Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

Faux Green: 5 Tips to Avoid Make-Believe Eco Products

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

The following story appeared on Alternet.org today and provides 5 useful tips to help avoid make-believe-eco (“Faux Green”) products. Green is a strong market trend and manufacturers want you to believe that when you buy their products, green is what you get. Sometimes it’s true and sometimes (most of the time, in my experience), they get the green – yours – for nothing more than marketing.

Laws are lax so your attention to details like “All Natural” (meaningless label) vs. “Certified Organic” (significant label) is all that stands between you and paying more for the same old toxic stuff!

Here’s Nicole Hughes’ useful article providing 5 tips on consuming green:

Don’t Get Fooled By Eco-Imposters
Nicole Hughes,
Source: Take Part
April 15, 2008.

The change in the season inspires many of us to participate in the ritual of spring cleaning in some form or another – whether it’s your semi-annual bathroom scour or you’re gearing up to dust the wiring behind the stove. At the same time, most of us are also becoming less enthused with the idea of filling up our homes and the environment with a cocktail of hazardous chemicals found in traditional cleaning sprays and wipes.

Non-toxic is the safer, greener and cleaner way to go. Many companies, however, try to market their wares as “all natural” in an attempt to cash in on the green revolution – when in fact, their products are anything but. So what’s the best way to filter out the eco-imposters and zero in on the eco-friendly goods when confronted with so many choices? Here are five tips to help you weed through the labels and get past the false advertising. Happy Cleaning!

1) Look for the USDA seal of organic approval if a product claims to be organic. In order for products to be certified organic through the USDA’s National Organic Program, 1) they can’t contain any petrochemicals and 2) 95% of the ingredients must be organic.

2) Stay away from products with ingredients that end in the suffix “eth” – like laureth or myreth sulfate. Also, avoid labels that mention PEG, another harmful chemical compound.

3) Be wary of vague labeling, including phrases like “made from organic products” or “environmentally friendly” or “all-natural.” Without independent research to back them up, these claims might actually mean “made from 1% organic products” or “1% all natural” if they aren’t certified by the US Department of Agriculture.

4) Don’t be fooled by hydrosols and a laundry list of organic herbal water extracts and fragrances. They might look good on an ingredients list, but essentially it’s plain ol’ water trying to ‘green up’ the image of synthetic products.

5) Choose plastic bottles made with the recycling code 1, 2 or 5. Recycling codes 3 and 7 are likely to contain bisphenol A or phthalates, which are thought to disrupt natural hormonal function.

Thanks to Alternet.org
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/82444/

US Attempting to Seal Vaccination Records of Autistic Kids

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame

The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.

For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.organics4U.org

In what looks very much like a cover up, the United States Government appears to be doing its best to keep evidence of vaccine harm out of the courts. The Independent Media Center of Winnipeg, Canada, http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?12522S, published the article number 1 below

Dr. Jon Polling is a Neurologist. he is also the father of the most famous autistic child in America right now, Hannah Poling. In a historic concession, US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials conceded on November 9 that Hanna “had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was ‘aggravated’ by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis” or, more specifically, in a diagnosis of “regressive encephalopathy (brain disease) with features consistent with autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development.”

While they did not go as far as saying that vaccination caused the neurological collapse of the previously healthy child, they did admit that for a child with a mitochondrial disorder, the shots could “aggravate” a tendency toward autism. It is the first time that the US has come even this close to acknowledging the role of vaccines in any chronic neurological injury.

For the approximately 1000 cases behind this one, having the information available in those cases is critically important. For the perhaps millions of children whose parents may seek redress for the harm done to their children in civil courts, since the FDA has removed any liability in criminal court for any vaccine manufacturer if the vaccine is approved by the FDA, this move is clever but both unjust and unjustified.

In responding to another physician’s questions and comments about his daughter’s autism, Hannah’s neurologist father, Dr. Jon Poling, offers us a clear and cogent look at mitochondrial dysfunction or disease and what it might mean to autism. His openness is to be commended. The attempt to close the records on the evidence in about 1000 cases in the Special Masters Court for vaccine injury is shameful.

Natural Solutions Foundation salutes Dr. Poling, his wife and Hannah for staying the long and difficult course in bringing the US to this concession. It is a door which others will wide. Thank you, Dr. Poling, Mrs. Poling and Hannah for your bravery and perseverance. Welcome to our Hall of Fame!

And, at the same time, the Natural Solutions Foundation nominates the US Justice Department to our Hall of Shame for seeking to protect Big, Bad Pharma at the expense of the parents and children of autists. While it is likely that autism is a final common pathway for a complex and multifaceted disease, your evidence development in these cases could help untold numbers of families and children. Instead, you play tragic favorites: money over justice, and protect the makers of known toxins, injected into babies bodies over and over and over. Shame on you!
Dr. Poling’s Open Letter to Dr. Steven Novella is listed below as Article 2

While parts of it may be a bit technical, it is worth reading because it elegantly demolishes the objections being raised to the obvious conclusion that Hannah was a healthy child whose vaccination schedule produced a life-long tragedy – an avoidable tragedy – for Hannah and her family.

Thanks for being part of the health freedom revolution. This is “an every man’s fight”. Join us. Let your contacts know that they need to sign up for the Natural Solutions Foundation free Health Alert eBlasts (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187) and make a recurring donation (tqax deductible, of course) here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189). You are our only means of support. Big Pharma, Big Chema, Big Biotech, Big Agribiz and Big Medica are busy elsewhere, giving money to organizations and campaigns where they get what they want. Your dollars get you what you want: honest information, meaningful activism and growing global health freedom.

Thanks!

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.Organics4U.org

Article Number 1
Government Requests Vaccine Records Be Sealed

Posted by Todd Zwillich on Thursday, March 6th at 7:00 AM

Feb 29, 2008 1:46 PM
US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records
thanks to The Reiki Matrix

By Todd Zwillich

WASHINGTON – Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.

Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.

Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers.

The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.

Federal law requires suits against vaccine makers to go before a special federal “vaccine court” before any civil lawsuit is allowed. The court was set up by Congress to speed compensation claims and to help protect vaccine makers from having to pay large punitive awards decided by juries in state civil courts. Plaintiffs are free to take their cases to state courts if they lose in the federal vaccine court or if they don’t accept the court’s judgment.

The current 1,000 or so autism cases are unusual for the court. Because it received so many claims, much of the fact-finding and evidence-gathering is going on for all of the cases as a block.

Monday’s request by the Bush Administration would prevent plaintiffs who later go to civil court from using some relevant evidence generated during the required vaccine court proceedings.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys said that the order amounted to punishment of the families of injured children because it would require them to incur the time and expense of regenerating evidence for a civil suit.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame if at the end of the day our policy would be to compensate lawyers,” said Jeff Kim, an attorney with Gallagher Boland Meiburger & Brosnan. The firm represents about 400 families of autistic children who received the MMR vaccine.

Kim accused the government of trying to lower “a shroud of secrecy over these documents” in order to protect vaccine manufacturers, who he said were “the only entities” that would benefit if the documents are sealed.

While federal law clearly seals most documents generated in individual vaccine cases, it has never been applied to a block proceeding like the one generating evidence in the autism cases.

Administration lawyers told Special Master George Hastings that they requested the seal in order to preserve the legal right of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide when vaccine evidence can be released to the public.

Justice Department attorney Vincent Matanoski argued that to let plaintiffs use the vaccine court evidence in a later civil suit would confer an advantage on plaintiffs who chose to forgo federal compensation.

