Cancer expert warns on cell phones

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer. The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don’t find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science, and he believes that people should take action now, especially when it comes to children. “Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Herberman said. No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman’s advice could raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents. More

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Kids Living Near Nuclear Power Plants Have Higher Cancer Rates

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

(NaturalNews)
Children’s risk of cancer goes up substantially the closer they live to a nuclear power plant, according to a German government study. Researchers contracted by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection studied the occurrence of cancer in children under the age of five who were living within five kilometers (three miles) of one of 21 nuclear reactors in 41 districts of the country between the years of 1980 and 2003. A total of 4,735 children without cancer and 1,592 children with cancer were included in the study population. More

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How Salmonella Invest Shifted To Jalapeno

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

When officials at the Food and Drug Administration announced they had found salmonella on a Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper, it meant investigators finally had a solid lead on a trail that seemed to have grown cold. State health officials in New Mexico first picked up on multiple people getting sick from the same subtype of salmonella — called salmonella Saintpaul — back in April. They reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. There, officials analyzing information coming in through an electronic surveillance system began to see that, in pockets around the country, many more states were seeing an unusual increase in cases of salmonella Saintpaul. More

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Salmonella found in Mexican-grown jalapeño

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak: They found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas — and issued a stronger warning for consumers to avoid fresh jalapenos. But Monday’s discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn’t solve the mystery: Authorities still don’t know where the pepper became tainted — on the farm, or in the McAllen, Texas, plant, or at some stop in between, such as a packing house. More

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Jalapeno Peppers, Serrano Peppers, and Avocados Recalled

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Digital Journal
Grande Produce, LTD. CO of Hidalgo, Texas (hereinafter referred to as Grande Produce) is recalling Jalepeno Peppers and Serrano Peppers distributed between May 17th and July 17th, 2008; and Avocados. Grande Produce, LTD. CO of Hidalgo, Texas (hereinafter referred to as Grande Produce) is recalling Jalepeno Peppers and Serrano Peppers distributed between May 17th and July 17th, 2008; and Avocados, all sizes, with lot #HUE08160090889 because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis. The Jalapeno Peppers, Serrano Peppers and Avocados were distributed to the following states: TX, DE, NC, GA, OK, IA, MN, IL, FL, IN, MD, NY, MS, AR, KS, and KY. More

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Contagion risk of huddled masses

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Religious gatherings are no strangers to infectious disease. Each year approximately 2 million Muslims make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca and, while detailed information is lacking, it would seem that possibly between 30 per cent and 40 per cent regularly contract influenza or some other infectious disease. The process by which infectious diseases emerge and diffuse is not simple. It requires a series of events to occur in concert. International travel plays an important role in transporting infections across time and space, allowing potentially pathogenic infections to be introduced into new environments. More than 1.5 billion people cross international borders by air every year in journeys that are considerably shorter than the incubation time of most infections. Remember SARS and bird flu? In an interconnected world we are all at risk. More

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Human Transmission H5N1 in China

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

(NaturalNews) China’s National Disease Authority has confirmed that a man whose 24-year-old son died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu is also infected with the disease, raising concerns about human transmission of the virus. H5N1 is a particularly virulent and lethal strain of the influenza virus that primarily infects domestic and wild birds. So far, it does not spread easily between birds and humans, but health officials fear that it could mutate into a form that is highly contagious from human to human. Given the intensely lethal nature of the disease, such a strain could easily lead to a global health crisis. Neither the infected man, identified only by his surname Lu, nor his son were known to have had contact with infected poultry. Health officials are carrying out an analysis on the DNA of the viruses that infected the two men to determine if they are the same strain, or whether the men contracted the virus from different sources. More

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Top Pfizer Officials Conducted Drug Experiments on Children

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

(NaturalNews)
Nigeria Issues Arrest Warrants for Top Pfizer Officials After Drug Experiments Conducted on Children — A Nigerian state judge has issued arrest warrants for three top Pfizer officials, saying that they failed to appear in court to face charges of illegally conducting drug trials that led to the deaths of 11 children. Judge Shehu Atiku, sitting in the city of Kano, said that Nigerian Pfizer head Ngozi Edozien and senior company officials Lare Baale and Segun Donguro failed to appear in court in compliance with a Nov. 6 court order. The state of Kano is seeking $2.6 billion from Pfizer, charging that the company illegally tested an experimental antibiotic, Trovan, on children in Kano during a meningitis outbreak in 1996. According to the government, the drug trials were carried out without the informed consent of the children’s parents or the Nigerian government, and led to the deaths of 11 children. Dozens of other children were allegedly harmed by the drug. More

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FDA declares it’s OK to eat tomatoes

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Thanks, FDA, who nearly wiped out the tomato industry because of their premature and irresponsible claims. Now hot peppers are on their list of crops to destroy. Truth is the FDA doesn’t have a clue what’s causing these salmonella outbreaks.

WASHINGTON - It’s OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing. Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised. More

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Supercomputers fight against bird flu

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

A worldwide outbreak of avian or ‘bird flu’ is still not excluded and health officials recognize that new drugs are needed since new strains of the virus appear everyday. Now, U.S. scientists are using supercomputers to find new drugs to fight the virus and to stay ahead of these mutations. And it is encouraging to learn that a team of UC San Diego scientists has isolated more than two dozen promising and novel compounds from which new ‘designer drugs’ might be developed to combat this disease. The 27 new identified compounds appeared to be equal or stronger inhibitors than currently available anti-flu drugs like Tamiflu. More

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‘Dragon’ protein key to bird flu cure

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

ARGONNE, Ill. (July 15, 2008) — Scientists and researchers have taken a big step closer to a cure for the most common strain of avian influenza, or “bird flu,” the potential pandemic that has claimed more than 200 lives and infected nearly 400 people in 14 countries since it was identified in 2003. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in conjunction with scientists from China and Singapore, have crystallized and characterized the structure of one of the most important protein complexes of the H5N1 virus, the most common strain of bird flu.

All viruses, including H5N1, contain only a small number of proteins that govern all of the viruses’ functions. In H5N1, perhaps the most important of these proteins is RNA polymerase, which contains the instructions that allows the virus to copy itself along with all of its genetic material. The Argonne study focused on H5N1’s RNA polymerase protein, which contains three subunits: PA, PB1 and PB2. After performing X-ray crystallography on the protein crystals at Argonne’s Structural Biology Center 19ID beamline at the Advanced Photon Source, the researchers saw a surprising resemblance in the protein structure’s image. “When we mapped out the PA subunit, it looked very much like the head of a dragon,” said Argonne biophysicist Andrzej Joachimiak. “One domain looked like the dragon’s brains, and the other looked like its mouth.” More

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Drug-Resistant Bird Flu Killing Egyptians

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

NaturalNews — Some of the 19 people who have died from the avian flu in Egypt in the last two years were killed by a strain that shows moderate drug resistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced. Four people died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Egypt during the last week of December (2007?), bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 19. This represents more than 40 percent of the 43 people who are known to have been infected by the disease. All four recent victims were women between the ages of 25 and 50, and all are believed to have had close contact with infected poultry. One of the women was a chicken seller, and the others were believed to keep domestic fowl in their homes. More

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Mexico: no salmonella in tomatoes

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Source: USA Today
Mexico’s Agriculture Department says its tests found no salmonella in Mexican tomatoes. It says Mexican officials took samples from the same soil, water and tomatoes recently examined by U.S. inspectors and found no evidence of the bacteria. A team of inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration visited five Mexican farms in search of the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 1,000 people.
Also See: FDA in Fumbling Fiasco over Salmonella

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FDA in Fumbling Fiasco over Salmonella

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

(NaturalNews) Watching the FDA trip over its own clumsy self while groping for answers on Salmonella is a sad affair. Following the FDA-encouraged destruction of tens of millions of dollars of perfectly good tomatoes, this confused, bewildered agency admits that tomatoes may not have been the problem after all, and it has now set its sights on destroying the peppers industry. Is there no vegetable safe from the destruction of the FDA?

