Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Archive for the ‘Health/Medicine/Big Pharma’ Category

Yep, there’s  Walmarts where I live in Eugene, Oregon, one being not far from my home, roughly two miles away. All kinds of stories concerning Walmart come to us almost daily from all over the U.S. and we all know about sites where you can see pictures of people dressed in sloppy, disgusting, whimsical, dirty, gross, fun, surreal, insane outfits  while shopping at their local Wal-Mart.

Wal-mart, remember, is the first chain to partner up with Homeland Security.  Ah, Wal-mart.

So the WalMart in Eugene is in the world news stream for discriminating against Sandy McMillin, who’s in her fifities and disabled. She’s bald. She’s overweight. It was 90 degrees.  And she was asked to cover up while shopping in the West 11th Walmart because her bikini top violated health codes. McMillin and her sister were then escorted out of the store.  That’s McMillin’s version. Walmart says McMillin was abusing customers, and is refusing to release the security tapes. The top she was wearing was one she bought at Walmart a year ago. McMillin is considering suing. I wonder if any of these people were asked to leave these Walmarts?

Bizzarely, the local newspaper The Register Guard actually thought this an  important enough issue to comment on in their opinion section. Not opinions of this episode from local citizens, but from the editors at the paper. Because there’s no other news going on in the world that’s more important, apparently.

This issue has been going on for a long time. Triangle Lake is not far from where I live; it’s only about twenty minutes away or so. For years, the residents in the area have been fighting this, as in other communities in my county as well as Oregon in general. From KVAL:

TRIANGLE LAKE, Ore. – Some residents are calling it an environmental horror story, and on Thursday they got the chance to voice their concerns to the state and federal governments.

Nearly 150 people packed the Grange Hall in Triangle Lake on Thursday night after more than 20 residents say their urine tested positive for dangerous pesticides.

It’s ugly. The meeting was called by “…state and federal agencies…” in order to potentially address the poisoning of an entire community:

In response to years of complaints, state and federal agencies held the meeting to lay out a plan for investigating any possible pesticide exposure. lay out a plan for investigating any possible pesticide exposure.

The article cited here doesn’t mention that residents paid for, out of their own pockets, the testing that proves they’ve been exposed. As one resident said

“One hundred percent of us tested positive for the two most dangerous timber industry pesticides in our urine, and we’re not happy about it,” said Dale Day.

I find it incredible — but not surprising — the agencies are only now just beginning to listen. Maybe, sort of.

Speaking of the Triangle Lake area, it is a very weird area in general. Only speaking for myself, and Jim, we have both felt immediate, oppressive and (for lack of a better word) haunted vibes when driving through there. There’s something about the area that literally feels, on a physical level as well as psychological and emotional, that there is an unseen presences about. I remember one drive out there to look at a house for sale; it sounded like everything we wanted; domed, a few structures, a couple of acres, near water… and the asking price was reasonable. But we couldn’t even get our of the car to look, the further in we drove, the worse this feeling got. We turned around and left. I’ve felt this very time i’ve gone out to the area.

I’m not suggesting this weird feeling has anything to with pesticides. And I realize many people love the area. Only speaking for myself.

Dealing with the feds in this case, I have no idea how this will turn out, but I hope it will turn well for the residents in the area. There’s a bit of hope; field burning was banned and I was convinced that would never happen. It was a long, long fight and an ugly one, but finally, we won on that one.

Another raid on alternative options for health; this time here in Oregon:

On Thursday, April 14, 2011, dozens of agents from the FDA, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an unprovoked, full-scale raid on Hood River, Ore.-based Maxam Nutraceutics, a company that produces and sells nutritional supplements primarily for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Back in October 12, 2010, the FDA sent a warning letter to Jim Cole, Founder and CEO of Maxam, notifying him that several of his company’s products were not labeled in accordance with the US Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The letter also stated that Maxam had fifteen days from the receipt of the letter to notify the FDA compliance officer of the specific steps it planned to take in order to correct the violations…

Oddly enough, the vast majority of the “unapproved labels” in question were not actually labels at all. They were merely customer testimonials about the products that had been accumulated over the years from satisfied customers, and posted online alongside product descriptions on Maxam’s website. Nevertheless, the FDA considered the testimonials to be marketing violations that automatically rendered the products as drugs.

According to Jim, his company immediately responded to the FDA letter by calling the compliance officer and telling her “it was [the company's] intention to come into full compliance as quickly as possible.” This included removing all the offending testimonials from the company website after being told by the FDA compliance officer that they were not permitted.
Read the whole article at Natural News.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032203_Maxam_Nutraceutics_FDA_raid.html#ixzz1KmVcTyU4

Article contains links to stories on Oregon’s history of earthquakes and this state’s current situation concerning earthquake and tsunami readiness.

Oregon has a bill in the chute that will end protection to parents who use faith healing as their only method of treating their ill children.

Yachats, OR 2010 photo by Regan Lee

My new Trickster’s Realm column is up at Binnall of America. Here’s an excerpt, for more, visit BoA!

Some eerie and strange things have been happening on the Oregon coast these past few weeks. While mostly mundane in nature,there’s an aura of weirdness about these events. Climate change, global warming, weather patterns, the aftermath of BP’s disaster in the Gulf, toxins in the ocean, and general earth rage-madness have come together, sending us signals that things are very wrong, and very different from what we’ve known. Things are wilder, more chaotic, sadder, and stranger. Warnings and omens that are wake-up calls to be sure.

Tillamook

A November 6th item in local news: Oregon crabbers in the Tillamook area are facing a dangerous season, more so than the usual: Dangerous crab season puts rescuers on alert Tillamook has a history of wildness; dangerous ocean, haunted waters, the deaths of men fighting the rough ocean while building the Tillamook Lighthouse in 1880. Native American legends of the area tell of spirits in the water and haunted underwater/underground tunnels. The lighthouse is now privately owned, but that hasn’t stopped the tragic and haunted history, for it became a columbarium. But, even that is not entirely true, according to Our Oregon Coast website:

After interring about 30 urns, the columbarium’s license was revoked in 1999 by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board and was rejected upon reapplication in 2005. The board said the owners have not kept accurate records and, because urns sit on boards and concrete blocks and not in niches, the lighthouse does not even qualify as a columbarium.

As for the crabbers in the Tillamook area, fishermen know of the dangers and that’s not news, but the danger has been escalating:

We’ve lost a lot of boats,” said Mike Saindon, master chief petty officer in Garibaldi. “It is a very dangerous place and it has been for awhile. Conditions are bad and they have been getting worse over the years. No one knows why that’s happening.”The Tillamook Bay bar — the place at the tip of the jetties where the calm bay waters meet the sea — has been growing progressively worse for about 20 years.

“Traditionally when you get a lot of water flowing it clears the channels out,” said Saindon. “That isn’t happening here. The sand builds up on the bar and causes waves to break more frequently and in a larger area. That creates a larger surf zone and not a clear channel.”

ABC News has picked up this story (see post below) of McMinnville, Oregon  high school students who came down with compartment syndrome, a rare illness and not one that affects the triceps, or so many people at once.

Odd report from McMinnville: MHS football players recovering; mass ’syndrome’ remains a mystery. Oregon.(McMinnville is home of the world famous 1950 Trent UFO sighting and site of the annual McMinnville UFO Festival held in May at Hotel Oregon.) Several high school students, all student atheletes, have come down with an unusual illness:

Ten Mac High School football players were hospitalized this week after experiencing intense muscle pain following workouts at a fall camp conducted by their new coach.

Seven were admitted to the Willamette Valley Medical Center on Wednesday night with sore and swollen triceps, and three were admitted the following night.

Diagnosed with compartment syndrome, three of the players in the initial group underwent fasciotomies designed to relieve the pressure and avoid permanent muscle damage. That could keep them out of action for one to two months, according to the surgeon who made the diagnosis and performed the surgical procedure.

Some 28 players underwent testing Thursday to determine the level of creatine phosphokinase or CPK in their blood, as that is an indicator of the syndrome. Sixteen were sent to the hospital for additional testing, and three of them were admitted, joining the original seven.

Additional players were tested Friday, but none of them showed elevated creatine levels.

There’s more: the students were doing an intensive series of workouts, it was very hot, and they stayed on campus, sleeping there while taking part in this football camp type thing.

The illness – “Compartment syndrome” — is rare, and doesn’t appear in the triceps, according to Dr. Peter Van Patten:

Dr. Peter Van Patten treated the players. He said compartment syndrome isn’t very common, and he’s never seen it strike the triceps before.

“In McMinnville, we do not see compartment syndrome very often,” he said.

The school district is looking into this of course, and asking the community for help and support.