Posted: August 19, 2013
(http://www.livescience.com)Last May, researchers petitioned the EPA to change the source of fluoride used in U.S. drinking water. The EPA declined that petition this week, saying that the costs of switching fluoride sources would be prohibitive.
Currently, the source of fluoride in most public water supplies is fluorosilicic acid, a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing. William Hirzy, a chemistry researcher at the American University in Washington, D.C., who previously worked for the EPA for 27 years, says that records have shown fluorosilicic acid to often be contaminated with arsenic and recommends switching to pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride.
Hirzy, who submitted the petition, released a study suggesting that arsenic from fluorosilicic acid could be linked to cancer cases in the U.S. The study erroneously reported that there are about 320 cancer cases caused by ingestion of fluorosilicic acid per year. Hirzy later acknowledged his mistake and stated that the actual figures are closer to three to four cancer cases per year. The EPA published a response in the Federal Register upholding Hirzy's claims that pharmaceutical-grade sodium fluoride contains about 100 times less arsenic than fluorosilicic acid and is therefore 100 times less likely to lead to cancer. However, the EPA defends using the current source of fluoride, as changing to sodium fluoride would not be cost-effective.
Posted: August 19, 2013
(http://ens-newswire.com)The EPA has developed new warning labels for certain pesticides that contain neonicotinoids. The warning labels come in response to a report released by the European Food Safety Authority, which identified "high acute risks" for bees including exposure to dust in several crops and residues in pollen and nectar. Following the report, the European Commission proposed restrictions and regulations on the use of neonicotinoids.
From the EPA's website: "Based on currently available data, the EPA's scientific conclusions are similar to those expressed in the EFSA report with regard to the potential for acute effects and uncertainty about chronic risk. However, the EFSA report does not address risk management, which, under U.S. federal law, is a key component of the EPA's pesticide regulatory scheme."
Despite being in agreement with the EFSA's scientific report, the EPA decided not to ban or severely restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until they are re-evaluated. Instead, the EPA came out with new warning labels. The warning labels prohibit the use of some pesticides where bees are present and have a bee advisory box with information on routes of exposure and spray drift precautions. The EPA's announcement affects pesticides containing the neocitinoids: imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
Although this is a big step in protecting our bees, environmental groups claim that it isn't enough. A report by Friends of the Earth and the Pesticide Research Institute shows that many "bee friendly" garden plants sold at Home Depot, Lowe's and other garden centers have actually been treated with neonicotinoids, which have been shown to harm and kill bees.
Because of this, Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups sent letters and petitions signed by more than 175,000 people to Lowe's, Home Depot, and other retailers, asking that they stop selling neonicotinoids and plants pre-treated with the pesticides.
"We must take immediate action to address this crisis. Europe has banned bee-harming pesticides, retailers in the UK are refusing to sell them, and stores like Home Depot and Lowe's have a moral obligation to make the same commitment here in the U.S.," said Lisa Archer, director of the Food and Technology Program at Friends of the Earth. "In the meantime, gardeners should start their plants from untreated seeds or choose organic plants for their gardens."
After 50,000 bees died in a Target parking lot in Oregon, the Oregon Department of Agriculture prohibited the cosmetic use of pesticides containing dinotefuran. Furthermore, House Democrats Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and John Conyers of Michigan introduced the Save American's Pollinators Act, which, if passed, would suspend the use of neonicotinoids on bee-attractive plants until EPA reviews all of the available data, including field studies.
Posted: August 19, 2013
(http://www.haaretz.com)The Izun Hozer Association for Dissemination of Health Education has petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice in an effort to halt the ongoing vaccination campaign there.
The vaccination campaign began after the Israeli government detected wild polio virus in the sewage in the south of the country last February. Since the campaign started in the south of the country two weeks ago, 60,000 children have already been vaccinated. Then, after finding the polio virus in other locations in the country, the Ministry of Health decided to bring the vaccination campaign nationwide. So, on Sunday, an additional 30,000 children were taken to clinics by their parents to be inoculated. No cases of active polio have yet been identified in Israel. The government plans to vaccinate about 1,000,000 children over the course of the campaign in the next three months.