“There is no secret here. What the petitioners are arguing for are enhanced rights in a subsequent civil action,” Matanoski said of the plaintiffs. “They’re still going to have unfettered use within the proceedings.”

Hastings would not say when he would issue a ruling on whether to seal the court documents, but did say that his decision would be “very prompt.”

DR. JON POLING TO DR. STEVEN NOVELLA ON AGE OF AUTISM

By Dr. Jon Poling, father of Hannah Poling.

OPEN LETTER TO DR. STEVEN NOVELLA
IN RESPONSE TO “Has the Government Conceded Vaccines Cause Autism?”

Dr. Novella,

Thank you for generating interesting discussion regarding my little girl,
Hannah Poling. I would like to give you additional information in order to
generate further productive discussions on this matter amongst the neurology
community. This information should assist you, Dr. DiMauro, and Dr.
Trevethan, who have also commented publicly, to formulate better theories as
to the significance of Hannah’s mitochondrial dysfunction in relation to her
autism.

1. Mito Dysfunction or Mito Disease? Chicken or Egg?

To begin with, I would like to point out that the spectrum of mitochondrial
dysfunction is probably considered more broad and complex than the spectrum
of neurobehavioral abnormalities seen with autism. Dysfunction of the
mitochondria, specifically dysfunction of the oxidative phosphorylation
pathway, most likely contributes, but may not be the cause of many
diseases—including Parkinson’s disease, Friedreich’s Ataxia, Alzheimer
disease, etc. Thus, it is probably incorrect to refer to mitochondrial
dysfunctional and mitochondrial disease interchangeably. Indeed, the role of
the dysfunctional mitochondrial are yet to be clarified in these diseases.
Thus, I will refer to Hannah’s metabolic condition as a mitochondrial
dysfunction, not a mitochondrial disease.

2. Mito Genetic Finding? Mito mtDNA ‘red herring’ ?

ADDITIONAL GENETIC TESTING NOT AVAILABLE IN THE J CHILD NEUROL CASE REPORT:
Dr. Shoffner performed genetic testing on both Hannah’s muscle and her
mother’s leukocytes subsequent to our case report. Hannah (muscle mtDNA) and
her mother (leukocyte mtDNA) were both found to be HOMOPLASMIC for the mtDNA
T2387C transition mutation.
Our analysis of this genetic finding in the mtDNA was significantly
different than those of other physicians that I’ve seen in scientific blogs
or commentary. I suspect it would have been fatal to both Hannah and her
mother if this homoplasmic mutation was pathogenic since (as I am sure you
are aware) the mutation is on the 16S ribosomal subunit which is highly
conserved. Thus, this mutation probably represents a benign polymorphism
rather than pathogenic mutation. It is unlikely, but possible, that the
mutation is significant to Hannah, but in such a case, it must work in
concert with other nuclear genes to cause her mitochondrial dysfunction. To
our knowledge, this point mutation has not been reported in cases similar to
Hannah’s.

3. Encephalitis? Metabolic Encephalopathy? Or “Regressive Encephalopathy
with Features of Autism Spectrum Disorder”

The other interesting term you used was encephalitis rather than
encephalopathy. We are not sure that she had an “-itis” but we did clearly
document a regressive encephalopathy based on not only our parental
reporting, but also based on the pediatrician’s documents, affidavits from
other family members, and the growth curve measurements (injury pattern).
Early on in the regression we did note back arching (opisthotonus), fever,
and disrupted sleep. Although fever occurred a lumbar puncture was not
performed.

An interesting developing story in autism research is the
immune/inflammatory connection. In her senior resident thesis, Dr. Anne
Comi, a former JHU colleague, along with Dr. Andy Zimmerman, reported, the
increased prevalence of autoimmune disease in families of autistic
offspring. Interesting, Hannah also has a maternal family history of
autoimmune disease. Dr. Carlos Pardo, another one of my former chief
residents, along with Andy and Dr. Vargas, published a beautiful study in
the Archives of Neurology, demonstrating neuroinflammation on autopsy of
brain samples and inflammation cytokine markers in the CSF of individuals
with Autism. The interesting thing was that inflammation was demonstrated in
autopsy specimens from adults as old as 44 years of age. The conclusion was
that further research would be required to determine if inflammation was a
primary disorder in autism or; alternatively, if inflammation and microglial
activation was secondary to neurodegeneration. Dr. Sudhir Gupta at UC Irvine
has a nice model of how the two pathways of neuroinflammation and mito
dysfunction may not be mutually exclusive. This remains to be seen; however,
study of mitochondrial dysfunction and neuroinflammation hold the promise of
treatment development. The two avenues of research deserve funding at the
highest levels.

4. How many Hannah Polings are out there?

The short answer is that nobody knows. However, there is emerging data to
suggest that she is not alone.

Dr. Shoffner will be presenting his experience with 37 patients with
combined autism and mitochondrial dysfunction at the AAN meeting in Chicago
this April. 65% of his referrals are positive for mitochondrial dysfunction.
Of course, his yield is subject to referral bias as a mito expert, so the
prevalence of mitochondrial dysfunction in Autism is surely less than 65%.

The best estimate to date of the prevalence of mitochondrial dysfunction in
autistic patients comes from Oliviera et al. in a population of 120, 5 of 69
(or 7.2%) showed mitochondrial dysfunction. If this is generalized to the US
estimate of 1 million patients with ASDs, then the number of kids like
Hannah could be 72,000! Isn’t this worth further study?

Dr. Shoffner furthermore advocates, along with us, that vaccination is
important even for kids with mitochondrial dysfunction. I would argue that
you should not give nine at one time and that none of them should contain
Thimerosal (mercury).

5. Thimerosal—On or Off the Table?

I don’t want to dwell on mercury, as this theory is not why HHS conceded
Hannah’s case (imo). Dr. DiContanzo just wrote an interesting blog about how
his opinion of mercury in vaccines has changed
(http://drugs.about.com/b/2008/03/08/mercury-in-vaccines-and-autism-the-burd
en-of-proof-may-shift.htm).

My opinion is that mercury is a potent neurotoxin. Therefore, don’t inject
it into kids! Interestingly, basic research studies have shown that
Thimerosal toxicity occurs through mitochondrial pathways. Officials point
to the large epidemiology studies as proof that there is no link between
thimerosal and autism. However, these studies are not powered to disprove
the null hypothesis when considering that the mitochondrial autistic
population may be just a small percent of the case totals. Remember that
while the CDC sponsored Verstraten study is hyped as a negative study, it
DID find a statistically significant increase in childhood tics in those
exposed to higher doses of thimerosal.

6. Hannah was destined to regress? Or was she?

Some experts have already stated that ‘mitochondrial disease’ is
degenerative so the vaccine reaction was just the start of an inevitable
decline. This was neither the opinion of Dr. Richard Kelley at KKI nor Dr.
John Shoffner. In fact, the markers that led us down the mitochondrial trail
(inc AST but not ALT, low serum bicarbonate, and slight increased CK,
increase in the alanine to lysine ratio on PAA) are no longer present.
Furthermore, in our pilot study (unpublished but mentioned in the J child
neurol paper), Dr. Frye (the statistician for our study and also a child
neurologist) found a non-significant trend that AST decreased toward normal
with increasing age. With further studies we hoped to examine the hypothesis
that this abnormality may be representative of a developing/immature
biochemical pathway present in some children.

7. Triple Hit Hypothesis—#1Underlying genetic susceptibility #2Insult must
occur during specific developmental period #3 A certain vaccination or
combination thereof is the environmental trigger (?vaccine component like
thimerosal ?direct immune stim/fever reaction ?live virus reaction?)

