Chinese babies were deliberately poisoned by milk companies with Communist Party collusion

Failing a generation: children undergoing medical checks for possible kidney stones wait with their parents at a hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province  Photo: REUTERS

Tens of thousands of infants are sick after drinking tainted baby milk. But this isn’t an ordinary health disaster - the authorities colluded with the companies who deliberately contaminated their products and failed to warn the public.

The boss of Sanlu, now sacked and in police custody, was a senior party official, as are the leaders of most big companies in China.

Telegraph | Sep 24, 2008

The poisoning of China’s babies

By Richard Spencer

Disaster befell the parents of Jiao Zizhou because, poor as they were, they could afford baby milk. What they could not afford were hospital fees.

Visitors to China often look at its diversity, its grand civic buildings, its sweatshops, its new rich, its desperate poor, and compare it to Dickens, and talk about the growing pains of developing societies. Jiao Zizhou, a 10-month-old baby from southern China, gives growing pains a name.

Zizhou’s parents fed him on baby milk from a company called Sanlu, which means Three Deer in Chinese. At just under £3 for a 400g bag, it was cheap but reputable. Produced by the biggest formula manufacturer in China, it was consumed by babies from north to south, even in rural areas like the village in impoverished Guizhou province where Zizhou’s parents live.

Some ask why babies in China drink milk at all: cow’s milk is not something the Chinese have traditionally liked, so there was no particular reason for them to follow the worldwide trend towards abandoning the breast. But the question answers itself: China is modernising and, to many people, that means doing what the rest of the world does. In present-day industrial China, it also means building your own companies to provide what foreigners consume – but cheaper.

Few people questioned the competitive pricing, and certainly not Zizhou’s parents, until they started to worry about his health last month. He stopped being able to urinate and, though a local clinic was unable to diagnose the problem, he fell into a fever a week later. The children’s hospital in Guizhou’s provincial capital gave him an ultrasound scan on August 9, which showed a swelling in the kidneys. He was diagnosed with obstructions in his urinary tract and acute renal failure, and transferred to the region’s biggest city, Chongqing.

What his parents had no way of knowing was that Zizhou was one of more than 50,000 babies to have fallen sick from drinking formula milk. Most had drunk Sanlu, little knowing that its powder had been deliberately tainted with a chemical called melamine.

Melamine is a plastic, not a notorious poison. For a while in the Sixties, melaware crockery was all the rage in Western households. But you weren’t supposed to eat it, and melamine has side-effects: it causes kidney stones if it gets into the food chain. On the other hand, it also boosts nitrogen readings, often used as a rough test for protein content.

Melamine, in other words, makes low-quality food look better than it is, it was being poured into weak or watered-down milk supplies before it was collected, not only by Sanlu but by other manufacturers, before being turned into powder.

What has shocked many people in China, even those used to a heavily censored media, is how many people knew about the problem before it went public. Initial investigations by the government suggest that Sanlu first started receiving complaints in December of last year. By March, the number of complaints was sufficient for it to start its own inquiries. In May, a baby died in Gansu province in the far west and, by July, authorities there were concerned enough about the number of sick infants that they called in the ministry of health. Gansu officials suspected Sanlu was to blame – it was the only food many of the babies had consumed.

On August 1, Sanlu received the results of its own tests; the following day it told the authorities in the city where the company is based, Shijiazhuang, south of Beijing. The city authorities did nothing.

Even this late, a public warning would have made Zizhou’s parents – and the doctors who first saw him – aware of what might have been wrong with him. But there was another factor.

Three days before, Shijiazhuang had been host to the Olympic torch as it circled the country on its way to its triumphant arrival in Beijing for China’s long-awaited Games. It seemed wrong to spoil the moment: in fact, the central authorities had specifically warned the media that this was a sensitive time and “bad news” items such as health scares should be played down.

It was not until September 11 that a warning was finally given, as reports started appearing in the media of “a certain firm’s” problems with baby milk. Two days later, the New Zealand government, notified by Fonterra, a New Zealand company which owns a minority stake in Sanlu’s operations and has three directors on its board, told the Chinese leadership of its concerns.

