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Stop fracking our food producing farms

1/4/2019

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Recently I attended the Brisbane screening of a new Australian-made documentary on the environmental damage and health effects of "fracking", or "unnatural gas extraction" methods used in Australia and also around the world. The documentary, called "Pipe Dreams, Fractured Lives", was very well made by a 5th generation beef and lamb farmer from South Australia, David Smith. This is my review of this documentary.

David lives in a very productive rural farming area of SA, much like many similar food crop areas around Australia. Unfortunately, under the rich farming soils are small deposits of methane gas, trapped in rock or shale layers, which mining companies want to get and sell. One mining company constructed an exploration well searching for unconventional (shale) gas about 25km from his family farm. Later, the SA Labor government offered farmers a 10% share of the royalties they received if farmers allowed gas production on their land. Being a very diligent man, David went investigating fracking in detail, and this documentary is the result of his research and travels.

David interviewed many farmers in Australia and USA to find out the impacts or benefits of fracking on their lands and communities. He also interviewed many scientists, engineering professors, biology professors, a former petroleum boss, food and health science professors, and more. What he found and what they said absolutely shocked him.

Firstly, mining companies and their representatives were using lies and intimidation tactics to try to get farmers to sign up to having a gas well on their land. In some cases, miners were installing wells, even before a contract was signed. The intimidation, bullying, and threats of legal action against the farmers to sign up became all too much for some farmers, with at least one committing suicide as a result.

The mining companies promised thousands of dollars, and even millions in royalties to some farmers, when the miners knew that this was not possible. Unfortunately, many miners believed the promises, only to see a fraction of their promised income, due to low extraction rates, dodgy contract clauses, and that gas wells lose capacity quickly, often within 3 years.

To get to the gas trapped in rock or shale, many shafts are drilling either horizontally or vertically deep into the rock. The main problems with fracking are:

1) A lot of chemicals, chemical waste, radioactive waste, and water are pumped into the shafts to push out the gas which is collected. Approximately 50,000 to 120,000 litres of toxic waste is pumped into each well, diluted by a similar amount of water, and there can be up to 20 wells per pad. That's a LOT of chemicals contaminating the environment and destroying natural waterways and aquifers

2) A LOT of water is needed to dilute the waste being pumped into the rock, and about half of that water used comes back up as waste water, which poisons dams, the ground, and animals which drink it. Many farming communities have not been able to use their groundwater for over 10 years after having gas wells on or near their properties

3) Farmers pay for water rights from the aquifers, but when the miners come in, the farmers must reduce their allocation of water, of which most goes to the miners, who do not pay for their water rights at all

4) Methane gas (and other toxic gases) leaks out of poor quality pipes into the aquifers (an underground layer of water-bearing rock) so that water taken from the aquifer for farming or into farmers' houses can smell and taste of methane gas. This is obviously toxic to anyone or anything that uses it

5) Aquifers, when contaminated, are gone forever. There is no backup water in many farming areas. No water means no crops, no income for farmers, less food to communities, prices go up, and imports go up - not great for the economy or the environment

6) Methane gas has a much larger greenhouse gas footprint than that given off from burning coal by over 100 times. With the concerns many have over "climate change" or "global warming", why are we even looking at this fossil fuel, when there are better renewable alternatives?!

7) Many farms and properties around gas wells are worthless, and families have had to walk away from farms in these areas. One couple tried to get a loan from a bank, but this was denied when the bank found they had 4 gas wells on the property

8) State and federal governments are using old and outdated advice and information regarding the safety of fracking. When fracking was approved in Australia, there were very few research studies on the risks and damage it causes. Now there's over 1400 published studies showing the environmental damage and health effects. Farmers and communities are not being told about these

9) Mining companies are planning to build thousands of more gas wells in Qld, through more state forests and prime agricultural land, but much closer to coastal towns, which will have a larger impact on the environment and people nearby

10) Even if a farmer decides against gas wells on their property, there can be a lot of chemical and gas drift and noise from neighbouring farms which can impact their farm and their health. Environmental contamination doesn't stop at property boundaries
11) After signing up to gas wells and getting very little money from them, but getting all the environmental damage, many farmers found out that it would have been more profitable just farming their crops anyway

12)  Within 100 years, all wells would have failed and broken down, releasing even more toxic chemicals into the air, water and environment.
 
Then the health issues were investigated in the documentary. The health impacts of gas wells can include the following symptoms:

- Blood noses
- Asthma and other respiratory conditions
- Burning eyes and mouth, and eye diseases
- Neurological symptoms of the brain and nervous system, including nerve damage and pain
- Mental health effects - depression, anxiety and psychiatric disorders
- Various cancers
- Infertility (in animal stock and humans)
- Sudden deaths of many head of stock
- Spleen and liver conditions, including enlarged organs and burst spleens
- Miscarriages, low birth weights and birth defects
- Skin rashes and lesions
- And many more symptoms.
 
The environmental and health damage of fracking is huge. The cost to farmers, farming land, and natural waterways is incalculable and likely permanent.

Prime agricultural land should be used for its intended purpose, and this purpose only! Allowing gas mining which brings massive environmental damage and health effects to animals and people is INSANE. If the farming land is affected by environmental damage, the cities will be affected too, with toxic food and water, no tourism, and many more problems.

Local, state and federal governments MUST listen to the people on the ground and stop hiding behind government departments or mining companies and their profits. People, food and the environment come first, before profits! No money in the world is worth more than your health.

Stand up to the miners and say "no thanks". Talk to your local, state and federal politician to let them know this damage to the environment and people must be stopped. The politicians are hiding the true damage to Australian farming areas and farming communities. Consider that some of the major political parties who have allowed this to happen, and their actions in this (and inactions) should be taken into account in the forthcoming elections.

For more information on the "Pipe Dreams, Fractured Lives" documentary, please have a look at their website here - http://www.pipedreamsfracturedlives.com.au/. Have a look for screenings of the documentary in your area, or you can request or organise a screening with David Smith.

We have to look after the health of our environment and all Australians too! We all depend on it.
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why detoxes do not work!

18/1/2019

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I do get asked a lot what I would recommend for a detox. If you think you overdid it with the xmas and new years celebrations, and you have made your list of new years resolutions starting with a detox, then you need to read this article further!

Many people think they are doing their bodies a great service, by having a yearly... well, service... with a detox of a few days or a week at most. It sounds like a good idea in principle!

Assuming that you want to undertake a 7-day detox with a water fast, or juicing, or detox program  pack from your chemist, or some other online detox method, I have some news for you - it won't work! You can't do a weekly detox and hope that it undoes all the damage and toxic accumulation from the previous 51 weeks of the year! It's not possible!

Also, what is it exactly that you want to detox?! Not actually knowing this is also setting up for failing in your detox. Short term detoxes are useless, but targeted detoxes that are tailored against specific toxins, organs or heavy metals CAN and DO work very well! The key is to know what toxins you may have and then setup a treatment plan for that. This can be done with a number of options for testing, such as with a HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) test, Oligoscan or other tests. I can help with these! I've seen some great improvements with targeted detox treatments, including those with high amounts of lead, mercury, aluminium or other toxins or heavy metals.

Many toxic chemicals from foods or household/cleaning/work products are stored in body fat as a "safe" and out of the way place. When you detox, you are generally on a diet, which is actually a restriction of nutrients (NOT a restriction of calories as such) that your body really needs. The reduced food intake will mean that body fat will be broken down to provide energy. That's all good for reducing your weight, but when you lose a reasonable amount of body fat, those stored toxins are also released into the blood. This is not a good thing, and it WILL make you feel worse. This is why you feel terrible on a detox program - you feel like your brain is fuzzy, aching all over, headaches, gut problems and fatigued... This is why you should never detox when you are sick or not feeling well - you will feel worse. And also why you need to support your body to detox when you are losing weight!

A non-specific detox for the body is a great idea, but this needs to be a part of a regular lifestyle, not something you do once or twice per year! It needs to be done all the time! A general detox can be done properly though without feeling terrible when you do it, with a regular and holistic program that covers all aspects of health - physical, mental, emotional, environmental and more.

