Health & Wellness
State Democratic Senator Fran Pavley, sponsor of SB797, believes scientific studies prove the chemical can harm the development of young children. Her legislation would have banned the chemical from baby bottles and sippy cups by the beginning of 2012, and in infant formula packaging by July 2012.
Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington have enacted laws limiting BPA in products used by small children. Over a dozen states and local governments are considering similar restrictions.
The decision comes just as an international group of researchers, led by the Peninsula Medical School and the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom, reported a correlation between higher BPA exposure and a small increase in levels of testosterone in the blood.
"The results are important because they provide a first report in a large-scale human population of associations between elevated exposure to BPA and alterations in circulating hormone levels," the authors wrote. "They also illustrate that the extent of exposure to BPA is similar in this European mixed urban and rural population to exposures seen in the general adult population of the USA."
So argues Adam B. Townshend, assistant U.S. Attorney, in a 25-page complaint filed Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court for Western Michigan against Scenic View Dairy LLC, its president, and three of its managers.
Abuse of antibiotics in animals is believed by many experts to lessen the effectiveness of antibiotics used to treat humans, including those infected by foodborne diseases.
A court date has not yet been set for the request by the government for a permanent injunction against Hamilton-based Scenic View, but the case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Gordon J. Quist.
In the complaint, Townshend alleges that Scenic View Dairy, its president, Michael D. Geerlings, and managers, Mark A. Lucas, Michael J. Van Dam, and Jeremy A. Portell sold for slaughter dairy cows that were treated with drugs contrary to the drugs' FDA-approved labeling and without a veterinary prescription authorizing such use.

Ban: Toddlers should not be allowed to watch TV, according to expert Aric Sigman, and viewing should be limited for older children as well to protect their health.
Dr Aric Sigman claims that millions of children spending hours slumped in front of TVs and computers is 'the greatest unacknowledged health scandal of our time'.
He says it is linked to ills ranging from obesity and heart disease to poor grades and lack of empathy.
Minute materials used in a number of consumer products such as antimicrobial agents can interrupt important cell signaling within male reproductive sperm cells, causing them to stop growing, according to a new study that builds on previous work by the same research group.
In prior studies, the scientists reported how smaller-sized silver nanoparticles - in the 10 - 25 nanometer range - decreased the growth of male stem cells when they were exposed at concentrations greater than 10 micrograms per milliliter (ug/ml).
The new study is the first to identify how the silver nanoparticles stop the sperm stem cells from growing. The biggest effects were caused by the smallest-sized nanoparticles tested.
This study raises important questions about potential effects on male fertility, because silver nanoparticles are currently used in a wide range of products.
Comment: For more information about nanotechnology read the following:
Big Risk for Nanotechnology as Some Carbon Nanotubes May Cause Asbestos Related Diseases
Scientists Scared as Nanotechnology and Nanoparticles Become Common in Consumer Products:
"Valued for it's antibacterial and odor-fighting properties, nanoparticle silver is becoming the star attraction in a range of products from socks to bandages to washing machines. But as silver's benefits propel it to the forefront of consumer nanomaterials, scientists are recommending a closer examination of the unforeseen environmental and health consequences of nanosilver."
"The general public needs to be aware that there are unknown risks associated with the products they buy containing nanomaterials," researchers Paul Westerhoff and Troy M. Benn said in a report scheduled for the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems," said John Reganold, Washington State University Regents professor of soil science and lead author of a paper published today in the peer-reviewed online journal, PLoS ONE. "We also show you can have high quality, healthy produce without resorting to an arsenal of pesticides."
The study is among the most comprehensive of its kind, analyzing 31 chemical and biological soil properties, soil DNA, and the taste, nutrition and quality of three strawberry varieties on more than two dozen commercial fields - 13 conventional and 13 organic.
"There is no paper in the literature that comprehensively and quantitatively compares so many indices of both food and soil quality at multiple sampling times on so many commercial farms," said Reganold. Previous Reganold studies of "sustainability indicators" on farms in the Pacific Northwest, California, British Columbia, Australia, and New Zealand have appeared in the journals Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Now it's in your urine, too. And if you're a guy, it's messing with your hormones.
Researchers at the School of Biosciences at the University of Exeter in the UK have found an association between BPA (Bisphenol A) and higher levels of testosterone, proving a link that up until now has only been decisively shown in lab animals.
The new study, published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives, looked at hundreds of men in Italy who had volunteered to donate blood and urine samples.
Comment: The author informs us of the progress science is making in being able to rid the environment of of toxic waste, but doesn't mention the importance of helping our bodies to detox themselves of these ubiquitous disease and cancer-causing chemicals.
This article serves as a great introduction, but the interested reader can purchase a copy of the book Detoxify of Die by Dr. Sherry Rogers, in order to really get up to speed on the dangers we face from environmental toxicity, and the best ways to protect and detoxify ourselves.
For years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been citing an annual estimate of 36,000 deaths from flu. That figure has been used to justify mandatory flu vaccination for children and has been parroted the world over by news organizations that never question its validity. Last week the CDC released new figures: rather than 36,000, the three-decade average is actually 23,607 deaths, a full one-third fewer people than previously cited.
But even these new figures are actually fabricated and false. The CDC has always used a mathematical estimate based on an assumption that if a death certificate had "respiratory or circulatory disease" listed as a cause of death, then it should be counted as a "flu-related" death! The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons has been highly critical of the CDC's methodology.
A new study of children in the Washington, D.C., area and published in the journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring links one form of childhood cancer to exposure to common organophosphate pesticides used around the home to kill bugs. Children with lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and their mothers were more likely to have higher levels of organophosphates and their metabolites in their urine than healthy pairs, and mothers who reported household use of chemicals were more likely to have children with ALL. There is no evidence that the cancer is caused directly by pesticide exposure - but it does present the first evidence of a linkage in a non-agricultural setting, according to the study's authors, researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University.
Genetically modified salmon - the first GMO animal for human consumption - is reaching the final stages in its approval. Most terrifying: they might not have to tell us if our fish is GM or not!
This week the FDA announced a 60-day period of consultation and public hearings over whether to permit a genetically modified strain of salmon ("frankenfish" to its critics) to be eaten by humans. The approval process could take less than a year, and if it gets the green light the fish could be on the market in eighteen months.











Comment: To learn more about the growing trend of 'treating' young children with prescription drugs read the following articles carried on SOTT:
A Better Prescription for Generation Rx
Poor Children More Likely To Be Put On Antipsychotic Drugs
Government is daring to keep kids on drugs
Two-Year-Old Toddlers Being Dosed Up with Antipsychotic Drugs: As stated in the article, 'Long-term use of new anti-psychotics may lead to even greater problems than the initial disease.' Read the linked articles below to get a better idea of how drug companies make a profit from pills that can kill:
Pfizer: The Drug Giant That Makes Bank from Drugs That Can Kill You
100,000 Americans Die Each Year from Prescription Drugs, While Pharma Companies Get Rich
The Hidden Damage of Psychiatric Drugs
Drug Side Effects "Neglected, Restricted, Distorted and Silenced" by Drug Companies
America's Mental Illness Epidemic: It Turns Out That the Drugs Are the Problem: