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Water Pollution Results In Deformities In Amphibians

As if fighting against known diseases, or new super-strains of those diseases, weren't already enough of a challenge for modern science, consider the fact that various news agencies have also reported stories of viruses which are believed to be either completely new, or at least which have never been seen in the United States before. Consider the next several reports which were also released during the months of August and September of 1999:

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Doctors Say 37 Now Sick In New York Virus Outbreak

Public health officials raised the number of reported cases to 37 on Sunday in New York's outbreak of a West Nile-like virus that is blamed for the deaths of four people. Two other deaths outside New York City -- one in suburban Westchester County and the other in Toronto -- are now blamed on the disease. In the Canadian case, a 75-year-old man died a few days after he visited the New York borough of Queens, Canadian officials say. The case has not been confirmed by U.S. officials.

. . .

Bird Virus Blamed For New York Encephalitis Death

Federal researchers now say a bird virus previously unseen in the Western Hemisphere caused at least one of three New York City deaths originally blamed on St. Louis encephalitis, health officials said Sunday. Researchers are reviewing three deaths and 15 illnesses that occurred in New York during the past month after the discovery in dead birds last week of a virus usually found only in Africa and Asia.

. . .

New Strain Of Encephalitis Identified In New York Birds

Health officials have identified a strain of encephalitis never before seen in the Western Hemisphere in several bird specimens found in the metropolitan New York area. The discovery of this new strain, known as the West Nile virus, has raised questions about whether 18 recently reported cases of encephalitis stem from the St. Louis variety of the virus or the new one.

. . .

Two More Encephalitis Cases Confirmed

NEW YORK (AP) -- As the city prepared to complete the first round of aerial and ground spraying to combat mosquito-borne encephalitis, two more cases of the potentially deadly disease were confirmed.

The latest cases, a 15-year-old boy who has been hospitalized and a 38-year-old woman who health officials say appears to have recovered, bring the total number of confirmed cases to 11. Three of those have died.

"Until now, the youngest person who had a confirmed case was 58 years old," said city Health Department director Neal Cohen. "Younger people, given stronger immune response, generally have milder forms of the illness."

The city is awaiting lab results for 65 other people who may have been infected with the St. Louis strain, including a 79-year-old woman who died Saturday in the Queens borough.

St. Louis encephalitis can cause seizure, paralysis and swelling of the brain that is sometimes fatal, especially to infants, the elderly and people with immune deficiency. Its symptoms include fever, headache and lethargy.

. . .

Potential New Deadly Virus Reported

The deaths of at least 34 young children in Malaysia may be due to a mystery virus which causes massive brain and heart collapse, say researchers. The children, aged five months to seven years old, died within just five months in Sarawak. . . The deaths were initially blamed on an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease. But all the children who died had a fever which rapidly progressed to heart and lung failure, suggesting both their brain and heart had been affected by the virus . . .

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Fighting against all of these known and unknown diseases presents a major challenge to the world's medical community; particularly in light of the fact that the Earth's population has now reached six billion citizens, many of which live in crowded cities which provide the ideal environment for the rapid spread of plagues of epidemic proportions. However, the pathogenic nightmare does not end there. In recent years world governments have had to confront a new threat, which in reality, is the offspring of their own evil technology. Consider the following excerpts taken from a CNN special report on the twentieth century:

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Bioterrorism, Plagues Pose Threat

But some scientific circles are not as optimistic, especially when it comes to mankind's inevitable next brush with an epidemic -- including a possible man-made crisis.

A paper recently issued by the Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins University warns that smallpox, "because of its high case-fatality rates and transmissibility, now represents one of the most serious bioterrorist threats to the civilian population."

"It is possible that smallpox virus fortifies the arsenals of terrorist groups or some nations," the British medical journal The Lancet notes in a May 8, 1999, editorial. "Some experts fear that the release of smallpox virus into the population, whether by mistake or intent, may be only a matter of time."

Live samples of smallpox are now known to exist in only two laboratories -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and the Russian State Center for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo.

An international controversy has been brewing over whether those centers should destroy their stocks -- or hold on to the samples for future research. In May 1999, the World Health Organization voted to delay destruction until 2002 at the latest.

