Last month in Huffington, Lynne Peeples wrote about our society's unacceptably slow progress in the half-century since Rachel Carson sounded the alarm about the dangers of exposure to chemicals. This week, Katherine Bindley tells a story that puts flesh and blood on that failure -- and the nightmarish consequences of not heeding Carson's warning.
The town is Briarcliff Manor, an affluent New York suburb, where in 1998 the local school district made a deal allowing a trucking company to dump construction debris on school grounds in return for building athletic fields. At the time, such deals were common. But the Briarcliff fields have come under scrutiny as eight students who gathered there over the years -- for sports practice, pep rallies, and bonfires -- have developed cancer.
One student, Demetri Demeropoulos, died from a spinal cord tumor at 18. Others, like Nicholas Mazzilli, have been successfully treated -- though parents worry about long-term effects. Parents are contemplating suing the school, which has responded not by cleaning the field but by hiring consultants to disprove the harmfulness of the soil's contents. Environmental experts say a link between the field debris and the cancer diagnoses, while possible, cannot be proved conclusively.
But Max Costa, NYU's chair of environmental medicine, puts it best: "This is not a good thing to do, use a waste dump site to build a ball field for kids to play on... I don't care how much the levels are or what could have happened: it's playing with a time bomb and you don't know. You don't know what you could be doing to these kids." Katherine Bindley's story is part small town mystery, part bureaucratic nightmare, and part cautionary tale about the consequences of not taking every possible measure to protect our children.
Elsewhere in this week's issue, HuffPost's New York editor-at-large Dan Collins reports on a very different kind of mystery: the glamorous, lucrative and shamelessly corrupt world of wine counterfeiting. It's a winding tale of intrigue and deception, and in Dan Collins' telling it takes on the quality of a Hollywood screenplay. There's Rudy Kurniawan, the brash young wine collector who treats his friends to rare Burgundys and vintage Bordeauxs -- and then asks the restaurant to ship the empty bottles to his home. There's Don Cornwell, "winedom's No. 1 detective," who trails the slippery Kurniawan in "an elaborate game of cat and mouse." There are the wine industry professionals who look the other way while Kurniawan and his friends bankroll lavish lifestyles with dubious -- and easily disprovable -- claims at wine auction sales. Then there are the connoisseurs, enthusiasts and industry insiders who perpetuate the deception -- to salve their egos, and their bank accounts. As Collins writes, "Rather than blowing the whistle on a counterfeiter, many duped buyers prefer to recoup their losses by reselling the phony wine to other unsuspecting buyers." A high-end twist on pay-it-forward.
Will the nefarious Kurniawan continue to dupe and swindle his way into high society? Will Cornwell get his man? Read on to find out. It's a true crime story that mystifies and delights, best enjoyed over a rare Roumier, a '47 Lafleur -- or perhaps a $12 California cabernet, just to be on the safe side.
This story appears in our new weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, available in the iTunes App store.
Or a nice garancha, tempranillo or rioja...or maybe a Texas Red? All for under $12 a bottle- unless you prefer Italian:-)
First assume that all people are motivated by greed and let them prove that assumption wrong.
I take issue with Arianna's statement that those in the wine world are, at best, apathetic about it &, at worst, opportunists.
The top classified bordeaux & burgundy (which is what these people are hoarding, for the most part) are shipped from their producers in specially sealed wood boxes. Not even the smallest wine shop or restaurant will put money down on one of these wines unless it comes in one of these boxes.
When you get to the auction world, where some of these wines are from people's collections, the auctioneer is responsible to verify authenticity, as they are completely liable to their customers.
For those buying through back channels, you get what you deserve.
Thankfully, I have been successful in accommodating my wine preferences with under $12 wines. Wine snobs and the naive think that they are getting better wines simply because of the higher cost. I am currently enjoying a very inexpensive wine from Chile that I have found to be better than some very expensive bottles that I have tried. The selection of a wine should only be based on purely personal preference and not on the hyperbole spread about.
Living in a metropolitan area, large numbers of people that I know suffer from some sort of chronic irritating allergic manifestation. I suggest to those people that they fill their homes all sorts of plants and foliage. Though it appears that earths greenery has not be enough to offset the tremendous amounts of pollution be generated, it can possibly be offset within the confines of one's home.
As for the bit about the wine, I have often wondered how one measures the taste of a truly expensive bottle of wine ? Who would open it, when it cost several thousands. What an adventure for the sommelier to open it and prevent the cork from breaking or the unthinkable...it gets sent back because the patron does not like the taste.
Now and again an inexpensive wine tastes better anyway.
Biggi
http://www.simplyburgenland.blogspot.com
As it officially has not been deemed unsafe, it is not considered a problem.
Also, I think, most of the public schools are short of funds to cover expenses, and the Cell companies do have a lot of dosh to throw around....
Let's hope it will change soon.
Biggi
To be honest wines vary and people vary, and I don’t care how expensive French wine is no, I simply don’t like it.
Sometimes I go to wine specialists who are genuinely enthusiastic about wine and they carry many a fine one. However because I look at so much and cant help mumbling to myself, they think I’m one of theirs, an amateur sommelier who has a vast repertoire of vineyard, weather record.
Now I’ve had a meal where the wine was matched by the worlds no one sommelier for that year, don’t know who, but it was fantastic so they do really know their stuff. The food made the wine taste better than the wine also, I’d love to be able to do that, but in the wine shop I dispense with aroma, nuttiness, hits of tobacco e.t.c. the usual chat, and cut straight to asking for a good violent south American wine the kind that bludgeons you.
They stand back a bit and discuss further things but I usually ask then if they understand what I mean.
Unfortunately no. Its like a richness that drives you crazy, that’s what I look for in wine,.
Now because of this article, I’m wondering is it the anti-freeze?
Ps not a 1%er, far form it