World News
AMAZON workers strike at German warehouses
Reuters – Workers at four Amazon logistic centers in Germany went on strike on Monday, the latest action in a long-running campaign for better pay and conditions.
Trade union Verdi said workers at warehouses in Rheinberg, Werne, Bad Hersfeld and Koblenz had stopped work, with the strike set to last until Thursday in some centers, and others potentially joining over the Easter holiday period.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the company saw very limited participation in the strike across Germany, adding there was no operational impact so customer deliveries would not be delayed.
Verdi has organized frequent strikes at Amazon in Germany since 2013 to press demands for the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers in accordance with collective bargaining agreements in Germany’s mail order and retail industry.
Amazon has repeatedly rejected Verdi’s demands and the spokeswoman said the company is a fair and responsible employer without a collective agreement, with wages at the upper end of what is paid in comparable jobs.
Multiple Government Websites Taken Down After Arrest Of Julian Assange
Activist Post – Following this week’s arrest of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange in London, the hacktivist group Anonymous released a video calling for his captors to be held accountable.
The video showed the classic Anonymous figure wearing a Guy Fawkes and speaking with a distorted voice.
“Many powerful forces from all over the world have worked to make this possible. Influential people representing the governments of the UK, the United States, and Ecuador have all signed off on this unprecedented attack on journalism. These interests have acted against the people without fear because they believe that their positions of power will grant them protection from the karmic consequences of reality,” the message said.
The United States government has requested the extradition of Assange, but people around the world have urged the UK government to not release the embattled journalist to authorities in the US. A petition to prevent the extradition of Assange has already gathered over 67000 signatures.
There was some cyber-war action following the threats from Anonymous, but the hackers responsible do not claim to be associated with the hacktivist collective.
Russia Helps Venezuela in Probe Into Attacks on Power Grid – Deputy FM
Sputnik – The Russian side provides all necessary assistance to Caracas in investigating the attacks on the Venezuelan power grid, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Sputnik.
“According to the country’s legitimate government headed by President Nicolas Maduro, as well as information from other credible sources, the electricity sector of Venezuela came under attack from abroad on March 7 of this year… We provide all necessary assistance to Venezuelan friends on the basis of requests from the legitimate government,” Syromolotov said.
US Officially Designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as Terrorist Group
Sputnik – The United States has formally designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation, a notice in the US Federal Register confirmed on Monday.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Trump Administration Mulls Attacking Venezuela
Activist Post – On Wednesday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted an “off-the-record” event during which a number of President Trump’s highest ranking advisers discussed the possibility of a US military attack on Venezuela.
This included a number of State Department and National Security Council officials, along with officials dispatched from Colombian and Brazilian embassies. Representatives of US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido also took part.
Details of what was discussed have not been disclosed, above and beyond the general possibility of the US attacking Venezuela, and the different options for ways the US could attack them going forward.
That the Trump Administration is considering attacking Venezuela as an option is no secret, as they tell reporters that much at seemingly every opportunity. That they are holding such events to discuss the details, however, suggest a US war may be closer than anyone realizes.
Mueller Report Will Be Released Thursday, Justice Dept. Says
NYT – The attorney general has promised that he would release a stripped-down version of the report after law-enforcement officials black out sensitive information.
Migrants Monitored for Ebola Along Texas Border
Breitbart – A public health official in Laredo, Texas, said 20 Congolese migrants were monitored for Ebola and other diseases in shelters in his city and across the Mexican border in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Shortly after his announcement during a Laredo City Council meeting, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered declaring a “global emergency” in response to a massive outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“We have 8 Congolese right now in one of our shelters and a dozen in Nuevo Laredo,” Laredo Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez told the Laredo City Councilman George Altget during a council meeting on April 4. “For them, my concern was Ebola.” He said that due to the time element, the Congolese migrants were not developing symptoms of Ebola. “But, we’re on alert to check that,” he said.
A report from the WHO states that, as of April 10, there have been more than 1,200 reported cases of Ebola in the Congo (1,140 confirmed, 66 probable). Those cases resulted in the deaths of 764 patients (698 confirmed, 66 probable). On Friday, The WHO decided the outbreak does not yet constitute a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).”
