FDA Hid Names of Melamine Contaminated Infant Formula Products from the Public

When the FDA discovered melamine in U.S. infant formula products, it made a conscious decision to withhold that information from the public. Instead, it called a teleconference with the infant formula manufacturers to warn them about its findings!

The truth about the melamine only became public after the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request, demanding the test results from the FDA. Absent that request, this whole issue would have continued to remain an FDA secret.

http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000554_melamine_infant_formula_FDA.html

Pfizer Implicated in Human Drug Experimentation on Critically Ill Children in Nigeria

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008

Did Pfizer recruit critical ill Nigerian children for illegal drug experiments? That’s what the Nigerian government is charging in an $8.5 billion lawsuit against the drug maker. To avoid a court battle, Pfizer is offering to pay off the Nigerian government with $150 million in drug money, hoping it will drop the case and end what could potentially be a public relations nightmare for the drug maker.

Anyone familiar with the true history of drug companies knows that many of them have a long, dark history of experimentation on human beings. Read the shocking timeline of human medical experimentation here: http://www.naturalnews.com/019189.html

Drug companies, of course, routinely conduct drug trials outside the United States these days, away from public scrutiny and regulations involving basic human rights. In my opinion, drug companies exploit these third-world children, using them as guinea pigs to gather manipulated clinical trial data for their drugs, then they turn around and sell those same dangerous drugs at criminally-high markups to citizens of wealthy first-world nations.

The true stories of drug companies using citizens of third-world countries for vaccine experiments and dangerous drug trials are horrifying, to say the least. But it’s even worse when you realize that, for the most part, Big Pharma is also experimenting on virtually everyone, since most of their new drugs have never been proven in long-term safety trials anyway.

Let’s face it: Anyone who takes pharmaceuticals is a self-appointed guinea pig, and the true results of this industry-wide experimentation on humans will only be known in the years ahead.

At least Nigerian officials have the balls to ask for true justice in this case: They’re demanding that Pfizer’s former chief executive William Steere face prison time for his crimes against the Nigerian children.

I couldn’t agree more. I just wonder whether U.S. bureaucrats will someday find the courage to do what Nigerian officials are already attempting: To bring Big Pharma to justice and seek criminal indictments of its top masterminds who are committing crimes against humanity.

Click to read:
Pfizer Implicated in Human Drug Experimentation on Critically Ill Children in Nigeria

From Forbes.com: What if a drug company experimenting on critically ill children doesn’t get the proper parental consent, 11 of those children die and a whistleblower is fired? Those are the charges leveled against Pfizer in a legal battle that has dragged on for the past seven years in Manhattan federal court and in Nigeria, where the government is seeking $8.5 billion in restitution and damages…. more

Film Review: GenerationRx Documents Chemical Abuse of Children by Pharmaceutical Industry, Modern Psychiatry

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008

Filmmaker Kevin Miller has just launched a shocking new documentary that exposes the crimes and deceptions of modern psychiatry and the drug companies that now control the industry. His film, entitled GenerationRx sheds light on the shadowy practices of psychiatric doctors who are increasingly drugging children with mind-altering drugs. Trailers and DVDs are available at www.GenerationRxFilm.com

The film features an impressive collection of interviews with skeptical physicians, industry critics and even the former deputy director of the FDA. Together, their testimony paints a disturbing picture of the deceitful — even predatory — behavior of the psychiatry industry, calling into question the very existence of so-called “disorders” that have been used to put tens of millions of children on dangerous mind-altering drugs that have earned billions of dollars in profits for Big Pharma.

The teen who recently committed “live” suicide on his web cam was taking psychiatric drugs. So was Heath Ledger, the Columbine school shooters and even the wife of famed comedian Phil Hartman, who shot and killed Mr. Hartman in a murder-suicide. In fact, if you want to know who’s taking psychiatric drugs in America today, just follow the trail of blood. Wherever there’s violence, you find Big Pharma’s brain-altering chemicals behind it.

