The Brockovich Report - What you donʼt know just might kill you…

CURRENT WORK

My work, as all work, can become a real challenge. I have learned that DECEIT becomes one of our biggest challenges and our biggest enemy .

My work is about helping people get the answers that they need and help them find the deceit that ends up jeopardizing them. My job isn’t to try to be the lawyer. I am not the scientist. I am an everyday person who wants to help others in time of need, or a least be a shoulder to lean on.

It is through awareness and information that we can protect ourselves, our families and our health. It is the absence of knowing information that we become vulnerable and stand defenseless to protect ourselves.

So many people write to me because they suddenly become curious as to why all their neighbors or family and friends have been diagnosed with a cancer or illness and their children may be sick, yet they don’t know why or what to do. Often times community members suspect a nearby industry as a possible cause of the problem, but are unsure and will contact me searching for help and answers.

I want to help each and every person the best way I know how. It is through communication with you, applying our common sense, searching for information and documents, finding the right lawyer and standing united that we can fight back against an enemy that we can’t always see, until it is too late.

MY PHILOSOPHY

People ask me all the time what I think and what my opinion is. Well, here are a few of my thoughts and beliefs:

• Everyone believes because of the movie, that I am an environ- mental activist. I am often referred to as the environmentalist with cleavage. I do care a great deal about the environment, but my real work and my greatest challenge is try- ing to overcome deceits that end up jeopardizing public health and safety.

• I am an advocate for awareness, the truth, and a person’s right to know. I believe that in the absence of the truth, all of us stand help- less to defend ourselves, our families and our health, which is the greatest gift that we have. As with everything, some people always go too far, too far to the right, too far to the left, and this is true of environmentalism and now, in many instances, our issues fall on a deaf ear.

• Often times we don’t think about or worry about or understand what is happening to another person until it happens to us. Deceits have no boundaries. Disease doesn’t recognize the color of our skin or our political parties affiliation. When it comes to cover-ups and destruction of our environment, we are all up for grabs.

• A lot of times I am motivated or become very inspired by a cliché. They make me think and more often than not can be true. For example, “an informed citizen is the only true repository of the American will” - Thomas Jefferson. Oh how right he was. I believe that our perception of things become our reality. It is how you choose to see yourself, your char- acter, that can actually determine your fate.

• Most people don’t know that my favorite movie is not “Erin Brockovich” but “Pay It Forward”. All of us should pay it forward but not with the expectation of seeing a reward, that is not why we do it. Pay if forward because it is the right thing to do, reward or not. If you follow your heart, if you listen to your gut, and if you extend your hand to help another, not for any agenda, but for the sake of humanity, you are going to find the truth.

TOXIC WATER

If we had a crystal ball and could see a 60 foot wall of water coming at us, or an F-5 tornado ready to rip our house off its foundation, would we do something to stop it? Of course we would—unless it is an environmental disaster of our own making. Those we tend to ignore. Environmental disasters need no gypsy fortunetellers or wizards to reveal ominous portent. All it takes is a little common sense and people who pay attention. We all need to pay attention because that 60 foot wall of water is on its way. Only in some places it is arsenic, or benzene, or hexavalent chromium, or lead.

GARDASIL VACCINE

Even if I’m concerned about public health issues NO ONE has the all the answers. We just want the power of choice and full disclosure. It’s a matter of logic and personal decision making. If dozens of people in my family had Epstein Barr, I would stay away from Gardasil. But if dozens of women in both sides of my family had cervical cancer, then maybe Gardasil would look a lot different to me. If it is so great, wouldn’t it cause a red- uction in the rate of HPV exposure down the road? Why isn’t it marketed to boys? NO answers here, just more questions. I just want to advo- cate for full disclosure and getting information out there for girls who have been impacted or communities impacted. If we do all we can now to learn and grow from our exper- ience, 50 years from now, we may see Gardasil as a Thalidomide- type disaster or the polio-type miracle of 2010. But that’s a conclusion that only time will tell.

