Health & Wellness

FDA admits chicken meat contains arsenic

EcoWatch.com
Tue, 07 May 2013 17:06 UTC

Attorneys at Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a lawsuit on behalf of CFS, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and seven other U.S. food safety, agriculture, public health and environmental groups to compel the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to respond to the groups' three year-old petition which calls for immediate withdrawal of FDA's approval of arsenic-containing compounds as feed additives for food animals. Filed the same day Consumer Reports released an alarming study on antibiotic resistance in turkey, the lawsuit highlights yet another gaping hole in FDA oversight of animal feed additives.

Arsenic is commonly added to poultry feed for the FDA-approved purposes of inducing faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs. Yet new studies increasingly link these practices to serious human health problems. The lawsuit filed last week seeks to force the FDA to fulfill its mandate to better protect the public from arsenic. The 2009 petition presented abundant science to FDA that organic arsenic compounds - like those added to animal feed - are directly toxic to animals and humans, but also that they convert to cancer-causing, inorganic arsenic inside of chickens, in manure-treated soil and in humans. Additional testing since submission of the 2009 petition demonstrates even greater cause for public concern and therefore greater urgency meriting FDA's prompt attention.

More H7N9 bird flu deaths in China, total killed reaches 31

Jordan Howell
Digital Journal
Wed, 08 May 2013 16:53 UTC

Chinese health officials announced on Monday that four more people have died from the H7N9 bird flu virus. The virus has now killed 31 and infected 131 mostly along China's eastern coast.

Three of the deaths occurred in the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and one death occurred further inland at Anhui.
No details have emerged concerning the new victims.

In addition to recent deaths, the Chinese government is reporting two new confirmed H7N9 cases in the southeastern coastal province Fujian, located across the straits from Taiwan where the virus has infected one person who is said to be recovering.

Pesticide residues continue to make some foods unsafe for consumption

Timi Gustafson
Bothell Reporter
Thu, 02 May 2013 16:43 UTC

An apple a day used to keep the doctor away, at least according to folk wisdom. But not any more - unless it's organically grown. Apples top the list of foods contaminated with pesticides, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental health research and advocacy organization, in its annual report called "The Dirty Dozen™."

The listing of foods that may have toxic levels of pesticides is part of the group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce, which draws its data from tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Even after washing, more than two thirds of the tens of thousands of food samples tested by the agencies showed pesticide residues. The most contaminated fruits were apples, strawberries, grapes, peaches and imported nectarines. Among vegetables, the most contaminated were celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and hot peppers.

The contamination levels varied significantly between different foods. Potatoes had a higher total weight of pesticides than any other food crop. A single grape tested for 15 different pesticides. So did sweet bell peppers.

Toxic Benzene fills air weeks after tar sands spill more than a month after

Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
Wed, 08 May 2013 10:24 UTC

Tar sands oil seen in local waterways weeks after ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured.

ExxonMobil's pipeline spilled thousands of barrels tar sands crude, Arkansas Attorney General warns of nauseating conditions in area - , staff writer

Five weeks after ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured and spewed thousands of barrels of tar sands oil in Mayflower, Arkansas, residents are stuck "on their own" as they suffer from health problems following noxious black cloak that enveloped their neighborhood.

"Both the subdivision and the cove look more like construction sites than neighborhoods," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said at a press conference on Tuesday of the cove area of Lake Conway. "There's heavy equipment everywhere, much of it contaminated with oil as it goes down roads and through people's yards."

US chalks up more first-day newborn deaths than rest of industrialized world combined - report

RT
Tue, 07 May 2013 17:01 UTC

The number of babies dying in their first day of life remains significantly higher in the United States than 33 other leading industrialized nations combined, an annual report compiled by Save the Children reveals.

The London-based charity's "State of the World's Mothers" compiled a list of birth-day death rates for 176 countries, as well as information on maternal health, education and women's income and political status.

While only one percent of the world's more than one-million first-day deaths occur in the developed world, the US far outpaces its industrialized peers in newborn deaths.

The report determines that an estimated 11,300 babies die each year in the United States on the day they are born, "50 percent more first-day deaths than all other industrialized combined."

"When first-day deaths in the United State are compared to those in the 27 countries making up the European Union, the findings show that European Union countries, taken together, have 1 million more births each year (4.3 million vs. 5.3 million, respectively) but only about half as many first-day deaths as the United States (11,300 in the US vs. 5,800 in EU member countries)," the report claims.

Cadmium, mercury and phthalates - oh my!

Kathleen Schuler, MPH
iatp.org
Wed, 01 May 2013 15:32 UTC

Over 5000 children's products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption and reproductive problems, including the toxic metals, cadmium, mercury and antimony, as well as phthalates and solvents. A new report by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States reveals the results of manufacturer reporting to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Makers of kids' products reported using 41 of the 66 chemicals identified by WA Ecology as a concern for children's health. Major manufacturers who reported using the chemicals in their products include Walmart, Gap, Gymboree, Hallmark, H & M and others. They use these chemicals in an array of kids' products, including clothing, footwear, toys, games, jewelry, accessories, baby products, furniture, bedding, arts and crafts supplies and personal care products. Besides exposing kids in the products themselves, some of these chemicals, for example toxic flame retardants, build up in the environment and in the food we eat.

Toxic lipstick? Metals in some lip products may be dangerous, study says

Catherine Pearson
Huffington Post
Wed, 01 May 2013 19:17 UTC

Lipsticks and glosses may contain potentially troubling levels of metals, according to a preliminary new study.

Prior research has raised some concerns over the presence of lead in lipstick, but the new study is the first to suggest that many popular lip products also contain cadmium, chromium, aluminum and other metals -- some at levels that may be harmful.

"We looked at nine heavy metals and found that all of them were present in most of the lipsticks, but not necessarily at really high levels," study author Katharine Hammond, a professor of environmental health sciences with the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health told The Huffington Post. "Low levels of metals may not create a risk, but as the exposure increases, the damage can increase." The results were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives Thursday.

U.S. invokes emergency act for potential H7N9 bird flu outbreak, gives green light to unapproved tests

Debora MacKenzie
New Scientist
Wed, 08 May 2013 15:06 UTC

The US government has declared that H7N9 bird flu "poses a significant potential for a public health emergency", and has given "emergency use authorisation" for diagnostic kits for the virus. This means tests can be used that haven't gone through the usual lengthy approval process by the US Food and Drug Administration.

They are right to be concerned. H7N9 could be a tough adversary: New Scientist has learned that it provokes a weaker immune response than most flu, making vaccines hard to produce.

Although H7N9 is not, so far, transmissible between humans, it does cause severe disease in people, is easier to catch than other bird flu strains, and may need only a few mutations to go pandemic. The UK has already given doctors instructions on when to test people for H7N9, and how to manage any with the virus.

Study finds adverse effects of pitocin in newborns

ACOG.org
Tue, 07 May 2013 11:52 UTC

Induction and augmentation of labor with the hormone oxytocin may not be as safe for full-term newborns as previously believed, according to research presented today at the Annual Clinical Meeting of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Researchers say this is the first study of its kind to present data on the adverse effects of Pitocin use on newborns.

Given intravenously, Pitocin (a brand of oxytocin), is often used to start labor when a pregnant woman is overdue. It is also used to keep a lagging labor going by increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of uterine contractions.

Parents who suck on their infants' pacifiers may protect their children against developing allergy

Agnes Wold
University of Gothenburg
Tue, 07 May 2013 16:50 UTC

Swedish researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, report that a simple habit may give significant protection against allergy development, namely, the parental sucking on the baby's pacifier.

Allergies are very common in industrialized countries. It has been suggested that exposure to harmless bacteria during infancy may be protective against the development of allergy. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint which bacteria a baby should be exposed to, and at what time and by which route this exposure should ideally occur.

Swedish researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, now report that a simple habit may give significant protection against allergy development, namely, the parental sucking on the baby's pacifier.

In a group of 184 children, who were followed from birth, the researchers registered how many infants used a pacifier in the first 6 months of life and how the parents cleaned the pacifier. Most parents rinsed the pacifier in tap water before giving it to the baby, e.g., after it had fallen on the floor. However, some parents also boiled the pacifier to clean it. Yet other parents had the habit of putting the baby's pacifier into their mouth and cleaning it by sucking, before returning it to the baby.

.. .. ".. Is.. About Something Else.."? The answer is! Depends on what is is..

Jibrish

.. .. Hey 'shek' Prat trap: 35 mm = 1.377953 inches. or, anybody see his hidden 13?

Jibrish

So in his mind he dismisses any paranormal ability because it's not replicable. It's called paranormal because it falls outside of normal, thus is...

Bellheezy

So they successfully treated the pain with ONLY brain treatments YET claim pain is not all in your head...hmmm...*scratches head*

Bellheezy

How can it be a fingerprint if it changes? Fingerprints don't change that's why they are used for identification purposes.

Bellheezy

Health & Wellness

FDA admits chicken meat contains arsenic

More H7N9 bird flu deaths in China, total killed reaches 31

Pesticide residues continue to make some foods unsafe for consumption

Toxic Benzene fills air weeks after tar sands spill more than a month after

US chalks up more first-day newborn deaths than rest of industrialized world combined - report

Cadmium, mercury and phthalates - oh my!

Toxic lipstick? Metals in some lip products may be dangerous, study says

U.S. invokes emergency act for potential H7N9 bird flu outbreak, gives green light to unapproved tests

Study finds adverse effects of pitocin in newborns

Parents who suck on their infants' pacifiers may protect their children against developing allergy

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