Since then, the truth has slipped out little by little: the fact that liquid milk, as well as formula, was affected, and that China’s two biggest dairy names, Yili, an Olympic sponsor, and Mengniu, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and has a joint venture with Arla, the European food giant, were implicated along with Sanlu.

The disaster has had one beneficial effect: the intervention by the New Zealand government showed China that it could no longer ignore advice from abroad. Meanwhile, the discovery of tainted products in places such as Hong Kong and Singapore, gateways to the international trading system, proved once and for all that a problem in one country is a problem for all. Even the European Commission has demanded an urgent review of all processed foods imported from China.

Other countries have health scares and cover-ups: Britain had BSE. But there was something particularly crude about China’s. It has some top-of-the-range dairy facilities. But it also has middlemen unscrupulous enough to water down milk and disguise it with melamine, and companies who at least turn a blind eye.

Even cruder was the story of Wang Yuanping, who for many has become the symbol of the moral dilemmas the Chinese face nowadays. In May, he told Sanlu that his daughter’s urine showed changes after drinking their product. The company said it would offer a refund, but that if it carried out tests on the powder they would not tell him the results because they would be “commercial secrets”.

After they offered him £200 of free milk to take down the internet post he wrote about his experiences, he approached the local commerce bureau with his complaint. They told him that he would have to pay a fee of hundreds of pounds for tests, which he couldn’t afford. So he took down the post, accepted the milk, and gave it to his friends – a decision that has racked him with guilt and made him an object of both criticism and sympathy. “You did your best,” some said.

As the number of babies known to have fallen sick has multiplied from the hundreds to the tens of thousands, and as humiliating detail has followed humiliating detail, some have asked how a government that can lay on such a magnificent Olympics can so spectacularly fail its citizens.

Wen Jiabao, the popular prime minister, has been touring hospitals, offering moral support to weeping mothers and threatening punishment all round. Li Changjiang, the minister in charge of product safety, has been forced to resign.

That was a telling moment. Mr Li became a celebrity last year for his handling of the row over poisoned Chinese exports, which began with pet food tainted with melamine and moved on to lead-coated toys. He said it was a “foreign plot” by Western countries to protect themselves from Chinese imports. That hubris has now been his undoing, as it has China’s.

This is not just because in its Olympic determination to show off its perfect new Beijing it overlooked the troubles of its less sophisticated hinterland; or because it thought that by winning prestige around the world the government could more easily win favour at home, though both are true.
It is also because the success of the Games has raised expectations.

Four years ago, there was another baby milk scandal, when 13 babies died in one province from drinking fake formula. The story made some waves locally, and brought exactly the same response from the government: threatened punishment and promises of better control. But then it was forgotten.

“On that occasion, it was the responsibility of local milk producers, but now all the major dairy brands in China are all involved in the scandal,” said Li Datong, a liberal commentator. “But the opening up of information and greater social development have made people more aware about the country. And they care more about their health than before.”

There is no sign that hubris will be followed by nemesis. Some scandals even seem to elevate the regard for central leaders like Mr Wen, who can use media controls to focus criticism on the local criminals responsible, rather than the political systems that let them get away with it.

But more and more people are noticing the central contradiction of a ruling Communist Party that says that it is modern and reforming, but shuts off the means of holding it to account. It has not gone unremarked that the boss of Sanlu, now sacked and in police custody, was a senior party official, as are the leaders of most big companies in China.

Whatever the political fall-out, it will be too late for Jiao Zizhou. China can lay on the Olympics but it cannot afford healthcare for its people, and Zizhou’s parents could not meet the bills the new hospital charged.

They took him home, and on September 3, a few days before the information that might have saved him was made public, he died.

Mobile phone use ‘raises children’s risk of brain cancer fivefold’

Alarming new research from Sweden on the effects of radiation raises fears that today’s youngsters face an epidemic of the disease in later life

Independent | Sep 21, 2008

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

The Swedish research was reported this month at the first international conference on mobile phones and health

Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, startling new research indicates.

