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Go Home Northern Exposure

OCTOBER 22, 2008

Northern Exposure

BY SHEILA KAPLAN AND MARILYN BERLIN SNELL

There's no reason to doubt Sarah Palin's sincerity when she talks about her commitment to family and--more specifically--special-needs kids. When she introduced her son, who has Down syndrome, to the audience at the Republican convention, the family tableau drew cheers. And she issued a promise. "To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you," she told the crowd. "For years, you've sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters, and I pledge to you that, if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

Unfortunately, as governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids. It's true that Alaska's top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she's compounded it. Peer into her environmental record, and Palin ends up looking a lot like George W. Bush.

 

In the past 20 years, research has shown that exposure to some metals and to chemicals such as pesticides, flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can cause birth defects and permanent developmental disorders both prenatally and in the first years of childhood. And Alaska is vulnerable to some of the worst environmental pollutants out there. In a state whose wealth depends on the exploitation of its natural resources, the toxic byproducts of mining and energy development, such as arsenic, mercury, and lead, are particular problems. Alaska Natives, such as the Inuit people, eat a diet that is heavy in fish, seals, and whales--animals that are high on the food chain and therefore more likely to be contaminated with high doses of PCBs and mercury. And the state is vulnerable not only to homegrown pollution, but also to industrial pollution: Trace gases and tiny airborne particles are contaminating the polar regions, carried there on atmospheric and oceanic currents, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The mess of pollutants in Alaska has clearly taken its toll. In general, the state has double the national average of birth defects. While the causes are unknown, environmentalists point to the region that includes the North Slope, an area slightly larger than Minnesota, where most of Alaska's oil is produced. The byproducts of oil production can cause serious nervous system disorders, and the North Slope and its environs, home to Alaska Natives and itinerant oil workers, has the highest prevalence of birth defects in the state--11 percent--compared with 6 percent statewide and 3 percent nationwide.

Palin, however, has not addressed these concerns. Her administration irked environmentalists in February 2008, when it opposed legislation that would have given parents at least 48 hours' notice before schools were to be sprayed with pesticides and other toxic chemicals. Currently, parents get 24 hours, which the bill's proponents say is not sufficient for parents who want to arrange to keep kids out of school for a few days after the chemicals are applied. Palin's administration argued that the bill was too restrictive and would force schools to notify parents before cleaning toilets with disinfectant--which, supporters say, is not true. In the same month, members of Palin's administration testified against language in legislation that would have banned polybrominated diphenyl ethers--a flame retardant that, studies show, harms the developing brain.

Then, in the summer of 2007, Palin allowed oil companies to move forward with a toxic-dumping plan in Alaska's Cook Inlet, the only coastal fishery in the nation where toxic dumping is permitted. The Bush administration initially OK'd the companies' request to increase toxic releases, but the permits could not be issued without Alaska's certification that the discharges met the state's water-quality standards, says Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, an organization founded to protect the area's watershed. Palin complied. "Palin's Department of Environmental Conservation issued that certification [based on] the long-discounted notion that 'dilution is the solution to pollution'--turning the federal Clean Water Act on its head and actually increasing toxic pollution," Shavelson says.

Palin next took on the Clean Water Initiative, also known as Proposition 4, which appeared on the Alaska ballot on August 26. The measure would have limited the runoff of toxic metals--known to cause developmental and birth defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--from all mining operations, but it was aimed at stopping the proposed Pebble Mine, a huge mining proposal that was controversial for its potential impact on Bristol Bay, the world's largest commercial wild salmon fishery (for which Palin's oldest daughter was named). The project had been in the works for years, and, when she ran for governor in 2006, Palin told the Alaska Journal of Commerce that, if the mine was green-lighted, "there will be remediation from now to eternity." Once in office, though, environmental concerns took a backseat. In a TV interview six days before the vote, Palin said, "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute, and tell you personally, Prop 4--I vote no on that." Alaska's mining industry parlayed Palin's face and words into an advertising blitz--and came from behind to defeat it.

Palin's latest anti-environmental effort also came in August, when she attempted to block California's plan to curb its air pollution. The Golden State is trying to reduce its toxic emissions with a port fee that would pay for pollution-reduction projects around the state. Arguing that it would hurt Alaska's economy, Palin asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the proposed legislation.

Finally, Palin was pushed by environmental activists and Alaska Natives to pressure the military in its cleanup of one of the most contaminated sites in Alaska--but the state didn't act. This was on the old Northeast Cape Air Force base on remote St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea--one of the state's closest spots to Russia. When the military closed its operations in the 1970s, it left thousands of barrels of toxic waste, containing solvents, fuels, heavy metals, pesticides, and PCBs, a group of toxic organic chemicals that have persisted in the environment. For the past few years, the Army Corps of Engineers has been slowly cleaning up parts of the site and claims it will leave it safe. (One federally funded study still in progress by the state's premier watchdog on chemical pollutants, Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), tested the local water and got a reading that was more than one thousand times the level that the EPA considers safe. "If the Corps of Engineers want to fill up their canteens in there, they are welcome to it," says Kathrine Springman, the toxicologist who did that study. "Actually, I wouldn't want them to drink it ... anymore than I would ask them to drink Drano.")

But critics say the Army is taking too long, and that its plan will leave too many untreated chemicals, PCBs in particular, at the site. According to Pamela Miller, ACAT's executive director, Palin should have used her powers as governor to forge a better cleanup plan. "Certainly this was also a pattern in the Murkowski administration, but, under Palin, it's gotten worse," she said. "Her administration has done nothing to work with the military to avoid possible contamination." Scientists have also opposed the Army's plan, saying it will leave the area dangerous.

Supporters note that Palin did boost school spending for children with the most severe disabilities, but, in general, the Alaskan government under Palin has done nothing to protect those children and future generations from the toxic stew that the state has become. "She doesn't have a good understanding of the science," says Ruth Etzel, who until recently was research director at the Alaska Native Medical Program in Anchorage. "What she tends to do is talk about personal responsibility as the key to good health."

Andrea Doll, a Democratic state representative from Juneau, says she tried to get Palin interested in her bill on flame retardants early on: "I told her about the bill. She totally was not interested in any way, shape, or form. It was that look on her face--that 'don't even go there' look."

Sheila Kaplan is an investigative reporter who divides her time between Washington, D.C., and Northern California. Marilyn Berlin Snell is a San Francisco-based investigative journalist. Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.This article originally ran in the October 22, 2008, issue of the magazine.

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60 comments

Amazing to me that a woman with a child of her own who suffers from birth defects would not be out there vigilantly researching all known and suspected causes and doing her darnedest to fight them -- and especially a woman who is in a powerful enough position to instigate large-scale improvements in response to any findings!

- LVS

October 7, 2008 at 2:39pm

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This is a great piece. Why is it so hard to find? Someone told me about it and I had to really search for it. Thanks, all the same, for publishing it. There isn't enough digging of this sort going on re Palin. Much of the media just seems to be following the same tired Troopergate story that we all know about, and that may be beside the larger point.

- Kathryn Bell

October 9, 2008 at 4:50pm

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This story is horribly incorrect. Oil development on the north slope is cited for causing birth defects on children there. The north slope is one thousand miles wide and no one lives within 100 miles of the oil development. I support protecting the environment but this is fruit cake journalism at its worst. Yes there are many former defense sites in alaska due to substantial world war two activity, but the responsibility for that is the federal government and is a function of budgeting. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars have already been to spent to clean up the worst sites nearest to people so its a question of triage going after the worst first. To clean it all up would probably cost tens of billions of dollars. Both democratic and republican administrations have pushed for clean up of these sites but there are only so many federal dollars to go around. That is not sarah palin's fault. The mercury in native food we are dealing with has been proven to come from powerplants in china. To say she has created all of this is just flalt out false. I thought the new republic was a more responsible publication than this. Journalistic standards sacrificed on the altar of political advocacy is a true threat to democracy.

- old time alaskan

October 10, 2008 at 2:01am

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Hmmm. As an environmentalist and former environmental consultant the connection here using anecdotes of dirty sites or operations to a high statewide birth defect rate seems very weak to me. Where's the real data if it exists at all? The article should have hard data on how (or whether) Alaska is actually more polluted (prorated for it's size or possibly in terms of statistics on citizens' exposure to industrial toxins) than other states to even begin talking about a (higher) pollution load relationship to an elevated birth defect rate. Kaplan and Snell should have stuck to a tick list of examples of Palin's poor environmental stewardship and used that as an admittedly less sensational theme. Trying to show that this is contradictory to Palin's advocacy for special needs children is not strong enough to be thematic--worth only an aside or parenthetical mention at best.

- ad

October 10, 2008 at 2:40am

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But, you see, all those poor little children with birth defects are God's will. No need to look further for causes or to redress things. We need more pollution and more birth defects, because they give us the opportunity to display our Christian love and care to those less fortunate than we are. If you think that sounds lunatic, remember that John Winthrop, in his famous City upon a Hill sermon, said that God made poor people so that the wealthy could practice charity upon them. That's Palin's Christian logic, too.