Tomatoes don’t harbor salmonella, by the way. Neither do peppers, onions, cilantro or spinach. Salmonella only festers in factory-farmed animals, folks, and that means the real source of contamination is no doubt some animal factory upstream from the vegetable processing centers. So why isn’t the FDA going after the animal factories that likely caused this whole fiasco? Because making Americans scared of their vegetables is a great way to advance the FDA’s food irradiation agenda which would destroy virtually all the medicinal phytonutrients in plants. More

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Bird flu spread raises chance of pandemic

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

Source: Edinburghnews
THE spread of bird flu from Asia to eastern Europe and west Africa has increased the chance that the virus will mutate and cause a pandemic among humans, the United Nations’ expert on the disease has warned. Dr David Nabarro said there was no evidence yet of any change in the bird flu virus. He said: “Unfortunately, we cannot tell when the mutation might happen, or where it might happen, or how unpleasant the mutant virus will turn out to be. “Nevertheless, we must remain on high alert for the possibility of sustained human-to-human virus transmission and of a pandemic starting at any time.”

Nabarro said the arrival of bird flu in Nigeria should be “a strong wake-up call” to countries to ensure their veterinary services were on alert, and that health services quickly identified unexpected clusters of disease that could represent the start of a pandemic. “We have got bird flu now in south-east Asia, central Asia, eastern Europe, and west Africa,” he said. “Compared with eight months ago, this is a major extension of the avian influenza epidemic.” Nabarro said control measures had helped to contain the spread but bird flu was still expanding across the world, “putting at risk the health of people who are living intimately with poultry”.

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Salmonella Illnesses Top 1,000

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

More than 1,000 people now are confirmed ill from salmonella initially linked to raw tomatoes, a grim milestone Wednesday that makes this the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. Adding to the confusion, the government is implicating some types of hot peppers, too. Certain raw tomatoes — red round, plum and Roma — remain a chief suspect and the government stressed again Wednesday that people should avoid them unless they were harvested in areas cleared of suspicion. But people at highest risk of severe illness from salmonella also should not eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Wednesday. Those at highest risk include the elderly, people with weak immune systems and infants. More

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FDA Warns About Cipro, Other Antibiotics

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

WASHINGTON — Drug safety officials Tuesday imposed the government’s most urgent safety warning on Cipro and similar antibiotics, citing evidence that they may lead to tendon ruptures, a serious injury that can leave patients incapacitated and needing extensive surgery. The Food and Drug Administration ordered makers of flouroquinolone drugs - a potent class of antibacterials - to add a prominent “black box” warning to their products and develop new literature for patients emphasizing the risks. More

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St John’s Wort Kills Avian Virus

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

Laboratory tests have shown a drug extracted from the medicinal herb St John’s Wort can be used to treat poultry infected with bird flu, a veterinary professor said. Field tests in Vietnam had also been satisfactory, he added. The results were released as World Health Organisation representatives prepared to meet officials in Beijing to discuss concerns about the mainland’s use of the human antiviral drug amantadine to suppress bird flu outbreaks. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said yesterday it was also seeking clarification from Beijing. Liang Jianping, of the Lanzhou Institute of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, said the compound hypercin had been found to be effective in treating and preventing bird flu. “We have found hypercin can kill 99.99 per cent of H5N1 and H9N2 virus in vitro within 10 minutes,” Professor Liang said. More

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Paulson: new rules needed for failing banks

Author: markw  //  Category: Ecology, Economy, Health, Privacy, Technology, Video


Video: To understand just how gloomy the state of the US economy is, watch this Video of The assistant Treasury Secretary, Phillip Swagel, on the US economy. Try as he might, he cannot hide his fear and gloom.