Izun Hozer, which seeks to promote medical knowledge and responsible science, are asking for a freeze on the campaign until certain questions about the vaccine's safety can be answered.
Dikla Baranes, a lawyer representing the group, said the vaccine use was "not tested in any Western country," only on a small group in India, and the results were "very significant" and raised serious question marks.
At yesterday's court hearing, Izun Hozer also accused the ministry of misleading the public by making parents think the vaccine is to protect their children. In fact, as the media have previously reported, children are already protected by the dead-virus vaccine; the point of the current campaign is actually to protect the adults around them, since the live-virus vaccine spreads easily from person to person and will thus end up inoculating adults who come into contact with these children through a process known as herd immunity.
"The children who receive the vaccine are supposed to be a 'defensive shield' for the unvaccinated population," the petition charged. "Instead of vaccinating those people, the [state] prefers to protect them by means of others - children - without their knowledge or that of their parents."
The Health Ministry responded to the petition, saying: "The State of Israel is a democratic country and every citizen has the right to petition the top court on any issue. Physicians and the Health Ministry took a decision to eradicate polio in Israel and to safeguard the health of the public. That decision and the reasons for it will be presented to the court and we are convinced the justices will agree on the necessity of inoculating Israeli children."
Posted: August 16, 2013
(http://thecompletepatient.com)After four hours of of deliberation Thursday, a six-person jury convicted Alvin Schlangen of five criminal misdemeanors.
Schlangen, the raw milk farmer who was found not guilty last year of three misdemeanor counts of selling unpasteurized milk, operating without a food license and handling adulterated or misbranded food, was found guilty on the following counts:
1. Operating without a food handler's license
2. Storing eggs at temperatures above the mandated 45 degrees
3. Distributing adulterated or misbranded food
4. Violating a food embargo
5. Selling custom processed meat
Schlangen received a $300 fine and a stayed sentence of 90 days in jail.
According to Nathan Hansen, Schlangen's lawyer, he is expected "to comply with all Minnesota food laws, including raw milk laws." Referring to the dirty tactics used by the prosecution, he noted, "It was interesting that raw milk wasn't mentioned in any of the charges, and at the end of the day, it was about raw milk."
The prosecutors may have presented misleading evidence to the jury, including the seemingly random illness of a food club member and using owners or managers of food producers as witnesses to convince the jury that Schlangen was running a commercial operation involving meat, eggs, and other foods.
This is a huge victory for the bureaucratic government which seeks to control all facets of our daily lives and a tremendous loss for advocates of independence and food freedom. While not everyone appreciates the value of raw milk, this case gives evidence of the incessantly growing regulatory bodies that, if left unopposed, will continue to undermine Americans' individual liberties.
Posted: August 16, 2013
(http://www.theguardian.com)Ecuador has recently caved in to the oil industry, abandoning plans to preserve its pristine Amazonian environment.
Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian President, announced that the country would be abandoning its unique Yasuni-ITT Initiative, which sought donations of $3.6 billion, about half the value of its oil reserves, to help conservation efforts in the Yasuni National Park. The Yasuni National Park is one of the most biodiversity rich areas in the world; it also contains approximately 846 million barrels of crude oil. After raising $13 million in donations from the international community, less than 1% of its goal, the initiative was canceled.
The initiative was introduced to help the poor country resist the temptation of taking money from the oil industry.
"The world has failed us," Correa said in a televised address on Thursday night. "I have signed the executive decree for the liquidation of the Yasuni-ITT trust fund and with this, ended the initiative."
"It was not charity that we sought from the international community, but co-responsibility in the face of climate change," Correa said in announcing the termination.
Correa said that his approval of the drilling would only affect 1% of the park, but environmentalists are still concerned for this ecologically sensitive area that contains more species in one hectare than all the wildlife in North America.
Posted: August 16, 2013
(http://www.cbsnews.com)A new study performed by researchers at Columbia University, Harvard and the University of Vermont has linked soda consumption to to aggressive behavior in children. The study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics on August 16.
For the study, researchers analyzed about 3,000 5-year-olds from 20 large U.S. cities. The children had all been enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs. Mothers reported their child's soft drink consumption and completed a Child Behavior Checklist based on their child's behavior during the previous two months. The researchers found that 43% of the children consumed at least 1 serving of soft drinks per day, and 4% consumed 4 or more.
After analyzing the data on the children, the researchers found that aggression, withdrawal and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was associated with increased aggressive behavior. The study found that children who drank 4 or more sodas a day were over twice as likely to destroy others' property, get into fights, and physically attack people. They also exhibited withdrawal behavior and problems paying attention.
Soda consumption has already been shown to be related to many adverse health effects, such as diabetes, depression, obesity, poor dental health, impulsivity and sleeping problems. Previous studies have also linked sugar consumption to an increased risk for violence in life.
"Soft drinks are highly processed products containing carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sodium benzoate, phosphoric or citric acid, and often caffeine, any of which might affect behavior," the authors of the study wrote.
"Furthermore, if they're drinking this much soda, it's probably taking away from other nutritional things the child could be eating," Shakira Suglia, ScD, one of the study's lead authors said to Reuters.
Reducing the amount of soda one drinks or, better yet, eliminating it from one's diet entirely is the best way to avoid these behavioral problems and make sure that you and your children stay in top health.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.takepart.com)Coca-Cola has begun an advertising campaign to try to convince consumers that aspartame is safe for consumption. The advertisements were printed in Wednesday's copies of of USA Today distributed in the Atlanta area.
"Time and again, these low- and no-calorie sweeteners have shown to be safe, high-quality alternatives to sugar," reads the ad copy. "In fact, the safety of aspartame is supported by more than 200 studies over the last 40 years."
The ad makes no mention of the studies linking aspartame to cancer and other adverse health effects.
In 2012, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition linked aspartame to cancer. Although the study was at first claimed to be definitive, scientists reviewing the study claimed that the data was too weak to be definitive. Despite this, a weak link exists and the safety of aspartame can not be affirmed.
While Coca-Cola has plenty of profit at risk (their Diet Coke sales were down 3% last year) and are supported by the FDA (which doesn't have the best safety track record), its consumers have much more at risk, their health and livelihood. Some organizations, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, suggest that the best course of action would be a full ban on the chemical.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.cornucopia.org)According to the country's Agricultural Minister, France wants to double the area of farmland devoted to organic agriculture by 2017 to meet growing consumer demand through local production.
France is the European Union's biggest agricultural producer and has lately seen rapid growth of organic framing, which, at the end of 2012, accounted for 3.7 percent of its farmland.
Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said that they want to increase the amount of research and training in growing techniques and the amount of organic food available in outlets.
"We're going to develop in such a way that we'll increase volume while maintaining the level of quality," he said. "I want the French (organic) sector to be a high-quality one."
The French government plans to raise annual subsidies for organic farmers from 90 million euros to an average of 160 million euros between 2014 and 2020.
Officials said that attracting organic farmers remains a challenge due to the high yields and profitable market prices seen with conventional grain.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.theguardian.com)A study performed at the University of Granada in Spain shows evidence that women who breastfeed for over six months and don't smoke can delay the onset of breast cancer by 10 years. The study was published online on August 13, 2013, in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
The study involved 504 females between the ages of 19 and 91 who were diagnosed with breast cancer at the San Cecilio University Hospital in Granada. As stated in the abstract, the purpose of the study was "[t]o evaluate at what age parous and nonparous women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Factors taken into account for parous women were whether they had breastfed their children, and if so, the length of the lactation period. Other factors considered for both groups were obesity, family histories of cancer, smoking habits and alcohol consumption."
The researchers analyzed the medical records of their subjects, noting various factors such as when each woman was diagnosed with breast cancer, if and how long they breastfed, and their smoking habits. The researchers then compiled this information into a "conditional inference tree" to see how the various factors relate to one another.
