Health & WellnessS


Apple Red

Children exposed to more brain-damaging chemicals than previously thought


Russia Today
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 17:02 UTC
children chemical exposure
© Reuters / James Glover
A troubling new study has found that the number of chemicals capable of impairing child development worldwide is more than double what was previously believed, according to a new story by Time Magazine.

Back in 2006, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai pinpointed five industrial chemicals that they linked to brain disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reduced IQ, and more.

These chemicals were lead, methlymercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (a coolant fluid in motors), arsenic (found naturally and also in pesticides), and toluene (in paint thinner, nail polish, and more).

In a review of their 2006 study, though, the same scientists have now discovered brain development in children could be negatively disrupted by another six chemicals. These chemicals are: chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, fluoride, manganese, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, tetrachloroethylene.

Alarmingly, the researchers discovered that manganese and fluoride, both of which are present in drinking water, can lead to poorer performance in school, lower math scores, and increased hyperactivity. High levels of fluoride, in particular, are potentially capable of lowering a child's IQ by seven points.


Comment: The indictment of fluoride as a neurotoxin is long and well-documented:
The Consequences of Using Fluoride
Further dumbing down of the masses: Australia seeks comment on fluoride in bottled water
Fluoride in Drinking Water may Negatively Affect Health of Fetuses and Infants
Information on fluoride isn't really new -- A recap on the poisoning of the public

as is the effect of many other chemicals:

The Reality of Chemical Terrorism In Our Food
Environmental chemical toxicity: Identifying the ongoing assault of environmental pollutants
Study: Genetically Engineered Bt Protein Toxic to Human Cells
Everyday Products Are Filled With Toxins - And We're Not Doing a Thing About It


Chlorpyrifos, meanwhile, is a common pesticide that is still used in public areas and in agriculture despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency banned it from residential areas in 2001. According to a report by CNN in 2012, even low levels of chlorpyrifos could result in disrupted brain development.

"It's out there and we do not know what the longer term impact is of lower levels," Virginia Rauh, professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told CNN. "But it does seem to be associated with cognitive damage and structural changes in brain."

As RT reported this week, some health experts believe the increased rate of severe birth defects in rural Washington state could possibly be linked to prolonged exposure to pesticides, though officials have been unable to determine the precise cause
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Red Flag

Toxic chemicals linked to 'Global, Silent Pandemic' striking children worldwide

Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 15:58 UTC
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"We have the methods in place to test industrial chemicals for harmful effects on children's brain development—now is the time to make that testing mandatory," stated study co-author Philippe Grandjean.
"The presumption that new chemicals and technologies are safe until proven otherwise is a fundamental problem," study authors write

Toxic chemicals including some pesticides and solvents may be behind the increasing number of cases of neurodevelopmental disabilities - including autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder - among children, researchers warn.

The findings are presented in a study by Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Philip Landrigan, Dean for Global Health at Mount Sinai published online Saturday in Lancet Neurology.

"The greatest concern is the large numbers of children who are affected by toxic damage to brain development in the absence of a formal diagnosis. They suffer reduced attention span, delayed development and poor school performance. Industrial chemicals are now emerging as likely causes," said Grandjean.
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Ambulance

FDA reevaluating safety of pain medications following multiple studies showing major harm

Jonathan Benso
Natural News
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:27 UTC
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A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has rejected a petition filed by Bayer HealthCare to have its over-the-counter (OTC) pain medication Aleve (naproxen) declared to be safer for the heart than competing alternatives like Advil and Motrin (ibuprofen). According to reports, the drug giant tried but failed to take advantage of ongoing investigations into the safety of OTC pain drugs, which are increasingly being linked to heart attacks and strokes, by pushing for Aleve to be rebranded as a safer alternative.

But the evidence was severely lacking, according to information relayed by USA Today, and Bayer was ultimately denied asylum for its pain medication, which makes sense, because it is more than likely just as dangerous as ibuprofen when it comes to heart health. A host of new research, in fact, implicates virtually all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with increasing the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, liver damage, heart attack and erectile dysfunction, among many other conditions.
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Smoking

Puppy dies from acute nicotine poisoning after chewing up its owner's electronic cigarette

Anna Edwards
Daily Mail
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 13:49 UTC
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© SWNS.comStaffordshire bull terrier Ivy who died after eating an E-cigarette.

A dog has become the first pet in Britain to be killed by an electronic cigarette. Staffordshire Bull Terrier Ivy died within hours of chewing on a bottle of nicotine-laced liquid used to fuel the smoke-free vaporiser.

Her owner Keith Sutton, 56, bought the device in a bid to cut down on his tobacco habit. The battery-powered aid works by heating up the 'e-liquid' into a gas which the user inhales like real cigarette smoke.

Coach driver Mr Sutton, of Redruth, Cornwall, had left a bottle of the liquid on his dining room table when 14-week-old Ivy bit into it. She immediately started frothing at the mouth and vomiting and Keith rushed her to the vets, where she was given huge doses of steroids, but died from nicotine poisoning early the next day.

There are currently warnings on the bottles but grandfather Keith wants to see e-liquid become a controlled substance before it kills another animal.

He said: 'I peered round the corner from the kitchen and the dog was on the floor with the bottle of e-liquid. 'She had chewed it and pierced the plastic container. She had only ingested the tiniest amount but by the time I picked her up she was frothing at the mouth.
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Stop

Let the poisoning begin - AMA recommends fluoride for kids under 2

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 12:53 UTC
Fluoride
© TheHoustonFreeThinkers.com

Despite hundreds of independent studies suggesting that fluoride is poison, mainstream media and the American Dental Association (AMA) are now suggesting that parents actively participate in reducing their children's IQ's and feeding even their toddlers a toxic substance that is an industrial waste leftover from the phosphate fertilizer trade.

Sold to the public through the AMA and corporate propaganda, fluoride has been linked to numerous cognitive disorders, and Colgate even admitted in 1984 that a tube of toothpaste with fluoride in it was toxic enough to kill a small child. But the mainstream media is owned by corporate interests, and you can bet they will push their own agenda over the health of you and your family - even your babies as they just begin to develop teeth.

The AMA tells parents they should use fluoride as soon as a child's teeth start to come in - at less than two years of age. Like the FDA, and CDC, these agencies are pushing a toxic health agenda on us all. The American Medical Association tells us we need to fluoridate our kids now (as if our water wasn't enough) even though multiple other countries have banned this toxic substance, including: China, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Japan. Nearly all of Europe's water supply is also fluoride-free.
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Arrow Down

Novartis's Japan unit faces criminal probe for hypertension drug marketing

Dennis Normile
Science Insider
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:45 UTC
Drug
© George Shuklin/Wikimedia CommonsValsartan
Tokyo - Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare today asked public prosecutors to investigate a possible criminal violation of drug marketing laws by the Japanese subsidiary of the giant Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis. The ministry says the company may have exaggerated the benefits of its hypertension drug valsartan.

Last July, Novartis Pharma admitted that a former employee created a conflict of interest by participating in clinical studies of valsartan, sold under the trade name Diovan, conducted by five Japanese medical schools while concealing his affiliation with the company. Several of the studies were retracted after investigations by the medical schools and the health ministry turned up data manipulation that skewed results.

Novartis Pharma advertisements had pointed to the studies as showing that the use of Diovan reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke in hypertension patients better than alternative medications. According to Japanese press reports, potential fines could be just $20,000, but there is a small chance that executives could face jail sentences.

Also today, Novartis Japan posted a statement in Japanese on its website acknowledging the investigation and apologizing "to patients, their families, health care workers and citizens for causing great worry and trouble." As in previous statements, Novartis pledged to fully cooperate with authorities but did not admit any wrongdoing.
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Water

Human Guinea Pigs: Chemicals leaching into food from packaging raise safety concerns

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 11:55 UTC
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© Martin GodwinPackaged burger and chips. Synthetic chemicals in packaging include phthalates, known to disrupt hormone production.
Scientists, in BMJ paper, warn of potential long-term damage of exposure to synthetics, including formaldehyde in drinks bottles

Synthetic chemicals which are used in the processing, packaging and storing of the food we eat could be doing long-term damage to our health, environmental scientists warn.

The concerns have been raised in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, part of the British Medical Journal group.

The scientists claim that tiny amounts of synthetic chemicals leach into food. While these minute quantities in themselves do no harm, no one knows how safe we are from a lifetime's exposure to the chemicals, such as formaldehyde, through eating food previously wrapped or stored in plastics.

In a commentary piece in the journal the scientists note that some of the chemicals that could cause concern are regulated but this does not prevent their being used widely in food packaging. They say that people who eat packaged or processed foods are likely to be chronically exposed to low levels of these substances throughout their lives.

Far too little is known about the long-term impact and especially about our exposure to such chemicals at critical points in human development, such as in the womb and during early childhood.

The writers, who include Jane Muncke, from the Food Packaging Forum Foundation, in Zurich, say there is cause for concern on several grounds. Chemicals known to be toxic, such as formaldehyde, a cancer causing substance, are legally used in these materials. Formaldehyde is widely present, albeit at low levels, in plastic fizzy drinks bottles and melamine tableware.
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Pills

Study links Paxil to increased breast cancer risk in women

Melissa Healy
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:20 UTC
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© Tannen Maury / December 30, 2002A new assay for hormone-disrupting chemicals has identified the antidepressant paroxetine as having a weak estrogenic effect, which could promote breast cancer in women.
A team of researchers from the City of Hope in Duarte has developed a speedy way to identify drugs and chemicals that can disrupt the balance of sex hormones in human beings and influence the development and progress of diseases such as breast cancer.

In a trial screening of 446 drugs in wide circulation, the new assay singled out the popular antidepressant paroxetine(better known by its commercial name, Paxil) as having a weak estrogenic effect that could promote the development and growth of breast tumors in women.

This is important because as many as a quarter of women being treated for breast cancer suffer from depression -- a condition most commonly treated with antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), including Paxil, which has been on the market since 1992. Almost a quarter of American women in their 40s and 50s are taking an antidepressant, mostly SSRIs.

Last summer, the Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of a low dose of paroxetine -- repackaged under the commercial name Brisdelle -- as a nonhormonal treatment for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
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Health

Kids with seizures use pot as treatment

Nicholas Riccardi
San Francisco Chronicle
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 06:19 UTC
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© Brennan Linsley, APIn this Feb. 7, 2014 photo, Matt Figi hugs and tickles his once severely-ill 7-year-old daughter Charlotte, as they wander around inside a greenhouse for a special strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte's Web, which was named after the girl early in her treatment, in a remote spot in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, Colo.
The doctors were out of ideas to help 5-year-old Charlotte Figi.

Suffering from a rare genetic disorder, she had as many as 300 grand mal seizures a week, used a wheelchair, went into repeated cardiac arrest and could barely speak. As a last resort, her mother began calling medical marijuana shops.

Two years later, Charlotte is largely seizure-free and able to walk, talk and feed herself after taking oil infused with a special pot strain. Her recovery has inspired both a name for the strain of marijuana she takes that is bred not to make users high - Charlotte's Web - and an influx of families with seizure-stricken children to Colorado from states that ban the drug.

"She can walk, talk; she ate chili in the car," her mother, Paige Figi, said as her dark-haired daughter strolled through a cavernous greenhouse full of marijuana plants that will later be broken down into their anti-seizure components and mixed with olive oil so patients can consume them. "So I'll fight for whomever wants this."
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Nuke

Hot Pockets might have diseased animal meat in them

Gabrielle Bluestone
Gawker
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 06:08 UTC
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Sad day for anyone who hoped never to know what exactly they were eating in their Hot Pockets ® Philly Steak & Cheese sandwich - according to the USDA it might be the meat of "diseased and unsound animals."

Specifically, the Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese sandwiches (full list here) may be connected with a USDA recall on Friday of meat from the Rancho Feeding Corporation, which "processed diseased and unsound animals and carried out these activities without the benefit or full benefit of federal inspection."

Giant Supermarket and Nestlé have already recalled a "limited amount" of Hot Pockets products after discovering Rancho Feeding Corp. meat was used at a facility that makes Hot Pockets. Rancho has recalled nearly 9 million pounds of meat since Friday.
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