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."

--------

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

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

Mark Engler writes that the Bush Administration is making the world unsafe for Microsoft and Mickey Mouse.... Maybe George Bush and Dick Cheney aren't very good capitalists at all.

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

Jonathan Schell writes that the pivot is of course the war in Iraq, which in its origins and conduct was and remains a colossal, blood-drenched fraud. But now a majority of the public has caught on and wants the United States to withdraw.

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

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has centered in on what are believed to be his final inquiries as to whether Mr. Rove was fully forthcoming regarding the belated discovery of an email confirming his conversation with Time reporter Matthew Cooper, to whom Mr. Rove had mentioned the CIA officer.

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

Senators of both parties said Thursday that Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's choice for the Supreme Court, had told them he believed the court might have gone too far in separating church and state.

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

By Bill Van Auken
4 November 2005

In the midst of the Bush administration’s belated response to the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, the Pentagon last week quietly issued a legal memorandum concerning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s participation in the government’s plan to confront the danger.

This is not a small matter for the Bush administration, given the president’s single-minded determination to exploit what is a very real public health danger to promote his own political agenda of eliminating constitutional restrictions on the use of the U.S. military on American soil.

The government’s 396-page response plan, posted on the Internet this week ( http://www.pandemicflu.gov ), speaks of using military forces to seal off towns and communities declared to be stricken with the disease, imposing what the document refers to as a cordon sanitaire, or sanitary barrier.

Presumably this would mean armed troops manning roadblocks with orders to use deadly force to prevent people from either entering or leaving.

In a statement last month, Bush called for the use of the military in this fashion, and urged Congress to consider changing the law to give him greater latitude to deploy military forces domestically.

The statement drew sharp criticism from public health officials, who suggested that Bush was proposing what amounted to martial law, a policy that has little efficacy in dealing with the threat of a pandemic.

Last week’s Pentagon memo indicated that Rumsfeld could participate in the martial law component of the government’s plan.

He is recusing himself only from decisions regarding the use of drugs to prevent or treat bird flu.

The problem, it seems, is that the defense secretary is a major stockholder in Gilead Sciences, the company that holds the patent on the prescription antiviral drug Tamiflu, which is said to be the most effective medicine to prevent influenza or ameliorate the symptoms among those already infected.

From 1997 until he came back to Washington in 2001 to head the Pentagon and prepare for the war against Iraq, Rumsfeld was Gilead’s CEO.

He separated with the corporation on very profitable terms and still holds Gilead stock worth up to $25 million, according to his recent federal financial disclosures.

The stock’s price has soared from $35 to over $50 over the past six months as fears of the pandemic have grown.

As Fortune magazine put it on its web site, “The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it’s proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu...”

According to the government’s estimates, the pandemic could claim nearly 2 million lives in the U.S. and 50-60 million worldwide.

But for Rumsfeld and his friends, the danger has already produced windfall profits worth millions.

According to Fortune, the spiraling stock price has “made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.”

He is not alone among prominent Republicans celebrating the good fortune that has accrued from the threat to the lives of millions.

George Shultz, the former secretary of state, is also a Gilead board member and has sold more than $7 million worth of the company’s stock since the beginning of the year. Also on the board and a major stockholder is the wife of California’s former Republican governor, Pete Wilson.

While Gilead holds the patent for Tamiflu, it has given marketing and manufacturing rights to the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG.

In return, it receives a 10 percent royalty on all of the Swiss firm’s sales.

Among the biggest US customers for the drug has been the Pentagon, which last July ordered $58 million worth of Tamiflu for troops deployed overseas.

Under Bush’s proposed plan, some $7.1 billion is to be spent on preparing to combat the potential pandemic, with much of it going to buy Tamiflu and other drugs.

The Pentagon would again be one of the main consumers of the medicine, as the government’s plan calls for protecting the troops it proposes to use in enforcing quarantines.

The silver lining that catastrophes hold for members of the Bush cabinet did not begin with Rumsfeld and bird flu.

Since he was elected, Vice President Dick Cheney, like the Pentagon chief a multimillionaire, has received $2 million from Halliburton Corp, which he previously headed.

Last July, the company announced a 284 percent increase in operating profits for its KBR division during the second quarter of this year.

KBR is responsible for implementing billions of dollars worth of no-bid, cost-plus Pentagon contracts in Iraq.

Halliburton’s own stock prices have tripled over the past year. They soared once again in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans in the expectation that the company would reap super-profits from government contracts for reconstruction.

This administration has provided the most powerful confirmation— and in the most personal terms— of the old adage that “it is an ill wind that blows no good.”

Rumsfeld has nothing to worry about in recusing himself from any decisions regarding Tamiflu.

His interests will be well looked after.

The source of the millions in profits that he and other well-connected Republicans are making off of the avian flu threat is the effective monopoly that Gilead and Roche hold over the production and supply of the antiviral drug.

Public health officials have warned that the drug companies exercising this monopoly cannot possibly produce enough of the medicine to meet the global demand, and have called for the government to abrogate the patent and allow the manufacture of generic equivalents of the drug.

Needless to say, such an obvious measure— which could save millions of lives— is not contemplated by the Bush administration.

On the contrary, it has used the pandemic threat as a means of boosting the power and profits of the big pharmaceutical corporations, among the most generous corporate contributors to both Republican and Democratic campaign funds.

Bush called for the government to grant the drug companies “liability protection,” providing them with immunity from court actions over deaths and injuries caused by faulty drugs.