The study, experts say, raises fears that today’s young people may suffer an “epidemic” of the disease in later life. At least nine out of 10 British 16-year-olds have their own handset, as do more than 40 per cent of primary schoolchildren.

Yet investigating dangers to the young has been omitted from a massive £3.1m British investigation of the risks of cancer from using mobile phones, launched this year, even though the official Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Programme – which is conducting it – admits that the issue is of the “highest priority”.

Despite recommendations of an official report that the use of mobiles by children should be “minimised”, the Government has done almost nothing to discourage it.

Last week the European Parliament voted by 522 to 16 to urge ministers across Europe to bring in stricter limits for exposure to radiation from mobile and cordless phones, Wi-fi and other devices, partly because children are especially vulnerable to them. They are more at risk because their brains and nervous systems are still developing and because – since their heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner – the radiation penetrates deeper into their brains.

The Swedish research was reported this month at the first international conference on mobile phones and health.

It sprung from a further analysis of data from one of the biggest studies carried out into the risk that the radiation causes cancer, headed by Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden. Professor Hardell told the conference – held at the Royal Society by the Radiation Research Trust – that “people who started mobile phone use before the age of 20″ had more than five-fold increase in glioma”, a cancer of the glial cells that support the central nervous system. The extra risk to young people of contracting the disease from using the cordless phone found in many homes was almost as great, at more than four times higher.

Those who started using mobiles young, he added, were also five times more likely to get acoustic neuromas, benign but often disabling tumours of the auditory nerve, which usually cause deafness.

By contrast, people who were in their twenties before using handsets were only 50 per cent more likely to contract gliomas and just twice as likely to get acoustic neuromas.

Professor Hardell told the IoS: “This is a warning sign. It is very worrying. We should be taking precautions.” He believes that children under 12 should not use mobiles except in emergencies and that teenagers should use hands-free devices or headsets and concentrate on texting. At 20 the danger diminishes because then the brain is fully developed. Indeed, he admits, the hazard to children and teenagers may be greater even than his results suggest, because the results of his study do not show the effects of their using the phones for many years. Most cancers take decades to develop, longer than mobile phones have been on the market.

The research has shown that adults who have used the handsets for more than 10 years are much more likely to get gliomas and acoustic neuromas, but he said that there was not enough data to show how such relatively long-term use would increase the risk for those who had started young.

He wants more research to be done, but the risks to children will not be studied in the MTHR study, which will follow 90,000 people in Britain. Professor David Coggon, the chairman of the programmes management committee, said they had not been included because other research was being done on young people by a study at Sweden’s Kariolinska Institute.

He said: “It looks frightening to see a five-fold increase in cancer among people who started use in childhood,” but he said he “would be extremely surprised” if the risk was shown to be so high once all the evidence was in.

But David Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of NewYork – who also attended the conference – said: “Children are spending significant time on mobile phones. We may be facing a public health crisis in an epidemic of brain cancers as a result of mobile phone use.”

In 2000 and 2005, two official inquiries under Sir William Stewart, a former government chief scientist, recommended the use of mobile phones by children should be “discouraged” and “minimised”.

But almost nothing has been done, and their use by the young has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium.

More “Frankenfoods” heading toward American dinner tables

Environmentally-friendly pigs, fast-growing fish and super chickens could be heading towards American dinner tables after the US government unveiled new rules for regulating genetically-engineered animals.

Consumers may be alarmed by the idea of eating GM meat

Telegraph | Sep 18, 2008

Genetically-engineered animals could lead to ‘Frankenfoods’

By Tom Leonard in New York

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a proposed legal framework which is expected to open the market to meat and milk produced from modified animals, which detractors have already termed “Frankenfood”.

Such creatures, which could include new hen breeds capable of laying healthier eggs and cows that are immune to mad cow disease, have been developed already.

But producers have been discouraged from marketing their creations by the absence of clear rules governing such a controversial issue.

