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From correspondents in Washington: AFP
July 14, 2010

Glaxo 'covered up diabetes drug's risks, conducted secret research'

BRITISH pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline hid the dangers of its top-selling diabetes drug Avandia and secretly wrote scientific articles about it, two US politicians charged overnight.

The allegations came as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened a two-day meeting of experts who will weigh whether to pull Avandia from the market over safety concerns.

In a letter dated on Monday and addressed to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley accused Glaxo of covering up scientific studies that found problems with Avandia and of including the drug in a "ghostwriting" program.

© AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file

In this June 30, 2009 file photo, Tylenol Extra Strength is shown in a medicine cabinet at a home in Palo Alto, Calif. Johnson & Johnson is expanding a recall of over-the-counter drugs Thursday, July 8, 2010, including Tylenol and Motrin IB because of a musty or moldy smell.

Sales of Johnson & Johnson pain relievers are collapsing as a string of recalls appears to have made consumers wary of once-sterling brands such as Tylenol and Benadryl.

An eighth recall, announced Thursday, could worsen consumer reaction. That wariness and the huge amount of products pulled off store shelves together look to be costing J&J tens of millions of dollars a month.

Thursday's recall by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil consumer health care unit covers 21 lots of products, including Children's Tylenol. Those were recalled because of a musty or moldy smell, extending a large Jan. 15 recall tied to a nauseating chemical on shipping pallets.

The company said the new lots were added to the recall as a precaution after an internal review found those lots, shipped and stored before Jan. 15, had been on the same type of wooden pallets.

An April 30 recall of more than 130 million bottles of children's and infants' liquid medicines involved products J&J said "may not meet required quality standards," may contain tiny metal particles or may have too much active ingredient.

The string of recalls is an embarrassment for a company that set the standard on how to do it correctly when it rushed to pull bottles of Tylenol -- deliberately poisoned by someone who was never caught -- off store shelves in the early 1980s.

Sales, Market Share in Internal Analgesics Down Nearly Two-Thirds From a Year Ago

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Tylenol has already come back from a near-death experience once in its life, but now Johnson & Johnson is faced with another possibly mortal blow to the brand with no path to recovery clearly in sight.

J&J's sales and market share in internal analgesics are now down by nearly two-thirds from a year ago through the combined effects of a series of quality-related recalls and a plant shutdown as the company sorts through yet-unresolved quality issues.

For the four weeks ended June 13, J&J's internal-analgesics sales are down 65% from a year ago, with a corresponding decline in market share, according to SymphonyIRI data from Deutsche Bank. The decline rivals the roughly 80% plunge in Tylenol shares following the Chicago-area poisonings in 1982.

Aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history, and its approval for use in food was the most contested in FDA history. In the end, the artificial sweetener was approved, not on scientific grounds, but rather because of strong political and financial pressure. After all, aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent!

It's hard to believe such a chemical would be allowed into the food supply, but it was, and it has been wreaking silent havoc with people's health for the past 30 years.

The truth is, it should never have been released onto the market, and allowing it to remain in the food chain is seriously hurting people -- no matter how many times you rebrand it under fancy new names.

The sinister Skeptics group, agents of what used to be CSICOP now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) organised from the US and linked to the major corporate lobby groups, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and American and the Australian Council Against Health Fraud (ACAHF) are making ground in Australia.

Supported by authoritarian ideological influences in government and Big Pharma, the Skeptics are running constant attacks on homeopathy, natural cancer treatments, those who question vaccination and those who support any form of alternative medicine.

With the present world fiscal crisis, all those linked to Big Pharma and Science are fighting a bitter battle to preserve drug company competitiveness. But where fascist influences in government and health with most force come together is in attacking anyone who speaks out about freedom of choice and expression in relation to vaccination.

Over the last year the international corporate lobby Skeptics, have been behind a campaign against the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). In 2009, one of their trolls, a lay person with no standing in medicine or government complained about the web site of the AVN to the office of the State Government funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC) an organisation that accepts complaints against groups found be giving out false information about health.

In 1986, The International Journal of the Addictions published a very important literature review by Richard Scarnati. It was called “An Outline of Hazardous Side Effects of Ritalin (Methylphenidate)” [v.21(7), pp. 837-841].

Scarnati listed a large number of adverse affects of Ritalin and cited published journal articles which reported each of these symptoms.

For every one of the following Ritalin effects, there is at least one confirming source in the medical literature:

An Exclusive Interview With Barbara Starfield

The American health system, like clockwork, causes a mind-boggling number of deaths every year.

The figures have been known for a decade. The story was covered briefly when a landmark study surfaced, and then it sank like a stone.

The truth was inconvenient for many interests. That has not changed. "Medical coverage for all" is a banner that conceals ugly facts.

On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock to the system, when one of its most respected public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America. Starfield was, and still is, associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

The Starfield study, "Is US health really the best in the world?", published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:

Prescription drugs taken as directed kill 100,000 Americans a year. That's one person every five minutes. How did we get here?

June 25, 2010  | How many people do you know who regularly use a prescription medication? If your social group is like most Americans', the answer is most. Sixty-five percent of the country takes a prescription drug these days. In 2005 alone, we spent $250 billion on them.

I recently caught up with Melody Petersen, author of Our Daily Meds, an in-depth look at the pharmaceutical companies that have taken the reins of our faltering health care system by cleverly hawking every kind of drug imaginable. We discussed how this powerful industry has our health in its hands.

'WASTE OF MONEY': Newport West MP Paul Flynn

A GWENT MP slammed the worldwide health body that declared swine flu a pandemic last year in a report for a European organisation.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn said the World Health Organisation had “cried wolf” over the virus and was in danger of being ignored by the public in future.

In a report written for the Council of Europe and to be presented to it later in the week, Mr Flynn argues governments wasted huge sums of money on vaccines that were not needed.

Natural News
June 11, 2010
By Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) After weeks of silence on the issue, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally decided to go public with the list of ingredients used to manufacture Corexit, the chemical dispersant used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. There are two things about this announcement that deserve our attention: First, the ingredients that have been disclosed are extremely toxic, and second, why did the EPA protect the oil industry's "trade secrets" for so long by refusing to disclose these ingredients until now?

As reported in the New York Times, Brian Turnbaugh, a policy analyst at OMB Watch said, "EPA had the authority to act all along; its decision to now disclose the ingredients demonstrates this. Yet it took a public outcry and weeks of complaints for the agency to act and place the public's interest ahead of corporate interests."

Alliance for Natural health
June 8, 2010

The Vaccine Firestorm

Last Friday's shocking news--the revelation of hidden financial ties and influence-peddling behind the World Health Organization's declaration of a worldwide H1N1 pandemic--is only one of our articles this week on the controversial issue of immunization. We'll tell you about flu vaccine deaths, fetal death and injury from mercury, a high government official formerly in charge of vaccines who now works for a drug and vaccine maker, and yet another tragic miscarriage of justice in the case of a pioneer of autism research.

Although the health issues involved are the most troubling, we show how the truth can be uncovered, as always, by heeding that old adage: "Follow the money."

The WHO's H1N1 (Swine Flu) Vaccine Scandal

Last Friday, two different European groups released reports accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of exaggerating the threat posed by the H1N1 virus, and of having been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry in its recommendations about how countries should respond.

Mercola.com
Posted By Dr. Mercola
June 03, 2010

The earthquake that hit Haiti in January is proving to be a lucky business break for Monsanto. They are offering Haiti's farmers a deadly gift -- 475 metric tons of genetically-modified (GM) seeds, plus associated fertilizer and pesticides.

These GM seeds have been declared dangerous by many countries.

According to Global Research:

"Soon there will be only Monsanto seeds in Haiti. Then it will be goodbye to farmers' independence ... But Haitian farmers wishing to use them for future harvests will have to pay royalties to Monsanto."

Sources:

Global Research May 11, 2010

VOICE

Posted on 25 Mar 2010 - by In: Stop Fluoridation

Press Release, Dublin The risks to children exposed to fluoridated Irish water are highlighted in a scientific review just published in the peer-reviewed journalToxicology [1]. It adds more weight to the call by the report of the Oireachtas Joint Health Committee in 2007 (www.fluoridereports.com) to stop fluoridation to protect children from the irreversible damage to tooth enamel by dental fluorosis.

Study author and scientific director of the Alliance for Natural Health(www.anhcampaign.org) Dr Robert Verkerk, argues that if the same methods used by European and American authorities for risk assessment of vitamins and minerals are applied to fluoride, then fluoridation of the water supply would need to be banned due to the high risk of dental fluorosis in children. Said Dr Verkerk "Under current risk management criteria, the dental fluorosis risk to children, which is the most sensitive risk factor, should mean that mass fluoridation of the public water supply is stopped immediately. This is borne out by actual data from Ireland which shows that every third child is affected".

OpEdNews
May 26, 2010
By Richard Gale

Do you find something seriously wrong with this scenario?

Reports of faulty gas pedals, obstructive floor carpets, and failing breaks in Toyota and Lexus vehicles generated uproar across major media networks. For the 4-year period starting in 2006, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had reported 5 deaths, 17 injuries and 13 crashes, and an additional 29 deaths between 2000 and 2005. There was no hesitation among the networks and federal officials to demonize Toyota for knowingly risking the lives of people solely to empty its dealership lots. Even Congress quickly called for a Congressional investigation, and Toyota took upon itself the responsibility to recall over 8 million vehicles.

During the same four year period while NHTSA was collecting crash data on Toyota's lemons, the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database was gathering casualty data following vaccinations with Merck's human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. And it was clear that Merck was far ahead and winning its race against Toyota for the Lemon of the Decade Award. Since Gardasil's launch in 2006, the vaccine has been responsible for 66 deaths and over 17,700 medical injuries of young girls, some as young as 11 years old. Six percent of reported events, or 1,100 girls, were serious enough to require emergency hospitalization.

