Fluoride, Silent Killer - Or is it?

Controversial and inconclusive! That's my take on the article. AND that's my conclusion.

This article by Yiamouyiannis, John, Ph.D seem to be spreading like virus via e-mail; at least that's what I get in a form of a chain email.

While I don't totally disagree with what's written, I don't subscribe to it and that's the reason I put it up here. While some of his contention is supported by references, some are very questionable as he uses a lot of "may", "likely", "has shown to (without further reference)". Not very assuring from a person so knowledgeable.

To quote some of his verdicts:

HARMFUL EFFECTS OF FLUORIDE Fluoride is used as an insecticide and a roach killer. Even at the level they use to fluoridate your public water supply, usually at the rate of about 1 part fluoride for every million parts of water (1 ppm) by weight, it causes severe problems. As little as one-tenth of an ounce of fluoride will cause death. It is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. No one will die from drinking one glass of fluoridated water, but it is the long term chronic effects of drinking fluoridated water that affects health. Dental fluorosis is one of the earlier signs of fluoride poisoning, appearing in mild cases as a chalky area on the tooth, and in more advanced cases, teeth become yellow brown or black and the tips break off. Fluoride in the drinking water leads to fluoride levels in tissues and organs which damage enzymes. This results in a wide range of chronic diseases. Fluoride weakens the immune system and may cause allergic type reactions including dermatitis, eczema and hives. It causes birth defects and genetic damage. Fluoride is likely to aggravate kidney disease, diabetes and hypothyroidism. The amount consumed in drinking water has been shown to lower thyroid activity in humans. It also causes the breakdown of collagen which results in wrinkling of the skin and the weakening of ligaments, tendons and muscles.

If you happened to have received the same email, I can tell you this issue is very much debatable. Some studies suggest that fluoride is necessary at a controlled/low dosage to prevent tooth decay, and some suggest cautious usage.

Yiamouyiannis, John, Ph.D suggest that it is solely due to the need to dump this by-product of the aluminium industry and the phosphate fertilizer that people start to justify fluoride use.

Others have mixed opinions:

1) MSN Health says A Little Fluoride Goes a Long Way" in support of its uses.
2) Disabled-World.com thinks that "Children Should use Fluoridated Toothpaste"
3) There are some warnings and recommendations for children using fluoridated toothpaste. A good read here.

Finally, you may want to know if the toothpastes you use contain fluoride. Mostly yes! The two brands I have used in the past are both fluoridated. Read about Darlie and Colgate and find out for yourself.


Be in the know and decide for yourself. A chat with your dentist friend would be a good idea.

BTW, is there any dentist around, reading this?

SESB: Loss of revenue due to power theft

AWAS! Stealing electricity can kill! I will not elaborate but there was this recent case near us reported in the local newspaper.

Well, that's the least I can say about power theft. I can always report funny activities by unscrupulous individual or group to SESB but that is all. In fact that is the best we, the ordinary citizen can do. After that it's really down to the licence holder/s of power supply to act.

I read a recent news published by Bernama about power theft by squatters or immigrants in Tenom. SESB denied that this ever happened as "upon inspection" there was no connection (read no cable found, no trace of joint) to the Sport Complex.

Come on now! You can't go and inspect after it was already in the news. If I were to be that thief, I'd have remove all my cables and fittings by the time your personnel made a move. Surely the folks must've inform somebody at the regional office discreetly before going public.

There were cases of power theft by squatters near Arkib Negeri sometime ago and what SESB did was to remove the "hook" connectors on the overhead lines and as expected the illegal connection was intact again few days later. Can we not go to the root of the problem rather than treating just the symptoms. (this particular problem was solved by the construction of Ujana Rimba Tropika recreational park as there was no more space for the squatting houses). But what about the many other places that are still leaking precious energy?

REVENUE LOSS OF RM3 MILLION A YEAR! I'm quoting New Sabah Times.

That is what SESB quoted a couple of years ago regarding loss of revenue due to power theft in Sabah. That is a lot of money. Say a unit of energy cost RM0.30 on average. BTW our tariff is tiered so take this figure as approximation. With that kind of unpaid bill, the energy loss is about 11 million kWH.

That's not very green way to manage energy I'd say!

The 11mil kWH can power up:

1) Two 40-50 MLD of water treatment plant for a whole ONE year, or
2) Three 3/4-star hotel in Kota Kinabalu, such as Hyatt, Promenade, for ONE whole year, or
3) Two medium sized sawmills in Sandakan for ONE whole year!!

Why waste the precious energy when the state is faced with insufficient electrical power supply? Is it because the RM3mil is not my and your money? Well, it is partly mine and yours. Are we talking too much, pacifying, and forget about taking action once the hu-ha is over? It's a shame!

So, act on eradicating the power theft. Not just concentrating on disconnecting the supply of registered consumers after one or two month of default in payment. These are soft target so less resources is required to carry out enforcement.

I say go greener by putting effort to stop 10mil kWH of wastage and spare mother earth of further warming. At the same time save yourself a couple of million of Ringgit in the process.

Stop wasting, stop procrastinating and stop the power theft!

Semoga berjaya!

Water Lily

There are many types of water lily and one that is in this article is the ‘unwanted’ lilies. You can find them growing in the wild but save your horses for a trip to the mountains and caves, for that trip to some bird sanctuary you’ve been itching to go, and head instead to the drains of Donggongon in Penampang. Drain sounds a little less than interesting place to shoot flowers, no? Think about the kind of affluent that the drain might be carrying, the little produce of the less-than-responsible people doing their business there. You know, those squatters, perhaps.

So, getting your feet in the ‘fertile’ drain may not be your first option. Forget about setting up a tripod for a macro and close-up shot down there. Go for hand-held method, crank up the ISO and dial the shutter speed to 1/300s to 1/500s to beat the camera shake. Shoot when Mr Sun is not shining directly on the flowers; a good day would be during cloudy morning. This will give you generally more saturated colours – according to some literature I read somewhere. But that make sense, because the camera metering system will be more at ease as the lighting is less tricky.

Okay, I said no tripod. If you are serious about getting the best result, just ignore what I’ve just said and get yourself half soaked in water. Believe me, you’ll get better images than the samples you see here; miles better!

Don’t worry if you are a beginner – coz I’m a beginner myself. And I keep shooting no matter what.

It all start with a banana-heart shaped bud

The green petals slowly turn to its eventual colour, pink.

Lens fully extended to 200mm.

There’s no way you can tidy up your background if you don’t get your feet into the water.

Cropped

Like us, the lily will grow old and die eventually. New buds will shoot up and entertain the spectator with new blooms.

Other alternative is to take a walk in the park in Tanjung Aru and get to shoot a different species of lily. Such as these:

Now where’s the bigger version of this shot. I can’t be kidding with this tiny thumb-size pic, can I?

Ahaa! Sea of lilies. This was more than a year ago when I’ve just bought my D90 and still struggling to fiddle with the cam features.

Happy Shooting...!!!