See Also:

Bush bird flu plan includes windfall for pharmaceuticals giants [3 November 2005]

Bush seizes on flu threat to press for martial law power [7 October 2005]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/rums-n04.shtml


Informant: friends2b

Bei einer großen Koalition könnte es zu einer Laufzeitverlängerung von AKWs kommen, daher noch einmal ein Blick auf die Argumente der Atomlobby.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21265/1.html

04.11.05

Eine Gruppe von Vermögenden, Schriftstellern und Wirtschaftsexperten wirbt für eine Erhöhung der Vermögens- und Erbschaftssteuern. Die 21 Unterzeichner kritisieren, dass im internationalen Vergleich in Deutschland Vermögen am niedrigsten besteuert werde. Der Initiator des Aufrufs, der Hamburger Reeder Peter Krämer, sagte, es könne nicht sein, dass ernsthaft über eine Erhöhung der Mehrwertsteuer nachgedacht werde, ohne auch die Vermögenden stärker zu belasten. Eine Erhöhung der Mehrwertsteuer träfe Normalverdiener, Rentner und Arbeitslose wesentlich stärker. Unterdessen hat sich die für den Arbeitsmarkt zuständige Arbeitsgruppe der Koalitionsgespräche auf schärfere Regeln für das Arbeitslosengeld II geeinigt.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12213

heroay wrote:

If you buy vitamin/mineral supplements, just go for the 'Natural/Organic' brands, and they don't have to be the most expensive... they will WORK for you. Any trash from your doctor against them, is because he feels threathened in his 6 figure income. And so be it. It's your health, or their bank accounts.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD There is no replacement for magnesium in the body Wed Nov 2, 2005 00:27
64.140.159.208

There is no replacement for magnesium in the body except magnesium. Magnesium depleted cells are in trouble and introducing another toxic drug will not build their defenses or strength. The average severe flu lasts approximately 10 days so we must question whether spending billions to stockpile Tamiflu to reduce that average by a day is really going to save anyone's life. The pharmaceutical industry, the CDC and the FDA of course see no problem with adding more toxic chemicals into the populations' blood streams. Without the selling of poison they simply would have no place on earth. Their very existence runs parallel to the commercial introduction and destruction of human health via toxic chemicals used in everything from foods to medicines. The entire medical industrial complex depends on the use of toxic drugs.

Yes it pays to be prepared for the flu, so stock up your medicine cabinets with effective substances that will help, not hurt your family. It would also be worthwhile to detoxify and chelate our families during the warmer months so hidden toxicities like mercury, which is known to increase the dangers of influenza, would be less present in our children's bodies. Truly doctors can be blamed when their patients die of influenza for it is not the virus that is deadly but the deficiencies of vitamin C and magnesium combined with the drugs and vaccines doctors use that bring old and young alike down to their graves.

Why is it a government, whose only money is the money they can borrow, so anxious to invest billions in Tamiflu and flu vaccines laced with mercury? The Boston Globe reported this month that alarmed infectious disease specialists have indicated that excessive use of Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs could lead to the emergence of flu strains that do not respond to antivirals, making both avian and regular flu strains even more of a health threat. Yet another reason for using a natural protocol is raised and as usual ignored by medical authorities. Dr. Klenner is right though, medical authorities would standby and watch millions die rather than entertain the thought that it all could be stopped by using Vitamin C and magnesium chloride.

There should be no doubt that key government officials are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for example, seems likely to profit from government purchase of Tamiflu, the drug developed by Gilead Sciences when Rumsfeld was president of the company. He is reported to hold major portions of stock in Gilead.[viii] Tamiflu was actually developed by Gilead which then gave Roche the exclusive rights to market and sell Tamiflu.[ix] Trust in our government's medical officials is in short supply.

And if that were not enough "The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005" [iix] is in real danger of its getting passed by Congress. If it does pass, American citizens will be forced to submit to being drugged whether they want it or not. The bill would not only permit the American government to drug its people with untested and experimental vaccines, but drug companies would have complete freedom from liability. The sponsors of this bill also want to prevent us from using the Freedom of Information Act to learn what's in these vaccines. One must wonder if they are actually trying to cause an Avian Flu pandemic via these vaccines.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD Director International Medical Veritas Association http://www.imva.info http://www.detoxchelationclinic.com http://www.worldpsychology.net
+55-83-3252-2195 http://www.skype.com ID: marksircus

Special Note: The IMVA recommends whole food vitamin C over ascorbic acid. Suggested companies are MegaFood , which can be ordered online at VNF Nutrition, and New Chapter also from VNF. And for the magnesium chloride we recommend Global Light Network.

Bird Flu infecting Vietnamese Girl found Resistant to Primary Drug http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051015/NEWS01/510150466


The general gist of it is ..you don't need flu shots. Our medications deplete our bodies of Magnesium.

The bottom portion of the article includes additional information on magnesium.......the quote"below is so true....

Thanks for the forward Lina! Klenner is one of my heroes.

Some physicians would stand by and see their patient die rather than use ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) because in their finite minds it exists only as a vitamin.

biogerminator


ECOTERRA Intl.

