fanta has 300x more pesticide than tap water from daily mail: Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water. A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK. The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market. The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.
merck seeks fda approval for gardasil in boys from wsj: Merck is asking federal regulators to expand the use of its human papillomavirus vaccine to boys and young men. The company has asked the FDA to approve the Gardasil vaccine’s use in males ages 9 to 26 years to prevent genital warts and other lesions, CNBC’s Mike Huckman reported. In 2006, the FDA approved giving the vaccine to girls and women of those ages. We talked with a Merck spokeswoman who pointed to studies showing Gardasil’s effectiveness in young males. But the request will likely renew questions about Gardasil’s cost-effectiveness, especially with a price tag of $360 for a three-dose regimen. In August, Harvard researchers suggested the vaccine wasn’t worth the cost in older women likely to have been exposed to HPV by the time they were to get vaccinated. Merck has also asked the FDA to expand Gardasil’s use to women ages 27 to 45 years. The vaccine is a key product for Merck, which estimates sales this year of as much as $1.6 billion. But sales have slowed, down 4% in the third quarter compared to a year earlier.
terrorists could enlist '6-legged soldiers' in bio-attack from danger room: Terrorists could easily contrive an "insect-based" weapon to import an exotic disease, according to an entomologist who's promoting a book on the subject. Jeffrey Lockwood, an entomologist at the University of Wyoming, is on the talk show circuit to promote his new book, Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War. He told BBC Radio 4's Today program that planning a bio-terror attack using insects would "probably be much easier" than developing nuclear or chemical weapons. 'Today' does not post the transcript, but the Daily Telegraph quotes him as saying: "It would be a relatively easy and simple process ... A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it."
Nothing like a little bio-warfare scare to drum up sales for your book. Military historian Max Hastings, for one, gave Lockwood's book a less-than-stellar review this weekend in the London Sunday Times. But he also noted:
"The last section of Lockwood's book is the most plausible and interesting, because it addresses the risks of biological terrorism in our own times. In particular, the author speculates about the consequences if terrorists were to broadcast Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries the yellow fever virus. The consequences of a yellow fever epidemic in America, where scarcely anyone is inoculated against the disease, could be devastating."
officials call off controversial autism study from reuters: Health officials have called off plans for a study examining a controversial type of treatment that some autism activists have touted as alternative medical therapy for children with the condition. The National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has canceled a study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a treatment called chelation. Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is a type of therapy in which a man-made amino acid, called EDTA, is added to the blood, and it has been used to treat heavy metal poisoning. Some autism activists have advocated it on the theory - rejected by most scientists - that autism is triggered by exposure to mercury, a heavy metal, from childhood vaccines.
study finds no autism link in vaccine from washington post: A common vaccine given to children to protect them against measles, mumps and rubella is not linked to autism, a study published yesterday concludes. The findings contradict earlier research that had fueled fears of a possible link between childhood vaccinations and a steep increase in autism diagnoses. In February 1998, the Lancet journal published a study by British researcher Andrew Wakefield of 12 children with autism and other behavioral problems that suggested the onset of their behavioral abnormalities was linked to receiving the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. The new study comes as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington is in the midst of evaluating evidence on whether children's vaccines are implicated in causing autism. A special master is evaluating three different kinds of claims - two of which specifically link the MMR vaccine with autism.
from steve watson: Immigrants seeking permanent legal residency in the U.S. are now mandated to take an expensive and controversial vaccine that has been linked with thousands of serious complaints and several deaths. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine — known as Gardasil — is one of five the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently added to the required list, reports Fox 8 News. A press release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency confirms that the requirements for the vaccine went into effect on July 1, 2008. The regulation represents a total dismissal of the recommendation of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In February 2007, Abramson said that he and the 15-member panel at the CDC opposed making Gardasil mandatory because the sexually transmitted HPV is not a contagious disease like measles or chicken pox. At $162 per dose, the three-dose vaccine is set to make millions in profits for Gardasil manufacturer Merck, a company that has a history of both lobbying intensely for state mandates and entering into crony deals to hoodwink Americans into believing HPV vaccinations are compulsory.