- Hessian

October 10, 2008 at 4:00am

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It's not that difficult to see Palin's motive -- a Republican (and especially an Alaskan Republican) doesn't even remotely want the word "environmentalist" attached to themselves in light of all the environments-can-go-to-hell sentiments shared by so many in that state, especially Don Young and Ted Stevens, one of whom called environmentslists "buttf***ers" to an auditorium of Alaskan high-schoolers. Plus, Palin cut the budget of Covenant House Alaska, a place that takes in young unwed mothers and teaches them to better themselves to survive on their own, by over 20 percent, so it's hardly surprising that she's proving her hypocrisy again.

- kevincollins

October 10, 2008 at 8:59am

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This doesn't surprise me at all. Palin represents the best of the GOP non-think apparatchik. She thoroughly believes her way through complicated issues and the fact that she believes in creationism furthers her distrust in anything scientific that would contradict her beliefs regardless of actual facts. Palin's commitment to special-needs families ends at her front door as far as she's concerned. And that concern never surfaced until AFTER her newborn son was recently born. And yet, if pushed I suspect Palin would be hard pressed to accept that the hazardous wastes inherent in the extraction industries are even dangerous. Her talk of carrying for the beauty of the Alaskan wilds is simply that...talk. The natural bounty and resources of Alaska are only there for the plundering of and by industries championed by the GOP. The modern GOP party views any and all regulations, regardless if they are meant for life safety, as antithetical to all things American. So it goes without saying that Palin would toe the party line. It's a clear reflection of her capacity to believe her way through life with as little intellectual activity, understanding or curiosity as possible. As a mother her actions to protect all of Alaska's children, even modestly, from further and future hazardous materials exposures are negligible and negligent as best.

- singlespeed

October 10, 2008 at 9:52am

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well neighbours, you folks go right ahead and vote for this woman and what she stands for, then when their policies destroy the wondrous beauty of your state pollute your environment so you need to import water (of course, given your current govt foreign policies you will probably just come in and take it from us)we can sit back and remember that because of a faulty voting system your country was able to vote them in in the first place. nice to know that you actually dont have a say in who you elect.

- k

October 10, 2008 at 1:08pm

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It is funny that you guys talk about Palin like she is a caring mother. Have you noticed that Palin seems to bring that poor baby everywhere she goes? Even to the loud stage (the VP debate night) at 10:30pm! And I have noticed at least in 2 other occasions that she brought the baby with her on the plane. Being a healthy person, I don't think I can take the stress of flying and traveling intensely during the "crunch time" in a presidential campaign. I don't think the poor baby can take that much! She could leave the baby and Todd can take care of her at home. It is not like we need to be assured for something seeing "First dude" every time she comes out. I think she can say "Todd needs to stay home and look after the kids", and America would love a *kind mother*, not a cold blooded b*tch.

- ChuChu Rocket

October 10, 2008 at 1:15pm

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what a pathetic article and the posts are even worse! Can anyone see the Kool Aid drinking going on here? A child with down syndrome can hardley be attributed to the Northern Slope oil fields! I have a down syndrome niece, and I we live in Northern California. Does this mean the hugely controlled Leftist legislature caused it through poor environmental policy? Do not make this mistake again ! One poster had the good sense to demand hard data. I concur. TNR has slipped into political propaganda and away from true journalism. what a shame. I grew up around a lot of these leftist political cultists. They are no better at meeting the needs of the average person than the drug dealers who run their school systems here in California, I know, I grew up in them. Pathetic!!

- byron

October 10, 2008 at 1:54pm

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Palin's language has an America First quality. No wonder Buchanan warms to it. I'm with Roth: that lingo plays to a dark strain of nativism that is best kept caged on Talk Radio.

- fougasseu

October 10, 2008 at 2:09pm

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WHY IS ANYONE CONCERNED ABOUT PALEN? SHE BECAME A MAYOR WITH A BALANCED BUDGET AND LEFT WITH 14 MILLION DOLLARS DEBT FOR <9,000 PEOPLE SO "HOCKEY MOM PALEN COULD HAVE A HOCKEY RINK -- BUT ONLY 10% OF THE TOWNS POPULATION HAS BOTH COMMUNITY WATER AND SEWAGE. NOW THATS A PRIORITY WORTH REMEMBERING!

- BOPPA

October 10, 2008 at 3:15pm

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First: The lack of accountability is not surprising. Palin's lack of depth is even less so. However, she has probably rationalized her son's condition as a genetic one related to her age (which is certainly proved by statistics) vs the environment. And if she has proven anything to date, it is all about her. Not McCain, not party and not country. Her. This is a woman who does not believe in global warming and thinks the Holy Spirit is responsible for all the good and evil in the world. There is a moral responsibility to the future and she has passed on it just to serve her own ambitions. I find it repugnant. And guess what? I am a registered republican who is ashamed of where the last 8 years have taken us.

- Molly in MN

October 10, 2008 at 5:41pm

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Hm... Alaska is a toxic waste dump? Compared to what? I grew up in Los Angeles, where the San Gabriel mountains, onshore wind currents and "inversion" layer trap air pollution across the most populated areas. Having spent a short while in Alaska, I don't think anyone sane person would look-at Alaska as this article does. Perhaps sane doesn't really apply to TNR when they are on their anti-Palin warpath.

- jstacey

October 10, 2008 at 7:40pm

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Why is this a surprise to anyone? She's the same woman that wants to open up the Wildlife Preserve for drilling, while at the same time claiming the North Slope has enough oil to keep the country going! She's a hack. A dangerous hack, but most definitely a hack.

- Mary

October 10, 2008 at 7:58pm

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The blame game is how criminals are caught and punished. Look back. Place blame. FREE AMERICA REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

- Marc Schlee

October 10, 2008 at 9:26pm

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It is a real shame that she would use her power to make someone loose their job, and how she tried to have the librarian fired for not removing books she did not like. This is not Freedom, All that I have heard about Sarah Palin, charging $1200 for the rape kits, rewarding for the merciless killing of wolves, she is scary. It seems her last priority are her children, which is sad. She tries to bring God into her speeches, saying it's "God's will" referring to the war, talking to ABC world News anchor, Charley, and pretends she has some kind of southern accent. I don't know anyone's God that would approve these actions.

- D

October 10, 2008 at 9:50pm

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What about the birth defect rate in other oil producing regions? Where are the facts to back up this completely made up story? This site is a joke. People write anything they want and you fools actually swallow it up with out even a momentary pause to ANALYZE OR INVESTIGATE this b.s.

- got brains?

October 10, 2008 at 10:36pm

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Comments by liberals are so apparent. Sarah Palin is a class act as a mother, wife, daughter, mayor and govenor. The liberal media has tried to destroy her from the day Senator McCain chose her as his running mate. It is appalling to me that these people are trying to destroy such a wonderful person and her family. I pray she will be strong enough to withstand what the media has tried to do to her. Sarah---we are praying for you and your family.

- Jeanette Wilson

October 10, 2008 at 10:38pm

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You know who the biggest environmentalists in the USA are? ALASKANS! Nobody loves the wild beauty of nature more, and would never let anything happen to it.

- environmentalists

October 10, 2008 at 10:40pm

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As an environmental engineer/scientist and mother of a child with down syndrome this article depicts how journalism has taken an all time low from reporting facts to simple rambling political slander. The authors, at a minimum ,should research cause of down syndrome.

- parker

October 10, 2008 at 11:11pm

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I suggest that the school's clean with vinegar, borax and baking soda. Cleaner and healthier. Try it at home! You'll save money and the environment.

- SWozniak

October 10, 2008 at 11:27pm

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Kaplan & Snell, you need to cover the facts. No facts here at all! This web site stinks!

- mcgalto

October 10, 2008 at 11:41pm

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Police support poor people who steal from rich people and keep policemen employed with overtime.

- Roy Bercaw Cambridge MA USA

October 11, 2008 at 5:28am

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You are right about Alaska being a toxic mess. I grew up on 40 acres with the Moose Range and a drilling mud dump as my back yard. The drilling mud dump was so poorly managed that the pits overflowed their banks during breakup (spring in the lower forty-eight.) Now, oil companies use an "environmentally friendly" method of disposing drilling mud. They mix it with cement and bury it one foot deep. An entire acre of land next to my family home is now useless due to one of these burials. It was one of the nicest lots in my town, destroyed forever. However, I hesitate to ascribe the high birth defect rate in Alaska to toxins. My former elementary school is overwhelmed with special needs children. But, the single largest cause of defects amongst those kids is Alcohol Syndrome. Drug use is also a huge problem. My hometown culture falls into two camps of extremes: alcohol-drug abusers and religious fanatics. Only the few people who fall into the realm of normal take family planning seriously. Palin is not from the "normal" group. Her policies have done nothing to address the social problems that contribute to birth defects. Her mind set hampers her from logical consideration of the problem. I have three nephews still living in Alaska, only one will graduate from High School. The eldest was so caught up in Redneck culture that he decided a diploma was not important. The youngest is the victim of Alcohol Syndrome and will receive a certificate, rather than a real diploma. The third was sent to a Christian School. He will graduate with no science education and no sex education. Choosing a woman from Alaska as a VP candidate should have been a wonderful choice. From the environment to education, Alaskan women face some of the starkest challenges in the country. But, McCain chose a woman who is blind.

