Lmst

2/2
"She called for #government #transparency, acknowledging the #KokRiver #pollution as a #critical #security #threat.. #Senator Angkhana Neelapaijit, chair of the Senate Committee on #Political #Development, visited the area with #civil #society members. She expressed shock that #provincial #authorities had known about the #arsenic #contamination but were allegedly asked by higher-ups to #suppress the #information."
#Thailand #governance #publichealth #UNSDG #CleanWater #wellbeing

A #waterway of life is turning deadly
"June 10, te #Pollution Control Dept posted results fr its 4th round of #water sampling (May 26–30), showing consistent #arsenic #contamination at all monitored locations.. Abnormally high turbidity & arsenic levels were found near te #Myanmar border, strongly suggest'g contamination fr #upstream #mining activity.. parallels te ongoing #scamcentre #crisis along te border, which remains unresolved despite #government interventions" 1/2
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/3052061/a-waterway-of-life-is-turning-deadly

What warped the minds of serial killers? Lead pollution, a new book argues.

Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, and others terrorized the Pacific Northwest. "Murderland" asks what role polluters played.
#lead #arsenic #mercury #pollution #crime #crimewave
https://grist.org/culture/murderland-caroline-fraser-serial-killers-pacific-northwest-lead-pollution/

My major accomplishment this week was this bit of frankenplumbing. The tall black tank is an arsenic filter; it should now be safe to drink/bathe/water the horses.

We still have to take a sample and have the water tested, but I'm going to let it settle in for about a week first.

#water #arsenic

This shows a bit of convoluted galvanized pipe with valves and fittings. On the left is the tan water storage tank, in the middle is a tall black arsenic water filter, and on the right is the well pressure tank. A sunshade is stretched over the whole assembly to protect the plastic parts of the arsenic filter from UV.

Locals and officials in Thailand believe toxic waste is washing downstream from mines in Myanmar into the Kok River, which flows through the kingdom's far north on its way to join the Mekong. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/06/11/asia-pacific/thailand-rivers-myanmar-mines/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #thailand #rivers #myanmar #mining #arsenic #fishing #pollution #southeastasia

Emerald green is beautiful but on old books it can be poisonous. A new tool to quickly identify books that are poisonous to humans has been developed by the University of St Andrews. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/06/tool-to-identify-poisonous-books-developed-by-university-of-st-andrews @bookstodon

#emerald #green #books #bookstodon #histodon #arsenic #copper #libraries #archives

"In recent years, many libraries have prevented access to all suspect green books as a precaution…"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/06/tool-to-identify-poisonous-books-developed-by-university-of-st-andrews

#Books #Arsenic

Tool to identify poisonous #books developed by University of St Andrews
#Arsenic was historically mixed with copper to create a vivid green for book covers, which can irritate modern day readers

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/06/tool-to-identify-poisonous-books-developed-by-university-of-st-andrews

#science #chemistry #oldBooks

The smoke from #Canada’s #wildfires may be even more #toxic than usual

A legacy of #mining means that #ToxicMetals could be carried along plumes of smoke.

by Matt Simon, June 5, 2025

"More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe.

"As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of #carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country’s #FossilFuel emissions. And the more carbon that’s emitted from wildfires — in Canada and elsewhere — the faster the #PlanetaryWarming, and the worse the fires.

" 'There’s obviously the #ClimateFeedback concern,' said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada’s forests. 'But increasingly we’re also concerned about the smoke.'

"That’s because there’s much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country’s #forests have long been #mined, operations that loaded #soils and #waterways with #ToxicMetals like #lead and #mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in #WildfireSmoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems.

" 'You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of #ParticulateMatter,' said Waddington. 'Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals #remobilized in addition to that.'

"What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of #FlinFlon, in #ManitobaCanada, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario’s #NipissingUniversity. Flin Flon’s 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed.

"But a fire doesn’t need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in #Yellowknife, in Canada’s #NorthwestTerritories, #GoldMining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread #arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. (After the 2023 #LahainaFire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018’s #CampFire.)"

Source:
https://grist.org/climate/canada-wildfire-smoke-toxic-arsenic/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #AirIsLife #Mining #ToxicLegacy #FirstNations #Canada #Pollution #Worldwide #AQI #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #AirQualityIndex

A PDF on the Dangers of Arsenic in our RICE

List of companies and their products are at the end of the PDF
https://hbbf.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Arsenic-in-Rice-Report_May2025_R5_SECURED.pdf

#rice #cooking #arsenic

HBBF: New tests show popular #rice types that parents should limit – and safer choices.

https://hbbf.org/report/arsenic-in-rice

#arsenic #cadmium #FoodSafety

Is arsenic in rice something to worry about? What to know
Research shows rice may be contaminated with arsenic — a toxic element linked to serious health risks, including brain developmental delays, cancer and heart disease.
#health #food #research #arsenic #arsenicinrice #rice
https://globalnews.ca/news/11181405/arsenic-rice-what-to-know/

From CNN: Dangerously high levels of #arsenic and #cadmium found in store-bought #rice, report finds
#ConsumerAlerts

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/15/health/arsenic-cadmium-rice-wellness

@travelfish.bsky.social
This is true, but I am here to say that there are old, extremely contaminated mine sites on the outskirts of larger cities in Europe and noone cares. You would be amazed at the mental hoops people will jump through to ignore the necessity of remediation.
My favorite: arsenic contaminated drinking water is actually good for you.....
No shit this is actually something I hear when I talk to landowners at some of the sites I work at.
#arsenic #minewaste

Brown rice contains almost double the amount of arsenic as white rice and threatens the health of infants, toddlers, and preschool children. #rice #brown #white #arsenic #infants #toddlers #preschoolers
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJHpsVIJN6v/

There is a fascinating and literally lethal book « Shadows from the Walls of Death » that documents specimens of wallpaper known to contain arsenic, made to warn people about the dangers of the wallpaper. The book is made from the actual wallpaper so is just as dangerous. Archive.org have a scanned copy https://archive.org/details/0234555.nlm.nih.gov/mode/2up and from it i have made 3 palettes for my colour font-in-progress. Green features prominently because i think it's the green pigment that contains arsenic.
#arsenic

The word KIBITZED printed 3 times in 3 different colour ways of the same colour font. The colour ways are 2 variations of green stripes and a third colour way that is a mute yellow combined with a deep red and a green.

#ClimateChange brings increased amounts of #arsenic in #rice.

"Concomitant increases in #CO2 and temperature resulted in a synergistic increase of inorganic arsenic in rice grain. The observed increase is likely to be related to changes in soil biogeochemistry... Modelled consumption of rice under these conditions resulted in projected increases in ... cancer and #health risks for multiple Asian countries by 2050."

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(25)00055-5/fulltext