drugs affect more drinking water from ap: Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought — at least 46 million. That's up from 41 million people reported by the AP in March as part of an investigation into the presence of pharmaceuticals in the nation's waterways. The AP stories prompted federal and local legislative hearings, brought about calls for mandatory testing and disclosure, and led officials in at least 27 additional metropolitan areas to analyze their drinking water. Positive tests were reported in 17 cases, including Reno, Nev., Savannah, Ga., Colorado Springs, Colo., and Huntsville, Ala. Results are pending in three others.
pot kills superbugs from parallel normal: Several compounds in cannabis are known to kill bacteria. Now Italian scientists believe pot can take on today’s superbugs. Anti-bacterial cannabinoids might also “provide a more environmentally-friendly alternative to synthetic antibacterial substances now widely used in personal care items, including soaps and cosmetics,” according to an announcement from the American Chemical Society. The ACS also suggests that marijuana-derived meds can be made without THC, pot’s primary psychoactive substance.
teach 'the pleasure of gay sex' to children as young as five from daily mail: Children as young as five should be taught to understand the pleasures of gay sex, according to leaders of a taxpayer-funded education project. Heads of the project have set themselves a goal of 'creating primary classrooms where queer sexualities are affirmed and celebrated'. The ambition was revealed in documents prepared for the No Outsiders project run by researchers from universities and backed with £600,000 of public money provided by the Economic and Social Research Council.
cervical cancer vaccine for boys?
you can't make this stuff up... from dr. mercola: School-age boys are now being advised to get vaccinated with Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, according to mainstream media reports. Previously, the vaccine was only recommended for girls.
The new male recommendation is based on the notion that boys could get throat cancer if they have oral sex with an HPV-infected girl.
According to some, however, recommending Gardasil to boys is little more than a scare campaign aimed at gaining market share from teenage boys.
Even the advice to give mandatory Gardasil vaccinations to young girls is simply disease mongering designed to sell vaccines. This is because girls who have HPV do not automatically get cervical cancer.
Girls who have healthy immune systems, and who lead healthy lifestyles, have little risk of developing cervical cancer from HPV. It is only girls who have compromised immune systems that may be vulnerable.
from news.com.au: More than 17 girls a week have been experiencing adverse reactions such as seizures and numbness after taking cervical cancer vaccineGardasil since it became widely distributed in April.
But the Department of Health and Ageing, while revealing the number of reactions, is refusing to release the details of them - despite growing controversy overseas, including links to at least seven deaths.
There have been previous reports in Australia of young girls fainting, experiencing seizures, dizzy spells and paralysis, including 20 students at a Melbourne private school who reported being sick after having an injection in late May.
flashback: boston launches flu shot tracking w/ rfid bracelets from boston globe: Using technology originally developed for mass disasters, Boston disease trackers are embarking on a novel experiment - one of the first in the country - aimed at eventually creating a citywide registry of everyone who has had a flu vaccination. The resulting vaccination map would allow swift intervention in neighborhoods left vulnerable to the fast-moving respiratory illness. The trial starts this afternoon, when several hundred people are expected to queue up for immunizations at the headquarters of the Boston Public Health Commission. Each of them will get a bracelet printed with a unique identifier code. Information about the vaccine's recipients, and the shot, will be entered into handheld devices similar to those used by delivery truck drivers.
girl faces deportation over refusal to take gardasil from upi: An adopted teen who has lived in Port St. Joe, Fla. since she was 3 faces possible deportation to England for refusing a vaccination, she and her mother say. Simone Davis, 17, said she has no need for the vaccine Gardasil, which guards against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus virus, because she is not sexually active, ABC News reported. But the U.S. government requires female immigrants between the ages of 11 and 26 to receive Gardasil shots before they can become citizens.
beaches pose super-bug risk: study from afp: The so-called superbug MRSA, a multiresistant strain of staphylococcus usually found in hospitals, has been discovered for the first time on US beaches, a study said. The antibiotic-resistant strain, which is increasingly found in prisons, gym locker rooms and homes, can cause skin conditions and organ ailments and serious and sometimes fatal cases of pneumonia. "This is the first report of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) from marine water and inertial beach sand," said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and co-author of the study, during a press briefing Saturday. The study was presented on the first day of the 49th annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agency and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), which is being held in San Francisco this weekend.