- Diana - Former Alaskan

October 11, 2008 at 10:30am

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The Republicans have a reputation as being anti-environment protection. After all lobbysts of the energy branch control most Republicans. Profit is more important than investing money in modern technology for clean air and water. Though I doubt that drilling for oil alone causes all the birth defects I have to add that digging for cold is also widespread in Alaska. Not the old fashion way we see in tourists camps or western movies but industrially with huge machines and a lot of mercury to seperate gold from worthless stones. And mercury in water has indeed a high impact on the health because it affects the human genes negatively. Many children who live in regions with gold mining all over the world are born with birth defects. The statistics prove it. And Gov. Palin has indeed done nothing to stop the gold mining companies from using mercury. It's just much cheaper to do it with mercury.

- Jimbo

October 11, 2008 at 1:25pm

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I'm a neo-natal nurse. I can tell you that if Alaska has a birth defect rate that is twice the national average and four times the national average in some areas, there is a reason. We may not know the reason without research, but Alaska has a huge budgetary surplus and Palin hasn't initiated taking action to find out what the reason for the damaged kids is. That is not my idea of either a good mother or a good governor. There is certainly reason to believe that she chooses money development over environmental concerns on a regular basis. Dumping poison into Bristol Bay from the Pebble mine is a case in point. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish are shipped from that bay to markets all over the world. So, she is allowing, even advocating, that not only Alaskans suffer the health risks involved, but also people all over the world who eat the fish. She looks down on people of intelligence and it appears that she is personally lacking in that area. Two to four times the national rate of birth defects! That's disgusting!!!!

- karela

October 12, 2008 at 6:29am

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The author of this article neglected to mention that substance abuse in Alaska is twice the National average, and that alone is credited with a large number of birth defects. Maybe that is why the birth defect rate is twice the National average as well? I don't think Palin can be blamed for that. "Old Time Alaskan" is right, nobody lives within 100 miles of the oil fields there, and Sarah Palin certainly has not had any negative impact on foriegn pollutants or encouraged the substance abuse rates that are likely at the root of the twice the National Average for birth defects statistic. Stop twisting your information to slam Palin and do the research on the REAL cause of the problem.

- Former Alaskan Michelle

October 12, 2008 at 5:39pm

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In Bush's 8 years as governor of Texas, with a Republican controlled legislature, that state went from one of the cleanest air states to the most polluted air state in the nation. Palin is just following the party's example. Try to imagine the tons of particulates and gasses that it takes to fill the cubic miles of air over a state the size? Who cares about Texas you say? Well for one reason, if you look at national weather patterns. Weather tends to move from west to east and from the southwest from the Pacific off Baja to the northeast, picking up pollution and poisons and dumping them on the ground and water or in your lungs. There are many reasons to be environmentally concerned, if no other appeals to you, think about your own health.

- Marnie

October 13, 2008 at 3:52am

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Interesting. I just wish that the media would quit wetting its pants over Obama and start doing the same sort of fact-finding with the Democratic ticket. In other words, why don't I see more arguments about Obama's lack of experience? It's all about Palin and her record. Please don't change the focus: This election is about two solid tickets led by Obama vs. McCain - although regarding experience, McCain blows Obama out of the water. Let's hear more about that, you know, just to be fair.

- DK

October 14, 2008 at 10:48am

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I very much appreciate some of the thoughtful comments that appear here, especially the point made by several that we did not discuss the role that alcohol and drugs play in birth defects. One of the main reasons is that the birth registry study which found that Alaska has twice the national average of birth defects controlled for maternal behavior like drinking and smoking--the causes for the rest remain a mystery and many of those we talked to who were involved with the study or with Alaska Public Health generally hope very much to get the funding they need to pursue the causes. There is currently limited biomonitoring going on in Alaska and we should all applaud this effort. The article, I think, makes clear that direct links between Child A's birth defect and Chemical (or heavy metal) X have not been definitively made. But research has found links between toxics found in the environment and birth defects, a point we make again and again in the article. More research is needed.But such efforts require massive amounts of funding and a type of priority setting that privileges research and prevention over end-of-pipeline clean up and long term health care. Those priorities weren't set in Alaska under Palin and McCain's proposal for an across the board spending freeze would do nothing to move the needed research forward.