The One click group
The Sydney Morning Herald
May 4, 2010
WA launches flu vaccine inquiry
By CORTLAN BENNETT

The West Australian government has launched an inquiry into the flu vaccinations that caused adverse reactions in hundreds of children across the nation.

WA Health Minister Kim Hames said the inquiry would scrutinise systems used to identify public health risks, including vaccine side-effects and disease outbreaks, after criticism of the government's slow response.

Last month, seasonal flu shots caused adverse reactions in 251 children under five in WA, with 55 suffering convulsions and 196 suffering fevers and vomiting.

WA was the first state to suspend the vaccination program, which was put on hold nationally the next day after children in other states and territories reported severe side-effects.

The Huffington Post
May 5, 2010
Shiv Chopra
Microbiologist and human rights activist
Posted: May 3, 2010 11:47 AM

I am one of many million Indians who during the last couple of hundred years settled abroad. I have lived in Canada for the last 50 years. Coming here initially as a post-graduate student of agro-medical sciences I made it my home in 1960. Since then, I earned a Masters and Ph.D. in microbiology and a fellowship of the World Health Organization in international safety and efficacy standards for vaccines. During 1969-2004 I worked as a senior food and drug regulator at Health Canada. I was partly responsible for the Canadian rejection of rBGH.

Canada may not be richest country on earth but it is pretty close to it. With vast amounts of arable land, fresh water and well educated farmers it can feed its entire population of 33 million on the healthiest of food. But, it does not. Another country that comes close to Canada in this regard is its next door neighbor and closest trading partner -- the United States. Most food in both these countries is heavily contaminated with hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse wastes, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and pesticides. Due partly to these substances in food production there occurs in both these countries a greater and greater incidence of food-borne disease (FBD). The types of FBD that these products induce include cancer, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, neurological conditions, including Bovine Spongiform Disease (BSE), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular, immune, reproductive, neurological and various other disorders.

NewsWithViews.com

By Jeffrey Smith
April 26, 2010

"This study was just routine," said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn't shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths - a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

The One Click Group

HPV Vaccine Kills 16-Year-Old Girl Lawsuit Alleges

(PRWEB) April 21, 2010 -- A lawsuit filed in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims this week alleges that the HPV vaccine Gardasil caused the death of a 16-year-old Missouri girl. Gardasil is a vaccine used to prevent the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease called human papillomavirus (HPV). Controversy regarding the safety of Gardasil surrounded the vaccine since its FDA approval in 2006 and continues to be the subject of intense debate.

Safety and efficacy of Gardasil in question

As on December 31, 2008 there were 12,424 reports of injuries related to Gardasil in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) (1). These reports are used by the FDA to monitor the safety of vaccines and it is well known that injuries are underreported (1). Of note, 68% of the 12,424 reports of injury where written employees of Merck (1). While there is risk of injury with every drug, including vaccines, at least one report questions whether or not Gardasil provides enough protection to counterbalance the risk of injury.

April 18, 2010

Local Parent Files Lawsuit Against Makers Of Gardasil

Mother Warns Parents Against Vaccine Dangers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A local mother is suing the makers of Gardasil claiming her daughter suffered from seizures and got brain damage after getting the vaccination.

Gardasil is the vaccine given to women ages 9 to 26 to vaccinate them against HPV, a virus that can cause cervical cancer.

Tracy Wolf showed Action 7 News all her daughters' doctor records after getting the Gardasil vaccine.

Wolf's daughter Alexis has been sick for the past three years with uncontrollable vomiting and seizures which left her brain damaged.

Wolf said her daughter got a series of Gardasil vaccine injections in 2007 and 2008. Shortly after, Alexis reportedly went from being a happy, honor-roll student to a completely different person.

Doctors told Wolf Alexis' condition was behavioral, not medical.

22 April 2010
Governments accused of panicking over swine flu
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor

A boy reacts as he is vaccinated against swine flu

A blizzard of inquiries into the handling of the swine flu pandemic, which began one year ago, have been launched amid allegations that governments around the world over-reacted to the threat.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been accused of crying wolf over its decision last June to declare the H1N1 virus a pandemic, the first for 40 years, which could turn out to be the weakest in history. Up to 15 April there had been 474 deaths from swine flu in Britain, mostly in the age group 15 to 44,

Seasonal flu was driven out last winter by the novel H1N1 pandemic virus, which may therefore end up having saved lives overall from flu in the 2009-10 season.

Early in the pandemic, the Department of Health said it was planning on the basis of a "worst case scenario" of up to 65,000 deaths. That figure was revised down to 1,000 deaths in the autumn, as the virus turned out to be milder and to have spread further than had been thought.

theoneclickgroup  

Pharmalot

April 21st, 2010

FDA Warns Pfizer Over Geodon Trial Overdosing

By Ed Silverman

The drugmaker was cited for failing to properly monitor pediatric clinical trials in which at least 13 children with bipolar disorder experienced overdosing that led to restless legs, tremors, involuntary facial movements and skin petechiae, which results from bleeding under the skin. The FDA cited Pfizer in an April 9 warning letter that noted the problem was originally found during FDA reviews in 2005.

The FDA wrote that "Pfizer failed to properly ensure monitoring of the study referenced above. As a result of inadequate monitoring, widespread overdosing of study subjects at multiple study sites was neither detected nor corrected in a timely manner," according to the letter.

OpEdNews
April 19, 2010
By Evelyn Pringle

Of all the harmful actions of modern psychiatry, "the mass diagnosing and drugging of children is the most appalling with the most serious consequences for the future of individual lives and for society," warns the world-renowned expert, Dr Peter Breggin, often referred to as the "Conscience of Psychiatry."

Dr Nathaniel Lehrman, author of the book, "Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs," believes that giving infants and toddlers "powerful, brain-effecting psychiatric medication is close to criminal activity."

"Giving them these drugs," he says, "has no rationale, and ignores the basic fact that youngsters are very sensitive to their environments, both social and chemical, with the juvenile brain easily damaged by the latter."

OpEdNews
April 19, 2010
By Evelyn Pringle

The United States has become the psychiatric drugging capital of the world for kids with children being medicated at a younger and younger age. Medicaid records in some states show infants less than a year old on drugs for mental disorders.

The use of powerful antipsychotics with privately insured children, aged 2 through 5 in the US, doubled between 1999 and 2007, according to a study of data on more than one million children with private health insurance in the January, 2010, "Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry."

The number of children in this age group diagnosed with bipolar disorder also doubled over the last decade, Reuters reported.

Of antipsychotic-treated children in the 2007 study sample, the most common diagnoses were pervasive developmental disorder or mental retardation (28.2%), ADHD (23.7%), and disruptive behavior disorder (12.9%).

Otago Daily Times
April 17, 2010
10 serious vaccine events
By Elspeth McLean

To the end of last year, 10 serious adverse events following vaccinations with the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil were reported to the national Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (Carm) in Dunedin.

These include a report of a sudden death occurring six months after the third dose of the vaccination, a report from Carm director Dr Michael Tatley says.

The cause of that death has not been reported and is still under coronial investigation.

There was also one report of a life-threatening event involving tongue-swelling related to severe hypersensitivity.

OpEdNews
April 15, 2010
By Martha Rosenberg

Last month, the New York Times reported that researchers were "puzzled" by the role of bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax in "rare thighbone fractures."

Patients, on the other hand, are neither puzzled nor do they believe the fractures are rare.

"I broke the left femur (shattered it 2 times in 2006 and 2007)," while on Fosamax writes a 72-year-old patient this week on askapatient.com. "I now walk with a walker and the Dr. says it can never be repaired."

"I twisted my left leg while shopping & broke left femur in two places, requiring surgery, pins and a rod," wrote a 61-year-old patient on the site after taking Fosamax for 13 years. "Then in 2/08 I jarred same side foot coming off a step & developed a stress fracture that won't heal. I now have a stress fracture on the right side femur after walking on the beach."

"After six years of taking Fosamax, I slipped in ice in my driveway and broke my femur (thigh bone). Two years later, still taking Fosamax, I fell in the snow and my other femur snapped before I hit the ground," wrote another woman.

"I did nothing really physical except water therapy, yet I have a break" in the 3rd lumbar vertebrae posts a 67-year-old patient who had been taking Fosamax for 14 months.

AlterNet / By Martha Rosenberg

Sleep sweating? Here are some new ways the pharmaceutical plans to make money.

April 16, 2010 | Since direct-to-consumer drug advertising debuted in 1997, pharma's credo has been When The Medication Is Ready, The Disease (and Patients) Will Appear. Who knew so many people suffered from restless legs?

But pharma's recent plan to move from mass-market molecules into more lucrative vaccines and biologics did not see the anti-vaxer movement coming: millions of Americans saying You Want to Vaccinate Me -- and My Child -- with WHAT?? and condemning vials of H1N1, rotavirus and MMR vaccines to sit, well, way past their expiration dates. Nor were fears of an international vaccine conspiracy helped by former CDC Director Julie Gerberding resurfacing as President of Merck Vaccines in December. (Nice revolving door if you can catch it.)

Jim Riddle
Rodale Institute
April 12, 2010

Despite fundamental differences in what they represent, there are occasional calls to allow the use of genetic engineering (which produces genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs) within the USDA National Organic Program. GMO varieties are currently most widespread in corn, soybean, canola and cotton crops, in dairy production, and in minor ingredients, such as dairy cultures, used in food processing, but new products are being introduced and commercialized.

The Hindu

April 9, 2010

Groups write to Azad on HPV vaccine trial

By Aarti Dhar

Efficacy of Gardasil and Cervarix highly suspect; serious side effects were reported

Set up inquiry into death of tribal girls

NEW DELHI: Close to 70 civil society groups, public health organisations, medical professionals, human rights organisations, women's groups and individuals have voiced their opposition to the nature of the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination ‘projects' carried out in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat by PATH International, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the respective State governments.

They urged the Union government to come up with a national policy on this kind of medical “experimentation” and a pro-people vaccine policy based on public health needs.

Sott.net
Daily Mail
April 9, 2010

A coalition of some of the world's leading
scientists has urged the Government to bangender-bending
chemicals used in baby products.   

Scientists yesterday called for a ban on a gender-bending chemical found in baby bottles and food containers.

They said clear evidence from four studies linked bisphenol A to cancer, birth defects and heart disease.

Last week Denmark became the first EU country to ban the chemical in food and drink containers for the under threes.

Some scientists believe bisphenol A, or BPA, interferes with the hormonal system by copying oestrogen.

Although some animal studies have shown it to be safe, others have linked it to diseases such as breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes and infertility.

DNA - Read the world

April 8, 2010

Cancer vaccine programme suspended after 4 girls die

By Vineeta Pandey

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has told Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to immediately suspend the cervical cancer control vaccination programme for girls. The programme is part of a two-year study to look into the utility of a vaccine in public health programmes and acceptability of Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine made by Merck. Gardasil, available in medical stores across the country, is marketed in India by MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.

The one click group

HEALTH-CHINA : Wave of Anger Rises Over Vaccine Scandal

By Mitch Moxley

BEIJING, Apr 6, 2010 (IPS) - Shortly after Liu Yan's four-year-old son, Liu Yi, was bitten by a dog, he did what any responsible parent would do: took his child to the hospital for a vaccination. Two weeks later, after the fourth injection, Liu Yi became violently ill.

The next morning, on Aug. 27, 2008, the boy was taken to First People's Hospital in Yangquan city in central China's Shanxi province, where he was diagnosed with viral meningitis. Liu Yi's condition quickly deteriorated and he died later that afternoon.

Liu Yan blamed the rabies vaccination for his son's death, and according to a searing media report last month, he might not be alone.

The One Click Group

April 03, 2010
Scientist `deceived' by drugs giant
By Richard Guilliatt

A LEADING Australian medical researcher says the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth duped him into publishing a scientific paper that became part of the company's clandestine campaign to play down the dangers of its drugs for menopausal women.

John Eden, an associate professor at the University of NSW and director of the Sydney Menopause Centre, says he has been shocked to learn that a paper he published in the prestigious American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology was one of more than 40 scientific articles Wyeth orchestrated to try to increase sales of its lucrative hormone-replacement drugs.

Original article here:

By William Thomas

Congratulations! You've reclaimed your personal space. The headaches signaling destruction of your brain cells have ceased after you finally ditched your portable phones, cell phone, Bluetooth and wireless routers and disabled your wireless laptop, Kindle and iPad. And everyone on your block's resting easier after stopping that new cell tower from going in down the street.

Washington Examiner

By: Barbara Hollingsworth

Local Opinion Editor

March 30, 2010

Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1 percent of all cancer deaths, so it was somewhat surprising when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked approval of Gardasil, a Merck vaccine targeting the human papilloma virus that causes the disease, in 2006.

As of Jan. 31, 2010, 49 unexplained deaths following Gardasil injections have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (http://vaers.hhs.gov/index). By contrast, 52 deaths are attributed to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, which triggered a $2 billion recall.

No recall for Gardasil, which is required for sixth-grade girls in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and many other states. Parents can opt out, but few know the true risks.

Hägersten 3/29/2010 07:31 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the pharmaceutical company Forest Labs about the marketing of the antidepressant Celexa for use by children. It’s an affair about bribery, illegal marketing and cover-up of a drug trial with negative results. The company has set aside $170 million to settle the civil aspects of the matter with the government. That does not cover the potential criminal law violations. What has not been told is the important role played by the renowned European Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Anne-Liis von Knorring in this affair. She not only helped the company to cover up the bad results of her clinical trial of Celexa, she also actively misled doctors and the public about it.

Read the full story on http://jannel.se/celexa-cover-up.pdf

Janne Larsson
Reporter - investigating psychiatry
Sweden

Sott.net
Mike Adams
NaturalNews.com
March 30, 2010

The utter worthlessness of Big Pharma's cholesterol drugs was demonstrated recently by a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed that niacin (a low-cost B vitamin) out-performs Merck's drug Zetia for preventing the build-up of arterial plaque, a symptom of cardiovascular disease.

As the study reveals, Zetia failed miserably. Patients taking niacin showed a "significant shrinkage" in artery wall thickness, while those on Zetia showed no such improvement. At the same time, the rate of "cardiovascular events" in the niacin group was only one-fifth that in the Zetia group, demonstrating that niacin is far more effective at preventing heart attacks and other similar events than Zetia.

The One Click Group

One Click Note: Congratulations and thanks are due to Labour's Paul Flynn MP, working for the best interests of British voters.

**********

guardian.co.uk
28 March 2010

WHO accused of losing public confidence over flu pandemic

Loss of credibility could endanger lives, says vice chair of Council of Europe's health committee

By Sarah Boseley

Incompetent Swine Flu Drug Dealers Flying Pigs Club UK, from left:
Andrew Burnham MP - Health Secretary of State
Fear Marketeer Sir Liam Donaldson - Chief Medical Officer (soon to be ex)
'Vaccines Basil, Professor David Salisbury - UK Government Vaccines Director
Gillian Merron MP - Parliamentary vaccines propagandist
(Caption & Pic Courtesy Of One Click)

Ethan Huff

NaturalNews

March 21, 2010

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission (EC) have been working on establishing dosage limits on vitamins and supplements within the European Union (EU) using flawed toxicology risk assessment methods to make such determinations. A recent paper published in the journal Toxicology exposes the approach as "fatally flawed," citing the junk science being used to try to limit access to effective doses of nutritional supplements.

Robert Verkerk PhD, lead author of the article and scientific and executive director of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) International, has been working for years to explain to various European and international authorities the illogic of using toxicologic risk analysis to assess proper nutrient dosages. His paper in Toxicology is his most extensive and thorough critique thus far.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, created jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations back in 1963 to establish a world food code, established its guidelines for vitamin and mineral supplements back in 2005. Though not technically enforceable, especially in nations like the U.S. where such provisions would be wholly unconstitutional, the guidelines suggest establishing upper safe limits on vitamin and mineral supplements using the same toxicologic risk assessment methods used on dangerous toxins like mercury and lead.

OpEdNews

March 19, 2010

by Jeffrey Dach MD

As if Fosamax didn't have enough problems, another nail was hammered into the coffin at the 2010 AAOS Meeting.

Two separate studies revealed that Fosamax disturbs bone formation, and is implicated in spontaneous mid-femur fractures.

Reports of Spontaneous Mid Femur Fracture on Fosamax

Clarita Odvina MD reported nine cases of spontaneous femur fracture on Fosamax (Alendronate).

Dr. Goh, a doctor in Singapore, identified nine more cases in his 2007 report of subtrochanteric femur fractures with minimal trauma in women on long term Fosamax.

Joseph M Lane MD reported 15 cases of spontaneous femur fracture in women on Fosamax (Alendronate). His report appeared in the New England Journal March 20, 2008.

Lane found that "ten of the 15 patients were found to share a unique radiographic pattern, defined as a simple transverse or oblique (≤30)fracture with beaking of the cortex and diffuse cortical thickening of the proximal femoral shaft."

The entire bisphosphonate class of osteoporosis drugs is implicated. This includes all of the drugs for osteoporosis such as Boniva, Actonel, Reclast, Fosamax,etc.

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 11, Dated March 20, 2010

The Cervical Cancer Bazaar

YOUNG GIRLS ARE BEING GIVEN ANTI-CANCER JABS, WITH DUBIOUS RESULTS, FIND SHANTANU GUHA RAY AND KUNAL MAJUMDER

Photo: VIJAY PANDEY

EACH TIME Nageshwara and Venkatamma are asked about Sarita, the farm labourers point to a framed photograph of their daughter. And then they huddle near the entrance of their one-room house in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh and weep inconsolably, recounting a tale of death that came home without warning.

NaturalNews.com

March 15, 2010

by: Ethan Huff, citizen journalist

(NaturalNews) With hundreds of thousands of people dying every year from the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, one would imagine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be out in full force pulling these drugs from the market, right? Actually, the agency has recently been spending its time targeting a walnut manufacturer for making legitimate, scientifically-proven health claims about walnuts on its packaging.

Such behavior is nothing new for the rogue agency that spends all of its time ridding the market of natural products, legitimate health claims on food, and other important products and information that actually help people become healthy rather than remain disease-stricken pharmaceutical drug addicts. In the case of walnuts, though, the vast amount of studies concerning the numerous benefits of the nut makes the FDA's mission to stop all purveyance of this information utterly incomprehensible.

Natural News

March 17, 2010

by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) A Philadelphia jury has found drug giant Pfizer Inc. guilty of deliberately ignoring evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug Prempro increased women's risk of breast cancer, ordering it to pay unspecified damages to defendant Connie Barton.

Millions of women used Prempro and other HRT drugs up until 2002, when the groundbreaking Women's Health Initiative study found that taking the drugs significantly increased women's risk of breast cancer and death from cardiovascular disease. The risk was so striking that researchers called an early halt to the study out of concern for participants' lives. The drugs were -- and still are -- marketed to relieve the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, mood swings and night sweats.

More recent research suggests that HRT drugs also increase women's risk of dying from lung cancer.

March 15, 2010

State changes vaccination requirements for school children

By Sean Dreher

For the first time in more than a decade, the state is changing what vaccines are required for children before they can head to school.

Most of the changes take effect in July, but not everyone plans to rush to their doctor's office.

With a business devoted to providing for children and triplets of her own at home, Sunny Hall has experience with kids. She also has experience with vaccines.

"I never questioned it," she said.

After the birth of her children, Hall followed the advice of experts.

"We were all fine until six months. We went in and got their shots and when we got home my son just wasn't right," she said.

Sott.net

David Cronin

IPS News

March 5, 2010

Brussels - Genetically modified (GM) foods appear to be back on the European Union's political menu - thanks to a potato.

Manufactured by the German chemical firm BASF, a potato named Amflora became the first GM crop to be authorized for cultivation by the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, in 12 years Mar. 2.

