-
-
- I just wrote to Helise regarding her interview. I will
let you know more when I hear from her. It does sound like she backs up
everything that I have been saying for over a year.
-
- Patty
-
-
- Cloning And More On Plum Island
-
- By Helise Flickstein 10-1-00
-
- Cloning? West Nile? Hurricane Bob? Employees contracting
diseases? Upgrading to a Level 4? Sewage dumping into the Plum Gut? These
are the questions and the answers I have been exploring for the past year
because I am writing a screenplay about Plum Island. On another level I
am also the mother of two small children of nineteen months and three years
old, a former news reporter for TV-55, and a resident of the Township of
Southold. I am concerned for the public's safety and for the employees
that work there.
-
- I had a 1 hour-long interview with Dr. David Huxsoll,
Plum Island Animal and Disease Center's newest Director. When I had asked
Dr. Huxsoll about cloning on Plum Island? He said, "Were not doing
much of cloning here right now. That doesn't mean we won't be cloning
in the future. It would help with the development of the vaccines."
Which means that they are in fact cloning. During my tour with Carlos
Santoyos, Plum Island's Assistant Director, he took me by the old Fort
Terry buildings. On one of the buildings itself there has a plaque with
the title "Guinea Pig Colony". When I had asked Mr. Santoyos
why is that particular building called that? He stated, "We use to
clone guinea pigs here."
-
- When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about DNA sequencing, or
Genomics being studied at Plum Island Animal and Disease Center? Dr. Huxsoll
stated, "We are working on Genomics of some of the agents that we
work with like Foot & Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever. Because
we are interested in looking at the variability of one strain to another
and what the genes that make up the organism are responsible for. It is
possible to tell by looking at one those (diseases) with sequencing and
getting all those genes all lined up to separate which strain came from
Africa versus which one comes from Asia."
-
- I had asked Dr. Huxsoll what the current situation was
with the sheep at Plum Island? He said that, "We currently have tissue
samples." I also asked him do the people of Vermont realize that
there is sheep with Madcow Disease up there? He said, "That's between
the Department of Agriculture and the owner of the flock." What if
people contracted Madcow Disease? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "It's a neurological
illness that effects the brain. A person would develop neurological signs
that could very tremendously interfere with locomotion, walking, and your
normal activities. It could interfere with your mental capacity."
These are the same sheep with diseases that they wanted to bring through
our very own Township of Southold. What I found odd is that when I asked
to be let into the lab area Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are not letting
anyone behind the barrier right now." A former employee, their name
withheld, stated, "Plum Island regularly brings diseased animals to
the island."
-
- When I went to the February 2000, Township of Southold
meeting, I stated my concerns about the following two articles. An article
from the Suffolk Times, "P.I. 'Probably' Will Research AIDS"
by Tim Gould, dated February 16, 1984, said, "In 1981 they were researching
the African Swine fever in conjunction with the AIDS virus. Forty-seven
employees were tested on and after the research. Six of the employees
had contracted the African Swine Fever," which is not supposed to
be a zoonotic disease. Zoonotic means a disease that is transferable to
animals and humans. These are the types of diseases that they wish to
study when they upgrade Plum Island to a level 4. According to Dr. Huxsoll,
the disease that they will be studying is the "Nipha virus that effects
pigs. It is a neurological disease that effects man. The legions look
like a viral infection infiltration of the brain. It makes holes in the
brain sort of like swiss cheese." He also stated, "Once we build
the Level 4 facility, it will probably be connected to the Administrative
building and building 101, which will remain at a Level Three." At
the at Township of Southold, Dr. Lee Ann Thomas, then acting Director of
Plum Island Animal and Disease Center, stated that, "We are handling
diseases now that no one knows about already."
-
- In an article from Newsday, "Safety at Animal Lab
Questioned" by John McDonald, dated September 19, 1991. "During
Hurricane Bob, Plum Island's power was out for eighteen hours and that
their backup generator was down for three months prior." That means
that their diseases were defrosting during for those 18 hours and that
their negative air pressure, which keeps the diseases in, was not functioning
and were essentially airborne.
-
- There was also an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease
in 1978 where the entire island had to be evacuated and all of the animals
were destroyed. According to Dr. Huxsoll, "there might have been
a breakdown in engineering designs or maybe it was personnel."
-
- What puzzled me was the recent emergence of foreign diseases
in Manhattan and on Long Island itself within the past year. Isn't Plum
Island's sole purpose to study foreign animals' diseases? Yes. Coincidental,
I think not. According to Dominick Vinivaggi, Superintendent of the Division
of Vector Control stated, that "1999's outbreak of the West Nile Encephalitis
Virus where 66 people were hospitalized and the human death toll is now
8." From articles I found the Rift Valley Fever or West Nile was being
studied at Plum Island since 1979. Let us not forget, "the Equestrian
Encephalitis where 22 horses were infected 8 of which died in Jamesport
just last year," according to Mr. Vinivaggi. According to an article
from 1994, Dr.Breeze, then Plum Island's Director, stated that they have
been studying Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis. Let us also not forget
about the two 11 year old boys that contracted Malaria at the Boy Scout
Camp in Baiting Hollow just last summer. Dr. Huxsoll stated, "There
seems to be a mosquito to bird transmission happening here. Maybe someone
brought it back by plane." Personally I am not buying it.
