Jamaica

There are now estimated to be more than a million Rastafarians throughout the world. These regulations have been very successful, dramatically reducing dioxin emissions and making modern waste-to-energy systems one of the cleanest sources of electricity. Bob Marley, a convert to the faith, spread the message of Rastafari to the world. As a result, EPA implemented new emissions requirements. This Back to Africa movement believes that Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is God incarnate, the returned black messiah, come to take the lost Twelve Tribes of Israel back to live with him in Holy Mount Zion in a world of perfect peace, love and harmony. When the original EPA inventory of dioxin sources was done in 1987, incineration represented over 80% of known dioxin sources. The Rastafarian religion was founded in, and is associated with, Jamaica. Incineration of municipal solid waste, medical waste, sewage sludge, and hazardous waste together produce less than 3% of all dioxin emissions.

Bob Marley, perhaps the best known reggae musician, was born in Jamaica, and is very well respected there. Modern waste incinerators are equipped with pollution control equipment which reduces dioxin emissions to insignificant levels. The musical genres reggae, ska, rocksteady, dub, and, more recently, dancehall, ragga, and ragga jungle all originated in Jamaica. Long term studies of the members of Ranch Hand have thus far uncovered a possibility of elevated risks of diabetes. Though a small nation, Jamaica is rich in culture, and has a strong global presence. These were members of Operation Ranch Hand. Main articles: Culture of Jamaica, Music of Jamaica. The only exception existed for those who directly handled Agent Orange.

Jamaica is divided into 3 counties and 14 parishes:. The Center for Disease Control found that dioxin levels in Vietnam veterans [4] were in no way atypical when compared against the rest of the population. Main article: Parishes of Jamaica. The most recent study, paid for by the National Academy of Sciences, was released in an April 2003 report. This move has not garnered support in either organisation nor among the majority of citizens. US veterans' groups and Vietnamese groups, including the Vietnamese government, have convened scientific studies to explore their belief that dioxins were responsible for a host of disorders, including tens of thousands of birth defects in children, amongst Vietnam veterans as well as an estimated one million Vietnamese, through their exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, which was found to be highly contaminated with TCDD. In early 2005, an opposition leader, Edward Seaga, called for the merger of the JDF and JCF. Other possible effects may be.

There has been vocal controversy as well as support of this JDF role. This is the only known direct result of dioxin exposure at levels below the lethal dose. JDF units actively conduct armed patrols with the JCF in high-crime areas and known gang neighbourhoods. Excessive exposure to dioxin may cause a severe form of persistent acne, known as chloracne. In recent years the JDF has been called upon to assist the nation's police, the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF) in fighting drug smuggling and a rising crime rate which includes one of the highest murder rates in the world. Dioxins build up in living tissue (bioaccumulate) over time, so even small exposures may accumulate to dangerous levels. The Headquarters JDF contains the JDF commander, command staff as well as intelligence, judge advocate office, administrative and procurement sections. It is even controversially discussed if dioxins might have a non-linear dose-response curve with beneficial health effects in a certain lower dose range, a phenomenon called hormesis.

The 1st Engineer Regiment provides military engineering support to the JDF. The use of these materials means that all modern humans receive (at least) a very small daily dose of dioxin—however, it is disputed whether such exceptionally tiny exposures have any clinical relevance. The support battalion contains a Military Police platoon as well as vehicle, armourers and supply units. Such materials include tampons, and a wide variety of food packaging substances. It conducts maritime safety and maritime law enforcement as well as defence-related operations. Dioxins are present in minuscule amounts in a wide range of materials used by humans — including practically all substances manufactured using plastics, resins or bleaches. The Coast Guard element is divided between sea-going crews and support crews. See Agent Orange for more on contamination problems in the 1960s.

The JDF Air Wing is divided into three flight units, a training unit, a support unit and the JDF Air Wing (National Reserve). Higher levels of chlorination require higher reaction temperatures and greater dioxin production. The infantry regiment contains the 1st, 2nd and 3rd (National Reserve) battalions. Affected compounds include the wood preservative pentachlorophenol, and also herbicides such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (or 2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) comprises an infantry Regiment and Reserve Corps, an Air Wing, a Coast Guard fleet and a supporting Engineering Unit. Dioxins are also generated in reactions that do not involve burning — such as bleaching fibers for paper or textiles, and in the manufacture of chlorinated phenols, particularly when reaction temperature is not well controlled. The dissolution of the Federation resulted in the establishment of the JDF. Incineration is now a very minor contributor to dioxin emissions.