It is unlikely that the same length of time will elapse before the next such approval is granted by Brussels officials. Files relating to 17 other GM crops - including varieties of maize, oilseed rape and more potatoes - are on those officials' desk and awaiting a formal rubber-stamp.

Although many of the EU's governments are opposed to the introduction of GM foods, the Commission's most powerful representatives have long been eager to resume the approval of new varieties. Last year, it sought unsuccessfully to force France and Greece to ditch moratoriam they had placed on the planting of Mon-810, a corn variety developed by the American multinational Monsanto.

By Dr. Renee Tocco

February 18, 2010

NewsWithViews.com

Thanks to very ambitious pharmaceutical companies, with the help of pediatricians, the American government and schools across the country, the USA has produced the most highly vaccinated infants in the world. We give American babies up to three times the vaccines as other first-world countries. While we have earned a "blue ribbon" for our vaccine rates, we are close to earning the "booby prize" in another category that should devastate every parent in the country. Since implementation of the CDC mass vaccine program we have gone from about 2-3 to about 41-42 on the international infant mortality list. Yes, this means that a high rate of American infants never live to see toddler hood.

March 7, 2010
stephentvedten.blogspot.com

Danish Scientist Absconds with $2 million More Info - Key character who "proved" vaccines don't cause autism.

A Danish scientist who was a key researcher in two studies that purport to show that mercury used in vaccines and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine do not cause autism is believed to have used forged documents to steal $2 million from Aarhus University in Denmark according to reports in the Copenenhagen Post Online and a statement from Aarhus University.

Poul Thorsen, MD PhD, headed up a research unit at Aarhus University that was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prepare a series of studies that would exonerate thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative and adjuvant used in vaccines, and the MMR vaccine from any role in causing autism. The veracity of the three studies he co-authored is now in doubt.

These studies formed the foundation for the conclusions of several Institute of Medicine reports that claimed that it was highly unlikely that thimerosal or MMR were implicated in autism.

OpEdNews

March 4, 2010

By Evelyn Pringle

A month before the first Paxil birth defect trial against GlaxoSmithKline was set to begin, the Associated Press ran the headline, "Glaxo Used Ghostwriting Program to Promote Paxil," in reporting on a program called "CASPPER," which allowed doctors to "take credit for medical journal articles mainly written by company consultants."

"Drug companies frequently hire outside firms to draft a manuscript touting a company's drug, retain a physician to sign off as the author and then find a publisher to unwittingly publish the work," the Associated Press said on August 19, 2009. "Drug company salespeople often present medical journal articles to physicians as independent proof that their drugs are safe and effective."

The Huffington Post
December 14, 2009
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
Posted: December 8, 2009 04:31 PM

On November 24, 2009, Novartis officially opened its first, large-scale vaccine manufacturing facility in the U.S. Located in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The project is a collaborative effort between Novartis and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which contributed $457M for the design, construction, and licensing of the facility.

For its part in the deal, Novartis is required to provide two commercial-scale lots of "pre-pandemic" vaccine annually for a minimum of three years. In addition, the government has the right to exercise options to purchase influenza vaccine over the next 17 years. (1) Currently, 191 employees work at the plant but that will increase to 350 persons when fully operational, anticipated to be sometime in 2011. The Holly Springs facility will be able to roll out 150 million flu shots per year.

Even though its use has not been approved by U.S. regulators, the plant will be producing MF59 as early as December 2009.(2) MF59 is Novartis' proprietary and controversial adjuvant composed of squalene and a surfactant called Tween80, also known as polysorbate 80. Back in July, 2009, the department of HHS purchased over $343.8M of "oil-in-water" adjuvant from Norvartis.(3) It looks like the government may want to take delivery on its purchase some time soon.

Posted by: Dr. Mercola

December 10 2009 | 6,348 views

Health officials across Canada are being asked to hold back a batch of swine flu vaccine that appears to be causing higher rates of severe allergic reactions.

The vaccine's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, is asking governments to stop using vaccine doses from one particular lot shipment issued in late October.

Bloomberg reports that Glaxo advised Canadian doctors to hold off on using a batch of the vaccine while the company probes reports of higher-than-expected occurrences of a side effect known as anaphylaxis.

The batch of 172,000 doses of Arepanrix was linked to more cases of acute allergic reactions, including swollen tongues, throats and respiratory distress, than is expected, spokeswoman Gwenan White said.

According to Manitoba health officials, severe allergic reactions from the batch in question was seen in one of 20,000, which is far higher than the typical rate of one in 100,000.

Sources:

CBC News November 19, 2009

Bloomberg November 24, 2009

HealthZone.ca November 20, 2009

ecPulse.com November 25, 2009

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
DR. BARBARA STARFIELD:
By Jon Rappoport
www.insolutions.info
www.nomorefakenews.com

On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock to the system, when one of its most respected and honored public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America.

The landmark Starfield study, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:

Every year in the US there are:

12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;

7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;

20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;

80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;

106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.

The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000.

This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.

November 28, 2009
By NISHOREN, Posted by Stephen Fox (about the submitter)
opednews.com
For OpEdNews: Posted by Stephen Fox - Writer
from: http://www.nishoren.org/en/?p=551

Labelled only as "amino acid and others"

On September 14, 2009, two new food additives from Ajinomoto were judged to be "safe" by the Expert Committee for Genetically Modified Food and Others at the Food Safety Commission (FSC). The appraisal was open for public comments and it seems likely that the two novel amino acids will be approved by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour by the end of November.

So far, several GMO food additives have been approved, but they were basically used for food processing, as in the case of enzymes like alpha amylase for improved productivity. There have been no cases of GMO food additives that are used directly as seasoning as is the case of amino acids. Thus, when Ajinomoto first submitted these GMO products, there were no established method for safety appraisal.

That was why the Food Safety Commission has published a "Directive for safety assessment of food additives which are produced using genetically modified micro-organisms and which are highly refined and have non-protein characteristics, including amino acids." (Many studies have verified that the process of genetic engineering can produce unpredicted toxins or allergens.)

Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine!

Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety

I (Physician's name, degree)_________________________, _____ am a physician licensed to practice medicine in the State of ________________. My State license number is _______________ , and my DEA number is _______________. My medical specialty is ________________________

by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins

Global Research, August 21, 2009

Institute of Science in Society - 2009-07-27

The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu. Mass vaccinations is a recipe for disaster Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins

This report has been submitted to Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer of the UK, and to the US Food and Drug Administration

A swine flu outbreak occurred in Mexico and the United States in April 2009 and spread rapidly around the world by human-to human transmission. The new type A H1N1 influenza virus is unlike any that had been previously isolated [1, 2], judging from the first data released in May.

It is a messy combination of sequences from bird, human and swine flu virus lineages from North America and Eurasia. A senior virologist based in Canberra, Australia, told the press he thought that the virus could have been created in a laboratory and released by accident [3]. Some analysts even suggest, without corroborating evidence, that it was made intentionally as a bioweapon [4], while others blame the intensive livestock industry and extensive trafficking of love animals over long distances, which provide plenty of opportunity for generating exotic recombinants [5].

But what worries the public most is the mass vaccination programmes governments are putting in place to combat the emerging pandemic, which could well be worse than the pandemic itself.

Sott.net
S. L. Baker
NaturalNews.com
July 14, 2009

At the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society recently held in San Diego, researchers presented a study showing that the flu vaccine - widely touted as a "must have" for children with chronic illnesses - isn't effective in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially ones with asthma. But here's the most damning evidence that flu shots aren't the safe, helpful vaccine the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies claim: the researchers also found that children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than their peers who do not get the vaccine.

Scientist Avni Joshi, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told the meeting, "The concerns that vaccination may be associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past, but the vaccine's effectiveness has not been well-established. This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the TIV (trivalent inactivated flu vaccine in children overall, as well as the children with asthma, to prevent influenza-related hospitalization."

scotsman.com
June 1, 2009
By Marisa de Andrade

MORE than 150 girls in Scotland have suffered adverse reactions after receiving the cervical cancer vaccine introduced last autumn, The Scotsman can reveal.

Campaigners are calling for the vaccination programme to be suspended, claiming there are unanswered questions about the long-term effectiveness and safety of Cervarix, the drug used for the vaccine. They are concerned that official information refers to mild side-effects, when some girls have reported serious reactions to the jab.

The families of six girls in England are suing GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of Cervarix, after the girls suffered severe reactions resulting in partial paralysis, seizures and chronic fatigue. The Scotsman has learned two more have contacted the same solicitor after suffering severe painful swelling of joints.

Farm Wars
By Barbara H. Peterson
May 18, 2008

Monsanto and its cohorts in crime promised us that they would not be using Terminator technology called GURT, or genetic use restricted technology. In fact, the United Nations actually issued a moratorium on the project. So we’re safe, right? Wrong.

As usual, the boys in the little white lab coats have not been idle. In spite of the moratorium, not only are they working heatedly on Terminator technology, but are getting ready to introduce Zombie technology. Terminator, and Traitor or Zombie technologies are just variations of GURT. Whereas Terminator technology produces plants with sterile seeds, Zombie technology carries this a step further by creating plants that could require a chemical application to trigger seed fertility every year. Pay for the chemical or get sterile seed. This is called reversible transgenic sterility. They have been working steadily on perfecting this technology, and are now poised to introduce it to the world as a solution to the current GMO contamination problem. Move over Terminator, here comes the Zombie.

Image by Bukowsky18 via Flickr

NCI STUDY LINKS ASPARTAME TO LEUKEMIA/LYMPHOMA

EFSA blesses formaldehyde-forming aspartame on April 20

NCI backs study linking formaldehyde to leukemia, lymphoma on May 14

From Mission Possible International

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced April 20, 2009: ..."on the basis of all the evidence currently available including the [second] published ERF study there is no indication of any genotoxic or carcinogenic potential of aspartame and that there is no reason to revise the previously established ADI (allowable daily intake) for aspartame of 40mg/kg bw/day." Truth be told: aspartame is an addictive excitoneurotoxic, genetically engineered, carcinogen that interacts with virtually all medications.