The implication is that Hannah’s type of autism requires a genetic
susceptibility and properly timed insult to manifest disease. We have not
subjected Hannah to another muscle biopsy or re-examined ox phos functional
assays that were published in the paper. I can inform your readers though
that the serum biochemical markers have resolved, growth resumed and
continues along a normal trajectory, and there have been no other episodes
of regression since 2000. We are however left with autism and later in 2006,
epilepsy.
It is recommended that studies be initiated immediately to screen siblings
of cases to identify biochemical markers so as to identify potential
screening tests.

I agree with the mainstream that my daughter’s case has raised many
intelligent discussions and questions. I’m very proud of her for starting
this discussion. Our hope is that further research into this case and others
like it, we will be also to find screening tests to prevent what happened to
my daughter from happening to anybody else.

(Dr. Poling acknowledges the editorial comments and insightful suggestions
of Dr. Richard E. Frye. He also would like to declare his conflicts of
interest. First of all, he is the father of Hannah Poling. Dr. Poling has
also accepted consultancy or speakers honoraria from Pfizer, Eisai,
Ortho-McNeil, Biogen, Teva, Immunex (now Amgen), and Allergan.)

PS While I thought it useful to clarify some of the neurological issues
raised by the government’s concession of my daughter’s case, please
understand that I will not be able to respond to individual comments posted.
Thank-you. Jon

GM Files: Summary of GM Risks

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Unintended GMO Health Risks

The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.

For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.

Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Do you know where to get organic foods and products? http://www/Organics4U.org

————————————-

Codex Alimentarius (the World Food Code) permits GM foods in the international food supply. The United States treats GM and non-GM foods as equivalent and holds that safety and consumer information issues are not relevant matters for Codex to consider since, in the opinion of the US, that body’s mandate is about the international trade of food, not the international trade of safe food.* Many other countries disagree and have created restrictions either forbidding any GM foods in their food supply or requiring labeling before the food can be marketed in their countries. Some countries have declared a moratorium on the importation or growth of GM goods since their dangers – or safety – remain uncharacterized, in other words, a mystery.

Codex allows the use of plants genetically modified to produce increased levels of nutrients even though it acknowledges that such nutrients might not be bio-available, might not be safe and might even be toxic. The report of the Ad Hoc Group on Biotechnology states that laboratory testing is not meaningful in determining the toxicity of these modified plants and their products and therefore reccomends human testing. That testing is being done today: on you. 75-80% of your food contains genetically modified ingredients.

However, good science demands that you know which test animals receive what test substance (or not). In this vast experiment (which you never signed an Informed Consent form for this experiment. In a related post, you will see that the concerns that GM foods might be able to produce new and unexpected diseases is not an idle speculation. In fact, the new (and terrible) entity, Morgellon’s Disease, may well be a result of the widespread dissemination of GM foods and crops.

One of the most significant sources of harmful substances is food – and Genetically Modified (GM) and pesticide laden food heads the top of the list, in my estimation. Their dangers are many, their benefits are few and Jefferey Smith, author of “Seeds of Deception” has compiled an excellent summary of their unintended health risks, presented below.

Simply put, GM foods offer profound and widespread health risks, some of which are known, many of which are not.

Please read the following article and share it widely with anyone interested in their own health or the health of their loved ones. Schools should not serve GM foods or foods with GM components. Neither should hospitals, nor restaurants, nor families. Whether the do is up to you. When you buy organic food, or grow your own clean, chemical free food, when you have healthy, organic food brought to your home through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture) program and when you refused to eat or buy food that is NOT organic, you are creating strong market pressure to make those foods more widely available – and cheaper.

Only one type of food is currently labeled in the US as being GM or not. Produce.

Produce carries a code on the small round sticker affixed to each piece. If the code begins with the number 4, the food has been produced conventionally and carries pesticide residues (which are a significant toxin more dangerous by weight in children). If the code begins with 8, the food is genetically modified and if it begins with 9 the food is organically produced.

Between 75-80% of all foods in the US contain GM ingredients. It is not on the label because the FDA forbids putting that information there. They reason, rightly, that if you know that you are eating GM foods you will not buy that product so the actually forbid manufacturers from telling you what is in their foods!

You can, and should, call the manufacture to ask whether there are GM components in the foods you buy. If there are, explain the hazards and ask to have these substances removed.

The health information below is from the book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risk of Genetically Engineered Foods, by Jeffrey M. Smith, © copyright Institute For Responsible Technology 2008.

The Natural Solutions Foundation is proud to present this information for your use and dissemination. To make sure you get the latest up to date health freedom information, click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187) to add your name to the Natural Solutions Foundation’s Health Freedom eAlerts.

Please support our efforts with your generous recurring donations. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to make your donation now.

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Unintended GMO Health Risks

Genetically modified foods: YES, you are already eating them.

NO, they are not safe to eat.

Did you know… since 1996 Americans have been eating genetically modified (GM) ingredients in most processed foods.

Did you know… GM plants, such as soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola have had foreign genes forced into their DNA. And the inserted genes come from species, such as bacteria and viruses, that have never been in the human food supply.

Did you know… genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not safe. They have been linked to thousands of toxic and allergenic reactions, thousands of sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ and system studied in lab animals.

Find out what the risks are and start protecting yourself and your family today!

Why isn’t the FDA protecting us?

In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration claimed that they had no information showing that GM foods were substantially different from conventionally grown foods and therefore were safe to eat. But internal memos made public by a lawsuit reveal that their position was staged by political appointees under orders from the White House to promote GMOs. FDA scientists, on the other hand, warned that GMOs can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long term safety studies, but were ignored.[1] The FDA does not require any safety evaluations for GMOs. Instead, biotech companies, who have been found guilty of hiding toxic effects of their chemical products, are now in charge of determining whether their GM foods are safe. (The FDA official in charge of creating this policy was Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney and later their vice president.)

Although these biotech companies participate in a voluntary consultation process with the FDA, it is a meaningless exercise. The summaries of the superficial research they submit cannot identify most of the health risks of GMOs.[2]

Genetic modification is radically different from natural breeding

In contrast to the statements of biotech advocates, FDA scientists and others affirm that genetic modification is not just an extension of the conventional breeding techniques that have been used by farmers for millennia. Genetic engineering transfers genes across natural species barriers, using imprecise laboratory techniques that bear no resemblance to natural breeding. Furthermore, the technology is based on outdated concepts of how genes and cells work.[3]

Widespread, unpredictable changes

Gene insertion is done either by shooting genes from a “gene gun” into a plate of cells or by using bacteria to invade the cell with foreign DNA. The altered cell is then cloned into a plant. These processes create massive collateral damage, causing mutations in hundreds or thousands of locations throughout the plant’s DNA.[4] Natural genes can be deleted or permanently turned on or off, and hundreds may change their levels of expression.[5]

In addition:

*
The inserted gene is often rearranged;[6]
* It may transfer from the food into our body’s cells or into the DNA of bacteria inside us;[7] and
* The GM protein produced by the gene may have unintended properties or effects.

GM foods on the market

The primary reason companies genetically engineer plants is to make them tolerant to their brand of herbicide. The four major GM plants, soy, corn, canola, and cotton, are designed to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer. These crops have much higher residues of toxic herbicides. About 68% of GM crops are herbicide tolerant.

The second GM trait is a built-in pesticide. A gene from the soil bacterium called Bt (for Bacillus thuringiensis) is inserted into corn and cotton DNA, where it secretes the insect-killing Bt-toxin in every cell. About 19% of GM crops produce their own pesticide. Another 13% produce a pesticide and are herbicide tolerant.

