Please Network.

Will people now realise that they have a legitimate claim against the UK government for deliberately poisoning their citizens. There are 6 million people in the UK alone, who have been subjected to contaminated drinking water with hexafluorosilicic acid for 60 years! Will anyone be held accountable?!

- namaste publishing -

----- Original Message -----
kings1955
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: Fluoridation is now illegal in UK - New EU legislation comes into force

Press Release

Nov 1st 2005

NAMAF - North and Midlands Against Fluoridation & The National Register of Children with Dental Fluorosis

Fluoridation in UK is now illegal

1st November 2005

New EU legislation - DIRECTIVE 2004/27/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 31 March 2004 amending Directive 2001/83/EC (see 9 below) has an impact on all existing fluoridation schemes which currently affect 6 million people in the UK who are forced to drink, cook with and bathe in fluoridated water. l All ingestible substances are either foods or medicines, when fluoride - in ANY form - is added to water with the intent to medicate then that water becomes a medicine, and must comply with the regulations relating to the registration, licensing, sale and administration of medicines.

This is now an absolute requirement, and enforceable under EU legislation, the UK Government's dispensation for silicofluorides to be used to medicate dental caries is without substance.

Douglas Cross - Environmental Analyst - EurProBiol,CBiol,MIBiol,BSc also comments

"From 31st October '05 it will be illegal to to use silicofluorides with the intent to medicate. Nomination of silicofluorides by the UK government for fluoridation does not constitute the issue of a marketing authorisation which is mandatory for any substance used with the intent of treating or preventing any medical condition."

Professor Vyvyan Howard, toxico-pathologist in the Centre for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Ulster said “I am glad that there now appears to be a legal framework to test the dubious practice of mass medication via the water supply. There are so many unanswered questions relating to the addition of hexafluorosilicic acid to the water supply, particularly to the unborn and infants, that it is my personal and professional opinion that the practice should cease until the basic toxicological research required has been performed”.

Cllr. Susan King - Secretary of NAMAF is delighted that the new EC legislation will bring to an end the deliberate pollution of water supplies with hexafluorosilicic acid at the rate of 1 part per million. For the last 60 years fluoride has been condoned as the 'protected pollutant' with unknown effects on our general health and the health of the environment.

She added

'There is now compelling evidence from the US that fluorides are carcinogenic linking them with bone cancer affecting young males. Water suppliers are not pharmacists! Its totally unacceptable to add a known cumulative protoplasmic poison to our tapwater. The fluoride dosing equipment must be switched off now!'

For more information please contact:

Cllr. Susan King - Secretary NAMAF Mobile Tel: (07976) 25536444 (0)1455) 828778 e mail: kings1955@aol.com or Margaret Cooper - Co-ordinator National Register of Children with Dental Fluorosis Mobile Tel: (07930) 810630 or Tel: 44 (0115) 9526548

Notes for Editors

1) Press release on first Consumer Council for Water meeting - Birmingham Nov 1st 2005
http://www2.watervoice.org.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/ccwater605

Water supplies top the agenda at first CC Water meeting in public

2) DWI - Press release on formation of Consumer Council for Water - CCWater (replacing Water Voice)
http://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumer/ccwater.shtm

3) Doug Cross - analysis of implications of Codified Pharmaceutical Directive in relation to EC definition of a food.

The medicinal regulations are essentially unchanged from the wording of the 2001 Codified Pharmaceuticals Directive. However, the Food Directive has more recently been updated, and now provides additional confirmation of the status of 'normal' drinking water, and therefore of fluoridated water as a medicine. Remember, any ingestible substance is either a food or a medicine.

Note the use of the phrase 'Water is ingested directly or indirectly like other foods,' in section 6 of the Preamble. This is also saying that water is a food, like any other. The key ruling is the European Court of Justice's decision that the intent to medicate renders any chemical so used a medicinal substance.

'REGULATION (EC) No 178/2002 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 28 January2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety'.

Article 2 Definition of ‘food’ For the purposes of this Regulation, ‘food’ (or ‘foodstuff’) means any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans. ‘Food’ includes drink, chewing gum and any substance, including water, intentionally incorporated into the food during its manufacture, reparation or treatment. It includes water after the point of compliance as defined in Article 6 of Directive 98/83/EC and without prejudice to the requirements of Directives 80/778/EEC and 98/83/EC.

Preamble (6) Water is ingested directly or indirectly like other foods, thereby contributing to the overall exposure of a consumer to ingested substances, including chemical and microbiological contaminants. However, as the quality of water intended for human consumption is already controlled by Council Directives 80/778/EEC (5) and 98/83/EC (6), it suffices to consider water after the point of compliance referred to in Article 6 of Directive 98/83/EC.

So, the quality of drinking water is covered by the EU food and water regulations as long as it does not contain any substance added with the intent to medicate any medical condition. Therefore, the presence of calcium fluoride in drinking water, as long as it is derived from natural sources, does not alter the status of drinking water as a food whose quality is regulated under the Water Quality Regulations.

However, immediately any form of fluoride, whether 'natural' or artificial, and including those fluorides that do have medicinal Marketing Authorisations, is added to water with the intent to prevent or reduce dental caries, that water ceases to be a food and becomes a medicine.

Neither authorized fluorides (potassium and sodium fluoride) nor any form of silicofluoride have Marketing Authorizations under the EU or UK legislations. Their use with the intent to medicate is therefore illegal - and absolutely so - from the end of this month.

So any authority faced with this illegal administration of an unlicensed medicine as from that date can, and should, apply for an injunction against any water company actively fluoridating its product, or proposing to do so. This action can also be taken against any Strategic Health Authority proposing to order a water company to carry out this illegal act.

4) Latest news on Water Fluoridation - including fluoride/bone cancer link

http://www.fluoridealert.org

Fluoride Action Network - Prof Paul Connett - Chemistry Dept, St Lawrence University, New York

5) TIME MAGAZINE Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118379,00.html

Not in My Water Supply

It hardens teeth and prevents cavities, but 60 years after it began, fluoridation is meeting new resistance

By MARGOT ROOSEVELT / BELLINGHAM

6) British Fluoridation Society http://www.bfsweb.org/

7) British Dental Association http://www.bda-dentistry.org.uk/ - see Fluoride links page for details of how to find York Review on Water Fluoridation, Medical Research Council report on water fluoridation etc

8) Fluoride Helpline - Manchester
http://www.fluorideinformation.com

9) DIRECTIVE 2004/27/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 31 March 2004 amending Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use Article 1 Directive 2001/83/EC is hereby amended as follows:
1) Article 1 shall be amended as follows:

(b) point 2 shall be replaced by the following:

‘2. Medicinal product:
(a) Any substance or combination of substances presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings; or

(b) Any substance or combination of substances which may be used in or administered to human beings either with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.’


From ECOTERRA Intl.

Dow Agrosciences in New Zealand
http://www.corporatecrimeofthecentury.com/page/page/1942123.htm


Informant: ECOTERRA Intl.

by Lynn Landes

The problem is worldwide. From the Ukraine to the United States, many voters no longer believe that their votes are counted correctly. And that's regardless of whether paper ballots or voting machines are used. The problem is the "secret" ballot. Secret ballots are anonymous ballots. They can be easily replaced, altered or destroyed, particularly if voting machines are used. Even if voters 'verify' their ballots and even if audits are performed, widespread vote tampering can still occur with relative ease and little risk of discovery because there still remains no effective method to 'certify' the authenticity of ballots, no way to identify an individual ballot and link it to an individual voter. With few exceptions, election officials around the world are certifying election results based on anonymous and untraceable ballots. And contrary to a growing legion of election statisticians, exit polls are not an adequate check on election results. It's ridiculous when you think about it, using anonymous exit polls to verify anonymous ballot results. The entire voting process should be 100% transparent. To that end, I am proposing a protocol for Open Voting with Total Transparency (OVTT)...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Landes1105.htm

by Shepherd Bliss

The Bush administration may still try to deny that global warming is human-caused. But the WSJ accepts that climate change is happening. Jacob Hale Russell and Jess McCuan write, “Warmer temperatures melt glaciers and cause water to expand, making sea levels rise. Those rising waters can flood low areas and erode sandy beaches and fragile coasts.” Scientists, in fact, have documented that the melting of the polar caps and glaciers may eventually threaten the Earth’s capacity to support human habitation. The WSJ advises the investors and travelers who look to them for daily guidance with respect to risks and benefits, including which islands to visit and which to avoid. But whereas even Bush has recently advocated energy conservation, the WSJ’s concern seems to be to lead its readers to the best destinations, before global warming further ruins them...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Bliss1105.htm

by Mike Whitney

How did we stoop so low? As if Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo weren’t bad enough, the Bush administration has added another layer of shame to our national disgrace. Dana Priest’s Washington Post article, “ The CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons,” paints a sobering picture of an administration that has abandoned any trace of integrity and completely run amok.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html

The United States has become the #1 exporter of torture in the world today with Bush serving as its foremost champion...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Whitney1105.htm

The Threat of Hope in Latin America

by Naomi Klein

Facing mass protests in Argentina yesterday during the Summit of the Americas, George Bush saw that the spirit of that revolt is alive and well. And although Bush didn't take up Hugo Chávez's offer to hold an open debate on the merits of "free trade", that debate has already happened in the continent's streets and ballot boxes, and Bush has lost...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Klein1105.htm

Source: http://members.aol.com/gotemf3/MB/index.htm

Informant: Iris Atzmon


(Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun) FULL STORY

Monday, October 17th, 2005

By: Robson Fletcher
rfletcher@brandonsun.com

Milt Bowling, left, the executive director of the Electro Magnetic Radiation Task Force of Canada, chats with MTS representative Reg Parkin prior to the start of Sunday’s public forum. (Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun).

Concerned residents met with representatives from Manitoba Telecom Services yesterday to discuss a proposed cellphone tower in the city’s west end.

The telephone company tried to reduce worries that the tower will be an eyesore and allay fears about its safety.

Jeff Nelson, a wireless planning manager with MTS, said the tower’s maximum output of 48 watts is far too small to pose a health risk to humans, especially since the transmitter will be at a height of 36 metres.

