Get the Latest Info on Dioxin/Body Burden...

...from one of our most prestigious professors Dr. David Garabrant, with one of the most prestigious medical training facilities in the world, the University of Michigan. Dr. Garabrant will bring us up to date on the study by the team he headed up. Here are meeting details:

• Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, in Saginaw Michigan
• Tuesday, June 5, 2007
• 6:00 pm -8:00 pm

Let's get over there and give him the full support he deserves. At the last public meeting presented by Dow Chemical and MDEQ on Thursday, May 3, the Lonetree Gang's own leader, Terry Miller, struck out at Dr. Garabrant verbally, showing an unexpected mean streak. Such behavior seems to be a recurring event with Lonetree Council and their pack mentality.

Click here to read the U/M Press Release in it's entirety.

I went to a meeting Thursday...

My friends & I call them 'dioxin meetings'. The chemical company and the state government regulatory people are working together to clean up a chemical they couldn't even find in such tiny amounts a century ago when it all started. I don't attend those meetings to make sure they're doing it right. They know what they are doing. I attend because I find it therapeutic! I attend because there's a gang of bullies who want to get something for nothing from the giant company. I attend because those bullies want to drag me and my neighbors along with them by claiming they represent all of us. I attend to represent me and the majority of my neighbors who feel like I do although they prefer Len and I to represent them publicly.

Midland Daily News reporter, Kathie Marchlewski gives an accurate account of the May 3 quarterly meeting presented by Dow & MDEQ in her article - Prep for river cleanup to start. Read it to know all about the meeting.

Here's what I saw at that meeting:

• a fairly full room, mostly people directly involved in getting the work done,
• well done presentations - given by competent, well trained professionals,
• an angry extremist environmental activist who decided to be exceptionally rude that day, and as usual, making sure to monopolize the comments and questions portion of the agenda with his prewritten scripts in hand.
• the usual delicious cookies.

About the Tittabawassee River: Freeland's Walleye Festival, held annually on the last weekend of April, was once again a success! I'd like to share a couple of articles about fishing on the Tittabawassee from the Midland Daily News:

• Fine time fishing in Freeland by Steve Griffin - 04/30/2007
• and Photos: Easier from the shore - 05/03/2007
• and just for the fun of it, this photo taken from my back deck in March.

I like to call it 'Watering the Asparagus'

Don't Forget - MDEQ/Dow Meeting...

... 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at the Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, Saginaw. This meeting is open to the public. The press release and agenda for the meeting are available at:

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135--167351--,00.html and
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-whm-hwp-dow-CommMeeting-agenda-05-03-07_194656_7.pdf

Supporting materials will be available at the following location prior to the meeting:

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3312_4118_4240-53424--,00.html#Recent_Dow_Offsite_CA_Documents

Addendum to my 4:30 pm blog...

... was so involved in the dissertation I forgot to tell why Barber's article in the Saginaw News motivated me. I haven't done much blogging lately because it really bothered me that I could dislike a whole group because I distrust their leadership.

I don't dislike the whole group. I do feel sorrow that they were caught in the trap set by such professional activists. It occurred to me that Miller & Riddick were both around to get sucked into the Greenpeace propaganda machine 'way back when.... Why else would a simple highschool teacher get so involved in a hate campaign against one successful local business? Henry Dow did start his little company right here in mid-Michigan. Why else would a simple nurse speak so venomously of Dow Chemical in particular? She's even against MDEQ now that the 'culprit' and the 'regulator' are working together. Ya know, I don't even dislike them... I think the word is more like..... pity.

It's not about DEQ... It's not about Dow...

...It's about me. You may have noticed less updates here at TRVoice lately. I thought it was just because I'm too busy, but truth is I didn't feel motivated; wasn't sure what I wanted to write - or why.

Thanks to Barrie Barber, reporter for The Saginaw News & his big frontpage spread in Sunday's paper yesterday - Group won't back down from Dow - I come back rejuvenated. Barrie's series of articles was well written but perhaps he didn't go back far enough.

