people seeking medical treatment is rising, “government agencies are purposely mute.” Their silence speaks volumes, for they are staffed with experts who know that morbidity begins with the inhalation of a single mineral fiber.
The financial influence corporate contributors exert over our Nation’s political parties has impeded the circulation of scientific studies and thereby resulted in massive numbers of preventable illnesses. Governments and employers place great emphasis on creating a business friendly atmosphere. Often these partnerships terminate when corporations deplete their tax incentives and then abandon their environmental disasters. They leave behind industrial health issues that, for generations, continue to plague local communities.
The leadership in Washington has repeatedly asked Congress to confirm, to our Nation’s health care agencies, political appointees who are loyal to the business community. Moreover, Congress has failed to adequately fund many of the Nation’s health enforcement agencies. As a result, federal and state governments are now clamoring to transfer the projected gargantuan Baby Boomer medical treatment outlays from governments to individuals. Washington’s current thought process is to disavow the government-corporate partnership and transfer the cost of these preventable illnesses to the patient and the patient’s family.
http://www.csmsmagazine.org/news.php?pg=20061209I363