Calling Rob Nicholson. Do you hear me? Come in, Rob

It’s the only tender fruit-canning operation in Canada east of the Rocky mountains. It's down the road from me and it's closing, throwing 149 plant employees out of work.
Why? Because canned fruit from countries like China with lax environmental standards and non-existent labour laws is cheaper. We don't want our kids playing with lead-laced toys or our dogs and cats eating lethal pet food made in China. I don't want to eat their toxic pear halves either. Would you trust products from a country where lax regulation and a weak legal system have allowed unscrupulous manufacturers to blend industrial fluids into alcoholic beverages and to sell fake baby formula?
Bear in mind that this closure is taking place in one of the best growing zones in Canada.
What is the federal government prepared to do? The St. Catharines Standard reports that Rob Nicholson, MP for the area, has been incommunicado on the issue.

Medical Myths

Eight glasses of water a day - and other myths:
You've heard these tidbits of medical wisdom many times before -- possibly from your own doctor:

• Drink eight glasses of water a day.
• Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight.
• We use only 10 per cent of our brains.

But they aren't true or there is little scientific evidence to back them up.
I guess my wrinkles are due to old age, not dehydration. What a relief!

It's about time!

Province to aid military families

As a military spouse just back from a posting in Belgium this fall, Cathy Priestman paid cash to see a doctor upon her return to Ontario because it takes 90 days of residency to qualify for OHIP coverage.

Come to think of it, in the 14 year period I worked for a Members of Provincial Parliament I was never confronted with this complaint.

Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise

World AIDS Day - 1st December

Visiting the UK? Watch out for exploding bladders!

A new report in The Guardian says binge drinking has increased to such an extent that cases of 'exploding bladders' are on the rise in the UK.

Women, in an ill-advised bid for sexual equality, are bellying up to the bar and matching their male mates drink for drink. The result is an epidemic of bladder explosions. Someone should advise these gals to take a tinkle break now and again .

Tory's plan for two-tier health care

John Tory has no problem dipping into the public purse so that fundamentalist Christian kids can be taught creationism. But if they want the best available health care he thinks folks should dig into their own pockets. Tom Walkom's article in today's Toronto Star on John Tory's plan to decimate Ontario's public health care system should give us pause:

Tory's scheme, however, is qualitatively different. He's not just talking about letting private clinics deliver medicare services. His plan would set the stage for a full-scale, private, parallel system. Read all of it

The Nag Don't Eat This Stuff

I can't understand why people choose to ingest chemical laden fake food - it tastes so artificial. I'm convinced that these chemicals aggravate allergies and cause cancer in those who choose to eat them. It's no surprise to me that workers would suffer serious health effects as a result of exposure to them.

SOUTH GATE, Calif. -- She was once in constant motion; her co-workers compared her to a roadrunner because of the way she darted around the workplace. But now Irma Ortiz sits at the edge of her couch, too winded to sweep her patio or walk her son to school without resting. She is slowly suffocating.
Ortiz, 44, is among a group of California food-flavoring workers recently diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare and life-threatening form of fixed obstructive lung disease. Also known as popcorn workers lung, because it has turned up in workers at microwave-popcorn factories, the disease destroys the lungs. A transplant is the only cure.

Via Reddit

How Fat Is Your Country?

Chart Via Reddit

Just Asking

Canada was once able to claim the title ”bread basket of the world” and "King Wheat" was the most important export of the Prairie Provinces. So why is Canada importing Aminopterin-laced wheat gluten from China?

Rachel Ray Is Trying To Kill You

The inexplicably controversial Rachel Ray had a guest who demonstrated how to make omelets in a Ziploc bag. It seems this could cause cancer. Perhaps Rachel is trying to wreak revenge on her critics?

Via Reddit

Radium Girls vs The US Radium Corp.

Undark and the Radium Girls is a damn interesting story of corporate injustice brought to us by (who else?) Damn Interesting.

Although all five litigants died as a result of radiation poisoning and their combined settlement amounted to only $10,000, the case established the right of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labor abuse. The case led to passage of a bill in 1949 which made all occupational diseases compensable. Workers still have to fight tooth and nail to get fair compensation for work-related illnesses but their fight would be a lot tougher if not for the Radium Girls.

US Radium employed hundreds of women at their factory in Orange, New Jersey, including Grace Fryer. Few companies at that time were willing to employ women, and the pay was much higher than most alternatives, so the company had little trouble finding employees to occupy the rows and rows of desks. They were required to paint delicate lines with fine-tipped brushes, applying the Undark to the tiny numbers and indicator hands of wristwatches. After a few strokes a brush tended to lose its shape, so the women's managers encouraged them to use their lips and tongues to keep the tips of the camel hair brushes sharp and clean. The glowing paint was completely flavorless, and the supervisors assured them that rosy cheeks would be the only physical side effect to swallowing the radium-laced pigment.

The owners and scientists at US Radium, familiar with the real hazards of radioactivity, naturally took extensive precautions to protect themselves. They knew that Undark's key ingredient was approximately one million times more active than uranium, so company chemists often used lead screens, masks, and tongs when working with the paint. US Radium had even distributed literature to the medical community describing the "injurious effects" of radium. But inside the factory, where nearly every surface sparkled with radioluminescence, these dangers were unknown. For a lark, some of the women even painted their
fingernails and teeth with radium paint on occasion, to surprise their boyfriends when the lights went out.