There is also Hawaiian papaya and a small amount of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, which are engineered to resist a plant virus.

GM staple foods like taro and rice are being introduced around the world in places where they form the core of the diet.

Growing evidence of harm from GMOs
GM soy and allergic reactions

* Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, soon after GM soy was introduced.[8]
* A human subject showed a skin prick allergic-type reaction to GM soy, but not to natural soy.[9]
* The level of one known soy allergen is as much as 7-times higher in cooked GM soy compared to non-GM soy.[10]
* GM soy also contains an unexpected allergen-type protein not found in natural soy.[11]

Bt corn and cotton linked to allergies

The biotech industry claims that Bt-toxin is harmless to humans and mammals because the natural bacteria version has been used as a spray by farmers for years. In reality, hundreds of people exposed to Bt spray had allergic-type symptoms,[12] and mice fed Bt had powerful immune responses[13] and damaged intestines.[14] Moreover, Bt in GM crops is designed to be more toxic than the natural spray and is thousands of times more concentrated.

Hundreds of laborers in India report allergic reactions from handling Bt cotton.[15] Their symptoms are identical to those exposed to Bt spray.[16]

GMOs fail allergy tests

No tests can guarantee that a GMO will not cause allergies. Although the World Health Organization recommends a protein screening protocol,[17] the GM soy, corn, and papaya in our food supply fail those tests— because they have properties of known allergens.[18]

GMOs cause immune reactions to non-GM foods

* If proteins “digest” slowly, there is more time for allergic reactions. Because GM soy reduces digestive enzymes in mice,[19] it may slow protein digestion and promote allergies to many foods.
* Mice not only reacted to Bt -toxin, they had immune responses to formerly harmless compounds.[20]
* Similarly, a mouse test indicated that people eating GM peas could develop allergies both to the peas and to a range of other foods. The peas had already passed all the allergy tests normally used to get GMOs on the market. It took this advanced mouse test, which was never used on the GMOs we eat, to discover that the peas could be deadly.[21]

GMOs and liver problems

* Rats fed GM potatoes had smaller, partially atrophied livers.[22]
* The livers of rats fed GM canola were 12-16% heavier.[23]
* GM soy altered mouse liver cells in ways that suggest a toxic insult.[24] The changes reversed after their diet switched to non-GM soy.[25]

GM soy, reproductive problems, and infant mortality

* More than half the offspring of mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks.[26]
* Male rats[27] and mice[28] fed GM soy showed changes in their testicles; the mice had altered young sperm cells.
* The DNA of mouse embryos whose parents ate GM soy functioned differently than those whose parents ate non-GM soy.[29]
* Many offspring of female rats fed GM soy were considerably smaller,and more than half died within three weeks (compared
to 10% of the non-GM soy controls). [30]

Bt crops linked to sterility, disease, and death

* When sheep grazed on Bt cotton plants after harvest, within a week 1 in 4 died. Shepherds estimate 10,000 sheep deaths in one region of India.[31]
* Farmers in Europe and Asia say that cows, water buffaloes, chickens, and horses died from eating Bt corn varieties.[32]
* About two dozen US farmers report that Bt corn varieties caused widespread sterility in pigs or cows.[33]
* Filipinos in at least five villages fell sick when a nearby Bt corn variety was pollinating.[34]

The stomach lining of rats fed GM potatoes showed excessive cell growth, a condition that may be a precursor to cancer. Rats also had damaged organs and immune systems.[35]

Functioning GM genes remain inside you

Unlike safety evaluations for drugs, there are no human clinical trials of GM foods. The only published human feeding experiment verified that genetic material inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of intestinal bacteria and continues to function.[36] This means that long after we stop eating GM foods, we may still have their GM proteins produced continuously inside us.

* If the antibiotic gene inserted into most GM crops were to transfer, it could create super diseases, resistant to antibiotics.
* If the gene that creates Bt -toxin in GM corn were to transfer, it might turn our intestinal flora into living pesticide factories.
* Animal studies show that DNA in food can travel into organs throughout the body, even into the fetus.[37]

GM food supplement caused deadly epidemic

In the 1980s, a contaminated brand of a food supplement called L-tryptophan killed about 100 Americans and caused sickness and disability in another 5,000-10,000 people. The source of contaminants was almost certainly the genetic engineering process used in its production.[38] The disease took years to find and was almost overlooked. It was only identified because the symptoms were unique, acute, and fast-acting. If all three characteristics were not in place, the deadly GM supplement might never have been identified or removed.

If GM foods on the market are causing common diseases or if their effects appear only after long-term exposure, we may not be able to identify the source of the problem for decades, if at all. There is no monitoring of GMO-related problems and no long-term animal studies. Heavily invested biotech corporations are gambling away the health of our nation for profit.

Help end the genetic engineering of our food supply

When the tipping point of consumer concern about GMOs was achieved in Europe in 1999, within a single week virtually all major food manufacturers committed to remove GM ingredients. The Campaign for Healthier Eating in America is designed to reach a similar tipping point in the US before the end of 2009.

Start buying non-GMO today. That means organic and anything labled “Non GMO” or “Contains No GMO”.

Help us stop the genetic engineering of our food supply.

The health information is from the book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risk of Genetically Engineered Foods, by Jeffrey M. Smith.

