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Tools For Conscious Awareness
Newsletter For
A Next Step...Light Center for Transformation and Healing
Vol. 91 -Addendum- April, 2008
In Truth, Simplicity, Love and Service
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FEATURES:
MATRIX ENERGETICS
BUSTING LOOSE WITH THE MONEY GAME
NON-STICK COOKWARE CONTINUES TO PROVE ITS TOXICITY
ASSOCIATED PRESS PROBE FINDS DRUGS IN DRINKING WATER
MASSIVE OIL DEPOSIT COULD INCREASE US RESERVES BY 10X
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BECOME AWARE OF WHAT IS IN YOU. ANNOUNCE IT, PRONOUNCE IT, PRODUCE IT AND GIVE BIRTH TO IT.
MEISTER ECHKHART
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The morphic field of Matrix Energetics is growing by leaps and bounds. As we, one by
one, and small and large groups gather, as we use the energy of Matrix Energetics, the
World and all of Humanity receive and recognize on differing levels how connected
we all are. We also are realizing our potential as limitless beings and expressions
of the One. Matrix Energetics is helping us wake up even more to the power that is
readily available and accessible to all.
This Consciousness Technology is highly complimentary with other healing and
transformational tools and approaches. As you play with Matrix Energetics, your
own personal connection and abilities get amplified. Your smiling and joy quotient
exponentially increase. You see the world and your own world thru different eyes.
Your expression and experience become filled with fantastic confidence and a
willingness to do things differently, more beneficially.
Kelley and I encourage you to order the book Matrix Energetics from
www.matrixenergetics.com or from Amazon.com. We encourage you to go to one or
many seminars to learn to incorporate this technology into your life and we especially
encourage you to call us for one or many sessions of Matrix Energetics. Call now for
an appointment: 575-382-8771. Check out our website: www.anextstep.org
If you are ready to have your brain and your experience with money turned inside
out, this book is for you. Robert Scheinfeld presents a completely new way to look
at and play with the energy of money. The book is entertaining and it offers a
process that is powerful and immediately applicable. Robert received coaching
early on in his life from his grandfather who had championed playing with money.
Robert took what advice he received and added to it and came up with an approach
that works as soon as you put it into practice. His strategy also works beautifully
with other issues in your life. Get the book, read it and start using the material!!!
You will be delighted that you did. When any one of us open to receive our good,
it benefits all of us.
More evidence has emerged regarding the dangers of Perflurooctanoic Acid (PFOA),
which is used in the production of non-stick cookware and stain-resistant snack
food packaging. PFOA is currently found in the bloodstream of 95 percent of American
men, women, and children.
Now, a study has shown a correlation between PFOA and low birth weight in newborns.
One of the head researchers in the independent study, Dr. Lynn Goldman, said that,
It appears that there is a relation between a higher level of exposure and lower
birth weight, as well as the circumference of the head. Another recent study
showed that PFOA caused an overreaction to allergens in mice. PFOA has already
been implicated in increased instances of cancer in the pancreas, liver, testicles,
and mammary glands, as well as miscarriages, thyroid problems, weakened immune systems,
and low organ weights. A growing community of scientists believe the largest
concentration of PFOA comes from the telomeres used to make the stain and grease
repellent coatings for fast food containers, apparel, and carpeting. Sources:
Organic Consumers Association February 14, 2008
Dr. Mercola's Comments: It's been exactly 70 years since Teflon was first introduced,
and were now reaping what was sowed -- most Americans test positive for PFOA in their
blood, which the EPA has just recently identified as a likely human carcinogen.
Talk about being a day late and a dollar short. Since its creation in 1938 by the
DuPont Company, it has been added to countless household and personal care products
besides non-stick cookware, such as:
Clothing (Gore-Tex jackets and other apparel)
Nail polish removers
Eyeglasses
Products designed to repel soil, grease and water, such as carpet and furniture
treatments
Pizza boxes, microwave popcorn, and other non-stick food wraps
Protective sprays for leather, shoes, and clothing
Paint
Cleaning products
As an unregulated and untested chemical, Teflon gained wide distribution before
scientists began looking into its impact on human health. Now we know that simple
acts like vacuuming carpeting with the "stain-resistant" claim will release the
chemical into the air to be circulated in your home. In another frightening example,
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looked at microwaveable popcorn packaging and
found that PFOA is not only present in the inner coating of the bag, but that it
migrates to the oil from the packaging during heating. At this point PFOA is so
prevalent that even many of your sources of drinking water have been contaminated.