by Erin Brockovich
brockovich.com

Erin Brockovich: Two Girls Down & Spain Withdraws Gardasil

 

I’d like to take a moment to remember Jenny Tetlock, whose story has been publicized.  Jenny Tetlock received the Gardasil shot at 15 years of age, was paralyzed and God rest her soul, recently passed away.  Bless you Jenny.  Your story is heartbreaking, and we all feel your loss.  Jenny, we want to find answers.  Who knows where to look?  Not to the CDC. Maybe to Spain.  Why Spain?  A month ago, Spain recalled 76,000 doses of the HPV vaccine when two adolescent girls got seriously sick after getting their shot.  Here in the United States, we’ve had more than two girls who got sick and to my knowledge NO doses of the vaccine were ever recalled.  The issue here is that two girls got sick after receiving doses of the HPV vaccine and Spain responded immediately.  Has our own FDA done anything?  Not to my knowledge.

If we came across 50, 40, 30 or even a single dead person in the woods, our agencies would send out alerts; they would investigate.  They would search and search for the answers until they were found.  The VAER Database Gardasil line reports list more than a dozen deaths among the serious adverse events of otherwise healthy girls.   Isn’t this enough of an alert that someone among us should step up and search and search for the answers until they were found?

There is a common denominator that we haven’t yet exposed.  That is my point.  We must uncover that lethal factor; we must identify it so that not one more girl dies needlessly.

But here it is in black and white: 

Spain withdraws cervical cancer shot after illnesses.

We’ll let it pass that Gardasil is an HPV vaccine, and not a cancer shot. (That’s a marketing angle to avoid talking about the percentages.  Let’s also let it pass that while it’s marketed as a cancer preventative, it only goes after 4/30 of the HPV strains that cause 70% cervical cancers.  That works out to be like 9%.  Would you use a prophylactic that only guards against 9% of pregnancies?  Should we let people go around thinking they are protected when they are 91% still  vulnerable?  Let’s let all of that pass, for now, and think about the human cost of rushing to market.

The two girls in Spain who had the vaccine both went into convulsions within hours of taking the vaccine.

Therefore, Spain decided to recall 76,000 doses of Gardasil after two girls had seizures.  But the FDA has not—after many more than two girls —have died!  Does Spain love its daughters more than the U.S.?  Why hasn’t the FDA acted on the many incidents that have happened here? Are the FDA and CDC really on top of things?  Is the U.S. even looking at the VAERS LIST to see how many girls in the U.S. have had adverse reactions after taking Gardasil—let alone those who have died?  In Spain, two girls had seizures—seizures—and they didn’t die, but yet 76,000 doses of Gardasil were recalled.

VAERS reports are available online. Look them up yourself.  Results show significantly more than just two incidents related to Gardasil and all of the girls had one thing in common—the Gardasil shot.  While Spain has recalled 76,000 doses of Gardasil, the U.S. is trying to mandate its use.  What is wrong with this picture?

At the least, any use of Gardasil should be a matter of choice.  As Americans, our young girls and their parents should have a choice when it comes to health and make that choice with knowledge including contraindication and negative interactions.  Shouldn’t the FDA and CDC be LOOKING for those contraindication and negative interactions to safe guard the health of our young girls?

Many unanswered questions remain of why so many American girls have had adverse reactions—some dying after taking Gardasil. They and their families deserve an answer. But for the seven women that I personally know whose daughters died after taking Gardasil, and for Jenny—no matter how soon the answer is found—it is too late!

Environment For Humanity

Fellow citizens of the U.S., you can not believe all of the current environmental issues that have been coming to my attention.  It is scary to see just how much environmental pollution is out there.  I don’t know if people realize that while it is wonderful to progress into the future and look for green energy, if we don’t stop to look behind us and learn from history, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes in the future. I am feeling increasing frustration that nothing is being done about all of the problems.  Who knows where the candidates truly stand on the issues?  (Everyone knows that campaign promises must be taken with a grain of salt.)  We will die holding our breath waiting for Industry to do something on it’s own.  Sometimes I wonder if everything is going to be up to us—if we the people are going to have to deal with the issues—hands on.