- Marilyn Berlin Snell

October 16, 2008 at 3:17pm

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To old time Alaskan. You believe that a heavy metals like mercury can cross through the strait from China to Alaska and that surface toxins can't flow from the North Slope.

- wow

October 20, 2008 at 5:37pm

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I'm interested in articles that cover just about anything environmental, as it seems that topic is at the bottom of the political scene urgency, unfortunately. Regardless of comments as to whether hard data was presented or comments regarding left/right, yada yada yada, the fact remains Gov. Palin has done zip for Alaskan environmental needs. But the truly worrisome aspect of Gov. Palin being in any form of governmental power is that she is as dumb as dirt. I know that sounds mean but it's the truth, like it or not. I mean really. Also. You betcha. Good grief how can people not see thru that? It has been highly insulting to anyone above a 7th grade education to expect folks to believe this person could ever discuss the various colors of play-doh, let alone foreign policy, healthcare reform, illegal immigration, wars and rumours of wars, domestic policy and on and on the list goes. Some folks may bring their list of fears regarding Biden as well, but I'll take my chances on that ticket any day over Palin, even as a repub. I hope the good folks of Alaska step up to the plate next vote and get her removed from office; it's tough for them because the numerous special interests in the area probably influence most people's vote there just to keep a job. As for the aerial wolf killing she advocates in Alaska, could someone with any sense in their head put a stop to that? Vicious and cruel beyond belief, so before you tell me she's classy, all american, all sweet and precious, just take a look at Defenders of Wildlife website for true insight into that. Also.

- katie belle

October 22, 2008 at 2:31pm

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You are such an idiot. You dont know what you are talking about.

- Jesse

October 25, 2008 at 2:07am

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Kaplan and Snell, I cant believe how stupid you both. Un believable, you should write for National Enquirer or Gossip tabloid. You simply wasted the funds that could have been used towards some real investigative journalism. You two are both morons.

- Jesse

October 25, 2008 at 2:11am

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Again you are also such an idiot, newsflash for you, who is the VP nominee, not you but Palin, why? because she is smarter than you. He he he.. Besides, where are you, are you from Alaska? If not, what have you done in your own neighborhood. If you have not, then keep your big mouth shut. Thanks

- Jesse

October 25, 2008 at 2:14am

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Well I guess I had outta move my family out of Alaska to somewhere where the air and water are safer like ..... Newark, Detroit, Philly, Chicago, DC,Gary Indiana, Los Angeles, Oakland .....

- looking for sanity

November 19, 2008 at 2:36pm

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The writer is a joke, Stop by Niagara Falls. See what wonders the Rat's who run this State, an have for the last 40+ years have done. You want to see birth defects, cancer? Come on down. Anyone who has any thoughts that Rats are environmentalist - earth friendly flower people, need only take a drive down the Rt 62 to the Falls. Hildabeast was here for 8 yrs. did nothing. Campaigned for President

- Reefdiver

December 2, 2008 at 9:18pm

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Wow. This article is misleading. The authors offer no evidence of cause and effect between the pollution in Alaska and the rate of birth defects. They even state this early on in the article but then go on to assume that the increased birth defect rate is due to teratogens in the environment. It is entirely possible that the rate of birth defects is higher due to small, homogeneous poplulations or some other cause. What is also interesting is that the March of Dimes website reports that 1 in 4 infant deaths were due to birth defects in California where environment is on the tip of everyone's tongue, but only 1 in 5 for Alaska. Isn't that curious. As a scientis and environmentalist I get sick of propaganda rather than honest discussions. As for Katie Belle above, I gather she finds people to be dumb who have southern accents, hispanic accents, etc and all the colloquialisms that go along with variations in language. Who is the idiot?

- Heisenberg

December 18, 2008 at 9:15am

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Wow. This article is misleading. The authors offer no evidence of cause and effect between the pollution in Alaska and the rate of birth defects. They even state this early on in the article but then go on to assume that the increased birth defect rate is due to teratogens in the environment. It is entirely possible that the rate of birth defects is higher due to small, homogeneous poplulations or some other cause. What is also interesting is that the March of Dimes website reports that 1 in 4 infant deaths were due to birth defects in California where environment is on the tip of everyone's tongue, but only 1 in 5 for Alaska. Isn't that curious. As a scientis and environmentalist I get sick of propaganda rather than honest discussions. As for Katie Belle above, I gather she finds people to be dumb who have southern accents, hispanic accents, etc and all the colloquialisms that go along with variations in language. Who is the idiot?