In Bush and Cheney's energy vision, America, Europe, India and China will build more nuclear power plants. In mine, we just build smarter homes.

http://tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6641

by Timothy Karr, TomPaine.com

The CPB chair may be gone, but there's more housecleaning to be done to make public broadcasting safe from propaganda.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051104/tomlinsons_shady_exit.php

by Dennis Kelleher, TomPaine.com

A closer look at Scooter Libby's leaking and obstruction reveals a pattern of deception designed to conceal the actions of the White House.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051104/libbys_lying_habit.php

Asia Times
by Eshran Ahrari

11/04/05

The CIA's secret prisons in various countries, used to imprison and interrogate alleged terrorists, won't help to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. The question is, how many more of these 'black sites' will the US need to build to hold the next generation of terrorists?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK04Ak04.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Christian Science Monitor
by Daniel Schorr

11/04/05

The fascination with the subject of which official knew what about Valerie Plame and how they peddled the information should not distract us from contemplating the great con game that the administration played with the American people on the road to war in Iraq. Clearly the principals chose to assert, whether true or not, that only an invasion would spare America from the imminent danger of Iraqi nuclear and/or biological weapons. From early on, they bought and retailed a dubious bill of goods. ... So let's not get too bogged down in details of the coverup and the leak. More important is what was being covered up - the sometimes frantic effort to justify a war that didn't seem to have much justification...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1104/p09s02-cods.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

11/04/05

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case, is of a type not seen in many years: he seems to personify the virtue of rationality and the spirit of rectitude combined. He seems, in short, the incarnation of an age gone by. This, in concert with his boyish yet stern visage, imbues him with authority and a distinctively American air: he looks vaguely like Charles Lindbergh, another American hero sprung from the heartland, and this physical resemblance raises, in my own mind, a possible propaganda ploy by Libby's defenders...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7908


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

11/03/05

A company the state hired to gather computerized facial imaging and thumbprints on all Texas driver's licenses failed to protect the identities of 7,500 Nevada drivers last spring, Nevada officials say. And, civil libertarians warn that the coming futuristic identification system could endanger both the private identities and individual liberties of law-abiding Texans. Gov. Rick Perry unveiled a five-year homeland security wish list Wednesday that calls for checking the coming high-tech thumbprints of all driver's license applicants with federal criminal and terrorism lists. Scott Henson, a privacy expert for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, called Perry's goal further evidence that a recent change in state law 'lets formerly private personal information be used by law enforcement for any conceivable purpose with no judicial oversight'

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3435054


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

11/03/05

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. On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9917012/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Jack Random

The remaking of the United States Supreme Court has been framed by the most extreme ideologues in modern political history as a battle between strict constructionists in white hats and their counterparts in moral darkness: the judicial activists. In keeping with the Orwellian nature of the neoconservative culture, whose programmed indifference is delivered in the name of compassion, whose evisceration of individual rights is coaxed in the name of justice, and whose wars are prosecuted in the name of peace, the real judicial activists are the very same champions of neoconservative federalism. It is ludicrous to suggest that either John Roberts or Samuel Alito do not have an agenda. For all of their professional lives, they have been devoted to a rightwing cause of judicial activism. That their cause is regressive hardly negates its blatant activism. Far from ruling passively on the merits of the law in a given case, both men have pressed the cause of federalism to the detriment of individual rights...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Random1104.htm

by Mike Whitney

Did you know that under the terms of the new Patriot Act prosecutors will be able to seek the death penalty in cases where “defendants gave financial support to umbrella organizations without realizing that some of its adherents might eventually commit violence”? (NY Times editorial, October 30, 2005) So, if someone unknowingly gave money to a charity that was connected to a terrorist group, he/she could be executed. Or, that the Senate Intelligence Committee is fine-tuning the details of a bill that will allow the FBI to secretly procure any of your personal records without “probable cause” or a court order giving them “unchecked authority to pry into personal and business matters”? (“Republicans Seek to Widen FBI Powers,” New York Times, October 19, 2005) Or, that on June 29, President Bush put “a broad swath of the FBI” under his direct control by creating the National Security Service (a.k.a. the “New SS”)? This is the first time we’ve had a “secret police” in our 200-year history. It will be run exclusively by the president and beyond the range of congressional oversight...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Whitney1104.htm

http://www.mz-web.de/extern/forum/read.php?f=32&i=1404&t=1404



Samstag: Sternmarsch gegen "große Koalition der Sozialräuber" in Berlin (04.11.05)

Ein Bündnis bundesweiter Initiativen will am Samstag in Berlin mit einem Sternmarsch gegen die neue Bundesregierung demonstrieren. Die Veranstalter erwarten 10.000 Teilnehmer, wie ein Polizeisprecher am Freitag sagte. Die Protest unter dem Motto "Gegen die große Koalition der Sozialräuber" ist unter anderem gegen die "Hartz IV"-Reform und den Abbau von Arbeitsplätzen gerichtet. Auf der Agenda der Demonstranten steht auch der Einsatz für "soziale und politische Rechte, Frieden, Schutz der natürlichen Umwelt und ein menschenwürdiges Leben".

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12211

Italy's spymaster identified an occasional Italian spy named Rocco Martino as the disseminator of forged documents that described efforts by Iraq to purchase uranium ore from Niger for a nuclear weapons program, three lawmakers said on Thursday.

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

Residents fearing for the health of their children have stepped up their fight to have a mobile phone mast removed from near their homes.

Families living in Longueville Drive, Oswestry, claim they were never consulted about the mast and fear the possible health risks associated with radiation.

Phil Chapman, of Longueville Drive, says the “unsightly” mast stands higher than a telegraph pole and he has now called on his neighbours to support his petition to have the mast removed.

Mr Chapman said: “It’s on land on the other side of the bypass opposite housing on Longueville Drive and it’s been there over 12 months.

“It’s been running on a generator but in the next couple of weeks they will be connecting it to the electricity supply under Longueville Drive.

Mr Chapman has also called on the support of Oswestry Borough Councillor Martin Bennett.

Councillor Bennett said a notification was made to the Borough Council on behalf of the mobile phone company Orange back in August 2001.

The full version of this story appears in tonight’s Shropshire Star

http://www.shropshirestar.com/show_article.php?aID=39003

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3588/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

--------

General calls use of 152nd 'inexcusable' :

"Three years in . . . it's inexcusable to have brought a maintenance company over there to do anything but maintenance," Libby said. "It's particularly galling to me when I strip myself of full-time mechanics and they get there and they're in a tower."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/051104general.shtml


From Information Clearing House

http://ga3.org/campaign/moralbudget?rk=X1_Nvg41TmBHW


Informant: Andrea Ball

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/4037021.html


MARC PARENT

CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777


Informant: beefree

To mark the one-year anniversary of President Bush's re-election Wednesday, a group called The World Can't Wait staged rallies at sites across the United States, calling for radical change in Washington. TO was in Los Angeles and San Francisco. To view a video report from Los Angeles, go to http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm. We will post a video report from San Francisco in the coming days as well.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305Q.shtml



Anti-Bush protests mark re-election anniversary

11/03/05

CBS News

"The 22nd Amendment ensures that a new commander in chief will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009. But some Americans aren't willing to wait that long. To mark the one-year anniversary of President Bush's reelection Wednesday, a group called The World Can't Wait staged rallies at sites across the United States, calling for radical change in Washington...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/02/national/main1005030.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Emmis Communications Bans Ad

New York 's HOT 97 Radio Stopped from Playing Ad Poised to Reach

PLAY THE BANNED AD EVERYWHERE!

Minutes before its scheduled airing, Emmis Communications, owners of Hot 97 in New York, pulled the plug on the World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime Ad. Hot 97 is "the" number one rap station in this city. The station itself had consciously approved the content of the ad knowing that this was both controversial and important. For some working inside the station, the idea of this spot reaching millions of urban youth in New York at this critical time was inspiring. Emmis Corporation's legal department called Hot 97 just as the spots were to begin to play.

The ad itself was a collaboration of artists Boots Riley from the Coup and Miles Solay from Outernational. It can break down walls.

Download the spot:

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=51143479&url_num=2&url=http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=20&Itemid=33

Youth today have come of age under the gruesome shadow of the Bush Regime. An entire generation has been betrayed, brutalized, criminalized, enlisted. The US Military saturates the youth "market" with slick high-tech ads aimed at turning young people into cannon fodder and the Christian Right spends millions to indoctrinate youth with politics of intolerance and punishment.

We stand at this unprecedented time in history. The energy and creativity of young people around the country will take this movement to the level where it will be unstoppable.

This cannot go down this way. Here is what you can do:

PLAY THE BANNED WORLD CAN'T WAIT AD TODAY before November 2nd. Send this email to everyone you know in the media. Call in to local radio stations, send to place you think you can get this on the air. Forward this to press contacts and get it posted prominently on websites. Get d-jays to talk about this on the air and announce it at gigs. But most importantly PLAY THE SPOT which says it all. World Can't Wait Press contact at 866-973-4463

Call Ennis Communications at IR@emmis.com or call (317) 266.0100, and let them know that their actions have only given us one more reason to NOT WAIT on November 2nd. Demand that they lift the ban immediately.

Call and Hot 97 at (212) 229.9797, or email them hot97@hot97.com Tell them to take off the muzzle. Tell them they were right to approve the ad and they should play it now.

Then download the ad into your cell phones and i-pods and play them everywhere!

Here are the words to the ad. You get the picture.

Hey, this is Boots Riley from The Coup. The world can't wait to drive out the Bush Regime!

November 2, no work, no school.

Widespread support for actions grows! Check it out
http://www.worldcantwait.org/ or 866-973-4463

STAY TUNED - FOR MORE INFO!
The Operation Ceasefire Crew


Informant: ralphdraw3

Paris MATCH (extrait)
http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=dernieresinfos&date_news=2005-11-04

From: "Kathy Guthrie" <kathyguthrie@fcnl.org>

FCNL

Legislative Action Message

Torture: Your Messages Are Working, Keep It Up – FCNL

This week has brought dramatic developments in the public demand for Congress to outlaw U.S. use of torture. Your letters and phone calls have had a powerful impact, contributing to a wave of shock and disgust over the administration’s torture policy and practice. Your messages are reaching Washington, with profound impact.

The administration is responding with backroom efforts to debilitate the McCain anti-torture amendment to the 2006 defense appropriations bill (HR 2863), to add exceptions to the amendment that would allow the president to authorize torture, or worse, that would exempt the CIA from the legal prohibition against torture. FCNL expects a vote very soon in the House on whether to retain the McCain amendment without modification. Action: Tell your representative that he or she must do everything possible to retain the Senate’s bi-partisan “McCain amendment” as part of the military appropriations bill. Tell them that the amendment must not be modified to allow for exceptions - no exception for “presidential waiver,” no exception for the geographic location of the detainee, and no exception for the CIA. To find a sample letter and information on your elected congressional representatives, visit the FCNL website at

http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=8197461&type=CO

Background: This week, Fifteen Republicans in the House sent a letter to powerful committee heads, calling for adoption of the McCain anti-torture amendment, without modification, as part of the military funding bill. Newspaper editorials all over the country stood behind retaining the amendment. The Washington Post revealed on Nov. 1 that the CIA operates secret detention centers scattered across the globe, without the oversight of court or Congress or the Pentagon. Read the article. The New York Times reported Nov. 1 that the administration is engaged in a fierce debate about U.S. torture policy. Read the article. On less than 24 hours notice, over 50 House staffers and two members of the House attended an anti-torture Hill briefing by a panel that included a retired Army brigadier general, two religious leaders (Jewish and Catholic), a military law expert, and William Howard Taft IV, former Chief Legal Advisor to Colin Powell and former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense under President. Reagan.

