Friday, 28 February 2014

Sinn Féin Delivers For The People Of Mountmellick


Following multiple representations, 5 years of persistent campaigning by members of the Willie Brock cumann have finally yielded success.
 2014 will be the year the long-suffering citizens of Mountmellick will be provided with a Bus Shelter.
Councilor Stephen Lynch raised this issue at numerous meetings of Mountmellick Town Council and secured the support of other Town Councilors for the Sinn Féin proposal.
A Cumann delegation raised this issue at a meeting with Laois County Council officials last year.
Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley made a submission seeking a bus shelter for Mountmellick to the National Transport Authority in 2013.
Please see the letter below to Ms Pamela Tynan Town Clerk, from Mr Gerry Murphy the Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority.





Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community


Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Do You Live In A Hard Water Area?


Monsanto's Roundup may be linked to fatal kidney disease, new study suggests
RT Published time: February 27, 2014 01:20



  A farmer tills a rice paddy field on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka (Reuters / Andrew Caballero- 
Reynolds)
A heretofore inexplicable fatal, chronic kidney disease that has affected poor farming regions around the globe may be linked to the use of biochemical giant Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide in areas with hard water, a new study has found.
The new study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Researchers suggest that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like arsenic and cadmium that often exist naturally in the soil or are added via fertilizer. Hard water contains metals like calcium, magnesium, strontium, and iron, among others. On its own, glyphosate is toxic, but not detrimental enough to eradicate kidney tissue.
The glyphosate molecule was patented as a herbicide by Monsanto in the early 1970s. The company soon brought glyphosate to market under the name “Roundup,” which is now the most commonly used herbicide in the world.
The hypothesis helps explain a global rash of the mysterious, fatal Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) that has been found in rice paddy regions of northern Sri Lanka, for example, or in El Salvador, where CKDu is the second leading cause of death among males.
Furthermore, the study’s findings explain many observations associated with the disease, including the linkage between the consumption of hard water and CKDu, as 96 percent of patients have been found to have consumed “hard or very hard water for at least five years, from wells that receive their supply from shallow regolith aquifers.”
The CKDu was discovered in rice paddy farms in northern Sri Lanka around 20 years ago. The condition has spread quickly since then and now affects 15 percent of working age people in the region, or a total of 400,000 patients, the study says. At least 20,000 have died from CKDu there.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health introduced criteria for CKDu. Basically, the Ministry found that CKDu did not share common risk factors as chronic kidney disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and glomerular nephritis, or inflammation of the kidney.
Based on geographical and socioeconomical factors associated with CKDu, it was assumed that environmental and occupational variables would offer clues to the disease’s origins – or in this case, it came from chemicals.
The new study noted that even the World Health Organization had found that CKDu is caused by exposure to arsenic, cadmium, and pesticides, in addition to hard water consumption, low water intake, and exposure to high temperatures. Yet why that certain area of Sri Lanka and why the disease didn’t show prior to the mid-1990s was left unanswered.
Researchers point out that political changes in Sri Lanka in the late 1970s led to the introduction of agrochemicals, especially in rice farming. They believe that 12 to 15 years of exposure to “low concentration kidney-damaging compounds” along with their accumulation in the body led to the appearance of CKDu in the mid-90s.
The incriminating agent, or Compound “X,” must have certain characteristics, researchers deduced. The compound, they hypothesized, must be: made of chemicals newly introduced in the last 20 to 30 years; capable of forming stable complexes with hard water; capable of retaining nephrotoxic metals and delivering them to the kidney; capable of multiple routes of exposure, such as ingestion, through skin or respiratory absorption, among other criteria.
These factors pointed to glyphosate, used in abundance in Sri Lanka. In the study, researchers noted that earlier studies had shown that typical glyphosate half-life of around 47 days in soil can increase up to 22 years after forming hard to biodegrade “strong complexes with metal ions.”
Scientists have derived three ways of exposure to glyphosate-metal complexes (GMCs): consumption of contaminated hard water, food, or the complex could be formed directly within circulation with glyphosate coming from dermal/respiratory route and metals from water and foods.
Rice farmers, for example, are at high risk of exposure to GMCs through skin absorption, inhalation, or tainted drinking water. GMCs seem to evade the normal liver’s detoxification process, thus damaging kidneys, the study found.
The study also suggests that glyphosate could be linked to similar epidemics of kidney disease of unknown origin in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and India.
Recent investigations by the Center for Public Integrity found that, in the last five years, CKDu is responsible for more deaths in El Salvador and Nicaragua than diabetes, AIDS, and leukemia combined.


Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Saturday, 22 February 2014

Not On My Doorstep, But Sinn Féin's Matt Carty States His Position On Fracking.


As ExxonMobil’s CEO, it’s Rex Tillerson’s job to promote the hydraulic fracturing enabling the recent oil and gas boom, and fight regulatory oversight. The oil company is the biggest natural gas producer in the U.S., relying on the controversial drilling technology to extract it.
The exception is when Tillerson’s $5 million property value might be harmed. Tillerson has joined a lawsuit that cites fracking’s consequences in order to block the construction of a 160-foot water tower next to his and his wife’s Texas home.
The Wall Street Journal reports the tower would supply water to a nearby fracking site, and the plaintiffs argue the project would cause too much noise and traffic from hauling the water from the tower to the drilling site. The water tower, owned by Cross Timbers Water Supply Corporation, “will sell water to oil and gas explorers for fracing [sic] shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” the suit says.
Though Tillerson’s name is on the lawsuit, a lawyer representing him said his concern is about the devaluation of his property, not fracking specifically.
When he is acting as Exxon CEO, not a homeowner, Tillerson has lashed out at fracking critics and proponents of regulation. “This type of dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery, growth, and global competitiveness,” he said in 2012. Natural gas production “is an old technology just being applied, integrated with some new technologies,” he said in another interview. “So the risks are very manageable.”
In shale regions, less wealthy residents have protested fracking development for impacts more consequential than noise, including water contamination and cancer risk. Exxon’s oil and gas operations and the resulting spills not only sinks property values, but the spills have leveled homes and destroyed regions.
Exxon, which pays Tillerson a total $40.3 million, is staying out of the legal tangle. A spokesperson told the WSJ it “has no involvement in the legal matter.”
Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) has formally extended a welcome to Tillerson to the fracking critic club, with this statement Friday:

I would like to officially welcome Rex to the ‘Society of Citizens Really Enraged When Encircled by Drilling’ (SCREWED). This select group of everyday citizens has been fighting for years to protect their property values, the health of their local communities, and the environment. We are thrilled to have the CEO of a major international oil and gas corporation join our quickly multiplying ranks.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community

 Carthy disappointed at MEPs’ vote on fracking

Anglo-Celt
Sunday, 13th October, 2013

Sinn Féin Midlands Northwest EU candidate Matt Carthy expressed his disappointment at the failure of MEPs to support the move.


“It appears that lobbyists working on behalf of multinational exploration companies have been successful in their lobbying efforts to have the EU parliament vote defeated. This is totally unacceptable and all MEPs have a responsibility to stand up for those who elected them. Clearly there needs to be a crack-down on such lobbying activity," said Mr Carthy, without naming either the companies or lobby groups he suspects of defeating the vote. 


“It is beyond belief that a majority in the European Parliament would vote against such a basic measure as requiring an Environment Impact Assessment before this controversial measure is employed," said Mr Carthy.


Tamboran Resources intend to use the controversial technique to extract gas from shale in Counties Leitrim and Fermanagh in the coming years. The company has insisted that, if properly regulated the techique is safe and poses no danger to the environment.


Meanwhile, last week France's constitutional court upheld a law banning fracking in the country. All four points raised by Schuepbach Energy in their challenge against the 2011 ban were dismissed.


Local campaigners opposed to hydraulic fracturing have pointed to France's stance as an example to be followed in Ireland.


“The issue of fracking is causing concern for many communities, particularly in the North West – in counties such as Leitrim, Sligo and Fermanagh. Real and genuine concerns have been raised regarding the potential damage to the environment, to tourism and to the farming sector as a result of this activity.


“While Sinn Féin’s MEP for the North Martina Anderson voted in favour of Environmental Impact Assessments being extended to the exploration and extraction of shale gas, the majority of MEPs failed to support this important move.


"Hydraulic fracturing involves drilling at a depth below ground water level, a practise which many experts have contended can cause contamination to drinking water supplies. There are also serious concerns about the potential damage to farmland affected by contaminated ground water and to public health from polluted drinking water.


“I welcomed the bill introduced in the Dáil by my party colleague, Michael Colreavy TD, to ban fracking and I am calling on others, particularly those from the government parties, to support this legislation.


“If elected to the European Parliament I will make it a priority to stand up for communities faced with fracking.”

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community