- Heisenberg

December 18, 2008 at 2:52pm

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I am not surprised at all. I am one of the 12,598 children born aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune between 1968 and 1985. We were exposed to some of the "organic solvents" discussed in this article while in the womb. Last year I was diagnosed with male breast cancer at the age of 39. Unfortunately, the Republican Party, my party, has chosen to turn its back on things like TCE and PCE contamination of drinking water. Thank God Palin and McCain failed... For more info on Lejeune, see www.tftptf.com

- Mike Partain

December 28, 2008 at 11:47pm

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Oh, please.. New Republic. .you have no shame. I doubt if you know about the "old republic" much less a "new republic".. don't you like to call this "the new Democracy" instead? That's all I here the socialist talk about Democracy this and Democracy that.. so now you slip in the word Republic and call it "New". Why not just call it "the New Glorious Workers Party Forum"? Honesty isn't one of your high points is it? Like this article.. See you in the bread lines lads and lasses, because that is all you got going for you.. leave it to government, right? Bad human, bad, bad.. try www.fatheromalley.com when you get tired of reading every thing you already agree with.. www.ush2.com www.votesmart.org www.fairtax.org www.petitionproject.org www.numbersusa.org Love to all, Father O'Malley

- father omalley

December 29, 2008 at 1:11pm

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I can attest to the terrible pollution in the area. I have friends in environmental toxicology assesment who have moved away because of the pollution being so severe. Whoever says that the toxicity levels are just fine is not living in reality. Oil and gas production (in which I have worked, and in which my boyfriend works) is extremely toxic and environmentally damaging practice- not matter how 'safe' and 'clean' crazy Palin or anyone else with an interest in it says, that is a rediculous claim. If you question whether oil and gas production is toxic, look it up, educate yourself. Look at what is going on to the Athabasca. There are wierd cancers not just in the human inhabitants, but in the wildlife. It makes me feel so angry that people like Palin (uneducated and in positions of power, who glorify ignorance, work in the service of greed and destroy the environment we all need and have a duty to protect)who doesn't care about the environment (well known fact up here amongst us who are not over 40 yr.s old, who are not a trucker or an old oil and gas worker, and who are educated) claim to love God's creation. Someday she will attone for her ways. Palin is a good talker, she can flip arguments, and say the stuff that a populist would say, and to many it sounds good, but for us who are concerned with policy (I'm doing my thesis in political economy) and facts, she is a hypocrite. People who support her because of her speeches are the same ones who would buy the snake oil because salesman says it works. We all need them to start looking at reality- at her track record- not her words. Talk to the experts in their fields. Talk to other politicians in the area. Palin is sorrily undereducated for her position, and she's never had to develop any real substance because she gets by with popularity and gitchy phrases. This woman is power-hungry, dark and untruthful. Know what I pray for Palin? That the light will shine on you and you're kind.

- Vanessa Simonin

January 2, 2009 at 1:41pm

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What a bunch of BS. This article is completely misleading. You should be informing people about serious issues such as Democratic Governor, Jon Stevens Corzine's New Jersey environmental cesspool and historical and hidden corporate and political corruption. As an 10-year public and private Environmental Scientist in Alaska, you're way out of line!

- ehmoran

January 24, 2009 at 6:07pm

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This article is full of shit. And you are all idiots for believing this shit load of lies and unsupported facts.

- Georgia dude

January 25, 2009 at 4:17pm

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An interviewed Paulin supporter exclaimed,'God will make all things right'. Toxins aren't underrated, they are just faith annulled!! amen, her non election

- craig kelly

January 30, 2009 at 2:42pm

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TNR scraps the dreggs of the leftist barrel again! Too bad, it could be such a good and respected brand in journalism.

- Disappointed yet again

March 16, 2009 at 12:10pm

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My god this poor Journalism. This is my first read on this site and while I'm not the smartest man on earth, this is complete b.s. Its so amazingly bad that I wounder if Sheila Kaplan and Marilyn Berlin Snell get paid for this @#$%. I dont care or Palin, but this is turly unbelieveable.