Perhaps there is a core to Lonetree beyond the nuclear plant fiasco. I speak now to my contemporaries. Remember when an international bunch of gangsters visited Midland - attempting to make trouble in the Tittabawassee River in the vicinity of Dow Chemical? Don't remember? How about if I mention the name Greenpeace? Ah! Now you remember! What were they doing in the river? Why has Greenpeace become persona non grata in the United States?

Look at the collage below. This is the face of Lonetree. This is the face of Greenpeace. This is the face of a bully and terrorist, for is it not terrorism when a bully frightens people into following his lead? Is it not a bit weird that the huge international organization named Greenpeace compares Bhopal, India to Midland, Michigan? Read all about it here at their website!

Click on my little poster to see if you know anybody in the photos. Yup, that's right. Some of them are from right here in mid-Michigan.

Whoa! Now is that terrorist tactics - comparing dead babies with perfectly healthy American children? Recognize the little blonde poster child? Well, I don't but... That's right folks... Greenpeace's poster children in 2003 were little Ruby from Bhopal and little Paul from the Lonetree pack of litigants/terrorists right here in the good ol' U.S. of A! Watch out for the bullies, people... they wear many masks.

I heard on the news yesterday...

...that the Tittabawassee River is currently contaminated because of an over flow of sewage in Saginaw County. This is a whole lot scarier to most residents than the historic dioxin that has been in the soil here & there for approximately 100 years!

I have lots of gems - just no time to share them... but like Ahrnold, 'I'll be back!'

Len tells it like it is

once again in the Saginaw News.

Kudos to Len Heinzman... even I couldn't have said it as well as he did in his latest letter to the editor in the Saginaw News!!!

'Those people' involved with the Lonetree Council just keep proving their lack of credibility with constant chants to spend government money for their frivolous complaints and lawsuits. True to form, they do not listen to reason... evidenced by their continued mantra to get Dow whether they deserve it or not. It's obvious that facts are meaningless to 'those people' when they pay no heed to the fact that some things are best left alone.

Don't forget the next quarterly Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin Community Meeting on Thursday, February 8, at the Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, Saginaw. The meeting is open to the public and will run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Click here to read the entire DEQ press release.

...and you can find the agenda here.

Looking forward to this meeting. You never know what to expect when extremists get excited. Remember June 28, 2005? It was the meeting to discuss what kind of meetings would be most beneficial to the public. Lonetree Council members and followers showed their pack mentality when one man told me to sit down and be quiet - and was followed by a drumroll of repeats by the whole litigiously greedy gang across the room! This does not show up in the written transcript... at least not verbatim, but I'm sure there is a taped version! When those people reacted that way, trying to deny me my freedom of speech, they showed their true colors. I knew my involvement was effective! That was pack mentality at it's best. To refresh your minds, you might want to read the transcript again.

I've also had individual members of that group 'advise' me. One woman told me I should stop 'bragging' about my good health. I've received anonymous mail... and a few other minor incidents... Shows what kind of people are in that group!

Hmmm! Maybe I WILL get a license to carry. ;-) Have a nice day.

A few facts and some truth also included...

"The truth is more important than the facts."
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

Hmmm! Makes sense to me! Here are links to some of the latest facts about dioxin in the Tittabawassee River floodplain:

• Tittabawassee River Sampling Identifies Areas for Interim Clean-up Action, MDEQ Contact: Robert McCann (517) 241-7397 - January 11, 2007. This information also advises us of the next public information session presented by Dow and MDEQ - 'The public will have an opportunity to ask questions about short and long-term actions that will be developed during the February 8, 2007 Tri-Cities Community Meeting at The Horizons Center in Saginaw Township from 7-9pm'
• River cleanup could begin this month, Midland Daily News, 01/11/2007. This reporter does a remarkable job of presenting the facts without trying to insert her personal opinions.
• Hot spots may demand action, The Saginaw News, 01/12/2007. This reporter included viewpoints from our own Len Heinzman, but wow! - the quote from a guy further downriver sure hits on the dramatic! '...said he and his family have endured "an unusual amount" of illnesses over the years and points to a contaminated river as the potential culprit. "With these kinds of levels, anybody in this area should be concerned. It makes you think. I used to fish down there." '

What do I think? It is a fact that 87,000 parts per trillion is a really really high concentration of dioxin. The Dow people will clean it up asap... I know because they said so.