-
- I also spoke with Dr. Huxsoll about his past history
as a United Nations Head Biological Inspector in Iraq. When I met with
Dr. Huxsoll, I dared to ask what diseases were found in Iraq? Dr. Huxsoll
said that during his trips to Iraq that "they definitely had a biological
warfare program, they admitted that. We initially looked at a facility
called Salmond Pack, which is near Baghdad. Most of their facilities are
near Baghdad. At Salmond Pack were anthrax & bÈchalinum toxin
and clostridium profricance. The first two I mentioned are diseases and
the last one is an organism. I say that because an organism can cause
some different kinds of diseases. We never associated that very much with
a biological warfare program." According to a former employee, their
name withheld, "The Army would come to Plum Island everytime a new
disease was introduced."
-
- According to Tom Sawicki, Safety Director at Plum Island,
"There are 20 firefighters on call to date." When I asked Tom
Sawicki "How many firefighters are there at night?" His answer
was, "To be honest with you there are only one or two on call."
Then I asked, "If a fire had broken out at night and it had gotten
to the point where this person could not handle it alone would the Orient
Fire Department be called?" His answer was "No, his people would
be contacted first, they are specially trained to handle anything on the
island." I then asked, "How long would it take for his people
to get there?" His answer was "To be quiet honest with you,
it could take up to 45 minutes or longer to get there." Another words
we are all doomed.
-
- After speaking with former Union Head, Ed Hulriser, he
told me that "employees had to be inoculated with unapproved FDA drugs
to prevent them from contracting the diseases that they are handling, or
they would be given menial jobs to perform on the island." When I
had asked the Department of Agriculture at the Greenport meeting in November
1999, if this was true? Mrs. Wilda Martinez, Northeast Regional Director
for the Department of Agriculture, stated that, "These allegations
are unfounded." After the meeting Tom Sawicki himself came over to
me and said, "Look, I'm inoculated with these drugs and I'm fine."
But what he doesn't realize is that the government is using their own
employees as human guinea pigs. Does he or anyone from Plum Island know
what the long term side affects are from these drugs and/or vaccines?
-
- How many times do we as taxpayers and members of a community
have to be hit in the head? Diseases are real. Plum Island Animal and
Disease Center is real. We as members of the community are ignoring it
as we sit in our safe and secure little worlds. At the local and state
level there is really no recourse of action against Plum Island being that
it is a federally run facility they can do whatever they want and dump
whatever they want into the Plum Island Gut and on the island itself.
In 1998 the DEC's report stated that, "The PIADC was in violation
of it's State Pollutant Discharge Emission System (SPDES) Permit.
-
- That permit allows PI to discharge 60,000 gallons of
secondary treatment wastewater into the southern corner of Plum Gut, which
showed that their daily discharge of 89,000 gallons was nearly 50% over
the limit." In the past year our fishing industry and our lobster
industry has dramatically declined, where now our neighbors are now out
of work. In an article "Plum Island Sued Over Sewage" by the
Suffolk Times dated May 7, 1998 stated, "Attorney General Vacco filed
suite in the State Supreme Court in Riverhead demanding that Plum Island
clean up it's act. It's pumped much more than allotted sewage into the
Plum Island Gut since 1995. Mr. Vacco stated, "I take this situation
very seriously and I'm determined to make sure the Fed's do too, these
violations could have serious negative effective on fish on other life
in the eastern Long Island Sound.""
-
- Just this year the DEC issued another report dated July
14, 2000 stating that "During 1997 the PIADC Waste Water Treatment
Plant experienced significant exceedances of its permit limits for several
parameters. The most notable exceedances were for effluent temperature,
influent flow, total coliform counts and per cent removal of organic material
measured by biochemical oxygen demand." It also stated that "there
were oil spills that have to be cleaned up and that PCB contaminated sediments
to be removed from the treatment pools." "The source of the
PCB's is unknown," according to Mark Lowery of the New York State
Department of Environment Conservation who is the Regional Citizen Participation
Specialist.
-
- We have to write to our Congressman, and to the President
to do something, anything. What are we waiting for the diseases to come
into our backyard?