The West Indies Regiment was reformed in 1958 as part of the West Indies Federation. Incinerator emissions of dioxins have been reduced by over 90% as a result of new emissions control requirements. Other units in the JDF heritage include the early colonial Jamaica Militia, the Kingston Infantry Volunteers of WWI and reorganised into the Jamaican Infantry Volunteers in WWII. Chemical Engineering, December 2002 has a detailed article on this issue. The West Indies Regiment was used extensively by the British Empire in policing the empire from 1795 to 1926. The most common method of reducing dioxins reforming or forming de novo is through rapid (30 millisecond) quenching of the exhaust gases through that 400°C window. The JDF is directly descended from the British West Indies Regiment formed during the colonial era. In incineration, dioxins can also reform in the atmosphere above the stack as the exhaust gases cool through a temperature window of 600 to 200°C.

Additional military schools are available for specialty training in Canada, the U.S., and Britain. Nevertheless, chlorine tobacco pesticides and chlorine-bleached cigarette papers remain legal, with no warning required to consumers. As on the British model, NCOs are given several levels of professional training as they rise up the ranks. Since then, the USA classified dioxin as a Known Human Carcinogen, and the USA signed the Stockholm Convention on POPs to globally phase out dioxin and 11 other of the worst industrial pollutants. Enlisted soldiers are given basic training at JDF Training Depot, Newcastle. Dioxin cannot come from the tobacco or any natural plant. Once chosen, officer candidates are sent to one of several British or Canadian basic officer courses depending upon which arm of service they are slated for. In that same document, the EPA acknowledged that dioxin is "anthropogenic" (man-made, "not likely in nature").

The JDF is based upon the British military model with organisation, training, weapons and traditions closely aligned with Commonwealth Realm Countries. Dioxin in cigarette smoke was noted as "understudied" by the EPA in its "Re-Evaluating Dioxin" (1995). The Jamaican Defence Force (JDF) is the small but professional military force of Jamaica. Dioxins are also in smoke from typical cigarettes, those with chlorine-bleached paper and residues of many chlorine pesticides. Tertiary - Community Colleges, Teachers’Colleges, Vocational Training Centres, Colleges and Universities. These sources together account for nearly 80% of dioxin emissions. Age cohort 11 – 18 years. According to the most recent EPA data the major sources of dioxin are:.

Secondary – Publicly and privately owned. Dioxins are produced in small concentrations when organic material is burned in the presence of chlorine, whether the chlorine is present as chloride ions or as organochlorine compounds, so they are widely produced in many contexts. Age cohort 4 – 11 years. The WHO still recommends breast feeding for its other benefits. Primary – Publicly and privately owned (Privately owned being called Preparatory Schools (Prep). Breast fed children usually have substantially higher dioxin body burdens than non breast fed children until they are about 8 to 10 years old. Age cohort – 2 – 4 years. Children's body burdens are often many times above the amount implied by tolerable intakes which are based on body weight.

Early Childhood – Basic, Infant and privately operated pre- school. Children are passed substantial body burdens by their mothers, and breast feeding increases the child's body burden. Presently the following categories of schools exist:. Most controversial is the US EPA assessment's (draft) finding that any reference dose that were to be set would be far below current average intakes. This was the genesis of the stratified system of education that is still currently embedded in the policies of the 21st Century. Few facilities have constant sampling. Most of these schools were established by the churches. In Belgium, through the introduction of a process called AMESA, constant sampling showed that periodic sampling understated emissions by a factor of 30 to 50 times.

After emancipation the West Indian Commission granted a sum of money to establish Elementary Schools, now known as All Age Schools, for the children of the freed slaves. In many developed nations there are now emissions regulations which have alleviated some concerns, although the lack of constant sampling of dioxin emissions causes concern about the understatement of emissions. Others sent their children off to England to access quality education. Inhalation has been a problem for people living near substantial point sources where emissions are not adequately controlled. Prior to emancipation there were some elite schools for the plantocracy. Occupational exposure is an issue for some in the chemical industry, or in the application of chemicals, notably herbicides. The emancipation of the slaves heralded in the establishment of Jamaican Education System for the masses. [1].

The largest and most famous and vibrant Jamaican community in the world is probably Brixton in South London. Dioxin enters the general population almost exclusively from ingestion of food, specifically through the consumption of fish, meat, and dairy products since dioxins are fat-soluble and readily climb the food chain. Concentrations of expatriate Jamaicans are large in the South Florida metro area of Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles in the United States; Toronto in Canada, centred mostly in the borough of Scarborough, Ontario; London, as well as the area of Chapeltown in Leeds, in the United Kingdom. Tolerable daily, monthly or annual intakes have been set by the World Health Organization and a number of governments. Due to Commonwealth law and Jamaica's history with Britain, most Jamaicans that emigrate go to the United Kingdom, where laws are lax on ex-Commonwealth country citizens gaining full British Nationality. Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom all have substantial research into body burdens and sources. This emigration appears to have been tapering off somewhat in recent years, however the great number of Jamaicans living abroad has become known as the "Jamaican diaspora". The United States Environmental Protection Agency Dioxin Reassessment Report is possibly the most comprehensive review of dioxin, but other countries now have substantial research.