It is true that the University of Michigan study showed that living along the Tittabawassee River does not significantly increase dioxin in our bodies; eating too much fat does!

It is true and it is a fact that extremist environmentalists are so tunnel-visioned that they would have the precautionary principle applied to all things scientific.

It is a fact that one of the tri-cities' area antagonists supports the precautionary principle, especially regarding dioxins in the environment.... evidenced by his recently published letter to the editor of the Saginaw News. Dr. Neill Varner responded with his own letter to the editor titled Principle arguments.

I'm sure I've shared this article about the precautionary principle before, but here it is in case you missed it - Challenging the precautionary principle by Helene Guldberg. In case you don't have time to read the whole thing, it all boils down to this excerpt from the Ms. Guldberg, 'the precautionary principle.... demands that we take regulatory action on the basis of possible 'unmanageable' risks, even after tests have been conducted that find no evidence of harm.'

It is true that, had the precautionary principle been used throughout the years, we would have no aspirin or cold remedies, no medicines, no vaccines, and on and on and on... Would we have the wheel... or fire? We could suppose then that one who totally supports the precautionary principle is the ultimate Luddite!

Finally!

Dioxin bill signed by Granholm

Midland Daily News has an update

on the saga of the pitiful few who insisted on calling their own homes worthless in hopes of getting money from the big chemical company... Dow appeal of class action status one year old. Here's the latest quote from Ms. Henry...

"We are now almost four years into this lawsuit, yet the argument is still over whether we should be a class action lawsuit or not," Kathy Henry said. "Saddam Hussein has had a speedier trial in Iraq than we have had here in Michigan. There's something very wrong with that. "

Why should she expect 2,000 residents would want to be included in her battle for a free buck anyway? She and the rest of her Lonetree gang should have just gone ahead with their lawsuit without trying to include the rest of us on the Tittabawassee River floodplain. Her lawsuit would have been over by now! Of course we all know the class action suit wasn't really her own idea... she & her little group are really just pawns of the local professional environmental extremists.

Do you suppose she's finally getting tired of this silly game?

I went to a meeting Wednesday...

and planned to tell you all about it on Thursday... but then I brought in the day's mail. You must read this thing. What sort of person writes an anonymous letter anyway?
This person is not only semi-literate but doesn't even know anything about me! He or she was apparently all bent out of shape about a letter I wrote to the editor of The Saginaw News in which I explained my reasons for needing a change in Michigan leadership. He or she mailed it out the day after election results were final but nevertheless was too spineless to even sign the letter! Just for giggles, click here if you want to read it and the referenced newspaper letters in .pdf format.

I spent too much time putting together a response and then decided it doesn't belong here. I don't need to give you details of the November 8 DEQ/Dow meeting because, between the two of them, a couple of local newspapers did a pretty good job of coverage. In case you don't read both of these papers, I've saved the articles for you.

The new guy at Saginaw News seems to be interested only in the whining and complaining of local econutz. Read it here: Study critics seek results

Dioxin testing progressing, published in the Midland Daily News, is a nice straight forward report about the meeting.

What did I see at this meeting?

...employees of a large company and employees of a large bureaucracy working together to work out details to the satisfaction of a few disgruntled environmental extremists, the general population along the Tittabawassee River floodplain who just want the whole dioxin situation to go away, and a couple of litigious residents who are afraid their dreams of a big payoff from the 'chemical giant' might never be fulfilled! I was also disappointed to see another whole layer of bureaucracy added to the already overabundance of government involvement in my backyard. This group calls themselves 'NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) Trustees' whatever that is...and is apparently a representative group of government employees including the very boring lawyer who gave the presentation for another DEQ member who was not able to attend, admitting he knew nothing about what he was presenting.

God bless our veterans on this, their day, and a great big Thank You to our fantastic military personnel who are defending and protecting our families and our country today! I don't normally do much with those forwarded things but want to share this email I received from a friend this morning. Today I especially pray for my dad, Tony Grammatico, who served in WWII and my Uncle Arthur Hintz who served in WWI. We will never forget you.