EFSA is blinded by allegiance to commercial interests so it invents objections to acclaimed medical research, disregarding the suffering, ruined lives and death their cupidity brings to an entire continent.

In 2005 the renowned Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences reported a rigorous three year study on 1800 rats, concluding: aspartame causes significant increases in lymphomas/leukemias and is a multi-potential carcinogen. EFSA invented "deficiencies" in the study to protect manufacturers pet poison. The second study, ERF 2007, entirely verified the first. Dr Morando Soffritti, who led both projects, noted that so much formaldehyde developed in aspartame-exposed rats that their skin turned yellow.

Miami Herald
April 24, 2009
Editorial

OUR OPINION: Mistakes apparent in death of seven-year-old Gabriel Myers

By the time it becomes necessary for the Department of Children & Families to intervene in a child's life, the youngster almost certainly has already been severely traumatized by neglect and abuse. The agency faces tough, agonizing choices, but the objective never changes: Always act in the best interest of the child. That didn't happen in the depressingly sad case of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, who threw a tantrum last week and hanged himself in the shower of a foster home.

Digital Journal
April 2, 2009

South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation.

Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged 'underfertilisation processes in the laboratory". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems.

Urgent investigation demanded

However environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto's genetically-manipulated technology.

Willem Pelser, journalist of the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport, writes from Nelspruit that Monsanto has immediately offered the farmers compensation in three provinces - North West, Free State and Mpumalanga. The damage-estimates are being undertaken right now by the local farmers' cooperative, Grain-SA. Monsanto claims that 'less than 25%' of three different corn varieties were 'insufficiently fertilised in the laboratory'.

CommonDreams.org
Published on Saturday, March 28, 2009 by St Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
by Jeffrey Tomich

Earlier this month, a blogger named Brad fired a virtual salvo at Jeffrey Smith, the author of "Seeds of Deception" and one of the most vocal crusaders against genetically modified foods.

In a 600-word post, Brad questioned the credibility of an online petition on Smith's website, urging the administration of President Barack Obama to require labeling of biotech foods. He called the petition "sheer political theater" and prodded the activist for purportedly being a yogic flying instructor.

More than 30 comments followed in the next few weeks. On one level, the exchange was just another online debate about GMOs. But this one was notable because of who initiated and hosted it: Monsanto Co.

For years, environmental and food activists have made good use of YouTube video and Facebook to skewer Monsanto in the blogosphere. Now, the biotech giant is turning the tables.

Washington Post
By Shankar Vedantam
March 27, 2009

Long-Term Benefit For Children at Issue

New data from a large federal study have reignited a debate over the effectiveness of long-term drug treatment of children with hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder, and have drawn accusations that some members of the research team have sought to play down evidence that medications do little good beyond 24 months.

The study also indicated that long-term use of the drugs can stunt children's growth.

The latest data paint a very different picture than the study's positive initial results, reported in 1999.

One principal scientist in the study, psychologist William Pelham, said that the most obvious interpretation of the data is that the medications are useful in the short term but ineffective over longer periods but added that his colleagues had repeatedly sought to explain away evidence that challenged the long-term usefulness of medication. When their explanations failed to hold up, they reached for new ones, Pelham said.

OpEdNews
March 30, 2009
By Cathy Alexander

My name is Cathy Alexander, age 52, from Tennessee. Here is my story: MY BATTLE WITH ASPARTAME POISON.

In 2005 I had an operation on my abdomen, and there were 100 days of recovery time.

A week after I got up one morning and my legs folded under me. I could not walk and my mind was so cloudy I could not remember what day it was. I was very frightened because I had never felt this way before, not once in my entire life! I would hold on to whatever was near, holding unto the walls to get down the hall to the bathroom, falling along the way.

I was so scared: I had never felt this way before. I had no insurance. I went to 3 different ER's at three different county hospitals. First, they all thought I was on drugs or drunk and I wasn't. With all kinds of testing they could not find anything.

I had to come up with the money to go to a Neurologist who tested me and did spinal taps. Nothing showed up. So the neurologist and another doctor said it was acute cerebellitis and that I would be better in about 6 months. By that time it was the same or even worse.

I had no balance or any motor skills. It was like my muscles were soft and did not work. I do not take prescriptions for nervous or antidepressants, but I was very shaky and very depressed. I did not care to live.

Age of Autism
By Kim Stagliano
March 17, 2009

We've learned today that Jenny Tetlock passed away on Sunday. Her neurologists cited an unusual form of childhood ALS. Others point to Gardasil. Our sincere condolences to her family whose blog is HERE. Below is a post we ran last July.

This article on the paralysis of Miss Jenny Tetlock, perhaps from her Gardasil vaccination, is from US News and World Report, a bastion of mainstream, conservative reporting.

Note that her father is a professor at a top university. We wish the Tetlock family, especially young Jenny, well. We wrote about her tragic situation HERE. Did blogs help move this story along? We hope so.

Washington Post
Shankar Vedantam
March 18, 2009

The study would come to be called "cursed," but it started out just as Study 15.

It was a long-term trial of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The common wisdom in psychiatric circles was that newer drugs were far better than older drugs, but Study 15's results suggested otherwise.

As a result, newly unearthed documents show, Study 15 suffered the same fate as many industry-sponsored trials that yield data drugmakers don't like: It got buried. It took eight years before a taxpayer-funded study rediscovered what Study 15 had found -- and raised serious concerns about an entire new class of expensive drugs.

Study 15 was silenced in 1997, the same year Seroquel was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia. The drug went on to be prescribed to hundreds of thousands of patients around the world and has earned billions for London-based AstraZeneca International-- including nearly $12 billion in the past three years.

Crimes against humanity and nature have been committed and hidden on the back pages of newspapers around the world. The Monsanto Corporation, with the help of corporation-friendly judiciaries around the world, has been systematically aiming for complete agricultural hegemony through abusive litigation, aggressive lobbying and questionable patent law interpretation.

In case you don't know who Monsanto is, they were founded in 1901 and helped introduce caffeine into Coca-Cola. Not too bad for the average college student, but their major spring board into becoming one of the top 10 chemical producers in the United States was the manufacture of DDT, which was a major cause in endangering the bald eagle, and Agent Orange, which was used in Vietnam and whose effects on both American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians are so notorious.

Monsanto is listed as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 EPA "Superfund" sites, where there is a high risk of danger to human life due to toxic waste contamination, and that's just in the United States alone.

The Wall Street Journal
By Sarah Rubenstein
March 11, 2009

We've followed plenty of controversies around drug trials, from ghostwriting to keeping quiet about unflattering results. But the latest news is particularly eye-popping: A prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist allegedly fabricated 21 medical studies involving major drugs. Yikes.

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., has asked several anesthesiology journals to retract the studies, which appeared between 1996 and 2008, the WSJ reports. The hospital says its former chief of acute pain, Scott S. Reuben, faked data used in the studies.

Some of the studies reported favorable results from use of Pfizer's Bextra and Merck's Vioxx, both painkillers that have since been pulled from the market. Others offered good news about Pfizer's pain drugs Lyrica and Celebrex and Wyeth's antidepressant Effexor XR. Doctors said Reuben's work was particularly influential in pain treatment and that they were shocked by the news.

There's a popular medical thriller novel in which a global pandemic is intentionally set off by an evil plot designed to reduce the human population. In the book, a nefarious drug company inserts live avian flu viruses into vaccine materials that are distributed to countries around the world to be injected into patients as "flu shots." Those patients then become carriers for these highly-virulent strains of avian flu which go on to infect the world population and cause widespread death.

There's only one problem with this story: It's not fiction. Or, at least, the part about live avian flu viruses being inserted into vaccine materials isn't fiction. It's happening right now.

Deerfield, Illinois-based pharmaceutical company Baxter International Inc. has just been caught shipping live avian flu viruses mixed with vaccine material to medical distributors in 18 countries. The "mistake" (if you can call it that, see below...) was discovered by the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. The World Health Organization was alerted and panic spread throughout the vaccine community as health experts asked the obvious question: How could this have happened?

By Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
February 28, 2009

Pfizer is planting fake medical articles and issuing unbranded "PSAs" to push pills? Again? Say it ain't so.

Even as new reports surface about alleged fake medical articles Pfizer planted to sell seizure drug Neurontin for unapproved uses from 1995 to 2002, it looks like deja vu all over again.

Pfizer gave nonprofits $2.1 million in grants in 2008 for medical courses about the pain-and-fatigue ailment fibromyalgia for which its Neurontin follow-up pill, Lyrica, just happens to be approved.

Lyrica (pregablin), facetiously called Son of Neurontin at Pfizer, was discovered by Northwestern University chemist Richard Silverman in 1989, earning the university a cool $700 million when it sold royalties in late 2007.

It is funding the $100 million Richard and Barbara Silverman Hall for Molecular Therapeutics & Diagnostics, under construction now, which will employ 245 faculty, staff and research assistants and hopefully lead to other promising molecules.

Like Neurontin (gabapentin), Lyrica (Pregablin) is an antiepilepsy drug (AED) that modulates calcium channels to dampen the excitability of nerve endings and seizure activity. And, like Neurontin which made $3 billion a year from unapproved uses like bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder and restless legs syndrome, Pfizer has high hopes for its "crossover appeal."

The New York Times
February 26, 2009
By BARRY MEIER and BENEDICT CAREY

The Justice Department charged the drug maker Forest Laboratories on Wednesday with defrauding the government of millions of dollars by illegally marketing the popular antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved uses in children and teenagers.

In a civil complaint filed by the United States attorney’s office in Boston, federal prosecutors alleged that former top executives at Forest concealed for several years a clinical study that showed that the drugs were not effective in children and might even pose risks to them, including causing some to become suicidal.

From 2001 to 2004, Forest heavily promoted results from another clinical trial it had financed that showed that the drugs were effective, without disclosing the negative study to those researchers, its own medical advisers or its sales representatives, the complaint said.