To recap: President Bush has threatened to veto the 2006 military appropriations bill (H.R. 2863) because the Senate amended its version of the bill to require that: (1) treatment of all Department of Defense (DoD) detainees or detainees held in DoD facilities must follow the Army Field Manual for Intelligence Interrogation; and (2) the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (to which the U.S. is a signatory) governs all U.S. detainees. Read the text of the amendment at

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1567&issue_id=70

Administration supporters have proposed a number of exemptions from the outright ban on torture by U.S. forces, including: presidential waiver, allowing the president to issue an order that in certain circumstances, the rule against torture would not apply; an exception for some geographic locations, countries or locations outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts; and an exception for classified intelligence gathering, allowing the definition of “classified intelligence” rendered in the field to determine whether torture can be permitted in a given interrogation session. Vice-President Cheney has even proposed an outright exemption for the CIA from the constraints of the torture ban, an astonishing proposal that would give permission for a U.S. agency to practice torture in violation of U.S. statutory law and treaty obligations.

With an overwhelming bi-partisan vote (90-9), the Senate passed the McCain amendment, which would adopt clear interrogation guidance for U.S. personnel in the field, based on the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation and the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Army Field Manual is the sum of professional judgment about which interrogation methods work, and which do not. It states that detainee abuse is counterproductive to the psychological bonds that produce reliable results. The Convention Against Torture was signed by President Reagan and sent to the Senate by President George H.W. Bush. It prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Congress and the administration of President George H.W. Bush clarified those terms for application to U.S. forces by requiring use of the standards prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution. In other words, U.S. forces would be required to follow U.S. Constitutional standard to guide their own conduct.

The Army Field Manual states that, “Experience indicates that the use of prohibited techniques is not necessary to gain the cooperation of interrogation sources. Use of torture and other illegal methods is a poor technique that yields unreliable results.” Twenty-nine senior retired officers, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Shalikashvili issued their support for the McCain amendment, approving the amendment’s clarification of consistent, top-down rules for all U.S. forces to follow. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also endorsed the amendment, aligning himself with the letter from General Shalikashvili and the “distinguished group of senior offices in support of the amendment.”

The McCain amendment does not prevent intelligence gathering. It prevents abuse and torture. The amendment insists on following the Army Field Manual, which in turn states that the methods that are expressly forbidden “should not be confused with psychological ploys, verbal trickery, or other nonviolent or non-coercive ruses used by the interrogator” to seek reliable information.

Visit the FCNL web site for further background information about the use of torture at

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=70


Stop New Nuclear Weapons! Find out how
http://www.fcnl.org/nuclear/

The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/

Contact Congress and the Administration:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/


Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
fcnl@fcnl.org *
http://www.fcnl.org
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled We seek an earth restored.


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Study
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1103-02.htm

In a message dated 11/3/2005 9:02:55 AM, clg_news@legitgov.org writes:

Most Offspring Died When Mother Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy

By Jeffrey M. Smith Oct 2005 "The Russian scientist planned a simple experiment to see if eating genetically modified (GM) soy [Monsanto's Roundup Ready soy] might influence offspring. What she got, however, was an astounding result that may threaten a multi-billion dollar industry... [T]he real shock came when the rats started dying"...

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=482253


Informant: JHW369

--------

Offspring Died When Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy
http://www.newswithviews.com/Smith/jeffrey8.htm

http://groups.msn.com/votefraudusa/3.msnw


Informant: Sasha Karlik

A planned mobile phone mast which sparked uproar in Earlsfield has been scrapped because it was submitted for a conservation area.

The 10m mast was planned for a recreation area between Godley Road and Tilehurst Road.

A 600-signature petition, including protests from children upset at their play space being ruined, was handed to Wandsworth Council.

Under Government guidelines, councils are powerless to stop masts being erected that are under 15m, unless there are special circumstances.

But Wandsworth Council spotted the mast was planned for a conservation area and told the telecommunications company to submit a planning application.

The company decided to bin the plans, and a T-Mobile spokesman said it would look into what it planned next.

Wandsworth Common councillor Kathy Tracey said it was a victory for residents who were unhappy about the mast being erected.

Coun Tracey said: "It is a great victory for the residents.

"We do not have to go through the whole process, they have withdrawn."

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: "The company has gone back to the drawing board on this proposal."

http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.648028.0.plans_scrapped_for_mast.php

A DECISION on controversial plans to erect a 20ft tall mobile phone mast on top of 23ft high building within a few feet of back gardens in Harrogate is expected within weeks.

As part of the planning process an independent government inspector visited the site off Hookstone Avenue on Wednesday.

He also viewed the area from Mount Gardens, Halstead Road and Beech Avenue in the Oatlands area.

Plans for the mast by mobile phone company O2(UK) Ltd were twice rejected for the same site by Harrogate Borough Council.

Following the latest refusal by councillors, the company lodged an appeal, sparking the site visit by independent government inspector Jonathan King. He announced that a decision would be made within weeks.

Coun Fred Willis (Con Pannal) who represents the area on the borough council, accompanied the inspector on his site visit along with a borough council planner, the appelants and three residents' representing the wider Oatlands Anti Mast Group.

Coun Willis said: "The development has caused an outcry because the mast would be so close to people's back gardens – little more than 12ft from their boundaries.

"If the scheme went ahead it would simply domineer residents' gardens because the 20ft structure would be erected on a building more than 23ft high making such an unwelcome impact."

Mr King visited back gardens which would be affected by the plans and also viewed the site from bedroom windows at the invitation of local residents.

After spending 45 minutes on the site visit which Mr Mr King spent 45 minutes making the site visit on roads surrounding a former leisure centre in Beech Avenue.

Coun Willis, in his submission to the appeal, said the mast would be a dominant and overpowering feature, creating an unneighbourly intrusion and should be rejected.