- Dan

March 30, 2009 at 5:19pm

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You did not mention that Palin considered an abortion for her child that was to be born with Downs Syndrome. Palin is just supporting the positions that are within the philosophies of the Republican Party, that is, to promote what is best for corporate interests even if it is at the expense or ill-health of consumers. She needs to be stopped from promoting the pollution of Alaska as well as her insistence on promoting the aerial slaughter of wolves in Alaska. Palin is bad for Alaska & the U.S.

- RichardT32

May 5, 2009 at 4:02pm

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As an Alaskan, I'm horrified. I didn't like Palen before (after the national embarrasment of her vice presidential campaign), and I like her less now.

- Kate Strand

May 5, 2009 at 5:10pm

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The authors' contention that chemical effluents emitted from Alaska's oil-rich regions are causing prenatal and natal brain defects, if true, is not wholly convincing. Why? Because they didn't cite similar studies undertaken in other oil-rich nations (the Middle East's Emirate, for instance) showing unusually high incidence of brain defects among Arab children. If no studies, or even experiments, have been conducted in Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Iran -- to cite other few oil-producing states -- parallel to what the authors' cited as scientific findings, then it is urged that environmentalists undertake such investigative research and chemical experiments. Otherwise, the authors' citation of brain defects, natal- or prenatal-wise, has no scientific validity. Scientific findings must be borne out by repeated experiments, ocular or in the laboratory, based on extracted oil by-products large enough to be representative of the whole oil exploration activity being conducted in a particular region, to constitute scientific proof. Be that as it may, the Obama administration should focus environmental protection efforts on Alaska to save it as America's last -- hence not lost -- Frontier. Likewise, the nation's leaders, b

- Sam Rose Bangloy

May 14, 2009 at 11:09pm

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Environmental scientist? Oh please! I do not object to a good debate representing both sides of an issue, but why is it that so many who doubt global warming, evolution, the effects of pollutants etc are unable to construct a proper sentence much less a logical argument?

- Robert Hartman

May 23, 2009 at 4:16am

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How in the world to you make claims about birth defects without any shread of evidence of the cause? You need to do better research on the subject matter before you make outrageous claims!

- Stephen B. Billings

June 2, 2009 at 2:48pm

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How in the world do you make claims like that without a shread of evidence? Please do better research on your subject matter before making such outrageous claims. Thanks.

- Stephen

June 2, 2009 at 2:52pm

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This piece is appalling. Any North Slope effect would have occurred over merely the past 40 years, with the significant increase in health problems being parlayed by public health authorities into (understandable) career-enhancing notoriety. This piece is frank shoddiness. Anything and everything is thrown into this ain't-it-awful hopper. Also, whether we respect or disrespect Sarah Palin, do we want a public official to set priorities based upon the particular circumstances of one's family? In the absence if a Down's Syndrome child, would we wish a governor to be less concerned about environmental toxins? Sheila Kaplan and Marilyn Berlin Snell are at best shoddy.

- LarryH

June 4, 2009 at 5:40am

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Very few women in media today can write about Palin objectively. The emotionial flares are fun to watch, but not very useful. Who is really sending women back to the 50's? A women who was elected to the position of Governor twice, or a couple of female journalists who cannot make a credible, logical argument? Lucy - you got some 'splainin to do.

- Madman

July 4, 2009 at 2:35pm

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It's amazing to me that Sarah Palin has attracted the following she has in this country. This says a lot about her supporters, not just Palin as a politician - eager to overlook environmental atrocities, a self-centered 'me first' attitude, avoidance of critical thinking and general disregard for the power of education (including sex education). When are Palin's followers going to wake up to the fact that Palin is little more than a snake oil salesman in lipstick?

- earlgrey_atx

July 11, 2009 at 3:50pm

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I agree with some of the comments that are stated here. Palin is all politician. It's about what helps promote her agenda and those of her backers. There's nothing here to support better care for the Native Alaskans, or for the environment of her state. Drill baby Drill said it all to me. Let her ramble and it's apparent she's a true politician. Fumbling all over the place to say all the things she thinks people want to hear. However, when it comes to what she herself knows, it's painfully obvious what she knows. However, in true politician style, she'll get here riding everyone elses back. Her supporters won't notice.

- Vikki

July 20, 2009 at 3:55pm

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She has done a lot to stop it! This artical is noting more than S.Palin hate. Look you the facts on where the birth defect most likely come from,China, Mex. I dont support her, but I know BS when I read it. Serch for the truth and not what you want to hear!!

- BCM

July 26, 2009 at 8:41pm

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I think we need more Christians who read and live by the Bible and not MANS words!The devil is the destroyer NOT GODS will!

- BCM

July 26, 2009 at 9:08pm

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