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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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Syringe

Does Gardasil Actually Increase Your Risk of Cervical Cancer?

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© unknown
According to information the manufacturer of Gardasil, a vaccine against human papillomavirus, presented to the FDA prior to approval, if a person has already been exposed to HPV 16 or 18 prior to injection, then Gardasil increases the risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6 percent.

This information is not advertised, and the FDA has not recommended screening for HPV prior to vaccination. The FDA did not even demand that a warning be included in the package insert.

According to Examiner.com:
"Now, Merck's research is indicating that Gardasil may also 'provide cross-protection' against other strains of HPV that are closely related to HPV 16 and 18 ... This means prior exposure to these additional strains may pose an increased risk for cervical cancer also, if combined with vaccination."
Sources:

Examiner.com June 30, 2010
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 28, 2010
Waco Tribune-Herald, June 21, 2010
ABC News Health Medical Unit, August 19, 2009

Comment: For more information regarding serious questions raised about the safety of the HPV vaccine Gardasil read the following articles:
Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out
Time for the Truth about Gardasil
More Propaganda: Study Weighs Risks of Vaccine for Cervical Cancer
New Worries About Gardasil Safety
The HPV Vaccine: Herd Immunity or Human Sacrifice?
Mother Keeping Up Her Campaign Against Gardasil
Two More Girls Die After Receiving Gardasil Cervical Cancer Vaccine
Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine


Light Saber

Calls growing for removal of common poison from Irish drinking water

Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation
A report published in Britain recently recommends Ireland and other countries reverse its decision to follow the American example, and stop putting the poisonous chemical called fluoride in public drinking water and hygiene products.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Toxicology - the official journal of the British Toxicology Society and the German Toxicology Society - author Dr. Robert Verkerk said "mass fluoridation of the public water supply [must be]stopped immediately. This is borne out by actual data from Ireland which shows that every third child is affected [by a high risk of dental fluorosis]."

Fluorosis is a condition which causes staining on the teeth and indicates unhealthy toxicity in the body.

Info

Research Links Phthalates in Plastics with Inflammation in At-Risk Babies

Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) have identified a direct link between phthalates, the substances that make plastics more pliable and durable, and inflammation in newborns - and are encouraging more limited use of the plasticizers. Their paper, "Inflammatory Effects of Phthalates in Neonatal Neutrophils," appears in the August 2010 edition of the journal Pediatric Research.

Previous studies have shown that premature babies are exposed to extraordinarily high concentrations of phthalates because of long-term exposure to phthalates in plastic medical equipment used during neonatal intensive care. These include multiple types of tubing, such as breathing tubes, feeding tubes, intravenous tubes, that these babies rely upon to survive. However, concern arises regarding the impact of that exposure on babies' health.

Arrow Down

More Johnson & Johnson Drug Factories Cited for Terrible Quality Control

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© unknown
Another Johnson & Johnson manufacturing plant -- this one making heartburn and gas relief drugs Pepcid, Imodium and Mylanta - was cited for a pattern of quality lapses similar to those seen at the company's shuttered Tylenol plant.

Earlier this month, safety inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration issued a "Form 483" to Johnson & Johnson's Lancaster, Pa., plant.

A Form 483 is issued after an FDA inspection finds problems with a company's manufacturing practices.

The Lancaster plant is owned by Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture of J&J and Merck (MRK, Fortune 500), but is operated by the company's McNeil division.

Health

Australia: Hospital Food Fails Those Too Ill to Eat It

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© Ben Rushton
Apology ... Robin McLennan and her mother, Gwen.
Hospitals will be forced to show they are preventing malnutrition in their patients or else lose their accreditation after continuing concerns about how vulnerable patients are fed.

Elderly patients who stay are hospitalised for long periods are dying from malnutrition because hospitals do not currently consider food part of clinical care, said Claire Hewat, the chief executive of the Dietitians Association of Australia.

And nearly two years after the Garling inquiry heard elderly people were "starving" in public hospitals, some NSW patients were still left unable to open and eat their food.

Cookie

Family doctors debate if they should take Coke money, after they took it

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© Unknown
In this week's Health Blog, the Wall Street Journal's Katherine Hobson asks readers to chime in on a "debate" among family doctors over the ethics of corporate sponsorship of medicine.

But first, the backdrop. Last year, the American Academy of Family Physicians announced "a new corporate partnership program" and its first partner was to be The Coca-Cola Company. Soon thereafter, about 20 doctors resigned from the organization in protest, drawing attention to the matter by Food Politics author Marion Nestle as well as advocacy groups such as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. (Full disclosure: I serve on CCFC's steering committee.)

The grant amount was described as being in the "strong six figures" by AAFP. Here is how the group described the partnership in its October 2009 press release:
The Consumer Alliance is a program that allows corporate partners like The Coca-Cola Company to work with the AAFP to educate consumers about the role their products can play in a healthy, active lifestyle. As part of this partnership, The Coca-Cola Company is providing a grant to the AAFP to develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners for FamilyDoctor.org, an award-winning consumer health and wellness resource.

Pills

FDA Sued for Failure to Alert Diabetics to Effective Drug Alternatives

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A nonprofit doctors group filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this month, after they failed to notify patients of dietary alternatives to dangerous diabetes drugs such as Avandia, a highly scrutinized diabetes medication. The group, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), alleged they petitioned the FDA to require that such alternatives be included on labels for the drugs, but to no avail, according to a Monday, July 19, 2010 PCRM news release.

Plaintiffs in the case, who are all doctors, alleged that while the PCRM sent the FDA an administrative petition regarding the lack of labels alerting patients of substitutes to dangerous diabetes medications, administration commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D., did not appear to act on the matter.

Bell

Adults Ingest More than 1,000 Times "Safe" Levels of Dioxin

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings today to review a proposed safe exposure limit for dioxin, a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor produced as a common industrial byproduct.

It's all but impossible to avoid exposure to dioxin. Research done by the Environmental Working Group has shown that adults are exposed to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA is calling safe - mostly through eating meat, dairy and shellfish - and mothers pass it on to babies in the womb and in breast milk. A nursing infant ingests an amount 77 times higher than what the EPA has proposed as safe exposure. (Formula is also widely contaminated with the stuff.)

Red Flag

Malicious Adults Use Drugs and Alcohol to Abuse Kids

Sleeping pills, cough syrup, laxatives harm 160 children a year, study says

Parents and caregivers who slip young, healthy children doses of common drugs - including painkillers, sedatives and laxatives - are fueling a dangerous but hidden form of child abuse, new research finds.

About 160 kids are hurt in the United States each year - and at least two die - after being forced to ingest antidepressants, cough and cold medicines, even drugs to treat high blood pressure. Many are given alcohol, marijuana or cocaine, according to the first large-scale study of the issue published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"We believe that the malicious use of pharmaceuticals may be an under-recognized form and or component of child maltreatment," said Dr. Shan Yin, who led the study conducted at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver.

Yin, a medical toxicologist, analyzed more than 21.4 million calls to the National Poison Data System between 2000 and 2008. When he looked at cases of drug and alcohol poisoning coded as "malicious" in children younger than 7, Shin found 1,439 cases of kids who'd been exposed. Some 172 children were seriously injured and 18 died.

Red Flag

Do Well-Educated People Think They Are More Left-Wing Than They Actually Are?

University graduates mortar boards
© Rex Features
University graduates are less able to recognise their conservative tendencies than people who leave school at 16, according to the research.

Its author suggests that adults fail to notice as the political opinions of their youth weaken as they join the workforce and start families.

Additionally, because well-eductated people tend to socialise with others who have conservative views, their perception of where the ideoligical middle ground lies is skewed, wrote James Rockey, an economics lecturer at the University of Leicester.

However, earning a high salary can jolt employees into a better awareness of where they sit in the political spectrum, he added.