I’ve been thinking about the amazing feats of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity—in case you’re not familiar with it—has built and rehabilitated more than 250,000 houses.  According to their website, the organization started out “financed by a revolving Fund for Humanity.  The fund’s money comes from the new homeowners’ house payments, donations and no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities.  The money in the Fund for Humanity is also used to build more houses.” Habitat for Humanity funds housing, and is manned by volunteers, donations and by individuals who do their share to contribute sweat equity to earn their piece of the pie.  And all of this because Clarence Jordon and Millard and Linda Fuller saw the need and a way to do something about it.

Well, I see a need.  We need to clean up the contamination.  And I would like to figure out a way to do something about it.  I have wondered about the possibility of starting a foundation—let’s call it the Environment for Humanity, a self-sustaining foundation that provides support for communities with environmental problems.  Imagine a foundation where people will be able to go when they come face to face with their local pollution issues.  A place that people can band together, and organize with other like- minded volunteers, both individual as well as corporate, all of whom do their share to contribute whatever they can—whether it is organizational talent, cash or sweat equity, all with one purpose in mind: to clean things up.  I would be thrilled if the Habitat for Humanity people would like to get in touch with me and we have the opportunity to talk about putting something together.

But in the meantime, I have been caught up working on the problems in Cameron, Missouri, where there is a cluster of brain tumors; and if you’re following the news, there is also the Hexavalent Chromium problem in Davenport, California.  But that is just a drop in the bucket.  I am constantly inundated with emails from people everywhere who live near industry and have acquired cancers and illness.

Government is absent—and even if it weren’t, it’s all but bankrupt and seems to be an inefficient use of human and financial resources.

We the people have to find some way to clean up the mess.  Maybe we have to create the programs ourselves.  After all, we made this mess.  Our Public Health and Safety might just depend on our stepping in and cleaning it up.

By Erin Brockovich

Coal Ash Sludge Muddies Waters…

 

…It looks like I may be paying a visit to Tennessee!

By Erin Brockovich

Numerous residents have asked me to come to the community for a meeting on the coal fly ash disaster around Knoxville, and I think I will be going.

I know the question on everyone’s lips.  What is ‘coal fly ash’ and why does it need to be contained?  The folks around Knoxville are getting to know a lot more about coal fly ash than they ever wanted to learn.

Coal fly ash.  It sounds like someone has been burning fly poop or airborne coal.  But seriously, it is akin to the creosote that coated those chimneys and chimneysweep boys of Charles Dickens ancient London.

Fly ash comes from chimneys, specifically the chimneys of power plants.  And, the collection point determines exactly what kind of ash it is.  Fly ash apparently contains silicon dioxide and calcium oxide as well as trace concentrations of heavy metals.  In other words, coal ash is nasty stuff to have floating around in your river, air, and drinking water.

Anyway, thanks to the failure of a containment retention wall at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant—that’s where it is.  In the river.  Spread out on the land and the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers are affected.  So the TVA is out there collecting “cenospheres.” Cenospheres are apparently little floating balls of residue which according to this TVA publication “are useful in bowling balls, paint, concrete and epoxy”—just a partial list of ways fly ash in general is used. 

There are 3,000 feet of skimmers in place to vacuum up this stuff and some other collection devices in the water.  I don’t think the sludge is only made up of cenospheres, so I wonder what they are doing to control the rest of it?

The TVA publishes data on Kingston’s Fossil Emissions and water data.  The TVA does NOT publish data about that retention wall.  (Or maybe they do, and I just don’t know where it is. The TVA is welcome to let me know that information).  So I’d like to know why they were using retention ponds to store this stuff. (You may remember that I have a history with retention ponds.  Don’t like ‘em.  Never will).

