Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike against Monsanto

The Cornucopia Institute, Mar. 30, 2011

NEW York: On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today against Monsanto Company challenging the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed. The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should their crops ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed.

Monsanto has sued farmers in the United States and Canada, in the past, when their patented genetic material has inadvertently contaminated their crops.

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Naomi Buchwald. Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by genetically modified seed contamination despite using their best efforts to avoid it. The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members, including thousands of certified organic family farmers.

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CDC adjusts fluoride poisoning of America's water supply to a lower level

Natural News, Jan. 8, 2011

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) today issued a startling report that admits 2 in 5 children in America show signs of fluoride poisoning (streaking, spotting or pitting of teeth due to dental fluorosis). The agency concluded that fluoride levels need to be lowered in municipal water supplies, reducing fluoride to 0.7 milligrams per liter (the previous recommended upper limit was 1.2 milligrams per liter).

This ends over five decades of the U.S. government recommending up to 1.2 milligrams of fluoride in every liter of water. But even the new lower levels are still more than enough to cause serious harm to children, and when mothers make infant formula using fluoridated tap water, they inadvertently poison their infants with hundreds of times the level of fluoride that would normally be found in healthy human breast milk.

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Related stories:
Fluoride in Water Linked to Lower IQ in Children
Scientists uncover truth about fluoride and other water contaminants

Exposure to organochloride pesticides affects semen quality

EurekAlert, Mar. 22, 2011

According to a study conducted at the University of Granada, combined exposure to organochlorides significantly alters semen quality in young people from South East Spain. Having a low number of spermatozoa taking the levels established by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a reference can delay fertilization.

The most common means of exposure to pesticides among the general population is through food and other household products. From the 18 pesticides found in the participants' blood, some are forbidden in Spain, as DDT, although others as the fungicide called vinclozolin –employed in vineyards and citrus groves– are legal in this country.

While exposure to certain organochlorides proved to increase total spermatic number and total sperm motility levels, other pesticides have the adverse effects and are associated to a reduction in these levels. This might be due to the fact that some pesticides are considered to be slightly estrogenic endocrine disruptors –as it is the case of endosulfan sulphate, lindane and p,p-DDT–, while others combine their clearly antiadrogenic activity to a weak estrogenic activity –as it is the case of p,p-DDE and vinclozolin.

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Group warns EPA ready to increase radioactive release guidelines

Tennessean
Anne Paine

The EPA is preparing to dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents,” according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

What is termed a guidance that EPA is considering - as opposed to a regulation - does not require public airing before it’s decided upon.


EPA officials contacted today in the Atlanta and D.C. offices had no response on the issue as of 6 p.m.
The radiation guides called Protective Action Guides or PAGs are protocols for responding to radiological events ranging from nuclear power-plant accidents to dirty bombs.

Drinking water, for example, would have a huge increase in allowable public exposure to radioactivity, the group says, that would include:

A nearly 1000-fold increase in strontium-90

A 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for iodine-131

An almost 25,000 rise for nickel-63

The new radiation guidance would also allow long-term cleanup standards thousands of times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted, permitting doses to the public that EPA itself estimates would cause a cancer in as much as every fourth person exposed, the group says.

Radiation Protection, Now and Long Term

Fortify Health, Mar. 28, 2011

It is critical for those in the U.S., especially on the West Coast, to adjust to the continuing increased radiation, potential radiation and the resulting food contamination from Japan's tragic nuclear disasters. You can check daily Geiger readings for Northern California, which extends from San Luis Obispo to Mendocino.