US campers developed drug-resistant flu: report from reuters: Two girls given antiviral drugs in an effort to protect children at a summer camp from the new pandemic swine flu developed resistant virus, U.S. health officials reported on Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the study supports its new recommendations that flu drugs not be given to prevent infection among people who are otherwise healthy. Both girls recovered without becoming seriously ill, but the incident shows that it is easy for the new pandemic H1N1 virus to develop resistance to flu drugs, officials said. "We are concerned about the appropriate use of antivirals," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat said in an interview.
from raw replay: A Michigan teen suffered a severe reaction two months after getting the Gardasil shot, Abbie Boudreau reports. This video is from CNN.com, broadcast August 11, 2008.
from ap/reason: Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perryissued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer...
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21...
Merck [which makes the vaccine] is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.
The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
cdc reports on adverse reactions to gardasil vaccine
from cbc: Almost 8,000 U.S. recipients of the vaccine used to protect against cervical cancer have reported adverse reactions, ranging from pain at the injection site to serious side-effects, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 7,802 people who received Gardasil, made by Merck and Co. Inc., have reported adverse events to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between June 8, 2006, and April 30, 2008. The United States distributed 2.2 million doses of the vaccine in 2006 and 11.3 million in 2007.
pesticides persist in ground water
from terra daily: Numerous studies over the past four decades have established that pesticides, which are typically applied at the land surface, can move downward through the unsaturated zone to reach the water table at detectable concentrations. The downward movement of pesticide degradation products, formed in situ, can also contribute to the contamination of ground water. Once in ground water, pesticides and their degradation products can persist for years, depending upon the chemical structure of the compounds and the environmental conditions.
homeless die in poland of bird-flu vaccine
from upi: Twenty-one homeless individuals in Poland have died after being given an unproven bird-flu virus vaccine, authorities have charged. Prosecutors have accused three doctors and six nurses of misleading the homeless individuals by telling them they were being given a new influenza vaccine rather than a vaccine for the H5N1 bird-flu virus, The Daily Telegraph said Thursday. Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz has condemned the alleged testing and called for a permanent ban on all involved personnel from future health treatment. "It is in the interests of all doctors that those who are responsible for this are punished," Kopacz said of last year's testing efforts.
video: h5n1 dna in flu vaccine
from kraken45: Flu Mist, a popular over the counter live flu vaccine, has been found to contain two H5N1 DNA markers, these markers seem to have been sewn into the flu mist vaccine to ensure that H5N1 or another strain of Avian Flu goes pandemic. This is going to cause major problems before long, it is imperative that people are warned about flu mist.
roche urging stockpile of tamiflu in case of flu pandemic
from db techno: Roche, the makers of the leading bird flu vaccine, Tamiflu, are currently urging companies to stockpile the vaccine to better prepare for an influenza pandemic. Many scientists continue to be under the impression that it is only a matter of time before an influenza pandemic takes place. The belief is that Roche is doing this to both increase sales of its product, and also to once again remind people of the major threat that is the bird flu.
cdc seals bioterror bugs – with duct tape
from wnd: Only one week following the annual duct tape festival where enthusiasts fashion sculptures and share wacky applications for the adhesive, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed a unique, high-tech use of its own – sealing off potentially fatal bioterror bacteria. At its $214 million Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Atlanta, Ga., CDC scientists have been duct taping a lab door in an attempt to contain the airborne Q fever, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. "It's an enhancement," said Patrick Stockton, CDC safety and occupational health manager. "We could take it off."
china quake was very unusual say US scientists
from afp: The devastating earthquake in China was the unexpected result of a seismological oddity and is likely to occur in the area only about once in every 2,000 to 10,000 years, US geoscientists said Monday. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had studied the region around Sichuan province, where the 7.9 magnitude quake hit on May 12, for more than two decades but found nothing to warn them of a major quake. In a study published in the July issue of GSA Today, they blamed the tremor, which left 88,000 people dead or missing, on faults - splits in the rock in the Earth's crust - with very little seismic activity.
