#my brain is a flammable hazardous material

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank! Lets make a gif together. I'll walk you through the steps.

First draw a picture of a person. Draw that exact same person with their weight shifted to one foot and their hip out to the side. Mirror the second drawing and save it as its own file. Upload all three images to Tumblr for me to make it into a gif.

Look, I already have an algorithm for getting gifs to mirror each other, I don't need yours --

[dynmghts]

I am putting my whole brain through chemistry hell with what little I remember from high school chemistry to understand how nitroglycerin works (thanks to one whole thread that's just meant to be silly and goofy, and also ignoring that the substance he makes is described as "nitroglycerin-like"). And man, when I tell you... Katsuki simply has to be built different to deal with his Quirk.

For one, it's a good thing that the nitroglycerin only produces from his hands. For two, remember that nitroglycerin is only slightly soluble with water - which also checks out with how Horikoshi draws the sweat beads sometimes, because they're not exactly combining with the nitroglycerin he makes.

But that likely means the nitroglycerin Katsuki makes is... Quite literally pure.

(This got long, so the rest is under the read more!)

Basic fundamentals to understand about nitroglycerin: it is both flammable and combustible. Wikipedia (bc this shit is the only thing making it make sense) says that "flammable applies to combustible materials that ignite easily and thus are more dangerous and more highly regulated". This is because of nitroglycerin's extremely reactive nature, prone to explosion via shock, friction, heat, and flame.

It is a class A explosive under OSHA, which is defined as: "possessing, detonating, or otherwise maximum hazard; such as dynamite, nitroglycerin, picric acid, lead azide, fulminate of mercury, black powder, blasting caps, and detonating primers".

Its HMIS diamond scaffold is as follows (based on this):

Health: 2 (can cause temporary incapacitation or residual injury)

Flammability: 3 (can be ignited under almost all ambient temperature conditions)

Instability: 4 (readily capable of detonation or explosive decomposition or explosive reaction at normal temperatures and pressures)

Special: N/A

Solid nitroglycerin (at 13°C or lower) will destabilise and explode if melted too quickly. A bottle of pure liquid nitroglycerin (14°C-50°C) will explode if it's dropped on the ground. It will begin to decompose at 50-60°C and explode at a temperature of 218°C. Its decomposition has an exothermic reaction, thus it can literally ignite itself. Nitroglycerin does not need oxygen to explode, because it has enough oxygen molecules in its chemical formula.

Its chemical formula in question is C3H5N3O9. The products after exploding are 3 CO2 + 2.5 H2O + 1.5 N2 + 0.5O...

A clean equation looks something like:

4 C3H5N3O9 -> 12 CO2 + 10 H20 + 6 N2 + O2.

Heat liberated from a nitroglycerin explosion exceeds temperatures of 5,000°C. the detonation wave from this reaction reaches a velocity of 7,280-7,700 metres per second, and creates the development of 20,000 atmospheres of pressure. Its explosive energy density sits at about 6.23 kJ/g, which is one of the higher power outputs in terms of explosive molecules.

So what does this mean for Bakugou Katsuki?

Well, simply put, he does not need a substantial amount of nitroglycerin on his palms to create detonations. The tiny sparks he creates are arguably miniscule doses of nitroglycerin that he's spontaneously igniting.

The method of ignition is thankfully obvious: he can heat his palms. He can shock the nitroglycerin on his palms with this rapid heat, thus spurring the molecules into the desired reaction.

It also explains how Katsuki needs to store sweat so he may create larger explosions later on - it's likely that he doesn't typically produce enough nitroglycerin from his palms to immediately justify any large-scale detonations that he desires. So, to achieve this, he has to work harder and sweat more to garner enough of the substance for the result he's after.

In the realm of BNHA, it's pretty clear that Katsuki's explosions don't exhibit the exothermal properties of nitroglycerin, or we would be seeing some very devastating burns left behind. While I think that he is ultimately capable of heat-related damage, his explosions overall are more force-based. I think his ultimate moves (Howitzer in particular) utilise the full force of nitroglycerin's reaction... Maybe, sometimes, reduced to varying degrees depending on the person he's fighting (plus the use of support items, skill, etc.).

For instance, compare his standard Howitzer Impact used against Todoroki in the sports festival to the Cluster-boosted Howitzer against Shigaraki in the final war:

While it was an ultimate move used on Todoroki, he was less experienced at the time, likely hindering its effectiveness. (I want to say he dialled it back so it wouldn't, you know, cause irreparable damage... But it's possible that inexperience trumped its overall power, because he wanted to win with everything he had.)

Then, against Shigaraki, it was so much force that it quite literally moved floating U.A. across the sky. He combined his support gear, his experience, and the amount of nitroglycerin stored to achieve this level of force.

As a further note, because of nitroglycerin's extreme reactivity and explosive properties, it cannot really produce a flame of its own. Because Katsuki's explosions seem to be more force-based on top of that, he is not necessarily capable of setting things alight... (Seen in the training camp arc, where he tried and failed to start a fire, instead just exploding the wood.)

As for Katsuki's natural resistances to his own Quirk (of which I have described before, but I want to reiterate):

Larger explosion sound levels can be anywhere between 120 decibels and 210 decibels... And a human's "safe hearing" level is about 85 decibels. In my headcanon, Katsuki has a natural adaptation which means he can withstand higher decibels than others, but that does not make him immune - so while he can tolerate large-scale explosion sounds in an open area, especially with him at the centre point, he would suffer if it were the same explosion in an enclosed area.

The aforementioned heating on his palms are only a part of Katsuki's adaptation to his Quirk; the skin is also significantly thicker on his palms and fingers, making his tolerance for touching hot things at a higher level. Like... Much, much higher. It accommodates for when nitroglycerin requires 218°C to explode in a controlled environment. It's why he can handle hot things out of the oven, and why he doesn't know what burns on his hands feel like.

The musculature on his arms and shoulders also have a natural level of strength to withstand the force of his quirk, but this isn't impervious either. He's had to train hard and build on that natural strength to best withstand the higher outputs of force.

Exposure to pure nitroglycerin for any individual is ill-advised, but with manga logic and creative liberties, I don't think anyone who wants to hold Katsuki's hand should have to worry. (I'm 99% sure that he washes his hands thoroughly after working out, anyway.) As for Katsuki himself, I think he does exhibit some symptoms of a nitroglycerin overdose when he's pushed himself way past his limit... But these episodes are incredibly rare, and often very short-lived.