© copyright Institute For Responsible Technology 2008. The Institute is a fully tax deductible project of The Coordinating Council, a 501c(3).
[1] See www.biointegrity.org
[2] See Part 2, Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, Yes! Books, Fairfield, IA 2007
[3] See for example 233-236, chart of disproved assumptions, in Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, Yes! Books, Fairfield, IA 2007
[4] J. R. Latham, et al., “The Mutational Consequences of Plant Transformation,” The Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology 2006, Article ID 25376: 1-7; see also Allison Wilson, et. al., “Transformation-induced mutations in transgenic plants: Analysis and biosafety implications,” Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews – Vol. 23, December 2006.
[5] Srivastava, et al, “Pharmacogenomics of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and the cystic fibrosis drug CPX using genome microarray analysis,” Mol Med. 5, no. 11(Nov 1999):753–67.
[6] Latham et al, “The Mutational Consequences of Plant Transformation, Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology 2006:1-7, article ID 25376, http://www.hindawi.com/journals/JBB/index.html; Draft risk analysis report application A378, Food derived from glyphosate-tolerant sugarbeet line 77 (GTSB77),” ANZFA, March 7, 2001, www.agbios.com/docroot/decdocs/anzfa_gtsb77.pdf; E. Levine et al., “Molecular Characterization of Insect Protected Corn Line MON 810.” Unpublished study submitted to the EPA by Monsanto, EPA MRID No. 436655-01C (1995); Allison Wilson, PhD, Jonathan Latham, PhD, and Ricarda Steinbrecher, PhD, “Genome Scrambling—Myth or Reality? Transformation-Induced Mutations in Transgenic Crop Plants Technical Report—October 2004,” www.econexus.info; C. Collonier, G. Berthier, F. Boyer, M. N. Duplan, S. Fernandez, N. Kebdani, A. Kobilinsky, M. Romanuk, Y. Bertheau, “Characterization of commercial GMO inserts: a source of useful material to study genome fluidity,” Poster presented at ICPMB: International Congress for Plant Molecular Biology (n°VII), Barcelona, 23-28th June 2003. Poster courtesy of Dr. Gilles-Eric Seralini, Président du Conseil Scientifique du CRII-GEN, www.crii-gen.org; also “Transgenic lines proven unstable” by Mae-Wan Ho, ISIS Report, 23 October 2003, www.i-sis.org.uk
[7] Netherwood et al, “Assessing the survival of transgenic plant DNA in the human gastrointestinal tract,” Nature Biotechnology 22 (2004): 2; Chowdhury, et al, “Detection of genetically modified maize DNA fragments in the intestinal contents of pigs fed StarLink CBH351,” Vet Hum Toxicol. 45 , no. 2 (March 2003): 95–6; P. A. Chambers, et al, “The fate of antibiotic resistance marker genes in transgenic plant feed material fed to chickens,” J. Antimic. Chemother. 49 (2000): 161–164; and Paula S. Duggan, et al, “Fate of genetically modified maize DNA in the oral cavity and rumen of sheep,” Br J Nutr. 89, no 2 (Feb.2003): 159–66.
[8] Mark Townsend, “Why soya is a hidden destroyer,” Daily Express, March 12, 1999.
[9] Hye-Yung Yum, Soo-Young Lee, Kyung-Eun Lee, Myung-Hyun Sohn, Kyu-Earn Kim, “Genetically Modified and Wild Soybeans: An immunologic comparison,” Allergy and Asthma Proceedings 26, no. 3 (May–June 2005): 210-216(7).
[10] A. Pusztai and S. Bardocz, “GMO in animal nutrition: potential benefits and risks,” Chapter 17, Biology of Nutrition in Growing Animals, R. Mosenthin, J. Zentek and T. Zebrowska (Eds.) Elsevier, October 2005.
[11] Hye-Yung Yum, Soo-Young Lee, Kyung-Eun Lee, Myung-Hyun Sohn, Kyu-Earn Kim, “Genetically Modified and Wild Soybeans: An immunologic comparison,” Allergy and Asthma Proceedings 26, no. 3 (May–June 2005): 210-216(7).
[12] M. Green, et al., “Public health implications of the microbial pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis: An epidemiological study, Oregon, 1985-86,” Amer. J. Public Health 80, no. 7(1990): 848–852; and M.A. Noble, P.D. Riben, and G. J. Cook, Microbiological and epidemiological surveillance program to monitor the health effects of Foray 48B BTK spray (Vancouver, B.C.: Ministry of Forests, Province of British Columbi, Sep. 30, 1992)
[13] Vazquez et al, “Intragastric and intraperitoneal administration of Cry1Ac protoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis induces systemic and mucosal antibody responses in mice,” 1897–1912; Vazquez et al, “Characterization of the mucosal and systemic immune response induced by Cry1Ac protein from Bacillus thuringiensis HD 73 in mice,” Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research 33 (2000): 147–155; and Vazquez et al, “Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac protoxin is a potent systemic and mucosal adjuvant,” Scandanavian Journal of Immunology 49 (1999): 578–584. See also Vazquez-Padron et al., 147 (2000b).
[14] Nagui H. Fares, Adel K. El-Sayed, “Fine Structural Changes in the Ileum of Mice Fed on Endotoxin Treated Potatoes and Transgenic Potatoes,” Natural Toxins 6, no. 6 (1998): 219–233.
[15] See for example “Bt cotton causing allergic reaction in MP; cattle dead,” Bhopal, Nov. 23, 2005, http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=170692&cat=Health;
[16] Ashish Gupta et. al., “Impact of Bt Cotton on Farmers’ Health (in Barwani and Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh),” Investigation Report, Oct–Dec 2005; and M. Green, et al., “Public health implications of the microbial pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis: An epidemiological study, Oregon, 1985-86,” Amer. J. Public Health 80, no. 7(1990): 848–852; and M.A. Noble, P.D. Riben, and G. J. Cook, Microbiological and epidemiological surveillance program to monitor the health effects of Foray 48B BTK spray (Vancouver, B.C.: Ministry of Forests, Province of British Columbi, Sep. 30, 1992)
[17] FAO-WHO, “Evaluation of Allergenicity of Genetically Modified Foods. Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Allergenicity of Foods Derived from Biotechnology,” Jan. 22–25, 2001; http://www.fao.org/es/ESN/food/pdf/allergygm.pdf
[18] Gendel, “The use of amino acid sequence alignments to assess potential allergenicity of proteins used in genetically modified foods,” Advances in Food and Nutrition Research 42 (1998), 45–62; G. A. Kleter and A. A. C. M. Peijnenburg, “Screening of transgenic proteins expressed in transgenic food crops for the presence of short amino acid sequences indentical to potential, IgE-binding linear epitopes of allergens,” BMC Structural Biology 2 (2002): 8–19; H. P. J. M. Noteborn, “Assessment of the Stability to Digestion and Bioavailability of the LYS Mutant Cry9C Protein from Bacillus thuringiensis serovar tolworthi,” Unpublished study submitted to the EPA by AgrEvo, EPA MRID No. 447343-05 (1998); and H. P. J. M. Noteborn et al, “Safety Assessment of the Bacillus thuringiensis Insecticidal Crystal Protein CRYIA(b) Expressed in Transgenic Tomatoes,” in Genetically modified foods: safety issues, American Chemical Society Symposium Series 605, eds. K.H. Engel et al., (Washington, DC, 1995): 134–47.
[19] M. Malatesta, M. Biggiogera, E. Manuali, M. B. L. Rocchi, B. Baldelli, G. Gazzanelli, “Fine Structural Analyses of Pancreatic Acinar Cell Nuclei from Mice Fed on GM Soybean,” Eur J Histochem 47 (2003): 385–388.
[20] Vazquez et al, “Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac protoxin is a potent systemic and mucosal adjuvant,” Scandanavian Journal of Immunology 49 (1999): 578–584. See also Vazquez-Padron et al., 147 (2000b).
[21] V. E. Prescott, et al, “Transgenic Expression of Bean r-Amylase Inhibitor in Peas Results in Altered Structure and Immunogenicity,” Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry (2005): 53.
[22] Arpad Pusztai, “Can science give us the tools for recognizing possible health risks of GM food,” Nutrition and Health, 2002, Vol 16 Pp 73-84
[23] Comments to ANZFA about Applications A346, A362 and A363 from the Food Legislation and Regulation Advisory Group (FLRAG) of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) on behalf of the PHAA, “Food produced from glyphosate-tolerant canola line GT73,” http://www.iher.org.au/
[24] M. Malatesta, C. Caporaloni, S. Gavaudan, M. B. Rocchi, S. Serafini, C. Tiberi, G. Gazzanelli, “Ultrastructural Morphometrical and Immunocytochemical Analyses of Hepatocyte Nuclei from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” Cell Struct Funct. 27 (2002): 173–180.
[25] M. Malatesta, C. Tiberi, B. Baldelli, S. Battistelli, E. Manuali, M. Biggiogera, “Reversibility of Hepatocyte Nuclear Modifications in Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” Eur J Histochem, 49 (2005): 237-242.
[26] I.V. Ermakova, “Diet with the Soya Modified by Gene EPSPS CP4 Leads to Anxiety and Aggression in Rats,” 14th European Congress of Psychiatry. Nice, France, March 4-8, 2006; “Genetically modified soy affects posterity: Results of Russian scientists’ studies,” REGNUM, October 12, 2005; http://www.regnum.ru/english/526651.html; Irina Ermakova, “Genetically modified soy leads to the decrease of weight and high mortality of rat pups of the first generation. Preliminary studies,” Ecosinform 1 (2006): 4–9.
[27] Irina Ermakova, “Experimental Evidence of GMO Hazards,” Presentation at Scientists for a GM Free Europe, EU Parliament, Brussels, June 12, 2007
[28] L. Vecchio et al, “Ultrastructural Analysis of Testes from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” European Journal of Histochemistry 48, no. 4 (Oct–Dec 2004):449–454.
[29] Oliveri et al., “Temporary Depression of Transcription in Mouse Pre-implantion Embryos from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” 48th Symposium of the Society for Histochemistry, Lake Maggiore (Italy), September 7–10, 2006.
[30] I.V. Ermakova, “Diet with the Soya Modified by Gene EPSPS CP4 Leads to Anxiety and Aggression in Rats,” 14th European Congress of Psychiatry. Nice, France, March 4-8, 2006; “Genetically modified soy affects posterity: Results of Russian scientists’ studies,” REGNUM, October 12, 2005; http://www.regnum.ru/english/526651.html; Irina Ermakova, “Genetically modified soy leads to the decrease of weight and high mortality of rat pups of the first generation. Preliminary studies,” Ecosinform 1 (2006): 4–9.
[31] “Mortality in Sheep Flocks after Grazing on Bt Cotton Fields—Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh” Report of the Preliminary Assessment, April 2006, http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494
[32] Mae-Wan Ho, “GM Ban Long Overdue, Dozens Ill & Five Deaths in the Philippines,” ISIS Press Release, June 2, 2006; and Mae-Wan Ho and Sam Burcher, “Cows Ate GM Maize & Died,” ISIS Press Release, January 13, 2004, http://www.isis.org.uk/CAGMMAD.php
[33] Personal communication with Jerry Rosman and other farmers, 2006; also reported widely in the farm press.
[34] See for example Mae-Wan Ho, “GM Ban Long Overdue, Dozens Ill & Five Deaths in the Philippines,” ISIS Press Release, June 2, 2006; “Study Result Not Final, Proof Bt Corn Harmful to Farmers,” BusinessWorld, 02 Mar 2004; and “Genetically Modified Crops and Illness Linked,” Manila Bulletin, 04 Mar 2004.
[35] Arpad Pusztai, “Can science give us the tools for recognizing possible health risks of GM food,” Nutrition and Health, 2002, Vol 16 Pp 73-84; Stanley W. B. Ewen and Arpad Pusztai, “Effect of diets containing genetically modified potatoes expressing Galanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine,” Lancet, 1999 Oct 16; 354 (9187): 1353-4; and Arpad Pusztai, “Facts Behind the GM Pea Controversy: Epigenetics, Transgenic Plants & Risk Assessment,” Proceedings of the Conference, December 1st 2005 (Frankfurtam Main, Germany: Literaturhaus, 2005)
[36] Netherwood et al, “Assessing the survival of transgenic plant DNA in the human gastrointestinal tract,” Nature Biotechnology 22 (2004): 2.
[37] Ricarda A. Steinbrecher and Jonathan R. Latham, “Horizontal gene transfer from GM crops to unrelated organisms,” GM Science Review Meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on “GM Gene Flow: Scale and Consequences for Agriculture and the Environment,” January 27, 2003; Traavik and Heinemann, Genetic Engineering and Omitted Health Research; citing Schubbert, et al, “Ingested foreign (phage M13) DNA survives transiently in the gastrointestinal tract and enters the bloodstream of mice,” Mol Gen Genet. 242, no. 5 (1994): 495–504; Schubbert et al, “Foreign (M13) DNA ingested by mice reaches peripheral leukocytes, spleen, and liver via the intestinal wall mucosa and can be covalently linked to mouse DNA,” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94, no. 3 (1997): 961–6; Schubbert et al, “On the fate of orally ingested foreign DNA in mice: chromosomal association and placental transmission to the fetus,” Mol Gen Genet. 259, no. 6 (1998): 569–76; Hohlweg and Doerfler, “On the fate of plants or other foreign genes upon the uptake in food or after intramuscular injection in mice,” Mol Genet Genomics 265 (2001): 225–233; Palka-Santani, et al., “The gastrointestinal tract as the portal of entry for foreign macromolecules: fate of DNA and proteins,” Mol Gen Genomics 270 (2003): 201–215; Einspanier, et al, “The fate of forage plant DNA in farm animals; a collaborative case-study investigating cattle and chicken fed recombinant plant material,” Eur Food Res Technol 212 (2001): 129–134; Klotz, et al, “Degradation and possible carry over of feed DNA monitored in pigs and poultry,” Eur Food Res Technol 214 (2002): 271–275; Forsman, et al, “Uptake of amplifiable fragments of retrotransposon DNA from the human alimentary tract,” Mol Gen Genomics 270 (2003): 362–368; Chen, et al, “Transfection of mEpo gene to intestinal epithelium in vivo mediated by oral delivery of chitosan-DNA nanoparticles,” World Journal of Gastroenterology 10, no 1(2004): 112–116; Phipps, et al, “Detection of transgenic and endogenous plant DNA in rumen fluid, duodenal digesta, milk, blood, and feces of lactating dairy cows,” J Dairy Sci. 86, no. 12(2003): 4070–8.
[38] William E. Crist, Toxic L-tryptophan: Shedding Light on a Mysterious Epidemic, http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/L-tryptophan/index.cfm; and Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds of Deception, Yes! Books, Fairfield, IA 2003, chapter 4, Deadly Epidemic.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of publication Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, which presents 65 risks in easy-to-read two-page spreads. His first book, Seeds of Deception, is the top rated and #1 selling book on GM foods in the world. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology. www.responsibletechnology.org, which is spearheading the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America. Go to www.seedsofdeception.com to learn more about how to avoid GM foods.