ex-area 51 workers eligible for aid
from las vegas review-journal: Former Department of Energy and contractor employees who worked at the top secret Area 51 base now are eligible to seek health payments available to nuclear weapons workers who got sick from their jobs, a top federal official said June 24. The announcement by Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Worker Compensation in the Labor Department, cleared an obstacle that has prevented some former Nevada workers from getting help to battle job-related cancers and other serious illnesses that showed up years after they completed careers at weapons sites.
new west virginia wind farm up & running
from examiner: A new wind farm located along the Allegheny Front in Grant County is generating electricity. Dominion Resources spokesman Karl Neddenien says some turbines at the NedPower Mount Storm wind farm have been operating since the first of the year. Neddenien wouldn't say how many turbines are now generating electricity. He says that number changes based on wind conditions on any given day. NedPower is jointly owned by Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources and Shell WindEnergy Inc. The project's first phase involves 82 turbines capable of generating 164 megawatts of electricity. Dominion and Shell have said they plan 50 more turbines capable of generating 100 megawatts despite an ongoing legal challenge by homeowners living near the wind farm.
milwaukee food relief line grows long & tense
from jsonline: The chaos that erupted outside Milwaukee County's main welfare office Monday over disaster-related food aid had more to do with a weak economy and crushing poverty in parts of this community than the devastating floods that swept through the state earlier this month, local government and food relief officials said. About 3,000 people turned out for the assistance beginning at 3 a.m. Monday, creating a line that stretched several blocks around the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center at 1220 W. Vliet St. At least one woman said she was trampled when a crowd rushed the doors as they opened around 7:30 a.m., and dozens of Milwaukee police officers and sheriff's deputies were called to quell the scene.
soil on mars good for asparagus
from abc: There is still no answer to the old question of whether there has ever been life on Mars but apparently there could be vegetable life. NASA scientists say the soil they have collected from the northern polar regions of the red planet would be good for growing asparagus and turnips, but probably not strawberries. The Phoenix Mars Lander scooped up soil with its robotic arm and scientists say the sample is similar to dirt found in some backyards on Earth. The project's lead chemist, Samuel Kounaves, from the University of Arizona says he is flabbergasted by what has come back. "We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients to support life, whether past present or future," he said.
los angeles to resume controversial cloud-seeding project from xinhua: Facing severe water supply shortage, Los Angeles plans to launch a controversial cloud-seeding project that they believe will boost rainfall and raise the levels of local reservoirs, a newspaper report said Monday. The project, which will rely on injecting clouds with silver iodide particles, has won approval from Los Angeles county supervisors and is slated to begin this winter. Officials decided to resume the program after a seven-year lapse caused by concerns over mudslides in some mountain areas ravaged by brush fires, according to the Los Angeles Times. With California gripped by dry weather and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring a statewide drought, cloud-seeding is attracting both fresh attention and skeptics.
cdc begins investigation into morgellons from natural news: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching an investigation into a still-unexplained collection of symptoms known as Morgellons disease. The condition known as Morgellons disease is characterized primarily by skin lesions that do not heal, as well as unexplained sensations of crawling, biting or stinging on the skin; the presence of foreign materials, such as fibers, on or under the skin; fatigue; joint pain; memory loss; mental confusion and vision changes.
an about-face on natural health products & bill c-51 from vancouver sun: In a surprising about-face, Health Minister Tony Clement has agreed to key demands of the natural health products industry after the sector launched a grassroots campaign against restrictions on homeopathic medicines and herbal remedies in new legislation. When Clement proposed amendments to the Food and Drugs Act in April, natural medicines were lumped in with pharmaceutical drugs, raising concerns they would be subject to the same type of oversight. He now admits it was a mistake not to create a separate category under the law.
scientist says dolphin deaths look like a mass suicide (caused by military sonar yet again) from guardian: The dolphins that died after becoming beached in Cornwall had ingested debris and mud, leading one of the scientists who examined some of the corpses to compare their deaths to a "mass suicide". Vic Simpson, who has been involved in the postmortem examinations of some of the 26 dolphins that died, said yesterday: "On the face of it, it looks like some sort of mass suicide - but the question is why?"