Kevin Miller’s movie, GenerationRx, explains how this massive chemical conspiracy manages to keep operating today. It’s all based on a system of under-the-table payments to hospitals (http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000546_…), journalists (http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000527_…), med schools, medical journals, politicians and physicians. It’s a network of bribery and corruption so large that it has now even invaded the media!

The conspiracy will fall, of course, and in time the criminal masterminds who ran it will be indicted for their crimes against humanity. When that happens, stunned people will look back on documentaries like GenerationRx and see 2007 – 2009 as the turning point that exposed the truth about the industry and woke people up to the chemical atrocities being committed against their own children in the name of medicine.

Part of that turning point, of course, also involves the film Making A Killing, created by CCHR. You can view much of the film online by going here: http://www.cchr.org/#/videos/making-a-k…

Other films, too, are working to expose the criminal psychiatry industry, and NaturalNews will be bringing you news and exclusive video clips from those films as they become available.

In the mean time, don’t let your children be chemically abused by doctors or psychiatrists. Keep them away from vaccines, psych drugs and all medications. Feed them healthy foods, lots of omega-3s, superfoods, supplements and home-prepared meals. Your children will be happier and healthier, and in a generation when half the American population has been reduced to babbling, brain-numbed zombies (from all the medication), your children will retain powerful cognitive function that will make them the future leaders of human civilization.

To buy the full film of GenerationRx on DVD, use coupon code VETLGT to get $5 off. That’s a special NaturalNews discount not available anywhere else.

Buy a few copies of this film and give them to friends. You’ll open their eyes and you just might save the life of one of their children.

FDA Scientists Revolt Against Corrupt Food and Drug Administration Officials

Natural News
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

(NaturalNews) A group of scientists working in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health division has revolted against the corrupt managers of its own department, accusing them of committing crimes by claiming, “There is extensive documentary evidence that managers at CDRH have corrupted and interfered with the scientific review of medical devices.”

Read the letter yourself here (PDF):
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1…

The letter from the FDA’s own scientists goes on to say, “It is evident that managers at CDRH have deviated from FDA’s mission to identify and address underlying problems with medical devices before they cause irreparable harm, and this deviation has placed the American people at risk.”

Congressman John, Dingell, chair of the committee which received the letter, went on to charge that these FDA bureaucrats “approved or cleared medical device applications in gross violation of laws and regulations…” (http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1…)

None of this, of course, surprises readers of NaturalNews. Note, too, that the mainstream media has virtually ignored this story? You might think that a revolt of FDA scientists against their criminal bosses would be a huge story worthy of front-page treatment at USA Today or the Washington Post, right? Only the NY Times bothered to report this story, as far as I can tell. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/healt…)

The FDA: A gang of unindicted criminals

The FDA, you see, is a criminal organization engaged in tactics of intimidation, censorship and oppression that can only be properly called “terrorism.” Don’t take my word for it, though: The FDA’s own top scientists are now on the record saying much the same thing! Their complaint to Congress alleges top FDA managers “ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.”

Keep in mind this is from the FDA’s own scientists! This isn’t some outsider (like me) ranting about the FDA being a criminal organization; these are the words of the very people who work there!

Even the FDA director is like an evil character out of a Marvel comic. His name is actually Dr. von Doom… er, I mean Dr. von Eschenbach, and he has routinely ignored the multiple letters sent to him by these scientists complaining of the same criminal behavior taking place at the agency.

The FDA, of course, believes it is above the law and subject to no rules whatsoever. It is a political organization, and a criminal one at that. It will likely threaten these scientists just as it once threatened Dr. David Graham, and it will use every intimidation tactic at its disposal to discredit any employee who dares challenge the power and authority of the FDA.

I wouldn’t be surprised one day to find one of these intimidated scientists showing up at work and going Columbine on a few of the top FDA officials who are the masterminds behind these crimes against humanity. If that happens, perhaps the saying, “Going Postal” will be updated as, “Going FDA.”

