A year ago, parents in the small farming community of Kettleman City, Calif., were shy and unquestioning. Many were dealing with the devastation of miscarriage or the difficulties of raising children born with serious birth defects. They were alone. They were afraid to ask for answers.
Not anymore.
In less than a year, these Kettleman City families have overcome their fears of government officials and placed this farmworker community—one of the poorest in the state—on the national stage. Their voices united a year ago, when a local landfill operated by Waste Management, Inc., applied for a county permit to expand. Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a San Francisco environmental group long opposed to the landfill, conducted an informal health survey, finding at least five cases of birth defects among 20 babies born in the area between September 2007 and November 2008. Three of them had died.
Community members say that five babies out of 20 live births in a recent 14-month period had facial deformities. An additonal review by the Kings County Public Health Department found that six of 63 babies born over the same period to mothers living in the town had various birth defects.
Initially, the parents’ concerns were dismissed by government officials who claimed that parents “may never know the root cause of these birth defects.” Apparent spikes in birth defects or cancer cases are difficult to verify and even more difficult to trace back to a cause. But after several months of phone calls and protests, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed state public health and environmental officials to visit Kettleman City to conduct “a thorough investigation” into the causes of birth defects in the San Joaquin Valley farming community. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also launched a federal investigation into the situation, with regional director Jared Blumenfeld calling it “a human tragedy at a scale … none of us would want to have to endure.”
Last week, investigators arrived in Kettleman City to talk with the parents of children born with birth defects. Gathered in a cramped trailer, the families listened as state officials with clipboards asked personal questions: Did they or their husbands smoke, drink or take illicit drugs? Had they been exposed to pesticides or other toxic substances in the United States or Mexico? Do their families have histories of birth defects?
“You want to know if we ever smoked cigarettes or took drugs,” Maura Alatorre said during the interview. “But I’m telling you that if the dump is allowed to expand, we’ll suffer more damage and illness. Why? Because we are poor and Hispanic. The people who issue those permits don’t care about us getting sick from it because all they think about is money.”
Alatorre’s 2-year-old son, Emmanuel, is missing part of his brain and cannot keep his balance. Alatorre is one of several parents who continue to fight to find out what is happening to their children and how future children in the area can be protected. Here’s a video clip about the story with interviews from many of the families involved. Interestingly, the video also includes interviews with representatives from Waste Management who contend they have nothing to hide and welcome the government investigators.
Check it out:
Jenn Savedge blogs about family issues on the Mother Nature Network.
Reddit user Girlfriendhatesmefor’s three-year-old pitbull, Otis, had recently become overprotective of his wife. So he asked the online community if they knew what might be wrong with the dog.
“A week or two ago, my wife got some sort of stomach bug,” the Reddit user wrote under the subreddit /r/dogs. “She was really nauseous and ill for about a week. Otis is very in tune with her emotions (we once got in a fight and she was upset, I swear he was staring daggers at me lol) and during this time didn’t even want to leave her to go on walks. We thought it was adorable!”
His wife soon felt better, butthe dog’s behavior didn’t change.
Girlfriendhatesmefor began to fear that Otis’ behavior may be an early sign of an aggression issue or an indication that the dog was hurt or sick.
So he threw a question out to fellow Reddit users: “Has anyone else’s dog suddenly developed attachment/aggression issues? Any and all advice appreciated, even if it’s that we’re being paranoid!”
The most popular response to his thread was by ZZBC.
Any chance your wife is pregnant?
ZZBC | Reddit
The potential news hit Girlfriendhatesmefor like a ton of bricks. A few days later, Girlfriendhatesmefor posted an update and ZZBC was right!
“The wifey is pregnant!” the father-to-be wrote. “Otis is still being overprotective but it all makes sense now! Thanks for all the advice and kind words! Sorry for the delayed reply, I didn’t check back until just now!”
Redditors responded with similar experiences.
Anecdotal I know but I swear my dog knew I was pregnant before I was. He was super clingy (more than normal) and was always resting his head on my belly.
realityisworse | Reddit
So why do dogs get overprotective when someone is pregnant?
Jeff Werber, PhD, president and chief veterinarian of the Century Veterinary Group in Los Angeles, told Health.com that “dogs can also smell the hormonal changes going on in a woman’s body at that time.” He added the dog may “not understand that this new scent of your skin and breath is caused by a developing baby, but they will know that something is different with you—which might cause them to be more curious or attentive.”
The big lesson here is to listen to your pets and to ask questions when their behavior abruptly changes. They may be trying to tell you something, and the news may be life-changing.
Throughout history, women have stood up and fought to break down barriers imposed on them from stereotypes and societal expectations. The trailblazers in these photos made history and redefined what a woman could be. In doing so, they paved the way for future generations to stand up and continue to fight for equality.
While conspiracy theories are not limited to any topic, there is one type of event that seems particularly likely to spark them: mass shootings, typically defined as attacks in which a shooter kills at least four other people.
When one person kills many others in a single incident, particularly when it seems random, people naturally seek out answers for why the tragedy happened. After all, if a mass shooting is random, anyone can be a target.