Midland residential properties will NOT be labeled

no matter what the results of dioxin testing. Read why in this article from Midland Daily News October 24... Dioxin testing in Midland begins; city participating. Testing will be done in such a fashion that individual homes can not be identified.

Well la-de-dah!!!! It certainly didn't bother the powers that be at MDEQ when they decided to label our backyards along the Tittabawassee River floodplain as 'facilities' of The Dow Chemical Company! Of course the difference lies in the fact that a few individuals along the floodplain joined up with the Lonetree Gang to go after 'the big money' from Dow Chemical.

I recently noticed another letter in The Saginaw News from Kathy Henry. She just loves having her home called a facility! She said so in her letter. Weird, huh? Why was she complaining this time? ...because the Tittabawassee Township board decided to send another letter to Ms. Granholm requesting she remove the label from our backyards.

Granholm didn't listen to us when we asked her to sign the first bill approved by the Michigan House and Senate to remove the label 'facility.' She met with Lonetree Council but wouldn't even listen to the real residents here at Tittabawassee River Voice.

As much as the Henrys complain about not being able to sell their home - supposedly because of 'dioxin contamination', they are the reason DEQ gave us the label! I guess they're running scared right now because they're afraid they might not hit the big money jackpot from Dow. I heard they wouldn't sell it even when they received an offer to buy!

Folks, help us out with this mess. Scientists at all levels - local, national and international, recognize the fact that historical dioxin in the soil is not significantly affecting anybody's health. Jenny Granholm wouldn't listen to real, long term residents to the facts. She only let environmental extremists pull her strings and she vetoed the bill.

Vote for Dick DeVos and get Granholm out of office before she ruins the entire state!

Mark Your Calendars for the Next DEQ/Dow Meeting...

The following was sent to attendees of the last MDEQ/Dow Dioxin Community meeting...

Subject: Date Correction Notice
November 8 DEQ/Dow Tri-Cities Dioxin Community Meeting
From: Cheryl Howe
Date 10/10/2006 6:20 PM

Please be advised that an error was made in the press release, agenda, and transcript for the August 9, 2006, Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin Community Meeting regarding the date for the next quarterly meeting.

The Department of Environmental Quality and The Dow Chemical Company will host the next Tri-Cities Dioxin Community Meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8, 2006, at the Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, Saginaw (rather than on November 9, 2006, as was erroneously announced in the documents listed above). The DEQ, Dow, and Dow contractor staff will be available a half hour before and after the meeting for questions and discussion.

A press release and agenda will be available prior to the November 8 meeting.

Please share this notice with others who might be interested in attending this meeting or forward their e-mail addresses to me for inclusion on the distribution list. If you should have any questions, please contact me

I prefer asparagus...

...grown in my own backyard - you know - one of those backyards in the Tittabawassee River floodplain... you know the yards our own Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and a few misguided people denigrated with their accusations.

I'm sure you've heard about the E. coli epidemic in foods grown in California. This article from Detroit Free Press actually doesn't cover the more recent information I heard this morning. Cleaner spinach starts in the field The latest news tells us some bodies of water in farming areas are contaminated with E. coli. They tell us that these dangerous creatures (bacteria are creatures, aren't they? - microscopic but nonetheless creatures) actually permeate the foods they invade. In other words, you can't wash it off like you can wash lesser contaminants.

Hmmmm! E. coli = makes people very sick and kills people! Dioxin = insignificant difference between our local backyards and the rest of the country and it hasn't been known to kill anybody even in gigantic quantities (remember Yushchenko?)

Today's Giggle...

can be seen in the Midland Daily News - Disposal site eyed by Dow? I was just about to say something nice about some of the people in this article but changed my mind when I read it! I guess it just goes to prove 'old hippies never die - they just continue to make themselves look silly.'

A September 9, 2006 Midland Daily News article reminded me...

..so I searched my computer for this photo which I took in springtime 1962. It shows my husband Frank and our four oldest daughters, ages 6, 5, and twins aged 4. It was pretty cold that day so the 2 year old and 2 month-old baby were in the house. This was our second springtime along River Road and our second flood. Not sure how this pic survived since most of our family photos were destroyed in the flood of 1986.

This photo depicts why I speak up against the faulty logic passed on by environmental activist fear-mongers. They say '...what about the babies & pregnant mothers?' and all that scare tactic stuff! Well, we were the mothers. Our children were the babies!!! ...and we weren't the only ones. There were generations before us along the Tittabawassee River plain. There were plenty of mothers... plenty of babies! Most of us were and are healthy! Past generations along this river plain lived long lives back before it became almost common to live for 90 plus years!!! We are the test and the proof that fear-mongering is just that - fear-mongering!!!

...so here is that article that inspired today's tirade:
The rain beat down for 27 days - so says the Midland Daily News. If you're even a few years more than 20 years old I'm sure you remember that year! I'll remember it. We had over five and a half feet of water in our house... and it stayed and it stayed. Guess who cleaned it up! We did - some of our children and my husband Frank and me!

A while back I promised to share my comments on the August 15 University of Michigan meeting when Dr. Garabrant & his team discussed results of the two-year blood serum/soil study. I took a while, but here it is:

• I saw the angry little pack who just do not want a solution. They only want revenge for a wrong that occurred before anybody knew it was a wrong. They want revenge even though actual scientific studies indicate there is no health problem. This is obvious in this article published in the Saginaw News Opinion page on August 20, written by a leader of that angry pack.
• I saw a much larger group of people, including me, who were happy and excited to hear the good news. This group was hopeful that perhaps the 'problem', the labels on our properties and the eco-fearmongers lies would be put to rest. This was expressed simply and elegantly in this article by my friend Len on the same Saginaw News Opinion page.
• I saw a group of brilliant scientists who had done a terrific job - whose work was now being denigrated by a few people who apparently want to 'make a name for themselves' based on pseudo-science and suppositions.
• I saw employees of a large company (Dow Chemical) and regulatory employees of the state of Michigan (MDEQ) - trying to fix a problem the few fear-mongers created through their publicity and their need for recognition within their little 1970's anti-establishment greenpeace community.
• I saw a situation that will not be resolved unless and until the company and the state ignore the squeaky wheels of professional environmentalist activists whose ears are closed to all but their own goals.

Now, just because I thought you might be interested, here are more articles I wanted to share with you:

• These letters to the editor Saginaw News were published after the August 10 meeting at the Horizons in Saginaw. This pdf document includes: a letter from the scientific community, Dr. Varner and one from an individual who remembers the old days playing in, around and on the Tittabawassee River, with no side-effects in his older years as well as another letter from the local chronic 'aginner' (one who is against everything).
• an article from Midland Daily News after that meeting, entitled Don't paint Tobico trails with a reputation. Gee, not that there should be a need to mention this but - did it occur to anybody that when one strays from a trail in our local parks along the Tittabawassee, we are greeted with giant signs, decreed as required warnings by our local econutz, scaring people away from those parks? ...and yet just a few feet from the Tobico paths.... no warnings? The 'powers that be' at Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have no qualms about giving our homes along the river plain a bad reputation!!!!
  

It's been a busy past two weeks for the dioxin issue...

...and quite informative! Yesterday, local papers reported results of the University of Michigan study of a comparison of dioxins in the human blood with dioxins in their physical environment. Since all had the same info, I'm sharing here the one from Midland Daily News titled Dioxin in Midlanders' blood - even though it relates to the whole study. Here also is today's article in The Saginaw News, written by a new young intern reporter, Vince Bond Jr: What does it all mean?

Gotta tell you - I want to share what I saw at this meeting but this is undoubtedly one of my busiest Wednesdays in a long time! Attended business all morning and I'm trying to get this in before a mid-afternoon appointment. This evening - another commitment... so I guess you'll just have to wait until tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'd like to share the handouts from last night. You can find them all by going to the U/M Dioxin website.