Dr. Donald A. Henderson, director at the Johns Hopkins center, also warns of future plagues by as-yet-undetermined biological threats.

"We are regularly detecting new viruses, new organisms," he says. "There's a constant process of mutation and change. Because of travel, people moving rapidly, penetrating areas they haven't been before, the large, huge cities people now live in -- there are all sorts of reasons for all sorts of diseases to emerge."

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Thus we see that while some evil governments of the world, like the United States of America, have introduced us to chemical and biological warfare, in the end, they may fall victim to the creations of their own hands. But then this should not really surprise us; for as the Apostle Paul wrote:

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."


While conducting my research for this series, I also came across the following interesting report which caught my eye. How ironic that in this current age of selfish and perverted sex, where men and women both resort to all kinds of birth control methods, from condoms, to diaphragms, to creams, to withdrawal, to the rhythm method, to abortion, etc., so that they can enjoy the feeling, but not have to pay the price of parenthood, in addition to AIDS and other STD's, or Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the Lord has also apparently seen fit to strike men with a low sperm count:

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Sperm Counts Dropping Dramatically

British scientists are set to carry out their biggest-ever study into male reproductive health -- including why sperm counts across the globe appear to be falling dramatically, researchers said Monday.

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While you may find this a bit difficult to believe, I recall reading quite a few years ago, that the physical source of the above-described problem, may actually be related to what kind of briefs a man wears. According to biologists, it is because of the fact that a man's testicles hang outside of his body, which results in a slightly lower temperature of the same, that they are a more conducive environment for the production of the male gamete, or sperm. If we consider the fact that it has only been in the past fifty years or so, that "Fruit-Of-The-Loom" type briefs have replaced what are known in the United States as loose-fitting "boxer shorts", and that this new type of more tightly-fitting briefs holds a man's testicles closer to his body, thus slightly raising their temperature, it should come as no surprise then that the sperm count appears to be dropping.

If you are a couple who has been desperately trying to have a child, but has thus far been unsuccessful at doing so, may I suggest that the man switches to "boxer shorts" for a few months, in order to see if your results improve. You never know; you just might be pleasantly surprised; but please give it some time and a fair chance, so that the man's sperm count will rise again first.

While I have thus far discussed diseases which have a direct effect on the human body from the inside, these are not the only ways in which the Lord appears to be chastising this foolish and rebellious world, which has chosen to either ignore His existence altogether, or at least to defy both the Natural Laws and the Spiritual Laws which He has laid down in His Word. There are other external, non-corporal plagues which are having an equally detrimental effect on the health of the world's populace. These plagues, some of which are the result of man's own wasteful and destructive lifestyle, include such things as air and water pollution.

Hong Kong On A Clear Day

Hong Kong Four Days Later

Even though it has been over two decades since I last lived there, I can still remember the terrible air pollution which plagues Mexico City. In the central district known as the Zocalo, the degree of pollution was such at that time, that just a few minutes walking on the street next to the snarled traffic would cause one's eyes to really burn, and force him to cover his nose and mouth. I can only imagine how much further the situation has deteriorated since that time, as that giant metropolis has continued to grow and to develop, due to the steady influx of poor "campesinos" from the rural areas, who flock to the capital in droves seeking financial opportunity; many of whom never find it, and end up sitting on blankets on city street corners selling red, sugar-coated peanuts called "garrapiñados" and other treats and trinkets, to passers-by.


The steady flow of news reports concerning air and water pollution which have filled the airwaves, as well as the pages of the world press during the past four decades are indeed many. To even begin to thoroughly discuss this topic would require a lot of time and space; and would undoubtedly overburden you, the reader. That being the case, allow me to share with you just a few of these reports which help to emphasize the seriousness of this deadly menace:

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Report: More Than Half The World's Rivers In Serious Trouble

More than half the world's major rivers are going dry or are polluted, a panel studying global water problems reports. The fouling of the waterways and surrounding river basins contributed to the total of 25 million environmental refugees last year, for the first time exceeding the world's 21 million war-related refugees, said the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century.

. . .