He said it would seriously diminish the amenity residents should reasonably expect to enjoy in their own back gardens.

04 November 2005

http://www.harrogatetoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=17&ArticleID=1243754

http://www.omega-news.info/travelers_mission.htm

I am forwarding this page to you aiming to introduce the UNITED HUMAN RESOURCE (UHR), India.

I hope the summary of UHR, ‘Traveler’s Mission’, and its proposed ‘Environment-Friendly Farming & Ecological Center and Training Institute for Vocational Education’ (EFFECTIVE) will give you a clear idea about the organization.

Please go through it and kindly send an email specifying your term of volunteering, your Date of Birth, Sex, Nationality, Passport number and Present address with phone number (if any) and your possible date of joining the mission to receive a formal Letter of Invitation from the UHR.

From the date of joining, the UHR takes every care for you including your food, accommodations etc. in a homely environment and arranges all transportation during the mission.

I would be extremely grateful for your comment, suggestions and advice and initiative in order to meet the required goal of UHR.

I believe you would be kind enough to render your joining hands to lead UHR towards its goal.

Wishing you all the best and hope to see you soon.

With Love and Regards

Sincerely

Pranab Saikia
UHR Founder Director

This is the page that I thought might interest you:
http://www.idealist.org/org/85197-183

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DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE: A DECLARATION FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/990236/

LINZ/WIEN. Die Verwendung von Handys in Autos, Bussen oder anderen öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln könnte bedenklich sein: Neue Studien weisen auf eine stark erhöhte Sendeleistung hin.

Moderne Handys richten ihre Sendeleistung selbständig danach aus, wie gut der Empfang ist: Dadurch steigt die Strahlungs-Belastung bei schlechten Bedingungen wie eben in der abschirmenden Umgebung einer Blech-Karosserie von Auto, Bus oder Straßenbahn besonders stark an. Dieser Zusammenhang wurde jetzt erstmals in Studien untersucht und bestätigt.

"Leider ist es ausgerechnet so, dass viele Handy-Benützer die Zeit im Auto oder in öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln dazu verwenden, jemand anzurufen", räumt die Grün-Abgeordnete Gabi Moser ein: Gerade das sei leider problematisch. "Wenn man schon meint, unbedingt gleich telefonieren zu müssen, dann sollte man besser die Wartezeit an der Haltestelle nutzen und das Gespräch möglichst vor dem Einsteigen beenden", rät Moser.

Die Bluetooth-Technologie kabelloser Ohrhörer schütze nicht vor der erhöhten Sendeleistung: Zwar sei die Belastung geringer, wenn das Handy selbst in einer Halterung stecke oder am Beifahrersitz liege, doch verursache auch das Headset selbst eine elektromagnetische Strahlung.

Umweltmediziner warnen in diesem Zusammenhang auch vor drahtlosen Computer-Netzwerken, wie sie in vielen Haushalten schon üblich sind: Auch sie seien Strahlungsquellen.

vom 08.10.2005

http://www.nachrichten.at/lokal/392031?PHPSESSID=32de9d673c68888def2b9ce89b072677

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Grenzwerte und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/242821/

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 04/11/2005)

People who believe electricity makes them ill should be informed of ways to reduce their exposure to appliances such as computers and hairdryers, a senior government health adviser said yesterday.

Dr Jill Meara, of the Health Protection Agency, said that while there was no scientific evidence to show electrical sensitivity was real, those who thought they were sufferers should be advised to consider keeping their distance from electric devices.

Brian Stein suffers from electromagnetic sensitivity

However, the Department of Health immediately contradicted the advice and a series of scientists criticised the HPA for advising the public how to avoid health risks that had not been scientifically proven.

Dr Meara, the deputy director of the HPA's radiation protection division, said: "There is no proof that the symptoms are caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields, but people still have real symptoms.

"There is sufficient uncertainty that it is worth telling members of the public practical things they can do to reduce exposure in case they feel they are suffering from these fields.

"It would be things like making sure people are far away from their appliances and buying slightly more expensive [low power] hair dryers, unlike those tinny ones that teenagers use.

"It's not an easy thing to study in a lab as people who suffer from it are not comfortable in an environment with a lot of electrical equipment."

But Sir Colin Berry, emeritus professor of pathology at Queen Mary University, London, said: "If there is no scientific evidence that electrical devices are causing people harm, one should be extremely careful about giving advice to people about what to do. If people believe they are being harmed by something they must take their own steps to avoid them, but I don't think it should be part of government policy to advise them about it."

John Adams, professor of risk at UCL, said: "This is yet another example of the modern disease of compulsive risk assessment psychosis - otherwise known as Crap."

Some researchers believe some people suffer symptoms including fatigue, headaches and skin problems when exposed to electromagnetic fields. But mainstream scientific and medical opinion does not recognise electrical sensitivity as a real condition.

A recent review of 30 studies into electrical sensitivity by Dr James Rubin at the King's College London School of Medicine found no evidence that electrical fields cause ill health.

This study and one being carried out at the University of Essex into whether attention span and memory are affected by exposure to a mobile phone mast have received £750,000 from the Government and telecommunications industry.

The Definition, Epidemiology and Management of Electrical Sensitivity report published yesterday was written by Dr Neil Irvine, an HPA epidemiologist in Belfast. He concluded that there was no proven scientific link between electromagnetic fields and ill health.

Omega this is not true. See under:
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electrosensitive
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1108878/
Electrical pollution can influence allergies: the asthma plague
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1139199/

But the report found that for some people the symptoms were real and could have a big impact on their lives. It said some people were so badly affected that they were forced to move house, give up their jobs or move to remote areas.

Brian Stein, 56, a businessman from Nottingham, began to get severe pains in his ear while using his mobile phone about four years ago. Now he cannot use a computer or a telephone for more than a few minutes or travel by modern car, electrified train or on long distance flights.

He had to drop out of the Essex University tests because they made him too ill.

He said yesterday: "The one thing the scientists and authorities don't want to do is talk to people like me who are affected. If they did they might find a way to prove that the condition is actually real."

nfleming@telegraph.co.uk

Publishers wishing to reproduce photographs on this page should phone 44 (0) 207 538 7505 or e-mail syndication@telegraph.co.uk

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/04/nelec04.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/04/ixhome.html

--------

Dr Jill Meara

National Radiological Protection Board
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OXI1 ORQ, United Kingdom
Fax: +44 1235 822 630
Tel: +44 1235 822 612
E mail:
Jill.Meara@hpa-rp.org.uk
jill.meara@nrpb.org
Jrmeara@aol.com (home)

--------

Electro Hypersensitivity

This is a copy of an e-mail I have sent to Jill Meara following her comments on EHS.

Sylvia


Hello Dr Meara

I corresponded with you a year ago, after I had attended the Symposium on EHS at the Royal College of Medicine, where you gave a presentation. I was heartened by your tone at that meeting, feeling that a new system of investigation was going to take place in order to try to resolve the disputed condition of EHS in many individuals. You intimated that the HPA were to "cast their net wider" in order to take in research from around the World in an attempt to establish whether EMR caused ill health in certain sensitive groups.

When asked by me how your measures were going to help my community in Essington (South Staffordshire) who have suffered the effects of numerous mobile phone base stations for 15 years, you answered "I am afraid these measures will not help communities like yours for 5-10 years".

In the wake of the recent publication of a report on EHS by the HPA this statement has been attributed to you (reported in the Telegraph) -

Jill Meara, the agency's deputy director, said: "In the lab, you can't reproduce the symptoms these people report, so scientifically there is definitely no link."

Estimates of the numbers of people around the world affected by electrical sensitivity range from a few per thousand people to a few per million. In about 10% of cases the symptoms are severe enough to affect quality of life. If people had symptoms, Mrs Meara added, they could try cognitive behaviour therapy, or in the case of headaches, painkillers. "They can also reduce their exposure to electrical fields by changing their appliances."

I would like you to explain to me how my community can follow your advice and what exactly you envisage can happen over the next (now) 4-9 years to make that difference.

If laboratories cannot reproduce symptoms experienced by EHS individuals then £7.5m is being wasted at Essex University - and the only answer is to put funding into epidemiological studies in villages like Essington, and many other communities around Britain, where those symptoms are in evidence. These studies need not span several years - all that is required is to monitor what physiological changes take place in the body in areas of high emissions (also easily monitored).

I would appreciate your comments please.

Regards

Cllr Sylvia Wright

-------

Sylvia,

An excellent letter if I may say so. The wind blows one way and Jill Meara follows; it reverses direction and so does she.

It doesn't need me to tell you that the response, if any, will amount to "a waste of rations" as is said in military terms. But that is no reason for not keeping up the pressure.

David

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Dear Jill Meara

There was a recent excellent BBC programme in which their reporter spoke from Sweden and mentioned the financial and practical help available from the Government for victims of electro-sensitivity. As the HPA have now denied that the condition exists - but there are many of us who know we are suffering from ES due to phone masts, a great number of us are now seriously doubting the capabilities of the HPA.

Withholding acceptance/knowledge of a condition that so many people are suffering from will not make the condition disappear, nor will it help the public 'trust' the reliability of the HPA's knowledge and 'protection role'!

I am seriously worried that the Health Protection Agency's current responsibility seems only to protect the interests of big business and not the general public's health!

Please will you confirm if you and your colleagues at the HPA have read and taken notice of the attached reports that are available to everyone to read on the Internet?

1. This 7 page Naila report which sets out the other health risks associated with masts.

http://www.tetrawatch.net/papers/naila.pdf

2. PRESS RELEASE May 1, 2005

Cell phone base stations change brain currents and cause unwellness

Research in Austria

The radiation of a cell phone base station at a distance of 80 metres causes significant changes of the electrical currents in the brains of testees (measured by electroencefalogram, EEG). All the testees said they felt unwell during the radiation, some of them seriously.

That is the result of an investigation by a team of Austrian scientists. They measured alpha 1 (8 to 10 Hz), alpha 2 (10 to 12 Hz) and beta waves (13 to 20 Hz). A small density of GSM 900 and GSM 1800 radiation already caused several significant changes in these three frequency ranges. This means the body is stressed - temporarily this may have some positive effect, in the long run however stress certainly reduces the quality of life, capacity for work and state of health.

The results of the research will be published in international scientific magazines and confirmed by replication. The research was financed by Land Salzburg in Austria. The testees were nine women and three men between 20 and 78, who considered themselves 'electrosensitive'. They were invited to sit in a chair, eyes covered and ears plugged. Of course they were not aware of the sequence of the tests.

The side of the room directed at the cell phone base station was shielded against radiation, except for a small part which could be (un)shielded easily. In the first phase, the radiation density near the head was 26 mikroWatt/m2, in the second phase 3327 mikroWatt/m2 and in the third phase 26 mikroWatt/m2 again. Several other environmental parameters were measured to be sure they could not influence the results, such as radiation by television and FM-radio, noise, CO2, temperature, relative humidity, low frequency magnetic fields and soherics (electrical discharges in the atmosphere, possibly causing radiation).