The average breast cancer diagnosis age for women who breastfed for at least six months and didn't smoke was 68.4 years old. Women who neither smoked nor breastfed were diagnosed at an average of 58 years.The authors say that a woman's risk of breast cancer is reduced by 4.3% for each year she breastfeeds. "Based on these findings, the incidence of this disease could be reduced from 6.3% to 2.7% if women breastfed their children for more than six months," the authors say.
As per the abstract, the "study concluded that breastfeeding for over six months not only provides children with numerous health benefits, but also protects mothers from breast cancer when the mothers are nonsmokers."
Breastfeeding and pregnancy are thought to protect against breast cancer by reducing oestregen levels. This claim is supported by the new study.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.theorganicprepper.ca)Natural Food Certifiers (NFC), an organization that certifies vegan, kosher and organic foods, announced April 25, 2013, that any food product that contains GMOs is no longer eligible to be certified as kosher under their "Apple K" kosher certification program. A press release stated:
"NFC was very proud to introduce the first "Natural Only" kosher supervision," said NFC Director Rabbi Reuven Flamer. "It's a logical application of our principle, 'Start Naturally. Stay that Way.' Therefore, the Natural Apple K cannot be placed on a product that contains GMOs," Flamer explained.
"While according to the strict letter of Kosher food law a GMO food ingredient is not prohibited, in our view it is not natural. Additionally, there is a Torah (religious)-based law to 'guard your health'. GMOs are the number-one growing concern among health-conscious consumers and for businesses in the natural and organic food market, as well as in the conventional food industry," said Rabbi Flamer.
"Recent studies show that GMOs may cause various kinds of health problems from digestive disturbances to food allergies, and that GMOs require more herbicides, which is really the opposite reason why GMOs were touted to be so environmentally helpful in the first place," Rabbi Flamer added. "For all of the many reasons that GMOs raise a red flag, consumers simply don't want them in their foods, and our clients want to accommodate their customers."
NFC is currently phasing out GMO containing products from its kosher certification program, which should be complete in April 2014.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.rebellesociety.com)The world's oldest living yoga instructor, Master Tao Porchon-Lynch, turned 95 on Tuesday, August 13.
Tao founded the Westchester Institute of Yoga in 1982. She has over 70 years of experience practicing yoga and more than 45 years of teaching yoga to students in India, France and the U.S. In 1995, Tao attended the Yoga for Peace International Peace Conference in Israel with Indra Devi to try to help bring peace to the Middle East through yogic principles.
Tao has taken her yoga students to India on more than 25 occasions, because she believes that such visits offer enlightenment about the true spirit of yoga. She continues to practice yoga using classical and challenging pose and teaches at workshops and yoga centers including the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Integral Yoga Institute in Manhattan and the Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, Buckingham, Va.
Tao has received extensive media attention lately, being featured on NBC's "Today" show, the documentary, "I Know A Woman Like That," various publications, the Martha Stewart Show, and a CNN interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Recently, Tao was a workshop presenter with Dr. Terri Kennedy at the Newark Peace Conference and sat on the Panel for Peace with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Tao's life before teaching yoga includes a career as an actress in England, France and the U.S. in the 1940s and '50s and a screenplay writer and documentary movie maker in the '60s and '70s. She is also passionate about ballroom dancing and is an award winning world-class dancer.
Tao has used the power of yoga to overcome aging. She is an example of how living healthy and naturally and taking care of both your body and spirit can extend one's longevity and lead to a happy life.
Posted: August 15, 2013
(http://www.bloomberg.com)Researchers from the University of Milan in Italy published a study Wednesday which details a new technique to measure consciousness in the human brain.
The technique that the researchers developed involves stimulating the brain with strong magnetic pulses and then measuring how the brain responds. The equipment that they used to do this is called a trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, device.
The study was published August 14, 2013, in Science Translational Medicine.
This method was tested on 52 subjects who were either healthy or ex-coma patients who had sustained brain injuries. Testing was performed while the subjects were awake, asleep and anesthetized.