Because if there’s anyone with a justified reason to be violently angry at their bosses, it’s gotta be this group of intimidated scientists who are trying to save people’s lives by making FDA approvals based on solid science. Instead, they’re being routinely overruled by politics and Big Pharma deception, which they know will result in the loss of human life as consumers are harmed or killed by dangerous medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

How would you like to work at a company with a crime boss, knowing your boss is a white-collar criminal whose decisions are going to get people killed? That’s the reality these FDA scientists live with every day! And they’re tired of it. They’re beginning to revolt…

Violence will not solve this problem

Here’s a question to you: When the FDA collapses, should the top managers be tried for their crimes, or simply hanged by their necks in the streets? Since I believe in non-violent solutions to such problems, I believe we should actually grant them all amnesty in exchange for their candid testimony before Congress, where they spill their guts about all the criminal acts they’ve engaged in over the years.

Their testimony will be a lot more valuable to society than a bunch of bodies swinging from the rafters. What we need here, folks, is to learn the lessons from this rogue agency, not to take revenge on its people.

Not everybody agrees with me on this. But I repeat to everyone listening: Do NOT engage in violent acts against the FDA, even if there is some social breakdown in the future that might give you such an opportunity. More than 90% of the people who work there are honest, hardworking individuals who are trying to fight the FDA’s crimes from the inside. We need to let law and order sort out the criminals from the good guys, and then we’ll work together to demand criminal sentencing for them, which I think should include ex-FDA bureaucrats going door to door selling Girl Scout Cookies to raise money to pay back the families of all the people killed by FDA-approved drugs.

Remember: The medical violence that the FDA now directs towards the public should NOT be met with vengeful violence on the part of activists. It should be met with justice and wisdom for future generations. A little compassion can help us move past this dark era of FDA dominance and into a new golden age of true healing. But we cannot get to an era of healing if our own actions are motivated by violent acts.

Violence is the tool of the weak. That’s why the FDA uses the threat of violence to raid vitamin companies. Healing is the tool of the strong.

If we hope to move beyond the treacherous philosophies the FDA is demonstrating today, we must transcend violence and rely on healing (at many levels) to move us past this dark era.

The big question right now, of course, is: When will the FDA arrests begin? January 21st might be a good day to get that started…

Sources:

Letter from FDA scientists:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1…

Statement of Congressman John Dingell:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_1…
(Full copy included below)

Pharmalot article, the original source for this story:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/11/congre…

Congressman John Dingell’s statement:

Dingell, Stupak to Investigate FDA’s Medical Device Approval Process

Lawmakers Question Whether FDA Knowingly Allowed Unsafe & Ineffective Medical Devices into U.S. Market

Washington, D.C. – Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, today launched an investigation into whether managers within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) knowingly corrupted the scientific review process and approved or cleared medical device applications in gross violation of laws and regulations designed to assure the safety and effectiveness of medical devices. Such activity could allow potentially unsafe and ineffective medical devices into the U.S. market.

The investigation was prompted by receipt of an October 14, 2008, letter written on behalf of a large group of CDRH scientists and physicians who state that CDRH managers have “corrupted and interfered with the scientific review of medical devices.”

“These allegations are deeply concerning, and we intend to uncover whether any FDA activity has compromised the health and safety of America consumers,” said Dingell. “I commend the FDA scientists for courageously sounding the alarm on what appears to be a serious problem. I look forward to pursuing the steps necessary to ensure that the medical devices Americans depend on are safe and effective.”

“Our investigations have found that the FDA has allowed contaminated food and unsafe drugs to enter the market, and now serious allegations have been raised about the scientific integrity of the FDA medical device approval process,” Stupak said. “Although the FDA has launched its own investigation into this matter, no corrective action has been taken. The committee intends to learn what action the FDA plans to take to ensure the integrity of the medical device approval process and prevent retaliation against the scientists who blew the whistle on these activities.”

This Committee has been provided with compelling evidence to support the charges that senior managers within CDRH “ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.” The CDRH scientists also claim that CDRH managers ordered them “to make safety and effectiveness determinations that are not in accordance with scientific regulatory requirements, to use unsound evaluation methods, and accept clinical and technical data that is not scientifically valid or obtained in accordance with legal requirements, such as obtaining proper informed consent from human subjects.”

Additionally, documentary evidence reviewed by this Committee indicates that CDRH scientists who raised concerns up their chain of command have experienced reprisals for their insistence on adherence to a scientific and regulatory basis for medical device review. To protect these CDRH scientists who have risked their careers to bring their concerns to the attention of this Committee, we will not disclose their identities at this time.

Since January 2007, the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations have been investigating the ability and commitment of the Food and Drug Administration to protect Americans from unsafe food, drugs, and medical devices. For more information about the Committee’s ongoing drug safety investigation visit:

http://energycommerce.house.gov/Investi…

During this Congressional session, Committee leaders released draft legislation aimed at improving the safety of food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics. Work in this draft bill, the “Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act,” continues. Committee leaders plan to introduce comprehensive legislation early next session. For more information visit: http://energycommerce.house.gov/FDAGlob…

In a letter sent today to FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, Dingell and Stupak requested a briefing on what actions the Commissioner has taken to date and how the Commissioner intends to resolve all issues raised by the CDRH scientists and physicians.

FDA Finds Traces of Melamine in U.S. Infant Formula

MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD
The Associated Press
November 26, 2008

Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe.

The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a “dangerous overreaction” for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.

“The levels that we are detecting are extremely low,” said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “They should not be changing the diet. If they’ve been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That’s in the best interest of the baby.”

Melamine is the chemical found in Chinese infant formula _ in far larger concentrations _ that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.

Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer.

Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

Read article

Corporate media OPENLY demonizing and whitewashing health benefits of Vitamin C in preparation for Codex Alimentarius

Anybody seen those ads for Vicks DayQuil With Vitamin C? The ad basically says “Vitamin C alone can’t fight a cold, but Vicks DayQuil With Vitamin C can”. They are now OPENLY demonizing and whitewashing the health benefits of Vitamin C in the mainstream media.

Fight for your health freedom and visit http://www.healthfreedomusa.org

http://www.soulcast.com/post/show/166385/Schizophrenic-Day-Quil-tv-commercial

Schizophrenic Day Quil tv commercial
lfbno7 posted 8 days ago | views: 53 | Tags: medicine, healthy
Day Quil, the daytime version of Ny Quil apparently, has a love/hate relationship with Vitamin C. Their new commercial, which I’ve already seen three times so they must be spending tens of thousands on it, introduces us to a woman with a cold who is so stupid that she is a “Vitamin C freak”. Her friends ridicule her for that. The commercial makes it very clear that people who take Vitamin C are eccentric dummies to be humored but ridiculed for their stupidity.

Her co-workers are concerned that she has a cold but she isn’t doing anything about it. They want to buy her something to help her, but realizing that she is a moron Vitamin C freak, they humor her by buying Day Quil with Vitamin C. When she sees what they have bought for her, she gets a bit emotional. “You guys..” She feels so loved. She is most excited about the product because it contains Vitamin C.

A war has been going on between the attackers, the pharmaceutical industry, and the victims, the alternative health industry. The attackers spend a hell of a lot of money to discredit the alternative health industry. They have their bullshit storm troopers known as Quack Busters, hired guns to discredit products that work, products like vitamins and minerals. They attack anything that they themselves don’t produce. It’s an economic war for the dollars of consumers.

The pharmaceutical industry has successfully harmed the vitamin industry in Europe. Their home base is Germany. I’ve heard that you can’t buy vitamins in Germany comparable to the ones you can buy in America. The pharmaceutical industry used its muscle to muscle them out of the drug stores. The German pharmaceutical industry is the former I.G. Farben, makers of Zyklon B gas that murdered millions of Jews in concentration camps. I.G. Farben ran the concentration camps and the Holocaust.

I.G. Farben realized they had to change their name and split up, after the war, because Hitler wasn’t around to protect them and employ them anymore. They split into BASF, Hoechst, and Bayer. They are felons, guilty of price fixing in America. They paid nearly a billion dollars in fines for price fixing in America, and yet why should they care? They just pass the fines over to the consumers. We pay their fines. Nobody does jail time. Too bad. It should be taken a bit more seriously when you rip off America.

The pharmaceutical industry is the single biggest contributor to BOTH political parties in the U.S. Think about that. BOTH. They are not exercising their freedom of speech by supporting the party of their choice. They have bought both parties. And it shows. The price of prescription drugs is insane, and our govt does nothing about it. In fact, Bush refused to do anything about it. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

A bottle of any drug at all costs a penny or two to make, and yet may cost hundreds of dollars. These greedy bastards are not simply recovering their research and development costs, which are huge. They are way beyond that. Their profits are filthy. It is an insanely profitable business for them to be in. I’m not saying that the local drug store is ripping you off. It’s the guys at the top who are ripping you off.

Day Quil condescended to put a little Vitamin C in their product. That’s a big concession, I suppose. They are the enemy of all vitamins, as they show in their hostile commercial. If you pay close attention to their weird commercial, you hear that they are offering the minimum daily requirement of Vitamin C. That is no good at all for someone with a cold. It’s just in there for sales, not for health.

The minimum daily requirement for Vitamin C is something like 60 mgs. That’s enough to prevent scurvy in a healthy 25 year old male. It’s not enough to prevent scurvy in a healthy 25 year old female or in a healthy 50 year old male. And scurvy really isn’t the point, because it’s not that widespread anymore. The point is the common cold, and 60 mgs doesn’t do a shitting thing to prevent or minimize the strength of the common cold. For that you need many times that. You need 500 mgs a day to fight the common cold. I know of people who take thousands of mgs per day with excellent results.

I used to get two really bad colds per year. These colds got to the sore throat stage, where your throat really hurts. Then I started taking 500 mgs of Vitamin C a day. Now I only get one light cold per year, not accompanied by a sore throat. Just sneezing, runny nose, feeling blah, but nothing serious. That is what Vitamin C has done for me.

I used to constantly get the most painful sore throats. I was known for it. Those days are over. It’s been decades.

So to wrap this up, Day Quil has decided to cash in on the vitamin craze by offering a product that doesn’t contain enough vitamins to make any difference to you, and they ridicule their own product and their own customers by calling them vitamin freaks. What idiot thought up that ad campaign? However, it does show that the industry is beginning to accept vitamins, kicking and screaming as they do so, and offering shit vitamins at that.

It seems that they are saying to their own equals, yes we are betraying our class, yes we are now siding with the enemy, the vitamin enemy, but look, we are ridiculing them at the same time and we really aren’t offering them shit, just taking their money and goofing on them.

Soy-based breast cancer treatment may cause breast cancer

There is no joy in soy. Most soy comes from Monsanto GMO soybeans. If you cannot realize that, then there is absolutely no hope for you.

Soy Can cause Breast Cancer Treatment

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2008) — Women taking aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer or prevent its recurrence should think twice before also taking a soy-based dietary supplement, researchers report.

Genistein, a soy isoflavone that mimics the effects of estrogen in the body, can negate the effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors, which are designed to reduce the levels of estrogens that can promote tumor growth in some types of breast cancer.

The new study, which included researchers from the University of Illinois, Virginia Polytechnic and State University and the National Center for Toxicological Research, appears in the journal Carcinogenesis.

Aromatase inhibitors are a mainstay of breast cancer treatment in post-menopausal women. These drugs work by interfering with the enzyme aromatase, which catalyzes a crucial step in converting precursor molecules to estradiol, the main estrogen in the body.

About two-thirds of all cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the U.S. are estrogen dependent or estrogen sensitive, which means that the tumors grow more rapidly in the presence of estrogen.

Most women diagnosed with breast cancer are post-menopausal, so their ovaries are no longer producing normal levels of estrogen. Other tissues, however, produce a steroid hormone, androstenedione (AD), which – with the help of aromatases – is converted to testosterone and estrogens. The estrogens produced from AD can stimulate the growth of some types of breast cancer tumors.