-
- They have. Just remember this: We can not physically
defend ourselves against
-
-
- I can be reached at lightblubs@yahoo.com
-
-
- ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822 Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000
11:50:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Helise Flickstein <lightblubs@yahoo.com Subject:
Plum Island Animal & Disease Center To: ARTISTpres@aol.com
-
- Dear Robert Lederman:
-
- I have been doing my own research on the Plum Island
Animal & Disease Center. Here's what I wrote:
-
- "CLONING & MORE ON PLUM ISLAND"
-
- by, Helise Flickstein
-
- Cloning? West Nile? Hurricane Bob? Employees contracting
diseases? Upgrading to a Level 4? Sewage dumping into the Plum Gut? These
are the questions and the answers I have been exploring for the past year
because I am writing a screenplay about Plum Island. On another level I
am also the mother of two small children of nineteen months and three years
old, a former news reporter for TV-55, and a resident of the Township of
Southold. I am concerned for the public's safety and for the employees
that work there.
-
- I had a 1 hour-long interview with Dr. David Huxsoll,
Plum Island Animal and Disease Center's newest Director. When I had asked
Dr. Huxsoll about cloning on Plum Island? He said, "Were not doing
much of cloning here right now. That doesn't mean we won't be cloning
in the future. It would help with the development of the vaccines."
Which means that they are in fact cloning. During my tour with Carlos
Santoyos, Plum Island's Assistant Director, he took me by the old Fort
Terry buildings. On one of the buildings itself there has a plaque with
the title "Guinea Pig Colony". When I had asked Mr. Santoyos
why is that particular building called that? He stated, "We use to
clone guinea pigs here."
-
- When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about DNA sequencing, or
Genomics being studied at Plum Island Animal and Disease Center? Dr. Huxsoll
stated, "We are working on Genomics of some of the agents that we
work with like Foot & Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever. Because
we are interested in looking at the variability of one strain to another
and what the genes that make up the organism are responsible for.
-
- It is possible to tell by looking at one those (diseases)
with sequencing and getting all those genes all lined up to separate which
strain came from Africa versus which one comes from Asia."
-
- I had asked Dr. Huxsoll what the current situation was
with the sheep at Plum Island? He said that, "We currently have tissue
samples." I also asked him do the people of Vermont realize that
there is sheep with Madcow Disease up there? He said, "That's between
the Department of Agriculture and the owner of the flock." What if
people contracted Madcow Disease? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "It's a neurological
illness that effects the brain. A person would develop neurological signs
that could very tremendously interfere with locomotion, walking, and your
normal activities. It could interfere with your mental capacity."
These are the same sheep with diseases that they wanted to bring through
our very own Township of Southold. What I found odd is that when I asked
to be let into the lab area Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are not letting
anyone behind the barrier right now." A former employee, their name
withheld, stated, "Plum Island regularly brings diseased animals to
the island."
-
- When I went to the February 2000, Township of Southold
meeting, I stated my concerns about the following two articles. An article
from the Suffolk Times, "P.I. 'Probably' Will Research AIDS"
by Tim Gould, dated February 16, 1984, said, "In 1981 they were researching
the African Swine fever in conjunction with the AIDS virus. Forty-seven
employees were tested on and after the research. Six of the employees
had contracted the African Swine Fever," which is not supposed to
be a zoonotic disease. Zoonotic means a disease that is transferable to
animals and humans. These are the types of diseases that they wish to
study when they upgrade Plum Island to a level 4. According to Dr. Huxsoll,
the disease that they will be studying is the "Nipha virus that effects
pigs. It is a neurological disease that effects man. The legions look
like a viral infection infiltration of the brain. It makes holes in the
brain sort of like swiss cheese." He also stated, "Once we build
the Level 4 facility, it will probably be connected to the Administrative
building and building 101, which will remain at a Level Three." At
the at Township of Southold, Dr. Lee Ann Thomas, then acting Director of
Plum Island Animal and Disease Center, stated that, "We are handling
diseases now that no one knows about already."
-
- In an article from Newsday, "Safety at Animal Lab
Questioned" by John McDonald, dated September 19, 1991. "During
Hurricane Bob, Plum Island's power was out for eighteen hours and that
their backup generator was down for three months prior." That means
that their diseases were defrosting during for those 18 hours and that
their negative air pressure, which keeps the diseases in, was not functioning
and were essentially airborne.
-
- There was also an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease
in 1978 where the entire island had to be evacuated and all of the animals
were destroyed. According to Dr. Huxsoll, "there might have been
a breakdown in engineering designs or maybe it was personnel."