Why is Teflon Cookware so Bad For Your Health? Non-stick cookware has become
enormously popular because of its convenience factor; foods dont stick to the
surface. However, it has now been shown that once heated which is bound to
happen when cooking non-stick pans will quickly reach temperatures at which toxic
fumes are released. The coating begins to break down and release toxins into the
air at a temperature of only 446 degrees Fahrenheit. After about three to five
minutes of heating, when the pans reach 680 degrees, they release at least six toxic
gasses, including:
Two carcinogens
Two global pollutants
MFA, a chemical deadly to humans at low doses
The Teflon brand, it was found, rose to 721°F in five minutes under the same
conditions. Now, if you heat your non-stick cookware to 1,000°F, a temperature
that DuPont scientists have measured from stovetop drip pans, according to EWG,
the coatings will break down into a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a
chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene. That puts a whole new spin on
healthy home cooking, doesnt it?
The Many Health Hazards of PFOA In animal studies, PFOA (sometimes also referred
to as C8), which is the chemical that makes Teflon-coated aluminum slippery and
non-stick, were found to cause:
Serious changes in organs including the brain, prostate, liver, thymus, and kidneys,
showing toxicity.
Death of several rat pups that were exposed to PFOA.
Changes in the pituitary in female rats, at all doses. The pituitary controls growth,
reproduction, and many metabolic functions. Changes in the size of the pituitary are
considered an indication of toxicity.
An association with tumors in at least four different organs in animal tests.
An increase in prostate cancer in PFOA plant workers.
Other unrelated studies have also found evidence of birth defects in babies from
PFOA-exposed workers. In 1981, two out of seven women who worked at a DuPont Teflon
plant gave birth to babies with birth defects.
How Do You Detox From PFOA? Thats one of the most unfortunate parts of this mess.
You cant -- at least not quickly. We now know that once PFOA is released into the
environment, it doesn't break down quickly and disappear. According to Tim Kropp, a
toxicologist with the Environmental Working Group, even if a person exposed to PFOA
cuts off all future exposure, it still takes up to 20 years for the body to get rid
of that initial contamination. Other research has shown that four years after
exposure, PFOA blood levels were still only reduced by half.
How to Reduce Your Exposure Needless to say, your best bet is to pay attention to
the products you use, in particular when it comes to your cookware. The best choice
out there, in my opinion -- and the one that I personally use -- is enameled cast
iron cookware. This type of cookware is not only extremely durable and easy to clean
(even the toughest cooked-on foods can be wiped away after soaking it in warm water),
it is completely inert, which means it wont release any harmful chemicals into your
home or your food.
They are also very heavy, which is great for two reasons. Not only does it help build
your muscle strength, but from a cooking perspective it becomes far more difficult to
scorch your food. Since the pans have so much mass, you avoid the typical hot spots
created by using gas burners on thin metal pots. Additionally, avoid French fries,
candy bars, pizza, and microwave popcorn, where Teflon coatings are commonly used.
Fortunately, once youre on the path of optimal health, these are items you probably
wouldnt touch anyway.
Shared by Marvin--thank you!
A vast array of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.
Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.
How do the drugs get into the water?
People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.
And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.
"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.
Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:
_Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.
_Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
_Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
_A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.
_The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
_Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.
The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.
The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 that haven't: Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers water to 9 million people.
Some providers screen only for one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.
The AP's investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation's water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed by the AP, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.
Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif., and New York City.
The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city's water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.
City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, they insisted that "New York City's drinking water continues to meet all federal and state regulations regarding drinking water quality in the watershed and the distribution system" regulations that do not address trace pharmaceuticals.
In several cases, officials at municipal or regional water providers told the AP that pharmaceuticals had not been detected, but the AP obtained the results of tests conducted by independent researchers that showed otherwise. For example, water department officials in New Orleans said their water had not been tested for pharmaceuticals, but a Tulane University researcher and his students have published a study that found the pain reliever naproxen, the sex hormone estrone and the anti-cholesterol drug byproduct clofibric acid in treated drinking water.
Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative. The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.
The AP also contacted 52 small water providers one in each state, and two each in Missouri and Texas that serve communities with populations around 25,000. All but one said their drinking water had not been screened for pharmaceuticals; officials in Emporia, Kan., refused to answer AP's questions, also citing post-9/11 issues.
Rural consumers who draw water from their own wells aren't in the clear either, experts say.
The Stroud Water Research Center, in Avondale, Pa., has measured water samples from New York City's upstate watershed for caffeine, a common contaminant that scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other pharmaceuticals.
Though more caffeine was detected at suburban sites, researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe was struck by the relatively high levels even in less populated areas.
He suspects it escapes from failed septic tanks, maybe with other drugs. "Septic systems are essentially small treatment plants that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail," Aufdenkampe said.
Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry's main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.
Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.
For example, in Canada, a study of 20 Ontario drinking water treatment plants by a national research institute found nine different drugs in water samples. Japanese health officials in December called for human health impact studies after detecting prescription drugs in drinking water at seven different sites.