Why does it need to be contained? Well, that’s a moot point, isn’t it?  Since it is composed of heavy metals, and other nasty things—it is better contained than it is spread out over 300 acres 30 some-odd miles away from Knoxville.  Truth is, I should speculate on some other questions.

LIKE…

• Why was fly ash sitting around a retention pond rather than being immediately ported to a Portland cement factory or bowling ball maker? 

• Was there an earthquake we don’t know about?  

• Why did that retention wall give way?  

• Just how much trace metal is realistically dangerous, and how much trace metal and toxin is actually there? 

• Is it truly inert?

AP has already released an article talking about how the TVA won’t have retention ponds on TVA property any longer.  Better late than never, I suppose.  (Does that mean it’s moving to private property; that it’s going to be sold; or that they’re shooting it to trash cans on Jupiter or Pluto?)  We’ll have to see what their actual solution is, and if it really is an improvement over what they are doing right now.

A dozen families have lost their homes to 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash.  Or a Billion cubic yards.  (The numbers change depending on whose saying them.)  Three hundred acres are destroyed.  In fact, that number has grown to four hundred acres six feet deep.

Why is it that it takes a disaster to find a better way to do things?  When are we ever going to learn to use forethought instead of hindsight?

THE BROCKOVICH REPORT

What You Don’t Know Just Might Kill You!

MAKING THE DECISION TO GO ‘GREEN’

By Erin Brockovich

Let me start off this issue by saying that I am as ‘GREEN’ now as I have ever been.  My concern for the environment, health and welfare for all of us has not lessened, and it never will.  If anything, my feelings about going GREEN are stronger now as the need for our own personal responsibility grows.

We are all responsible for our own sphere of influence, and with that in mind I would like to address the “GREEN” movement that is going on in the world today, and what that means to each of us as individuals.  Even those who perceive themselves as being GREEN or living GREEN manifest their ‘greenness’ in different ways.  Some people see GREEN as a way to make money, which is okay just as long as they work toward making progress, and don’t jeopardize the environment.  Others see GREEN as recycling or in terms of carbon footprints.  But the truth is, being GREEN means more than just being aware that the ice caps are melting; it means taking the initiative to act upon that knowledge in any number of ‘moving forward’ ways. 

Being GREEN is about fighting air pollution, cleaning up our communities, changing to energy-efficient light bulbs and being more energy efficient in our daily lives. Being GREEN is about finding other energy sources to use besides oil; saving our oceans; our wildlife; our air, water and soil.  Being GREEN means bypassing the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other artificial agents and making the decision to go organic.  GREEN is the natural state.  It is what we come from and where we must return if we want to survive.  We can only accomplish this by working together and joining the cause.  After all, nothing is more common among us than our need for the air we breathe, and the water we drink.  Our very lives are contingent upon these two elements.

Being GREEN is both a state of mind and an activist issue; it must not only be spoken about but acted upon. Thinking about it is the first step, butactually going out and doing something to make a difference is the next piece of the puzzle.   If one doesn’t happen, the other won’t…and thecontinuum of life will be broken.  Protecting our environment is a matter of survival, and everyone must do his/her part.  We have got to take our places on the front lines in this battle for the environment—each and every one of us—in order to keep the continuum going.  This is a daily battle; a march toward a better world and a better life for us all.

I have spoken numerous times before in person, and on my blog about politicians and heroes, but now I am speaking of the power and reach that each of us can have as individuals.  In this sense, we do not need politicians standing on the stump.  We are all Oprahs.  We are all Al Gores.  We are all—if you will pardon sharing my name—Erin Brockovich’s, up on the big HD screen of life, fighting the fight for the environment.  The time has come to make a choice and start building a better tomorrow.  May we always choose truth over deception, whatever political face it wears; may we always see clearly enough to know which is which and may we always choose GREEN.  

Keep in mind that nothing in nature stands still.  If we stand by and do nothing, we will get pushed back. In order to make progress and maintain it—we must work together.