2 more girls die after getting gardasil from natural news: The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has reported that two young women died shortly after receiving Merck's Gardasil, a vaccine against several varieties of human papillomavirus (HPV).
fruit, veggies & tea may rotect smokers from cancer from intern daily: Tobacco smokers who eat three servings of fruits and vegetables per day and drink green or black tea may be protecting themselves from lung cancer, according to a first-of-its-kind study by UCLA cancer researchers.
the US hs no remaining grain reserves from tri-state observer: Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. “According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack.
bird flu can mix with human influenza virus: research from asd: A worrying new research paper has been published in the United States. It proves that H5N1 bird flu, which has so far only killed people in its pure form is capable of combining with conventional human flu viruses. A mutated virus combining human flu and bird flu is the nightmare strain which scientists fear could create a worldwide pandemic. The research was conducted in a laboratory by the US Centers for Disease Control... Listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.
the grass-roots marijuana wars from time: Don Duncan says he is not a pot smoker. "I haven't in eight or nine years now," says Duncan, 37. "It wasn't the right thing for me." Which is ironic, since he spends most of his day around plenty of cannabis as part owner of a West Hollywood, Calif. dispensary of medical marijuana... Lately, however, Duncan directed more energy toward his role as California director of Americans for Safe Access, a group of merchants, doctors and patients that aims to make it easier to dispense and obtain marijuana for medical purposes. The organization's central mission: fighting U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raids on dispensaries.
from blacklisted news/youtube: Gardasil is one of the Merck's brightest lights as the company faces lawsuits, layoffs and the looming patent expiration of its top earner, Zocor. Merck faces 9,200 lawsuits from plaintiffs who blame Vioxx, the $2.5 billion arthritis painkiller Merck pulled off the market in 2004, for heart attacks, many of them fatal.
Shocked that people are so blind, sure they say they wanna help you with that new age drug but the facts remain they are up a creek without a paddle!
So far, Merck lost the first state case but won the second. The third case, in federal district court, was declared a mistrial. Merck has lost about a third of its stock value since the withdrawal.
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from daily mail: Fizzy drinks sold by Coca-Cola in Britain have been found to contain pesticides at up to 300 times the level allowed in tap or bottled water. A worldwide study found pesticide levels in orange and lemon drinks sold under the Fanta brand, which is popular with children, were at their highest in the UK. The research team called on the Government, the industry and the company to act to remove the chemicals and called for new safety standards to regulate the soft drinks market. The industry denies children are at risk and insists that the levels found by researchers based at the University of Jaen in southern Spain are not harmful.
from wsj: Merck is asking federal regulators to expand the use of its human papillomavirus vaccine to boys and young men. The company has asked the FDA to approve the Gardasil vaccine’s use in males ages 9 to 26 years to prevent genital warts and other lesions, CNBC’s Mike Huckman reported. In 2006, the FDA approved giving the vaccine to girls and women of those ages. We talked with a Merck spokeswoman who pointed to studies showing Gardasil’s effectiveness in young males. But the request will likely renew questions about Gardasil’s cost-effectiveness, especially with a price tag of $360 for a three-dose regimen. In August, Harvard researchers suggested the vaccine wasn’t worth the cost in older women likely to have been exposed to HPV by the time they were to get vaccinated. Merck has also asked the FDA to expand Gardasil’s use to women ages 27 to 45 years. The vaccine is a key product for Merck, which estimates sales this year of as much as $1.6 billion. But sales have slowed, down 4% in the third quarter compared to a year earlier.
from danger room: Terrorists could easily contrive an "insect-based" weapon to import an exotic disease, according to an entomologist who's promoting a book on the subject. Jeffrey Lockwood, an entomologist at the University of Wyoming, is on the talk show circuit to promote his new book, Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War. He told BBC Radio 4's Today program that planning a bio-terror attack using insects would "probably be much easier" than developing nuclear or chemical weapons. 'Today' does not post the transcript, but the Daily Telegraph quotes him as saying: "It would be a relatively easy and simple process ... A few hundred dollars and a plane ticket and you could have a pretty good stab at it."
"The last section of Lockwood's book is the most plausible and interesting, because it addresses the risks of biological terrorism in our own times. In particular, the author speculates about the consequences if terrorists were to broadcast Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries the yellow fever virus. The consequences of a yellow fever epidemic in America, where scarcely anyone is inoculated against the disease, could be devastating."