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* As is often the case, the US position is not verified by the underlying international agreement: according to the Codex Statute, the first purpose of Codex is “protecting the health of the consumers and ensuring fair practices in the food trade.” (Codex Statute, Article 1(a))

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You know we need your support if you want us to go to Codex meetings to represent Natural Solutions to pressing social health and wellness concerns. Please click to our Support Page and help us as you can: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189.

Memorandum from Gen. Stubblebine: Hope in Preparedness

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

PLEASE SHARE THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE WIDELY

Urgent Memorandum from Gen. Stubblebine
Re:
The Situation in America; Hope through Preparedness

This is a message for you. It is also a message for everyone you know
and care about. Please forward widely. Based on my best estimates of the data available, we are about to enter a dark
time and the best way to prepare for it is with some light.

During my military career, I was entrusted with responsibility, as a Major General, with
overseeing the US Army’s Intelligence Command. I devoted many years in
the military to evaluating information. Shedding light through
accurate analysis of information was my professional specialty in the
US Military. This message today is based on my best estimates of the current
situation in the US. There are many recent developments that concern
us all; the collapse of the dollar, the decline of the market and the takeover of the economy by a private corporation, the Federal Reserve, whose mission may or may not coincide with the best interests of the United States, the
evisceration of the US economy, the endless war without reason or purpose.

One single point never makes a pattern. Numerous points converging
on the same spot, however, make a pattern so strong that it becomes a
highly probable prediction of the future and the events to come.

Very recently (February 14, 2008) the US and Canadian Military organizations signed a pact
allowing Canada to come into the (formerly sovereign) US in case of
civil unrest. This appears to be the beginning of the implementation of the
dreaded North American Union and follows similar steps by the US FDA
and other civilian agencies.

The only item on the military website concerning “civil unrest” is the
Avian Flu “threat”.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense have
stated that there will be a choice given to Americans about whether
they want to be vaccinated “in the first round in which the pandemic
has not gotten away from us. In the second round, when it has gotten
away from us [note language], there will be no choice and those who
refuse vaccination will be quarantined indefinitely.” Please read that
again!

http://www.northcom.mil/News/2008/021408.html

At the same time, the US economy is collapsing so that the dollar has
reached historic and increasingly cataclysmic lows against every
currency in the world while gold, silver and oil are peaking at levels
only dreamed of before by economists imagining an unlikely worst case
scenario. That worst case is now only a stop on the upward climb to price
heights which cannot even be guessed at by those of us here on the ground.