An official of Forest, which is based in Manhattan, said the company’s lawyers were reviewing the complaint and did not have an immediate comment. Celexa and Lexapro are two versions of the same drug, citalopram. The drugs are currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for adults.

OpEdNews
February 25, 2009
By Sandra Thornton

After noticing a change in TV ads for Cymbalta, now only claiming to help with depression, I was led to do extensive research on the internet as well as using valuable input from my fellow victims of fibromyalgia, and what I found was appalling.

Per FDA requirements each potential drug requires three phases of testing. Phase I of testing assesses the safety and tolerability of the drug. Phase II tests the efficacy of the drug, and Phase III tests the effects from long-term use of the drug and builds on the findings of two previous phases to further evaluate safety and effectiveness. These three phases are long and grueling… The company then submits application to the FDA for approval, a process that can take up to 2 ½ years. It takes approximately an average of 12 years to get a new drug from the laboratory unto the pharmacy shelf.

"The vaccinated, but not the non-vaccinated, dogs in the Purdue studies developed autoantibodies to many of their own biochemicals, including fibronectin, laminin, DNA, albumin, cytochrome C, cardiolipin and collagen."

"Meanwhile, the study dogs were found good homes, but no long-term follow-up has been conducted. At around the same time, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force initiated several studies to find out why 160,000 cats each year in the USA develop terminal cancer at their vaccine injection sites."

"It is also widely acknowledged that vaccines can cause a fast-acting, usually fatal, disease called autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA). Without treatment, and frequently with treatment, individuals can die in agony within a matter of days."

"However, no one warns the pet owners before their animals are subjected to an unnecessary booster, and very few owners are told why after their pets die of AIHA."

Spectrum
By Barbara Frischkin
February 19, 2009

As an Autism Mom, I spent last week with my head spinning. Ultimately though, I could see that the events - in a conflicted American court, a decimated American home and a misguided British newspaper - were all connected, albeit in a deep, unsettling manner. But one that also illuminates that the debate is far from over.

In America last week, our Vaccine Court very curiously threw a hearty dose of cold water over the widely reported connection between autism and vaccines. I use this phrase -- widely reported-- to emphasize that the connection between autism and vaccines has been spotted by multitudes of front line participants and observers -- parents and physicians who have seen children and patients fall apart after being vaccinated. Ignoring these eyewitness accounts is akin to dismissing testimonies from soldiers until those testimonies are "peer reviewed" by scientists who may have no first hand experience in war zones.

Sott.net
OpEd News
Linn Cohen-Cole
February 16, 2009

[Editors' note: Community-Supported Agriculture or C.S.A., is the distribution system in which people buy shares in return for a weekly allotment of local fresh farm food.]

The New York Times ran on a piece on CSAs doing well despite the economy.

Forgive me, I am so boggled by the ironies that my computer is stuttering.

The New York Times is in New York state which is responsible for the fact that CSAs are actually in terrible trouble and that trouble stems directly from a New York source, Hillary Clinton. She pushed a centralized Food Safety Department when she ran for president, one that would bring together the USDA and FDA, giving them vastly more power over food. Both agencies are grossly corrupted by Monsanto so the multiplication of power accrues powerfully to Monsanto.

NewsWithViews.com
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO
February 17, 2009

For nearly a decade, the British General Medical Council (GMC), the equivalent of a U.S State Medical Board on steroids, has been taking Dr. Andrew Wakefield to task for daring to suggest that autism could be caused by the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This week proved that the inquisition continues. The Times UK published a report written by commissioned journalist, Brian Deer, claiming that “confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses” have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data.[1] Deer claims that Dr. Wakefield’s “misleading and inaccurate” research about the MMR has lead to reduced vaccination rates and a resurgence of measles. And while the bickering about the MMR continues, the number of children who have been lost to autism continues to soar.

Before the 1990s, U.K. researchers estimated four to five cases of autism per 10,000 people in their country. By 2006, the number with autism had escalated to 39 per 10,000 and the number with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) stood at 77 per 10,000, making the total prevalence of all types of ASD 116 per 10,000, or one in every 86 children.[2] Barely one year later (2007), researchers at the Cambridge University's Autism Research Center in London released a report estimating that one in every 58 children in the U.K. (not just boys) suffers from "some form of autism disorder."[3]

AlterNet
By Paul Armentano, NORML
February 11, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/126559/

According to Google News, more than 750 media outlets — that’s 7-5-0, folks — have now weighed in on this week’s pot scare story du jour: “Smoking marijuana causes testicular cancer.”

So is there any truth behind the provocative headline? Some, but hardly enough to justify the media’s feeding frenzy.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research in Seattle matched 369 men with of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) with 979 healthy controls. Here’s what they found.

Men who self-reported having “ever used” marijuana had no statistically significant risk of testicular cancer compared to healthy controls who never used pot.

Men who reported currently using marijuana at least once per week, and who had started smoking pot prior to age 18, had an elevated risk compared to controls of contracting a type of testicular cancer known as nonseminoma.

Sounds scary, huh? Well here’s the catch.

People say if farmers don't want problems from Monsanto, just don't buy their GMO seeds.

Not so simple. Where are farmers supposed to get normal seed these days? How are they supposed to avoid contamination of their fields from GM-crops? How are they supposed to stop Monsanto detectives from trespassing or Monsanto from using helicopters to fly over spying on them?

Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples and if they find any GMO plants growing there (or say they have), they then sue, saying they own the crop. It's a way to make money since farmers can't fight back and court and they settle because they have no choice.

And they have done and are doing a bucket load of things to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of NORMAL seeds.

Atlanticfreepress
Written by Robert Singer
February 7, 2009

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), based in Rome, Italy, is an international organization jointly created in 1962 by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations “allegedly” to protect the health of consumers with guidelines for food standards.

Codex Alimentarius may present the greatest disaster for our food supply — and thus for our health — this country has ever seen, and if not stopped is likely to be implemented starting in 2011.

Let me repeat that, the greatest disaster to our health if not stopped, starting in 2011.

The Codex and regulations affecting our food sovereignty go back to 1962. Fortunately, in 1994 Congress passed the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which for the moment preserved the definition of vitamins, minerals and herbs as foods.

Without congressional oversight the U.S. will move towards Canada and Mexico where supplements are considered drugs, not foods. Codex if implemented will reverse DSHEA and the U.S. will no longer treat dietary supplements as foods, but as toxins.

Let me repeat that, Codex treats foods as toxins!

Sott.net
David Kirby
Age of Autism
February 4, 2009

All eyes are on Vaccine Court this week, as people await rulings in the autism "test cases" on MMR and thimerosal. But another omnibus proceeding involving Hepatitis B vaccine and autoimmune disorders in adults, including MS, has already been quietly ruling in favor of several petitioners. (HERE)

The most recent case was announced about a week ago. In it, the Court ruled that the victim, an adult female, had contracted a form of demyelinating disease and MS, and eventually died, after receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine series. It was just the most recent case in a rash of rulings in the omnibus proceeding dealing with hepatitis B vaccine and "demyelinating diseases such as transverse myelitis (TM), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease (CIDP), and multiple sclerosis (MS)," according to court papers.

"Petitioner has prevailed on the issue of entitlement. The medical records during decedent's final hospitalization reflect that she died from demyelinating disease. Not only did decedent have a vaccine injury, but also her death was vaccine-related," wrote the Special Master in the case.

Interestingly, the US government chose not to present any expert witnesses, nor to contest the case any further.

AlterNet
By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
February 4, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/124165/

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. -- C.S. Lewis

Psychiatry's "shock doctrine" is quite literally electroshock, and its latest victims are – I'm not kidding – young children.

On Jan. 25, 2009, the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Australia, reported: "Children younger than 4 who are considered mentally disturbed are being treated with controversial electric shock treatment." In Australia, the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is increasing, and the Herald Sun's report on "Child Shock Therapy" stated that last year, "statistics record 203 ECT treatments on children younger than 14 -- including 55 aged 4 and younger."

Sott.net
Ryan Wood
Ball State News Online
February 3, 2009

A group of Ball State University students are worried a preservative found in a flu vaccine meant to keep you healthy could lead to harmful side effects.

Tony Farmer, president of Ball State's Truth Movement, has been leading his group in a protest against the use of thimerosal, a preservative found in some flu vaccines. Farmer says multiple studies indicate thimerosal, used in the flu vaccine Fluzone, can lead to Alzheimer's disease and autism.

Farmer believes the evidence found in the study is convincing, but not enough is being done to rid Fluzone of the potentially harmful preservative.

"The problem is, most people don't examine the evidence either because the FDA has convinced them it doesn't exist," Farmer wrote in an e-mail to DayWatch. "Some are putting more trust in their government than in their own eyes."

Fluzone is one of two flu vaccines offered at the Health Center. The other, FluMist, is $13 more expensive.

Rolling Stone
SPECIAL REPORT
By Ben Wallace-Wells
Jan 28, 2009

Zyprexa was created to treat schizophrenia, but it wound up being used on depressed moms and misbehaving kids. How one of the nation's biggest pharmaceutical companies turned a flawed, dangerous pill into a multi-billion-dollar bonanza -- and who paid the price.

In June 1992, not long after the place closed down, a Harvard-trained psychologist named Sergio Pirrotta walked out of Danvers State Hospital for the last time. The psychiatric facility, at this late date, was a baggy old thing, rectangled into a field just north of Boston; whole wings were barely occupied, and vandals had already begun to rip out the mantelpieces and furniture. The hospital had been slowly, incrementally shutting down for a decade, and the patients that remained were the hardest cases, mostly schizophrenics and those with disorders too dense and weird to classify. But now, as Pirrotta took a walk around the campus, even those patients were gone: released into the larger world to fend for themselves or bused to hospitals where the staffs had little psychiatric training.

SOTT.net
Natural News
Mike Adams
January 28, 2009

New research published in Environmental Health and conducted in part by a scientist at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has revealed that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is contaminated with the toxic heavy metal mercury.

