Fetal tissue used to power Oregon homes

[TexasTowelie]

Source: AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon county commission has ordered an incinerator to stop accepting boxed medical waste to generate electricity after learning the waste it's been burning may include tissue from aborted fetuses from British Columbia.

Sam Brentano, chairman of the Marion County board of commissioners, said late Wednesday the board is taking immediate action to prohibit human tissue from future deliveries at the plant that has been turning waste into energy since 1987.

"We provide an important service to the people of this state and it would be a travesty if this program is jeopardized due to this finding," he said in a statement. "We thought our ordinance excluded this type of material at the waste-to-energy facility. We will take immediate action to ensure a process is developed to prohibit human tissue from future deliveries."

Kristy Anderson, a British Columbia Health Ministry spokeswoman, told The Associated Press that regional health authorities there have a contract with a company that sends biomedical waste, such as fetal tissue, cancerous tissue and amputated limbs, to Oregon, where it's incinerated in the waste-energy plant.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Fetal-tissue-used-to-power-Oregon-homes-5426174.php

[valerief]

1. So will they cremate the stuff instead? nt

[jtuck004]

2. That's what they were doing. In a furnace, 2000 degrees, uses the heat to

boil water which runs turbines which supply electricity.

Now they will be cremated in a different furnace with the costs of pollution or cleanup and no additional benefit such as power generation. And probably new transportation costs.

Ashes either way.

Was reading here the other day about a Scandinavian country, I think, where they cremate the dead and use the heat for homes in a similar manner. Seemed smart then, seems smart now.

[valerief]

14. Right. I was being facetious but it seems absurd to make this change. People are insane. nt

[jtuck004]

15. I was a little too slow picking that up. But yeah, silliness. n/t

[QuestForSense]

3. Too bad they can't incinerate needless government waste.

[newthinking]

4. Notice how they title the story in a way to create rage

The implication being that it is some type of subtle holocaust. Medical waste that included fetal tissue, the were not specifically using fetal tissue for power.

I can't stand our freaking media circus.

[Judi Lynn]

6. You nailed it! Hideous. Very sly, ultra sneaky. Absolute dirtbags. n/t

[freshwest]

19. 100%. Also, why is this not being used in B.C.?

[RandiFan1290]

7. Thank you for noticing!

[Coventina]

5. This article has a disingenuous title.

The story says the medical waste MAY include fetal tissue, not that it DOES.

The title is only meant to shock and inflame (pun, sorry).

Cheap shot, and I would expect better from the AP.

[davidpdx]

8. Well the medical waste was already inflamed

The AP was just looking for a little "dust up".

[Coventina]

11. Haha! Well played, sir!

[Fred Sanders]

9. AP long ago was infected by radical Christians in control...the Tpot news feed.

[freshwest]

20. Very true!

[Grins]

10. This will fire up "the base"!!

To whom the response should be, that your outrage can very easily be assuaged. Because it will cost us more, we appreciate that you are willing to take on the increase in taxes necessary to cover our additional costs. Thank you.

The Reich-wingers will slit their own throats rather than pay a tax increase. Hell, pay for anything.

[Dr. Strange]

12. It's people!

The energy from Covanta Marion is people!

[surrealAmerican]

13. So, Canada is exporting medical waste?

This sounds like a bad idea. It could become a vector for diseases. I'm not so concerned about its incineration, but rather how it's handled during transport.

[LeftyMom]

16. PNW fundies need to boycott electricity. No lights. No radio. No internet.

Unless they're abortion loving abortion lovers who love abortions.

[musical_soul]

17. You can have electricity without using fetuses.

Even if one doesn't believe that the fetus is a person, they're still of human DNA. Why would we use the remains of a fetus for heat? That's gross and unethical. Not to mention the women who had the abortions didn't necessarily want that.

[elias49]

18. I agree.

The first thing I thought was "WTF?" It's disturbing but I'm hard pressed to explain why.

[LeftyMom]

21. A lot of medical waste is "of human DNA". Does tossing it in a landfill make you happier?

Fundies are CONSTANTLY boycotting things with only the most tangential connections to abortion. The Girl Scouts, Pepsi, stuff no sane person thinks are even slightly related. By their usual standards they should definitely boycott electricity in the PNW.