The solution to the collapsing US dollar will be, if all indications
are correct, the substitution of the Amero for the currency of what
was, historically, the United States but will apparently shortly be the North
American Union.

The economic, social and personal damage being set in motion by this
blatant economic manipulation is nearly impossible to imagine.

At the same time, it is easy to imagine that as the dollar collapses
and people on social security and other fixed incomes lose their life
savings and have less and less buying power for their meager dollars,
they will create a striking clamor for the government to “fix” the
problem by taking whatever means are necessary – including dissolving
the US, Canada and Mexico to “solve” their personal crises.

Now would, in my estimation, be a very, very good time NOT to own
dollar-denominated shares or instruments, or, indeed, dollars. Dr. Ron
Paul reported to the House Finance Committee a couple of weeks ago
that the Federal Reserve has increased the currency and demand
deposits in circulation by a huge 40% in the past two years… unheard
of, before the current crisis. Concurrently, the Fed has monetized not
just deficit-supporting treasury bonds and sub-prime mortgage junk
bonds, but now even the costs of buying up the remains of Bear Sterns
by Chase!

Now would be a very good time to buy Euros, gold, silver, platinum or,
best of all, land, all of which will likely increase dramatically in value. I am not a financial adviser: I am a private citizen looking at publicly available information through a lens of information assessment which leads me to these conclusions.

The Natural Solutions Foundation, a Nevada nonprofit corporation, and
our Panama Natural Solutions Foundation, a Panamanian Private Interest
Foundation, has an opportunity to purchase organic farm and homestead
land in a beautiful, temperate area, well above sea level (at Santa
Clara). We are reaching out to all health conscious – and conscious –
people to tell them about this potential and invite their serious
consideration of participation in this sustainable project focused on
survivability.

The Santa Clara project was not designed to offer economic
stabilization and protection of resources but it appears that because
of the current situation that may be a consideration. It is certainly
not tended to be an “investment opportunity.” It is an NGO
demonstration project in need of funding. Part of this demonstration
of natural solutions is creating a private community around a better than organic, sustainable, zero emissions farm which will feed us and may well help feed the surrounding country side.
It will certainly provide health care for us since we will include an Natural Health Center which will treat us, the people who come from a distance for our services and local indigenous and native peoples in the region. You can visit a new website, currently being added to actively, at www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org

You may already know about our Foundation, which you can visit at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org. We have nearly 200,000
supporters and have generated over a million messages to Congress, FDA
and others demanding health freedom… but without economic and
political freedom, there can be little health freedom. Since we have
always believed that actions talk louder than words, we have linked
with others in the Intentional Community movement and are ready to
offer like minded people the chance to create what we call an “ARC” –
an Advanced Refuge Community. You can find us at:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org or http://www.globalhealthfreedom.org
and find our Santa Clara project at:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NSF-Panama/ and
http://directory.ic.org/records/?action=view&page=view&record_id=21545

We recently presented a participation option in a NSF-Panama Forum
post in which people who have the assets can provide funds to purchase
land in a highly desirable area of — so that the Santa Clara
Community can be funded with the land value protecting the assets of
the people who choose to make the shift from dollars to land. Any
return from the land would be best put into Euros or another more
stable currency, gold, etc, or reallocated to the Santa Clara project
for additional reward. However, the point is that the disaster in the
market becomes a spur for protecting your assets AND, at the same
time, a spur for getting the Santa Clara Community off the drawing
board and on the table of reality.

There is yet another reason to do that. Cycle back to the manufactured
pandemic or other civil disaster which is clearly being brewed up for
us. Once that civil disaster occurs (whether it is medical or some
other sort of potent disruption), the domino collapse of most of the
order of our society will be rapid and potentially devastating.

Survivability becomes key to everything.

Santa Clara will be a community which can supply its own power, water,
organic+ food, health care and other necessities in a sustainable,
survivable, off the grid system of our own making and careful devising.

It will not be built in a month or even a year. The Santa Clara
community will take time to build, farm and bring to full
sustainability capacity. But it will be available for participants to
be there as soon as it becomes necessary to be somewhere safe. The
Beneficiary Interest Certificate (BIC) offers you not only full
participation in the community, it also confers upon you the right to
build your home in the Santa Clara community, on land held in trust
for you and your family.

How much time do we have before the likely collapse of what we know
and love? That information I do not have. History teaches us that such
collapses can happen very fast.

But I do have the clear pattern before me as I analyze the data: the
collapse of the economy is NOW happening. The collapse of civil
liberties has already happened but has not yet made itself fully evident.

The collapse of the nation’s health may be in the works as well though
a genetically modified, weaponized Avian Flu or some other
laboratory-based horror.

Even without the last, the economic collapse is marching toward us. If
we hold onto what is sequestered as our asset base, we will be, like a
polar bear in a warming Arctic, sitting on an ice floe moving out to
sea while it melts away beneath us.

Even if you decide not to participate in the Santa Clara project,
please heed this advice and put all of the assets now in dollars that
you cannot afford to lose into something else.

Santa Clara is a private participatory community and we welcome your
financial input. If your asset base is smaller than one which allows
you to allocate $50,000 to the project, because asset protection
through conversion into other forms is so important, here is what we
will add to what has already been written:

Offer whatever you would like to the Santa Clara project over a
minimum of $5,000 and be recognized with a partial BIC that can be
increased over time.

Your funds will be secure through the land. If you have a BIC (full or
partial), here is what can follow:

You can make a friendly financial agreement with the Santa Clara
community in order to provide the funds to purchase the land, we will
contract with you to pay you the interest on that loan in a
business-like fashion.

In the event that the community fails, you will have first call on the
land which secures your loan.

If you participate in one or more BICs, there will be an extra BIC as
a thank you for your faith and trust. There will also be a share in
the Health Center, otherwise sold for $25K when funding is sought for
that facility.

But if you cannot donate a full BIC (and remember, all donations to
the Natural Solutions Foundation are tax deductible), we will open the
doors to partial BIC’s with a minimum value of $5000. We cannot double
the BIC value for the partials, but we will give partial interests in
the profitability of the community pro rated for the size of the
initial donation. Please do not view this as a financial investment;
rather, it is participation in a community that, like one of its
precursor communities, Fr Godfrey’s Songhai Community in Benin, is
based on the Songhai triad of “Passion, Possibility and Profitability.” You can take a look at the Songhai Center and principles at www.Youtube.com/naturalsolutions.

Some say that this information is creating an atmosphere of fear. It is not designed to create anything but caution and action at the same time. I do not know how to make it more clear that there is a vast urgency
to making the move now to protect your assets currently in dollars.
And I do not know how to make it more opportune to become involved in
a very practical and direct way with the sustainable, survivable, off
the grid community which is Santa Clara. Now.

Please contact Ralph Fucetola JD at ralph.fucetola@usa.net to arrange
the bridge loan, BIC contribution or partial BIC contribution at your
very earliest convenience.

Now more than ever, standing still is going backwards.

Yours in health and freedom,

Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III (US Army, Ret.)
President
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.healthfreedomusa.org

PS: I have liquidated my assets for the reasons addressed above. I am
sure you can imagine where they are going. ANS

March 20,2008 (rev 03/21/08)

You know we need your donations: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189

FDA Nominated for NSF Hall of Shame – Again!