“If you go below the tower or near the vicinity of the tower, there’s very little energy coming down,” he said.

Unlike larger cellphone transmitters that emit microwaves, the proposed tower would emit lower-energy radio waves, Nelson added.

Even those emissions would be in much smaller volumes than most radio station transmitters, which can emit up to 100,000 watts.

The proposed tower’s emissions would be one one-millionth of the level deemed safe by Health Canada, Nelson added.

Still, an opponent of the presence of such towers wasn’t convinced.

Milt Bowling, executive director of the Electro Magnetic Radiation Task Force of Canada, travelled from Vancouver to attend the meeting.

He said the Health Canada safety guidelines are based on an assumption that the only way for low-frequency electromagnetic waves to harm human beings is through an increase in tissue temperature.

There may be other ways in which people could be affected by the constant presence of an emission tower, Bowling said.

“The generalization by many that the guidelines protect human beings from harm by any and all mechanisms is not justified,” he said, citing a letter written by Norbert Hankin of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States.

West end resident Jim McCrae said regardless of whether there is an actual risk, people are worried.

“They’re genuinely concerned about health issues,” he said.

McCrae moderated yesterday’s meeting but has also publicly expressed his opposition to the tower.

“I live in that neighbourhood,” he said yesterday. “I don’t want a tower like that at the entrance to my community.”

MTS is considering putting the tower at the intersection of Cherry Crescent and 34th Street, but project manager Reg Parkin said nothing is set in stone.

“We have made no decision on the actual location other than just the general area,” he said.

As more and more people in Brandon buy and use cellphones, the company needs a tower somewhere in the vicinity to improve its cellular coverage in the west end, according to Nelson.

“We have to increase the capacity of our network,” he said. “Each tower can only provide so much capacity for conversations, and the cell sites that are surrounding this area are quite overloaded right now.”

© 2005 The Brandon Sun

http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=7257

Britain's involvement in the Iraq war has "partly radicalized and fueled" the rise of home-grown terrorism, London's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, says.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110505X.shtml

A hemispheric summit meant to help create jobs and spread democracy throughout the region opened yesterday with large-scale anti-US demonstrations and deep divisions among participating nations about the Bush administration's expanded free-trade agenda.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110505Z.shtml

Prince Charles: Global warming is mankind's greatest challenge
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104254/

Ripples of Global Warming Spread Outward
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122337/

New Study Warns of Total Loss of Arctic Tundra
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1112096/

Mighty Amazon close to running out of water
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104277/

Top 10 Halloween Horribles
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1108968/

Malawi Is Burning, and Deforestation Erodes Economy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1112111/

The International Day of Action to Save the Boreal is here
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1116438/

Most Offspring Died When Mother Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1119626/

Vote USA 2004
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Vote+USA+2004/

Iraq War
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Irak-Krieg/

Is Iran next?
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next

Tsunami
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Tsunami/

RFID
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/RFID/

EMF-Omega-News 5. November 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122804/

Localized Effects of Microwave Radiation on the Intact Eye Lens in Culture Conditions
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1102981/

Ets1 oncogene induction by ELF-modulated 50 MHz radiofrequency electromagnetic field
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1108073/

Health effects associated with mobile base stations in communities
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1121978/

Ericsson and Nokia loose a High Court case in USA - Class action ahead?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1110057/

Cell phone class action cases to proceed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1114156/

Swedish Environmental High Court Judgment: Mobile masts and aerials for 3G constitute an environment dangerous activity
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104115/

Am I electrosensitive?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104199/

To the policeauthority in Stockholm County: Report of criminal activity
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1105923/

Freeze on all phone masts near schools
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104057/

Experts to Recommend Shifting to Small Cellular Antennas
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1112050/

Relief as phone mast plans are thrown out
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1114243/

Withholding acceptance of something that so many people are suffering from will not help the public 'trust' the reliability of the HPA's knowledge and 'protection role'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1115204/

Fears over 'sneak' Tetra mast allayed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1117048/

Mobile MPs: the health debate
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1117056/

How long will the guinea pigs survive?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1117889/

We don't want a mast in our road
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1118013/

Experts put a health warning on 'electrical allergy' advice
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1118734/

Crucial visit on 'eyesore' mast
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1119432/

Plans scrapped for mast
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1119443/

Fight stepped up over mobile phone mast
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1119945/

Covert Strategy in British Science Policy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1108878/

Effets des CEM sur la thyroïde
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1106690/

Manifestation des Riverains du Gouttet TASSIN
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1106534/

Reportage et Annexes sur un Contrôle de Mesures Officielles
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1110736/

ASL: Picture of the month - L'image du mois
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1115611/

Download the logo for passive Telephony - Télécharger le logo de la Téléphonie passive
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1119850/

News from Mast Sanity
http://tinyurl.com/aotw3

Omega-News Collection 5. November 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122809/

President Bush arrived in this beach resort city on Thursday night for a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders after one of the worst weeks of his presidency, only to be greeted by strong anti-American sentiment and taunts from Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chavez.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405L.shtml

Mexico has become the 100th country to ratify the Treaty of Rome's provision creating the International Criminal Court. In so doing, Mexico has refused to sign an immunity agreement with the United States, thus joining the list of Latin American countries which have rejected the Bush administration's attempts to abort the Court.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405H.shtml

Representative Tom DeLay asked lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request which led the lobbyist to pursue at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to a newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405D.shtml

A Louisiana congressman says e-mails written by the government's emergency response chief, Michael Brown, while Hurricane Katrina raged, show a lack of concern for the unfolding tragedy and a failure in leadership.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405B.shtml

The House Republican leadership has delayed a vote on a proposed ban against cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody, and Democrats say the move is an effort to spare Vice President Dick Cheney an embarrassing defeat.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405A.shtml

U.S. Representative Tom DeLay asked Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through an Abramoff foundation, the latest evidence of the ties between DeLay and the indicted lobbyist, e-mails released by a Senate committee show.

http://tinyurl.com/b4k6w


From Information Clearing House

Tom DeLay (R-TX) "filed a report with the Clerk of the House of Representatives indicating he received free travel valued at $13,998.55 from Fox News Sunday for 'officially connected travel' on October 1-2, 2005.

http://tinyurl.com/a3ot7


From Information Clearing House

Protests began in Argentina three days before Bush’s arrival and a massive security clampdown is in place for the talks. More than 7,500 police officers erected a security ring around summit hotels and patrolled the streets and beaches. Coast guard boats watched the shoreline and air space was restricted. Most schools canceled classes.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/04/1532200


From Information Clearing House

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bush's chief antagonist in Latin America, told reporters the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas is "dead.'' Chavez said he came "to bury'' the trade pact.

http://tinyurl.com/8qmc5


From Information Clearing House

Venezuela possesses everything that makes it "strategically" important: it has oil; it is leftist; it is critical of the United States.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10881.htm

Pressure was growing on the US and its new allies in eastern Europe last night amid allegations that the CIA has been interrogating al-Qaida suspects at former Soviet camps in Poland and Romania.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1627414,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Varieties of Imperial Aggression: Recently, two foreign courts issued warrants for the arrest of US government personnel protected, in common with terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles, by the US authorities.

Brian Bogart: History of the U.S. War Machine:

From NSC 68 to 2005: NSC68 was not a document specifically written to take or keep power from America's common people; the people have been isolated from power throughout our history. But NSC68 was the blueprint for shifting from social concerns to military-industrial profit, further elevating corporations to -- and further distancing the people from -- power.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10883.htm

By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4421



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

He said Bush has made such significant changes to U.S. foreign policy and human rights doctrine, resulting in precipitous declines in the country's standing abroad, that he felt compelled to write "Our Endangered Values." It is Carter's 20th book since he was defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-03-carter-bush_x.htm


From Information Clearing House

People around the world who care for justice and hope for a more human and humane world, should support the Iraqis in their struggle to recover their sovereignty, and ask for the complete and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraqi soil along with compensation paid for all the material and human losses Iraq has experienced since the illegal invasion began.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10876.htm

A former US marine has told a jury that he was given "carte blanche" to kill and was told to "shoot first and ask questions later" while serving in Iraq following the outbreak of war in 2003.

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=186151705&p=y86y5z5zx&n=186152591


From Information Clearing House

By Brian Bogart

Making and selling weapons has been America’s top industry since 1950, that we have sustained this weapons-based economy by supplying more than 200 wars in 55 years, and that some 310,000 companies and 400 colleges are on the Pentagon’s ever expanding payroll.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10882.htm

By Agence France-Presse

Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for directives that led to U.S. soldiers' abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former top State Department official said Thursday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10879.htm

----- Original Message -----

From: John F. Prior
To: Illinois Children's Mental Health Project
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 8:08 AM
Subject: [icmhp] Fwd: Big Pharma's Shameful Secret_Bloomberg News / Most Clinical Trials Stopped Early for "perceived" benefit later turned out falsel_JAMA



VERACARE:

From: VERACARE
Subject: Big Pharma's Shameful Secret_Bloomberg News / Most Clinical Trials Stopped Early for "perceived" benefit later turned out falsel_JAMA
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 14:10:29 -0500

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP) Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability http://www.ahrp.org

FYI

A six part Special Report by Bloomberg News reveals that "Every year, drug companies spend $14 billion to test experimental substances on humans. Across the U.S., the centers that do the testing--and the regulators who watch them--allow scores of human test subjects to be injured or killed."

Big Pharma's Shameful Secret--
http://www.bloomberg.com/specialreport/ provides corroborating evidence to support our consistent criticism over the years about corrupt clinical trial practices and a dysfunctional system that protects itself while sacrificing both the integrity of research findings and the safey of human subjects--whether they are patients or healthy volunteers. See, for example, "dirty dozen" corrupt research review practices:
http://www.ahrp.org/testimonypresentations/armymeddept.php

The Bloomberg Special Report: is a massive indictment of the pharmaceutical industry and its corrupt practices which would not be possible without the complicity of the stakeholders in government and academia. This report is an indictment of those who profit from the exploitation of desperate, poor, and disenfranchised people--immigrants, children, homeless people, and others who are used and abused as guinea pigs.