The final notes:

Constant detonation of nitroglycerin means Katsuki has a bit of a smoky smell. Past that, there is also a faint caramel smell.

Also do not taste the nitroglycerin (for whatever reason there is to lick his hand or something? Which Katsuki will literally kill you for doing that, because what the fuck). It does not taste as nice as it smells.

[wsmith215]

Motivated by his son Beau, Joe Biden pledges help for veterans with burn pit health issues

Throughout his presidential campaign, one of the most striking elements of Joe Biden’s appeal has been his empathy. The personal tragedies he has suffered inform his interactions with voters who are also experiencing loss. And his sorrow could also guide policy decisions as commander-in-chief, offering assistance to veterans who may be suffering from service-related medical conditions — as he believes his son did. 

With a familiar quiver in his voice, Biden regularly on the campaign trail shares memories of his son Beau, who died in 2015 from glioblastoma brain cancer. A handful of times Biden detailed how he thinks his son’s cancer may have been related in part to the large, military base burn pits during his 2009 service in the Iraq War.

“He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go,” Biden told a Service Employees International Union convention in October. “And because of exposure to burn pits — in my view, I can’t prove it yet — he came back with Stage Four glioblastoma.”

Biden’s precise language — “in my view, I can’t prove it yet” — appears to be intentional as he lends his voice to the ongoing and somewhat controversial debate over whether the burn pits caused lasting health issues for American veterans.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden (L) at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad on July 4, 2009. 

KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images

“We don’t have 20 years”  

As the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations grew, so did the installations of bigger burn pits on military bases, rather than the smaller burn barrels that had previously been used. The pits were meant to dispose of everything from garbage to sensitive documents and even more hazardous materials. 

“They build as big as this auditorium,” Biden said to a CNN town hall audience in February, “It’s about 8-to-10-feet-deep and they put everything in it they want to dispose of and can’t leave behind, from flammable fuel to plastics to all range of things.”

But in the middle of a war zone, concern about the burn pits was sometimes considered secondary to other safety issues. 

“You’ve got dust storms, you have the enemy, you have all sorts of things going on that some smoke in the air doesn’t really seem like as important of an issue at the moment,” Jim Mowrer, who befriended Beau at Camp Victory in Iraq in 2009, told CBS News. Other times, Mowrer, 34, who now serves as co-chair for the Veterans for Biden committee, said he tried to filter the air by wearing a face covering.

“The concern factor became more of a concern after we came home,” Beau’s overseas boss, Command JAG Kathy Amalfitano, 59, told CBS News. Amalfitano said she remembers discussing the burn pits with Beau a few times, but added “I know our thought process was that this was part of the deployment.”

Biden is not alone in thinking burn pits impacted soldiers’ health.

Since 2014, more than 200,000 Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans have registered in the “Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry” run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), detailing exposure to service-related airborne hazards from burn pit smoke and other pollution.

And while these veteran health concerns seem widespread, the VA’s policy only recognizes “temporary” irritation from burn pit exposure. Citing a range of studies, the department states that “research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits.”

One ongoing study is by National Jewish Health and funded by the Defense Department, and is examining lung issues and has yielded “a spectrum of diseases that are related to deployment,” the study’s principal investigator Dr. Cecile Rose told CBS News last year. ” [The diseases] weren’t there before, and they are clearly there after people have returned from these arid and extreme environments.” However, Rose cautioned that findings are complicated by other possible culprits, like desert dust and diesel exhaust.

Advocates for veterans say not enough is being done to address veterans’ health claims regarding the burn pits.

From 2007 to 2018, the VA processed 11,581 disability compensation claims that had “at least one condition related to burn pit exposure,” a department spokesman told The New York Times last year. But the department only accepted 2,318 of these claims. The department said the rest did not show evidence connected to military service or the condition in the claim was not “officially diagnosed,” the Times noted. 

The VA did not respond to CBS News’ request this week for updated numbers.

“I always push back on…the VA administration folks who try to use the ‘perfect study’ as a criteria to show proof,” California Representative Raul Ruiz, a doctor and vocal burn pits critic, told CBS News. Ruiz criticized the VA’s reliance on long-term studies to validate clams. 

“We don’t have 20 years because then these veterans are going to be dying without the care they need,” Ruiz said.

A report five years ago by a Defense Department inspector general said it was “indefensible” that military personnel “were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open-air burn pits.” But the Supreme Court last year rejected a victims’ lawsuit against contractors who oversaw some of the burn pits.

“If these [burn pits] had happened in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease and Control would have this corrected immediately,” said Iraq War veteran Jeremy Daniels, adding he believes burn pits caused him to be wheelchair bound.

Modern-day “Agent Orange”?

Biden on the campaign trail invoked the healthcare struggles of Vietnam veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange to explain the need to address burn pits.

“You were entitled to military compensation if you could prove that Agent Orange caused whatever the immune system damage was to you,” Biden said, accenting the word “prove” during a Veterans Day town hall in Oskaloosa, Iowa. “But you had to prove it and it’s very hard to prove.”

After reading a book on burn pits detailing Beau’s case, Biden has advocated easing this burden of proof for veterans who say the burn pits have harmed them in some way, as he first told PBS.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a town hall meeting, Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Biden has a plan that pushes for congressional approval to expand the list of “presumptive conditions”– meaning veterans’ health conditions would be presumed causal to the burn pits making them eligible for greater VA healthcare. He also aims to expand the claim eligibility period for toxic exposure conditions to five years after service instead of one year and increase federal research by $300 million in part to focus on toxic exposure from burn pits.

This push has intensified in recent years on Capitol Hill, and bills funding more research into burn pits have already been signed by President Trump. The recent National Defense Authorization Act also required the Department of Defense to implement a plan to phase out burn pits and disclose the locations of the still-operating pits. Enclosed incinerators are an alternative.

There were nine active military burn pits in the Middle East as of last year, according to the Defense Department’s April 2019 “Open Burn Pit Report to Congress” shared with CBS News, though some advocates think the actual number is higher. 

Some veterans expressed doubt that recent efforts will lead to more aid for veterans exposed to burn pits, given the slow-moving bureaucracy and concern over higher health care costs. And others question whether a Biden administration would act more decisively than the Obama administration, which primarily focused on long-term studies.