That means that many of the products using HFCS may also be contaminated with mercury. Carbonated sodas are sweetened with HFCS, as are candy bars, bread, salad dressings, pizza sauce, fruit drinks and thousands of other grocery items.

Mercury is so highly toxic that it causes severe neurological disorders. It can also result in the loss of hair, teeth and nails as well as muscle weakness, loss of kidney function, emotional mood swings and memory impairment. (P.S. Somebody please update this Wikipedia page with this latest research about HFCS being a source for mercury exposure, too.)

Sott.net
Health & Wellness
Salynn Boyles
WebMD
January 26, 2009

Treatment-related hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be more common than previously thought, FDA officials report in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.

In an earlier investigation, FDA researchers identified more than 850 separate incidences of hallucinations and other psychotic episodes among children taking stimulants used to treat ADHD.

The investigation prompted federal officials to require new labeling on the drugs, including Ritalin LA, Concerta, Adderall XR, Focalin, Focalin XR, Metadate CD, Daytrana, and Strattera, warning of possible psychiatric side effects.

An estimated 2.5 million children and teens take these and other stimulant-based medications to treat ADHD symptoms.

Nearly half of the cases of hallucination and other psychiatric side effects reviewed by FDA researchers involved children younger than age 11. And in more than nine out of 10 cases, the children had no reported history of psychiatric events.

OpEdNews
January 26, 2009
By Sally Stride

Sixty-four years ago, on January 25, sodium fluoride was poured into Grand Rapids, Michigan's public water supply to prove that fluoridation reduces children's tooth decay. Five years into the experiment, things weren't going as expected. Cavities declined equally in the non-fluoridated control city of Muskegon, too. So, to blur the truth or prove their expectation, Muskegon was fluoridated also.

So what's happening today?

The Liberty Voice
Greenpeace
January 13, 2009

India — New research from Austria shows that a commercial strain of Monsanto-made GE corn causes mice to have fewer and weaker babies. What is this doing to human fertility?

Regulators around the world said Monsanto’s GE corn was as safe as non-GE strains.

It has been approved in many countries and regions including the US, the EU, Argentina, Japan, Philippines and South Africa.

China approved the GE corn for animal feed back in 2005.

Until this research, under the Austrian Ministries for Agriculture and Health, none of the regulators had seriously questioned the safety of Monsanto’s GE corn.

The biotech industry is playing a game of genetic roulette with our food and with our health.

Rob Edwards
New Scientist
January 12, 2009

The health of millions could be at risk because medicinal plants used to make traditional remedies, including drugs to combat cancer and malaria, are being overexploited. "The loss of medicinal plant diversity is a quiet disaster," says Sara Oldfield, secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Most people worldwide, including 80 per cent of all Africans, rely on herbal medicines obtained mostly from wild plants. But some 15,000 of 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of extinction, according to a report this week from international conservation group Plantlife. Shortages have been reported in China, India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Commercial over-harvesting does the most harm, though pollution, competition from invasive species and habitat destruction all contribute. "Commercial collectors generally harvest medicinal plants with little care for sustainability," the Plantlife report says. "This can be partly through ignorance, but [happens] mainly because such collection is unorganised and competitive."

Associated Press
January 8, 2009

Anti-psychotic medications reduce symptoms, but at a high cost, study says

LONDON - Anti-psychotic drugs commonly used to treat Alzheimer's disease may double a patient's chance of dying within a few years, suggests a new study that adds to concerns already known about such medications.

"For the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients, taking these drugs is probably not a worthwhile risk," said Clive Ballard, the paper's lead author, of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King's College London.

"Would I want to take a drug that slightly reduced my aggression but doubled my risk of dying? I'm not sure I would," Ballard said.

The research was published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet Neurology.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and causes symptoms including aggression, delusions and hallucinations. Previous studies have shown anti-psychotic drugs, which can help control the aggression and hallucinations for a few months raise the risk of death in older patients with dementia. There are other side effects, including respiratory problems and stroke.

tv.mpp.org

December 25, 2008

As we say goodbye to the Bush Administration, we’d like to take this opportunity to give the outgoing President and his Drug Czar their final grades.

Natural News
Mike Adams
December 18, 2008

In a truly astonishing betrayal of public safety (even for the FDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today revoked its warning about mercury in fish, saying that eating mercury-contaminated fish no longer poses any health threat to children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants.

Last week, the FDA declared trace levels of melamine to be safe in infant formula. A few weeks earlier, it said the plastics chemical Bisphenol-A was safe for infants to drink. Now it says children can eat mercury, too. Is there any toxic substance in the food that the FDA thinks might be dangerous? (Aspartame, MSG, sodium nitrite and now mercury...)

This FDA decision on mercury in fish has alarmed EPA scientists who called it "scientifically flawed and inadequate," reports the Washington Post. Even better, the Environmental Working Group issued a letter to the EPA, saying "It's a commentary on how low FDA has sunk as an agency. It was once a fierce protector of America's health, and now it's nothing more than a patsy for polluters."

WHY IS A NOBEL AWARD BEING GIVEN FOR THIS ON DECEMBER 10TH?

By Janine Roberts

There are two licensed HPV vaccines in the world.

Merck makes Gardasil. It contains proteins said to come originally from four different types of HPV. By early 2008 over 10 million doses had been distributed, three-quarters of these in the USA. It is thought to be earning the company over $1 billion a year – at $360 for a course of three injections, far more than is charged for the common vaccines. The other is Cervarix, made by SmithKline Beecham, which is not yet licensed for use in the USA (as of May 2008). It contains proteins said to come from 2 different types of HPV. Both vaccines contain aluminium adjuvants. Both manufacturers recommend that women are still regularly scanned for cervical cancer – thus the vaccine does not save costs. In fact these scans give women far better protection than does the vaccine.

On December 10th, a Nobel Prize will be awarded for finding HPV and proving its link to cervical cancer to Dr Harald zur Hausen. However there is a missing link in this – for he failed to find a way to persuade cells to make his virus.

The Independent
James Woodward
December 2, 2008

A "healthy and robust" baby who died just ten days after being given the MMR jab had earlier suffered a fever fit which can be aggravated by the vaccine, an inquest heard today.

George Fisher, aged 18 months, was discovered dead in his cot in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire by his mother Sarah Fisher just hours after he was heard "chatting away on the baby monitor", a coroner was told.

Mrs Fisher, 44, and husband Christopher, 43, believe the vaccine is "implicated" in their son's death in January 2006 as the temperature-raising effects of the drug on children who have suffered febrile convulsions were not explained to them - knowledge they say might have allowed them to act sooner.

Department of Health guidelines say the jab should be given "with caution" but does not ban child sufferers of febrile convulsions from taking it and recommends temperature monitoring.

Two doctors confirmed that giving MMR to sufferers like George, who contracted the fever four months earlier, was permitted under patient guidelines with careful watches recommended.

Sott.net
Sherry Baker
NaturalNews
November 17, 2008

Drugs like Avastin that are used to treat some cancers are supposed to work by blocking a vessel growth-promoting protein called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. With VEGF held in check, researchers have assumed tumors wouldn't generate blood vessels and that should keep malignancies from growing. In a sense, the cancerous growths would be "starved". But new research just published in the journal Nature shows this isn't true. Instead of weakening blood vessels so they won't "feed" malignant tumors, these cancer treatments, known as anti-angiogenesis drugs, actually normalize and strengthen blood vessels -- and that means they can spur tumors to grow larger.

MailOnline
By Jo Macfarlane
November 2008

Health chiefs have revealed that ten people have committed suicide after taking a controversial anti-smoking drug linked to depression.

The disclosure by the Government's drugs watchdog is the first time officials have revealed the link between Champix and suicide in this country. Earlier this year, US authorities announced they were investigating 37 similar cases there.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website says a total of 24 people taking the nicotine-replacement have died, of whom ten took their own lives.

A further 213 claimed they had experienced suicidal thoughts and 407 said they were suffering depression.

There is no evidence that Champix has been a factor in any of the deaths. However, some experts are concerned that the drug, used by almost half a million people in Britain, may cause depressive thoughts and mood swings.

www.opednews.com

November 16, 2008

by Institute for Responsible Technology (Posted by sadelaine)

Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops

Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety

Advocates Call for Immediate Ban of All GM Foods and GM Crops

IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 13, 2008)

(Los Angeles, CA.) - A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world.

Feeding mice with genetically modified corn developed by the US-based Monsanto Corporation led to lower fertility and body weight, according to the study conducted by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Lead author of the study Professor Zentek said, there was a direct link between the decrease in fertility and the GM diet, and that mice fed with non-GE corn reproduced more efficiently.

NaturalNews.com
by Joanne Waldron
November 11, 2008

(NaturalNews) The Gardasil vaccine has been linked to 78 outbreaks of genital warts, according to an article in The Fiji Times entitled "Are our girls guinea pigs?" by Matelita Ragogo. That's right. In addition to all of the other adverse reactions to this controversial vaccine, children who receive it are subject to outbreaks of genital warts. Unfortunately, not too many doctors take the time to educate parents about some of these possible reactions prior to giving little girls this expensive jab.

Deaths, Miscarriages and Other Adverse Events

While genital warts are certainly disgusting, parents who think that genital warts are the worst possible adverse reaction to the vaccine should think again. According to Ragogo, as of August 14th, including the 78 outbreaks of genital warts, there have been 9,748 adverse events reported as per Judicial Watch, a non-profit watchdog group. Judicial Watch also reports that there have been 21 deaths, not including the deaths (by miscarriage) of 10 unborn babies.

November 10th, 2008

By David Gutierrez | A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.

An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.

"The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive."

In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.

www.opednews.com
November 5, 2008
by DrTruth

Big business greed, selfishness, power lust, and total disregard for human life and all life in the natural world continues on with its diabolical schemes to control all food production in the world. Monsanto's attempts to patent pig genes, and subsequently, many other life forms through genetically modified organisms (GMO) is as criminal as they come.

