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Local anti-anti-vaxxers in the news

Heather Bellow has a long feature in Friday’s Berkshire Eagle about residents pushing back against the spread of anti-vaccine disinformation in Columbia and Berkshire Counties, especially as it relates to COVID.

The article includes extensive quotes from Chatham’s Michael Richardson, publisher of a local newsletter called Vaxx Facts; Columbia County Community Health Action co-founder Michael Seserman, who now works at the American Cancer Society; as well as this site’s writing on the topic. The article also quotes some academic sources, and several vaccine skeptics.

Radical leftist newspaper covers TCI fire

Ralph Gardner, Jr., who has house near Ghent, has an excellent column today in that notorious left-wing publication, The Wall Street Journal, about the August 1st TCI inferno.

In his usual fluid and droll prose, Ralph likens the official reassurances about the TCI fire to those issued by EPA and NYC after 9/11—and also to the plot of a Don Delillo novel (such as White Noise, whose Airborne Toxic Event many immediately thought of when the PCB handler’s plant exploded).

Meanwhile, The Albany Times Union’s James Odato reports that EPA in Massachusetts performed some of the testing across the Berkshire County line that New York State officials have been refusing to do here in Columbia County.

NYS DEC spokesperson Charsleissa King even goes so far as to suggest that samples taken in the Berkshires are adequate justification for not doing the same in the neighborhood of the fire.

Perhaps Ms. King needs to be reminded that this inferno took place in Ghent, New York, not Pittsfield, Massachusetts... Or that National Weather data shows thawinds were less than 1 mph from the start of the fire around 10 pm until dawn, meaning that the most intense impacts would likely occur locally, not across the border.

This makes it all the more eyebrow-raising that Berkshire and Rensselaer counties got timely notifications to close their windows, turn off air conditioners, and stay inside, while Columbians did not. (Maybe that name has DEC thinking we’re a Third World country?)

More likely, the State just doesn't want to know, and doesn't want to spend the money to test properly—even when they can charge it back to TCI... or especially when they can do so. DEC Region 4 has consistently been protective of corporate interests in our region for the past few decades, regularly taking the side of mining interests, coal-burners, tire-burners, and now waste handlers.

DEC taking heat on TCI response

Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Group (NYPIRG) questions the State’s handling of the TCI fire in Ghent in a must-read post on the Times-Union’s Green Blog. Haight’s challenge includes these statements:

I’m not satisfied with what I’m hearing about the state’s testing. According to the TU article on Saturday, the DEC will test for dioxin this week “even though state health officials do not think the dioxin testing is necessary.” Say what? It is a well known fact that incomplete combustion of PCBs can result in the formation of dioxins and furans. According to a 1997 EPA report: “Products of incomplete combustion of PCBs include polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), both of which may be more toxic than PCBs themselves and have been associated with embryotoxicity, teratogenicity, reproductive effects, and oncogenicity.” (emphasis added)

Much of the affected area is farmland. When persistent organic pollutants like PCBs or dioxin get into the food chain they can bioaccumulate, ending up in vegetables, dairy products and meat. If the fire released dioxin, which is certainly possible, it is absolutely necessary for state officials to test milk and other farm products produced in the region in order to protect public health. Yet from the news reports it appears that as of now the state has no plans to conduct these tests.

So what was I to say to the woman who called me on Friday afternoon who had evacuated her family to a motel in the Adirondacks after learning she was within the 15-mile radius of the fire and had had her windows open all night? She wanted objective information about whether it was safe to return to her home and she didn’t trust the government’s proclamation that DEC sampling showed “no evidence of a public health concern.” Why should she? If state officials aren’t speaking to reporters, it doesn’t engender trust or confidence.

As of 1 pm today, DEC Region 4 has no press releases about the event in the media section of its website.

Notes on 1:30 pm news conference about TCI

UPDATE: A Hudson resident makes the insightful point that there have been three fires—one at Amanda’s Fireplace, and two now at TCI—within a few hundred yards of each other in the past couple of years. Makes you wonder if there is a firebug in the neighborhood.