-
- What puzzled me was the recent emergence of foreign diseases
in Manhattan and on Long Island itself within the past year. Isn't Plum
Island's sole purpose to study foreign animals' diseases? Yes. Coincidental,
I think not. According to Dominick Vinivaggi, Superintendent of the Division
of Vector Control stated, that "1999's outbreak of the West Nile Encephalitis
Virus where 66 people were hospitalized and the human death toll is now
8." From articles I found the Rift Valley Fever or West Nile was being
studied at Plum Island since 1979. Let us not forget, "the Equestrian
Encephalitis where 22 horses were infected 8 of which died in Jamesport
just last year," according to Mr. Vinivaggi. According to an article
from 1994, Dr.Breeze, then Plum Island's Director, stated that they have
been studying Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis. Let us also not forget
about the two 11 year old boys that contracted Malaria at the Boy Scout
Camp in Baiting Hollow just last summer. Dr. Huxsoll stated, "There
seems to be a mosquito to bird transmission happening here. Maybe someone
brought it back by plane." Personally I am not buying it.
-
- I also spoke with Dr. Huxsoll about his past history
as a United Nations Head Biological Inspector in Iraq. When I met with
Dr. Huxsoll, I dared to ask what diseases were found in Iraq? Dr. Huxsoll
said that during his trips to Iraq that "they definitely had a biological
warfare program, they admitted that. We initially looked at a facility
called Salmond Pack, which is near Baghdad. Most of their facilities are
near Baghdad. At Salmond Pack were anthrax & bÈchalinum toxin
and clostridium profricance. The first two I mentioned are diseases and
the last one is an organism. I say that because an organism can cause
some different kinds of diseases. We never associated that very much with
a biological warfare program." According to a former employee, their
name withheld, "The Army would come to Plum Island everytime a new
disease was introduced."
-
- According to Tom Sawicki, Safety Director at Plum Island,
"There are 20 firefighters on call to date."
-
- When I asked Tom Sawicki "How many firefighters
are there at night?" His answer was, "To be honest with you
there are only one or two on call." Then I asked, "If a fire
had broken out at night and it had gotten to the point where this person
could not handle it alone would the Orient Fire Department be called?"
His answer was "No, his people would be contacted first, they are
specially trained to handle anything on the island." I then asked,
"How long would it take for his people to get there?" His answer
was "To be quiet honest with you, it could take up to 45 minutes or
longer to get there." Another words we are all doomed.
-
- After speaking with former Union Head, Ed Hulriser, he
told me that "employees had to be inoculated with unapproved FDA drugs
to prevent them from contracting the diseases that they are handling, or
they would be given menial jobs to perform on the island." When I
had asked the Department of Agriculture at the Greenport meeting in November
1999, if this was true? Mrs. Wilda Martinez, Northeast Regional Director
for the Department of Agriculture, stated that, "These allegations
are unfounded." After the meeting Tom Sawicki himself came over to
me and said, "Look, I'm inoculated with these drugs and I'm fine."
But what he doesn't realize is that the government is using their own
employees as human guinea pigs. Does he or anyone from Plum Island know
what the long term side affects are from these drugs and/or vaccines?
-
- How many times do we as taxpayers and members of a community
have to be hit in the head? Diseases are real. Plum Island Animal and
Disease Center is real. We as members of the community are ignoring it
as we sit in our safe and secure little worlds. At the local and state
level there is really no recourse of action against Plum Island being that
it is a federally run facility they can do whatever they want and dump
whatever they want into the Plum Island Gut and on the island itself.
In 1998 the DEC's report stated that, "The PIADC was in violation
of it's State Pollutant Discharge Emission System (SPDES) Permit. That
permit allows PI to discharge 60,000 gallons of secondary treatment wastewater
into the southern corner of Plum Gut, which showed that their daily discharge
of 89,000 gallons was nearly 50% over the limit." In the past year
our fishing industry and our lobster industry has dramatically declined,
where now our neighbors are now out of work. In an article "Plum Island
Sued Over Sewage" by the Suffolk Times dated May 7, 1998 stated, "Attorney
General Vacco filed suite in the State Supreme Court in Riverhead demanding
that Plum Island clean up it's act. It's pumped much more than allotted
sewage into the Plum Island Gut since 1995. Mr. Vacco stated, "I
take this situation very seriously and I'm determined to make sure the
Fed's do too, these violations could have serious negative effective on
fish on other life in the eastern Long Island Sound.""
-
- Just this year the DEC issued another report dated July
14, 2000 stating that "During 1997 the PIADC Waste Water Treatment
Plant experienced significant exceedances of its permit limits for several
parameters. The most notable exceedances were for effluent temperature,
influent flow, total coliform counts and per cent removal of organic material
measured by biochemical oxygen demand." It also stated that "there
were oil spills that have to be cleaned up and that PCB contaminated sediments
to be removed from the treatment pools." "The source of the
PCB's is unknown," according to Mark Lowery of the New York State
Department of Environment Conservation who is the Regional Citizen Participation
Specialist.
-
- We have to write to our Congressman, and to the President
to do something, anything. What are we waiting for the diseases to come
into our backyard? They have. Just remember this: We can not physically
defend ourselves against them.
-
-
- I can be reached at lightblubs@yahoo.com
.
.
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