Over the past several decades, hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans have emigrated, especially to the United States but also to Canada and the United Kingdom. . Islam and Judaism number less than half a per cent combined.
. Hinduism, and Buddhism are significant and growing due to immigration from India and China. The treaty obliges signatories to take measures to eliminate where possible, and minimize where not possible to eliminate, all sources of dioxin. Non-Christian religions are numerous, the largest being Rastafari, which is very strongly related to Christianity. Dioxins and other Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are subject to the Stockholm Convention.

The top 5 denominations in Jamaica are: Church of God: 21.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist: 9.0%, Baptist: 8.8%, Pentecostal: 7.6%, and Anglican: 5.0%. The TEFs have been developed from detailed assessment of literature data to facilitate both risk assessment and regulatory control. Roman Catholicism also enjoys a significant presence on the island. TEFs for mammalian species are generally applicable to human risk calculations. According to adherants.com, 80.0% of Jamaica's 2.7 million people are Christian – the vast majority of them from various Protestant denominations, which is evident of Jamaica's Anglo past. TEFs are consensus values and, because of the strong species dependence for toxicity, are listed separately for mammals, fish and birds. There are also small numbers of people that speak Hindi, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish. By convention it is assigned a toxicity rating or Toxic Equivalence Factor (TEF) of 1.0 with the remaining PCDD/Fs being assigned lower relative values.

The language of government and education is English, although the patois form Jamaican Creole is widely spoken. 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro dibenzene-para-dioxin is the most toxic of the congeners. Those who are East Indian, Chinese, European (chiefly British, and Irish), and Christian Syrian and Lebanese make up a smaller but influential number. Out of the 210 PCDD/F compounds in total, only 17 congeners (7 PCDDs and 10 PCDFs) have chlorine atoms in the relevant positions to be considered toxic by the NATO/CCMS international toxic equivalent (I-TEQ) scheme. People of mixed Chinese, East Indian, and Black and white ancestry make up the second largest group. The toxicity of PCDD/F is dependant on the number and position of the chlorine atoms, with only congeners that have chlorines in the 2,3,7,and 8 positions have any observable toxicity. The majority of Jamaicans, at least 90%, are of primarily black and white mixed ancestry. There are 210 different PCDD/F congeners, comprising of 75 PCDD's and 135 PCDF's.

These Tainos (sub-Arawaks) were known for archery and have left many remnants of their culture in artifacts and in at least one popular food (bammy- a small flat cake made of grated cassava). Chlorine atoms are attached to the basic structure at 8 different places on the molecule, numbered from 1 to 10. Jamaica is mainly a blend of African and Anglo-Irish cultures, with influences from the Spanish and Taino cultures, although the Tainos as a people were completely wiped out as an identifiable community by the Spanish between their settlement of the island in 1511 and the English conquest of 1655. The basic structure of PCDD/F's comprises of two benzene rings joined by either a single (furan) or a double oxygen bridge (dioxin). Main article: Demographics of Jamaica. PCDD/F's have been shown to bioaccumulate in humans and wildlife due to their lipophilic properties. Growth in tourist arrivals accelerated in the third quarter of 1998 and tourism earnings, increased 8.5% from January to December 31, 1998 compared to the corresponding period in 1997. Dioxin is the popular name for the family of chlorinated organic compounds comprising of Polychlorinated Dibenzo Furans (PCDF) and Polychlorinated Dibenzo Dioxins (PCDD).

Tourism, which is the largest foreign exchange earner, showed improvement as well. Dioxin was described as a mind-altering substance, that caused depression and would definitely cause the person to commit suicide, sooner or later. January's bauxite production recorded a 7.1% increase relative to January 1998. One news report explained, that during the cold war, the KGB used dioxin to induce suicides. Bauxite and alumina production increased 5.5% from January to December, 1998 compared to the corresponding period in 1997. Although experts suggest his face could clear up after several years, it is highly unlikely. Agricultural production, an important engine of growth increased 15.3% in third quarter of 1998 compared to the corresponding period in 1997, signaling the first positive growth rate in the sector since January 1997. This is the first known case of a single high dose of TCDD dioxin poisoning.

Recent economic performance shows the Jamaican economy is recovering. In 2004, a notable individual case of dioxin poisoning, Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko was exposed to the second-largest measured dose of dioxins, according to the reports of the physicians responsible for diagnosing him. The economy in 1997 was marked by low levels of import growth, high levels of private capital inflows and relative stability in the foreign exchange market. These patients were provided with olestra to accelerate dioxin elimination. In 1997, nominal GDP was approximately J$220,556.2 million (US$6,198.9 million based on the average annual exchange rate of the period). The same study also covered a second subject who had received a dosage equivalent to 2,900 times the normal level, who apparently suffered no notable negative effects other than chloracne. The decrease in GDP in 1996 and 1997 was largely due to significant problems in the financial sector and, in 1997, a severe island-wide drought (the worst in 70 years) that drastically reduced agricultural production. However, other notable laboratory tests, such as immune function tests, were relatively normal.

After a period of steady growth from 1985 to 1995, real GDP decreased by 1.8% and 2.4% in 1996 and 1997, respectively. She suffered from chloracne, nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, loss of appetite, leukocytosis, anemia, amenorrhoea and thrombocytopenia. The Government remains committed to lowering inflation, with a long-term objective of bringing it in line with that of its major trading partners. In a 2001 case study [5], physicians reported clinical changes in a 30 year old woman who had been exposed to a massive dosage (144,000 pg/g blood fat) of dioxin equal to 16,000 times the normal body level; the highest dose of dioxin ever recorded in a human. inflation for FY1998/99 was 6.2% compared to 7.2% in the corresponding period in FY1997/98. The scandal that followed caused a landslide in the elections one month later. The annual inflation rate has decreased from a high of 80.2% in 1991 to 7.9% in 1998. 7,000,000 chickens and 60,000 pigs had to be slaughtered.

The macroeconomic stabilization program introduced in 1991, which focused on tight fiscal and monetary policies, has contributed to a controlled reduction in the rate of inflation. In May 1999, there was a dioxin crisis in Belgium: quantities of dioxin had entered the food chain through contaminated animal feed. During this period, a large share of the economy was returned to private sector ownership through divestment and privatization programs. No direct consequences of this incident have thus far been recorded. Emphasis has been placed on maintaining strict fiscal discipline, greater openness to trade and financial flows, market liberalization and reduction in the size of government. A possibly large amount of dioxins was flushed from the factory into the Labe river during the 2002 European flood. Since 1991, the Government has followed a program of economic liberalization and stabilization by removing exchange controls, floating the exchange rate, cutting tariffs, stabilizing the Jamaican currency, reducing inflation and removing restrictions on foreign investment. Dozens of them fell seriously ill.

Supported by multilateral financial institutions, Jamaica has, since the early 1980's, sought to implement structural reforms aimed at fostering private sector activity and increasing the role of market forces in resource allocation. Workers in this factory were exposed to high concentrations of dioxins at that time. Tourism and mining are the leading foreign exchange earners. In the 1960s, parts of the Spolana chemical plant in Neratovice, Czechoslovakia, were heavily contaminated by dioxins, when the herbicide 2,4,5-T (also a component of Agent Orange) was produced there. Major sectors of the Jamaican economy include agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and financial and insurance services. Dioxin also caused the 1983 evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri. Jamaica operates as a mixed, free-market economy with state enterprises as well as private sector businesses. In 1978, dioxin was one of the contaminants that forced the evacuation of the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York.

Main article: Economy of Jamaica. In 1976 large amounts of dioxin were released in an industrial accident at Seveso, although no human fatalities or birth defects occurred. Some regions on the south coast, such as the Liguanea Plain and the Pedro Plains are relatively dry rain-shadow areas. In the 1960s Philips-Duphar produced 2250 tonnes of 'Agent Orange' for the US Army. The climate in Jamaica is tropical, with hot and humid weather, although inland regions have a more temperate climate. Four people die of dioxin poisoning, and 50 more suffer severe health problems. A live webcam atop the Gleaner Newspaper building on 7 North Street in Kingston is available. In 1963 a dioxin cloud escapes after an explosion in a Philips-Duphar plant (now Solvay Group) near Amsterdam.

More satellite maps which allow zoom in and zoom out are available from Google's map server. And at least in laboratory animals, increased rates of liver and lung cancer are observed. Chief towns include the capital Kingston, Spanish Town, Mandeville, and Montego Bay. Diabetes. For this reason, most major cities are located on the coast. Birth defects. The island of Jamaica has mountainous inlands surrounded by a narrow coastal plain. Endometriosis.