The researchers conducted several trials in a mouse model of estrogen-dependent post-menopausal breast cancer.  First, they gave the mice AD, which was converted to estrogen and created a high estrogen environment.

This helped the researchers determine the maximum growth rate of the breast cancer tumors.

Next, they added Letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor widely prescribed to post-menopausal women with estrogen-dependent breast cancer. This treatment (Letrozole) effectively blocked the effects of AD and the breast cancer tumors stopped growing.

But when they added genistein (a plant estrogen or “phytoestrogen” present in many dietary supplements) to the mix, the researchers observed a dose-dependent reduction in the effectiveness of the breast cancer drug. Specifically, the tumors began to grow again. They grew fastest at the highest dietary doses of genistein.

“To think that a dietary supplement could actually reverse the effects of a very effective drug is contrary to much of the perceived benefits of soy isoflavones, and unsettling,” said William Helferich a professor of food science and human nutrition at Illinois and principal investigator on the study. “You have women who are taking these supplements to ameliorate post-menopausal symptoms and assuming that they are as safe as consuming a calcium pill or a B vitamin.”

Many women take genistein supplements to control hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. The researchers found that the doses commonly available in dietary supplements were potent enough to negate the effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors.

“These compounds have complex biological activities that are not fully understood,” Helferich said. “Dietary supplements containing soy-based phytoestrogens provide high enough dosages that it could be a significant issue to breast cancer patients and survivors.”

Plant estrogens from soy are not the only ones of concern, Helferich said. In a recent study, he and his colleagues found that certain mixtures of estrogenic botanical components and extracts marketed as supplements to assist “female libido enhancement” and sold without a prescription appeared to spur breast cancer tumor growth at low doses, while having no effect on tumors at high doses.

That study appeared last year in Food and Chemical Toxicology.

“We are just starting to understand the complex effects of the dietary supplements that contain phytoestrogens,” Helferich said. “There is an ongoing human experiment in which the outcome is unknown. These findings raise serious concerns about the potential interaction of the estrogenic dietary supplements with current breast cancer therapies.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080923134318.htm

www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2006/10apr06/10soy.html

Quote

At this point, women should not be taking high-dose soy supplements, especially those who are breast cancer survivors and women at increased risk for cancer”

Quote

Breast Cancer Risk: Does Soy Help?
Studies Suggest That Eating Soy May Slightly Lower Risk of Developing Breast Cancer

http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20060406/breast-cancer-risk-does-soy-help

Soy Causes Cancer. Soy Accelerates Cancer

All healthfoods contain soy or soy based products

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/07/21/soy-cancer-part-two.aspx

Want free food? Turn in your guns.

This gives “Food as a Weapon” a whole new meaning.

http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=44289
Ohio Police Get 1,000 Firearms in Buy-Back Programs

Posted: Monday, November 24, 2008
Updated: November 24th, 2008 02:35 PM EST
Story by newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND –

The cities of Cleveland and Akron got more than 1,000 firearms off the streets in gun buy-back events this weekend.

The city of Cleveland’s 2008 gun buy-back program netted 324 firearms Saturday at the Cleveland Convention Center, Lt. Thomas Stacho said. Last year, police collected 421 firearms.

In exchange for operable handguns, citizens got a $50 gas or food gift card, two tickets to a Cavs game and were entered into a raffle to win up to $1,000.

Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Akron said it collected about 580 guns on Friday and almost 200 on Saturday as part of its Goods for Guns buyback program.

Anyone who brought in a firearm received a $100 grocery card from Acme Fresh Markets.

The weapons, which will be destroyed, were loaded into a large plastic garbage can.

The Rev. Marc Neal said he thinks the program will help prevent accidental shootings at home. Neal said each year there are about 4,800 accidental shootings in the United States.

Sponsors of the Akron buy-back program included Akron police, Crime Stoppers, Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church and HFA Marketing Communications.

The Cleveland program was sponsored by the Cleveland police, ArcelorMittal, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial Society.

