Maui state district health officer
Lorrin Pang used his position and state email account to assist anti-GMO activists and
organizations, according to emails released in response to a Freedom
of Information Act request.
The request — made by Stephan
Neidenbach, author of the "We Love GMOs and Vaccines" Facebook page —
sought copies of all emails exchanged between Pang and 16 individuals
and groups highly visible in the anti-GMO movement over the past four
years.
In response, the state Department of
Health released records showing Pang had used his state email account
to advance the agenda of Center for Food Safety (CFS) and GM Watch
over the past nine months.
[T]hank you so much for thinking of us
and spreading the word in the medical community.
Pang also solicited publication of an
anti-GMO paper in a European publication in association with Claire
Robinson, an editor for the rabid GM Watch and
member of the GMO Free USA advisory board.
Though Pang has long been active in the
anti-GMO movement, he has always claimed that he was acting as a
private citizen, and not in his official state capacity, which would pose a serious conflict of interest.
In other Maui news, Council candidate
and anti-GMO activist Trinette Furtado filed a financial disclosure statement in which she claims she is unemployed, with no income other
than food stamps. She also lists student debts in the range of $25,000 to $49,999.
Trinette is one of those who celebrated news that HC&S was shutting down, even though the plantation had
employed three generations of her family, allowing her to attend UH.
It's unclear how she lives without income, or why she's devoting herself to fulltime activism when she has no work, but substantial debt.
Meanwhile, Center for Food Safety is
gearing up to fight the federal government's approved release of
genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, pending a
citizen vote this fall. The “self-limiting mosquitoes” are
intended to help suppress the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like
dengue and Zika because their offspring die before they can reach maturity.
As Reuters previously reported — and my own
interviews with researchers confirmed — the genetically engineered
mosquitoes have been effective in reducing populations of
disease-spreading mosquitoes in Brazil. Officials reported a significant drop
in dengue cases in areas where the mosquitoes were released.
CFS claimed:
In Panama, Brazil and Malaysia, where
the company has already released the GE mosquitoes, people could not
avoid breathing in and swallowing mosquitoes due to the vast number
of mosquitoes released.
Not that the group was able to document
that any harm did, or even could, result from ingesting GE mosquitoes —
assuming such a thing even happened at all.
It's interesting, because CFS wants the
government to look instead at introducing Wolbachia, a natural bacterium, into mosquitoes to prevent the viruses from growing inside the insect.
Yet CFS has vigorously opposed use of
another natural bacterium — Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt — to
create genetically engineered crops with insect resistance.
Typically, government agencies use
insecticides — including truck-mounted and aerial spraying — to control adult
mosquitoes and larvae. But CFS is also opposed to pesticide use, and
authorities said spraying is a “lost cause” that has no impact on
the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue and zika.
“We cannot spray our way out of
this," said Umair Shah, executive director of Harris
County, Texas, Public Health and Environmental Services, at a
national summit on Zika preparedness in April.
Just something for Hawaii to think
about as the Zika cases mount, along with opposition to GMOs and
pesticides, putting both farm workers and the valuable tourism industry at risk.
Posts
28 comments:
This is deeply disturbing. Dr. Pang is more than entitled to hold political and scientific opinions and to express them in his capacity as a private citizen, outside of his state employment. But when--as these emails clearly show he does--he uses his state email account for such communications, it steps very far over the line. He is, in effect, putting the official government imprimatur of the Department of Health on the CFS report, among other things. This is completely inappropriate and is not consistent with Dr. Pang remaining a public employee.
The administration needs to finally boot Pang out and stop being so damn scared of his threat to file a whistle blower protection claim.
This impermissible conflict has been tolerated too long!
It's a disgrace.
Shocking News!Scandalous! Pang should hang!
You're next, Hector.......
The should hand Pang a hula hoe and put him to work getting rid of guinea grass- something useful for a change. Then they can hire someone else to do the job but not another sterling credentialed misfit.
You know that there's a few murdered to look like suicides by hanging on Kauai
That's it? That's all you got on Pang? He is a state public health officer, he is supposed to assist and help groups and individuals involved in issues pertaining to health. He does not give up his opinion or public health perspective just because he works for the state. You guys are way to much over the top. "Gotcha" you think? I don't think so. This is much ado about zip.
If the subject matter in these emails to anti-GMO advocates is not simply just facts that his office is providing, but rather his personal opinions and rhetoric for furthering the campaign on GE crops, then Mr. Pang should be let go. Using paid government time to conduct not government business while using government property (computers) to do so is just cause for dismissal. However, if Mr. Pang was simply responding to questions asked by the public ... including anti-GMO constituents ... then I see nothing here. The real proof is in the content of the emails not who the emails were sent to. Is there a smoking gun there?
Yes, Hector Valenzuela does the very same thing. Possibly even worse because he promotes himself as being an expert in pesticide toxicology. His job with the University of Hawaii is as the Cooperative Extension Service Vegetable Extension Specialist. As long as he is restricting his public presentations to that arena he can use University CTAHR template slides all he wants. Once he starts projecting himself as an expert in other fields he needs to stop displaying any UH or UHCTAHR template slide or handout material. He is perfectly welcome to make any presentation he likes. But, if it is not in his field of expertise then it is simply opinion for which he has no right to portray UH documentation as supporting his position. Many people take that kind of presentation as being valid or authoritative when it is, in fact, only his opinion. In this country we have freedom of speech. That means we can open our big mouths and stick our foot in as deep as it will go but if the area of expertise of the presenter is not what is being presented then, and I will say it again, it is just opinion and opinion only! So, thank you for your opinions Hector and Lorrin. Now, get out of the way and let those who know better do their job!