Donald Trump Urges Congress to Return to Washington and Fix Immigration Laws
Breitbart – President Donald Trump sent a message to Congress on Monday, urging them to return to Washington, DC to fix the country’s immigration laws.
“Congress should come back to D.C. now and FIX THE IMMIGRATION LAWS!” he wrote on Twitter.
Congress is currently on a two-week recess for Passover and Easter while the president remains in Washington.
Trump Signs Executive Order to Protect US from EMP attacks
Off Grid Survival – The Trump administration has signed a historic executive order to strengthen the country’s critical infrastructure against electromagnetic pulse attacks. The EO, titled “Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses” is the “first ever to establish a comprehensive policy to improve resilience to EMPs,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders explained.
“Today’s executive order – the first ever to establish a comprehensive policy to improve resilience to EMPs – is one more example of how the administration is keeping its promise to always be vigilant against present dangers and future threats,” she said.
This comes after DHS issued a dire warning last December, admitting that the federal government was not prepared for the chaos that would follow an EMP attack and warning the public to prepare for up to 6 months without power.
The Executive Order signed by Trump on Tuesday directs federal agencies to identify pieces of critical infrastructure that could be impacted by an EMP attack. National security adviser John Bolton will be overseeing the order’s implementation.
LA Homeless Crisis Spirals Out Of Control
CBS – In Los Angeles County alone, there are 41,000 transients living on the streets.
And for Rev. Andy Bales of the Union Rescue Mission, he says the homeless crisis has reached a breaking point.
“At this point, I’m very concerned about everyone in L.A. because we’ve really passed the tipping point of danger because we’ve left so many people for so many years to be devastated on the streets,” he said.
‘Tipping point’: Experts had warned that iconic Notre Dame needed ‘urgent’ revamping
RT – Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, which caught fire on Monday, had reached a “tipping point” and required an expensive makeover after deteriorating for years, experts had previously warned.
The iconic Paris landmark was hit with a major fire just days after the new restoration work had begun on the building. The fire caused the collapse of the church’s famous spire, which was made of wood and covered with lead. Parts of the roof of the building also collapsed as the fire continued to ravage the Gothic structure.
The peak of the church had been undergoing a major €6 million renovation — and the fire is thought to be linked to the revamp, French media reported, quoting the Paris fire brigade.
Structural problems have plagued the old building for years, including dangerously eroded stone, broken gargoyles and fallen balustrades, André Finot, the cathedral’s spokesperson, told the New York Times in 2017. Finot told the newspaper the situation was “spinning out of control.”
Big Tech + Big Brother: Privatized social credit score systems coming to US sooner than we think?
RT – Donald Trump Jr. is sounding the alarm, warning that if we do not stop Big Tech from shadow banning conservatives we’ll end up in the same boat as China and it’ll be our own damn fault. One problem: We’re already there.
The same day Trump published his warning – which despite the knee-jerk reactions brought on by his name actually mirrors the experience of most social media users who’ve ever expressed ideas counter to the mainstream – the Wall Street Journal suggested that insurers could be combing through customers’ social media profiles to determine their risk to the company.
Just kidding – insurers have been combing through social media profiles for so long that New York is already regulating the use of this information to supplement more traditional actuarial data. Next time your premiums go up after sharing photos of you skydiving while wrestling with a bear, you’ll know why.
“We’re going through a period now where most life insurers are exploring using all types of data, not just data they get directly from the customer proactively, but other external sources of data – social media being a big one,” McKinsey & Co. senior partner Ari Libarikian told the WSJ. Stripped of management-consultancy jargon – “proactively“? really? – he’s talking about insurers as miniature privatized surveillance states, hostile data miners hoping to use your behavioral patterns against you.
This is essentially what Trump is warning about, though he seems as afflicted as his fellow conservatives by a free-market myopia that lets corporations get away with murder until the wolves are at the door. It wouldn’t occur to him to take insurers to task for this behavior, even though he’s caught on to the evils of social media. And like his fellows on the political Right, Trump blames a monolithic “Left” for the censorship, lumping the aggressively anodyne Jack Dorsey in with that segment of the population who want neither Trump’s America nor the CIA’s. Junior is unfortunately playing into the same divided-nation paradigm that the mainstream media he purports to loathe so much screens 24-7 – us vs. them, Red vs. Blue, Right vs. Left.