Listening to this afternoon’s press conference by County, State and Federal officials on WGXC was frustrating, as two out of the three speakers were almost inaudible—either due to mumbling or the poor quality of the audio feed. (CBS6’s live stream was apparently much clearer.) With that caveat, here are some notes on what was said, to the extent that it could be heard:

• The fire is now “99% out” and the cause of the fire is “under investigation.”

• The alert for the 15-mile radius (or rather, 15-mile diameter) of the site has now been lifted.

• “A drum of PCBs,” said to be a “very small amount” was onsite. (A little polychlorinated biphenyl goes a long way.)

• 20,000 gallons of mineral oil, some motor oil, and some propane tanks were also onsite, contributing one supposes to the intensity of the fire. (Mineral oil? Is there an epidemic of diaper rash in the County?)

• Officials are “doing some additional testing,” but claim that no traces of PCBs were found in residues near the site.

• Testing for “other chemicals,” such as highly toxic dioxins—which, as previously reported here, PCBs can morph into when burned—is not yet complete, but is expected maybe by tomorrow.

• It was decided to were “pull out” firefighters at some point due to the intensity of the blaze and lack of certainty as to what was onsite.

• A question was asked by reporters in the audience about what agency is “supposed to be monitoring this facility,” and when it was last “checked out,” especially considering that it had a smaller fire barely six months ago. “That is under investigation,” was the answer.

• People were still working there after the January fire; it isn’t clear if anyone was working there last night.

• Officials feel satisfied that they did what they could to “notify everybody as quickly as possible,” while conceding that unlike some neighboring counties, Columbia does not have a reverse 911 system.

• The Columbia County Health Department will be issuing a guidance document on how to deal with any soot people find on their property or in their homes.

• The 15-mile radius was chosen to ensure that if there were a wind change, causing a change in the direction of the plume, people would be on alert.

• In response to a question about whether any people were called in the potentially most-impacted areas, the answer was “I would say no.”

• The County requested help from State Emergency Management, and received it asw ell frm ROTC, Dutchess, Greene and Rensselaer counties; a truck also came from an Air Force base at 9 am this morning.

• A speaker commented that after 25-30 years of fighting fires, “I have never seen explosions like on this fire.”

Plume

UPDATE: I’ve spoken with Rick Georgeson, a public information officer for the DEC, and he is going to attempt to pull any records the State might have of hazardous materials stored onsite at TCI.

UPDATE #2: The Associated Press is calling the fire “stubborn” and that “Police say the firefighters are spraying foam Thursday morning because they don't know exactly what is burning. A reader reports as of 1 pm that a dark plume is still visible from Route 66 heading north toward Chatham.

A reader in the Ghent/Stockport area just sent in the above photo of a lingering plume this morning from TCI’s fire. As previously noted, one County official has said that at its peak, this plume was two miles long.

Another reader reports an as-yet unconfirmed rumor from a Columbia Memorial Hospital worker that the National Guard was brought in to assist firefighters. Anecdotally, CMH has apparently had some walk-ins with eye and throat irritation.

The Berkshire Eagle reports on air quality warnings across the border in Massachusetts:

A Great Barrington emergency management team issued telephone calls around 5 a.m. on Thursday to residents of Egremont, Alford, Sheffield and Great Barrington about the fire in West Ghent and the possibility that their may be toxic fumes drifting their way in an air plume because of the wind patterns. As of 8:15 a.m., the alert has been expanded to Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, Richmond and Sheffield. Residents have been warned to close their windows and not use air conditioners which may filter polluted air into homes.

Meanwhile, while some Hudson officials have attempted to tamp down concerns, The Catskill Daily Mail reports that even eastern Greene County residents are advised to turn off their A/Cs and stay inside. The paper writes:

Occasional explosions were heard inside the building, including one series that resembled rolling thunder, causing some spectators to run in the opposite direction. 

“There are a lot of hazardous materials here,” said Emergency Medical Services Coordinator P.J. Keeler. “That’s our concern.” Keeler was pulling a cooler that had dozens of water bottles stacked on top of it. 

County Emergency Management Director William Black said the building contained big mineral oil tanks, two tractor trailers of fuel oil, fork lifts with propane tanks, and other hazardous substances.  “It’s the combination when they mix we have to be concerned with,” he said. “There’s sodium in there.”

Here is a handy link if you want to follow media reports of the event on Google News.

Performance vs. performing

During the Q&A after Saturday’s Berkshire Film Festival screening of the documentary The Artist is Present, Marina Abramović clarified an important point about her planned institute in Hudson.

The center will focus, she explained, on all of the performing arts—including for instance music and dance—not just on the specific type of performance art for which she herself is known... The kicker being that she intends to focus on “durational” performances of six hours or more, from many disciplines.

Intelligent move

Rural Intelligence, the online guide to the Berkshire-Taconic area created four years ago by Marilyn Bethany and Dan Shaw, shut down last Fall. But it has now been purchased by a South Berkshires resident, and will resume publication on May 3rd. One hopes it will continue to have as much Columbia County coverage as ever.

Comparative Burgerology

Does healthy, organic food cost more than “regular” food? And what’s a hamburger supposed to cost around here, anyway?

Ever since Grazin’ revitalized a formerly-empty restaurant space on Warren Street, one has heard more than a few hyperbolic discussions about prices, with little actual relationship to the reality of the 21st Century cost of delivering a decent meal.

The chart below collects some representative menu prices for burgers in the region. For the purposes of a fair comparison, the price of a side of fries was included if those don’t come automatically with the burger:

As the hard numbers above show, the price of a burger in these parts can range from a low of $5.50 to a high of $13. The average burger price of the 15 establishments list above is $9.98—precisely 3 cents higher than than that of the Grazin’ all-organic, Animal Welfare Certifed burger.

In short, getting a healthy, organic, responsibly-created, locally-sourced, farm-to-table burger is no more expensive than eating at most any other non-fastfood restaurant in the area... which just points up the irrationality of some of the anti-organic voices in our midst. Those who denounce $9-$10 for a burger as outrageous clearly haven’t been getting out much lately.

Now some Rush Limbaugh listeners may cry foul, noting that they could get a slider and fries at McDonald’s or Burger King for even less than any of the prices above. Yes, you could... except those aren’t hamburgers. Those are reprocessed sewage patties masquerading as food. If you eat them regularly, you will almost certainly die early. And the price of that to your family and society far exceeds anything that buying organic ever could.

Berkshire & Ulster population changes

I’ve had several requests for charts showing population changes for Berkshire and Ulster counties, similar to the ones already posted here for Columbia, Greene and Dutchess. Here you go:

If you want to work with the raw data, here it is as a PDF. As ever, this info is presented with the caveat that population figures, taken in isolation, should not be interpreted as a measure of prosperity.

For example, though Berkshire County is widely regarded as more prosperous than Columbia, their population fell slightly over the past decade, whereas Columbia’s stayed essentially unchanged—up by two residents. (Meanwhile, half of the entire Berkshire population loss is attributed to Pittsfield and North Adams, which are very different in character from much of the rest of the county.) Such trends ought to be examined in a fuller context of other demographic data and on-the-ground observations.

The Big Pool

Any excuse to say “quahogs”

Marilyn Bethany interviewed me about the problems with the plans for the Hudson waterfront at Rural Intelligence—click here to read the Q&A.

But what I’d really appreciate you doing is to click through to Hudsonwaterfront.org and take action right away to help ensure that a greener, more sustainable, and more economically-beneficial plan gets enacted.

Signal achievement

The Berkshire Eagle reports that WBCR, the marvellously eclectic and progressive community radio station in Great Barrington, has secured a license to boost its FM signal from 100 to 550 watts. This means that once they raise the funds for the new transmitter, WBCR would reach most if not all of Columbia and Berkshire counties, as well as parts farther east and south... More details are at their website.