• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Are US Health & Safety Being Compromised?

A

Anonymous

Guest
Mexican Trucks Head for U.S.


Despite objections from highway safety activists and American truck drivers, the Bush administration announced that beginning in April the U.S. will allow Mexican cargo trucks into the U.S.

As part of a plan by U.S. commerical and political elites to integrate America and Mexico, trucks carrying goods produced in Mexico will no longer be restricted to the 25-mile commercial zone inside the U.S. border with Mexico. Previously trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico had to unload their freight at points inside that zone for transfer to American long-distance haulers. Now those same trucks may keep driving north, competing with American truckers for shipping business in a one-year pilot project for an unlimited number of trucks from 100 participating Mexican truck companies. After the project, all carriers will be allowed access to the U.S.

America's commercial leaders applaud the move, seeing it as a way to further enhance their profits. It means that companies that have shifted manufacturing operations to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor can transport their goods into the U.S. without having to hire American truck drivers.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed in 1994, truckers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada were supposed to have full access to highways in all three countries by 2000. But Mexican trucks were denied access to U.S. highways in 1995 because of safety concerns, and Congress rebuffed President Bush's efforts to open the border in 2001. NAFTA was adopted during the left-wing Clinton administration with support from right-wing Republicans.

"The Bush administration is playing Russian roulette with highway safety and national security," said James P. Hoffa, president of the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate's subcommitee on transportation, housing, and urban development, Hoffa charged that Mexican trucks do not meet American safety standards, and the drivers are not required to undergo the same training imposed on U.S. truckers.

"The Mexican government has had 15 years to address truck safety and they have failed miserably," he said. "They have had 15 years to implement a national computer system like the U.S. and they have failed miserably. They have had 15 years to creat driver training and safety programs and they have failed miserably. They have had 15 years to create driver protocols like drug testing and physicals and they have failed miserably."

Just two years ago, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that the Mexican government and Mexican motor carriers did not meet congresionally-mandated requirements.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said U.S. inspectors will travel to Mexico to inspect trucks. But if the truck inspections are carried out with the same diligence the Bush aministration has applied to guarding the border, the project may allow unsafe trucks onto American highways.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-MN, warns that Americans' safety on the roads is at stake.

It is impossible to know how many hours or days a driver has been behind the wheel of a truck in Mexico, without rest, prior to crossing the border and entering our highways. Anecdotal evidence from news reports suggests that working hours for truck drivers in Mexico go far beyond anyone's estimate of a safe, reasonable limit," Oberstar said. "Drug and alcohol testing is another essential element. Without oversight and established controls at collection sites, compliance is very difficult to gauge."

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, agrees.

"Despite the recent agreement to allow U.S. truck safety inspectors into Mexico to conduct safety audits, I am dubious that Mexican trucks or their drivers will meet the same safety and environmental standards as those in the U.S.," DeFazio said. "Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the U.S. has consistently compromised its environmental and labor standards. Now we're being asked to risk the safety of citizens on highways and in communities where these trucks will travel."

During the project, U.S. truckers may ship goods into Mexico, too. But some truck operators say that because of crime and police corruptions, they won't risk going south of the border.

Chris Carr, a senior partner of C.A.T. Memphis trucking company, who manages about 40 trucks, is one of them.

"I don't want to send my trucks into Mexico," he said. "The drivers aren't going to want to go to Mexico because of the crime. It's basically a Third World country. [/b]It's a whole different society and way of life." Carr also worries about whether Mexican truckers who can't speak English will be able to navigate U.S. roadways and reach their destinations safely.

Business and political elites in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada have been working for the last several years on projects and programs to integrate the three countries into a "North American Union." Middle American News reported in August 2005 that the plan, first proposed by the influential Council on Foreign Relations, includes eliminating border restrictions among the three countries. Adopted by the Bush administration as the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the plan calls for creating a single boder perimeter for all three countries, with unlimited and unrestricted movement of goods and people between the countries inside the perimeter.

http://www.manews.org/index.html
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Thanks for the New Disease

Thanks to open-door immigration polices imposed by U.S. elites, a brain infection caused by a parasite normally not found in the U.S. is now a growing healh problem in states bordering Mexico, according to federal health experts.

The disease, neurocysticercosis, is caused by a pork tapeworm that is endemic to Mexico. The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported in February that "international travel and immigration" is bringing the disorder to the U.S. "Neurocysticercosis is the primary cause of epilepsy in endemic areas. This brain worm is very serious," said Victor T. Tsang, chief of immunochemistry in the Parasitic Disease Division of the CDC. "Oral- fecal contamination is the standard route of transmission." He said recent data collected by the CDC indicates that the disease is "an important cause of death in California." Federal health officials reported that "In Hispanics and Latinos, neurocysticercosis accounts for 13.5 percent of [U.S.] emergency room visits for seizures."

They said the increase of U.S. cases "is mainly due to immigration from endemic developing countries." A person infected with the intestinal tapeworm will shed tapeworm eggs in bowel movements. Eggs accidentally swallowed by others cause infection when the worms infect the brain and spinal cord and form cysts. The eggs are often spread through food from infected food handlers. "So if you have people cooking for you or handling your food who are tapeworm carriers and don't have good personal hygiene, you will be exposed to the eggs of the tapeworm," said Tsang.

http://www.manews.org/news.html
 

Latest posts

Top