It is important to remember to take action calmly, after clearly evaluating the degree of true risk. DONT FORGET: TAKE BENTONITE OR ANY EDIBLE CLAY, 1/2 TSP ONCE A DAY, ALONG WITH A BICARBONATE SALT. This starts the detox process and pulls heavy metals out of the body gently.
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Iodine 131 is only one part of the problem from Fukushima and does gravitate toward the thyroid and kidneys, and it can be blocked from the thyroid by dietary iodine. Iodine 131 poses a much smaller risk to adults (except young women). Chernobyl cancers occurred mostly in children because of the childhood growth process and dietary iodine deficiencies. Iodine depletion can be supplemented now and after exposure (there is a therapeutic window for weeks and even months after exposure).

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Rainwater across US contaminated with nuclear radiation linked to Japan

Daily Mail, Mar. 28, 2011

Trace amounts of radioactive iodine linked to Japan's crippled nuclear power station have turned up in rainwater samples as far away as Massachusetts during the past week.

The low level of radioiodine-131 detected in precipitation at a sample location in Massachusetts is comparable to findings in California, Washington state and Pennsylvania.

The news comes as flaws in the US government’s radiation alert network have left a stretch of coastline between Los Angeles and San Francisco without a key real-time warning system in the event of a nuclear emergency.

Six of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 12 California sensors are sending data with ‘anomalies’ to the laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama, that tests radiation levels, said Mike Bandrowski, manager of the EPA’s radiation programme.

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Dumbed Down Science Programs Made My Brain into Mush

The Daily Squib, Mar. 21, 2011

LONDON - England - After a recent spate of science programs commissioned by the BBC, many people are now complaining about how science is so dumbed down that even chavs understand it.

"Astronomical shows revealing the wonders of the universe are now prevalent on the BBC. In a concerted effort to bring science to the masses, the BBC is paying celebrity scientists vast sums of taxpayers money to travel to hundreds of locations around the world and speak with very simple lingo in a condescending faux empathetic manner about the universe..."

There have been hundreds of complaints about the latest dumbing down exercise by the BBC.

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The Supreme Court Slams Big Pharma? Not Exactly.

Corante, Mar. 25, 2011

The Supreme Court came down with a decision the other day (Matrixx Initiatives v. Siracusano) that the headlines say will have an impact on the drug industry. Looking at it, though, I don't see how anything's changed.

The silly-named Matrixx is the company that made Zicam, the zinc-based over-the-counter cold remedy that was such a big seller a few years back. You may or may not remember what brought it down - reports that some people suffered irreversible loss of their sense of smell after using the product. That's a steep price to pay for what may or may not have been any benefit at all (I never found the zinc-for-colds data very convincing, not that there were a lot of hard numbers to begin with).

This case grew out of a shareholder lawsuit, which alleged (as shareholder lawsuits do) that the company knew that there was trouble coming and had insufficiently informed its investors in time to keep them from losing buckets of their money.

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Broader Flu Vaccination for Kids Could Boost AstraZeneca

Wall Street Journal, Feb. 28, 2011

Kids should get flu vaccinations from the time they’re six months old until they turn 18, an advisory panel of vaccine gurus to the Centers for Disease Control recommended yesterday.

That’s a big expansion from previous guidelines, which suggested flu shots for healthy kids only through age 5, and could mean 30 million more kids will be in line to be vaccinated.

An expansion could give a boost to AstraZeneca, which last year paid some $16 billion to acquire MedImmune, which makes a nasal flu vaccine that’s approved for children age two and over. (No more excuses about painful shots, kiddos.) The company said yesterday that it plans to make 12 million doses of the vaccine this year, the most ever.

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Whooping Cough Booster Required

The Independent, Mar. 25, 2011

In response to the epidemic of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, state lawmakers last September enacted AB354, a new school immunization law that requires all students entering 7th through 12th grades in the 2011/12 school year to be immunized with a pertussis vaccine booster called Tdap.

"Basically, no shot, no school," says Catherine Arthur, a Livermore School District nurse.

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Related stories: More measles cases in Minn.; officials push vaccine

Measles Vaccines Turn Fatal

MedIndia, Mar. 17, 2011

A vaccine campaign took a fatal turn at a government hospital in Kutch, Gujarat, when four infants died immediately after being vaccinated for measles, report officials.

On ‘Mamta Day’, organized by the district health department, children and pregnant women from a slum colony in Adipur, a town in Kutch, were vaccinated. Seven under-one year olds had been administered the vaccine, when four developed complications and were rushed to the hospital where they died.

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New Report Shows How You Get Addicted to Diet Soda

FoodConsumer, Mar. 17, 2011

"...artificial sweeteners may spur drinkers -- or their brains -- to keep chasing a 'high' that diet soda keeps forever just out of reach ...

Whether you feel dependent or not, drinking too much diet soda might be risky in the long run. In recent years, habitual diet-soda consumption has been linked to an increased risk of low bone mineral density in women, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. What's more, a growing body of research suggests that excessive diet soda intake may actually encourage weight gain."

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Orwellian Double Speak as EU Dictatorship Criticises Bulgaria for Non-Compliance With GMO Safety Legislation Despite a Complete Ban on GMO Cultivation

RevolutionaryPolitics.com, Mar. 16, 2011

Here we have another example of the total hypocrisy of the European Soviet Union who have threatened Bulgaria with heavy financial penalties should they fail to comply with safety standards in regard to GMO crops when Bulgaria has already stated that a complete ban on these Frankenfoods is in place in their country.

How could they be any safer than that? The fact is that this is simply a threat through the corrupt legislative forum disguised as the European Court of Justice to force Bulgaria to grow these dangerous substitutes for real food by means of economic terrorism on behalf of corporations such as Monsanto who have the EU in their back pockets with no shortage of financial slush funds to bribe politicians and legislators inn a country well versed in corruption.

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Toxin found in dead sardines

Los Angeles Times, Mar, 12, 2011

Sardines that suffocated and died en masse this week in King Harbor have tested positive for a powerful neurotoxin that scientists believe may have distressed 1 million or more fish off the Los Angeles coastline and caused them to swim chaotically into the Redondo Beach marina.

Researchers still believe critically low oxygen levels, not the toxin or an algae bloom, caused the fish to suddenly die Monday night in the Redondo Beach marina.

Domoic acid is often found in the stomachs of fish that have been feeding on plankton on the ocean's surface during toxic algae blooms. The toxin has been linked to neurological disorders, illnesses and deaths of seabirds, sea lions, sea otters and whales. When it accumulates in edible fish and shellfish, it can sicken humans.

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MSG and cause of death

Bangkok Post, Opinion, Mar. 15, 2011

Re: Mysterious deaths at a Thai hotel (BP, March 6). Here are some quotes from people who conduct research on monosodium glutamate:

''MSG explains many ailments in many people. Much legend and myth is being passed around about MSG to make it seem innocent. In fact, it can cause many different reactions, in some people fatal.''

"May cause itching, nausea, nervous system and reproductive disorders, high blood pressure.''

''MSG is a highly reactive amino acid. It is used by scientists in studies to purposely cause death to areas of the brain and is fed to rodents to make a strain of obese and pre-diabetic test subjects. MSG is classified as a neurotoxin: too much of it introduced to the brain can cause rapid cell death.''

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Diet Coke and Depression

Psych Central, Mar. 14, 2011

In 1993, Dr Walton, who is a psychiatrist, conducted a study of 40 patients with unipolar depression and a similar number without a psychiatric history. The subjects were given 30 mgs per kg of body weight a day of aspartame or a placebo for 20 days (about equal to daily consumption if it completely replaced sugar).

Thirteen individuals completed the study, then an institutional review board called the project to a halt “because of the severity of reactions within the group of patients with a history of depression.” In a smaller, shorter crossover design, “again there was a significant difference between aspartame and placebo in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression, whereas for individuals without such a history there was not.”

Accordingly, the author concluded that “individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener and its use in this population should be discouraged.”

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No Pharma Liability? No Vaccine Mandates.

Vaccine Awakening, Mar. 3, 2011

On February 22, 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court shielded drug companies from all liability for harm caused by vaccines mandated by government when companies could have made a safer vaccine.

From now on, drug companies selling vaccines in America will not be held accountable by a jury of our peers in a court of law if those vaccines brain damage us but could have been made less toxic.

From now on – unless we stand up and draw the line on vaccine mandates - the government can legally use police powers to force every American to get hundreds of vaccinations or be punished while those, who are hurt by vaccination, can be more easily swept under the rug and left to fend for themselves.

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Dumbing-down education by dropping cursive writing

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The BarrCode blog, Mar. 7, 2010

Advocates of the new, pared-down curriculum laud it because it does away with such “irrelevant” subjects as cursive writing. The ability to write longhand is seen as unnecessary, because students in this Brave New World of computers only need know how to type out commands on a computer keyboard.

Sure, the vast majority of students in today’s K through 12 will not become mathematicians or physicists. But simply because these subjects are not “relevant” in this sense, does not diminish or obviate the need to require the students — all students — to take these subjects in order to force them to develop basic analytical skills and an understanding of the forces at work in the world. These are life skills that will enable them to successfully compete later in life and in whatever fields they chose eventually to enter.

So it is with cursive writing. Students learn cursive not because they all will become professional writers or scribes. They learn it, first, because this is one of the primary ways in which modern man for hundreds of years has preserved and communicated ideas. The process of learning cursive also teaches the young mind to think and organize thoughts in a way that flows more easily and imaginatively than the stilted and childish block letters one learns in first and second grades.

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Effects of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Signal Exposure on Brain Glucose Metabolism

JAMA, March 2011

Context The dramatic increase in use of cellular telephones has generated concern about possible negative effects of radiofrequency signals delivered to the brain. However, whether acute cell phone exposure affects the human brain is unclear.

Objective To evaluate if acute cell phone exposure affects brain glucose metabolism, a marker of brain activity.

Conclusions In healthy participants and compared with no exposure, 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. This finding is of unknown clinical significance.

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Toxic Gulf Brew Still Reaping Death and Misery

Pure Energy Systems News, Mar. 12, 2011

The crude oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico (while BP continually under-reported the flow rate of gushing oil) was obviously harmful to the ecologic environment. However, instead of utilizing safe techniques to remove their toxic sludge they chose fast and risky methods to remove as much oil as possible from the public eye. In order to minimize the public relations nightmare and hide much of the magnitude of their guilt, chemical dispersants were utilized.

Disturbingly, BP had many alternative dispersants at their disposal that exhibit less toxicity [than Corexit]. One of these is named, "Dispersit" and is made by Polychem, a division of U.S. Polychemical Corporation. It is claimed to be water based, non-toxic, and poses almost no risk to humans. However, even if BP had not chosen to use Dispersit, they had a dozen other EPA approved dispersants on a list they could have chosen from. For some reason these safer alternatives were ignored.

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TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation

USA Today, Mar. 12, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Are we safer yet? -Ed.
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Pharmaceutical Company Hiking Price Of Drug That Prevents Premature Births From $10 to $1,500

Think Progress, Mar. 12, 2011

Next week, the cost of preventing premature childbirth will skyrocket when a drug given to high-risk pregnant women goes from around $10 a dose to $1,500 a dose. The drug, called Makena, which has been made cheaply for years and is given as a weekly shot, could make the total cost during a pregnancy as much as $30,000. Why? Because KV Pharmaceutical of St. Louis recently won FDA approval to exclusively sell Makena last month.

By receiving “orphan drug status,” KV’s subsidiary Ther-RX Corp. will now be “the sole source of the drug for seven years.” In justifying the 14,900 percent price hike, KV Pharmaceuticals says that pregnant women will be willing to pay the new price because if they don’t, they could have a premature baby, or “preemie,” which could cost much much more.

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Bill would require meningitis vaccine for new college students in Texas

Star-Telegram, Mar. 4, 2011

First-time college students in Texas -- regardless of whether they live on or off campus -- would be required to be vaccinated against meningitis before starting school under a bill filed Thursday.

Students would have to show that they have had the vaccine within the last five years, Davis said.

"When you apply to college, you have to show you've had your other vaccines," she said. "This just adds one more."

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IRS to spend $93 million to ‘promote compliance’ with ObamaCare

The PJ Tatler, Feb. 15, 2011

The Tatler has learned that Obamacare government auditing of American society has begun at the Internal Revenue Service.

New details about the IRS budget were released this afternoon by Senator John Barrasso (who also is an MD). Quoting from the IRS budget document, he reveals that for the IRS, ObamaCare “represents the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years, with more than 40 provisions that amend the tax laws.”

More than $93 million has been budgeted by the IRS to assure that the public complies with the new tax rules.

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Related: The IRS Is Looking For 60 12-Gauge Pump Action Guns To Arm Its Investigators

Wi-Fi Makes Trees Sick, Study Says

PCWorld, Nov. 19, 2010

Radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth, as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark, according to a recent study in the Netherlands.

Besides the electromagnetic fields created by mobile-phone networks and wireless LANs, ultrafine particles emitted by cars and trucks may also be to blame. These particles are so small they are able to enter the organisms.

The study exposed 20 ash trees to various radiation sources for a period of three months. Trees placed closest to the Wi-Fi radio demonstrated a "lead-like shine" on their leaves that was caused by the dying of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaves. This would eventually result in the death of parts of the leaves. The study also found that Wi-Fi radiation could inhibit the growth of corn cobs.

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Food Companies Find Ways to Hide Additives

YLE.fin, Mar. 2, 2011

Food companies are finding new ways to mark ingredients that would previously have been known by an e-number, as consumers get more wary of artificial additives.

The regulation of e-numbers has led to some strange behaviour, according to the director of the Finnish Food and Drink Industries Federation’s research and legislation department, Seppo Heiskanen.

Heiskanen says that a variety of plant and berry extracts are now used instead of e-numbers, but most of the same chemicals are still present in the final product. Heiskanen believes that such behaviour comes close to cheating consumers.

Another technique is to write an ingredient’s whole name, rather than the e-number by which it is usually known. Soya lecithin and Xantham gum can be added in this way.

These activities are a reaction to increased awareness of what food contains, and concern over ingredients seen as unnatural.

”At least some people are beginning to be concerned about where food comes from, and what has gone into it before it reaches the plate,” says Johanna Mäkelä, food culture researcher at the National Consumer Research Centre.

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EFSA review dismisses artificial sweetener critics

Beverage Daily, Mar. 1, 2011

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reviewed two studies published last year: a carcinogenicity study in mice from the Ramazzini Institute (Soffritti et al., 2010) and an epidemiological study linking artificially-sweetened soft drinks to premature birth (Halldorsson et al., 2010).

Following a review conducted with the co-operation of the French food safety agency Anses, EFSA concluded that the studies “do not give reason to reconsider previous safety assessments of aspartame or of other sweeteners currently authorised in the European Union.”
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EFSA said incidence of these tumours reported in the study fall within the historical control range. In addition, hepatic tumours in mice are not regarded by toxicologists as being relevant for human risk assessment when induced from substances like aspartame that do not damage DNA.

EFSA is requesting the complete data set from the Ramazzini Institute and said that as it stands it therefore cannot comment fully on the validity of the study, its statistical approach or results.

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Many studies with dubious funding sources (Anjinamoto, Searle, Merisont, etc.) will attest to the safety of aspartame. Non-industry funded studies may be found at this link: http://sweetremedyfilm.blogspot.com/p/dr-ralph-waltons-compiled-list-of-non.html -Ed.