It is bad enough that Monsanto's total vanity and ego could believe they own any aspect of the natural world, regardless of what they might do to it, for them to do this for money and control is insult to injury. This is a purely evil agenda and they are a clear example of domestic terrorists at work to subjugate others.

Imagine this: You have a field of corn you are raising cleanly... without GMO corn seed. Your neighboring fields have those GMO seeds and crops. The pollen from those fields cross with your clean corn plants, carrying the genetic material Monsanto's perverted corn contains. Now, your corn crop can be claimed as their property because of their patented gene found in your crop and they can either demand a fee from you for having this gene, or put you out of business with a lawsuit.

Image via Wikipedia

The Washington Post
Lyndsey Layton
September 17, 2008

The first large study in humans of a chemical widely used in everyday plastics has found that people with higher levels of bisphenol A had higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities, a finding that immediately became the focus of the increasingly heated debate over the safety of the chemical.

The research, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association by a team of British and American scientists, compared the health status of 1,455 men and women with the levels of the chemical, known as BPA, in their urine.

The researchers divided the subjects into four statistical groupings according to their BPA levels and found that those in the quartile with the highest concentrations were nearly three times as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest levels, and 2.4 times as likely to have diabetes. Higher BPA levels were also associated with abnormal concentrations of three liver enzymes.

By Rob Kampia, AlterNet
September 8, 2008

Twenty years ago, on Sept. 6, 1988, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge issued a landmark ruling, but don't expect any celebrations or commemorations in Washington, D.C. Our government has ignored this historic decision since the day it was issued, inflicting needless misery on millions.

Indeed, most Americans don't know it ever happened.

In response to a petition asking that marijuana be moved from Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bars medical use, to a lower schedule that would permit physician prescriptions, Judge Francis Young held extensive hearings that began in the summer of 1986. He heard from an impressive array of expert witnesses, resulting in thousands of pages of documentation.

Image via Wikipedia

Sott.net
Antifascist Calling
September 6, 2008

If incorporating personal details into an RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip implanted into a passport or driver's license may sound like a "smart" alternative to endless lines at the airport and intrusive questioning by securocrats, think again.

Since the late 1990s, corporate grifters have touted the "benefits" of the devilish transmitters as a "convenient" and "cheap" way to tag individual commodities, one that would "revolutionize" inventory management and theft prevention. Indeed, everything from paper towels to shoes, pets to underwear have been "tagged" with the chips. "Savings" would be "passed on" to the consumer. Call it the Wal-Martization of everyday life.

Image via Wikipedia

Keith Howe
OpEdNews
September 2, 2008

"Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told a congressional subcommittee on July 22 that the risk of a large-scale biological attack on the nation is significant. Runge used the terrifying example of a terrorist flying over Providence with an aerosolized sprayer releasing air-borne anthrax over the metropolitan area." (1)

I don't recall any terrorist's flying over America with an aerosolized sprayer releasing airborne weapons of mass destruction on her citizens. I am aware, however, of the U.S. government spraying weapons of mass destruction on us, in the form of toxic nerve agents (malathion, pyrenone 5,25, Checkmate OLR-F, Checkmate LBAM-F) with the excuse of protecting us from non-threatening fruit flies, light brown apple moths, and mosquitoes allegedly carrying the West Nile Virus (which is almost no threat to humans).

Image via Wikipedia

opednews.com

July 23, 2008
by Linn Cohen-Cole

Where does one even begin?

Do you know who Monsanto is? They are a chemical corporation which made Agent Orange and after that, PCBs, with which they drowned the town of Anniston, Alabama for decades, even after knowing for sure that PCBs were highly carcinogenic. They make organophosphates, including glyphosate (Round-up) - which are highly neuro-toxic.

With this background in illness and killing, Monsanto then began "doing" your food. It genetically engineers food.

But before you say "Oh, that's good because genetic engineering is making food better, adding vitamins, growing bigger crops, ..." I have bad news for you. Please go to http://www.responsibletechnology.org and listen to Jeffrey Smith's lecture on how genetic engineering works and what it does to organs.

And as the greater yield PR, I suggest you read: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/IBTCF.php about the Bt-cotton fraud in India while Monsanto claims to have increased yield by 160%. http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo/asp/news.asp?newsId=nr20070917&yr=2007 What do Indian farmers say? Indian farmers call Monsanto's Bt-cotton seeds, the Seeds of Death. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/indiacotton012406.cfm

Beyond India, there are also problems. http://www.slogefree.org/news07/a-disaster-in-search-of-success-bt-cotton-in

AlterNet
By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
July 23, 2008

American psychiatry has been rocked by Congress. Congressional investigators first exposed the financial relationships between high-profile psychiatrists and drug companies. "But now the profession itself is under attack in Congress," reported the New York Times on July 12, 2008.

Specifically under attack is psychiatry's premier professional organization, the American Psychiatric Association. The New York Times stated, "In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association's $62.5 million in financing. About half of that money went to drug advertisements in psychiatric journals and exhibits at the annual meeting, and the other half to sponsor fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at the annual meeting."

The American Psychiatric Association is, as the New York Times notes, "the voice of establishment psychiatry." It publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is the standard diagnostic manual. It also publishes influential professional journals. And it is the primary lobbying organization for American psychiatry.

AlterNet
By Bruce E. Levine
June 18, 2008

What Dick Cheney is to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, psychiatrist Joseph Biederman is to the explosion of psychiatric medications in American children. Recently, Biederman was nailed by congressional investigators and the New York Times for overestimating just how greedy an elite shrink is entitled to be. Beyond a peek into the corruption of psychiatry at its highest levels, the scandal is an opportunity to reconsider the Big Pharma financed view of why kids become disruptive and destructive.

On June 8, 2008, the New York Times reported the following about Joseph Biederman: "A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful anti-psychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given congressional investigators."

Due in part to Biederman's influence, the number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003, and as Bloomberg News reported (September 2007), "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for anti-psychotic drugs."

Planet Chiropractic News
June 9, 2008
By Michael Dorausch, DC

Call it a psycho conflict of interest affecting the health and lives of thousands of children, an Iowa senator has discovered 3 Harvard researchers earned millions of dollars in consulting fees from drug companies, for performing research and evangelizing antipsychotic drug use in children.

Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley, a senior United States Senator from Iowa, launched a congressional investigation to determine whether research psychiatrists were receiving drug money payments and failing to disclose that information to the federal government and university departments.

According to congressional investigators, researchers failed to report millions of dollars in income earned while consulting for various drug companies. According to news reports, these were well-known child psychiatrists practicing research out of Harvard University. Among the research doctors were psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, of the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School. Investigators believe the three psychiatrists may have violated federal rules created to vet out potential conflicts of interest in pharmaceutical research, some of which is financed by government grants.

Common Dreams News Center
May 13, 2008
The Washington Post
by Rick Weiss

A handful of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming, according to a report being released today.

Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide, according to the report by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, an activist organization that advocates for subsistence farmers.

The applications say that the new “climate ready” genes will help crops survive drought, flooding, saltwater incursions, high temperatures and increased ultraviolet radiation — all of which are predicted to undermine food security in coming decades.

Company officials dismissed the report’s contention that the applications amount to an intellectual-property “grab,” countering that gene-altered plants will be crucial to solving world hunger but will never be developed without patent protections.

Sott.net
Jo Hartley
Natural News
May 10, 2008

Environmental and farm worker groups have now sued the Bush administration for allowing the continued use of four pesticides. They claim that the government brushed aside its own evidence that the chemicals are toxic to workers, children, and animals.

The suit challenged the Environmental Protection Agency's 2006 decision to reauthorize the four pesticides used on fruit and vegetable fields in California.

A 1996 federal law required the EPA to reassess the safety of all pesticides used on foods. Based on this reassessment, the EPA was to decide whether to approve their use. The EPA found that four substances posed substantial risks to human health but they concluded that the cost savings to growers outweighed the dangers to humans.

These four pesticides reportedly put thousands of farm workers and their families at risk of serious illness.

EPA spokesman Tim Lyons stated that the agency would review the lawsuit and respond in court. However, they did say: "Our mission is to protect the environment and human health."

Spiegel online
May 9, 2008
By Andrew Curry

Bees in the German state of Baden-Württemburg are dying by the hundreds of thousands. In some places more than half of hives have perished. Government officials say the causes are unclear -- but beekeepers are blaming new pesticides.

In Germany's bucolic Baden-Württemburg region, there is a curious silence this week. All up and down the Rhine river, farm fields usually buzzing with bees are quiet. Beginning late last week, helpless beekeepers could only watch as their hives were hit by an unprecedented die-off. Many say one of Germany's biggest chemical companies is to blame.

In some parts of the region, hundreds of bees per hive have been dying each day. "It's an absolute bee emergency," Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeeper's Association, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Sott.net

Hope Shand
gristmill
May 2, 2008

A review of Claire Hope Cummings' Uncertain Peril

In October 1996, a spokesman for Monsanto told Farm Journal why his company was buying up seed companies left and right: "What you're seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain."

Today, Monsanto is the world's largest seed company -- and makes more money selling seeds than chemicals. The company's biotech seeds and traits accounted for 88 percent of the worldwide area devoted to genetically modified seeds in 2006 -- and Monsanto earns royalties on every single one. No one needed to tell Monsanto: Whoever controls the first link in the food chain -- the seeds -- controls the food supply.

BlacklistedNews
April 30, 2008.
Source: Philadelphia Inqurier

Federal inspectors documented unwanted "fibers" on the stoppers of vaccine vials at Merck & Co. Inc.'s vast vaccine plant in Montgomery County.
They also found instances of contaminated children's vaccines and complaints that were not always investigated at the West Point plant.

Inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent 30 days at the plant between November and January and cited 49 areas of concern, including a failure to follow good manufacturing practices.

The findings are detailed in an unpublished 21-page FDA report obtained by The Inquirer under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Independent experts who reviewed the report say it documents serious concerns in one of the country's premier vaccine plants. They suggested the problems could be a symptom of Merck's cost cutting in the face of rapid growth of its vaccine business.