Government pays for deadly, unapproved drugs

AP IMPACT: Govt pays for deadly, unapproved drugs

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and FRANK BASS
AP
Monday, Nov 24, 2008

Dozens of deaths have been linked to medications that have never been reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness but are still covered under Medicaid, an Associated Press analysis of federal data has found.

Taxpayers have shelled out at least $200 million since 2004 for such drugs, and millions of private patients are taking them as well.

The AP analysis found that Medicaid paid nearly $198 million from 2004 to 2007 for more than 100 unapproved drugs, mostly for common conditions such as colds and pain. Data for 2008 were not available but unapproved drugs still are being sold. The AP checked the medications against FDA databases, using agency guidelines to determine if they were unapproved. The FDA says there may be thousands of such drugs on the market.

The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review of drugs in the early 1960s. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the Medicaid health program for low-income people to pay for them.

Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need help from Congress to fix it. The FDA and Medicaid are part of the Health and Human Services Department, but the FDA has yet to compile a master list of unapproved drugs, and Medicaid — which may be the biggest purchaser — keeps paying.

Full article here

Arsenic in Water at EPA Approved Standards Linked to Heart Disease

Sherry Baker,
NaturalNews
Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008

What comes to mind when you think of arsenic? For most people, it conjures up a deadly poison used by killers in fictional mystery novels and some real-life murderers, too. But the danger of this toxic substance most often comes not from some evil-doer but simply from exposure to it through our environment, including the water we drink. Unwittingly taken into the body over many years, arsenic can result in lung, bladder and skin cancers, as well as heart disease, diabetes and neurological damage.

In the U.S., many locations are known to have groundwater containing arsenic concentrations in excess of the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard of 10 parts per billion. But now comes research that suggests the EPA’s supposedly “safe” level of arsemic allowed in water supplies for public consumption isn’t safe at all. In fact, water laced with the federally-approved amount of arsenic could be causing high blood pressure and artery-clogging arhterosclerosis.

According to animal research by University of Pittsburgh scientists set to be published in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and available online now at http://www.jci.org/articles/view/35092, arsenic at EPA-approved levels for drinking water causes pores in liver blood vessels to close, potentially leading to cardiovascular disease and hypertension. This study calls into question whether present Environmental Protection Agency standards (currently based only on the risks of arsenic causing cancer) are stringent enough.

Aaron Barchowsky, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University Of Pittsburgh Graduate School Of Public Health, and his research team studied sinusoidal endothelial cells in the livers of mice. These specialized cells normally remove waste from the blood and allow nutrients to regulate metabolism. But when mice were exposed to ten to 100 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic over a period of 14 days, the arsenic increased the activity of an enzyme called NADPH oxidase and the levels of oxidants it produces. In turn, the sinusoidal cell functions became less able to remove damaged proteins from the blood. What’s more, the cells lost their characteristic pores or “windows”. Bottom line: the cells’ ability to effectively handle nutrients and waste was extremely compromised.

Although mice are, of course, tiny compared to people, their bodies are known to be far less sensitive to arsenic’s effects than humans’. And that makes the study even more worrisome. “These results are important since this type of cellular dysfunction, over time, can impair the body’s ability to clear fats and waste proteins that build up in blood vessels and can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis,” Dr. Barchowsky said in a statement prepared for the media.

The current federal standard for arsenic in public water systems not only may be too high, but it only applies to drinking water sources that serve more than 20 people. “We are especially concerned about water from individual wells in small, rural and semi-rural communities that are exempt from the EPA requirement and often contain levels of arsenic that exceed the EPA limit,” Dr. Barchowsky stated in the press release. “Our findings raise some concerns about whether current EPA-developed standards can effectively protect against cardiovascular risks posed by arsenic in drinking water.”

The study is a strong reminder that no one in the U.S. should assume that because their water supply is dubbed “safe” by the EPA that it doesn’t contain not only arsenic but other toxins. For example, most public water supplies are known to contain a host of pharmaceutical and pesticide residues,too. Testing your water or finding a proven system of safe water filtration are the only known ways to make sure you are putting pure water into your body.