In the United States, the problem isn't confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation's water supply. Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.
Perhaps it's because Americans have been taking drugs and flushing them unmetabolized or unused in growing amounts. Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.
"People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that's not the case," said EPA scientist Christian Daughton, one of the first to draw attention to the issue of pharmaceuticals in water in the United States.
Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.
One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.
Another issue: There's evidence that adding chlorine, a common process in conventional drinking water treatment plants, makes some pharmaceuticals more toxic.
Human waste isn't the only source of contamination. Cattle, for example, are given ear implants that provide a slow release of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by some bodybuilders, which causes cattle to bulk up. But not all the trenbolone circulating in a steer is metabolized. A German study showed 10 percent of the steroid passed right through the animals.
Water sampled downstream of a Nebraska feedlot had steroid levels four times as high as the water taken upstream. Male fathead minnows living in that downstream area had low testosterone levels and small heads.
Other veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, dementia, and even obesity sometimes with the same drugs as humans. The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.
Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. "Based on what we now know, I would say we find there's little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health," said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. said: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms."
Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.
Also, pharmaceuticals in waterways are damaging wildlife across the nation and around the globe, research shows. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females. Pharmaceuticals also are affecting sentinel species at the foundation of the pyramid of life such as earth worms in the wild and zooplankton in the laboratory, studies show.
Some scientists stress that the research is extremely limited, and there are too many unknowns. They say, though, that the documented health problems in wildlife are disconcerting.
"It brings a question to people's minds that if the fish were affected ... might there be a potential problem for humans?" EPA research biologist Vickie Wilson told the AP. "It could be that the fish are just exquisitely sensitive because of their physiology or something. We haven't gotten far enough along."
With limited research funds, said Shane Snyder, research and development project manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a greater emphasis should be put on studying the effects of drugs in water.
"I think it's a shame that so much money is going into monitoring to figure out if these things are out there, and so little is being spent on human health," said Snyder. "They need to just accept that these things are everywhere every chemical and pharmaceutical could be there. It's time for the EPA to step up to the plate and make a statement about the need to study effects, both human and environmental."
To the degree that the EPA is focused on the issue, it appears to be looking at detection. Grumbles acknowledged that just late last year the agency developed three new methods to "detect and quantify pharmaceuticals" in wastewater. "We realize that we have a limited amount of data on the concentrations," he said. "We're going to be able to learn a lot more."
While Grumbles said the EPA had analyzed 287 pharmaceuticals for possible inclusion on a draft list of candidates for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said only one, nitroglycerin, was on the list. Nitroglycerin can be used as a drug for heart problems, but the key reason it's being considered is its widespread use in making explosives.
So much is unknown. Many independent scientists are skeptical that trace concentrations will ultimately prove to be harmful to humans. Confidence about human safety is based largely on studies that poison lab animals with much higher amounts.
There's growing concern in the scientific community, meanwhile, that certain drugs or combinations of drugs may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day.
Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage. Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.
Many concerns about chronic low-level exposure focus on certain drug classes: chemotherapy that can act as a powerful poison; hormones that can hamper reproduction or development; medicines for depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behavior; antibiotics that can allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms; pain relievers and blood-pressure diuretics.
For several decades, federal environmental officials and nonprofit watchdog environmental groups have focused on regulated contaminants pesticides, lead, PCBs which are present in higher concentrations and clearly pose a health risk.
However, some experts say medications may pose a unique danger because, unlike most pollutants, they were crafted to act on the human body.
"These are chemicals that are designed to have very specific effects at very low concentrations. That's what pharmaceuticals do. So when they get out to the environment, it should not be a shock to people that they have effects," says zoologist John Sumpter at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs.
And while drugs are tested to be safe for humans, the timeframe is usually over a matter of months, not a lifetime. Pharmaceuticals also can produce side effects and interact with other drugs at normal medical doses. That's why aside from therapeutic doses of fluoride injected into potable water supplies pharmaceuticals are prescribed to people who need them, not delivered to everyone in their drinking water.
"We know we are being exposed to other people's drugs through our drinking water, and that can't be good," says Dr. David Carpenter, who directs the Institute for Health and the Environment of the State University of New York at Albany.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at) ap.org
If the following is verified in the next few months, this is some of the biggest econ and energy news possible:
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.13s.html
Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x
America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America's Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC's short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant. In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil
Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel. It was not until 2007, when EOG
Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938. The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.
In Truth, Simplicity, Love and Service,
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Om Peace.
Young Toni Delgado and Young Kelley Elkins
A NEXT STEP...Light Center for Transformation and Healing
P.O.Box 429
Dona Ana, New Mexico 88032
toni@anextstep.org
www.anextstep.org
575-382-8771
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