Why on earth are you questioning the unemployed status of a candidate for public office? Why not publish your own financial status instead?
August 11, 2016 at 3:51 PM Why don't you read the job description of a Hawaii District Health Officer before sounding off about Pang's talking out of school. He works under the direction of health program directors and within department guidelines whether he likes it or not. And he clearly doesn't feel he has to abide by that. He's not hired to freelance for CFS and he should get the chop.
https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/1420033/district-health-officer-m-d-es-03-kauai
You industry hacks are reaching. Seriously this is the best you can do? You should request the email from KVMH and DOA during the time Syngenta workers got poisoned by chlorpyrifos if you are looking for something interesting (I can hear the shredders firing up right now). That incident has been buried so deep we will never see the report about what really happened. The DOA and all the other government agencies who were so concerned about it have let it fade away quietly. Meanwhile the workers have all been shipped back to wherever they came from. Why don't you write about this Joan? Or would your masters object if you started turning over a few of these rocks?
6:33. First, I don't have masters. Second, I have reported on this, several times. No workers were poisoned. A few were exposed, but quickly cleared by KVMH doctors with no directives for further evaluation or treatment. Nobody was "shipped back;" they worked until their contracts were pau. The EPA investigated, and to the best of my knowledge Syngenta was not fined or cited. So perhaps it all just faded away because it never was a big deal. Hooser, Earthjustice and CFS just tried to make it into one.
But I have heard that a worker at KVMH -- an anti-GMO sympathizer -- was releasing information to fellow activists in violation of HIPAA laws, and mixing up case histories in the process. So yeah, that might be worth digging into, to see if that person was disciplined or fired.
Nothing like a conspiracy hack talking about government shredders and calling out "industry hacks". What really happened? The workers entered a field 4 hours before the label's 24 hour reentry time. And that label has a built in safety factor (set by EPA to broaden the conspiracy for you) since the reentry time is shorter for other crops. How can you say anything fades away quietly against a background of noise like yours? Write about it yourself, since it would be really interesting to learn how much more you don't really know.
How is someone unemployed and on food stamps qualified to be on the Council and manage a budget? smh
7:38- Smh. How about barring unemployed and homeless from holding county council office? They obviously have no redeeming qualifications. Shame on them for holding such lofty aspirations.
Hey, Joan, I recall that Dr. Pang did not file his financial disclosure statement as required. Do you know if he ever filed it? Certainly would be interesting to see any financial affiliations he may have. And how does a public servant get away with not filing the disclosure?
6:33.
My nephew was one of those people. He said it was the silliest thing he ever saw. The worker came on the field about 10 minutes early after a 24 hour wait period. The exposure was hundreds of times less than spraying a cockroach in a home.
Can't get a job and yet she wants us to put her in government? Not likely!
That's just what we need more of in government. Another person who can't handle their own life legislating what we must do with ours.
everything is contaminated and on its way to being dead thats downwind of west kauai, including niihau and all the marine reserve 1000s of miles north as well. also the marianas all the way to japan and east asia. its all the fault of the seed company pesticides on west kauai. it has been said that at the deepest depths of the marianas trench (the deepest of the deep) the squids are deformed which makes the whales die. it is also poisoning the penguins from alaska to the north pole. some say that if this is not addressed, santa claus may postpone or even cancel christmas until further notice, all because of the fkn seed companies on kauai. if you vote for gary hooser ,he will bring back christmas and all will live happily ever after, amen
11:48 @ August 11. Hope your rant was meant to be sarcasm. If not, you're in deep kimchee shit. Your thoughts echo Hooser's views. He'll soon be dispatched from the scene in November.
@10:48 And what exactly does having a job have to do with being qualified for office? I know many who currently have no paid work, but who are qualified, some even more so than those who are presently in office. I would not be proud of myself for being prejudiced against those who have no paid work.
I never did see a penguin in Alaska or the north pole. Never did see a Polar Bear attack a Penguin in the north pole. Unless the penguin swam from the south pole to the north pole. Big difference Artic vs. Antartica. Criticize the west side ditches all you like, anti-gmo still surf Pakalas and Intas. Penguins Up. I mean surfs up and Penguins down under.
Furtado is very likely to be receiving financial backing that she is not disclosing, and I would guess is not from Maui. Is like "uncle rite", traveling all over the islands, weekly. Where is the money coming from?
The Pang story is nothing new, I wonder how much of his paid time (by the county) is devoted to promote his crazy agenda.
Kauai As Why.
After I got out of the Air Force, I didn't have a paying job for 5 years. I was busy doing "other stuff". OTOH, I don't think I'd ever run for public office since I don't like people all that much and I'm not very good a lying (or is that framing the conversation in a way the listener will hear what they want to hear rather than what I'm saying.) I was living on savings, in case anyone cares to know.
Thom Hartman reports that Hunter-Gatherer societies only spend 2-3 hours a day taking care of the basics of life. The rest of the time is spent what might be called "Studying the Humanities". (Talk Story for instance.) Do we really want our lives to be defined by how much money we make?
If the GMO mosquitos work they way they are advertised, I'd support them. I only would like to see this stuff tested more thoroughly. (Yes, I know, "How much Testing is enough?" Good question.
That alien dude from Lilo and Stitch is still on Kauai. He won't let harm come to the endangered mosquitoes.
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