LATimes
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. on Wednesday called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening broader market stability. The Treasury chief also proposed steps providing for the president to approve of any use of taxpayer funds to aid a financial company. In a speech in London on Wednesday, Paulson identified a legal gap that leaves unspecified how to deal with failures of companies that don’t take deposits, such as investment banks. Paulson’s proposals aim to tighten supervisors’ oversight of lenders and dealers while at the same time discourage companies from depending on a government rescue if their bets go wrong. His speech comes a week before a congressional hearing to debate a regulatory overhaul in the wake of the credit crisis that caused the near-bankruptcy of Bear Stearns Cos. More

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Salmonella Outbreak Baffles Investigators

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Because the FDA was too quick to draw conclusions, they have ruined the tomato industry. “The U.S. tomato industry has taken a US$100 million hit as restaurants temporarily dropped tomatoes from their menus, and farmers have had to plow under their fields or leave crops to rot in packinghouses.”

CBS…the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears no closer to finding the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people nationwide. The FDA is not even 100 percent sure that tomatoes are the cause, adding peppers and cilantro Saturday to its list of foods under investigation in the outbreak. Since April, there have been 943 infections in 40 states, mostly concentrated in Texas, New Mexico, Illinois and Arizona, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. At least 130 people have been hospitalized, with one known death associated with the outbreak. Eighty percent of the people who became ill reported they had eaten tomatoes. More

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The Poisoning of America’s Water Supplies

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

(NaturalNews) When we look deeper we can see that even in a rich country like the United States, we all have reason to be concerned about not only drinking, but even bathing in water that comes from public treatment systems. Albuquerque, Fresno, and San Francisco are examples of cities that have water that is sufficiently contaminated so as to pose serious potential health risks to pregnant women, infants, children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, according to Dr. David Ozonoff. What we find in these waters are contaminants that occur with surprising regularity, regardless of location, such as chlorination by-products, lead, and coliform bacteria. Other contaminants, such as Teflon and rocket fuel occur less frequently but pose major health concerns. If we include the fact that fluoride is actually poisonous we have water that is slowly killing some Americans and depressing the health of almost everyone who drinks and showers in it. More

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Indonesia to close US H5N1 research lab

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

LATimes
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Threats to shut down a U.S. Navy medical research lab here may undermine the hunt for mutating viruses that could set off the next flu pandemic, Western scientists warn. Indonesia suspended negotiations with the United States over the fate of Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 last month after senior politicians said it didn’t benefit Indonesia and could be a cover for spying. The biomedical research lab opened in Jakarta in 1970 and is used to study tropical diseases, including malaria, dengue fever and avian flu, according to an embassy fact sheet. It has a staff of about 175 scientists, doctors, veterinarians and technologists; only 19 are Americans and the rest are Indonesians. The Navy also has research labs in Egypt, Kenya, Peru and Thailand. More

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New Indonesian strain of H5N1 influenza

Author: markw  //  Category: H5N1 Bird Flu, Health

Although there are public H5N1 sequences from Purwakarta, the public sequences are from 2004 and are clade 2.1, which is the clade found throughout Indonesia (see phylogram). The number of public 2007 sequences from Indonesia is limited, and there are no public 2008 sequences, so the relationship between the strain described in the local media, and recent isolates cannot be independently confirmed. More

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Mexico bans Arkansas poultry, bird flu

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will ban all imports of poultry and poultry products from Arkansas after a small flock in that U.S. state had been exposed to a mild form of bird flu, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. Mexico, whose largest trading partner is the United States, joined Japan, Russia and Taiwan who also closed their borders temporarily to chicken imports. Mexico said it would resume imports once the virus was completely contained. U.S. chicken from other states still can be shipped to Mexico. More
Also See: Arkansas chickens exposed to Bird Flu, test positive for H7N3 influenza antibodies

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U.S. salmonella probe expands to Mexico

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

The investigation of a salmonella outbreak in the United States is shifting to the southern border to encompass produce imported from Mexico, CNN reported on Thursday. U.S. health officials are struggling to find the source of the outbreak linked to certain types of tomatoes. There have been at least 922 reported cases of salmonella food poisoning in 40 states and the District of Columbia since mid-April, CNN reported. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has alerted growers and brokers handling their products that, starting on Monday, inspectors will stop shipments from Mexico of ingredients common to Mexican cuisine, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the investigation. Cilantro, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, scallions and bulb onions are among the products to be examined, it said. More

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Beef recall expands to 5.3 million pounds

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

CINCINNATI - Nebraska Beef Ltd. is expanding a recall announced earlier this week to include all 5.3 million pounds of meat produced for ground beef between May 16 and June 26. Federal investigators have linked Nebraska Beef’s products to an outbreak of E. coli illnesses that has sickened 40 people in Michigan and Ohio. More

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Homeless die after trial bird flu vaccine

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus. The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.

Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but, according to investigators, was actually an anti bird-flu drug. The director of a Grudziadz homeless centre, Mieczyslaw Waclawski, told a Polish newspaper that last year, 21 people from his centre died, a figure well above the average of about eight. More

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Kroger Expands Ground-Beef Recall

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

The recall now includes ground-beef products sold in Styrofoam tray packages and wrapped in clear cellophane or those purchased from in-store service counters. Kroger also recalled Private Selection natural ground beef, which was sold in 16-ounce packages from self-service meat cases. This latest recall came after the USDA named Nebraska Beef LTD., a supplier of Kroger ground beef, as a link to the E. coli cases in Michigan and Ohio. More

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Human guinea pigs in GM food experiments

Author: markw  //  Category: Health, News

Under this official policy, all GM/GE foods are not required to undergo any kind of safety testing before entering the market. Below you will find the exact policy of the FDA concerning GM food:
“FDA relies primarily on two sections of the Act to ensure the safety of foods and food ingredients. Generally, whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and grains, are not subject to premarket approval. The primary legal tool that FDA has successfully used to ensure the safety of foods is the adulteration provisions of section 402(a)(1). The Act places a legal duty on developers to ensure that the foods they present to consumers are safe and comply with all legal requirements. FDA has authority to remove a food from the market if it poses a risk to public health. Foods derived from new plant varieties developed through genetic engineering will be regulated under this authority as well” [1].

Hence, nearly every modified food in the U.S. is completely untested for safety. This is very noteworthy for two reasons: (a) the U.S. leads the world in GM/GE foods (with up to 80% of its prepared and prepackaged foods being modified); and (b) every other nation besides the U.S. tests all GM/GE food before they are put into the food chain. Several African nations have dubbed GM/GE foods as “lethal” and believes the U.S. is fulfilling a population reduction strategy in Africa. More

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Ohio, Nebraska beef linked to E. coli

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008 - Nebraska Beef, Ltd., an Omaha, Neb., establishment is recalling approximately 531,707 pounds of ground beef components that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today. More

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2008 – The Kroger Co., a Cincinnati, Ohio, retailer is recalling an undetermined amount of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today. More

E. coli outbreak from Ohio and Michigan traced to Nebraska Beef Ltd.. which is recalling almost 532,000 pounds of ground beef sold in the last two months. Some of the Omaha-based company’s beef was sold by grocer Kroger Co., which was traced back to Nebraska Beef. 35 people in Ohio and Michigan became sick.

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Salmonella outbreak grows; origin unknown

Author: markw  //  Category: Health, News

CDC now suspects Salsa, jalapeño peppers, green onions, cilantro.
USA TODAY
Federal investigators retraced their steps Monday as suspicions mount that fresh unprocessed tomatoes aren’t necessarily causing the salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds across the USA. Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes linked to the salmonella outbreak, people are still falling ill, says Robert Tauxe with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest numbers as of Monday afternoon were 851 cases, some of whom fell ill as recently as June 20, says Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s division of foodborne diseases.

The CDC launched a new round of interviews over the weekend. “We’re broadening the investigation to be sure it encompasses food items that are commonly consumed with tomatoes,” Tauxe says. If another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public’s trust in the government’s ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered. More

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Bad Tomatoes May Still Be on Shelves

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Washington Post
Tomatoes carrying a rare form of salmonella that has sickened more than 800 people may still be on the market, federal officials said yesterday, two weeks after they first warned consumers about the risk. Investigators are considering the possibility that other produce may be spreading the bacteria. “We continue to see a strong association with tomatoes, but we are keeping an open mind about other ingredients,” said Patricia Griffin, a top epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

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US health warning over mercury fillings

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Holistic practitioners have known this for years
The Independent
They’re in millions of mouths worldwide, but have been linked to heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Now a report concedes they may have a toxic effect on the body. Amalgam dental fillings – which contain the highly toxic metal mercury – pose a health risk, the world’s top medical regulatory agency has conceded. After years of insisting the fillings are safe, the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health warning about them. It represents a landmark victory for campaigners, who say the fillings are responsible for a range of ailments, including heart conditions and Alzheimer’s disease.

Earlier this month, in an unprecedented U-turn, the FDA dropped much of its reassuring language on the fillings from its website, substituting: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses.” It adds that when amalgam fillings are “placed in teeth or removed they release mercury vapour”, and that the same thing happens when chewing. More

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SKoreans rally, battle police over US beef

Author: markw  //  Category: Health, News, Politics/Religion

These protests have been going on for months. Activists have staged daily protests against the decision to resume US beef imports. It’s plainly clear the South Korean population doesn’t want beef imported from the US, yet SKorean officials are under pressure from powerful US corporate interests. Well, it won’t work.

Al Jazeera—Hundreds of of South Koreans protesting against the resumption of US beef imports have been injured in clashes with riot police. Police fired water cannon and used batons in an attempt to disperse the protesters, some of which were carrying steel pipes and throwing stones, in the capital Seoul. About 15,000 people had gathered for a rally on Saturday night demanding that the government withdraw its decision to lift a ban of American beef. But the protest turned violent when some people used ropes to try and move police buses that were used as barricades to prevent them from marching on the president’s Blue House office. More
Also See:
40,000 march against US beef in South Korea

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Suicides linked to cell phone transmitters

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Daily Express
THE spate of deaths among young people in Britain’s suicide capital could be linked to radio waves from dozens of mobile phone transmitter masts near the victims’ homes. Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a Government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast. He has examined worldwide studies linking proximity of masts to depression. Dr Coghill’s work is likely to trigger alarm and lead to closer scrutiny of the safety of masts, which are frequently sited on public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

It is also likely to fuel more campaigns against placing masts close to public places on health grounds. Dr Coghill said last night there was strong circumstantial evidence that the masts may have triggered depression in those from Bridgend who took their lives. They include Kelly Stephenson, 20, who hanged herself from a shower rail in February this year while on holiday in Folkestone, Kent. Dr Coghill said: “There is a body of research that has over the years pointed to the fact that exposure to mobile radiation can lead to depression. There is evidence of higher suicide rates where people live near any electrical equipment that gives off radio or electrical waves.” More

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CDC considers salmonella not from tomatoes

Author: markw  //  Category: Health, News

My guess is the CDC hasn’t a clue what the salmonella source is because the salmonella may have its origins from “the first genetically modified organism (GMO), an E coli bug containing a salmonella gene…created in 1973. They introduced the GM technology to make herbicide resistance crops. “A wide range of plants have been modified, including cotton, oilseed rape and tobacco….Researchers are currently developing GM bananas that would include a dose of hepatitis B vaccine….”

“The source of contamination has been ongoing at least through early June, and we don’t have any evidence that whatever the source is, it’s been removed from the market,” said Patricia Griffin of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease detectives at the CDC in Atlanta are double-checking their own probes just in case some other type of produce is really the culprit. “We have also kept an open mind about other possibilities and are looking into other ingredients,” Dr. Griffin said. She wouldn’t identify other potential suspects, except to say that from the beginning some patients have told the CDC the tomatoes they ate were in salsa and guacamole. More

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Salmonella cases rise to 756

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 750 people have become ill in an outbreak of Salmonella linked to certain types of tomatoes, U.S food safety officials said on Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 756 people in 34 states and the District of Columbia have been infected with a rare strain of bacteria known as Salmonella Saintpaul. Of them, 95 people have been hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control said in a statement that no deaths have been attributed to the illness. “However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death,” the CDC said. Investigators are still trying to find the source of the contamination. Health officials said last Friday they expected more people to become ill because the outbreak is probably still under way. More

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2 Billion may suffer from cell phone cancer

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

Not only can you not get through to anyone for service, but while you’re holding your cell phone causes cancer.

(Business Wire India)
The studies and survey conducted by Australian Health Research Institute indicates that due to billions of times more in volume electromagnetic radiation emitted by billions of mobile phones, internet, intranet and wireless communication data transmission will make almost 1/3 rd of world population (about 2 billions) patient of ear, eye and brain cancer beside other major body disorders like heart ailments, impotency, migraine, epilepsy etc. According to the reports the tissues of children are tender and are likely to be more effected by use of any wireless gadget and devices and they should not be encouraged to use mobile phone. The fatal and volumetric effects of Electromagnetic Radiation emitted mainly by mobile phones, Mobile phone antenna, tower, Mast, Transmission Tower, Microwave oven, wireless devices, system and equipment. These dangerous effects have been certified and confirmed repeatedly by many leading medical and scientific research institutions of the world including Ministries of health of various governments, W.H.O. and now have been admitted and confirmed by Govt. of India in their recent press releases.

The attached image shows and proves about the serious ill effects of E.M. radiation released by Radiation Nuclear and Safety Authority of FINLAND as to how E.M. radiation emitted by mobile phones damages the various body cells and causes incurable and fatal diseases. More

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8 drugs doctors wouldn’t take

Author: markw  //  Category: Health

MSNBC
If your physician would skip these medicines, maybe you should, too

With 3,480 pages of fine print, the Physicians’ Desk Reference (a.k.a. PDR) is not a quick read. That’s because it contains every iota of information on more than 4,000 prescription medications. Heck, the PDR is medication — a humongous sleeping pill.

Doctors count on this compendium to help them make smart prescribing decisions — in other words, to choose drugs that will solve their patients’ medical problems without creating new ones. Unfortunately, it seems some doctors rarely pull the PDR off the shelf. Or if they do crack it open, they don’t stay versed on emerging research that may suddenly make a once-trusted treatment one to avoid. Worst case: You swallow something that has no business being inside your body.

Of course, plenty of M.D.’s do know which prescription and over-the-counter drugs are duds, dangers, or both. So we asked them, “Which medications would you skip?” Their list is your second opinion. If you’re on any of these meds, talk to your doctor. Maybe he or she will finally open that big red book with all the dust on it. More

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Korea-US beef deal met with more protests

Author: markw  //  Category: Health, News, Politics/Religion

SEOUL - South Korea’s besieged President Lee Myung-bak is fighting back from the brink of disaster for his four-month-old government with another apology to his people, coupled with a steep climb-down from programs that he thought he could ram through with impunity when he was inaugurated in February after a landslide victory in December.

Lee put on his best show of contrition on Thursday in a nationwide television address in which he promised to obtain a “firm guarantee” that the United States would not export beef from cattle more than 30 months old to South Korea and said he was “very sorry” indeed for misjudging the mood of the nation. Lee obviously is counting on his latest apology - one couched in language seen as significantly more convincing than his first “apology” four weeks ago - to soften the wrath of protesters who promise another round of huge demonstrations in the next day or two if they are not happy with his response. More
Also See:
40,000 march against US beef in South Korea

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