Fatal Birth Defects a Mystery in Rural Washington

Fatal Birth Defects a Mystery in Rural Washington
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif

(Newser) – Anencephaly is a “uniformly fatal” birth defect that leaves babies born without part of their brain or skull—and it’s been striking three counties in rural Washington state at a rate at least four times the national average. But the cluster—in Yakima, Franklin, and Benton counties—remains cloaked in mystery, with no single cause pinpointed. The state’s health department and the CDC in July issued a report that cited 23 cases of anencephaly between January 2010 and January 2013. A genetic counselor has since seen eight or nine more cases of it and spina bifida, NBC News reports. Officials were first alerted by a 58-year-old nurse who had seen no more than two cases of anencephaly in her decades-long career—and then experienced two cases in a six-month span, and learned of a third.

Officials dug into the cases of the women involved, and found “no common exposures, conditions, or causes”—having reviewed everything from their education and BMI to their water supply to any medications they took, the Yakima Herald Republic noted at the time. But some are faulting officials for not actually alerting the women that they were part of a perceived cluster, or actually interviewing them. Doing so could reveal “common environmental exposures,” says a Duke genetics professor who specializes in anencephaly; she notes that research has shown a correlation between the defect and mold and pesticide exposure, and that the Central Washington area is an agriculture-heavy one. The Seattle Times previously reported on other potential risk factors: A diet lacking in folic acid, a contaminant in cornmeal, and elevated nitrates levels in drinking water. Still, the CDC maintains it could just be a coincidence. A report on the number of cases recorded in 2013 is due this spring.

Health from Newser

Read more about Fatal Birth Defects a Mystery in Rural Washington and other interesting subjects concerning Health and Lifestyle at TheDailyNewsReport.com

EPA"s Wood-Burning Stove Ban Deals Blow to Rural Homes

The Environmental Protection Agency recently imposed restrictions on wood-burning stoves that will deal a blow to rural Americans who rely on wood to heat their homes.

Critics charge that the rule changes were enacted following pressure from environmental groups.

The EPA tightened restrictions in January on the level of fine airborne particulate emissions that wood-burning stoves can emit, from 15 micrograms per cubic meter to a maximum of 12 micrograms.

The EPA restrictions would ban the production and sale of the kinds of wood-burning stoves that compose 80 percent of those currently in use in the United States, Forbes reported.

“Although this is an ancient technology, it can provide a solution for high heating costs in many parts of the country,” Laura Huggins, a research fellow for both the Hoover Institution and the Property and Environment Research Center, told Newsmax.

“With up to one-third of this country’s energy consumption used for heating, policymakers would be wise to consider the benefits of wood as a heat source,” Huggins said.

In the face of tightening economies and rising heating costs, more Americans have been turning to cheaper, archaic sources for heat, especially those in poorer areas.

The number of households heating with wood grew 34 percent from 2000 to 2010, with 2.4 million homes, or 2.1 percent of U.S. housing units, using wood as their primary heating source, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 10 million additional homes use wood to supplement their primary heat source, the U.S. Energy Information Administration disclosed.

Huggins said environmentalists should cheer the use of this energy source.

“Fuel for wood heating is a renewable resource, and under the right circumstances can be local and sustainable,” Huggins said.

But pressure from environmental groups has been responsible for many of the EPA rule changes.

In October, attorneys general for some of the most liberal states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, and Oregon — filed suits against the EPA seeking restrictions on wood-burning heaters.

The environmental group Earthjustice jumped on the bandwagon and filed its own suit against the federal agency.

The suit sought to force the EPA “to update clean air standards that limit emissions from new outdoor wood boilers, furnaces and other similar sources that discharge large volumes of smoke and soot,” said Earthjustice, which filed the action along with other environmental and health groups, including the American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Clean Air Council, and Environment and Human Health, Inc.

The new EPA mandate has all the markings of a “sue-and-settle” scheme between the government and environmentalists, critics charge.

Sue-and-settle suits are filed by environmentalists as a means of winning “consent decrees” that are parlayed into regulations the environmentalist groups wanted in the first place.

“This is but another example of the EPA and other government agencies working with activist environmental groups to sue and settle on claims that afford leverage to enact new regulations which they lack statutory authority to otherwise accomplish,” Forbes reported.

William Yeatman, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Newsmax: “EPA engages in sweetheart litigation in order to cede its regulatory initiative to green special interests like the Sierra Club.

“Virtually all of EPA’s air quality regulations were prompted by such sue-and-settle litigation, the occurrence of which has exploded since President Obama assumed the Oval Office,” Yeatman said, adding that the wood-burning stove regulation “is only the latest example of policy-making.”