One of the study authors, Marcello Massimini, says that this technique could be useful in monitoring patients in intensive-care units who have low levels of consciousness. There currently is no objective way to measure consciousness, and much of the subject, especially when involving brain-injured patients, remains a mystery. That could soon change with this new technique, which, according to Bloomberg.com, has already "found that such patients actually had much higher levels of consciousness than subjects who were sleeping or were anesthetized."
Nicholas Schiff, Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, says that because of the current limits of measuring consciousness, misdiagnosis rates are high. In a comment accompanying the paper, he states, "Measures that can reliably distinguish vegetative states from minimally conscious states are crucial and will have an impact on clinical practice."
Posted: August 14, 2013
(http://www.santiagotimes.cl)On Sunday, Chilean police in Los Andes received a call from locals who noticed a group of Andean Condors flying irregularly and crashing. That call led officials and volunteers to rescue 17 birds that had crashed and were foaming at the mouth and unable to take flight. Two dead condors and another sick one were discovered Monday.
The Andean Condor is the national bird of Chile. Their wingspan can get up to 10.5 feet and they are considered the longest lived bird of any species, with one condor having survived 72 years in captivity.
Six of the rescued birds were taken for treatment to Santiago's Metropolitan Zoo, where they are doing fine and will soon be released from the zoo's veterinary clinic. The other surviving 12 birds are receiving treatment at a veterinary clinic in Los Andes.
Other dead, partially eaten animals were found in the area. Mauricio Fabry, director of the Parque Metropolitano in Santiago, says that some people poison animal carcasses to target predators. Pablo Vergara, regional director of the Chilean Agriculture and Livestock Service, says that it's possible the condors were poisoned intentionally and has contacted the police about this possibility.
Another theory is that the birds got sick after being exposed to pesticides in the environment. "The hypothesis is that they suffered organophosphate poisoning after they were exposed to insecticides used for agriculture," said veterinarian Eric Savard, who has been treating them.
Posted: August 14, 2013
(http://www.nydailynews.com)Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has added young Anthony Stokes to their heart transplant list, despite previously saying that he was not a transplant candidate because of his "history of noncompliance."
Stokes, a teenager with an enlarged heart, was hospitalized four weeks ago before being told that he would be excluded from the transplant list.
The letter that doctors sent to Stokes and his family did not provide details about why he would be excluded, stating only that he had a history of noncompliance.
Dr. David Dean from Piedmont Healthcare said that "history of noncompliance" generally means that a patient has a history of drug or alcohol use or is unlikely to follow doctor's orders, leading to an unsuccessful transplant.
Melencia Hamilton, Stokes's mother, says that that description does not apply to her son. Although he has had trouble with the law, school, and getting into fights, his mother defends him, saying that this behavior is typical of many 15-year-olds and does not warrant a death sentence. "He's a young boy," she said on NBC's Today Show. "He's going to make mistakes, but I still think he deserves a second chance."
In a statement to local TV station, WXIA, the hospital said, "As we stated previously, a heart transplant evaluation is an ongoing process based on the patient and his or her family's ability to meet specific transplant criteria."
The hospital says that they are continuing to work with Stokes and his family to establish a care plan and decide on the next course of action.
Posted: August 14, 2013
(http://natmonitor.com)A study from the University of Utah has shown that sugar consumption equal to three cans of soda per day can cause drastic and even deadly health problems.
"Our results provide evidence that added sugar consumed at concentrations currently considered safe exerts dramatic adverse impacts on mammalian health," the researchers said in their study, "Human-relevant levels of added sugar consumption increase female mortality and lower male fitness in mice," which was published August 13 in Nature Communications.
The researchers confined groups of mice to room-sized pens with multiple nesting areas in order to observe behavioral changes in a more natural environment. One group of mice was fed a diet of 25 percent extra sugar, which is the equivalent of a human diet plus three cans of soda per day, the control group was fed a regular diet.
The researchers observed that, when fed the extra-sugar diet, the mortality rate for females doubled and males controlled 26% fewer territories and produced 25 percent less offspring.
"This demonstrates the adverse effects of added sugars at human-relevant levels," stated senior author and biology professor Wayne Potts.