Main article: Geography of Jamaica. Damage to the Immune systems.[3]. Jamaica is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Developmental abnormalities in the enamel of children's teeth.[2]. Jamaica has traditionally had a two party system, with power often alternating between the People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party. Diesel trucks. Jamaica's constitution requires the Prime Minister to call the next general election by October 2007. Metal smelting.

Patterson has been re-elected three times, the last being in 2002. Residential wood burning. The current leader of the opposition is Bruce Golding. Coal fired utilities. Patterson who has held office since the 1992 resignation of Michael Manley. Land application of sewage sludge. J. Trash burn barrels;.

The current Prime Minister of Jamaica is P. Senators are appointed by the Prime Minister, and the parliamentary Leader of the Opposition. Members of the House (known as 'Members of Parliament' or MPs) are directly elected, and the leader of the majority party in the House becomes the Prime Minister. The Jamaican Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Both the Queen and the Governor-General serve largely ceremonial roles. The Queen is represented by a Governor-General, nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the monarch. The Jamaican head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who is given the title of "Queen of Jamaica". It came into force with the Jamaica Independence Act, 1962 of the United Kingdom Parliament, which gave Jamaica political independence.

Jamaica's current Constitution was drafted in 1962 by a bipartisan joint committee of the Jamaican legislature. Main article: Politics of Jamaica. Catherine parish, the site of the old Spanish colonial capital and the English capital during the 18th and 19th century. Former capitals of Jamaica include Port Royal, where the pirate Governor Morgan held sway, and which was destroyed by a storm and earthquake, and Spanish Town, in St.

It must be noted however that the rural sections of the island, especially in and around the resort towns of Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, remain quite safe. The Jamaican police force has also been accused of complicity in this murderous side of the island. The ultimate result of this cycle of violence, drugs and poverty has been the brutal gun warfare seen on Kingston's streets from the mid-1990s onwards. This policy, along with the increasing emergence of Jamaica as a smuggling point for cocaine during the 1980s, led to recurrent violence and only served to increase the impoverishment of a large section of the Jamaican populace.

Both political parties became linked with rival gangs in Kingston which were duly armed. Deteriorating economic conditions led to a desperately fraught re-election campaign between Manley's People's National Party and the main opposition, the Jamaican Labour Party. Rising foreign debt under the government of Michael Manley, who was determined to alleviate Jamaica's severe economic inequality, led to the imposition of IMF austerity measures. However, the initial optimism following Jamaican independence for the next decade or so vanished as Jamaica became a victim of the international economic system.

Jamaica attained full independence by leaving the federations in 1962. Jamaica slowly gained increasing independence from the United Kingdom, and in 1958 Jamaica became a province in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation between all the British West Indies. Following a series of rebellions, slavery was formally abolished in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery declared in 1838. By the beginning of the 19th century, Britain's heavy reliance on slavery resulted in blacks outnumbering whites by a ratio of almost 20 to one, leading to constant threat of revolt.

During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became the world's largest sugar exporting nation and produced over 77,000 tons of sugar annually between 1820 - 1824, which was achieved through the massive use of imported African slave labor. The English Admiral William Penn (father of William Penn of Pennsylvania) and General Venables seized the island in 1655. Columbus used it as his family's private estate. Jamaica was claimed for Spain after Christopher Columbus first landed there in 1494.

Although some claim they became virtually extinct following contact with Europeans, another group claim that some survived. The original Arawak or Taino people from South America, first settled on the island between 1000 and 400 BC. Main article: History of Jamaica. .

It is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning either the "land of springs," or the "Land of wood and water." Formerly a Spanish possession known as Santiago, then the British West Indies Crown colony of Jamaica, the country's population is composed mainly of the descendants of former African slaves. It is 630 kilometers from the Central American mainland, 150 kilometers from Cuba on the north, and 180 kilometers from the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated, on the east. Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 240 kilometers in length and as much as 80 kilometers in width situated in the Caribbean Sea.

- Date.
2,695,867 (July 2003)
245/km².
 - Total
 - Density. Transportation in Jamaica.

Technology in Jamaica. Public Holidays in Jamaica. Military of Jamaica. Marcus Garvey.

List of Jamaicans. Jamaican Posses. Geography of Jamaica. Foreign relations of Jamaica.

Communications in Jamaica. Bob Marley. National Motto - "Out of Many, One People." (Unity among many cultures and races.). National Dish - Ackee and Saltfish (dried salted Cod).

National Tree - Blue Mahoe (Hibiscus elatus). National Flower - Lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale). National Bird - Doctor bird (Green-and-black Streamertail, Trochilus polytmus). Westmoreland.

Trelawny. Saint James. Saint Elizabeth. Hanover.

Cornwall (county) in the west, containing the parishes of: