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markdcatlin uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
On March 23, 1989 the Exxon Valdez an oil supertanker operated by Exxon left the port of Valdez headed for Long beach, CA with almost 54 million ga...
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On March 23, 1989 the Exxon Valdez an oil supertanker operated by Exxon left the port of Valdez headed for Long beach, CA with almost 54 million gallons of crude oil on board. Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the supertanker collided with Bligh Reef, a well known navigation hazard, ruptured 8 of its 11 cargo tanks and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound. The result was catastrophic. Although the spill was radioed in shortly after the collision Exxons response was slow. In fact, there was no recovery effort for three days while Exxon searched for clean up equipment. During that time millions of gallons of oil began to spread down the coast. Days later as the clean up effort began the oil slick was no longer containable. It eventually extended 470 miles to the southwest, contaminated hundreds of miles of coastline. For more information on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill go to the Website - Sound Truth and Corporate Myths: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill at http://www.soundtruth.info/ This website is from Riki Ott, PhD, a marine oil pollution expert and former commercial fisherman in Alaska's Prince William Sound. She was on the scene before, during, and after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and experienced firsthand the spill's effects, including environmental devastation, economic losses to the fishing industry, and psychosocial trauma to the close-knit community. For a look at worker health and safety issues during the oil spill cleanup, view the video clip, Worker Safety Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 1989, on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgjo-4... . For a detailed federal government review of worker health and safety issues, read the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report, Alaska Oil Spill Health Hazard Evaluation (HETA 89-200 & 89-273-2111), published in May 1991 and available on the NIOSH website at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/... . This is clipped from the 2009 NOAA video, Hindsight and Foresight: 20 Years After the Exxon Valdez Spill. The entire film can be viewed and downloaded at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/video.html .
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markdcatlin uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was signed into law in August 1990, largely in response to rising public concern following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. ...
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The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was signed into law in August 1990, largely in response to rising public concern following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The OPA improved the nation's ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions that expand the federal government's ability, and provide the money and resources necessary, to respond to oil spills. The OPA also created the national Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which is available to provide up to one billion dollars per spill incident.
In addition, the OPA provided new requirements for contingency planning both by government and industry. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) has been expanded in a three-tiered approach: the Federal government is required to direct all public and private response efforts for certain types of spill events; Area Committees -- composed of federal, state, and local government officials -- must develop detailed, location-specific Area Contingency Plans; and owners or operators of vessels and certain facilities that pose a serious threat to the environment must prepare their own Facility Response Plans. Finally, the OPA increased penalties for regulatory noncompliance, broadened the response and enforcement authorities of the Federal government, and preserved State authority to establish law governing oil spill prevention and response. For more, go to http://www.epa.gov/OEM/content/lawsre... . This is clipped from the 2009 NOAA video, Hindsight and Foresight: 20 Years After the Exxon Valdez Spill. The entire film can be viewed and downloaded at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/video.html .
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markdcatlin uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
Chances are you never had diphtheria. You probably dont know anyone who has suffered from this disease, either. In fact, you may not know what diph...
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Chances are you never had diphtheria. You probably dont know anyone who has suffered from this disease, either. In fact, you may not know what diphtheria is. Similarly, diseases like whooping cough (pertussis), measles, mumps, and German measles (rubella) may be unfamiliar to you. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, these illnesses struck hundreds of thousands of people in the United States each year, mostly children, and tens of thousands of people died. The names of these diseases were frightening household words. Today, they are all but forgotten. That change happened largely because of vaccines. Chances are youve been vaccinated against diphtheria. You may even have been exposed to the bacterium that causes it, but the vaccine prepared your body to fight off the disease so quickly that you were unaware of the infection. Vaccines take advantage of your bodys natural ability to learn how to combat many disease-causing germs, or microbes, that attack it. Whats more, your body remembers how to protect itself from the microbes it has encountered before. Collectively, the parts of your body that remember and repel microbes are called the immune system. Without the immune system, the simplest illness—even the common cold—could quickly turn deadly. On average, your immune system takes more than a week to learn how to fight off an unfamiliar microbe. Sometimes that isnt soon enough. Stronger microbes can spread through your body faster than the immune system can fend them off. Your body often gains the upper hand after a few weeks, but in the meantime you are sick. Certain microbes are so powerful, or virulent, that they can overwhelm or escape your bodys natural defenses. In those situations, vaccines can make all the difference.
Traditional vaccines contain either parts of microbes or whole microbes that have been killed or weakened so that they dont cause disease. When your immune system confronts these harmless versions of the germs, it quickly clears them from your body. In other words, vaccines trick your immune system to teach your body important lessons about how to defeat its opponents. For more information on vaccines, go to the website of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/vacc... . This is clipped from the 1955 film Immunization (2nd Ed) produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Film and available at the Internet Archive.
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markdcatlin uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
For bacteria that secrete toxins, or harmful chemicals, a toxoid vaccine might be the answer. These vaccines are used when a bacterial toxin is the...
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For bacteria that secrete toxins, or harmful chemicals, a toxoid vaccine might be the answer. These vaccines are used when a bacterial toxin is the main cause of illness. Scientists have found that they can inactivate toxins by treating them with formalin, a solution of formaldehyde and sterilized water. Such detoxified toxins, called toxoids, are safe for use in vaccines. When the immune system receives a vaccine containing a harmless toxoid, it learns how to fight off the natural toxin. The immune system produces antibodies that lock onto and block the toxin. Vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus are examples of toxoid vaccines. For more information on vaccines, go to the website of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/vacc... . This is clipped from the 1955 film Immunization (2nd Ed) produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Film and available at the Internet Archive.
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markdcatlin uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
Immunity to a disease is achieved through the presence of antibodies to that disease in a persons system. Antibodies are proteins produced by the b...
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Immunity to a disease is achieved through the presence of antibodies to that disease in a persons system. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body to neutralize or destroy toxins or disease-carrying organisms. Antibodies are disease-specific. For example, measles antibody will protect a person who is exposed to measles disease, but will have no effect if he or she is exposed to mumps. There are two types of immunity: active and passive. Active immunity results when exposure to a disease organism triggers the immune system to produce antibodies to that disease. Exposure to the disease organism can occur through infection with the actual disease (resulting in natural immunity), or introduction of a killed or weakened form of the disease organism through vaccination (vaccine-induced immunity). Either way, if an immune person comes into contact with that disease in the future, their immune system will recognize it and immediately produce the antibodies needed to fight it. Active immunity is long-lasting, and sometimes life-long. Passive immunity is provided when a person is given antibodies to a disease rather than producing them through his or her own immune system.
However, passive immunity lasts only for a few weeks or months. Only active immunity is long-lasting. For more information on the human immune system and vaccines, go to the website of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/immu... . This is clipped from the 1955 film Immunization (2nd Ed) produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Film and available at the Internet Archive.
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Found the link to this site in a blog we both contributed to...glad I did. Thank you for your efforts here and I plan on alerting others to your work....online and with links from my websites.
Mark Balduzzi