Mysterious Pollution Turns Surfing Mecca Into Ghost Town

The usual atmosphere at Huntington Beach has been crashed by thousands of gallons of bacteria. For nearly eight weeks, health officials have closed section after section of the 8-mile beach trying to find the source of a sewage leak. The problem surfaced in late June when sanitation officials found unhealthy levels of bacteria, including extremely high levels of enterococcous -- known to cause gastrointestinal and respiratory infections. It now threatens Bolsa Chica State Beach to the north.

. . .

EPA Proposes Regulation Of Radon In Water

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Tuesday for the first time to regulate the amount of radon in drinking water, urging a strategy that would allow less stringent controls on water supplies if states take aggressive action to curtail radon in indoor air. Radon, a naturally occurring gas that comes from soil, has been linked to thousands of cases of lung cancer and is second only to smoking in causing lung cancer.


Air Pollution Kills, But Deaths Can Be Prevented

Eight thousand people a day die from illnesses caused by air pollution but some simple preventative steps and increased monitoring could lessen the toll, according to a recently released report by Australia's Commonwealth Science Council. Of the 3 million annual deaths, 2.8 million are from indoor air pollution. Ninety percent of the deaths occur in developing countries, according to World Health Organization estimates.

. . .

Smog Sends 53,000 To Hospital Each Summer - Report

Smog sends 53,000 people to the hospital each summer and triggers more than 6 million asthma attacks in the eastern United States, according to estimates released on Tuesday by clean air activists. Smog created in the summer is called ground-level ozone, the main culprit in what environmentalists believe is a public health crisis generated by coal-fired power plants.

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Directly related to air pollution is another deadly form of pollution which ultimately results in the death of some four million people worldwide annually; and the death toll is on the rise. This particular kind of pollution is extremely subtle; and quite often it remains invisible until it is too late to reverse its deadly effects. What is so tragic about this form of pollution, is that not only could it be easily prevented, but it could be completely eradicated, if more people would take control of their own wills, bodies, and lives, and force the American government, as well as other governments of the world, to close down the irresponsible, greedy companies which fuel this form of pollution. I am referring to none other than the tobacco industry. Sadly, the American tobacco industry possesses a lot of money; and it has an extremely powerful lobby in Washington, D.C. As proof of this, consider the following report which was issued in October of 1998 by the Common Dreams News Wire online service:

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Big Tobacco Lobbying Costs $81,000 Per Member of Congress in First Half of 1998; Industry Blows Away Previous Record

WASHINGTON - October 29 - Big Tobacco fired up an intense lobbying campaign in the first half of 1998, spending more than $43 million on high-priced, insider lobbyists -- an astonishing 174 percent increase from the same period in 1997, according to a Public Citizen report released today.

    "Big Tobacco paid lobbyists unprecedented amounts to keep crucial public health legislation from being passed," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "This money helped buy early deaths for thousands of teen smokers and will leave an enduring stain on our society as American families struggle with tobacco-related fatalities and injuries well into the next century."

    The $43.3 million in lobbying expenses reported by six tobacco companies and three industry trade groups breaks all previous spending records set by the tobacco industry, according to the report, Blowing Smoke, an analysis based on lobbying disclosures for the first half of the year.

    "This remarkable attempt to buy influence through lobbying, while considerable, reveals only a fraction of the money Big Tobacco spent last year to thwart tobacco control legislation," Claybrook said. "The tobacco companies spent millions on grassroots campaign expenditures that are not required to be reported. They spent at least $40 million for TV and other advertising, and another $5.6 million has been spent so far in this election cycle to influence the outcome of federal elections through soft money and PAC contributions. They spare no expense when it comes to protecting their profits, even at the cost of millions of lives."

    Of the $5.6 million in soft money and PAC contributions, $4.3 million -- 77 percent -- went to Republicans, and $1.3 million -- 23 percent -- to Democrats.

    While the tobacco companies were able to block passage of a strong, pro-health tobacco control bill, they were unsuccessful in their efforts to pass a sweetheart settlement deal that would have let them off the hook for the death and disease caused by their products and for decades of lying about the dangers of tobacco. The industry sought broad protections from legal liability and once those protections were stripped from the tobacco bill, the industry began to withdraw its support for the legislation.