Americans are laboring under the delusion we live in a free society, with a Bill of Rights preventing the government from taking our speech away. But we’ve seen plenty of evidence the US is using private-sector monopolies like Facebook and Twitter to get around those irritating laws holding them back from full-on takeover.
Both Democrats and Republicans Want to Ban the IRS From Running a Free Tax Filing System
Fortune – It’s not uncommon in other countries for people to file their taxes via state-run, free electronic systems. But such a service doesn’t exist in the U.S. And if a bill making its way through Congress is passed, it never will.
The House Ways and Means Committee recently passed the Taxpayer First Act, a bill with bipartisan support (it’s sponsored by Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa.) that would make it illegal for the IRS to create its own online tax filing system, reports ProPublica. A similar bill is also making its way through the Senate with bipartisan support.
The IRS currently has a memorandum of understanding with The Free File Alliance, a private insurance group, that it will not create such a system if private companies offer that service to people who make less than $66,000 per year. Critics, though, say the vast majority of people eligible for that free tax prep are unaware of it. Last year, just 3% of those who qualified took advantage of the opportunity.
Opponents of an IRS system say it could be devastating for private options, such as Quicken, which also offers a paid version. Free File Alliance member Blucora, which owns TaxAct, laid this out in its 2017 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it faces “the risk of federal and state taxing authorities developing software or other systems to facilitate tax return preparation and electronic filing at no charge to taxpayers, which could reduce the need for TaxAct’s software and services. These or similar programs may be introduced or expanded in the future, which may cause us to lose customers and revenue.”
The IRS’s current agreement with the Free File Alliance is scheduled to expire in October 2021.
The news comes as the 2019 tax filing deadline is quickly approaching. Many consumers are already bracing for lower refunds. And experts warn that could have a negative effect on the economy.
Economy & Business
It’s Tax Day! President Trump to participate in Economy and Tax roundtable
CBS – It’s Tax Day! President Donald Trump will be in Burnsville, Minnesota for his first official White House visit to the state. Trump is expected to host a roundtable discussion on the economy and tax reform with business leaders from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida.
According to CBS News a recent poll found most Americans don’t think they even got a tax cut this year and just 17% believe their taxes went down.
If you are a procrastinator when it comes to filing your taxes, you can file an extension to do that.
Just visit the IRS website and fill out form 4868. Your new deadline will be October 15th.
The Late Filing Penalty is five-percent per month on any unpaid taxes. Tax Payers in two states have until Wednesday April 17th to file their taxes because ” Today” is “Patriot’s Day”, an official observed holiday in Maine and Massachusetts.
Energy & Environment
Glyphosate Worse than We Could Imagine. “It’s Everywhere”
Global Research – As new studies continue to point to a direct link between the widely-used glyphosate herbicide and various forms of cancer, the agribusiness lobby fights ferociously to ignore or discredit evidence of human and other damage. A second US court jury case just ruled that Monsanto, now a part of the German Bayer AG, must pay $ 81 million in damages to plaintiff Edwin Hardeman who contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. The ruling and a line-up of another 11,000 pending cases in US courts going after the effects of glyphosate, have hit Bayer AG hard with the company announcing several thousand layoffs as its stock price plunges.
In a trial in San Francisco the jury was unanimous in their verdict that Monsanto Roundup weed-killer, based on glyphosate, had been responsible for Hardeman’s cancer. His attorneys stated,
“It is clear from Monsanto’s actions that it does not care whether Roundup causes cancer, focusing instead on manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises genuine and legitimate concerns about Roundup.”
A new independent study shows that those with highest exposure to glyphosate have a 41% increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cancer. A meta-analysis of six studies containing nearly 65,000 participants looked at links between glyphosate-based herbicides and immune-suppression, endocrine disruption and genetic alterations. The authors found “the same key finding: exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) are associated with an increased risk of NHL (Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma).” Further, they stated that glyphosate “alters the gut microbiome,” and that that could “impact the immune system, promote chronic inflammation, and contribute to the susceptibility of invading pathogens.” Glyphosate also ”may act as an endocrine disrupting chemical because it has been found recently to alter sex hormone production” in both male and female rats.
