Three years ago, I wrote about the safety questions looming over the meat substitute known as Quorn, a fungus-based ferment that hit the U.S. market in 2002. Quorn was originally developed by Imperial Chemical Industries, one of the largest chemical companies in the U.K. The fungus used to make quorn is Fusarium venenatum, which is Latin for "venomous."

Since its inception, a number of studies¹ have raised concerns about Quorn's safety, especially in people with food- and/or mold allergies. An early study by the manufacturer found 10 percent of 200 human subjects developed nausea or stomachache after eating Quorn.² The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) maintains an adverse report collection site for Quorn-related illnesses, which include:³

• Nausea
• Cramps and/or diarrhea
• Forceful vomiting
• Anaphylactic reactions
• Death4

Enter the Impossible Burger

The Quorn brand now has competition from Impossible Foods and its meatless, "bleeding" burger^.5,6,7,8,9 Contrary to lab grown meat ¹⁰ (which may hit the U.S. market as early as next year ¹¹), this meat substitute contains a mix of soy, wheat, coconut oil, potatoes and "heme," the latter of which is derived from genetically engineered yeast.

Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 by Pat Brown, a Stanford University chemist. A primary ingredient in the Impossible Burger is genetically engineered soy leghemoglobin, which releases a heme-like protein when broken down. This protein is what gives the plant-based patty its meatlike look, taste and texture, and makes the patty "bleed" when cooked.


While the company refers to it as "heme," technically, plants produce non-heme iron, and this is technically GE yeast-derived soy leghemoglobin.¹² Heme iron only occurs in meat and seafood. A main difference between heme and non-heme iron has to do with its absorbability. Plant-based non-heme iron is less readily absorbed. This is one of the reasons why vegans are at higher risk of iron-deficiency anemia than meat eaters. Moreover, while soy leghemoglobin is found in the roots of soybean plants, the company is recreating it using GE yeast. As explained on the company website:¹³

The largest ever assessment of water quality in Pakistan has found that as many as 60 million people are at risk because of high concentrations of arsenic in ground water on the Indus Plain.

The study, conducted by a team led by Joel Podgorski from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, measured arsenic concentrations from 1200 sites across the country, most of them hand- and motor-operated pumps.

Using the test results, Pogorski and colleagues then constructed a "hazard map", factoring in statistical estimates of arsenic movement through groundwater. The results suggest that much of the Indus Plain contains arsenic levels above the maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The study - published in the journal Science Advances - confirms and extends the results of recent previous, smaller studies.

In February this year the journal Environment International published a paper assessing the health risks posed by consuming a diet based on arsenic-laced water in Pakistan.

The research, led by Hifza Rasheed of the University of Leeds, UK, used questionnaires to establish the average intake of water, rice and wheat per person. It found that daily water and wheat consumption were both higher than current WHO recommendations, while rice intake was below par.

One of the scientists behind the research that might help to defeat Zika, Ebola and polio revealed to Sputnik details about a new breakthrough vaccine.

Scientists have started using plants to make a polio vaccine. The team of researchers at the John Innes Centre developed a process that is cheap, easy and quick.

Radio Sputnik discusses the issue with Dr. Johanna Marsian, a project manager for human and viral vaccines at German biopharmaceutical company IDT Biologika, who was one of the scientists behind the research.

"It is a very significant result, especially for plant-based research. It is a huge discovery, because it has a huge impact. Polio is known worldwide as a horrific disease," Marsian told Radio Sputnik.

Marijuana use may be a cause of high blood pressure, a new study reports.

Researchers studied 332 deaths among 1,213 people participating in a larger health study, of whom 57 percent were marijuana users. They had used marijuana for an average of 12 years, and the longer they used it, the more likely they were to have hypertension. The study is in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

After controlling for many health and behavioral variables, including a prior diagnosis of high blood pressure, they found that compared with nonusers, marijuana users had more than three times the risk of death from hypertension-related causes.


In addition to being a risk for heart disease, hypertension can lead to kidney disease, heart failure and aneurysm. The scientists also noted a link to cardiovascular disease and stroke, both also caused by hypertension, but it was not statistically significant.

The researchers acknowledge the difficulty of measuring frequency and quantities of marijuana use, and the likelihood that illegal use is underreported. The lead author, Barbara A. Yankey, an epidemiologist at Georgia State University, urged caution in interpreting what she called "an exploratory study."

Still, she said, "There is a possibility that marijuana use is related to deaths with hypertension as an underlying cause. People who use marijuana should have regular medical checkups to assess their cardiovascular health."

Monsanto is calling for an investigation into a World Health Organization agency that found one of its largest weed killers was carcinogenic. The controversial agricultural giant argues that they ignored two major studies that found no link to cancer.

Monsanto is fighting an assessment from the World Health Organization (WHO) that classified glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's non-selective herbicide Roundup, as "probably carcinogenic to humans."

As a result, the state of California announced in June that Monsanto will be required to put a label on its products that warns customers if it contains cancer-causing chemicals.

So far, more than 900 people who have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the US have sued Monsanto, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death and personal injuries based on the WHO assessment, according to Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the case.

People have looked for miracle remedies to life's maladies for centuries. Before the FDA, snake oil salesmen roamed the U.S. offering tonics that were guaranteed to cure what ails you. Although we've done away with much of that practice through federal regulations, there seems to be one substance with magical properties that scientists are still uncovering: alcohol.

For decades, U.S. researchers have been studying alcohol and finding new benefits from drinking that seem almost too good to believe. Claims about alcohol's abilities range from improving memory to boosting creativity, from reducing the risk of heart disease to making you thinner, and one study even suggested that drinking a glass of wine had the same effect as exercising for an hour.

A new study from Harvard has found greater risk of breast cancer in women who live in neighborhoods that have higher levels of outdoor light during the night.

The findings are based on the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), which has for decades been advancing our understanding of risks to women's health.

For this study, epidemiologist Peter James and colleagues followed nurses in the NHS for breast cancer occurrence from 1989 to 2013. The home of each of 109,672 nurses was geocoded, and the average light level in the immediate neighborhood at night was estimated from satellite images taken by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. These estimates were updated over the 15-year follow-up period. By 2013, a total of 3,549 new cases of breast cancer had been diagnosed, about what's expected among this number of women.

The study found a direct relationship between a woman's neighborhood nighttime light level before diagnosis and her later risk of developing breast cancer: The higher the light level, the higher the risk. These findings held even when taking into account many other factors that may also affect risk such as age, number of children, weight, use of hormone medications and a long list of additional potential confounders.

Mold illness could be a serious health risk threatening you and your family. Sometimes mold can't be seen or smelt, yet the fungus may be growing in your home, causing you to feel sick - or you may be eating GMO foods.

Besides accidentally eating moldy bread or another spoiled food, there are a number of other ways you could get a mold illness such as by eating GMOs sprayed with the Roundup chemical.

Glyphosate is alleged to increase the size of colonies of the fungus Fusarium according to New Scientist.

In the year 2000, the U.S. Congress planned to use the fungus Fusarium as a biological control agent to kill coca crops in Colombia and another fungus to kill opium in Afghanistan, but these plans were dropped by then-president Clinton.

According to David Ellis' 2002 article in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, "there are at least 70,000 to possibly 1,500,000 fungal species but only 300 species have been associated with human infections. Only about a dozen yeasts and 30 molds are identified most commonly as human pathogens in scientific studies," Healthy Family reported.

Mold can also circulate in the air you breathe through your air conditioner if you neglect to change your HVAC filters. Mold produces toxic chemicals called mycotoxins, present on spores and fragments of mold released into the air.

Parents who question vaccines are crazy? Really? Parents who claim to discover vaccine-dangers are crazy? Really?

Official history is a curious thing. Whole sections of fact disappear from the record.

When I was researching my first book, AIDS INC., in 1987-88, I explored various forms of immune-system suppression, in order to show that HIV was not the real story.

I looked into vaccines, for example. Here is an excerpt from AIDS INC. Keep in mind that my research, at the time, ended in 1988. This excerpt reports on vaccines disasters and statements about vaccines made by several authors.

It is forgotten history:

A woman in Arizona who was born without a vagina - the result of a rare condition - is speaking out about her condition, and raising money for a surgery to treat it.

Kaylee Moats, who is 22, first learned she did not have a vagina when she was 18 and had never had a menstrual period, according to a video about Moats' case, made by Barcroft TV. An ultrasound performed at her doctor's office revealed that she did not have a uterus, cervix or vagina.

"It makes me feel less of a woman," Moats said in the video. "I'm still trying to accept myself, accept what I have and not dwell on it."

Moats was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a condition that affects about 1 in every 4,500 newborn girls, according to the National Institutes of Health. It happens when, during embryonic development, the female reproductive organs (including the uterus, cervix and vagina) do not develop properly. As a result, the uterus and vagina may be underdeveloped or absent entirely, the NIH said.