Drug Industry Human Testing Masks Death, Injury, Compliant FDA:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aspHJ_sFen1s&refer=home#

War Hero's Death at Houston Clinic Follows Years of FDA Neglect:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport&sid=aAC1o70dkzcI&refer=news#

North Carolina Artist Hobbled After Doctor Suggested Drug Test:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport&sid=aGp_iOhE1Mo4&refer=news#

Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't Warned:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport&sid=a13F_Mo6vzAs&refer=news#

Doctor Who Died in Drug Test Was Betrayed by System He Trusted:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport&sid=agPpkV1bu7OU&refer=news#

Miami Test Center Lures Poor Immigrants as Human Guinea Pigs:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport&sid=amgWGeDrNJtg&refer=news#

Company CEOs of 15 pharma companies refused to be interviewed.

The report also lays bare the utterly dysfunctional IRB gatekeeping system whose inherent conflicts of interest only members of the IRB community fail to recognize. Indeed, Dr. Greg Koski, former head of OHRP, the federal agency that is supposed to oversee federally funded clinical trials, and the IRB system, now acknowledges: ``It's not really a `few bad apples' problem. We need to create a system that grows better apples.''

The Bloomberg report focuses on commercial IRBs and their rubber stamping approval--i.e., service for pay. To illustrate but one example: Angela Bowen, who runs Western IRB, the largest commercial IRB in the country, oversaw clinical trials "for which doctors were criminally charged and jailed for lying to the FDA and endangering the lives of trial participants." But no actiion was taken against Western. Owen told Bloomberg reporters that she "didn't see human safety issues in those trials."

This Special Report also takes a critical look at the FDA and its colossal failure to protect human subjects of clinical trials. Dr. Joanne Rhoads, director of FDA's Scientific Investigations acknowledges FDA's inability to monitor clinical trials for safety: "You cannot relhy on the inspection process to get quality into the system. I know many people find this not OK, but that's just the trurh."

Dr. Michael Hensley, a pediatrician who was an FDA investigator (1977-1982) says the agency "has become less active in clinical trial oversight in recent years....The folks at the FDA stopped enforcing the rules several years ago. The FDA's bacckbone has been Jell-O."

However, the Bloomberg Report suffers from one major flaw--which is the illusion that academic IRBs are more reputable and reliable in ensuring the safety of human subjects than those not affiliated with academia. This illusion has been woven into the Report by several disingenuous academics who have themselves actively supported efforts of the research industrial complex--a tight and secretive partnership of stakeholers comprising pharma-government-and academia--to circumvent existing federal regulatory safeguards for human subjects.

For example, the Report cites academics who supported efforts aimed at redefining "consent" and "assent" to research by a minor. Assent is essentially an uniformed agreement by a child to do what grown ups tell him / her. Academics in public office and on government advisory committees supported efforts to circumvent parental authority and parental responsibility-- in order to facilitate research. Parental responsibility is to protect children from participation in research which in their judgement is not the children's best interest.

But academic research stakeholders rationalized as follows: "as we understandably increase the extent to which needed research is conducted on vulnerable populations, such as children, it may well be necessary to redefine our notions of consent and assent for purposes of recruiting subjects." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (2000) 28:330-331 See:
http://www.ahrp.org/children/RiskBearingChildren.php and Testimony submitted to OHRP (2001)
http://www.ahrp.org/testimonypresentations/sharavCassidyOHRP.php

It can be argued that academic based IRBs deserve no less condemnation than do commercial IRBs--perhaps even more. Academic affiliations have been used to mislead the public into a false sense of trust. A case in point is the the government sponsored, multi-million dollar ARDS experiment that was conducted at academic based institutions belonging to the ARDS Network. In this controversial experiment 861 critically ill patients with acute lung injury were exposed to unjustifiable risks of death. The experiment violated the patients' fundamental human right to informed consent; as well as just about every federal research safeguard, resulting in preventable human casualties.

Thus, academia--which is under the influence of does not confer higher ethical standards in clinical trials-

USA Today reports (below) that an analysis by Dr. Victor Montori (Mayo Clinic) of 143 published randomized clinical trials that "were stopped early," whose investigators reported in joournal articles that the trials were stopped because "the treatment looked so effective"-- turned out NOT to be effective: "Unfortunately, what looks too good to be true often is".

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974 veracare@ahrp.org

Posted 11/1/2005 10:13 PM Updated 11/1/2005 11:13 PM

Study: Drug testing halted by early success doesn't help patients
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

There are many reasons to stop testing a promising new medical treatment early, but patients seldom benefit from the decision, a study reports today. Yet the practice is becoming increasingly common, often spurring unjustified enthusiasm about new treatments, an international research team writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This is the first time this issue is being raised," says lead author Victor Montori, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic who conducted the research while at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "When we talk to our colleagues ... they're shocked. There is clearly reason to be concerned."

By scouring the scientific literature published over the past 30 years, the authors identified 143 randomized clinical trials - considered the gold standard of medical research - that were stopped early because the treatment looked so effective. Half of the trials dealt with treatments for heart disease, cancer, HIV, AIDS or critical care.

"There is every incentive to stop early," Montori says. For example, trials' financers can save money by cutting them short. And many trials halted early for benefit end up getting published in top medical journals, generating great excitement among investors, doctors and patients, Montori says.

Finally, he says, the doctors conducting trials of promising treatments are eager to give them to all study participants, not just those randomly assigned to get them.

Unfortunately, what looks too good to be true often is, Montori's team writes. The authors cite a 1999 study of a beta blocker drug in vascular surgery patients at risk for a heart attack. No one on the beta blocker had a non-fatal heart attack, and only two died of heart problems. Of those not on the drug, nine had a non-fatal heart attack and nine died. Montori calls that "an unbelievably large treatment effect" because the study was halted after only 20 patients had had a heart attack or died.

Subsequent similar trials of beta blockers that enrolled more patients and therefore saw more deaths and heart attacks have not found a benefit, let alone such a dramatic one, Montori says. But based on the 1999 study's findings, patients at risk for a heart attack are routinely given beta blockers before surgery.

The authors found that the fewer "events," such as heart attacks, the greater the benefit. Researchers must resist looking at their data too early, Montori says, "because you will pick up trends, not truth."

In an accompanying editorial, Stuart Pocock of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine writes: "The message is clear: Most trials stopped early for benefit should not have been stopped at that point."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-11-01-drug-testing-trials_x.htm



Informant: Andrea Ball

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfema044497219nov04,0,1059062.story?coll=ny-uspolitics-headlines

See also:

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown's "Katrina" Emails
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/05_USA/051104.BrownEmails.pdf

Congressman Charlie Melancon Analysizes Brown's Emails
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/05_USA/051104.AnalBrownEmails.pdf


Informant: Andrea Ball

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/65791

Health risks of Wi-Fi and WLAN on our health
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122031/

The US Senate passed a sweeping budget bill Thursday approving more than $10 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110405HA.shtml

Mired in political corruption of one variety or another, hamstrung (economically and spiritually) by an unjust war, and publicly shamed by the most despicable display of institutionalized racism since the slave era (as demonstrated by the unforgivably inept response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster), the Bush administration has lost whatever moral voice it might have had.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405S.shtml

For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405R.shtml

Three Democratic congressmen Thursday asked Vice President Dick Cheney to testify on Capitol Hill about the disclosure of a covert CIA officer's identity, saying "there are many wide-ranging questions about your involvement."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405Q.shtml

Congress is about to wade again into the political quagmire over salvage timber and whether environmental rules should be adjusted to allow for quicker sales of dead and dying trees.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110405EB.shtml

Al Gore declares that global warming "is a planetary emergency that now threatens human civilization on multiple fronts." He pays tribute to the heroes and warriors of the environmental movement who were honored in the article, "Climate Heroes and Warriors," written by Salon.com and Rolling Stone.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110405EA.shtml

Reading Between the Lines of the Libby Indictment.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1104-32.htm

http://www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=47897
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/04/heroes/


Informant: NHNE

A brand new poll reports 53% of Americans think Bush should be impeached for lying about Iraq, while only 42% disagree.

That's what I call a real mandate!

So why haven't Democrats in Congress introduced Articles of Impeachment yet?

I don't know. For months, many of us have called and emailed our Representatives urging them to impeach Bush and Cheney. I know they hear us loud and clear - but they're not responding.

But now that the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has crossed 2,000, along with countless innocent Iraqis, I'm more determined than ever to impeach Bush and Cheney as soon as possible.

And I believe we can succeed if you'll help me.
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/edonate.cfm?campaign=impeachpac

Today I started a new Political Action Committee called ImpeachPAC http://impeachpac.org .

Its mission is simple: to raise money for Democratic House and Senate candidates who support the immediate and simultaneous impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney for the lies they told to launch the disastrous war in Iraq.

If we can make this a really important PAC - like Moveon or EMILY's List - I am certain many Democrats in Congress will wake up and get busy drafting Articles of Impeachment.

That's why I need your help.
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/edonate.cfm?campaign=impeachpac

I have set a goal of $100,000 to launch ImpeachPAC. If we can raise $100,000 in a short amount of time - perhaps two weeks - we will send shockwaves through the White House, Congress, and the media too.

They will know we're serious - and determined to succeed.
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/edonate.cfm?campaign=impeachpac

We unveiled ImpeachPAC.org at noon today by spreading the word across the progressive blogosphere. As I write at 6 p.m., we have already raised $1,000 towards our goal.

I know we can do it. Please join now by clicking here.
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/edonate.cfm?campaign=impeachpac

Thank you, Bob Fertik

YOUR ZOGBY POLL FINDS 53% SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT

Today Zogby published the results of a poll that you paid for (through AfterDowningStreet.org) asking Americans about impeachment.

The results were stunning: By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq.

In June, when Zogby asked the same question, 42% supported impeachment, while 50% did not. That's an astonishing swing of 19% (from -8% to +11%) in only four months.

If this trend continues, impeachment support will reach 60% in January, 65% in March, and 70% in April. How can an unelected war criminal possibly cling to power when 70% want him impeached?

Still, the overwhelming - and growing - support for impeachment remains the nation's best-kept secret. We can't even get the pollsters to ask the impeachment question unless we pay them. Isn't that an outrage? You can contact all of the pollsters here:

http://www.democrats.com/bush-impeachment-polls

WHIG INQUIRY VOTE ON WEDNESDAY (WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP)

Thanks to your hard work, 63 Congress Members have signed on as co-sponsors in the last three days of H. Res 505, a Resolution of Inquiry into the marketing of the war by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

The International Relations Committee will vote on the Resolution at its meeting at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 9.

We need volunteer organizers during the next week to help pass H. Res 505. Contact Sophie, Field Coordinator, at 415-789-8469 or lobbykit@yahoo.com

Yesterday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi introduced a similar resolution to the full House, which was defeated by a party-line vote of 220-191. Please thank Rep. Pelosi. sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

Talking Points on H. Res. 505:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/points

Email Your Congress Member:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/72

More Information and How to Get Involved:
http://www.AfterDowningStreet.org/whig

STOP FUNDING THE WAR

Action Alert from Progressive Democrats of America http://pdamerica.org : Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) has introduced legislation to stop funding the deployment of U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq. The bill would allow Defense Department funds to be used only to provide for: the safe and orderly withdrawal of all troops; consultations with other governments, NATO, and the UN regarding international forces; and financial assistance and equipment to either Iraqi security forces and/or international forces. In addition, the bill would not prohibit or restrict non-defense funding to carry out reconstruction in Iraq. Take action here: http://tinyurl.com/dwsww

BUSH AND NIXON (!) BATTLE FOR "LEAST-LOVED PRESIDENT"

Check out these graphs comparing the popularity of these two unpopular White House occupants. Who will win the race to the bottom? http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4443

MASSACHUSETTS FORUM SATURDAY: IRAQ EXIT STRATEGY

Please join us for an exciting event: A panel discussion with Congressman Jim McGovern and John Bonifaz, Co-Founder of After Downing Street. Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Phil Johnston will moderate the forum. At their annual state convention in June, Massachusetts Democrats unanimously approved a resolution calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

The panelists will discuss how the U.S. got involved in the war, the present situation in Iraq, and our exit strategy.

What: A panel discussion on the Iraq War Who: Congressman Jim McGovern John Bonifaz PDA National Advisory Board Phil Johnston Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman When: Saturday, November 5 from 7-9 p.m. Where: Turners Fall High School, 222 Turnpike Road, Montague For more information contact Les or Suzie Patlove at 413-625-9388

PARTY WITH PDA's ADVISORY BOARD

Join us in Washington, D.C., for PDA's Advisory Board Party and Fundraiser! Board members already confirmed to attend include Chair Mimi Kennedy, Vice-Chair Joel Segal, Steve Cobble, Acie Byrd, Joe Libertelli, Greg Moore, Cindy Sheehan, David Swanson, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., Rep. Diane Watson, and Rep. Lynn Woolsey. Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Location: National Democratic Club, 30 Ivy St., SE, Washington, D.C. Events Include:
4:00pm – 5:00pm Reception with Speakers
5:00pm - 6:30pm Public Event Ticket Prices: $250 includes Reception and Public Event $100 for Public Event only Order tickets:
https://www.pdamerica.org/board-tickets.php

TELL CONGRESS TO IMPEACH GEORGE BUSH
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/65

TELL CONGRESS TO DEMAND DICK CHENEY'S RESIGNATION
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/73

URGE THE SENATE TO REJECT SAM ALITO
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/74

FORWARD THIS INFORMATION



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

04. November 2005

Zu den familienpolitischen Entscheidungen der Koalitionsverhandlungen zwischen SPD und Union erklärt Monika von der Lippe, Bundesfrauenreferentin der Linkspartei.PDS:

Die Kinderarmut in Deutschland ist erschreckend hoch und wächst weiter mit den geplanten Änderungen von Hartz IV. Doch statt diesen skandalösen Zustand zu beseitigen, will die Koalition die Mehrwertsteuer erhöhen Familien zahlen dabei am meisten drauf. Die Linkspartei will dagegen das Kindergeld auf 250 Euro erhöhen und als ersten Schritt zur Einführung einer Kindergrundsicherung die Anrechnung des Kindergeldes bei Arbeitslosengeld und Sozialhilfe abschaffen. Dies ist ein vernünftiger Vorschlag, um Kinderarmut zu bekämpfen. Grundsätzlich begrüßen wir dagegen die geplante Einführung eines lohnabhängigen Elterngelds. Das Ziel, Frauen durch kürzere Abwesenheit aus dem Beruf nicht mehr für ein Taschengeld vom Arbeitsmarkt zu verdrängen, wie auch die größere Beteiligung von Vätern an der Erziehung, wird jedoch nur dann erreicht werden können, wenn die Lohnschere zwischen den Geschlechtern geschlossen und bessere Vereinbarkeit gewährleistet wird, etwa durch ein Gleichstellungsgesetz für die Privatwirtschaft und einen Rechtsanspruch auf Kinderbetreuung für alle Kinder. Außerdem fehlt dem geplanten Elterngeld bislang eine Existenz sichernde Untergrenze. Doch statt ihr Augenmerk auf die Situation armer Kinder zu richten, steht das Elterngeld als einzige Neuerung für Familien unter Finanzierungsvorbehalt. Während die Steuerentlastung für Unternehmen beschlossene Sache ist, werden Familien durch die Erhöhung der Mehrwertsteuer gemolken.

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=30729

BIRD FLU

An Epidemic of Overreaction /The scare Scenario / The Fear Epidemic

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP) Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability http://www.ahrp.org

Dr. Marc Siegel, a practicing internist and an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and a subscriber to the AHRP Infomails, forwarded 3 recent Op Ed articles he has published--in The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. Dr. Siegel puts the Avian flu in perspective and assures the public that at this point the Avian flu poses primarily an epidemic of fear generated by overreaction.

"If Americans are afraid of avian flu now, imagine what will happen if a single scrawny, flu-ridden migratory bird somehow manages to reach our shores. This is how fear works, how the fear epidemic — as opposed to a flu pandemic — spreads. Fear is supposed to be our warning system against imminent dangers, but as a deep-rooted emotion, it interferes with our ability to make sound judgments. And if anything is contagious right now, it's judgment clouded by fear. Immediate government overreaction creates this cycle of fear: The public reacts and calls for action. Health officials, hearing the public and media cries, look to quiet these generated fears with knee- jerk health policy (such as stockpiling a product with a relatively short shelf life: Both Tamiflu and bird flu vaccines are perishable and will have to be discarded if not used in three years)."

"Most human influenzas begin as bird flus, but many bird flus never change to a form that can harm us. Though flu pandemics occur on the average of three times per century, and we are clearly overdue (the last was in 1968), there is absolutely no indication that the transformation to mass human killer is about to happen. The threat is theoretical. Unfortunately, the attention it has received makes it feel like something terrible is inevitable. Why the overreaction? For one thing, direct comparisons to the Spanish flu of 1918, a scourge that killed more than 50 million people worldwide, has alarmed the public unnecessarily"

"But there are many differences between 1918 and now. Many of the
1918 flu victims died of pneumonia because of a lack of antibiotics, which we now have in ample supply. There were also no flu vaccines or antiviral drugs back then, and people lived (and died) in wartime conditions of deprivation and sometimes squalor."


October 24, 2005 THE NATION

The Scare Scenario

Dr. Marc Siegel

When I see the posters for the soon-to-be released Chicken Little movie, I have to wonder what the lead character would have to say about the current bird flu craze. Would he say the sky is about to fall on him? Or would he come to his senses and understand that even as an American chicken, he is more likely to be killed by panic than by the flu?

The American public is profiting the least from the ongoing hysteria surrounding avian influenza. The drug manufacturer Roche is suddenly in great demand for its antiviral drug Tamiflu, which has only been tested against bird flu in the test tube and has no current use, because the virus has not mutated to a form that can easily be transmitted among humans. A common misconception--that Tamiflu is some kind of a bird flu vaccine rather than an antiviral that at best decreases symptoms of infection--has led to a lot of impulse buying. As with the antibiotic Cipro, prescribed to treat anthrax back in 2001, Tamiflu is becoming a treatment for the fear of a virus rather than the virus itself.

Another main profiteer of the bird flu panic is our federal government. Driven to avoid another disaster debacle like Hurricane Katrina, the Bush Administration is galloping to the rescue in advance of anything happening. The President's recent suggestion that he might use the military to control an influenza pandemic reminds us how quickly civil liberties can be sacrificed in an emergency. But more than that, it is a hysterical suggestion. Pandemics infiltrate a community person by person. A show of military force would likely cause a panic that would spread a virus more quickly.

Most bird flus don't mutate sufficiently to pass to humans. And those that do are usually responsible for our yearly influenza outbreak. On the average of three times per century, a mutated avian influenza is a bad enough bug to cause a pandemic. The bird flu of current concern, A(H5N1), is a big killer among birds but is still several mutations away from being able to routinely infect us. The estimated sixty-five people who have died of it over the past two years did so because of their close and repeated contact with birds, not because of casual contact. Cooking a chicken kills the influenza virus.

So why all the panic over a potential threat? In part the public hysteria is due to the fact that basic information about this potential pandemic has been misconstrued or ignored about this potential pandemic, much in the way previous health threats in the news--anthrax, smallpox, West Nile virus, mad cow disease--were all magnified beyond their ability to do great harm.

In each case there is a doomsday scenario that is packaged and sold to the public by the media, which consequently makes some undeserving manufacturer rich or collects votes for an undeserving leader.

In the case of bird flu, direct comparisons to the scourge of 1918 may well be overblown. Many people died of pneumonia during that outbreak of the Spanish flu because there were no antibiotics to treat it. There were also no vaccines, no antivirals and little in the way of public health or the sanitary conditions Americans take for granted today. We also have our top scientists and epidemiologists tracking this avian flu, which was not the case in
1918 prior to the essential mutation.

Fear leads to a diversion of resources; our fear of bird flu is being translated into a proposal for massive stockpiles of perishable drugs and vaccines. Congress could calmly and rationally designate funds to upgrade our flu vaccine manufacturing capacity using the genetic technology we already use routinely for other vaccines. Instead, our government allows pharmaceutical companies to use an outdated chicken- egg medium that requires three to six months to develop a vaccine against a particular strain. This slow process is then a justification for panicked stockpiles.

Bird flu is better studied in the laboratory than in a news conference. This virus deserves public attention only insomuch as it motivates our government to improve emergency services while bringing methods of vaccine manufacturing into the twenty-first century.


LOS ANGELES TIMES

An epidemic of overreaction

10-11-05
By Marc Siegel,

MARC SIEGEL is an internist and associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine. He is the author of "False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear" (Wiley, 2005).

THIS PAST WEEK, my patients seemed more nervous than usual. In addition to concerns about chest pain, coughs and fevers, there were also the sudden, uneasy questions about bird flu.

"Should I be taking Tamiflu?" several asked. "Can you prescribe it so I have a supply on hand just in case?" My answer was always the same. "No. Tamiflu is an antiviral drug that has not yet been proved effective against bird flu. And even if it worked, there's still no bird flu to treat."

The difficulty with informing the public about a potential pandemic is that the uncertainty about when or if it could occur breeds fear. Scared people over-personalize the news, and their worries increase. Fear is a warning system intended to alert us to impending danger. The bird flu, though a potential large-scale danger, is not impending.

The facts are these: The current H5N1 avian influenza virus has not mutated into a form that can easily infect humans, and the 60 people in the world who have died of this bird flu have done so not because this bug is on the road to mutation but because millions of birds throughout Asia have been infected, and the more birds that have it, the more likely that an occasional human bird handler will be infected.

Most human influenzas begin as bird flus, but many bird flus never change to a form that can harm us. Though flu pandemics occur on the average of three times per century, and we are clearly overdue (the last was in 1968), there is absolutely no indication that the transformation to mass human killer is about to happen. The threat is theoretical. Unfortunately, the attention it has received makes it feel like something terrible is inevitable.

Why the overreaction? For one thing, direct comparisons to the Spanish flu of 1918, a scourge that killed more than 50 million people worldwide, has alarmed the public unnecessarily. In fact, there are many scenarios in which the current bird flu won't mutate into a form as deadly as the 1918 virus.

And even if we accept the Spanish flu scenario, health conditions in
1918 were far worse in most of the world than they are now. Many people lived in squalor; 17 million influenza deaths occurred in India, versus about half a million deaths in the U.S. There were no flu vaccinations, no antiviral drugs, and containment by isolating infected individuals wasn't effective, largely because of poor information and poor compliance. Today's media reach could be a useful tool to aid compliance. Of course, the concern that air travel can spread viral infections faster may be valid, but infected migratory birds were sufficient in 1918.

Unfortunately, public health alarms are sounded too often and too soon. SARS was broadcast as a new global killer to which we had zero immunity, and yet it petered out long before it killed a single person in the United States. SARS was something to be taken seriously, but the real lessons of SARS, smallpox, West Nile virus, anthrax and mad cow disease weren't learned by our leaders — that potential health threats are more effectively examined in the laboratory than at a news conference.

With bird flu, scientists have been working on the structure of the viruses in an attempt to protect us. Studies published in the journals Nature and Science over the last six years have given scientists a road map with which to track the current bird flu and alert health officials if it mutates further. It is reasonable to try to control the bird flu while it remains in the bird population. There is great value in improving our emergency health response system and upgrading our vaccine-making capacity. Government subsidies in these areas could make the public safer.

But, right now, there is no value in scaring the public with Hitchcockian bird flu scenarios. The public must be kept in the loop, but potential threats should be put into context. The worst case is not the only case.


USA TODAY

Alive and well: The fear epidemic

By Marc Siegel
10-19-05

A 50-year-old asthmatic patient who came to my office recently asked for Tamiflu as a protection against bird flu. "Bird flu may get us all this year," he wheezed anxiously. "There is no bird flu here," I said. The greatest problem among my patients right now isn't bird flu; it is fear of bird flu. The greatest risk of an epidemic is of a fear epidemic.

The hyperventilating has reached well beyond my practice. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been deluged with phone calls and questions. Among them: "Is it safe to keep a bird feeder in the yard?" The answer: Yes!

Bird flu scares us because it is a mindless microbe that has choked off the breathing of millions of birds. But a species barrier protects us from this virus unless there are several more mutations to the viral DNA.

So why are people scared out of proportion to the risk, which is currently close to zero for anyone except bird handlers?

All eyes on 1918 For one thing, comparisons to the terrible scourge of 1918 — when another bird flu mutated and passed human to human — have dilated the sense of danger. But there are many differences between 1918 and now. Many of the 1918 flu victims died of pneumonia because of a lack of antibiotics, which we now have in ample supply. There were also no flu vaccines or antiviral drugs back then, and people lived (and died) in wartime conditions of deprivation and sometimes squalor.

If Americans are afraid of avian flu now, imagine what will happen if a single scrawny, flu-ridden migratory bird somehow manages to reach our shores.

This is how fear works, how the fear epidemic — as opposed to a flu pandemic — spreads. Fear is supposed to be our warning system against imminent dangers, but as a deep-rooted emotion, it interferes with our ability to make sound judgments. And if anything is contagious right now, it's judgment clouded by fear.

Immediate government overreaction creates this cycle of fear: The public reacts and calls for action. Health officials, hearing the public and media cries, look to quiet these generated fears with knee- jerk health policy (such as stockpiling a product with a relatively short shelf life: Both Tamiflu and bird flu vaccines are perishable and will have to be discarded if not used in three years).

Right and wrong approach So what's the right approach? Modern-day scientists are tracking the current bird flu and comparing its structure with influenzas of the past. This should comfort us. Laboratory science and careful epidemiological study are the best kind of preparation.

But PR is inevitably part of the game. That's where calls for vaccine stockpiles and "fact-finding" missions come in. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt just wrapped up such a trip to Asia over the weekend. His fear-provoking conclusion: Preventing the start of a global pandemic is just about impossible.

We've heard this all before. First it was anthrax, then smallpox, followed by West Nile virus and SARS, then human influenza, and now the animal variety. The public- health batting average has been quite low.

It is true that AIDS taught us that we need to look seriously at emerging threats before they spread. But AIDS still kills nearly 3 million people every year in the world, tuberculosis nearly 2 million and malaria about 1 million. We would be far better off using our personal fear radar against these diseases than against a bird disease that's still off in the distance.

Marc Siegel is an associate professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine. His new book is "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear".

http://www.alienshift.com/id126.html


Informant: memoryatlas

Thousands of protesters want Bush expelled. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez leads the charge against a U.S. free-trade plan for the Americas.

By Patrick J. McDonnell and Edwin Chen Times Staff Writers

November 5, 2005

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - A hemispheric summit to promote job creation and the spread of democracy throughout the Americas opened here Friday amid raucous anti-U.S. demonstrations and deep divisions among participating nations over the Bush administration's free-trade agenda.

A group of about 200 protesters attempting to breach the security cordon around the meeting site clashed with riot police about six blocks from the hotel where President Bush and other heads of state were meeting.

The protesters hurled rocks; set fire to a bank, apparently using a Molotov cocktail; and broke windows on more than a dozen shops, authorities said. Some of the protesters covered their faces with clothing to conceal their identities.

Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and more than 50 demonstrators were arrested. No serious injuries were reported. The protesters were unable to enter the cordoned-off security zone, which includes much of the downtown beachfront area of this seaside resort.

Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully, if boisterously, through the streets calling for Bush to be expelled from Argentina. The demonstrators later cheered Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when he labeled Washington's free-trade proposal dead and buried during a lengthy address after an alternative "people's summit."

"Mar del Plata is the tomb of ALCA," Chavez said, using the Spanish acronym for the Free Trade Area of the Americas plan backed by the White House.

"We brought our shovels to bury it," declared the fiery populist, who has emerged as the administration's leading antagonist in South America.

All eyes here were on the two rival presidents: Bush, suffering setbacks at home and unpopular in Latin America, and Chavez, the firebrand friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro who has repeatedly accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and invade his oil-rich nation. But by Friday evening, the two leaders had not met face to face.

"I will, of course, be polite," Bush said when asked how he would react if confronted by Chavez. "That's what the American people expect their president to do - is to be a polite person. And I will - if I run across him, I will do just that."

The White House and its leading free-trade allies here, Mexico and Chile, are pushing for a resuscitation of the hemispheric open-markets plan, which would create a unified trade bloc from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina and Chile.

The proposal has been on the table for more than a decade, but host nation Argentina and several other South American nations have opposed it because of concerns about market access, subsidies to U.S. farmers and other issues.

Free trade has emerged as both a substantive and symbolic dispute here, underscoring deep philosophic differences between Washington and left-leaning elected governments in South America.

Although the White House calls open markets a tool to broaden economic progress, many in Argentina, Brazil and elsewhere fear market liberalization could lead to the plundering of their natural resources and depletion of national assets by multinational corporations.

That, they argue, would result in increased economic woes in a region where poverty is already endemic. Many also criticize the U.S. insistence on maintaining its agricultural subsidies while demanding that other countries, which by and large do not subsidize their farmers, open up their markets.

Many of the heads of state at the summit have risen to power as a result of disenchantment with what has become known as the Washington consensus, an agenda of economic liberalization and privatization that the U.S. has pushed for years as a strategy for economic growth. The policies did not provide prosperity, critics say, and left social inequities in place.

Philosophical differences about the role of government in the economy remain sharp, especially in Argentina, where many blame the financial meltdown of 2001 and 2002 on rapid liberalization in the preceding years.

The economy here has seen steady improvement recently, but many once solidly middle-class families live at or below the poverty line. It is estimated that currently, one-third of the Argentine population is impoverished.

"It is the state that should act to redress social inequalities," Argentine President Nestor Kirchner declared in his opening statement at the Hotel Hermitage, where the summit is being held.

It remained unclear whether the Bush administration would be successful in including any consensus language preserving the hemispheric free-trade concept in the summit's final declaration, expected today.

Government leaders and their aides have bemoaned the sharp differences evident at a forum designed to project an image of unity.

"This summit is very politicized," said a disenchanted Mexican President Vicente Fox, a close Bush ally who backs the expanded free-trade plan.

The Brazilian foreign affairs secretary, Celso Amorim, told journalists that the forum could neither bury nor revive the free-trade plan.

"The debate has become too ideological," Amorim said.

Some participants mentioned the possibility of an extended free-trade regimen absent Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and other opponents, an outcome that would highlight hemispheric economic fissures. Washington already has free-trade pacts with Mexico, Canada, Chile and Central America, and is negotiating others.

In his comments, Bush appeared to engage in quiet diplomacy as he promoted trade and good governance.

"This is an opportunity to positively affirm our belief in democracy, in human rights and human dignity," Bush said during a joint appearance with the Argentine president, a left-of-center populist.

Both men described their discussions as candid. Bush indicated that he declined during the meeting to back additional efforts by Argentina to negotiate favorable treatment by the International Monetary Fund. Earlier this year, with U.S. support, Argentina completed a renegotiation of about $103 billion in defaulted debt.

"I listened very carefully to his point of view," Bush told reporters. "I was pleased that the United States was helpful during the early part of his term at the IMF, and I suggested that his record is such now that he can take his case to the IMF with a much stronger hand."

Later, Kirchner held a separate session with Chavez.

The summit's opening ceremony lasted nearly two hours, almost double the scheduled duration. It prompted speculation that the extension was intended to avoid sending the leaders back out on the streets. As Bush's motorcade finally left the summit site, police sirens could be heard in the distance.

Most of Friday's protests, which involved more than 30,000 marchers, according to unofficial estimates here, were peaceful but intensely anti-Bush. The U.S. president was lampooned in banners as a vampire, devil and warmonger. U.S. presidents are seldom well-liked in Latin America, but experts say Bush - whose Middle East and economic policies are extremely controversial here - is among the least popular in recent memory.

It was unlikely Bush saw any of the large-scale protests, which unfolded about two miles from the upscale seaside strip where meetings are taking place and he and other presidents are lodging. However, the smaller clashes with riot police took place much closer to the summit zone.

Marchers at the larger protests, many of whom arrived in more than
1,000 buses from Buenos Aires, included demonstrators ranging from women in indigenous dress to middle-class professionals.

The image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine militant who joined the Cuban revolution alongside Fidel Castro and was later killed in Bolivia, was ubiquitous.

"We are making a statement against . hunger and poverty," said Jordan Carriles, 28, one of several hundred Cubans who attended the alternate summit and protest march, which was held in a steady rain.

Cuba was not among the 34 nations invited to the summit, but Havana dispatched a large delegation of activists, artists and others, including Silvio Rodriguez, a well-known singer of protest and love songs, to the alternate summit staged at the soccer stadium.

Many Cubans donned colorful track suits with "Cuba" emblazoned on the back as they marched more than half a mile to the stadium, often breaking into anti-U.S. chants.

Leading a train-load of protesters from Buenos Aires was Diego Armando Maradona, the ex-soccer star and current talk-show host who wore a black T-shirt emblazoned with Bush's smiling image and the title, in English: "War Criminal."

Among those marching in the rain was another Chavez admirer, Evo Morales, the firebrand Bolivian leader who is ahead in polls for presidential elections scheduled for Dec. 18. Morales has called for lifting limits on planting coca, the raw material for cocaine, a position that Washington says would harm its anti-drug efforts in the region.

It was later in the day when the splinter group of protesters clashed with riot police at one of the fenced-off streets leading to the summit zone, which was protected by rings of security and several thousand policemen.

The city of 600,000 had a deserted feel, with most schools and shops closed as residents braced for violence.

Protesters also marched Friday against Bush and his free-trade plans in other Latin American cities, including Buenos Aires; Brasilia, Brazil; Caracas, Venezuela; Panama City and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Chavez repeated his accusations against the United States during his two-hour, rain-drenched speech Friday to protesters at the city's main soccer stadium.

"If imperialism decides to invade Venezuela," Chavez told the crowd, "a war of 100 years would begin in these lands."

Bush and Chavez were among the heads of state who gathered for a group photograph on Friday with an Atlantic Ocean backdrop. But the two were in separate rows and there was no obvious visual contact.

Andres D'Alessandro of The Times' Buenos Aires Bureau contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-summit5nov05,1,5783593.story


Informant: Walter Lippmann

Bonn

Von UTA KRISTINA MAUL

BORNHEIM-WALDORF. Wieder einmal bringt ein geplanter Mobilfunkmast Bürger auf die Palme. Diesmal im Bornheimer Ortsteil Waldorf und diesmal so heftig, dass Anwohner gleich eine Bürgerinitiative gründeten, um die Sendeanlage auf dem Mehrfamilienhaus Dersdorfer Straße 20 zu verhindern. Und: Schon zwei Wochen nach ihrer Gründung hat die „Bürgerwelle-Waldorf“ einen Teilerfolg errungen. Der Eigentümer des Hauses, der im Frühjahr einen Vertrag über die Errichtung eines UMTS-Mastes mit dem Anbieter O2 abschloss, machte einen Rückzieher. Er bat das Unternehmen, sich nach einem Alternativstandort umzusehen.

„Wir sind keine Mobilfunkgegner, schließlich benutzt jeder ein Handy“, schickt Dr. Olaf Schlieben, einer der Hauptinitiatoren der Bürgerinitiative, voraus. „Aber wir wollen keine Mobilfunkmasten in dicht besiedeltem Wohngebiet.“ Dass es auch anders gehe - nämlich Sendeanlagen „deutlich außerhalb von Wohnbebauung“ zu errichten -, zeigten Städte wie Attendorn.

Omega siehe dazu „Handy Ja, Antenne Nein“ unter:
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122151/

Gesundheitsrisiken sind es in erster Linie, die die Initiative um Schlieben von Masten mitten im Ort befürchtet. Daher fordert die „Bürgerwelle“ von der Stadt Bornheim ein Gesamtkonzept, das dem Bedürfnis „nach einer möglichst niedrigen elektromagnetischen Strahlenbelastung, der Schonung und Wahrung der Ortsbilder und dem ökonomischen Interesse der Mobilfunkbetreiber an einem kosteneffizienten Netzaufbau gerecht werden“ soll.

Der Hauseigentümer der Dersdorfer Straße 20, der namentlich nicht genannt sein möchte, glaubt nicht an eine „massive“ Gesundheitsgefährdung. „Wenn dem so wäre, hätten wir demnächst ein paar Millionen Sterbenskranke in Deutschland.“

Omega siehe dazu „Krank durch Mobilfunk - Elektrosmog - Die Opfer“ unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/372620/

Dass er dennoch den Vertrag mit O2 rückgängig machen möchte, begründet er vorwiegend mit dem „massiven Druck“, den die Bürgerinitiative auf ihn ausübe. „Es gibt in Waldorf richtigen Aufruhr, ich habe das satt und möchte die Sache positiv lösen, indem wir eine Alternative finden.“ Außerdem teile er inzwischen Bedenken der „Bürgerwelle“, wenn sie sage, dass Vermieter von Häusern mit Sendeanlagen zunehmend Sorge hätten, keine Mieter mehr zu finden. O2 habe ihm versichert, den Vertrag mit ihm bis Ende 2005 auszusetzen, um gemeinsam mit der Stadt Bornheim nach Alternativstandorten Ausschau halten zu können. Ob es solche bereits gibt, ist unklar. Die Stadtverwaltung war gestern Nachmittag nicht zu erreichen.

Die „Bürgerwelle-Waldorf“ jedenfalls will am Wochenende unter anderem eine Unterschriftenaktion gegen Antennen in dicht besiedelten Wohngebieten starten.

http://www.buergerwelle-waldorf.de/

(KR)

http://www.rundschau-online.de/kr/page.jsp?ksArtikel.id=1131049238848&listID=1038816868233&openMenu=1038942868191&calledPageId=1038816866865

Ja zu Handys, Nein zur Antenne
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/466289/

Ja zum Handy – Nein zu den Sendemasten ?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/284285/

Handys retten Leben
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/670589/

Handys können Leben retten
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/393825/

Haben Mobiltelefone Vorrang vor der Gesundheit?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/375518/

Handy nur für den Notfall
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712230/

Pro- und Contra Handy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712209/

Erfahrungen mit dem Handy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712216/

Freiheit vor dem Unsinn
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712211/

Handys benötigen Sender
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712236/

Die Handy-Zertrümmerer
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/712267/

Salzburger Schulappell zum Schutz vor Elektrosmog

Ein Aufruf von Eltern an Eltern, Lehrer, Schulen und Kindergärten!

Der Appell dient dem Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen vor gesundheitsgefährdenden Auswirkungen durch Elektrosmog, insbesondere durch Mobilfunktechnik wie zB.

* Mobilfunkbasisstationen (Sendemasten)

* WLANs - Wireless Local Area Network (kabellos vernetzte Computersysteme für zB. Laptop-Klassen und kabelloser Zugang zum Internet)

* Bluetooth (Kurzstrecken-Funktechnik)

* Handys

* DECT-Schnurlos-Telefone

Zu diesem Aufruf haben sich Eltern entschlossen, deren Kinder eine Schule besuchen, die unmittelbar im Strahlungsfeld einer Mobilfunkbasisstation liegt. Sie haben sich jahrelang mit dem Thema Mobilfunk auseinandergesetzt und sich ebenso lange vergeblich bemüht, den Abbau der Sendemasten neben der Schule zu erwirken. Nun wächst die Sorge um die gesundheitliche Unversehrtheit der Kinder.

Die Betreiberfirma hat die benachbarten Sendemasten also bis jetzt nicht abgebaut, sondern die der Schule zugewandte Sendeantenne sogar noch erweitert. Einem fortgesetzten Ausbau der Sendeleistung kann auch seitens der Behörden derzeit noch nichts entgegengesetzt werden. Von diesem Problem sind viele andere Schulen genauso betroffen.

Zahlreiche internationale Studien und Untersuchungen von Wissenschaftern sowie von Ärzten geben Hinweise darauf, dass gepulste elektromagnetische Strahlung, wie sie beim Mobilfunk genutzt wird, bereits in niedrigster Dosierung biologische Abläufe beeinflusst und in der Lage ist, die Gesundheit zu gefährden.

Ein aktuelles Thema an Schulen ist derzeit auch die Installation von WLANs. Klassen werden mit kabellos vernetzten Computersystemen ausgerüstet. Dies führt zu einem deutlichen Anstieg der Elektrosmogbelastung für Kinder und Jugendliche, ebenso für LehrerInnen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk gilt in diesem Zusammenhang der Einrichtung sogenannter Laptop-Klassen.

Mit diesem Aufruf soll sensibilisiert werden, für die mögliche Gefährdung von Kindern und Jugendlichen durch Mobilfunktechniken. Heranwachsende sind empfindlicher als Erwachsene: Bei Kindern sind zB. die Schädelknochen dünner, das zentrale Nervensystem ist noch nicht ausgereift, die Zellteilung geschieht schneller und ist damit noch störungsanfälliger. Angesichts bereits bestehender anderer Umweltbelastungen ist dem Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen besondere Beachtung zu schenken.

Dieser Appell wird weitergeleitet an Eltern, Schulen und Kindergärten, sowie an Ärzte, Behörden, politische Instanzen und an die Medien.

1. Schutz vor Mobilfunkstrahlung

Kinder und Jugendliche dürfen keiner unnötigen Belastung durch Mobilfunkstrahlung ausgesetzt werden (Mobilfunksender, WLANs, Laptop-Klassen, Bluetooth, DECT-Schnurlos-Telefone, Handys). Kinder und Jugendliche befinden sich in der Entwicklung und sollten besonders geschützt werden.

2. Schutzzonen – keine Mobilfunksender neben Schulen und Kindergärten

Schulen und Kindergärten müssen Schutzzonen sein. Neben solchen Einrichtungen dürfen keine Mobilfunkanlagen stehen, die Kinder sollten sich dort in Ruhe entwickeln und lernen können, ohne vermeidbare Strahlenbelastungen durch Mobilfunk.

3. Grenzwertorientierung am Salzburger Vorsorgewert

Der Gesetzgeber wird aufgefordert, die Grenzwerte auf den von der Salzburger-Landes-Sanitätsdirektion empfohlenen Salzburger Vorsorgewert von 1 Mikrowatt/m² im Innen- und 10 Mikrowatt/m² im Außenbereich zu senken. Im Gegensatz zum derzeit geltenden Grenzwert, bezieht der Salzburger Vorsorgewert internationale kritische Forschungs-ergebnisse sowie die nicht-thermischen, biologischen Wirkungen ein.

4. Vorsorgender Gesundheitsschutz

Gefordert wird ein vorsorgender Gesundheitsschutz. Es ist unverantwortlich, Kinder und Jugendliche aus rein wirtschaftlichem Interesse mit einer Technik zu konfrontieren, die unter gesundheitlichen Aspekten noch nicht einmal gänzlich erforscht ist.

5. Aufklärung durch PolitikerInnen und Behörden

Im Zuständigkeitsbereich der verantwortlichen PolitikerInnen und entsprechenden Behörden liegt es, über Risken bei der Mobilfunknutzung zu informieren und Aufklärung zu betreiben. Sie sollen ihre Verantwortung wahrnehmen und geeignete Massnahmen ergreifen, die Schäden von Menschen fernzuhalten. Es darf den Konsumenten durch fehlende oder unzureichende Information seitens der Behörden kein Schaden entstehen.

6. Stopp der Umwerbung von Kindern und Jugendlichen

Die Rechtfertigung durch die Nützlichkeit und Notwendigkeit zB. eines Handys ist längst überholt: Die Mobilfunkbranche umwirbt insbesondere Kinder und Jugendliche intensiv, mit ihnen wird ein wesentlicher Anteil des Umsatzes erwirtschaftet. Kinder und Jugendliche werden gezielt über den Spieltrieb als Konsumenten beworben, um sie dauerhaft auf diese Technik einzustimmen. Die Risken dieser Technik sind ihnen und ihren Eltern in der Regel nicht bekannt. Entsprechend der Tabakwerbung sollte dieser Umwerbung von Kindern und Jugendlichen Einhalt geboten werden.

7. Forschung durch unabhängige Wissenschafter

Der Staat ist aus Verantwortung den Bürgern gegenüber in der Pflicht, die kritischen Stimmen wahrzunehmen und aus den hohen Lizenzeinnahmen Forschungsprojekte mit unabhängigen Wissenschaftern zu finanzieren.

http://www.borg-aussee.asn-graz.ac.at/schule/wlan/schulappell.htm
http://tinyurl.com/d3y4k

--------

Ärzteappelle gegen Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1064751/

Ärztekammern und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104181/

04. November 2005 14:37

Aktion gegen unkontrollierte Handy-Nutzung

Wiener Ärztekammer warnt mit Plakaten in Arztpraxen und gibt "Handy-Regeln"

Wien - Die Wiener Ärztekammer warnt vor den möglichen gesundheitlichen Gefahren durch häufiges und unkontrolliertes Telefonieren mit dem Handy und versendet in den kommenden Tagen Plakate an alle Arztpraxen in der Bundeshauptstadt.

Aufgelistet werden dabei die "10 medizinischen Handy-Regeln", die eine maximale Reduzierung der Strahlenexposition garantieren sollen.

In den "Handy-Regeln" rät die Ärztekammer unter anderem, nur in dringenden Fällen und dann nur kurz zu telefonieren, das Handy nachts auszuschalten, keine Spiele am Mobiltelefon zu spielen, das Handy während des Gesprächsaufbaus und beim Versenden von SMS-Nachrichten nicht in Kopfnähe zu bringen sowie ein paar Meter Abstand von anderen Personen zu halten, da sie mitbestrahlt würden.

Speziell bei Kindern sollten diese Regeln besondere Beachtung finden, da sie gegenüber hochfrequenter Strahlung empfindlicher seien als Erwachsene, so die Kammer. Kinder unter 16 Jahren sollten Handys daher nur im äußersten Notfall benutzen. (APA)

© derStandard.at
2005

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2231555

--------

HLV INFO 170/AT

4-11-2005

Webmaster –Elektrosmognews 4-11-05

Fr, 04.Nov 2005

Ordinationsplakate zu Handystrahlen in Arztpraxen

Utl.: Ärztekammer setzt Informationsschwerpunkt in Wien - "Handys raus aus dem Wartezimmer"

Wien (OTS) - In den nächsten Tagen werden alle Wiener Arztpraxen Ordinationsplakate von der Ärztekammer erhalten, auf denen vor den möglichen gesundheitlichen Gefahren durch häufiges und unkontrolliertes Telefonieren mit dem Handy gewarnt wird. Aufgelistet werden dabei auch die "10 medizinischen Handy-Regeln", die eine maximale Reduzierung der Strahlenexposition garantieren sollen, ganz nach dem Motto "Sicher ist sicher".***

"Wir haben uns zu dieser Aktion entschlossen, da aufgrund der Ergebnisse letzter Studien mögliche negative Langzeitwirkungen durch Mobilfunkstrahlen nicht auszuschließen sind", betonte dazu der Wiener Ärztekammerpräsident Walter Dorner. Für die Ärzteschaft gelte dabei uneingeschränkt das Vorsorgeprinzip: "Solange sich die Hinweise auf Langzeitgefährdungen des Menschen in Laborversuchen verdichten und wir die Spätfolgen nicht wirklich abschätzen können, ist maximale Vorsicht anzuraten."

In den "Handy-Regeln" rät die Ärztekammer unter anderem, nur in dringenden Fällen und dann nur kurz zu telefonieren, das Handy nachts auszuschalten, keine Spiele am Handy zu spielen, das Handy während des Gesprächsaufbaus und beim Versenden von SMS-Nachrichten nicht in Kopfnähe zu bringen sowie ein paar Meter Abstand von anderen Personen zu halten, da sie mitbestrahlt werden. Speziell bei Kindern sollten diese Regeln besondere Beachtung finden, da Kinder gegenüber hochfrequenter Strahlung empfindlicher sind als Erwachsene. Kinder unter 16 Jahren sollten Handys daher nur im äußersten Notfall benutzen.

Wie Dorner anmerkt, sind die von der Wiener Ärztekammer postulierten Vorsichtsmaßnahmen "ohne wirkliche Einschränkung der Mobilität und Lebensfreiheit" möglich. "Keiner kann mir wirklich erzählen, dass sein Handy eingeschalten während der ganzen Nacht unbedingt am Kopfpolster liegen muss. Und auch das Weghalten des Handys während des Rufaufbaus vom Körper mindert nicht wirklich die Bequemlichkeit des Handy-Benützers", so der Ärztekammerpräsident.

Zwtl.: Gepiepse in den Wartezimmern nervt

Ein wichtiger Nebeneffekt der Aktion: Das Telefonieren mit Handys stört andere Patienten in Wartezimmern aufgrund der häufigen Enge ganz massiv. Dorner: "Immer wieder berichten mir Patienten, wie nervig es für sie ist, wenn während der Wartezeit in der Ordination es von allen Seiten bimmelt und lautstark Trivialitäten via Handy kommuniziert werden." Daher findet sich auf den Plakaten auch der Leitsatz: "Handys raus aus dem Wartezimmer! Es strahlt und stört!"

Dorner hofft, dass die Aktion auch Vorbildwirkung für andere Bundesländer hat: "Wir haben das Sujet bereits allen Länderkammern zur Verfügung gestellt. Es wäre schön und wichtig, wenn ähnliche Aktionen für ganz Österreich Beachtung fänden." (hpp)

S E R V I C E: Plakat-Download auf der Homepage der Ärztekammer für Wien unter http://www.aekwien.at/media/Plakat_Handy.pdf

Rückfragehinweis:

Ärztekammer für Wien - Pressestelle Dr. Hans-Peter Petutschnig Tel.: (++43-1) 51501/1223 od. 0664/1014222 Fax: (++43-1) 51501/1289 mailto:hpp@aekwien.at http://www.aekwien.at

*** OTS-ORIGINALTEXT UNTER AUSSCHLIESSLICHER INHALTLICHER VERANTWORTUNG DES AUSSENDERS ***

OTS0104 2005-11-04/10:49

041049 Nov 05


http://www.aekwien.at/1964.py?Page=1&id_news=4030

--------

Wien: Ärzte starten Plakat-Kampagne gegen Handys

Die Wiener Ärztekammer warnte schon im Sommer via Medien vor gesundheitsschädigenden Effekten von Handystrahlung. Jetzt startet sie eine Kampagne, bei der in den nächsten Tagen in allen Wiener Arztpraxen Plakate aufgehängt werden sollen, die vor den Folgen des Mobilfunks warnen. "Wir haben uns zu dieser Aktion entschlossen, da aufgrund der Ergebnisse letzter Studien mögliche negative Langzeitwirkungen durch Mobilfunkstrahlen nicht auszuschließen sind", betonte dazu der Wiener Ärztekammerpräsident Walter Dorner. Aufgelistet werden "10 medizinischen Handy-Regeln", die eine maximale Reduzierung der Strahlenexposition garantieren sollen.

http://www.aekwien.or.at/
http://www.diepresse.com/


Aus: FGF-Infoline vom 10.11.2005

--------

Ärztekammern und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1104181/

Kein Grund zur Beunruhigung
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1124900/

Masts Inside Your HOME, Tumours in Your Head: The Downsides of the Mobile/Wireless 'Revolution'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1723342/

What About Wi-Fi?
http://www.mast-victims.org/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=76

Is WiFi dangerous?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/762705/

Documents Concerning Wi-Fi
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/wart_science.htm

Götene residents forced from home by wireless broadband
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2158120/

Computer network forced man to quit job
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2317407/

DECT/Wi-Fi info leaflet now available
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1827600/

Wi-Fi, Health Care, and HIPAA: WLAN Management in the Modern Hospital
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/461735/

Wi-Fi mobilize your Chromosomes in Hospital
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/245599/

Health fears lead schools to dismantle wireless networks
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/2957963/

First exposure of WIMAX dangers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2067675/

Swedes hit hard by WiMAX waves
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2163464/

WLAN Sickness: Rubbish or Reasonable?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1692101/

WLAN, DECT in Schools and Kindergardens
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1579030/

School sued for installing a wireless computer network
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1121957/

Suit alleges health risks of Wi-Fi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1121968/
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1830269/

Experts raise health concerns over WiFi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1926042/

Wi-Fi has a negative impact on our health
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122014/

A University without Wi-Fi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1606353/

Health effects associated with mobile base stations in communities
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1121978/

LINZ. Ein Tag ohne Handy ist für die Österreicher ein Segen. Das geht zumindest aus einer Umfrage des Linzer Meinungsforschungsinstituts "market" hervor. Von 400 Personen gaben mehr als 60 Prozent der Befragten an, dass sie sich an einem "handylosen" Tag besser entspannen können, weil es nicht dauernd läutet. 35 Prozent gaben an, an einem Tag ohne Handy mehr Zeit für die Familie zu haben.

Bei den Jungen hingegen stellt "market" ein "Suchtverhalten" fest: Jeder zehnte 18- bis 29-Jährige fühle Stress, wenn das Handy nicht griffbereit sei.

vom 05.11.2005

http://www.nachrichten.at/lokal/398464?PHPSESSID=c4b13909e2bb92f1508f1a47c786c2ba

On

http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Pagina112f.html

I have placed 4 studies. They are all in german, but nevertheless, the figures speak for themselves.

In the practice, I regard, in upgoing order regarding radiation levels and inside the house, or coming from neighbours:

1. mobile phone masts
2. DECT cordless phones
3. wireless internet

Greetings,
Charles Claessens

WLan or Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi can reach much higher speeds, but has also a negative impact on our health.

Wireless conneting of several computer elements (WLan) is is of course a nice feature because most cables around are not needed anymore. But WLan or Wi-Fi is also pulsed, and the signals cause much electrosmog.

An example: A Notebook on your lap and wireless on the internet. The contact with the body is direct: 100.000 uW/m2. And such in the vicinity of prostate, testicles, intestines, overies, womb, bladder.

There is obviously no end in the pollution with microwaves over the air.

Below some german reports about WLan.

Rapport Virnich (summary of a number of cases)
http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Rapporten/wlan-virnich.pdf

Bremen (report university Bremen)
http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Rapporten/wlan-emvu-gutachten-bremen.pdf

New Ecologstudy WLan (new study about Wlan by the Ecolog Institute)
http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Rapporten/Neue_Ecolog-Studie_zu_WLAN_6-2004.pdf

Bericht Maes (summary of a number of cases)
http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Rapporten/WLAN.pdf

This report by Maes on Wlan closes with Wimax, the successor of WLan. And Wimax will be succeeded by TeraHertz, still better, still faster, still higher frequencies and still more radiation. Pulsed? Of course.

News Story by Julie Hanson

FEBRUARY 18, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - First, children living near power lines were at risk for leukemia. Then cell phones were going to fry our brains. Now wireless networks are harmful too?

Three families have sued a Cook County, Ill., school district, claiming that wireless LANs installed in the district's 10 schools to let students access the network from anywhere in a classroom are subjecting their children to prolonged exposure to low-level, high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, presenting substantial and serious risks to their health.

Just how harmful are WLANs?

According to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, evidence of the harmful biological effects of low-level radio frequency radiation has been "ambiguous." However, the FCC does acknowledge that prolonged exposure to high levels of this radiation can result in the heating of human tissue and an increase in body temperature. This, in a nutshell, is how microwaves cook food.

Wi-Fi experts argue that although wireless networks do, in fact, produce low levels of electromagnetic radiation, they emit no more than household gadgets do. If wireless networks are hazardous to your health, they say, so then is nuking a slice of pizza. Microwave ovens and many cordless phones operate at the same 2.4-GHz frequency used by an 802.11b wireless network. Even wireless speakers emit similar radiation levels. "At this point, we have no reason to believe there is any harm in wireless networks," says Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director Frank Hanzlik.

The school district in question, Oak Park Elementary School District No. 97, is standing behind its decision to use wireless technology. In a statement, representatives said they spent two years researching the issue and listening to expert testimony. The district believes the technology, the same as that used in buildings around the world, is safe.

But plaintiffs in the Oak Park lawsuit claim they have more than 400 scientific articles outlining the health risks of low-intensity radio frequency radiation exposure. In their lawsuit, they assert that "responsible scientists have reported that prolonged exposure to low-intensity radio frequency radiation can break down DNA strands, cause chromosome aberrations and break down the blood-brain barrier, thereby permitting toxic proteins to invade the brain."

They are scheduled to get their day in court this month.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,90275,00.html

Crain's Chicago Business, October 9, 2003

October 09, 2003

Oak Park school sued over Wi-Fi

Parents cite health risks from radio waves

(Reuters) A pioneering elementary school district outside Chicago has been sued for installing a wireless computer network by parents worried that exposure to the network's radio waves could harm their children.

According to the complaint, filed in Illinois state court, parents of five children assert that a growing body of evidence outlines “serious health risks that exposure to low intensity, but high radio frequency radiation poses to human beings, particularly children.''

The Oak Park Elementary School District set up a wireless network to connect its schools to one another in 1995, long before such networks became wildly popular. A spokeswoman for the district, Gail Crantz, said it complies with all government regulations for wireless networks.

Today, the 5,000 students in the district have access to carts of laptop computers to do research on the Internet from their desks, said Steve Chowanski, director of information services for the district.

An estimated 30 million Wi-Fi networks have been installed worldwide, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance, which certifies wireless products. Brian Grimm, a spokesman for the group, said he is unaware of other similar suits targeting Wi-Fi networks.

According to Chowanski, a small group of parents had complained about the risks of installing wireless networks in the school. In response, the school board said it would continue to monitor research into the safety of the networks but reaffirmed its plan to use Wi-Fi.

“We are not going to do anything different,'' Chowanski said. “This is the wave of the future.''

The complaint by the parents was filed on Sept. 26 in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois. A hearing before Judge Nancy Arnold is scheduled for February.

The parents allege that the district failed to examine the health impact that wireless local area networks pose, especially for growing children. They are seeking class action status for their suit, which seeks to halt the use of wireless networks.

Calls to the parents and their lawyers were not immediately returned.

The Wi-Fi Alliance says Wi-Fi networks are safe. The radio waves in a Wi-Fi network use the same frequency as wireless home phones, and have one-thirtieth the power of, cordless phones, Grimm, the spokesman for the group, said.

1. A small group of parents had complained about the risks of installing wireless networks in the school.

2. In response, the school board said it would continue to monitor research into the safety of the networks but reaffirmed its plan to use Wi-Fi.

3. “We are not going to do anything different,'' Chowanski said. “This is the wave of the future.''

Informant: Don Maisch

Comment Dr Miguel Muntané:

WI-FI FUTURE WAVE HEALTH KILLER?. The Wi-Fi Alliance says Wi-Fi networks are safe

With artificial spherical models to continue to monitor research into the safety of the networks?

* Of course, this is not correct

The Wi-Fi Alliance says Wi-Fi networks are safe.

WI-FI AND SPHERICAL COW CONCEPT

They based their findings on the "spherical cow concept".

The initial heating undergone by a cow's body as a result of microwave radiation allowed them to establish a "safe level": the power of radiation is "10 times smaller"!. This increase in temperature has been studied by physicists and engineers using artificial spherical models.

Dr. Robert Becker. New York. Twice Dr. Becker has been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Published by Linda Moulton Howe in EARTHFILES London (May 2000). "That level was applied for several decades to everything that concerned electromagnetic pollution. Of course, this is not correct." Dr. Robert Becker also states: "So, the premise that was applied by the physicists and the engineers was erroneous from the start."

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Schools with Wi-Fi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1641879/

School District Sued over WLAN Planning
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/002303.html