In a long-term animal study by French scientists under Gilles Eric Seralini, Michael Antoniou and associates, it was demonstrated that even ultra-low levels of glyphosate herbicides cause non-alcoholic liver disease. The levels the rats were exposed to, per kg of body weight, were far lower than what is allowed in our food supply. According to the Mayo Clinic, today, after four decades or more pervasive use of glyphosate pesticides, 100 million, or 1 out of 3 Americans now have liver disease. These diagnoses are in some as young as 8 years old.
But glyphosate is not only having alarming effects on human health. Soil scientists are beginning to realize the residues of glyphosate application are also having a possibly dramatic effect on soil health and nutrition, effects that can take years to restore.
Killing Soils too
While most attention is understandably drawn to the human effects of exposure to glyphosate, the most widely used agriculture chemical in the world today, independent scientists are beginning to look at another alarming effect of the agrochemical– its effect on essential soil nutrients. In a study of the health of soils in the EU, the online journal Politico.eu found that the effects of spraying of glyphosate on the major crops in European agriculture is having disastrous consequences on soil health in addition to killing weeds.
Scientists at Austria’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna showed that casting activity of earthworms had nearly disappeared from the surface of farmland within three weeks of glyphosate application. Casting is the process of the worm pushing fertile soils to the surface as they burrow, essential for healthy soil and plant nutrition. A study at Holland’s Wageningen University of topsoil samples from more than 300 soil sites across the EU found that 83% of the soils contained 1 or more pesticide residues. Not surprisingly,
“Glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA, DDTs (DDT and its metabolites) and broad-spectrum fungicides… were the compounds most frequently found in soil samples and at the highest concentrations.”
The use of various pesticides, above all glyphosate-based ones like Roundup, has exploded over the past four decades across the EU much as across the USA. The agribusiness industry claims that this has been the key to the dramatic rise in farm crop productivity. However if we look more closely at the data, while average yields of major grains such as rice, wheat and maize have more than doubled since 1960, the use of pesticides like glyphosate-based ones has risen by 15-20-fold. Oddly enough, while the EU requires monitoring of many things, monitoring of pesticide residues in soil is not required at the EU level. Until recently the effects of heavy use of pesticides such as Roundup have been ignored in scientific research.
Evidence of soil experts is beginning to reveal clear links between use of pesticides such as glyphosate and dramatic drops in soil fertility and the collapse of microbe systems essential to healthy soil. Worms are one of the most essential.
ANOTHER “Bomb Cyclone” Will Bring More Flooding To Parts Of The Midwest That Were Hit By A “1,000 Year Flood” Last Month
Economic Collapse Blog – Less than a month after a “bomb cyclone” caused a “1,000 year flood” in the middle portion of the country, another “bomb cyclone” of similar strength is going to bring even more flooding to the High Plains and Upper Midwest. According to meteorologists, it is being projected that this new “bomb cyclone” will be “similar in intensity and in snowfall” to the last one, and the latest forecast is calling for “more than 30 inches in some areas”. The floods that we witnessed last month absolutely devastated communities throughout the region, and now it is going to happen again. The middle part of our nation has literally never seen anything like this happen ever before, and this is easily the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina.
Before I get into the details of the latest weather forecast, let’s review what we have witnessed so far. “At least 1 million acres of U.S. farmland” were under water for at least 7 days last month, according to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue “as many as a million calves” were lost in the flooding in the state of Nebraska alone, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops were destroyed. Thousands upon thousands of farmers were financially ruined, and thousands of farmers will not be able to plant any crops at all this year.
If you can point out a worse agricultural disaster in the last 50 years in the United States, please feel free to do so. To my knowledge, there isn’t one.
And now a second “bomb cyclone” is on the way this week. According to CBS News, it looks like this “bomb cyclone” will produce “a blizzard of epic proportions”…
Only three weeks after a “bomb cyclone” — one of the most intense storms on record — pummeled the Plains and Midwest, another bomb cyclone of similar strength has been forecast. This spring storm seems poised to dump even heavier snow; it could also be followed by another round of significant river flooding.
Science & Technology
Scientists print world’s first 3-D heart
The Jerusalem Post – A team of Israeli researchers has “printed” the world’s first 3-D vascularized, engineered heart.
On Monday, a team of Tel Aviv University researchers revealed the heart, which was made using a patient’s own cells and biological material. Until now, scientists have successfully printed only simple tissues without blood vessels.
“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Prof. Tal Dvir of TAU’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, who was the lead researcher for the study.