The government wants the guidelines to resolve questions such as as whether altered animals are safe for human consumption or whether they pose a risk to the environment.

“Genetic engineering of animals is here and has been here for some time,” said Larisa Rudenko, a science policy adviser with the FDA’s veterinary medicine centre.

“We intend to provide a rigorous, risk-based regulatory path for developers to follow to help ensure public health and the health of animals.”

Consumer groups welcomed plans to regulate the area but were alarmed by apparent gaps in the proposals.

They pointed out that the FDA does not, for example, plan to insist that all such meat, fish and poultry be labeled as genetically-engineered.

“They are talking about pigs that are going to have mouse genes in them, and this is not going to be labeled,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy for Consumers Union. “We are close to speechless on this.”

The FDA has already ruled that cloned animals - which are not the same - are safe to eat.

The agency will continue to exempt genetically-altered animals that pose little risk, such as aquarium fish that were recently changed so they would glow in the dark.

Genetically-engineered animals, which are created by the insertion of a gene from one species of animal into the DNA of another, could fulfil a similar role in food production to GM plants.

Genetic engineering is already widely used in agriculture to produce higher-yielding or disease-resistant crops. However, all sides are aware that consumers may be rather more alarmed by the idea of eating GM meat.

Gender-bending chemical used in plastic bottles ‘doubles risk of heart disease’

Daily Mail | Sep 16, 2008

By  David Derbyshire

Gender-bending chemicals in food packaging, drink cans and baby bottles may double the risk of heart disease, a new study has found.

Researchers have shown that people with higher-than-normal levels of bisphenol A in their blood are more likely to suffer from potentially dangerous heart problems.

The chemical - which mimics the female sex hormone oestrogen - also appears to raise the risk of diabetes, even though the amount found in tests on nearly 1,500 people fell far short of official safety limits.

It is the first time that bisphenol A - BPA for short - has been linked to health problems in people and raises disturbing questions about one of the most common chemicals in everyday use.

It is used to make linings of food and drink cans and is also found in plastic bottles, CD cases, plastic knives and forks and dental sealants.

Although some animal studies have shown it is safe, others have raised serious concerns.

BPA has been linked to breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes, fertility problems in men and developmental disorders in babies.

Prof David Melzer, at the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, who led the research, said: ‘Our study has revealed for the first time an association between raised BPA loads and two common diseases in adults.

‘At the moment, we can’t be absolutely sure that BPA is the direct cause of the extra cases of heart disease and diabetes - if it is, some causes of these serious conditions could be prevented by reducing BPA exposure.’

The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at blood and urine samples of 1,455 adults aged between 18 and 74 years collected by the American Government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2003 and 2004.

The 25 per cent of people with the highest levels of BPA were twice as likely to suffer heart disease or diabetes than the bottom 25 per cent, even when other factors such as weight, diet, income and age were taken into account.

Higher levels were also linked to abnormal concentrations of liver enzymes - a possible sign of liver damage.

The links were strongest for young people.

The levels of BPA were relatively small - suggesting the people in the study were consuming around 20 micrograms of the chemical a day. The minimum safety level is around 3,000 micrograms a day.

Prof Tamara Galloway, a toxicologist at Exeter University and co-author of the study, said more research was needed to find out if low BPA exposure caused health problems - or whether people with heart disease and diabetes just happened to have higher exposure because of their lifestyle or diet.

‘Bisphenol A is one of the world’s most widely produced and used chemicals, and one of the problems until now is we don’t know what has been happening in the general population,’ she said.

The scientists don’t know how BPA could increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. However, it could lead to more fat being laid down in the arteries and interfere with the way insulin is processed .

Prof David Coggon, who teaches occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Southampton, said: ‘There is now a need to establish whether the association of BPA with heart disease and diabetes can be independently replicated, and if so, whether BPA is a cause of the disorders or is linked to them in some other way.

‘If low-level BPA were confirmed to cause disease, there would be a need to review controls on sources of exposure to the chemical.’

Other researchers urged caution over the results.

