Chinese workers appeal to Apple over health worries | Reuters
Daily exposure to hexyl hydrid can cause long-term and possibly irreversible nerve damage, said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the University of Hong Kong. According to U.S. National Library of Medicine, there have been dozens of documented cases where workers suffered nerve and eye damage from exposure to n-hexane.
Workers said they wore protective gear, including masks and goggles, but worked in an enclosed, poorly ventilated space. In its report, Apple said that Wintek had switched to the chemical from alcohol without changing the ventilation system.
Jia, the technician, said that after working for a year on the production for Apple touch screens, he felt there was something wrong, but ignored the problems, blaming them on work stress or moodiness.
Soon he heard other workers were hospitalised and suspected it had something to do with the chemical hexyl hydride, which managers had said could be safely used.
Jia went to a hospital in Suzhou in August 2009, when doctors told him he had nerve damage. Doctors soon found many of his workmates had similar problems and were advised to be hospitalised.
Source: reuters.com
Military-Industrial Complex Wins Again
The amendment to cut the EFV & SLAMRAAM programs was rejected by a vote of 306-123, with 79 Democrats and 227 Republicans voting to keep production alive.
Why, when the dominant theme of the day is reducing the deficit by eliminating inefficiencies, would Congress insist on spending money for weapons systems that the military itself does not want?
The weapons are manufactured by two of the world’s largest and most powerful defense contractors — General Dynamics and Raytheon. Combined, in 2010 the two companies spent more than $18 million on lobbying and $3.7 million on direct contributions to Congress, according to data from OpenSecrets.org. That’s just one year. If you look back a couple decades, the companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on influencing decision makers in D.C.
Source: opencongress.org
"We the corporations" | Move to Amend
"We the corporations" | Move to Amend
With democracy busting out from the Mideast to the Midwest, the issue of corporate control is front and center in American minds. These events make it much easier for us to discuss corporate personhood issues with our friends and neighbors.
To help us in our efforts, the folks at the Story of Stuff Project have launched a new video: The Story of Citizens v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works when People are in Charge
Watch it here.
Drawing from the essence of the work of Move to Amend and our allies, the video explains in easy-to-understand terms why corporations should not be entitled to the same rights people have.
Move to Amend’s short-term goal is to build local groups across the country that will work to amend the Constitution to limit corporate personhood rights by passing local resolutions; there are plentiful resources on our site to help you out.
The Story of Citizens v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works when People are in Charge video is another great tool to help us achieve our goal.
This short cartoon gives a good history of why corporations have so much power and what it does to our democracy.
We do think the solution suggested at the end needs to go further -- unless an amendment campaign sets forth to abolish ALL corporate constitutional rights (they just talk about the 1st Amendment in this video) we won't have made a whole ton of progress.
But this video is a great way to start the discussion...
To start that discussion with your friends, you can post the link on your facebook page and twitter account, send it to your lists and ask others to send it to theirs, and even throw a watch party to help recruit your friends and neighbors.
If you'd like more info about why and how ALL constitutional rights for corporations should be addressed, see Why Abolish All Corporate Constitutional Rights and Not All Responses to Citizens United Are The Same.
Move to Amend thanks the folks at The Story of Stuff Project for this timely video, and we hope you’ll find it interesting and of great use.
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