    In the first six months of the year, according to the report:

* Big Tobacco's $43.3 million in lobbying expenditures represents a 174 percent increase over the first half of 1997 and a 22 percent increase over the $35.5 million spent in all of 1997. It represents a total industry expenditure averaging $81,000 per member of Congress.

* Tobacco companies besieged the Capitol with an army of 192 lobbyists -- one for every three members of Congress.These lobbyists included at least seven former senators and representatives and at least 18 ex-congressional staff members. Also included were big-name politicians, including former Texas Gov. Ann Richards and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, both Democrats, as well as former executive branch members and Haley Barbour, formerly head of the Republican National Committee.

* Brown and Williamson was the top spender, reporting $18.2 million in expenditures in the first six months -- a whopping 1,000 percent increase over the previous year's $1.7 million in spending. Philip Morris more than doubled its lobbying expenses from the prior year, reporting $14.4 million in expenditures, compared with $7 million the year before.

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To emphasize how serious the tobacco problem really is on a worldwide scale, consider the following alarming information which can be found at the World Health Organization, (WHO), website:

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About Tobacco and Treatment

* Tobacco use is widespread. At the beginning of this decade at least one-third of the global adult population, or 1.1 billion people, used tobacco. Although overall tobacco use is decreased in many developed countries, it increased in most developing countries. An estimated 48% of men and 7% of women in developing countries smoked; in industrialized countries, 42% of men and 24% of women smoked, representing a marked increase among women. Tobacco use is a pediatric epidemic, as well. Most tobacco use starts during childhood and adolescence.

* Tobacco kills. A long-term tobacco user has a 50% chance of dying prematurely from tobacco-caused disease. Each year, tobacco causes some 4 million premature deaths, with 1 million of these occurring in countries that can least afford the health-care burden. This epidemic is predicted to kill 250 million children and adolescents who are alive today, a third of whom live in developing countries. By the year 2030, tobacco likely will be the world's leading cause of death and disability, killing more than 10 million people annually and claiming more lives than HIV, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and homicide combined.

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Despite the fact that humanity in general is more than aware of the health hazards related to inhaling cigarette smoke, and using other tobacco-related products, in confirmation of the previous WHO report, a November 1999 report from CNN also indicates that this global evil is on the rise, and that millions of foolish people continue to cut their lives short needlessly:

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More People Smoking Despite Known Health Risks

(CNN) -- Thursday is the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smoke Out," a day smokers around the country are encouraged to kick the habit. Despite millions of dollars in state spending for anti-smoking campaigns, more adults and teens are smoking now than in the early 1990s.

In 1991, 28 percent of high school age teen-agers said they had smoked in the past month. By 1997, the most recent figures available, that number jumped to 36 percent. And young adults aren't doing much better. Smoking among 18 to 24 year-olds has increased from 25 percent in 1990 to 29 percent in 1997

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I am truly amazed by the way so many foolish people have been duped and enticed into smoking and chewing their lethal products, and thus gradually filling their lungs with tar, and encouraging the growth of cancerous cells, through silly advertising campaigns, which have sported such "heroes" of the industry as the macho Marlboro Man, graceful Virginia Slim and cool Joe Camel. It would be ludicrous, if it wasn't so sad. These people, particularly the young people, need to wake up, and stop allowing themselves to be affected by peer pressure, and stupid television and magazine ads. As the Apostle Paul tells us, we are to respect and care for our bodies, and not abuse them, because they are the temples of God's Spirit:

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."


"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."


Ironically, the world's largest tobacco company, which is comprised of Philip Morris U.S.A. and Philip Morris International, is now publicly admitting that cigarette smoking is not safe. In October of 1999, CNN reported the following story:

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Philip Morris Admits Health Hazards Of Smoking

Philip Morris, the world's biggest tobacco company, has admitted publicly that tobacco isn't safe, and is trying to remake its image with a $100 million advertising campaign. "For too long we have let others define who we are," Steven Parrish, senior vice president for corporate affairs for Philip Morris, said. The company has launched a corporate Web site, stating in one section that "there is no 'safe' cigarette."