Detoxing starts with an analysis of what you are normally eating and drinking, and what chemicals you are being exposed to. Then you should be making some changes to reduce your toxin exposure by replacing some items with safer and less toxic ones, and supporting the body's natural elimination channels to remove stored toxins.
​
So perhaps please reconsider your short term "detox" plans on your new years resolutions list! Replace it instead with aiming for a "healthy lifestyle" in 2019 instead, or using testing to find out what toxins your body has first, then use a targeted detox against those. I can help you with this!

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A MAJOR CAUSE OF AUTISM FOUND

5/12/2017

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The incidences of autism spectrum disorders in children has grown massively only in a few decades. While statistics on incidences vary a lot due to a lack of accurate records, the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the following increase over a few years:
In 2003, 30,400 Australians had autism.
In 2009, 64,600 Australians had autism.
In 2012, 115,400 Australians had autism.

In just 9 years, the incidence rate has tripled. Some official US statistics say autism disorders now affect 1 in 68 people, and some much worse than that. This is an epidemic, but little seems to have been done about the prevention or making the public aware of the causes of these conditions. (See the UPDATE at the end of this article - new statistics just in, showing incidences now at 1 in 40 children).

Autism is not a completely genetically inherited trait. The huge increase in incidences over 1-2 generations cannot be scientifically explained just due to genetics. The increased awareness, leading to more diagnosing of this is not the reason either, especially when there actually is no medical test for a diagnosis - as it's based on subjective observations. The science of epigenetics, however, can explain the increase in autism disorders, by showing how environmental toxins and other environmental factors change our genetic expression to cause autism.

A new study published a few days ago (November 2017) has confirmed a large piece of the puzzle on one of the causes of autism – neurotoxic and heavy metal poisoning of the brains in every autistic person tested. In particular, the neurotoxic element aluminium was mentioned in this study entitled “Aluminium in brain tissue in autism”.

Tests were performed on brains of 10 deceased people with autism, to investigate aluminium toxicity. They tested 5 different lobes or areas of the brain for aluminium levels. What they found was shocking – 40% of all tissue samples showed aluminium levels as high, and 67% as having extremely high levels, across all brain regions. This study showed that aluminium is extremely toxic to the brain, was able to cross the blood-brain-barrier, and actually get inside the neurons (brain cells) to cause damage (ie, inflammation) in the brain.

The aluminium levels seen in the study were amongst the highest EVER seen in brain tissue tests. In fact, some of the tissues from children were equivalent to elderly patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease (a chronic inflammatory and degenerative condition, mostly seen in elderly people, and also linked to being caused by aluminium exposure over their entire life).

There are other toxic chemicals linked to causing autism, and other factors too, such as a reduced ability to detoxify environmental toxins, maternal exposure to toxins when pregnant, infections during pregnancy, nutritional deficiencies, gut infections, dysbiosis, and more.

For these environmental causes of autism, there are many things which can be done to reduce the risk, or to detoxify the body of these environmental toxins, and to reduce symptoms. Some easy tests can be done to check for possible heavy metal toxicity, whether for autism or other conditions. This is often done with an inexpensive hair test and other tests, which we can arrange at the clinic. A detailed report will show the results of levels of good minerals, as well as many heavy metals or toxic ones, or how well their body can detoxify (or not).

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact me, or the clinic for details.
​
UPDATE: Interesting timing - the CDC (Centres of Disease Control in the US) released a paper just today showing statistics of the incidences of autism and developmental delays in US children. I've read the report - and it's much worse than the statistics in my article, showing a huge increase in autism and developmental delays in just 2 years since the previous report.
The previous official report said autism was seen in 1 in every 68 children in 2012 to 2014. However in this report from 2014 to 2016, the rate has nearly doubled to 1 in 36! This rate is only for Caucasian children which was the worst result. When all ethnicities are included it's 1 in 40 US children with autism, which is still absolutely shocking.
But what is worse, but not mentioned in the news articles on this were the rates of developmental delays, which is at 7% of all children - this is one child in every 14! Of course these are the "official" rates, with the real rates likely to be even worse.
​
Something seriously needs to be done to 1) investigate and 2) stop and reverse this.
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4 Comments

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