Prof Richard Sharpe, Medical Research Council Human Reproductive Sciences Unit, University of Edinburgh, said: ‘There may be an altogether more common sense - although still scary - explanation for the observations in this study.

‘That is, that if you drink lots of high-sugar canned drinks you will over time increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes - I think we already suspect this - and incidentally you will be exposed to more bisphenol A from the can lining.

‘The fact that the younger age groups in this study had the highest bisphenol A exposures would certainly fit with this.’

Fact file

• Bisphenol A is used to make polycarbonate plastic - a clear shatter-resistant material found in baby bottles, CD cases, spectacle lenses, plastic forks and sports equipment.

• It is also used to make resins that line the inside of food and drink cans. BPA is used in dental fillings.

• People are exposed to BPA when it leaches out of plastic into liquid - particularly when hot.

• It may also escape from landfill sites into the water.

• The chemical is found in the bodies of more than 90 per cent of people.

• It mimics the sex hormone oestrogen - linked in laboratory studies to breast cancer, genital abnormalities in baby boys and liver problems.

• It is one of the most common artificial chemicals, with factories producing more than 2.2 million tonnes a year.

Many New York 9/11 Workers, Residents Still Sick

ENS | Sep 4, 2008

NEW YORK, New York, September 4, 2008 (ENS) - Nearly seven years after the terrorist attacks that demolished the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, many people exposed to the dust, smoke and chemical fumes released into the environment by the airplane strikes on the twin towers continue to experience illnesses.

Rescue and recovery workers, residents of Lower Manhattan, and area workers are still suffering physical and mental health problems related to 9/11 exposure, according to the first report of the WTC Medical Working Group, released today by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

After reviewing more than 100 scientific articles published since 2001, the group of physicians and researchers found that thousands of people have been treated for physical and mental health problems. But more people still need medical help, so the mayor today launched a citywide publicity campaign to promote awareness of medical and mental health treatment options for those who are still suffering.

“We have answered the call for help from those who have suffered health problems as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We’re helping people heal, both physically and emotionally, and we will continue to reach out to those in need.”

In the aftermath of 9/11, respiratory symptoms were common among people who breathed in the contaminants released by the collapse of the World Trade Center, the WTC Medical Working Group reports.

Respiratory symptoms have subsided over time for many, but have persisted for some including firefighters, 25 percent of whom had symptoms two to four years after the event. Lung function also has declined among some workers.

In surveys conducted two to three years after 9/11, rescue and recovery workers, Lower Manhattan residents and area workers developed new cases of asthma at two to three times the expected rate.

Studies on cancer risk or increased risk of death are underway, but the results are not yet available because of long latency periods of many potentially fatal diseases.

The new $5 million citywide advertising and grassroots marketing campaign will debut on subways, print, radio, and television next week. The campaign, which will run in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Polish, urges the public to seek care for 9/11-related health problems with its tagline, “Lived There? Worked There? You Deserve Care.”

The campaign directs New Yorkers to the WTC Environmental Health Center or to dial 311 for help.

“Many New Yorkers are suffering from wheezing, shortness of breath, stomach and other medical or emotional problems related to their 9/11 exposure and its aftermath. Yet too many don’t connect their continuing health problems to 9/11 or believe that help is only available to WTC rescue and recovery workers,” said Alan Aviles, who heads the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

“This awareness campaign - devised collaboratively with concerned community organizations - has been designed to get people to the health care they need,” Aviles said. “

“We hope it will resonate deeply with those potentially affected - families who lived and stayed in their downtown homes, young people who went to school in the area, local business owners who kept their shops open, local office workers who commute from many parts of the city and the region, clean-up workers who cleared dust from nearby offices, and those who still struggle with the psychological and emotional trauma of losing a loved one or witnessing the horrific devastation,” he said.

“The World Trade Center Medical Working Group Report represents remarkable consensus among scientists, doctors, and experts on what the research tells us about 9/11 health problems,” said Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs, who co-chaired the group. “Our objective review will inform the city’s ongoing commitment to targeting resources and research where they are needed and ensure that those affected receive the treatment they deserve.”

