From Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN)
Information on congressional briefing and follow-up: https://nislappdc.org/ffan-congressional-briefing/
FFAN initiatives: https://nislappdc.org/fukushima-fallout/
From RT
Israel preparing to strike Iranian nuclear sites – media
Events in Syria have created a window of opportunity, sources have told Times of Israel
December 12, 2024
The Israeli Air Force is carrying out preparations for “potential strikes” on Iranian nuclear facilities, military officials have told Times of Israel.
West Jerusalem believes that the surprise takeover of Syria by jihadist rebels has weakened Tehran’s position in the region, which could prompt Iran to speed up its atomic program, the outlet said.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have taken out most of Syrian air defenses, clearing the way for an operation against Iran.
Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful and civilian in nature, contrary to allegations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran has sought an atomic bomb. In 2015, the world’s top five nuclear powers struck a deal with Iran to monitor its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the US unilaterally withdrew from this agreement in 2018.
Israel reportedly considered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites after Tehran’s October 1 missile barrage, but did not follow through on those plans.
Netanyahu’s government has used the recent events in Syria to destroy its neighbor’s military capabilities, launching “one of the largest attack operations in the history” of its air force. Earlier this week, Israeli jets struck over 250 targets around Syria, including airports and seaports, air defense and missile sites, military industry facilities and warehouses. Israeli troops also moved beyond the buffer zone on the Golan Heights, claiming Mount Hermon.
Bashar Assad’s government in Syria was overthrown by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants last week. The jihadist group has not yet consolidated power.
Israel reportedly believes that Iran is “isolated” after the ousting of Assad and that its other main ally in the region, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, has been significantly weakened by the recent IDF offensive there. This could push Iran to speed up its nuclear program and could also create a window of opportunity for an Israeli pre-emptive strike, according to Times of Israel.
From the San Onofre Syndrome Team and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network
Transcript: https://nislappdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final-Transcript-FFAN-Congressional-Briefing-7.15.24.pdf
Recording: https://youtu.be/Cbk-gYgVI9s
Additional information and update: https://nislappdc.org/fukushima-fallout/
Radioactive Contamination of US Food and Water
and What Congress Can Do About It
Monday July 15, 2pm Eastern time
You’re invited to attend an online Congressional Briefing for members of Congress and their staffs on the growing problem of radioactive contamination of US food and water and what Congress can do about it.
The briefing will be held via Zoom on Monday, July 15 at 2pm Eastern time. Registration is required.
Distinguished experts and leaders presenting at the briefing include:
Radioactive contamination stands to get worse due to planned ongoing releases of radioactive wastewater from Fukushima Daiichi into the Pacific Ocean. Despite this, there are currently no binding FDA standards, very little testing or monitoring that has been made public, a lack of transparency about any such testing, and no labeling or other information available to US consumers about radioactivity in their food that can guide their choices. Food from Japan that exceeds Japan’s radioactivity standards and can’t be sold there is nonetheless sold and served to US consumers here and to US service men, women and their families overseas. Congress can and should use its oversight of the FDA and other powers to confront and ameliorate this growing public health threat.
The briefing is organized by the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network and co sponsored by the NGO’s Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Health, Ecological Options Network, Food and Water Watch, San Clemente Green, and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR National as well as PSR’s Greater Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area Chapters)
For additional information and current campaign: https://nislappdc.org/ffan-congressional-briefing/
https://nislappdc.org/fukushima-fallout/
Also http://www.sanonofresyndrome.com
From Ojai Valley News
July 12, 2024
A grassroots group is kicking off a campaign to urge four local governments to sue the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) over its failure to enforce cleanup agreements at a Simi Valley site contaminated in the 1940s and 1950s by thousands of rocket tests and nuclear-reactor experiments.
The campaign kickoff event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, July 13, at Strathearn Historical Park, 37 Strathearn Place, Simi Valley.
The event kicks off 10 days of in-person actions at upcoming supervisor and city council meetings.
A partial nuclear meltdown occurred in 1959, leaving radioactive fallout at the site.
Despite cleanup agreements being in place with The Boeing Company (Boeing), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the state has failed to demand they clean up the contamination to the standard originally agreed upon.
“We are asking four local governments to join together and sue the state to litigate over the final Environmental Impact Report,” said Larry Yee, a resident of Ojai and former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Yee said the group is asking the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and the cities of Los Angeles and Simi Valley to sue DTSC over the Environmental Impact Report recently issued for the site.
From Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory
July 2024 Scheduled Actions
July 13: EVENT: SSFL Action Assembly, Strathearn Historical Ranch, Simi Valley
July 14: WATCH: In the Dark of the Valley Virtual Screening and QA Register
July 15: CALL: Elected representative phone banking
July 16: AMPLIFY: Reshare posts on social media & tag your representatives
July 17: EMAIL: Elected representative email banking
July 18: AMPLIFY: Share press stories with your networks
July 19: SIGN: Our open letter to local governments
July 20: AMPLIFY: Reshare posts on social media & tag your representatives
July 21: SIGN: Invite others to sign the www.Change.org/SantaSusana petition
July 22: CALL: Elected representatives
July 23: DEADLINE FOR BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO FILE SUIT AGAINST DTSC
For more information: https://parentsagainstssfl.com/action-assembly
From Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Energy in Space
October 31, 2023
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel speaks about local seafood inside commissary at Yokota Air Base, Japan [this base is contaminated with PFAS — see note below]
U.S. to feed troops Japanese seafood amid Fukushima radiation fears –Washington has agreed to help offset a Chinese ban on imports following Japan’s release of nuclear wastewater into the ocean
The U.S. government has agreed to buy Japanese seafood for its military to help mitigate the economic fallout from Japan’s decision to release radioactive wastewater from its destroyed Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The American armed forces will sign a long-term contract with Japanese seafood suppliers to help counter China’s ban on imports from Japan, U.S. ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emmanuel told the media on Monday.
“I’ve served the products to my own children; I continue to eat the products from the Fukushima area,” he said. “I’ve served the fish products to some of the highest elected officials in the United States government and armed forces, and we will continue to stand with our friends in Japan.”
Former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is among those who dined with Emanuel on Japanese seafood, the ambassador said.
He said the seafood deal begins with scallops from Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands, but eventually all types of fish will be sold in the commissaries at all 17 U.S. installations in Japan, at farmers markets on some U.S. bases and served on U.S. Navy ships.
This is how much the Biden administration loves our troops. Anything to keep Japan onside for the coming war with China.
https://space4peace.blogspot.com/2023/10/
Controversial Rahm Emanuel has been President Obama’s Chief of Staff, President Clinton’s Senior Advisor, and Mayor of Chicago.
PFAS Contamination at Yokata
Two wells near Yokata Air Base were tested and found to be severely contaminated with PFAS compounds. PFAS spills occurred there between 2010 and 2012, including one 800 gallon spill that seeped into the ground water., but the U.S. Air Force admits no responsibility. Hundreds of area residents have been tested and on average found to have above 20 parts per billion in their blood, “a level the American National Academies of Sciences says is dangerous and merits a barrage of clinical tests to diagnose expected diseases.”
PFAS results from mainland Japan, Pat Elder, November 30, 2023
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/pfas-results-from-mainland-japan
From Military Poisons
By Pat Elder
August 6, 2023
Trinity – July 16, 1945 – Made possible through the discovery and development of PFAS chemicals.
17th-century depiction of Daedalus & Icarus – Musee Antoine Vivenel, Compiègne, France
In Greek mythology, the tale of Daedalus and his son, Icarus provides a lesson that humanity has never learned. Daedalus created wings from feathers and wax. He warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun for fear that the wax would melt. Icarus took off, exhilarated with the invention, and soared exuberantly toward the sun. His wings fell apart, and Icarus fell to his death.
Remarkable technologies may escape our control and imperil mankind. Two astonishing inventions in 1938 are like Daedalus’ fastening of wings to wax: the splitting of the uranium atom by German scientists and the discovery of per – and poly fluoroalkyl substances, (PFAS) by Dupont chemists in New Jersey.
It’s not a stretch. Both nuclear weaponry and PFAS chemicals are existential threats to humanity. Their development and use are inextricably linked.
Trinity – July 16, 1945
PFAS was developed through the Manhattan Project.
J. Robert Oppenheimer and his crew needed a way to separate uranium to make the bomb. They used fluorine gas for this purpose. The scientists soon discovered that fluorine gas bonds with carbon molecules to make fluorochemicals, the most highly resistant coolants known – and a critical development leading to Trinity.
The Manhattan Project perfected a white powder that could extinguish fires better than any substance ever created. It repels grease, dirt, and water better than anything, ever. Imagine the military applications! PFAS never breaks down. It never goes away. It is bioaccumulative, and it is highly carcinogenic. Most alarmingly, it plays havoc on a woman’s reproductive system. It contributes to a host of childhood diseases. It threatens our immune system, and it has been linked to the spread of COVID 19 and other diseases. It’s in our bodies and our children are born with it.
It was used to manufacture Teflon products and Scotchguard, and waterproofing for a thousand products. It is still used widely. People haven’t gotten the message. PFAS is bad news for all of us.
March 4, 2016 – Firefighters strike a pose reminiscent of the Iwo Jima statue in Washington. A team of firefighters battle a huge fire during a live-fire training exercise at Hurlburt Field, Fla. (Photo: US Air Force)
The military has used PFAS in firefighting foam to extinguish super-hot petroleum-based fires since 1968.
