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NOLA Lawyer Prepares Challenge to Declaration of Gulf Seafood's Safety

fresh gulf seafood sign
© unknown
An environmental law firm in New Orleans said it was preparing to challenge the government's public declaration that following the nation's worst-ever oil disaster, seafood from the Gulf of Mexico remained safe to eat.

Stuart H. Smith, Esq., of the law firm Smith Stag, LLC., was leading the charge, rallying additional litigants to his side through a website called Oil Spill Action.

He's the attorney who secured a verdict awarding over $1 billion over the radium contamination of leased land due to oil drilling.

"Mr. Smith's litigation experience includes a lawsuit against Ashland Oil for contaminating the Lee aquifer, once one of the largest sources of fresh water for residents in eastern Kentucky," his self-published bio claims. "He also sued Chevron Corporation for damages associated with that company's contamination of the groundwater in the rural town of Brookhaven, Mississippi. His firm also represents clients injured by chemicals and defective drugs."

One of the toxicologists on Smith's litigation team pursuing BP was Dr. William Sawyer, who Raw Story spoke with in November.

Even then, he was calling the Food and Drug Administration's safety test "little more than a farce."

Pills

Opioid Risks: Codeine, Oxycodone, and Tramadol

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Opioids such as codeine and hydrocodone have been linked to more side effects for older adults with arthritis in comparison to analgesics such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAID's) and coxibs, according to two recent studies from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. The rate of fractures among the patients studied, for example, was 101 per 1,000 opioid users per year, compared with 19 per 1,000 per year among coxib users.

In one study, researchers looked at opioid pain relievers, including codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, propoxyphene and tramadol and found varying incidence of adverse effects. For example, among those taking codeine, the risk of cardiovascular events was increased.

"This study's findings do not agree with a commonly held belief that all opioids are associated with similar risk," the authors write. "The risks were not explained by the dosage being prescribed and did not vary across a range of sensitivity analyses."

Alarm Clock

Study Maps Chemical Residues in European Children's Diets

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© PAA study of food bought from a French supermarket, to form part of a balanced diet, showed an alarming number of chemical residues.
In a single day, a 10-year-old child in Europe may be exposed through food to 128 chemical residues of 81 different substances. Forty-two of these substances are classified as "possibly or probably carcinogens", and five as "certainly carcinogens". No fewer than 37 substances are endocrine disruptors (ED).

This is the conclusion of a study published this month by a partnership of environmental groups based in France and Belgium: Générations Futures, the Health and Environment Alliance (Heal), Réseau Environnement Santé (RES) and WWF-France. The authors of the study bought food in supermarkets in Oise, north of Paris, and in the French capital, sufficient to give a typical 10-year-old three meals a day and a snack. The food was not organic but was consistent with a balanced diet.

The authors then asked independent laboratories to analyse the food, checking for possible residues of pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals, plasticisers (phthalates, bisphenol A or perfluorinated compounds [PFC]) and for food additives.

Beaker

So Young and So Many Pills

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© unknown
More than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescriptions on a Regular Basis

Gage Martindale, who is 8 years old, has been taking a blood-pressure drug since he was a toddler. "I want to be healthy, and I don't want things in my heart to go wrong," he says.

And, of course, his mom is always there to check Gage's blood pressure regularly with a home monitor, and to make sure the second-grader doesn't skip a dose of his once-a-day enalapril.

These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such drugs, based on the company's database figures for 2009.

Doctors and parents warn that prescribing medications to children can be problematic. There is limited research available about many drugs' effects in kids. And health-care providers and families need to be vigilant to assess the medicines' impact, both intended and not. Although the effects of some medications, like cholesterol-lowering statins, have been extensively researched in adults, the consequences of using such drugs for the bulk of a patient's lifespan are little understood.

Pills

Farm Animals Get 80 Percent of Antibiotics Sold in U.S.

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© The Wired
Two weeks ago, I broke the news of a new FDA report that estimated for the first time the amount of antibiotics sold in the United States every year for use in agriculture: 28.8 million pounds.

That long-awaited report didn't answer a crucial question: What volume of antibiotics are sold in the United States each year for human use. It's a crucial question because, in answer to concerns about antibiotic resistance arising on farms, the answer has always been that human medicine is equally culpable because it uses similar volumes of antibiotics.

The only research that has attempted to answer that question is contained in a decade-old report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that put the proportion of antibiotics going to animals at 70 percent of the U.S. total.

That UCS report and estimate are a decade old not because no one has cared about the topic, but because accurate updated figures have been so hard to get. So we owe a special holiday thank-you to the researchers at the Center for a Livable Future, who decided the release of the FDA report justified another attempt to get the numbers straight. They succeeded.

Attention

A license to kill: Israeli products with so called 'harmless' levels to be labled 'gluten-free'

no gluten
© Unknown
Until now, any amount forced manufacturers to label product as having gluten, making it difficult for celiac patients to find food.

Food products that have a maximum of 20 parts per million (PPM) of gluten - which according to experts is not enough to cause abdominal and other problems in celiac patients - will soon be labelled as having "No Gluten."

Until now, any amount present would force manufacturers to label the product as having gluten, thus making it very difficult for celiac patients to find processed food they could safely eat.

One out of 75 Israelis has celiac disease, and many of them are unaware of it.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from babyhood onward. Symptoms include chronic diarrhea, children's failure to thrive and fatigue, but in some people, the symptoms are not evident.

Cow Skull

Crops absorb pharmaceuticals from sewage sludge spread on farmlands

pharmaceuticals from sewage sludge
© Unknown
Agricultural crops can absorb pharmaceuticals found in the water used to irrigate them or the sewage sludge used to fertilize them, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Toledo-Ohio and published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

When humans consume pharmaceuticals, active traces of those drugs are excreted in their feces and urine. Modern treatment methods for water and sewage do nothing to remove these biologically active chemicals.

Previous studies have shown that crops grown directly in animal manure can absorb veterinary drugs, and that cabbages grown hydroponically can absorb human drugs. To simulate more natural agricultural conditions, researchers grew soybeans -- the second most widely planted crop in the United States -- in regular soil. Half the crops were fertilized with solid waste, while the other half were irrigated with chemical-spiked water. In order to simulate the reclaimed sewage or wastewater commonly used in industrial agriculture, the researchers spiked water and waste with the drugs carbamazepine (an anticonvulsant), diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and fluoxetine (Prozac), along with the common antimicrobial chemicals triclosan and triclocarban.

Attention

Grocery stores erect fake "farmer's markets" in parking lots to trick shoppers

Farmers Markets
© Unknown
Grocery stores across the country have begun appropriating the term "farmer's market" as a way to appeal to more environmentally and socially conscious consumers.

At farmer's markets, local farmers gather to sell their fresh produce directly to consumers. The popularity of these markets has surged in recent years and there are now 6,132 of them nationwide, 19 percent more than in 2009.

"Most likely, you can find a local farmer's market in or near your city, especially near rural areas," writes Edward F. Group III in his book Health Begins in the Colon.

"A farmer's market is the best place to buy your food because it is grown in your local environment and picked ripe, plus it supports local, small-production farmers."

Alarm Clock

Monsanto's Neotame molecule allowed in USDA certified organic foods

Neotame
© UnknownNeotame is an artificial sweetener made by NutraSweet that is between 7,000 and 13,000 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). The product is attractive to food manufacturers as its use greatly lowers the cost of production compared to using sugar or high fructose corn syrup (due to the lower quantities needed to achieve the same sweetening)

Neotame - Hidden Danger in Holiday Food Supply

Everyone wants to indulge a sweet tooth at this festive time of year, without suffering the inevitable consequences of weight gain. But, be aware of the hidden (not listed on ingredient labels) dangers of Neotame sweetener in almost everything consumed by humans, and now even in feed for livestock raised for human consumption.

In 1998, Monsanto applied for FDA approval for a monster molecule, "based on the aspartame formula" with one critical addition: 3-dimethylbutyl [listed on EPA's most hazardous chemical list]. Neotame is touted as being 13,000 times sweeter than sugar.

On July 5, 2002 - Monsanto's Neotame molecule was approved by the US FDA over formally registered objections of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and others. (Long term effects on humans are unknown.) Read the full release on The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network.

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

1. USDA Certified Organic food items.
2. Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels.

Cell Phone

Cell Phone Brain Tumor Risk Underestimated in Cell Phone Study

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© reporta.com
A group of Swedish researchers are calling for more study into the connection between cell phone use and gliomas, said Medical News Today. A glioma is a rare and generally fatal type of brain tumor.

Dr. Lennart Hardell and team - from the University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden, wrote, in a letter to the editor of the International Journal of Epidemiology earlier this month regarding the "Re-analysis of risk for glioma in relation to mobile telephone use: comparison with the results of the Interphone international case-control study." The team confirmed that an Interphone study published in May 2010 underestimated brain tumor risks due to a design flaw in the study, said Medical News Today.

The team's research on brain tumors, published in 2006, indicated that risks for developing brain cancer from digital cell phones over a ten year period increased by 180 percent; however, the Interphone study only indicated a 118-percent increased risk, said Medical News Today. Up until now, the discrepancy was not explained and risks revealed in the Interphone study were minimized.