home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [UK] Hospital hit by E coli outbreak
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001406.4817f6aa@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997
-
- Hospital hit by E coli outbreak
- By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent
-
- A HOSPITAL that treated patients during the food poisoning epidemic that
- killed 19 people last year is at the centre of a new E coli outbreak.
-
- Health officials last night confirmed that 12 people, including two members
- of staff, had become infected at Falkirk Royal Infirmary. The hospital
- treated patients who became ill during the epidemic in November, which
- affected more than 400 people and was linked to a
- butcher's shop in Wishaw, Lanarkshire.
-
- The first signs of the latest outbreak were detected in three elderly
- patients last week and their symptoms have since been confirmed as E coli
- food poisoning.
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:20 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [UK] Appeal to safeguard sharks in the Med
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001408.48171890@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Tuesday, May 27th, 1997
-
- Appeal to safeguard sharks in the Med
- By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
-
- CONSERVATIONISTS are to urge Mediterranean countries to overcome their
- misgivings and protect the man-eating great white shark.
-
- Campaigners will tell an international conference in Zimbabwe next month
- that the number of sharks in the Mediterranean is dwindling and that species
- are not subject to controls used in other parts of the world.
-
- Monitoring by the European Shark Research Bureau of accidental catches in
- commercial tuna nets and traps showed that numbers were declining rapidly.
- Ian Fergusson, a biologist who has maintained a computer database on the
- sharks since 1989, said it was not known
- how many were left in the Mediterranean, but they had been declining fast in
- the Sicilian Channel and the Adriatic where there was evidence of them
- historically.
-
- "The Croatian coast has all but lost white sharks as annual visitors,
- despite their perennial appearance in the waters off Opatija and Cres Island
- until a couple of decades ago," Mr Fergusson said.
-
- "Sharks and rays are now on the verge of collapse in the Mediterranean.
- There are absolutely no controls. The most difficult thing is to get across
- that protecting sharks is the same thing as protecting dolphins and whales."
-
- The plight of sharks in all regions of the world will be discussed in Harare
- at the conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
- Species. A proposal for listing the Mediterranean sharks under one of the
- convention's annexes, which would prevent
- deliberate killing for export, has been prepared by experts including Mr
- Fergusson.
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 00:13:23 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [RU] Unique Russian Seals Dead from Pulp Mill Effluent
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970527001411.48173b76@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- [The following has further info relating to what was posted earlier]
-
- >From The Greenpeace Media Release Server
-
- Many Baikal Seals Died in the Area where the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill Dumps
- its Waste Waters
-
- Irkutsk, Moscow, May 26 1997. Many dead Baikal seals - a unique animal ,
- which lives only in the waters of Baikal - were found by ecologists.
- Representatives of Greenpeace Russia immediately arrived at the site and
- made photo and video shooting, which testifies information about deaths of
- several dozens of Baikal seals in the southern part of the lake.
- Animals which are dying or have already died were found near so called Murin
- bank in 18
- km from the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill (BP&PM). During a quick survey of just
- 1.5 km of the coast, Greenpeace activists and experts from the Siberian
- division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF found dead bodies each 50 m.
-
- There may exist two causes for mass death of Baikal seal.
-
- The first one is contamination of the water by discharges from the BP&PM,
- which uses a hazardous chlorine technology for bleaching paper, resulting in
- presence of many toxic substances, dioxins - strongest poison - included, in
- the mill's discharges.
-
- The infectious disease - plaque - is the other possible reason. However,
- since the 1930s, there was registered only one case of such mass infection -
- in 1987-88. Dead animals were found then along the whole coast of Baikal.
- While at present dead bodies were discovered only in one area - in several
- kilometres from the exhaust pipe of the BP&PM. The coastal stream, which
- passes near the pipe, is also directed towards the place where most seals
- were found. Even if seals died because of the infectious disease, the
- disease could have been provoked by toxic releases of the mill, which had
- considerably decreased resistance of animal organisms in the area of
- discharges from the enterprise.
-
- The third version was that Baikal seals died because of poachers' actions,
- but during the study of remains of the animals it was rejected. According
- to the findings of the first research, the Baikal seal has been dying for
- at least one and a half month, but the ice which was melting slowly didn't
- allow to find it out earlier.
-
- For more information contact: Greenpeace Russia, tel. 251 90 73, Ivan
- Blokov, Andrew Semenov. Irkutsk -3952 46 59 91 Roman Pukalov
-
- Information for the editor:
-
- Dioxins in the fat of the Baikal seal were found already ten years ago.
- During the research of 1996, leading research officer of the Geological and
- Chemical Institute of the Siberian
- division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF Evgeniya Tarasova determined a
- very high level of dioxins in the fat of animals - between 120-175 pg/kg.
- These figures are comparable to and even exceed contents of this poison in
- organisms of animal species, inhabiting the most polluted areas of the
- Baltic sea.
-
- Dutch scientists carried out a unique research on resistance of a seal's
- organism to infectious diseases. They placed seals into two different
- basins, the first group of animals was fed with usual fish from the Atlantic
- ocean, while the second was given fish from the most dioxin polluted areas
- of the Baltic sea. In a while both groups were plaque infected. The first
- group survived it quite easily without any serious consequences, while the
- animals of the second group died.
-
- Greenpeace Russia has photo and video materials (including Betacam), which
- show deaths of Baikal seals. All materials are available for journalists
-