He worked with Prof. Assaf Shapira of TAU’s Faculty of Life Sciences, and Nadav Moor, a doctoral student. Their research was published in Advanced Science.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States. In Israel, it is the second largest cause of death (after cancer). In 2013, heart disease accounted for about 16% of the total number of deaths in Israel, according to the Health Ministry.
Heart transplantation is often the only treatment available to patients with end-stage heart failure. The waiting list for patients in the US can be as much as six months or more. In Israel and the US, many patients die while on the waiting list, hoping for a chance at survival.
“This heart is made from human cells and patient-specific biological materials. In our process, these materials serve as the bio-inks, substances made of sugars and proteins that can be used for 3-D printing of complex tissue models,” Dvir explained.
EU approves copyright overhaul in blow to Google, Facebook
NY Post – Google will have to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook filter out protected content under new copyright rules aimed at ensuring fair compensation for the European Union’s $1 trillion creative industries.
EU governments on Monday backed the move launched by the European Commission two years ago to protect Europe’s creative industries, which employ 11.7 million people in the bloc.
“When it comes to completing Europe’s digital single market, the copyright reform is the missing piece of the puzzle,” the Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement.
Under the new rules, Google and other online platforms will have to sign licensing agreements with musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists to use their work.
The European Parliament gave a green light last month to a proposal that has pitted Europe’s creative industry against tech companies, internet activists and consumer groups.
Your car is watching you: Who owns the data?
Roll Call – If you’re driving a late model car or truck, chances are that the vehicle is mostly computers on wheels, collecting and wirelessly transmitting vast quantities of data to the car manufacturer not just on vehicle performance but personal information, too, such as your weight, the restaurants you visit, your music tastes and places you go.
A car can generate about 25 gigabytes of data every hour and as much as 4,000 gigabytes a day, according to some estimates. The data trove in the hands of car makers could be worth as much as $750 billion by 2030, the consulting firm McKinsey has estimated. But consumer groups, aftermarket repair shops and privacy advocates say the data belongs to the car’s owners and the information should be subject to data privacy laws.
Yet Congress has yet to pass comprehensive federal data privacy legislation. And although Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has said he would like to see federal privacy legislation passed by the end of the year, it is unclear if that goal can be met.
The European Union has already ruled that data generated by cars belongs to their owners and is subject to privacy rules under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations or GDPR. Automakers, meanwhile, are still trying to shape the outcome of state data privacy laws, including the one in California that goes into effect in January 2020, but might be subject to amendment before then.
The California law’s definition of personal information extends beyond what’s generated by an individual to include household information, and gives consumers the right to obtain data collected on them, to stop third-party sales of that information, and to ask companies to delete their information.
The Auto Alliance, a trade group representing the world’s largest car makers, has appealed to the state’s attorney general, asking that the companies be allowed to provide only summary information to consumers as opposed to “specific pieces of personal information a business has collected about them,” as the law requires.
Car companies track data by the vehicle identification number or VIN and “may have little insight into who was driving the vehicle at the time information was collected,” the Alliance said in a March 8 letter to the California Justice Department.
Employee privacy at stake as corporate surveillance tech monitors workers’ every move
NBC – Corporate interest in surveillance seems to be on the rise to boost productivity. A 2018 survey by Gartner found that 22% of organizations worldwide are using employee-movement data, 17% are monitoring work-computer-usage data, and 16% are using Microsoft Outlook- or calendar-usage data.Employees are concerned over this invasion of privacy.
Health
Proposed new Texas law would demand safety studies for vaccines… no wonder the entire vaccine industry opposes it
NaturalNews – While the rest of the country is advancing towards medical tyranny, legislators from the Lone Star State are working to preserve health freedom. State lawmakers have put forth multiple vaccine measures that need support. One such measure, S.B. 2350, will mandate the need for legitimate vaccine safety studies. Legislators are also pushing to ensure no parent is forced to vaccine their child in the state of Texas.
Proponents of the vaccine industry have been quick to label these efforts as “misinformation” intended to “stoke fear” about vaccine safety.
Ironically, many of these pro-vaccine rags blither on about measles “outbreaks” while disparaging dissent to the vaccine narrative — even though most outbreaks are actually caused by the measles vaccine. Remember folks, its only “fear-mongering” if you’re going against the grain. The fact of the matter is that vaccine propagandists rely heavily on scare tactics and self-aggrandizement to encourage compliance with pharmaceutical dogma. Without those two tools, vaccines would be seen for what they are: poison.