But Biden says that his motivation is far greater than his family’s own personal loss, and that the “only sacred” commitment the United States has is to American soldiers.

“It’s not because my son died…[he] went from very, very healthy but he lived in the bloom of those burn pits for a long time. He’s passed—it doesn’t affect him,” Biden said in Oskaloosa. “But the point is that every single veteran shouldn’t have to prove and wait until science demonstrates beyond a doubt…We just have to change the way we think a little bit.”

May 30 will mark the five-year anniversary of Beau Biden’s death.

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[check-new-account]

Mudd scratched his chin in contemplation, observing tox’s dainty little hands.. “well gee, aren’t you a little tease~ Though, I don’t suppose I should expect otherwise from a stripper- sorry, ‘hacker’” he comments, with a brief chuckle. “Well, you better have some damn cute hands. After all, I barely know anything about you, and yet here you are, asking about my anatomy and my history without so much as buying me dinner~” he says, his hands moving quite a bit as he talked. He was certainly a gestural fellow.

While he knew it was ridiculous, he had nothing better to do than discuss things with a stranger, so he may as well get to see some skin as well. Mudd sat back in his chair thoughtfully, trying to remember all the years of his life that’d lead to this moment.... “let’s see... where should I begin... most of my early life isn’t that interesting, I was born and raised like pretty much any other worker. We worked in a camera manufacturing plant, where I, along with some other muds, would work with flammable materials used in the production of film. Now, we didn’t exactly know that unions were a thing back then, the boss paid extra for uh... uninformed... mudokons. So things were improperly stored, there were fire hazards everywhere, yaddah yaddah, that doesn’t really matter, since mudokons wouldn’t have access to anything dangerous anyways. Course, I didn’t give a shit in the slightest, since I had been found out as a drone! I’m tellin’ ya, it was my ticket to easy street, they were gonna ship me out to Nolybab, I’d get to sit in the company of queens n’ other drones, drinking brew, smoking, all the luxurious benefits that come with being a drone. Or uh.. that’s what I assume anyways. I never actually got shipped out. Two or three days before I was supposed to be shipped out, there was a riot. The only riot in the factories history if you could believe it. Course, I was in the chem room, doin my job, when some mud with cloth over his face barges into the room unannounced. Now usually your supposed to have special clearance to get into the chem room, and this guy obviously didn’t have it. Next thing I remember...” he stood up, and turned, looking out the window. “Well, next thing I remember was obviously the fire. I don’t how I could ever forget that. I was covered in the chems, I went up like a bundle of dry wood. I ran out into the hallway, but there were already so many people runnin through I.... I couldn’t stand up and they just...” he paused, tapping his foot and looking out the window, before taking a long drag off his cigar and continuing. “After everything was said and done, there was apparently a vykker cleanup crew, runnin’ through lookin for parts. I’m pretty sure I was dead in every sense of the word, but according to them they took me in and say that I still had a good bunch of my respiratory organs, and my brain. Turns out that when the crowd was trampling me, they had inadvertently put out some of the fire that was wrecking my body. Anyways, it’s kind of an obvious story from there, the vykkers took me on as a passion project. I was a hit! I mean, no vykker mudokon or even glukkon could resist this guys fashionable charm~” he commented, standing prouder, and spinning back around to look at tox. “And it was WITH that charm, and a few uh... remodelings... that I was put in charge of the ‘mudokon riot suppression unit’. To sum it up, my job is to go around, kill escaped mudokons, check in at areas that have had riots before, and most importantly...” as he spoke, it was obvious how this all affected him, he seemed visibly irritated when he talked about it. he bit down on his cigar as his laser charged up, seemingly out of anger or resentment, a mix of fury and desperation in his voice.. “find Abraham Lure.” He says. Suddenly, he shakes his head and sighs, he laser settling down.. “but uh.. anyways, I don’t like to sour the mood with my past. Besides, things ain’t so bad. I’ve got a ship, a crew, all the alcohol and power a mudokon could want... I don’t have much to complain about! Aside from regular maintenance stuff, trauma, issues sleeping, and a VERY sadistic approach towards nativists, I think I’m doing pretty alright!”

Part 1

@oddworld-wonders

Tox didn’t break a sweat at the first question, although even if he did it wouldn’t be noticeable. He was indeed aware of a village that would be of interest to Mudd, but he wouldn’t gain anything from telling him; in fact, it would majorly disadvantage him and those he cared about.

“No.” He lied casually and convincingly. No way was he letting this sentient laser pointer anywhere near that place, even if it did suck. Tox raised a brow at his second question. “Quite frankly, my ‘client’ is none of your business. It’s confidential.” He was enjoying the stripper lie. It was always fun to mess with people like this. “As for the wifi issue however, you see these heels?” Tox pointed at his shoes. “I have a miniature portable wifi connection embedded in the soles for emergencies. So you’re sorely mistaken to underestimate my technological skills, and forging my own portable wifi is incredibly easy. It just costs a lot to maintain...”

He started boredly fiddling with his feathers. “Is there anything else you want to know?”

[brajeshupadhyay]

Motivated by his son Beau, Joe Biden pledges help for veterans with burn pit health issues

Throughout his presidential campaign, one of the most striking elements of Joe Biden‘s appeal has been his empathy. The personal tragedies he has suffered inform his interactions with voters who are also experiencing loss. And his sorrow could also guide policy decisions as commander-in-chief, offering assistance to veterans who may be suffering from service-related medical conditions — as he hint he believes his son did. 

With a familiar quiver in his voice, Biden regularly on the campaign trail shares memories of his son Beau, who died in 2015 from glioblastoma brain cancer. A handful of times Biden detailed how he thinks his son’s cancer may have been related in part to the large, military base burn pits during his 2009 service in the Iraq War.

“He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go,” Biden told a Service Employees International Union convention in October. “And because of exposure to burn pits — in my view, I can’t prove it yet — he came back with Stage Four glioblastoma.”

Biden’s precise language — “in my view, I can’t prove it yet” — appears to be intentional as he lends his voice to the ongoing and somewhat controversial debate over whether the burn pits caused lasting health issues for American veterans.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden (L) at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad on July 4, 2009. Biden said that America’s role in Iraq was switching from deep military engagement to one of diplomatic support, ahead of a complete withdrawal from the country in 2011. AFP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed-POOL (Photo credit should read KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)

KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images

“WE DON’T HAVE 20 YEARS”  

As the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations grew, so did the installations of bigger burn pits on military bases, rather than the smaller burn barrels that had previously been used. The pits were meant to dispose of everything from garbage to sensitive documents and even more hazardous materials. 

“They build as big as this auditorium,” Biden said to a CNN town hall audience in February, “It’s about 8-to-10-feet-deep and they put everything in it they want to dispose of and can’t leave behind, from flammable fuel to plastics to all range of things.”

But in the middle of a war zone, concern about the burn pits was sometimes considered secondary to other safety issues. 

“You’ve got dust storms, you have the enemy, you have all sorts of things going on that some smoke in the air doesn’t really seem like as important of an issue at the moment,” Jim Mowrer, who befriended Beau at Camp Victory in Iraq in 2009, told CBS News. Other times, Mowrer, 34, who now serves as co-chair for the Veterans for Biden committee, said he tried to filter the air by wearing a face covering.

“The concern factor became more of a concern after we came home,” Beau’s overseas boss, Command JAG Kathy Amalfitano, 59, told CBS News. Amalfitano said she remembers discussing the burn pits with Beau a few times, but added “I know our thought process was that this was part of the deployment.”

Biden is not alone in thinking burn pits impacted soldiers’ health.

Since 2014, more than 200,000 Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans have registered in the “Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry” run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), detailing exposure to service-related airborne hazards from burn pit smoke and other pollution.

And while these veteran health concerns seem widespread, the VA’s policy only recognizes “temporary” irritation from burn pit exposure. Citing a range of studies, the department states that “research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits.”

One ongoing study is by National Jewish Health and funded by the Defense Department, and is examining lung issues and has yielded “a spectrum of diseases that are related to deployment,” the study’s principal investigator Dr. Cecile Rose told CBS News last year. ” [The diseases] weren’t there before, and they are clearly there after people have returned from these arid and extreme environments.” However, Rose cautioned that findings are complicated by other possible culprits, like desert dust and diesel exhaust.

Advocates for veterans say not enough is being done to address veterans’ health claims regarding the burn pits. From 2007 to 2018, the VA processed 11,581 disability compensation claims that had “at least one condition related to burn pit exposure,” a department spokesman told The New York Times last year. But the department only accepted 2,318 of these claims. The department said the rest did not show evidence connected to military service or the condition in the claim was not “officially diagnosed,” the Times noted. 

The VA did not respond to CBS News’ request this week for updated numbers.

“I always push back on…the VA administration folks who try to use the ‘perfect study’ as a criteria to show proof,” California Representative Raul Ruiz, a doctor and vocal burn pits critic, told CBS News. Ruiz criticized the VA’s reliance on long-term studies to validate clams. 

“We don’t have 20 years because then these veterans are going to be dying without the care they need,” Ruiz said.

A report five years ago by a Defense Department inspector general said it was “indefensible” that military personnel “were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open-air burn pits.” But the Supreme Court last year rejected a victims’ lawsuit against contractors who oversaw some of the burn pits.

“If these [burn pits] had happened in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease and Control would have this corrected immediately,” said Iraq War veteran Jeremy Daniels, adding he believes burn pits caused him to be wheelchair bound.

MODERN-DAY “AGENT ORANGE”?

Biden on the campaign trail invoked the healthcare struggles of Vietnam veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange to explain the need to address burn pits.

“You were entitled to military compensation if you could prove that Agent Orange caused whatever the immune system damage was to you,” Biden said, accenting the word “prove” during a Veterans Day town hall in Oskaloosa, Iowa. “But you had to prove it and it’s very hard to prove.”

After reading a book on burn pits detailing Beau’s case, Biden has advocated easing this burden of proof for veterans who say the burn pits have harmed them in some way, as he first told PBS.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a town hall meeting, Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Biden has a plan that pushes for congressional approval to expand the list of “presumptive conditions”– meaning veterans’ health conditions would be presumed causal to the burn pits making them eligible for greater VA healthcare. He also aims to expand the claim eligibility period for toxic exposure conditions to five years after service instead of one year and increase federal research by $300 million in part to focus on toxic exposure from burn pits.

This push has intensified in recent years on Capitol Hill, and bills funding more research into burn pits have already been signed by President Trump. The recent National Defense Authorization Act also required the Department of Defense to implement a plan to phase out burn pits and disclose the locations of the still-operating pits. Enclosed incinerators are an alternative.

There were nine active military burn pits in the Middle East as of last year, according to the Defense Department’s April 2019 “Open Burn Pit Report to Congress” shared with CBS News, though some advocates think the actual number is higher. 

Some veterans expressed doubt that recent efforts will lead to more aid for veterans exposed to burn pits, given the slow-moving bureaucracy and concern over higher health care costs. And others question whether a Biden administration would act more decisively than the Obama administration, which primarily focused on long-term studies.

But Biden says that his motivation is far greater than his family’s own personal loss, and that the “only sacred” commitment the United States has is to American soldiers.

“It’s not because my son died…[he] went from very, very healthy but he lived in the bloom of those burn pits for a long time. He’s passed—it doesn’t affect him,” Biden said in Oskaloosa. “But the point is that every single veteran shouldn’t have to prove and wait until science demonstrates beyond a doubt…We just have to change the way we think a little bit.”

May 30 will mark the five-year anniversary of Beau Biden’s death.

The post Motivated by his son Beau, Joe Biden pledges help for veterans with burn pit health issues appeared first on Sansaar Times.

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[lcohen35]

Assignment 10 First Draft: Are We Willing to be Inconvenienced For Sustainability?

According to physicist Albert Einstein, ‘A clever person solves a problem; a wise person avoids it’” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 596).  

Chapter 17 was a weird chapter because it focused highly on the effects of hazards on humans, and not the environment. It didn't feel like it belonged in this text. Chapter 21 cited very controversial examples of responsible waste management/recycling, in my opinion. 

#WhatMajorHealthHazardsDoWeFace?

We face major health hazards from biological, chemical, natural and cultural factors along with our lifestyle choices. Biological hazards include bacteria, viruses, parasites, protozoa and fungi. Chemical hazards include harmful chemicals in air, water, soil and human-made products. Natural Hazards include fire, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. Cultural hazards include unsafe working conditions, criminal assault and poverty. Lifestyle choice hazards include smoking, poor food choices and unsafe sex. 

#HowDoBiologicalHazardsThreatenHumanHealth?

Biological hazards can be highly contagious, passing from one person to another, but they don’t have to be. The book talks about how the risks of these hazards, like infectious diseases are declining, but still remain relevant in less developed countries. That’s a bit ironic right now because of the global pandemic, Coronavirus. The book also mentions how climate change amplifies the effects of these hazards due to their tendency to breed rapidly in warmer climates. This is a bit terrifying as summer is approaching. Another major issue threatening humans is that some of the bacteria which causes infectious diseases have become immune to antibiotics, which makes them more difficult to treat and easier to spread. The spread is also made easier by population growth, which forces higher person-to-person interaction as cities become more dense.

Some believe the Coronavirus originated from bats in a Chinese province. If that is true, it wouldn’t be the first time a disease spread from one animal to another (us). There is a whole field of medicine called Ecological Medicine which studies this connection. Their findings have shown that it is increasingly important to regulate the consumption and trade of exotic animals to prevent the spread of infectious disease. However, in reality, this can be quite difficult and can come off as colonialistic, in imposing western culture on different cultural norms than our own. 

Figure 1. Solutions to Infectious Diseases (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 452.)

#HowDoChemicalHazardsThreatenHumanHealth?

Some chemicals in the environment can cause cancers and birth defects, and disrupt the human immune, nervous and endocrine systems. Toxic chemicals can cause temporary or permanent damage or even death to humans. The EPA has found that almost ½ of the fish tested in 500 US lakes and reservoirs had above safe levels of mercury (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 453). Mercury is a toxic metal naturally released into the air. However, ⅔ of the mercury existing in our atmosphere comes unnaturally from human activity: coal, industrial plants, cement kilns, smelters and solid-waste incinerators. Since Mercury is an element, it cannot be broken down, and it builds up in whatever area it comes to pollute. Humans are exposed to mercury through the food we eat or the air we breathe. This exposure to mercury can cause reduced IQs and nervous system damage. 

Figure 2. Movement of Different Forms of Mercury Through the Environment (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 454). 

Figure 3. How to Prevent/Control Mercury Inputs (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 454).

Certain chemicals can affect the endocrine system because they have structures which mimic natural hormones. This can allow them to disrupt sexual development and reproduction. Some of these chemicals, or hormone disruptors, include the ones which are used to make plastics more flexible. Specifically, BPA has been a controversial material used in plastics, because research has shown that low levels of BPA can cause brain damage, early puberty, decreased sperm count, cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, liver damage, impaired immune function, impotence and obesity. Consumers have the power to choose BPA free products, but some manufacturers have just replaced the chemical with a similar synthetic, which defeats the purpose. 

Figure 4. Ways to Limit Exposure to Hormone Disruptors (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 455).

#HowCanWeEvaluateRisksFromChemicalHazards?

Scientists use animal testings, case reports, and epidemiological studies to estimate the toxicity of chemicals. They evaluate dosage, solubility, persistence, and biological magnification, to name a few factors. There are a lot of ethical factors which go into animal testing, and since more humane options exist, consumers have the option to buy products that do not test on animals. 

“‘Toxicologists know a great deal about a few chemicals, a little about many, and next to nothing about most’” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 459). Though toxicologists are working hard to evaluate these risks, they overall recommend pollution prevention to reduce our exposure to harmful chemicals. Living in a developed country, we have all likely been exposed to potentially harmful chemicals, but we should avoid it whenever possible. 

The book specifically cites 3M and Dupont as business leaders in chemical recycling, which is laughable. Both Dupont and 3M have been involved in environmental scandals of their own, ruined communities, and then tried to deny it when the time came to own up. I can’t fathom why the book would cite these two as examples of responsible businesses following the precautionary principle.

In order to follow the precautionary principle we (businesses, government, individuals) must:

assume new chemicals and technologies could be harmful unless proven otherwise

remove the existing chemicals and technologies that have been assumed safe thus far from the market until proven so

The European Union has already begun to apply the precautionary principle through pollution prevention by phasing out the dirty dozen.

Figure 5. Potentially Harmful Chemicals Found in the Home (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 460). 

#HowDoWePercieveAndAvoidRisks?

We can avoid risks by becoming informed, thinking critically and making conscious choices. The best ways to avoid individual health risks are to avoid smoking, lose excess weight, reduce consumption of sugary foods, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, drink little to no alcohol, avoid excessive sunlight and practice safe sex. Technological risks can be difficult to estimate due to their complexity. But we can do so by calculating their probability of success (Reliability=Tech Reliability x Human Reliability).

Designer William Mcdonough came up with the cradle-to-cradle approach to the life-cycle of products; “we should think of products as part of a continuing cycle instead of becoming solid wastes that end up as litter or being burned or deposited in landfills” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 574). This way of thinking has also been called closed-loop, and needs to be implemented at the design stage of a product, planning out every step of consumption. 

#WhatEnvironmentalProblemsAreRelatedToSolidAndHazardousWastes?

Solid waste contributes to pollution and contains valuable resources that could be reused or recycled. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is what we throw out in our lives everyday–huge amounts of trash. We also produce industrial waste through agriculture, mining and industry. Without humans, this problem wouldn’t exist, because the wastes of one organism become nutrients or raw materials for another. We will always produce some waste, due to the law of conservation of matter, but cradle-to-cradle design could help reduce our waste and environmental harm by 80%. The United States produces the most waste in the world, “enough MSW to fill a bumper-to-bumper convoy of garbage trucks long enough to circle the earth’s equator almost six times” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 576). 

Figure 6. Composition of MSW in the US and Where It Goes After Collection (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 576).

Many people have the misconception that landfills operate as huge compost piles where biodegradable waste will eventually break down in a short time. But in reality, decomposition takes a long time in a landfill due to lack of sunlight, water, and air.

Hazardous waste contributes to pollution, natural capital degradation, health problems and premature deaths. This type of waste is corrosives, toxic, flammable, can be explosive and cause disease. The two major types of hazardous wastes are organic compounds and toxic heavy metals. E-waste is a large source of this type of waste. Much of e-waste is shipped to foreign countries where the labor is cheap and environmental regulations are lax. “More developed countries produce 80-90% of the world’s hazardous wastes, and the United States is the largest producer” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 577). This means as human societies progress, we degrade the environment that allowed us to do so.

#HowShouldWeDealWithSolidWaste?

We should deal with solid waste by reducing our production of it, reuse or recycle it and safely dispose of it. Waste management is imperative to dealing with solid waste, but prevention and reduction are more effective. Integrated waste management combines all of these approaches.

Figure 7. Priorities Recommended by the US National Academy of Sciences for Dealing with MSW compared with The Reality (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 579).

The 4 R’s by priority are 

Refuse: Don’t use it.

Reduce: Use less of it.

Reuse: use it over and over.

Recycle: Upcycle, compost, and follow local recycling rules.  

6 Strategies that industries and communities can use to reduce resource use, waste and pollution:

Change industrial processes to eliminate or reduce harmful chemical use.

Redesign manufacturing processes and products to use less material and energy. 

Develop products that are easy to repair, reuse, remanufacture, compost or recycle.

Establish cradle-to cradle responsibility laws.

Eliminate and/or reduce unnecessary packaging.

Use fee-per-bag solid waste collection systems. 

#WhyAreWeRefusingReducingReusingAndRecyclingSoImportant?

We refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle what we use to decrease our consumption of matter and energy resources, reduce pollution and natural capital degradation and save money. 

Questions to ask yourself to avoid a throwaway economy:

Do I really need this? (refuse)

How many of these do I actually need? (reduce)

Is this something I can use more than once? (reuse)

Can this be converted into the same or a different product when I am done with it? (recycle)

Figure 8. Some Ways to Reuse (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 582). 

Businesses are also coming out of people’s desire to avoid waste, such as rental clothing, furniture and child’s toys. Additionally recycling businesses are arising to give people points for recycling, or to recycle non recyclable products. Terracycle is a company that partners with brands to recycle their packaging in order to divert it from a landfill (Terracycle 2020).

Recycling is a complex and expensive process, so it is not the most sustainable form of waste diversion. Additionally, incorrect sorting for recycling is ineffective. It is recommended that households and businesses understand this issue and separate their trash into plastics, metals, glass, paper and compost. This puts a lot of owness on the consumer, which can empower them or make them feel inconvenienced. 

Figure 9. Advantages and Disadvantages of Recycling (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 585). 

#WhatAreTheAdvantagesAndDisadvantagesOfBurningOrBuryingSolidWaste?

Figure 10. Trade-Offs of Burning Solid Waste (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 587). 

Figure 11. Trade-Offs of Landfills (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 588). 

#HowShouldWeDealWithHazardousWaste?

We should deal with hazardous waste by producing less of it, reusing or recycling it, converting it to less hazardous materials, and safely storing it. Most countries follow these priorities poorly. The long-term solution is prevention, but short term the other options will suffice. Hazardous waste can be detoxified physically, chemically or biologically. Additionally plasma gasification can be used to treat the waste, but it is quite expensive. Burial of hazardous waste is the most common form of storage in the United States and abroad due to low cost. But the environmental costs of leakage into groundwater are high. The current regulation for this type of storage is inadequate. Actually, 95% of the hazardous and toxic wastes produced in the United States are unregulated, and even less are regulated in less developed countries. The consequences of this is that about $1.7 trillion is spent on the cleanup of toxic waste, not including legal fees. And we pay for it through our taxes!

#HowCanASocietyShiftToALowWasteEconomy?

“Shifting to a low waste economy will require individuals and businesses to reduce resource use and to reuse and recycle most solid and hazardous wastes at local, national and global levels” (Miller and Spoolman 2016, 594). Bottom-up campaigns are essential in the process including sit-ins, concerts, protests, rallies, and petitions. Manufacturers of waste feel that it needs to be managed, while citizens feel that waste needs to be reduced; it is a constant struggle. 

3 Factors hinder reuse and recycling

The market prices of products are not applying full-cost pricing.

The economic playing field is uneven because resource extraction usually receives more subsidies than reuse and recycling industries.

The demand and the price paid for recycled goods fluctuates since it isn’t a high priority for consumers.

We can reverse these factors by attaching deposit fees or fee-per bag charges and governments can pass laws requiring companies to take back, recycle and/or reuse packaging and e-waste. Overall, a change in mindset must be adopted to the way in which we consume in the following ways.

We must understand:

Everything is connected.

There is no “throw away” for our wastes.

Producers and polluters should pay for their produced wastes.

We can mimic nature by reusing, recycling, composting or exchanging MSW.

(Miller and Spoolman 2016, 596). 

Additionally, I watched No Impact Man for this post, where Colin Beavin asks, what if we tried not to hurt the environment? And what are we willing to give up to do so? He spent a year living zero waste, only buying food within a 250 mile radius, and only traveling by foot and bike. He shopped at local farmers markets, turned off his electricity, homemade cleaning products and in the end adopted a different mindset towards life. Beavin began to understand the disconnection between humans and nature through consumption. Personally, I have been pursuing zero waste for 3 years, and even I thought the guy was a bit extreme. His critics felt the same way. In the film, Beavin noted how some environmentalists had reached out to him saying he was giving the rest of us a bad rep. But I think it’s important for people to understand the validity of the experiment, and how little thought goes into most peoples’ everyday impact. This strikes a nerve in American culture because we are a society built on American corporate capitalism. Through No Impact Man, Beavin also balanced the question of individual versus collective action. Some other critics said if we could do it without government and business aid, then what’s the problem? I think the problem is that living how Colin lived is seen as extreme and unrealistic for most people due to the inconveniences it causes. Individual action requires people to be engaged, and creates the demand for the world to look differently. 

Word Count: 2346 Words

Question: How can zero-waste lifestyles be more attractive and accessible?

Works Cited

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2016. Living in the Environment: Nineteenth Edition, 441-596. Canada: Cengage Learning.

Wurmfeld, E. (Producer), & Gabbert, L. (Director). (2009). No Impact Man [Motion Picture]. Toronto, ON : Mongrel Media.

Terracyle. 2020. “About Terracycle.” Accessed April 6, 2020. https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/about-terracycle?utm_campaign=admittance&utm_medium=menu&utm_source=www.terracycle.com

[ornisapiens]

Silence of The Clones - 1

《This Clone High fanwork continues along the original ending with a premise different from the source material, as its focus shifts onto Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron. How will they manage after a long term investment disappears?

I tried to keep the prose snappy in tune with the show’s pacing. Future chapters may be longer. Expect slow updates due to chronic fatigue.》

Tonight, on a very special episode of Clone High: Scudworth let’s it go to his head, foster parents share their dread, and every clone you loved dearly is dead.

The glaring caution tape was wrapped around the perimeters. Numbered plaques were daintily placed, and ice samples less daintily harvested. After seconds of intense scrutiny, the evidence technician turned to address his colleagues.

“It is my professional opinion that what happened here is... a mass murder.”

Unanimously, the investigation team paused and stared beyond the man, who walked over to the gorey specimen near the lever. He hrmmed as he gave the spectacle a top-down scan with a discerning eye.

“I believe we have our first suspect. Arrest him.”

Shortly, the frozen body was lifted and secured into the police car’s back seat.

Scudworth filed his papers in yellow envelopes by their year as Mister B dusted the shelves. They spent hours cleaning and sorting which things to pack away and take with them, but in that generous span, it was Mister B who completed more chores with strained glee. He hoped his cheer wouldn’t elevate the former principal’s blood pressure, but the lines on Scudworth’s face deepened til he and the Marianas Trench resembled one another.

A file with amusement park plans peeking out was left offside in the way one would place a picture of their pet on their work desk, which clued Mister B in on what plagued Scudworth at this hour. Not that he’d needed that when he’d listen to the man gobble carelessly about the dream he had, when there was still someone there to have wool pulled over their eyes.

That gave him an awful idea.

“Maybe a bit of wordplay will cheer you up, Wesleeeeeey.”

Scudworth paused, then resumed shuffling documents. On a normal, clone infested school day, he would have snapped back with an unhinged remark. He would have flipped his lid at his organized chaos being reorganized in a formal fashion, especially by anyone else.

Mister B hadn’t seen Scudworth this focused since their third or fifth late night grave-robbing spree, way, way back. Kicking back with some alcohol and basking in nostalgia would have to wait.

A hard bump on the robot’s arm broke this reverie, and he caught the fallen object just in time. Inside, the sloshing fluid tossed a fleshy lump around.

“Careful with that fetus!” Scudworth shrieked over his shoulder, “we can’t get formalin on our top secret documents, or their non-existent backups now.

“We’ll have to dispose that by next morning,” he said evenly.

“It already is tomorrow, Wesley,” Mister B still held the jar, only now he appeared to cradle it.

Scudworth began to empty his paper hat drawer, chiming, “I don’t count midnight as tomorrow, you know tha--” he stopped upon seeing it was in fact almost four in the morning.

“Oh. God. DAMN IT!”

“Witness, you’ll state your name and occupation. For ease of communication, we’ve brought over a marine biologist who’ll translate for you via rubber duck.

“Now tell us what you were doing on prom night.”

The light from overhead reflecting in the dolphin’s eyes wobbled as she clicked defiantly something about the kiddie pool being too small.

“This won’t take too long, but it would go faster with your cooperation. We have a year’s worth of tinned tuna for you, if you comply.”

Shamra cackled abruptly.

“She’s imitating shrill human laughter,” the marine biologist glanced aside, “I think.”

“Now where have I heard that laugh before...?” the interrogator said, rubbing his chin.

Mister B watched Scudworth slip various papers into the shredder, some of them were once at risk of becoming formalin-soaked. The robot’s eyes occasionally darted away while he formulated a non-flammable way to ask about his human buddy’s slapdash decisions. He must be panicking deep down trying to get rid of anything that could be used against him.

But that meant everything had to go.

If there are only single copies left, they could be kept close for future referentials. The only organized chaos that’d be left would live behind Scudworth’s smile, and machines with ambiguous purpose to the layman.

He cracked his neck craning it to look at the time again while frantically crumpling the remnants in his labcoat. His robot companion remained motionless, which stood him out from the hurly burly.

“Mister B, why are you still holding that?”

“I forgoooot I waaaas.”

Scudworth’s brows bunched together as his hands lifted. “OOOOOOooh like how you ‘forgot’ the board of shadowy popsicles intended to terminate me? I didn’t give you the brain of a programmable toaster oven, but I’m considering placing yours in one!”

Mister B’s antenna and gaze drooped.

They were lucky the whole district didn’t catapult awake from the screeching this one man could do.

The robot searched his memory banks for an answer far less embarrassing than the feeble one he gave. It was hard for a hot second with thoughts of recycling, but that was the ticket he didn’t know he wanted.

“Oh Wesley, I was going to ensure that this doesn’t leak into the soil and groundwater.”

“And avoid drawing the ire from the environmental protection agency! Splendid!”

Mister B was already knitting a cover story should hazardous waste contractors ask about the obviously human specimen-- should it ever come to that. There was something charitable in giving it to a hapless thrift shop of curiosities, or someone working in a medical field. Yet, he could only think of parting with it, something that was a failed attempt at their impressive feat, and a piece of themselves.

Scudworth opened the overhead entrance of his death maze and motioned for the robot to enter.

And what, careen off every corner on the way out? The man’s unusually nonchalant expression hinted he was at least aware how grave this matter was, but didn’t care for wasting minutes to procure bubble wrap.

Before Mister B formed half a thought, Scudworth flew up the tube.

The day began with a choir of birds disrupting the sleep of many a grumpy night owl who hated the nine to five schedule and oversaturation of bad news.

Some who dragged themselves to the coffee felt something burst inside and renew their senses at the headline “Death On Ice” followed by clinically delivered details and the dreadful ticker scrolling across just underneath it all.

A few were stunned until tears brought them back to reality, but one inebriated woman slurred at her TV set, “cool”.

[brajeshupadhyay]

Throughout his presidential campaign, one of the most striking elements of Joe Biden‘s appeal has been his empathy. The personal tragedies he has suffered inform his interactions with voters who are also experiencing loss. And his sorrow could also guide policy decisions as commander-in-chief, offering assistance to veterans who may be suffering from service-related medical conditions — as he hint he believes his son did.  With a familiar quiver in his voice, Biden regularly on the campaign trail shares memories of his son Beau, who died in 2015 from glioblastoma brain cancer. A handful of times Biden detailed how he thinks his son’s cancer may have been related in part to the large, military base burn pits during his 2009 service in the Iraq War. “He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go,” Biden told a Service Employees International Union convention in October. “And because of exposure to burn pits — in my view, I can’t prove it yet — he came back with Stage Four glioblastoma.” Biden’s precise language — “in my view, I can’t prove it yet” — appears to be intentional as he lends his voice to the ongoing and somewhat controversial debate over whether the burn pits caused lasting health issues for American veterans. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden (L) at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad on July 4, 2009. Biden said that America’s role in Iraq was switching from deep military engagement to one of diplomatic support, ahead of a complete withdrawal from the country in 2011. AFP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed-POOL (Photo credit should read KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images) KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images “WE DON’T HAVE 20 YEARS”   As the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations grew, so did the installations of bigger burn pits on military bases, rather than the smaller burn barrels that had previously been used. The pits were meant to dispose of everything from garbage to sensitive documents and even more hazardous materials.  “They build as big as this auditorium,” Biden said to a CNN town hall audience in February, “It’s about 8-to-10-feet-deep and they put everything in it they want to dispose of and can’t leave behind, from flammable fuel to plastics to all range of things.” But in the middle of a war zone, concern about the burn pits was sometimes considered secondary to other safety issues.  “You’ve got dust storms, you have the enemy, you have all sorts of things going on that some smoke in the air doesn’t really seem like as important of an issue at the moment,” Jim Mowrer, who befriended Beau at Camp Victory in Iraq in 2009, told CBS News. Other times, Mowrer, 34, who now serves as co-chair for the Veterans for Biden committee, said he tried to filter the air by wearing a face covering. “The concern factor became more of a concern after we came home,” Beau’s overseas boss, Command JAG Kathy Amalfitano, 59, told CBS News. Amalfitano said she remembers discussing the burn pits with Beau a few times, but added “I know our thought process was that this was part of the deployment.” Biden is not alone in thinking burn pits impacted soldiers’ health. Since 2014, more than 200,000 Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans have registered in the “Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry” run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), detailing exposure to service-related airborne hazards from burn pit smoke and other pollution. And while these veteran health concerns seem widespread, the VA’s policy only recognizes “temporary” irritation from burn pit exposure. Citing a range of studies, the department states that “research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits.” One ongoing study is by National Jewish Health and funded by the Defense Department, and is examining lung issues and has yielded “a spectrum of diseases that are related to deployment,” the study’s principal investigator Dr. Cecile Rose told CBS News last year. ” [The diseases] weren’t there before, and they are clearly there after people have returned from these arid and extreme environments.” However, Rose cautioned that findings are complicated by other possible culprits, like desert dust and diesel exhaust. Advocates for veterans say not enough is being done to address veterans’ health claims regarding the burn pits. From 2007 to 2018, the VA processed 11,581 disability compensation claims that had “at least one condition related to burn pit exposure,” a department spokesman told The New York Times last year. But the department only accepted 2,318 of these claims. The department said the rest did not show evidence connected to military service or the condition in the claim was not “officially diagnosed,” the Times noted.  The VA did not respond to CBS News’ request this week for updated numbers. “I always push back on…the VA administration folks who try to use the ‘perfect study’ as a criteria to show proof,” California Representative Raul Ruiz, a doctor and vocal burn pits critic, told CBS News. Ruiz criticized the VA’s reliance on long-term studies to validate clams.  “We don’t have 20 years because then these veterans are going to be dying without the care they need,” Ruiz said. A report five years ago by a Defense Department inspector general said it was “indefensible” that military personnel “were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open-air burn pits.” But the Supreme Court last year rejected a victims’ lawsuit against contractors who oversaw some of the burn pits. “If these [burn pits] had happened in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease and Control would have this corrected immediately,” said Iraq War veteran Jeremy Daniels, adding he believes burn pits caused him to be wheelchair bound. MODERN-DAY “AGENT ORANGE”? Biden on the campaign trail invoked the healthcare struggles of Vietnam veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange to explain the need to address burn pits. “You were entitled to military compensation if you could prove that Agent Orange caused whatever the immune system damage was to you,” Biden said, accenting the word “prove” during a Veterans Day town hall in Oskaloosa, Iowa. “But you had to prove it and it’s very hard to prove.” After reading a book on burn pits detailing Beau’s case, Biden has advocated easing this burden of proof for veterans who say the burn pits have harmed them in some way, as he first told PBS. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a town hall meeting, Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall / AP Biden has a plan that pushes for congressional approval to expand the list of “presumptive conditions”– meaning veterans’ health conditions would be presumed causal to the burn pits making them eligible for greater VA healthcare. He also aims to expand the claim eligibility period for toxic exposure conditions to five years after service instead of one year and increase federal research by $300 million in part to focus on toxic exposure from burn pits. This push has intensified in recent years on Capitol Hill, and bills funding more research into burn pits have already been signed by President Trump. The recent National Defense Authorization Act also required the Department of Defense to implement a plan to phase out burn pits and disclose the locations of the still-operating pits. Enclosed incinerators are an alternative. There were nine active military burn pits in the Middle East as of last year, according to the Defense Department’s April 2019 “Open Burn Pit Report to Congress” shared with CBS News, though some advocates think the actual number is higher.  Some veterans expressed doubt that recent efforts will lead to more aid for veterans exposed to burn pits, given the slow-moving bureaucracy and concern over higher health care costs. And others question whether a Biden administration would act more decisively than the Obama administration, which primarily focused on long-term studies. But Biden says that his motivation is far greater than his family’s own personal loss, and that the “only sacred” commitment the United States has is to American soldiers. “It’s not because my son died…[he] went from very, very healthy but he lived in the bloom of those burn pits for a long time. He’s passed—it doesn’t affect him,” Biden said in Oskaloosa. “But the point is that every single veteran shouldn’t have to prove and wait until science demonstrates beyond a doubt…We just have to change the way we think a little bit.” May 30 will mark the five-year anniversary of Beau Biden’s death. The post Motivated by his son Beau, Joe Biden pledges help for veterans with burn pit health issues appeared first on Sansaar Times.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/05/motivated-by-his-son-beau-joe-biden.html