The EPA “has targeted oil, gas, coal, and nuclear with needless regulations,” Yeatman said. “Now the agency is going after wood — a biofuel.”

Pressure from the federal government is contributing to states seeking further restrictions on wood-burning stoves, Alaska state Rep. Tammie Wilson said.

Alaskan officials are worried about losing “federal highway funds,” Wilson told Newsmax. “These new EPA proposed bans on wood-stove burns are absolutely the reaction to ‘sue and settle.’ Alaska should push back on the EPA and not do their dirty work. A governmental agency should not be allowed to shut down a resident’s right to utilize a certified appliance burning approved fuels.”

Wilson, a Republican who’s been tracking the federal crackdown on wood stoves, says the state environmental agency has taken up the mantra and implemented even tighter rules for residents.

“The Alaska Division of Environment Conservation has proposed stricter regulations for our area,” including restrictions on “wintertime outdoor open burning” in certain areas, Wilson said.

The state agency also set tight limits on particulate emission levels for new wood-fired heating devices and put local air quality agents in charge of declaring “air quality episodes and advisories,” with power “to take immediate action — voluntary and/or mandatory shutdowns of solid fuel-burning devices,” Wilson said.

“Rather than fret over EPA’s computer model-based warning about the dangers of inhaling soot from wood smoke, residents have more pressing concerns on their minds such as the immediate risk of freezing when the mercury plunges,” Wilson told The Associated Press.

Related Stories:

• EPA Moves 3 Wyoming Towns into an Indian Reservation


• Heavily Armed EPA Raid for Clean Water Violations Prompts Uproar

© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

EPA"s Wood-Burning Stove Ban Deals Blow to Rural Homes

Providing Health Care Complicated in Rural Areas

Health insurance policies that fit the requirements of the Affordable Care Act are a tough sell in many parts of rural America.

From Florida to Idaho, Michigan and beyond, many people in the most rural areas are reluctant to sign up for plans offered on the government’s healthcare website.

Those tasked with spreading the word there about the healthcare overhaul say their efforts are complicated by a lack of providers in rural areas, the distances they must cover to reach potential enrollees, anti-government attitudes and technology issues.

Though many people in rural areas have signed up for the plans, others say health insurance is too expensive and they would rather face the annual tax penalty than comply with the new law.

In Freeport, Fla, a  rural part of the Panhandle, Christopher Mitchell finds few takers when he delivers his message about the importance of exploring insurance options under Obamacare.

People in the conservative-leaning area tend to have a bad impression of President Barack Obama’s signature law because of negative messages they hear on talk radio or from friends, said Mitchell, marketing director for a network of nonprofit health clinics. Even for those with insurance, a doctor’s visit may require a long drive because there are few providers in the area — and some are selective about the coverage they accept.

Around the country, advocates spreading the word about Obamacare in rural areas face similar difficulties. Coupled with the well-publicized glitches for the online insurance marketplaces, their stories illustrate the broader challenges in meeting President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing the number of uninsured in places with some of the highest percentages of uninsured residents.

“I tell people that I am not here to advocate for the law, I am here to support the law and empower people to be able to use and understand the law,” said Mitchell, whose employer, PanCare of Florida, received a federal grant for outreach efforts. “But when people are hearing over and over and over that is bankrupting America, it is hard to break through.”

On a recent afternoon, Mitchell made his pitch to half a dozen patients in the waiting room of a low-slung brick clinic surrounded by pine trees on the two-lane state road that serves as Freeport’s main street. In areas like this — where one-story houses and mobile homes sit far apart on lots of tan, sandy soil and pine needles — many poor residents could benefit from federally subsidized health insurance but aren’t open to it.

Among those unconvinced by Mitchell’s pitch was Laressa Bowness, who brought her father to the clinic for dental care.

“I get frustrated because I hear so much stuff. The politicians who put the system into place have lost their sense of reality. They don’t understand what people who work face,” said Bowness, who added that most people she knows don’t have health insurance because they simply cannot afford it.

In a sparsely populated area of Michigan, retired nurse Sue Cook crisscrosses the 960-square mile Sanilac County to help people sign up for insurance through the online exchange. The spread-out county has only 42,000 residents.

“There are many challenges we’re facing right now,” said Cook, who leads an all-volunteer team of health care professionals at Caring Hearts Clinic in Marlette, 65 miles north of Detroit. “You’ve got somebody in the northeast part of the county that has no transportation to get here to even sign up.

“We’re finding that even if I go to the far end of the county, there’s the issue of not having Wi-Fi to hook up to,” she said. “Those are huge hurdles for us to try to conquer in a large county like this.”

Kathy Bannister recently signed up with Cook’s help after many failed attempts. The self-employed beautician secured a plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan with a monthly payment of $ 215 after subsidies. She now pays $ 500 for a comparable plan from the same insurer.

“The whole idea was to make it easier for people,” said Bannister, 51, who had a heart-valve replacement 13 years ago. “I’d been calling and calling and calling, and a lot of people would have given up. It’s discouraging.”

To the north, Nick Derusha is director of the health department for four Upper Peninsula counties with a high rate of uninsured residents: Mackinac, Luce, Alger and Schoolcraft. The region covers a vast expanse but only consists of about 35,000 people.

Barriers faced by people in the area include a shortage of health workers, a lack of transportation and Internet and cable connectivity.

“There are many barriers to care, as well as health care coverage alone,” Derusha said.

Rudey Ballard, an insurance broker in Rexburg, Idaho — population 25,000 — has been selling health care policies for two decades. In addition to his brokerage downtown, his six-person office staffs a small kiosk at the local Wal-Mart, just down the hill from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple that dominates the rural skyline.

Rexburg is Republican country — all local lawmakers are GOP, and residents voted overwhelmingly for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. Ballard sometimes finds himself the target of criticism when he’s manning the Wal-Mart booth.

“I’ve actually had people come up to me and boo me,” he said. “They come up to me and go ‘Boo, hiss. Boo, hiss. I will never sign up that.’”

Back in Florida, Mitchell had no takers during his afternoon of trying to get people to sign up. Some in the small waiting room told him that even with federal subsidies they would face a choice between utilities, food, gas or monthly health insurance. One woman asked Mitchell about the fine for not having health insurance. She laughed and said the $ 95 is much more affordable than a monthly health insurance bill.

Walton County, with about 58,000 residents, stretches from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Alabama border in the north. While there are wealthy neighborhoods along the coast, most of the county looks more like Freeport. For the ZIP code surrounding the town, census data shows that the median household income is around $ 43,000 and the poverty rate is around 12 percent.

Because Florida opted not to take additional funding from the federal government to expand Medicaid coverage, many people who would qualify for Medicaid under the federal guidelines do not qualify under the state’s guidelines. People can appeal their Medicaid eligibility and seek help in reducing insurance premiums, but that doesn’t always work.

Florida Blue, the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield network, is the only insurer providing coverage in all of the state’s 76 counties. Kevin Riley, the company’s vice president, said serving rural Florida can be a challenge.

“It is tough in part because of the distances people have to drive in those large, rural counties to reach providers,” Riley said.

The company has held town-hall style meetings throughout the state and has sent representatives to Wal-Marts in rural areas to discuss coverage with customers.

“There are two or three counties that only have one hospital and is a difficult piece,” he said.

Walton County residents have 13 plans to choose from under the Affordable Care Act with monthly premiums ranging from $ 232 to $ 402 and deductibles from $ 850 to $ 12,700 for a 40-year-old male, according to information from Florida Blue.

The county has seven to 12 physicians for every 10,000 residents, but the vast majority of doctors is in the southern part of the county, according to a study by the Florida Department of Health. The leaves residents of rural areas north of Interstate 10 with a long drive to reach providers. Florida as a whole averages 22 physicians for every 10,000 residents, according to the 2012 study.

Part of PanCare’s strategy is employing people like Joe Manning, a lifelong resident of the Panhandle who knows many people in the small towns in Walton County.

Manning said the key to finding coverage in rural Florida seems to be patience and a willingness to fill out all of the forms that might help someone get a reduction in premiums. But a mistrust of both government and technology can complicate things.

“You have to be willing to go through the whole process,” he said. “Some people walk away as soon as you start asking them to put their personal information in the computer. They do not trust the government with that information.”

___

Associated Press writers Jeff Karoub in Detroit and John Miller in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – America

Providing Health Care Complicated in Rural Areas

Rural Andean churches plagued by sacred art theft

It was the third time the highlands church had been plundered of sacred art since 2007. Most of the finely-etched silver that once graced its altar was already gone.  

“Who would have thought they would take the canvases, too?” the Rev. Francisco Dubert, the parish priest, asked of the 2-meter-by-1.75-meter oils depicting the Virgin Mary.

Increasingly bold thefts plague colonial churches in remote Andean towns in Bolivia and Peru, where authorities say cultural treasures are disappearing at an alarming rate. At least 10 churches have been hit so far this year in the two culturally rich but economically poor countries.

“We think the thefts are being done on behalf of collectors,” said the Rev. Salvador Piniero, archbishop of Peru’s highlands Ayacucho province. Religious and cultural authorities say criminal bands are stealing “to order” for foreigners.

Bolivian churches have been robbed 38 times of 447 objects since 2009 — of highly stylized decorative silverwork, canvases, polished gold and silver altar pieces and gem-encrusted jewelry, said the country’s cultural patrimony chief, Lupe Meneses.

In Peru, at least 30 thefts from churches and chapels have been reported since January 2012, including two this month: Churches in Ayacucho and Puno provinces were robbed of ornamental silver laminate, or gold and silver crowns, earrings and necklaces.

In Tomave, other canvases were left behind, Dubert said, indicating the thieves knew exactly what they wanted. “These churches are being robbed because terrible people want to own beautiful things.” Donna Yates, a University of Glasgow archaeologist blogged afterward.

Yates, who is studying the Andes thefts for a global, European Union-funded project, said the hemorrhaging of priceless ecclesiastical art in the region has continued at a steady pace “but it’s getting more brazen.”

“Who is behind it? I can’t say,” Yates added. “The market for these goods is in Europe and the United States,” she says, with Santa Fe, New Mexico, one destination as a magnet for collectors of Latin American art.

Cultural officials in the Andes have long struggled to protect Incan and pre-Columbian cultural treasures. Now, colonial sacred art has become a similar worry. By law, it is all national patrimony, its export illegal.

Where possible, churches are being fortified. Video cameras were installed and nighttime guards posted last year at Ayacucho’s main cathedral in Huamanga, host to Peru’s biggest annual religious pilgrimage.

But poor, rural parishes are on their own, particularly along the highlands plateau where Spanish colonial missionaries built isolated settlements.

In January, church thieves stole 12 gold crowns and a pair of silver shoes of a baby Jesus statue in the isolated Ayacucho town of Santo Domingo de Chungui, said regional culture director Mario Cueto.

He appealed afterward “for greater monitoring on highways and at international airports.” But the thefts almost always go unsolved.

In one of the most audacious thefts, national treasures disappeared in April from the Church of the Virgin of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca.

A wooden 16th-century statue of Bolivia’s patron saint was stripped of 18 precious jewels worth an estimated $ 1 million by thieves who poisoned two mastiffs and laced the parish workers’ evening meal with tranquilizers. While everyone slept, the thieves broke a window and gained entry with a ladder.

A visiting priest and the female owner of a hostel where he was staying were arrested in the theft. Prosecutors say they are suspected of assisting a criminal gang.

Most targets are more like the Tomave church, unprotected by anything more than a lock and chain on the door when last burgled in December. Most are built above 13,100 feet and at least 60 miles from the nearest police station. As for burglar alarms, electricity is unreliable when it exists at all.

“Security is impossible,” said Yates. “You are left with the kind of situation where you could either try to take all the goods out of these rural churches, which is ethnically questionable because you are taking people’s heritage away from them.”

Even if the art were removed, there is no place to safely store it.

Not even the La Merced church in Bolivia’s southern regional capital of Potosi, whose silver mine was once the Spanish empire’s economic engine, was immune from one of the year’s biggest heists.

Among loot stolen after an alarm was deactivated: An 18th-century scapular shield encrusted with pearls, diamonds, rubies and emeralds worth an estimated $ 1 million. Also taken: part of a huge silver archway laminate.

Peru’s cultural patrimony director, Blanca Alva, says much of the stolen silver is simply melted down. If it were merely stolen, she said, “at least it would be conserved and I’d hope it could be recovered.”

Yet authorities have had little luck recovering colonial art. Officials at Bolivia’s Culture Ministry were reluctant to share details of stolen items, fearing it could boost their black-market value.

A rare victory came in 2005 when 18th-century paintings of St. Francis of Assisi and Jesus Christ stolen from the San Pedro de la Paz church in Bolivia were recovered in Lima, Peru, where someone had tried to sell them to foreigners for $ 100,000.

“That’s why this country should have a specialized (antiquities) police, like Italy,” said Carlos Rua, the ministry’s chief of artistic restoration.

No country in the region has more than a handful of police working regularly on antiquities thefts.

The rare times that plunderers are caught, consequences can be dire.

Police held up by a swollen river arrived too late in Quila Quila, a Quechua-speaking village in Bolivia’s southern highlands, to save the thieves whom villagers caught the previous day absconding from their church with canvases and jewels.

Local journalist Henry Ayra said the men were caught, beaten and buried in the churchyard on March 5, 2012.

Local police Maj. Bismark Pereira told the AP his men unearthed and carted away the handcuffed corpses. He he could not confirm reports the men were buried alive.

“The community,” said Pereira, “had entered into a pact of silence.”

—

Bajak reported from Lima, Peru. Associated Press writer Carla Salazar also contributed from Lima.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/26/4438007/rural-andean-churches-plagued.html#storylink=cpy

Rural Andean churches plagued by sacred art theft