...and just because I already saved this collection of local articles for those who do not read every page of every local newspaper, here is a variety of viewpoints for last week. In case you don't have time to read them all, you must read this one, published 8/6/2006 in the Midland Daily News - This article was actually written by enviro-extremist Terry Miller, with comment by Kathy Henry, to whom Yours Truly left a comment. In light of the general attitude of the majority of residents along the Tittabawassee and latest information from Dr. Garabrant's 2-year study, do they not appear quite foolish?: Forum: Looking for more than words; it's time for action

Published 8/11/2006 - Saginaw News article about the MDEQ/Dow quarterly informational meeting to the public last week at Horizons. - First soil sampling segment complete

...and these two, published 8/10/2006 in the Midland Daily News - Contaminated sediment won't be removed yet

The way the river moves: Dow is working to find out

Published 7/27/2006, this article covers Dow projects to clean up water around the world... even developing technology for third world countries without electricity. -
Dow re-energizes clean water efforts - Midland Daily News.

Ooooops!

Midland Daily News - Dioxin meeting Wednesday ... and guess who made promises to be someplace else that day? Ah well, maybe I can stop in before it's over. I'm hoping we will be well represented without me there anyway.

I can predict this: The whole Lone Tree gang will be there enmasse and vocal! They seem to get all the attention they want by both Dow & MDEQ whenever any of them wants to speak - so I just won't have to listen to them, will I?

Please be there - 6:30 - 9:00 pm. I'll be there in time to take roll before the meeting is over.

Speaking of Lone Tree and attention - just read this article, published in Midland Daily News yesterday: Looking for more than words; it's time for action - a forum article written by none other than the long winded enviro-wacko Terry Miller.

Update... sort of.

Been doing loads of reading... just not taking time for the commentary, but what I heard on the news this morning... just gotta share! I haven't read it anywhere yet but the local NBC TV news people reported that Ms. Granholm, our current governor, attended a public function featuring... tah dah!!!... Michael Moore! Good heavens! Even more fodder for getting her out of office!

Here's my collection of current reading... comments graciously accepted:
========================================
Chemical & Engineering News: Latest News - EPA's Dioxin Review Is Criticized: "EPA's Dioxin Review Is Criticized
National Research Council report says agency may have overstated cancer risks
Bette Hileman"

Dioxin risk appears to depend on methodology
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Updated 7/11/2006 9:51 PM ET

...this will not change:

Federal dioxin review flows downriver to Saginaw, Bay City

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/711/1

Dioxin Less Dangerous?By Erik StokstadScienceNOW Daily News11 July 2006
'Low doses of dioxin may not be as carcinogenic as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states in its draft risk assessment, according to a panel of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).'

Panel Says Dioxin May Pose Less of a Risk By BLOOMBERG NEWSPublished: July 12, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/health/12brfs-005.html

========================================

Dioxin analysis results/exposure estimates -- Updated June 2006

Science academy joining dioxin debate
Thursday, June 22, 2006
JEREMIAH STETTLER
THE SAGINAW NEWS

Dioxin bill passes in House; effect uncertain
Kathie Marchlewski, Midland Daily News
06/22/2006

Major excavation of contaminated dirt clearing way for new Midland stadium
Thursday, June 22, 2006
By JEFF KART
TIMES WRITER

===================================================
Will a Dioxin Panel Bring Down EPA's "House of Carcinogens"?
By Gilbert Ross, M.D.

Call Off the Dioxin Dogs
By Michael Fumento

========================================
Midland Daily News - Dow re-energizes clean water efforts

Midland Daily News - Dioxin, EPA and science: When will they meet?

Dioxin, EPA and science: When will they meet?:
Michael Gough, Midland Daily News
07/23/2006"

Michael Gough is a fellow at the George Marshall Institute. A former director of science and risk studies at the Cato Institute, he is an expert on environmental policy and risk assessment. He was a senior associate at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment and previously taught microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and SUNY-Stony Brook. He is the author of Dioxin, Agent Orange (1986) and the coeditor of Silencing Science (1999), Readings in Risk (1990) and The Alchemy of Policy Making: Political Manipulation of Science (2003). His more than 40 publications on public policy have centered on cancer risk assessment and policy and on dioxin risks.

Reader comment provided by A North Carolina resident and disgruntled former Dow employee.