Texas legislators demand vaccine safety studies
Senator Bob Hall (R) recently introduced S.B. 2350, a bill which would mandate the necessity of legitimate safety studies before a vaccine can be administered by healthcare providers. As Tenth Amendment Center reports, the bill will toughen up on vaccine safety requirements and how safety studies are performed.
2019′s Dirty Dozen: Which Foods Have the Most Pesticides?
Care2 – Beware the “Dirty Dozen.” The Environmental Working Group has released its annual list of fruits and vegetables most likely to be contaminated with pesticides, based on testing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And this year’s Dirty Dozen — as the produce is nicknamed — has some unsettling surprises.
“Overall, the USDA found 225 different pesticides and pesticide breakdown products on popular fruits and vegetables Americans eat every day,” according to an Environmental Working Group news release. “Before testing, all produce was washed and peeled, just as people would prepare food for themselves.” And the results for one particular trendy food were eye-opening. “The most surprising news from the USDA tests reveals that the popular health food kale is among the most contaminated fruits and vegetables,” the news release says.
So which conventionally grown fruits and vegetables (as opposed to organic) should you avoid if you want to limit the pesticides in your diet? Here is 2019’s Dirty Dozen.
- Potatoes
The Environmental Working Group does point out that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is critical for a healthy diet. But to make sure you’re maximizing the benefits, try to consume pesticide-free, organic varieties as often as possible. Potatoes, for instance, have numerous health benefits — as long as you’re not solely consuming them in chip form.
- Celery
Have you joined the celery juice bandwagon? If you don’t want to be sipping or crunching on pesticides, aim to go the organic route. One cup of chopped celery contains just 16 calories with 2 grams of fiber and a gram of protein. And it still offers a fair amount of nutrients
- Tomatoes
Tomatoes are great to grow in your home garden, where you can prevent pesticides and other chemicals from coming in contact with your food. A cup of chopped tomatoes has only 32 calories with 2 grams of fiber and 2 grams of protein. Plus, the serving provides you with 30 percent of your daily vitamin A, 38 percent of vitamin C, 18 percent of vitamin K and 12 percent of potassium, among other nutrients.
- Pears
A medium pear is a substantial snack — containing about 100 calories, 6 grams of fiber and a gram of protein. It also offers some vitamins and minerals, including 12 percent of the recommended vitamin C intake, 10 percent of vitamin K, 6 percent of potassium and 7 percent of copper. Still, even though a pear’s skin helps to make it a great source of fiber, it doesn’t keep the pesticides out. So make sure you’re consuming clean varieties of this fruit.
- Cherries
More than 90 percent of the cherry samples the Environmental Working Group analyzed tested positive for two or more pesticides. So for the full health-boosting potential of this tart little fruit, go organic. A cup of cherries has about 87 calories, 3 grams of fiber and 1 gram of protein. It also gives you a good amount of vitamin C, B vitamins and several minerals. Plus, according to Healthline, cherries are full of antioxidants and phytochemicals that can protect your body against diseases and reduce inflammation.
- Peaches
The thin skin of peaches doesn’t offer them much protection against pesticides. But it will contribute some fiber to your diet. One medium peach has about 60 calories, 2 grams of fiber and a gram of protein. It also contains several B vitamins, about 10 percent of the recommended vitamin A intake, 17 percent of vitamin C, 5 percent of vitamin K and 8 percent of potassium.
- Grapes
If you take pesticides out of the equation, grapes can be a very healthy addition to your diet. A cup of red or green grapes has roughly 100 calories and a gram of fiber. And it provides you with 27 percent of the recommended vitamin C intake, 28 percent of vitamin K, 8 percent of potassium and 10 percent of copper, among other nutrients. According to Healthline, the potent antioxidants in grapes can help fight several diseases, such as diabetes and cancer. Plus, grapes also might help to improve heart health and lower cholesterol.
- Apples
Just like with cherries, more than 90 percent of the apple samples carried two or more pesticides. “Apples are generally near the top of EWG’s Dirty Dozen list because they contain an average of 4.4 pesticide residues, including some at high concentrations,” according to the Environmental Working Group. And there’s one chemical in particular that’s especially controversial. “Most conventionally grown apples are drenched in diphenylamine, an antioxidant chemical treatment used to prevent the skin of apples in cold storage from developing brown or black patches,” the Environmental Working Group says. U.S. growers and regulators say the chemical poses no risk, but European regulators feel there isn’t enough evidence to prove its safety.
- Nectarines
Nectarines also are among the fruits and vegetables that had more than 90 percent of their samples test positive for two or more pesticides. But sans pesticides, nectarines are a healthy way to get several nutrients. A medium nectarine has about 62 calories — most of those coming from its natural sugars. Plus, it contains 2 grams of fiber and 2 grams of protein. It also offers multiple B vitamins, 9 percent of the recommended vitamin A intake, 13 percent of vitamin C, 8 percent of potassium and 6 percent of copper.
- Kale
The Department of Agriculture hadn’t included kale in its pesticide tests since 2009. At that time, it ranked eighth on the Dirty Dozen list. But since its popularity has skyrocketed, so has the pesticide use. “More than 92 percent of kale samples had two or more pesticide residues detected, and a single sample could contain up to 18 different residues,” according to the Environmental Working Group news release. Especially alarming was the presence of the pesticide DCPA, or Dacthal, which showed up in roughly 60 percent of the kale samples. Since 1995, the EPA has classified DCPA as a possible carcinogen — specifically citing liver and thyroid tumors — and the European Union banned it in 2009. Yet it’s still legal to use on U.S. crops — including kale.
- Spinach
“Federal data shows that conventionally grown spinach has more pesticide residues by weight than all other produce tested,” according to the Environmental Working Group. There were an average of 7.1 different pesticides on every spinach sample. And more than three-quarters of the samples contained one particularly scary “neurotoxic bug killer” called permethrin. “At high doses, permethrin overwhelms the nervous system and causes tremors and seizures,” the Environmental Working Group says. “But several studies also found a link between lower-level exposure to permethrin-type insecticides and neurological effects in children.” Europe banned permethrin in 2000, but the EPA is still assessing its risks.
- Strawberries
Sweet, juicy, pesticide-filled strawberries took the top spot on 2019’s Dirty Dozen. “Conventionally grown strawberries … contained an average of 7.8 different pesticides per sample, compared to 2.2 pesticides per sample for all other produce,” according to the Environmental Working Group. “… What’s worse, strawberry growers use jaw-dropping volumes of poisonous gases to sterilize their fields before planting, killing every pest, weed and other living thing in the soil.” Of all the samples, 99 percent contained at least one pesticide — and 30 percent had 10 or more pesticides. Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer, reproductive issues, hormone disruption, neurological problems and more. So if you’re not keen on putting that in your body, stick to the organic varieties.
Bonus: Hot peppers
The Environmental Working Group expanded 2019’s Dirty Dozen to include hot peppers, which don’t meet its traditional ranking criteria but nonetheless should have their contaminants exposed. “The USDA tests of 739 samples of hot peppers in 2010 and 2011 found residues of three highly toxic insecticides — acephate, chlorpyrifos and oxamyl — on a portion of sampled peppers at concentrations high enough to cause concern,” according to the Environmental Working Group news release. “These insecticides are banned on some crops but still allowed on hot peppers.” So buy organic hot peppers whenever possible. But if you can’t, washing and cooking them can somewhat diminish the pesticide levels.
Study: “Bug bombs” aren’t just ineffective, they’re also extremely TOXIC
NaturalNews – When you have a major cockroach problem the temptation to use a do-it-yourself bug bomb might be great. However, a recent study by researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU) has found that this type of insect “solution” is actually quite ineffective. The study was published in the journal BMC Public Health.
Besides being unreliable, foggers – generally known as roach bombs or bug bombs – kill indiscriminately, meaning that they kill both desirable and undesirable insects in the home. In addition, even though modern foggers are usually odorless and you often can’t even tell that they have been used, they still contain the same toxic chemicals. These toxins settle on surfaces, bedding and other exposed objects, making it virtually impossible to avoid exposure to them, even when the instructions are carefully followed.
All things considered, then, bug bombs are not the solution to a cockroach infestation.
I think the amazon strike reason was wages in behind. Thanks for this detailed article.