Posted: August 13, 2013
(http://www.bloomberg.com)After years of touting naturally raised meat, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is changing its standards to allow beef treated with antibiotics into its restaurants amid a supply shortage.
The restaurant chain will use meat from cattle treated with antibiotics because of an illness, which it previously didn't allow. Chris Arnold, a spokesman for Chipotle, said the company still won't use beef from animals that had been given antibiotics to prevent disease and promote weight gain.
This change comes as U.S. beef production is expected to hit a 21-year low next year, threatening to raise the price of beef.
"The change was really rooted in the belief that it's not the use of antibiotics for the treatment of illness that is the problem," Arnold said later in an interview. "The problem is the copious amount of antibiotics that are used to promote growth."
Almost 100 percent of beef sold at Chipotle's restaurants last year came from naturally raised cattle, compared to about 80 percent to 85 percent this year. "Every year we need 20 to 25 percent more of everything than we did the year before, and the beef supply isn't keeping up as well," Arnold said. Despite this, he claims that the change wasn't motivated by the company's need to increase its steak supply.
Chipotle is also trying to find new cattle suppliers and is even considering using different cuts of meat in an effort to meet the demand for natural beef.
Some Chipotle diners may be worried about the company's decision to sell beef treated with antibiotics, said Bryan Elliott, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc. "There would seem to be a risk that a portion of their customer base would be concerned about this," he said. "And a portion of that portion could be very upset."
Posted: August 13, 2013
(http://wvrecord.com)Stuart Calwell, an attorney from Charleston, has filed 77 lawsuits against Monsanto and related companies over its old chemical plant in Nitro, West Virginia.
Each suit seeks $5 million in compensatory damages and the plaintiffs seek an additional $300 million in punitive damages for a total of $685 million in total damages.
The complaints, filed Oct. 1 in Putnam Circuit Court, list Monsanto Company, Pharmacia Corporation, Akzo Nobel Inc, Flexsys America, Solutia Inc., Apogee Coal Company and related companies as defendants.
The complaints state that "plaintiffs allege the same series of occurrences involving the negligent and otherwise unlawful release of dioxin from properties owned and/or controlled by the defendants caused or significantly contributed to their cancers."
The dioxin in question, 2,4,5 trichlorophenoxyacetic acid or 2,4,5-T, was used by the military as an ingredient in Agent Orange. The complaints claim that dioxin was continuously produced at the plant "7 days a week 365 days a year from 1949 to approximately 1971."
"During the years that Monsanto was operating its trichlorophenol plant, it adopted an unlawful practice of disposing of dioxin waste materials by a continuous process of open 'pit' burning," the complaints state. "This practice was largely denied by Monsanto whose representatives characterized the practice as an 'incineration process' when asked by regulatory authorities.
"Further, the manufacturing process itself was dusty and Monsanto's dust control was haphazard."
The complaints say that because of Monsanto's harmful practices, the air in Nitro was contaminated with more than 3,000 pounds of a dioxin. Sampling showed levels of 2,200 parts per trillion, 550 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard of less than 4 parts per trillion.
The suits also cite a 1949 incident in which a safety disc failed at the plant, exposing workers to a chemical cloud that caused 226 people to become ill.
The complaints claim that the defendants acted carelessly, negligently, recklessly and/or deliberately when they knew or should have known the Nitro plant site was contaminated and dangerous.
Calwell also seeks to have the cases certified as a class-action lawsuit. "The proposed class is made up of persons with one or more dioxin related cancers and who live or lived in the class defined area ... for at least two years during the period 1949 to the present and/or have attended school in the class defined area for at least two years and/or who have been employed in a building in the class defined area for two years or more," the complaints state, adding that there are 12,503 residences in the area.
Posted: August 13, 2013
(http://www.cbsnews.com)Taylor Farms de Mexico, a company that produces bagged salad mixes, halted production and shipments to the United States after an FDA investigation traced cyclospora outbreaks back to the company.
The company told the FDA on Monday that it has suspended all operations and won't resume operations without the FDA's approval.
The FDA investigation came after illness clusters were reported at four restaurants in Nebraska and Iowa. The establishments in question were Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants. Both chains are owned by Darden Restaurants.
Although the salad mix has only been implicated in the Iowa and Nebraska outbreaks, the company's Mexico branch will halt production on everything.
"This decision allows Taylor Farms de Mexico to focus more resources on assisting the FDA in their investigation of the June cyclospora outbreak in Iowa and Nebraska," the company said on its website. "We continue to be very confident in our Mexico operation throughout our own review of our existing, and recently further enhanced, food safety procedures, systems and critical control points."
535 cases of cyclospora infection have been reported in 18 states by August 9. 32 people have been hospitalized.
Cyclospora infection is called cyclosporiasis and causes its victims to experience diarrhea for as long as two months in addition to other symptoms including nausea, abdominal pain, cramping, flu-like aches and pains and fever.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that his agency isn't sure if all the cyclospora parasites reported in each state are the same. During the last big outbreak in 1997, more than 1,000 people got sick from at least four different sources.
The CDC has requested $40 million from Congress to update its hardware and software so they can better analyze the genome sequencing of microbes like cyclospora in real-time.
Posted: August 13, 2013
(http://www.medicaldaily.com)Anthony Stokes, a 15-year-old boy from Atlanta, has only six months left to live because he has an enlarged heart. While his life could be saved with a heart transplant, doctors from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston are refusing to put his name on the transplant list, claiming that the unfortunate youth has a "history of noncompliance."
After telling Stokes that he had less than a year to live, specialists sent his family a letter which read: "The decision was made that Anthony is currently not a transplant candidate due to having a history of noncompliance, which is one of our center's contraindications to listing for heart transplant."
Melencia Hamilton, Stokes's mother, told local news channel, WSBTV, that the hospital where he had been cared for since July 14 is denying her son life because of his poor academic performance and run-ins with the law. "They said they don't have any evidence that he would take his medicine or that he would go to his follow-ups," she said.
"He's been given a death sentence because of a broad and vague excuse of noncompliance," said Christine Young Brown of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "There was nothing specific in that decision. Just noncompliance."
"The well-being of our patients is always our first priority. We are continuing to work with this family and looking at all options regarding this patient's health care. We follow very specific criteria in determining eligibility for a transplant of any kind," read a statement from Patty Gregory, spokeswoman for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
Posted: August 13, 2013
(http://www.nydailynews.com)In July 2012, David Kwiatkowski was arrested for stealing pain-killer drugs and infecting patients with the hepatitis C virus. Kwiatkowski originally faced nearly 100 years in prison for his heinous acts, but he could now receive as little as 30 years behind bars.
The sentence reduction came as a result of a plea agreement. Kwiatkowski agreed to plead guilty to 14 federal drug theft and tampering charges in exchange for a lighter sentence of 30 to 40 years in prison. If he had been convicted at trial, he could have been sentenced to up to 98 years behind bars.
Kwiatkowski was a traveling hospital technician who has worked in 18 hospitals in seven different states. He would steal syringes of the painkiller, fentanyl, inject himself with it, and then replace the syringes with another liquid to be used by patients, transferring the blood-borne virus, hepatitis C, to others. He said that he began stealing drugs in 2002 and was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2010. Based on his estimations, Kwiatkowski swapped out syringes at least 50 times in New Hampshire, at least 30 times in Georgia and more than 20 times in Kansas.
In 2004, he was fired from one hospital for failing a drug test and then fired from another for gross misconduct. After resigning from two others while under investigation for drug use, Kwiatkowski began work as a traveling technician.
32 New Hampshire patients have been diagnosed with the strain of hepatitis C carried by Kwiatkowski. There have also been seven cases in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. One of the patients from Kansas passed away with the hepatitis C infection having played a "contributing role," according to the plea agreement.
Linda Ficken, one of Kwiatkowski's victims from Kansas, said that she's glad he pleaded guilty but wishes he was given a longer sentence. "It should've been life, since he gave us potentially a death sentence," she said.
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