Codex, Nutrients, Pets and Big Pharma - NewsGrabs 8 April 2007

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme News Grabs - a selection of alternative health news and related bits of information. Your window on emerging trends ...

In this issue:

Codex - Nutrients - Age management - Food supplements in NAFTA - FDA on food irradiation - PETS, FOOD SAFETY, CHINA - Monsanto's milk hormones - Wheat Blight - NIH Conflicts of Interest - Drug lobby - Under The Influence - Video: Pharmaceutical Fraud? - Big Pharma's illegal drugs - Let’s Not Be the Next Big Pharma - Electroshock - Lilly Shareholder Class Action - Beyond 'HIV-Causes-AIDS' - Selenium fights HIV - EMF frequencies shutting off energy production - New wireless technology - Biofuel an Ecological Disaster - STRANGE SKIES - War crime - The global war on terror is over

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Codex - precautionary principle inclusion thwarted
The International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA) has revealed that latest attempts to insert the precautionary principle into Codex's draft risk analysis standards for food safety have been foiled. The news marks the third unsuccessful attempt by the EU and other countries to include the principle in key Codex documents, and could represent that last hurdle for adoption without the inclusion of the precautionary principle.

Nutrients might prevent hearing loss in war zones, concert halls & workplaces, new animal study suggests
Antioxidant-mineral combination protects against damage for days after noise exposure, University of Michigan study in guinea pigs shows
Soldiers exposed to the deafening din of battle have little defense against hearing loss, and are often reluctant to wear protective gear like ear plugs that could make them less able to react to danger. But what if a nutritious daily “candy bar” could prevent much of that potential damage to their hearing?

'Age management' is a controversial new medical focus
Clothia Roussell said the effects of the program were apparent right away. "It was not subtle. My son came to visit and said, 'wow, Mom, you're getting younger.' "We'll be seeing Dr. Casas for the next 75 years," she added with a gleaming smile. Why settle for less? A growing number of patients, at least those who can afford it, can't think of any reason not to.

USA: Food supplements targeted by trilateral deal
Mexico put in charge as U.S., Canada agree to follow
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission have agreed to a Trilateral Cooperation Charter with counterparts in Canada and Mexico under the auspices of NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America that will crack down on public access to food supplements and vitamins.

One of the areas of the new governmental structure that will be dealing with supplements is a working group called the Mexico-US-Canada Health Fraud Group, which is, according to the charter, "to maintain a formal framework for cooperation in combating health fraud and to identify appropriate lines of communication to ensure a continual exchange of information on compliance and enforcement activities among the three countries."

FDA proposes softening irradiated food labels
The government proposed Tuesday relaxing its rules on labeling of irradiated foods and suggested it may allow some products zapped with radiation to be called "pasteurized." The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed rule would require companies to label irradiated food only when the radiation treatment causes a material change to the product. Examples includes changes to the taste, texture, smell or shelf life of a food, which would be flagged in the new labeling.

PETS, FOOD SAFETY, CHINA, THE FDA, AND YOUR HEALTH
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that poor quality food causes 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths per year. If the New York State data holds up nationally, 80% of this problem is from imports. This means that 60 million cases of illness in America and 4,000 deaths per year are directly caused by an inept FDA.

The FDA says it does not have enough money to monitor food imports, just like the FDA says it doesn’t have enough money to monitor drug safety. While funding issues are a convenient excuse for poor performance, the real problem runs much deeper to the core of what FDA management is actually doing. The sad truth of the matter is that the FDA is actively participating in the sell out of American sovereignty through efforts leading America towards globalization and harmonization with international laws and regional agreements.

"The FDA’s food safety program for imported food is one of wishful thinking and denial."

Monsanto Declares War on 'rBGH-free' Dairies

Obviusly consumers in the US don't want milk from cows treated with Monsanto's growth hormone so Monsanto tries to keep the stuff on the market by making it impossible to know whether the hormone has been used or not. And the US federal agencies that are supposed to protect consumer health apparently play footsie with them.

Blight on the Landscape
A formidable disease is on its way and almost nobody has heard of it. Ug99 is a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus that attacks wheat plants - a crop that feeds more people than any other food source on Earth. Since the Green Revolution of the 1960s, farmers have been successfully growing disease-resistant wheat varieties. But Ug99 has evolved. There are now precious few wheat crops anywhere that are resistant to it. The blight has already crossed from Africa into Asia and there are fears it will spread further into regions where a billion people depend on wheat for their survival...

Why do I get an uneasy feeling and "biowarfare" flashing in the back of my mind reading this article? I wonder if I am the only one thinking that this may not be entirely accidental, especially when reading:

"The last to hit the North American breadbasket, in 1954, wiped out 40 per cent of the crop. In the cold war both the US and the Soviet Union stockpiled stem rust spores as a biological weapon."

NIH Conflicts of Interest Under Investigation
"Who knows how much damage these conflicts of interest have done to the NIH mission of protecting the public's health?" said Ned Feder, a former NIH scientist who works now with the private Project on Government Oversight. "A review of the facts and the policies is long overdue."

We would submit that the damage these conflicts of interest caused can be measured by the harmful treatments that NIH and its grant recipients in academia have promoted. Their recommendations enriched their corporate benefactors but maimed and cut short the lives of patients.

Drug and health products industries invest $182 million to influence legislation
Of that total, drug companies and their trade groups spent most of it, or $155 million, lobbying on a variety of issues ranging from protecting lucrative drug patents to keeping lower-priced Canadian drugs from being imported to the United States Drug interests employed about 1,100 lobbyists to do their bidding in each of the past two years.

Under The Influence
Report On Dru