Mayor Bloomberg is appealing to the federal government for more funding to support the research and treatment already underway.”We will keep fighting for the support these critically important programs deserve,” he said.

The city has secured more than $108 million from Congress for fiscal year 2008, including first time funding for community members and area workers suffering from 9/11 health problems.

“This was gained with crucial support from members of the New York delegation, labor leaders, members of the community, and local health and environmental organizations,” the mayor said.

City actions also prompted the release of $30 million of these funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide services for residents, workers and students.

“The city has not waited to get treatment to those who are sick because of the 9/11 attacks, but the federal government must make the long-term investments necessary to ensure that we can continue to conduct vital research and treat those who are sick or who could become sick,” said Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. “To accomplish that, Congress must pass the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2008.”

The 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2008 would provide a consistent funding stream for 9/11-related treatment and the re-opening of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.

The City of New York has committed $100 million in funds over five years for the 9/11-related health agenda.

The mayor said today that all 15 of the recommendations laid out in the city’s 2007 report, “Addressing the Health Impacts of 9/11″ have been completed or are underway. Among those efforts:

Treatment services have been expanded at Bellevue Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital Center and Gouverneur Healthcare Services, where more than 2,800 New Yorkers have been treated for 9/11-related problems.

More than 1,000 New Yorkers have been enrolled in a new financial reimbursement program for people receiving 9/11-related mental health services.

Medical treatment guidelines for treating people exposed to 9/11 contaminants have been distributed to 40,000 health professionals, and health information has been sent regularly to more than 5,000 residents and city employees.

A comprehensive website for 9/11 health information and service listings has been established, and the site has had more than 300,000 visits to date.

“Help is available for people still suffering,” said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Tom Frieden, co-chair of the World Trade Center Medical Working Group.

“Any New Yorker can call 311 or visit the 9/11 health website at www.nyc.gov to find information about treatment for a physical ailment or a mental health problem, he said. “Both post traumatic stress disorder and respiratory conditions are still common among those directly exposed. Treatment can help, so please seek care if you’re suffering.”

2 Million Cancer Cases Tied to Tobacco Use

Live Science | Sep 4, 2008

By Robert Preidt

(HealthDay News) — Lung and bronchial cancers accounted for almost half of the approximately 2.4 million tobacco-related cancers diagnosed in the United States between 1999 and 2004, says a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.

The study, which marks the first time the CDC has reported on all tobacco-related cancers for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, was based on an analysis of data from the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and Results Program.

Among the key findings (with cancer rates per 100,000 presented in parentheses):

• The incidence of tobacco-related cancers was highest among blacks and non-Hispanics, and among men. This reflects patterns of tobacco use.

• Lung, laryngeal, and cervical cancer rates were highest in the South, which has the highest rate of smoking in the United States. Kentucky had the highest lung cancer rates for men and women (133.2 and 75.5, respectively), the third highest rate of laryngeal cancers among men (9.7), and the highest rate of laryngeal cancer among women (2.6). The state had the highest rate of current smoking (28.6).

• Smoking rates were lowest in the West — Utah (10.4), California (18.5), and Montana (18.5) — and cancer rates were lowest in the West for all cancers, with the exception of stomach cancer.

• In 2004, the South had the highest rate of lung and bronchial cancer (97.9), while the West had the lowest rates (66.0). Among women, rates of lung and bronchial cancer were similar in the South, Midwest, and Northeast (55.3 to 56.4) and were lowest in the West (48.1).

• The high rates of lung and layrngeal cancers in the South were consistent with smoking patterns and reflect the strong link between these cancers and tobacco use.

• Other cancers associated with tobacco use — pancreas, urinary bladder, esophagus, kidney, stomach, cervix, and acute myelogenous leukemia — accounted for more than one million cancer cases diagnosed between 1999 and 2004.

“The data in this report provides additional, strong evidence of the serious harm related to tobacco,” lead author Sherri Stewart, of the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, said in an agency news release.

“We’ve long known tobacco was associated with lung and laryngeal cancer, but this study gives us even greater clarity. The rates for these two cancers were highest in areas with the highest prevalence of tobacco use,” she said.

Dr. Matthew McKenna, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in the news release, “Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States and the most prominent cause of cancer.

“The tobacco-use epidemic causes a third of the cancers in America. If proven strategies were fully implemented to decrease tobacco use, much of the suffering and death that cancer inflicts on families and communities could be prevented,” he said.

Tobacco use is a major cause for all the cancers included in the report, but not all cases of cancer studied could be linked directly to tobacco use, the researchers noted. Some of these types of cancer have a number of risk factors — such as genetics or infections — that can cause disease independently, as well as in tandem with tobacco use, the researchers said.

Clones’ offspring “may have” entered the US food supply

Reuters | Sep 2, 2008

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may have entered the U.S. food supply, the U.S. government said on Tuesday, but it would be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and conventional products [according to the FDA].

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as products from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones and their offspring.

While the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was in charge of managing the transition of these animals into the food supply.

“It is theoretically possible” offspring from clones are in the food supply, said Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman.

Cloning animals involves taking the nuclei of cells from adults and fusing them into egg cells that are implanted into a surrogate mother. There are an estimated 600 cloned animals in the United States.

Proponents, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization, say cloning is a way to create more disease-resistant animals that produce more milk and better meat. The cloning industry and the FDA say cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as their traditional counterparts.

Critics contend not enough is known about the technology to ensure it is safe, and they also say the FDA needs to address concerns over animal cruelty and ethical issues.

“It worries me that this technology is out of control in so many ways,” said Charles Margulis, a spokesman with the Center for Environmental Health. The possibility of offspring being in the food supply “is just another element of that,” he said.

Continued…

New Study Examines Medication Error Deaths

Prescription drugs in the United States have grown 73% since 1996

More and more people are dying due to the increased usage of prescription drugs

Injury Board | Aug 12, 2008

A new study found mixing street drugs and alcohol with prescription medications has attributed to a fivefold increase in the number of deaths ascribed to medical errors since the 1980s. In 2004, 17% of deaths due to medication errors were caused by the combination of a person taking medications at home with alcohol or a street drug, sometimes both. This figure was up from 2.3% in 1983.

The rise in accidental deaths caused by medication errors has occurred as drug consumption has shifted from hospitals and clinics to homes. Patients are now being made to follow the drug’s directions and be in charge of quality control, which some patients are definitely not ready for. The study has suggested the way to remedy this growing problem is increased screening to determine if a patient is abusing alcohol, prescription drugs, or street drugs. It also suggests increased vigilance in prescribing medications that are known to have dangerous reactions to street drugs and alcohol.

The study found medication errors that did not involve alcohol or drugs, for example accidental overdoses, were the most deadly, killing 8,634 people in their homes in 2004. Consumers aged 40-59 account for 53% of individuals who died due to medicinal error, up from 18% in 1983. An IMS Health report has shown prescription drugs in the United States have grown 73% since 1996. This helps prove the conclusion that more and more people are dying due to the increased usage of prescription drugs and the combination of these drugs with street drugs and alcohol.

Cancer doctor warns against kids’ cellphone use

Canwest News Service | Jul 28, 2008

By Tiffany Crawford

A prominent cancer specialist in the United States is cautioning parents to limit the use of cellphones by kids to emergencies because he claims the electromagnetic energy the mobile emits likely penetrates the brain of a child more deeply than that of an adult.

That claim follows on the heels of a similar warning recently issued by Canadian experts that suggests children under 10 use land lines as much as possible and limit their chatting on mobiles to short and infrequent calls.

Dr. Ronald B. Herberman of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, along with a team of international experts, has posted a report on the university’s website urging people to take precautions in the use of cellphones.

“The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields,” said Herberman in one of the report’s recommendations.

“Do not allow children to use a cellphone except for emergencies.”

Health Canada says there is no scientific evidence yet to show a link between cellphone use and the development of cancer.

“So far, there is currently no convincing evidence, from animal or human studies, that the energy from cellphones is enough to cause serious health effects, such as cancer, epileptic seizures or sleep disorders,” says the federal agency on its website.

According to Herberman, the problem is that living tissue is vulnerable to electromagnetic fields within the frequency bands used by cellphones. He argues kids have a higher absorption rate because their brains are still developing.

Herberman believes because studies do not yet “clearly show they are dangerous,” people should consider them a potential health risk. He does not advocate eradicating cellphones but rather reducing exposure. Some of his recommendations include using headsets, not keeping your phone near your body and using text messaging whenever possible.

The experts also advise avoiding using a cellphone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, because it increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.

In June, Toronto Public Health published a report from the medical health officer recommending parents limit children’s access to cellphones.

“The research that is available suggests that children are likely more vulnerable than adults,” concludes the report.

Toronto Health is also recommending that children use land lines and hands-free devices wherever possible.

EU food safety experts say NO to cloned meat

Calls for clone farming to be banned were stepped up yesterday after an official study highlighted animal suffering and food safety risks.

This is London | Jul 24, 2008

The European Food Safety Authority found that animals involved in cloning suffer pain and ill-health linked to miscarriages, organ defects and gigantism. It also flagged up the possibility that clones and their offspring could pass animal diseases to humans through meat and milk.

The inquiry was launched in January 2007 after the Daily Mail highlighted the fact that Dundee Paradise – the offspring of a clone – had been born on a British farm.

Last month, the Mail reported that a total of eight ‘clone farm’ calves have now been born on British farms.

Frozen embryos taken from the clones of prize-winning Holstein cows in the U.S. were flown to the UK and implanted into farm animals.

Advocates claim it will allow prize-winning animals to be copied to create a new generation of animals, able to produce vast quantities of milk or lean meat.

But the report by the EFSA, set up in 2002 to improve EU food safety, said: ‘The health and welfare of a significant proportion of clones have been found to be adversely affected, often severely and with a fatal outcome.’

Professor Vittorio Silano, of the EFSA, said: ‘It is clear there are significant animal health and welfare issues for surrogate mothers and clones that can be more frequent and severe than for conventionally-bred animals.’

The cloning process involves taking the nucleus of cells from the ear of an animal and implanting them in an egg from a female. The fertilisation process is kick-started with an electric charge.

There are large number of miscarriages of embryos. Organ defects lead to death in pregnancy or soon after birth.

EFSA said clones are also more likely to show ‘gigantism’. They are so large the only way they can be born is through caesarean section.

The study highlighted the need to find out why clones and their offspring are more vulnerable to some diseases and if these could be a food safety threat.

The report said: ‘It should be investigated whether consumption of meat and milk derived from clones or their offspring may lead to increased exposure to transmissable agents.’

The developments in clone farming have outpaced moves by the British Government and EU to put in place a policing mechanism.

There is no system to monitor the existence and welfare of clones and their offspring. Nor is there any system to ensure that meat and milk from these animals is labelled to inform shoppers.

The final decision on whether to allow clone farming and food rests with the European Commission.

Peter Stevenson of Compassion in World Farming, said: ‘Britain and the EU should ban cloning, not just farming but also food from cloned animals and their offspring because of the very serious health and welfare issues.’

RSPCA senior scientist, Dr Nikki Osborne, said: ‘The RSPCA believes cloning of animals for food production should be banned on animal welfare and ethical grounds.’

Sue Davies, Chief Policy Adviser at consumer group Which?, said: ‘This EFSA opinion highlights why it is far too premature to think about using cloned animals for food production.’

Director of Eurogroup for Animals, Sonja Van Tichelen, said: ‘The EU is now obligated to follow its own rules. Under the general farm directive a breeding technique that causes suffering should not be allowed.’

Last night Defra said it would expect food companies or farmers to seek advice from the Government before attempting to put meat and milk from clones or their offspring on the market.