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.

For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Environmental Working Group (EWG)
EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982

FDA Cites Discredited Industry Science in Justifying High Levels of Contaminants in Infant Formula: Ignores Federally Funded Research Showing Serious Health Risks

WASHINGTON, DC – March 21 – In response to a congressional inquiry, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admitted that it based its determination that current levels of BPA exposure pose no health risks on two studies sponsored by the American Plastics Council (APC), the trade group that represents BPA manufacturers. One of these studies has been found to be deeply flawed by BPA experts and the other study has not been published nor has its results been made public. FDA chose to ignore data from almost 100 independent, peer-reviewed, and published animal studies that show that this chemical is toxic at very low levels of exposure. Many of these studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health. BPA is chemical component used in a number of different plastic products, including baby bottles and the lining in canned food.

“I’m not sure what’s worse — that FDA ignored almost 100 independent peer-reviewed studies expressing concerns over low-level BPA exposure or that they relied instead on 2 studies financed by the plastics lobby,” said Dr. Anila Jacob. ²This shows again how the industry works to influence regulators to water down the health risks posed by BPA.²

Here is an analysis by EWG Senior Scientists, Dr. Anila Jacob, MD, MPH of the FDA¹s findings:

Statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to a congressional inquiry reveal that the agency’s assertions that infant’s exposures to the toxic plastics chemical BPA in infant formula and baby bottles pose “no safety concern,” are based on two industry-funded studies, one unpublished and the other found to be deeply flawed by BPA experts. FDA’s calculations accompanying these assertions show that some infants are exposed to BPA at levels very close to those linked in lab studies to brain and reproductive system effects.

FDA’s methodology for assessing BPA health risks was made public in response to a request for information from the powerful House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce that questioned the basis of the Agency’s public assurances about the safety of BPA, a chemical that contaminates the bodies of 93% of all Americans. BPA leaches into food and canned infant formula from the epoxy linings of metal food cans, and leaches into drinks held in polycarbonate plastic containers, like plastic baby bottles. The Agency’s response to the Committee reveals that FDA is relying exclusively on two studies funded by the plastics industry and disregarding nearly 100 studies confirming that BPA is toxic at low doses.

Below we provide EWG’s assessment of the gaping holes in FDA’s methods, from our analysis of their Committee submission. We find that FDA’s flawed analysis and biased consideration of the science puts public health at risk, especially for formula-fed infants and others who are highly exposed to BPA or highly vulnerable to its toxicity.

From FDA response to Committee on Energy and Commerce: “FDA believes that this level of exposure (11 ug/person/day and 7 ug/infant/day) is safe as defined in 21 CFRf170.3 (i). This conclusion is based on our most recently completed reviews of two pivotal multigenerational oral studies performed under applicable regulatory guidelines” (emphasis added).

Assessment: FDA is using flawed and unpublished studies funded by the plastics industry to make decisions that may impact the health of millions of people. Almost 100 peer-reviewed and published animal studies confirm that BPA is toxic at low doses. FDA based their analysis of BPA health risks on just two studies, both of which were funded by the American Plastics Council and one of which has not even been published in a peer-reviewed journal. One of these studies did not find evidence that BPA is toxic at low doses (Tyl et al 2002). BPA experts have widely questioned the validity of these findings, because the study did not include “positive controls.” Without these standard controls, it cannot be known if the study was capable of finding health effects from BPA, or if background contamination or other study design issues would have obscured health effects. The second study FDA has relied on is unpublished, not public, and funded by the plastics industry. Its use in developing critical public health policies for toxic chemicals is unconscionable.

From FDA response to Committee on Energy and Commerce: Estimated worst-case daily intake from the use of PC baby bottles and infant formula is 7 ug/infant/day.

Assessment: If a seven-pound newborn (3.1 kg) is fed with polycarbonate (BPA-leaching) baby bottles and given infant formula contaminated with BPA, they will be exposed to 2.2 ug/kg/day of BPA (micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day) based on FDA’s estimated daily intake. This is very close to the dose of 2.5 ug/kg/day, which has been shown in numerous animal studies to be toxic, leaving little or no margin of safety for young infants (EWG 2007).

From FDA response to Committee on Energy and Commerce: “FDA has completed a compact summary of the pharmacokinetic data on BPA in multiple species. FDA has determined that understanding the species differences and the differences in how metabolic systems handle BPA administered via various routes of exposure, such as oral versus subcutaneous, are pivotal to examining the safety of BPA” (emphasis added).

Assessment: FDA is suggesting that studies using non-oral routes of BPA administration have little relevance in human health assessments. However, it is well understood in the scientific community that it is actual serum levels of BPA that are relevant, regardless of the mode of administration. This was recently confirmed by a study published in the Journal Reproductive Toxicology that showed that non-oral routes of BPA administration are completely valid in assessing potential health effects (Taylor 2008). In this study, scientists administered BPA to neonatal mice by both oral and subcutaneous routes and found no significant difference in the plasma levels of unconjugated BPA, leading study authors to conclude “the large numbers of BPA studies that used non-oral administration at very low doses during the neonatal period should not be dismissed by scientists or the regulatory community based on route of administration.”

It should also be noted that there are numerous studies showing toxicity at daily BPA exposures ranging from 0.2 ug/kg body weight/day to 2 ug/kg body weight/day in which BPA is administered by the oral route (EWG 2007). FDA’s faulty decision to exclude studies based on the dosing route has resulted in a deeply skewed assessment of BPA health risks.

From FDA response to Committee on Energy and Commerce: “Intact bottles were held in boiling water for 5 minutes, filled with apple juice or formula, and refrigerated at 4 degrees Celsius for 24 hours. BPA was not detected in the juice or formula at a LOD [Limit of Detection] of 100 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) (100 ppb).”

Assessment: In this particular BPA migration study, the FDA uses a limit of detection (LOD) that is so high that it would not have detected BPA in any of the infant formula samples that have been tested by FDA and EWG (EWG 2007), and well above levels that would be a health concern. In fact, this LOD is 1000 fold higher than the LOD that FDA has used in other food testing (0.1 ppb).

In summary, FDA is basing important public health decisions on two industry-funded studies, one deeply flawed and one unpublished. FDA is disregarding the growing body of science that confirms the low dose toxicity of BPA in multiple, well conducted, peer-reviewed, and published studies. In addition, their own estimate of daily BPA intake shows that for formula-fed infants, there is little or no margin of safety from the harmful effects of BPA confirmed in lab studies. EWG has recommended that FDA set health standards for BPA that fully recognize the low-dose toxicity of this chemical, that are not biased in favor of industry lobbyists, and that fully protect the health of infants and others who are most vulnerable.

References:

1) Tyl RW, Myers CB, Marr MC, Thomas BF, Keimowitz AR, Brine DR, Veselica MM, Fail PA, Chang TY, Seely JC, Joiner RL, Butala JH, Dimond SS, Cagen SZ, Shiotsuka RN, Stropp GD, Waechter JM. 2002. Three generation reproductive toxicity study of dietary bisphenol A in CD Sprague-Dawley rats. Toxicological Sciences 68(1): 121-46.

2) Taylor JA, Welshons WV, vom Saal FS. 2008. No effect of route of exposure (oral; subcutaneous injection) on plasma bisphenol A throughout 24 h after administration in neonatal female mouse. Reproductive Toxicology 25(2): 169-76.

3) EWG. 2007. Bisphenol A: Toxic plastics chemical in canned food. Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC. Available at: http://www.ewg.org/reports/bisphenola.

EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment.