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Lethal 'Cucumber Bug' Spreads to UK

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© Agence France-PresseCucumbers from Spain are one of the sources responsible for an outbreak in Germany of E.Coli.
  • E.Coli strain has killed nine in Germany
  • 300 people hospitalised with the deadly bug
  • Warning not to eat cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes
A German in Britain has been diagnosed with a potentially lethal strain of E.coli, believed to originate in organic cucumbers.

The bacteria have killed nine people in Germany, and almost 300 people have been admitted to the hospital there. Cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The outbreak is believed to have originated in organic cucumbers grown in Spain, although there also are suggestions the bacteria have been found in cucumbers grown in the Netherlands.

The UK Food Standards Agency has confirmed that the offending cucumbers have not been on sale at any outlets in the UK.

The advice now to people travelling to Germany is not to eat cucumbers, raw tomatoes or lettuce.

The British Health Protection Authority (HPA) confirmed that three German nationals currently in Britain have fallen ill and one is confirmed to have the infection behind the outbreak.

A spokeswoman for the HPA said the outbreak in Germany was "very, very serious" and although the bug was infectious, there had been no reports of secondary infection yet in the UK.

Dr. Dilys Morgan, head of the gastrointestinal, emerging and zoonotic infections department at the HPA, said, "The HPA is actively monitoring the situation very carefully and liaising with the authorities in Germany, the European Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization as to the cause of the outbreak. E.coli bacteria like these are responsible for the outbreak across Europe."

Attention

German E.coli Outbreak Death Toll Rises to 10

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© ReutersA woman buys cucumbers at a market in El Alquian in southeastern Spain
A virulent form of E.coli bacteria blamed on infected cucumbers from Spain has killed 10 people in Germany and sickened 300, health officials said on Sunday while warning people not to eat suspect vegetables.

European health experts on Saturday said the outbreak of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which affects the blood, kidneys and, in severe cases, the nervous system, was the largest ever in Germany and the biggest of its kind worldwide.

An 86-year-old female patient died on Saturday, taking the toll of victims to 10, the University Hospital Luebeck said on Sunday.

The hospital in northern Germany said it was treating about 70 patients, including the dead woman's husband, for the infection and was expecting to receive 10 new cases a day.

Health officials have advised people in Germany to avoid eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and some of these products have been removed from shop shelves.

Smoking

Encroaching Fascism: New York Adds Parks and Beaches to Smoking Ban

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© Getty ImagesNew York's City Council voted in February to broaden the city's smoking prohibitions
New York City has added the city's parks and beaches to the list of places where smoking is banned.

The ban, which officials hope will prevent problems caused by second-hand smoke, adds to the city's 2003 ban on cigarettes in bars and restaurants.

The new law will not be enforced by police but by some 200 parks personnel who watch over the city's 29,000 acres of park land and beaches. Violators face a $50 fine but officials say the ban is meant to be largely self-enforcing.

"We don't think that people should be exposed to those chemicals when they go to a park to enjoy the fresh air," city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told Reuters.


Comment: Oh yeah, like the air in New York City is just pure and toxin-free!

Saleswoman Polonia Jourdain, sitting on a park bench with her eight-month-old nephew, said she was happy with the ban.

"I don't want to smell smoke wherever I go," said Jourdain, 17. "The smell of cigarettes makes me nauseous and gives me headaches."

New York's City Council voted in February to broaden the city's smoking prohibitions to cover its 1,700 parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas, such as Times Square.

Comment: Lies, Damned Lies & 400,000 Smoking-related Deaths: Cooking the Data in the Fascists' Anti-Smoking Crusade


Syringe

Warning to Parents: This Vaccine Linked to Sudden Infant Death...

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© drmercola.com
The hepatitis B vaccine is given to U.S. infants at birth. But there is impressive evidence that for a preventive measure, hepatitis B vaccine is remarkable for the frequency, variety, and severity of complications from its use.

Hepatitis B vaccine has been shown in many peer-reviewed research papers to be associated with numerous infant deaths in the U.S. and Europe, multiple sclerosis and numerous chronic autoimmune disorders.

According to Child Health Safety, the U.S. government admitted as much when a Court found in favor of a plaintiff (deceased by the time the decision was made) who had developed systemic lupus erythematosus:
"Tambra Harris ... filed a petition for compensation alleging that she suffered certain injuries as a result of receiving a vaccination. Among the injuries petitioner alleged that she had suffered as a result of receiving a hepatitis B vaccination was systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ... A lump sum of $475,000.00 in the form of a check payable to petitioner as Administratrix of the Estate of Tambra Harris."
Since parents' concerns about childhood vaccine safety have greatly increased during the past five years, a new report also suggests that pediatricians and family physicians should figure out ways to spend LESS time talking with them about it.

Cow Skull

SOTT Focus: Paradise Lost

[This article originally appeared in Issue 13 of Sott.net's The Dot Connector Magazine]

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While examining the available literature on health and nutrition from an evolutionary standpoint, one comes to the inevitable conclusion that, as far as diet is concerned, human beings entered a blind alley thousands of years ago. Even if by some miracle humanity as whole was to completely reorganize its diet overnight, an important question remains - have we engineered our environment beyond the point of no return?

Contrary to the popular belief held by many anthropologists that agriculture is one of man's greatest achievements, there is an increasing body of evidence which suggests that the human race actually set out on the path of self-destruction when it embraced agrarian societies.

The picture now emerging is that the switch from hunting and gathering occurred suddenly and was followed by a sharp drop in life expectancy. Ancient human bones found in archaeological layers dated since the adoption of agriculture reveal increased prevalence of disease and lesser numbers of aged people. For centuries after the adoption of agriculture, these bones also tell the stories of greater numbers of violent deaths when compared with bone remains from pre-agrarian hunter-gatherer societies. There is an undeniable echo of the Garden of Eden story here. This is, in fact, one of the greatest puzzles of prehistory. Why did agriculture catch on so fast?

Info

Reverse Sad: Why springtime can be bad for depression sufferers

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© UnknownNot everyone is cheered by spring
While the arrival of spring heralds a new lease of life and energy for most people, for those suffering from depression the effect can be drastically different.

Harvard psychiatrist John Sharp has done extensive research into the effects that the changing seasons have on our mental health and emotional well-being.

In his book, The Emotional Calendar, Sharp outlines how physical, psychological and socio-cultural factors influence the way we feel.

"Most people do feel an increase in exuberance, energy, optimism, excitement, maybe a restlessness and sleeplessness that can come from what the Americans call spring fever," he told the BBC World Service's Health Check programme.

Attention

Best of the Web: 7 Secret Ways We Are Being Poisoned

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© Activist Post
The objectivism of the scientific method seems to have been hijacked by corporations who often pay for scientists to support their products, as well as politicians who move through the revolving door between the private and public sector. Even worse is that sometimes the consumer protection agencies themselves are complicit.

The trust placed by consumers in scientific studies and Federal oversight committees has been violated in service to profit so that products are allowed to enter the marketplace with reduced safety standards. The synthetic chemicals we encounter on a daily basis in our food, water, and environment are increasingly shown to be disastrous to our physical and mental well-being. Volumes can be written - indeed have been written - by experts in both mainstream and alternative medicine who have documented the sleight of hand used to hoodwink consumers and threaten our health. The categories below are worth deeper investigation as prime examples of what we might face as a species if this chemical bombardment continues.

Question

Now That the FDA Itself has Found BPA in Canned Foods, Will it Regulate the Poison?

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© GristOh, yes we can: It's time for the FDA to act on its own information regarding canned foods and BPA
The next time an FDA panel convenes to discuss whether to ban BPA, the endocrine-disrupting industrial chemical used in can liners, it will have new data to consider - a study by the agency's own scientists. In a just-released report, they tested a range of commonly used canned foods, from peas to chili, and found "detectable" levels of BPA in 71 of 78 samples.

Given that millions of Americans consume these foods daily and that the dangers of BPA have been known for years now, you might think there's a broad range of studies looking at the question of BPA leaching into everyday foods. Not so. The FDA researchers surveyed the literature, and found a glaring hole. They write:
It was clear that there were no large scale studies of the U.S. market and that there were significant data gaps for highly consumed canned foods, such as chili, pastas and pork and beans.
So now the gap has been filled and we know that a broad swath of the public is exposed regularly to a toxin known to cause harm at extremely low levels. Will the FDA now act to banish it?

Beaker

Amid Health Fears, Diet Coke Sweetener in Safety Spotlight

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A sweetener used in Diet Coke is to undergo a safety review over fears that it has harmful effects on human health.
An artificial sweetener used in Diet Coke is to undergo an urgent EU safety review.

Aspartame is ingested every day by millions of people around the world in more than 6,000 well-known brands of food, drink and medicine.

However, it has been the subject of a number of studies that appear to show harmful effects on human health.

One recent study linked diet drinks containing aspartame to premature births, while another suggested it could cause cancer.

To date, health watchdogs, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), have ruled out any link to ill-health.

But after several MEPs asked for a new investigation following pressure from European health campaigners, EU Commission officials have now asked the EFSA to bring forward a review that had been planned for 2020.

The concern about artificial sweeteners such as aspartame relates to the fact that they contain methanol, a nerve toxin which can be metabolised in the body to form two more nerve toxins: formic acid and formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve dead bodies.

Comment: In the US there have been numerous studies showing the serious health effects of Aspartame. For more information about how the FDA suppressed these studies, read the following articles:

The Deadly Neurotoxin Nearly EVERYONE Uses Daily (VIDEO)
America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With Name Change
Aspartame: The Politics of Food
A Dangerous Spin On The Cancer Risks Of Sugar-Free Sweeteners
Searle, Monsanto and Ajinomoto: Three Corporate Miscreants in the Toxic Junk Food Additive and Aspartame Business
ASPARTAME - The Silent Killer
FDA Hid Research That Damned Aspartame: Fatal Studies Should Have Blocked NutraSweet Approval


Pills

Smoking-Pill Suicides Overlooked in Missing Reports

Drugmaker sent data to FDA through 'improper channels'

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug's manufacturer, submitted years of data through "improper channels."

Some 150 suicides - more than doubling those previously known - were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

"We've had a major breakdown in safety surveillance," said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems - including reports of completed suicides, suicide attempts, aggression and hostility and depression - had been mixed among some 26,000 records of non-serious side effects such as nausea and rashes, with some dating back to 2006, the year Chantix, or varenicline, was approved.

They echo previous claims that the drug can induce extreme reactions in people trying to quit cigarettes, including vivid nightmares, crippling depression and sudden, violent outbursts.

"It's really chilling," said Moore, who analyzed 26 Chantix reactions in a paper published in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Pharmacotherapy. "This seems to unleash something in people. It can be violence to anything around."

Comment: All this anti-smoking hysteria for something that may not be harmful and in some cases may even be beneficial. For more information read Let's All Light Up!