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After Philip Morris executives have spent decades grossly enriching themselves, and indirectly killing untold millions of people through their subtle marketing campaigns, which draw both young and old into their nicotine snares, they now have the audacity to come forth with this..ahem..remarkable confession; but is this sudden "about face" really all that remarkable? Don't be so easily deceived by such trickery! They are not going to make such a statement, unless they already know that it is going to have a very minimal effect on their overall worldwide profits.

While on the surface, this admission may at first appear to be a responsible move by the tobacco giant, if we consider the fact that the vast majority of cigarette smokers now live outside of the United States of America in non-English speaking countries, and that the vast majority of them will most likely never even become aware of this admission by Philip Morris, then it is easy to see that this so-called "confession" will have very little effect on curbing tobacco sales worldwide; which of course means that company profits will not be significantly affected. That being the case, it seems that this admission of guilt is nothing more than a well-calculated, politically-correct, strategical move in order to reduce the public pressure on its American-based companies, where environmental and health issues often fill the daily news.

To emphasize how minimal the economic loss will be from their statement, consider the fact that according to their website, Philip Morris now employs 144,000 people in 150 countries worldwide. They also boast of having 180 markets worldwide in which they sell their tobacco products. In addition to this, they claim that "In 1998 one out of every six cigarettes sold worldwide was a Philip Morris brand". In plain English, even if they were to lose every single one of their American customers due to their admission, it amounts to very little. So as you can see, Philip Morris can afford to appease the American public by presenting this new image of being a "repentant", responsible, caring tobacco company. Many Americans are naive enough to swallow such hogwash, because they have been swallowing government and commercial propaganda for years.

To conclude this section on the mortal dangers of cigarette smoking, and to further substantiate my claim regarding how the Unites States of America is not Philip Morris' primary market, allow me to share some additional information with you which you will find rather alarming. Please carefully note that the majority of cigarette smokers are found in Europe and Asia, and that only a mere ten per cent live in the United States of America according to this 1993 report:

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Human Resources Development and Operations Policy
HRO Dissemination Notes
Number 1, February, 1993

Added to all the most fearsome plagues (the Black Death, smallpox, malaria, and tuberculosis), a man-made plague--diseases resulting from the smoking, chewing and snuffing of tobacco--is now the leading scourge of the twentieth century. But unlike most microbial plagues, damage to the human body from cigarettes progresses slowly. Approximately five trillion cigarettes are produced each year, or 1,000 cigarettes for each man, woman, and child on earth. Worldwide, consumption is increasing about 2% per year, with the greatest rise occurring in the developing countries and eastern Europe. China is the world's leading consumer of cigarettes (31%), followed by the United States (10%), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (7%), and Japan (6%). Fifty-two percent of cigarettes are consumed in Asia.

Hazards of Tobacco

Tobacco is highly addictive: studies of people who have smoked for many years show grossly higher death rates among smokers than among non-smokers. Most of this excess mortality is caused by tobacco. Overall, more than one-third of all regular cigarette smokers, many of these still in middle age, will be killed by the habit. Smokers lose an average of 20-25 years of non-smoker life expectancy. Tobacco also causes excess morbidity. Up to 14% of all preterm deliveries in the U.S. may be attributable to maternal smoking. Children whose parents smoke experience more respiratory symptoms and have an increased frequency of bronchitis and pneumonia.

Magnitude of the Hazard

The annual global tobacco death toll is already about three million--about 1 million in developing countries-- and will rise to more than ten million by the 2020s according to current trends. Most of this increase will occur in developing countries. Of all the people aged under 20 alive today in China, 50 million will die prematurely from tobacco. For men, the epidemic of premature death from tobacco has already become substantial in all developed countries. The death rates in middle-aged men from all causes are especially high in eastern Europe, one major reason for this being tobacco.

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As we continue our series in part eleven, we will take a look at the scourge of deadly famines which have struck many different parts of the world, particularly the continent of Africa, as well as the many droughts which have occurred in recent years, from Africa to the Middle East to the United States of America to South America and elsewhere. I trust that you will join me.

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