If 500 bases participated in monthly firefighting foam drills from the early 1970’s until the early 2020’s, that might be 500 bases x 12 months x 50 years which comes to 300,000 separate environmental catastrophes. Some bases held fire training exercises weekly. The damage is incalculable, and it is with us forever.
Often, they’d create a 100-foot diameter crater about one to two feet deep; they’d fill it with jet fuel and a cocktail of oils, lubricants, and paints and ignite it. Then, the firefighters would snuff the flames with foam. The firefighters got sick, many with bladder and testicular cancer. The carcinogens from the foam were allowed to seep into groundwater and surface water. Drinking water sources are contaminated, as well as the food, especially the sea food we consume.
Wurtsmuth Air Force Base in Michigan closed 30 years ago but the people in the region cannot eat the local fish or wildlife today because it is poisonous. Food is poisoned by the chemicals worldwide.
Try to comprehend the concept of a highly toxic chemical, comprised of an indestructible fluorine-carbon bond that never breaks down in our bodies or the environment and continuously accumulates in us.
Although billions of people are ingesting the substances in their drinking water, most of the PFAS in our bodies comes from eating contaminated fish and seafood that are loaded with the chemicals. The air, our lungs and our homes are filled with cancerous dust.
The EPA in the U.S. and regulatory agencies around the world are criminally negligent for doing little to protect public health.
Wherever there are nuclear weapons, PFAS is present. Nuclear-powered ships and those carrying nuclear weapons also carry huge quantities of the materials. After training exercises and frequent accidents, the chemicals are sprayed into the sea.
We can’t get rid of it. We can’t bury it. We can’t incinerate it. We don’t know what to do with it and this is the truth. Notions of “cleaning up” PFAS are misguided.
PFAS are the demons let loose from Pandora’s box. All 14,000 PFAS substances are believed to be toxic. The military and manufacturers should be forced to sthe making the compounds while taking measures to begin remediating the catastrophe at a cost that will likely exceed hundreds of billions of dollars.
Rachel Carson is a latter-day prophet!
From Rachel Carson in her prophetic book, Silent Spring, 1962:
“If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals, eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones – we had better know something about their nature and their power.”
The fish are poisoned with PFAS in Japan with some species containing more than 100,000 parts per trillion of PFOS in their filet. The U.S. military is responsible for much of this contamination. I will be travelling to Japan in September and October with three others with Veterans for Peace to address audiences and to test surface waters for PFAS in 20 cities. The U.S. military is not being regulated by states, the federal government or foreign “host” nations. The military’s toxic legacy is shrouded in secrecy. Please help us and make a note that your contribution is for the Japan delegation.
Financial support from the Downs Law Group makes this work possible. The firm is working to provide legal representation to individuals with a high likelihood of exposure to PFAS and other contaminants.
The Downs Law Group employs attorneys accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist those who have served in obtaining VA Compensation and Pension Benefits they are rightly owed.
If you spent time in the military and you think you may be sick as a result of your service, think about joining this group to learn from others with similar issues. Are you interested in joining a multi-base class action lawsuit pertaining to illnesses stemming from various kinds of environmental contamination? Join the Veterans & Civilians Clean Water Alliance Facebook group. (2.4 K members and growing rapidly.)
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/pfas-and-the-bombnbsp
From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility PEER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Contact
Jeff Ruch, PEER, jruch@peer.org (510) 213-7028
Melissa Bumstead, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab Santasusanacampaign@gmail.com (818) 233-0642
Denise Duffield, Physicians for Social Responsibility, dduffield@psr-la.org (310) 339-9676
Lawrence Yee lhyee306@gmail.com
Oakland — The Newsom administration’s backroom deal with the Boeing Co. to dramatically weaken cleanup standards at the profoundly polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory violates the public involvement and transparency requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), charges a lawsuit filed today by community and public health groups. The suit would open the cleanup agreement to public scrutiny and force the state agencies and the Boeing Co. to justify a cleanup methodology that leaves 90% of the contamination onsite.
Filed today in Ventura County Superior Court by Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, Physicians for Social Responsibility (LA Chapter), and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the suit would, if successful, vacate both the cleanup agreement and an accompanying promise to free Boeing from toxic stormwater discharge requirements.
“This suit does not prevent cleanup from beginning immediately but instead aims to ensure it continues until it is fully completed,” stated Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch, noting that under a prior Consent Order, the cleanup was supposed to have been completed back in 2017. “This lawsuit is about having this cleanup done right and well beyond the outrageous ‘rip and skip’ deal that Boeing wrangled behind closed doors.”
After repeatedly promising to enforce a 2007 legally binding cleanup agreement with Boeing, the Newsom administration secretly negotiated an 800-page agreement that “supersedes” the prior order by substantially relaxing key cleanup requirements, allowing hundreds of times higher levels of toxic chemicals than previously permitted, and leaving much the contamination onsite.
“Because my daughter has fought cancer twice, I know firsthand why a complete cleanup is needed to protect our children,” said Melissa Bumstead, President of Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, representing families afflicted with diseases associated with contaminants at that site. “Our kids deserve to grow up safe from the daily threat of exposure to toxic and carcinogenic contamination. Their health and quality of life matter more than Boeing’s profit.”
The deal is so bad that Lawrence Yee who had been Chair of the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, testified against it as a private citizen. He is joining with the groups advocating for a full cleanup at Santa Susana.
“The Boeing agreement will put surrounding communities at a perpetual risk of exposure to harmful contamination. We owe it to current and future generations to ensure that all of the contamination is cleaned up as promised,” added Dr. Robert Dodge, President of PSR-LA. “It is a shocking betrayal by the Newsom Administration and yet another example of why there is such little public confidence in California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control.”
The groups are represented in this litigation by the Oakland-based law firm LozeauDrury LLP.
###
Examine deficiencies in Boeing cleanup deal
https://peer.org/boeings-weak-santa-susana-cleanup-triggers-lawsuit/
From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility — PEER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
CONTACT
Jeff Ruch (510) 213-7028 jruch@peer.org
Oakland, CA — The Newsom administration has executed a Covenant “in perpetuity” with the Boeing Company allowing the highly polluted groundwater under the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to remain polluted for “an indeterminate amount of time,” according to documents posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This arrangement will save Boeing a considerable amount of money by relieving it of any concrete remediation responsibilities or liability for the acutely polluted aquifer left behind on the controversial Venture County site, ten miles from downtown Los Angeles.
This deal is the latest chapter in a sweeping sweetheart deal the Newsom administration reached with Boeing this summer to absolve the corporation from having to clean up an estimated 90% of the polluted soil and from having to retain a stormwater discharge permit.
This reverses the state’s longstanding position that protecting public health requires a complete groundwater cleanup. In addition, leaving groundwater untreated for an indeterminate period –
“This deal condemns Santa Susana to serve as a perpetual sacrifice zone dedicated to corporate convenience,” stated Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch, pointing out that any timelines for cleaning the groundwater have evaporated in the state’s latest deal with Boeing. “Bottling up a toxic plume for eternity and then walking away is a deal most polluters would love.”
PEER is leading a coalition of groups suing the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and Boeing to invalidate all facets of this closed-door settlement on the grounds that it violates the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), especially with respect to the total lack of public involvement or consideration of alternatives. Ironically, DTSC is the state agency charged with enforcing CEQA.
The existence of the Covenant was revealed by a legal notice DTSC placed in a local newspaper one month after the Covenant was recorded.
“Until last year, DTSC contended that aquifer restoration at Santa Susana was a legally required public health measure; the exact opposite of its current stand,” added Ruch, pointing out that DTSC has completely adopted Boeing’s position. “The Newsom administration is now so deep into Boeing’s pocket they could collect lint.”
###
Read the DTSC-Boeing groundwater covenant
Look at reports of groundwater migration from SSFL
See DTSC 2019 demand that SSFL groundwater be cleaned to protect public health
Look at the soil and surface water cleanup deals
https://peer.org/newsom-lets-boeing-keep-groundwater-forever-polluted/
CRITICAL SSFL WORK GROUP MEETING
“SSFL CLEANUP CRISIS: FINDING A PATH FORWARD”
Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center
3050 E. Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley, CA 93065
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
6:30 p.m. vigil, 7:00 pm meeting
Seating is limited –
Guest speaker: CalEPA Jared Blumenfeld
Journalist Harvey Wasserman and Denise Duffield, Associate Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility- L.A. discussed the Woolsey Fire, its implications, and the California and corporate refusals to clean-up the SSFL site, endangering residents daily, in these excerpts from the December 2018 meeting of Americans for Democratic Action – Southern California, in Culver City.
The Woolsey fire started at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site, and based on helicopter sightings, was likely started by a transformer malfunction and fire at a Southern California Edison substation located there.
———————————————–
Additional resources
After The Dust Settles: A Woolsey Fire Sampling Update
https://www.fairewinds.org/woolsey-fire-blog/after-the-dust-settles
PSR-LA https://www.psr-la.org/
Solartopia.org
Denise Duffield
PSR-LA Associate Director
dduffield (at) psr-la.org
Legacy of a Meltdown
By James Heddle & Mary Beth Brangan – EON
https://nonukesca.net/legacy-of-a-meltdown/
Heal Fukushima 