During the second phase the parameters of all the brainwaves, measured by EEG, changed significantly. Afterwards the testees were asked to describe their experiences. All of them felt unwell during the second phase. They reported symptoms like buzzing in the head, palpitations of the heart, unwellness, lightheadedness, anxiety, breathlessness, respiratory problems, nervousness, agitation, headache, tinnitus, heat sensation and depression.

According to the scientists, this is the first worldwide proof of significant changes of the electrical currents in the brain by a cell phone base station at a distance of 80 metres. It has been scientifically established before that the radiation of cell phone base stations leads to unwellness and health complaints.

Cell phone base stations are not the only source of radiofrequent radiation. Also UMTS-videophones, DECT-telephones, WLAN- and WIFI-networks, C2000/TETRA-networks and many other digital wireless communication systems contribute to the level of radiation. In many houses and offices the densities by DECT and WLAN are higher than those by cell phone base stations.

The scientists involved were dr. med. Gerd Oberfeld (Land Salzburg, dept. of environmental medicin), dr. Hannes Schimke (Salzburg University, EEG-measurements, psychofysiology, statistics) and univ. prof. dr. Günther Bernatzky (Salzburg University, neurodynamics and neurosignalling). The research was supported by dr. med. univ. Gernot Luthringshausen (permanent member of the ethical commission of Land Salzburg, neurology and psychiatry).

Sources in German:

http://www.salzburg.com/cgibin/sn/printArticle.pl?xm=1524270 http://www.salzburg.gv.at/themen/gs/gesundheit/umweltmedizin.htm

and 3.

The Balmori paper supports other truly independent research on animals, where psychology cannot be blamed for ill health and loss of wellbeing.

Omega see "Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife - Are Cell Phones Wiping Out Sparrows?" under:
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/

I look forward to hearing from you, hopefully with some better news for those of us who are adversely affected by being near mobile phone masts, which we cannot switch off or choose not to live near, as is the case with the mobile handsets.

Yours truly

Jane Lee
Glebelands Otterton Devon EX9 7JJ

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Jill Meara e-mails

The following is the dialogue so far on EHS studies:

I corresponded with you a year ago, after I had attended the Symposium on EHS at the Royal College of Medicine, where you gave a presentation. I was heartened by your tone at that meeting, feeling that a new system of investigation was going to take place in order to try to resolve the disputed condition of EHS in many individuals. You intimated that the HPA were to "cast their net wider" in order to take in research from around the World in an attempt to establish whether EMR caused ill health in certain sensitive groups.

When asked by me how your measures were going to help my community in Essington (South Staffordshire) who have suffered the effects of numerous mobile phone base stations for 15 years, you answered "I am afraid these measures will not help communities like yours for 5-10 years".

In the wake of the recent publication of a report on EHS by the HPA this statement has been attributed to you (reported in the Telegraph) -

Jill Meara, the agency's deputy director, said: "In the lab, you can't reproduce the symptoms these people report, so scientifically there is definitely no link."

Estimates of the numbers of people around the world affected by electrical sensitivity range from a few per thousand people to a few per million. In about 10% of cases the symptoms are severe enough to affect quality of life. If people had symptoms, Mrs Meara added, they could try cognitive behaviour therapy, or in the case of headaches, painkillers. "They can also reduce their exposure to electrical fields by changing their appliances."

I would like you to explain to me how my community can follow your advice and what exactly you envisage can happen over the next (now) 4-9 years to make that difference.

If laboratories cannot reproduce symptoms experienced by EHS individuals then £7.5m is being wasted at Essex University - and the only answer is to put funding into epidemiological studies in villages like Essington, and many other communities around Britain, where those symptoms are in evidence. These studies need not span several years - all that is required is to monitor what physiological changes take place in the body in areas of high emissions (also easily monitored).

I would appreciate your comments please.

Thank you for your enquiry. I enclose a copy of our press release and the report that more accurately reflects our conclusions than the press reports. There are a couple of things with noting, firstly we were somewhat surprised to find that most of the scientific studies of Electrical Sensitivity (ES) have looked at people who attribute symptoms to power frequency appliances. The area of radio frequency exposures is less well researched and certainly deserves more attention, hence the studies funded by the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR) at Essex and elsewhere. There is no theoretical reason why microwave (radio frequency) radiation should have the same effect on the body as power frequency fields, even though they are part of the same electromagnetic spectrum (as are visible light, ultraviolet and nuclear radiation) so it is unwise merely to extrapolate studies from these different exposures. The MTHR programme is funding epidemiological studies but these are fraught with difficulty in measuring exposures. Most people do not stay in the same place all day and exposures away from home may overwhelm those experienced at home. We have also found that in about half of sites, the largest exposure to people in an area is NOT from the local mast but from one further away. These factors are very difficult to control for in observational studies. Some of the MTHR funding is being used to develop a body-worn exposure meter that may help to make epidemiological studies more useful on the future. I hope this is helpful

Thank you for your reply to my e-mail and for attaching the full report from the HPA on EHS.

I note your comments on epidemiological studies being undertaken and wonder if you could give me more details of where these studies were conducted and the results so far. I would welcome such studies in my village and feel that we would be an excellent subject because of the high number of phone masts and the high incidence of illness and death.

I understand that you need to take care in conducting epidemiological studies on subjects who are electrosensitive, but I still feel that, with todays technology, it is perfectly possible to collect data on the pulsed microwave emissions while monitoring changes in the functioning of the body of the subject. It is irrelevant whether the effects are from a source close by or remote - the main object should be to measure the emissions in the environment where the subject is situated.

I would welcome your further comments on this very serious and urgent matter.


All the MTHR studies are described on the website http://www.mthr.org.uk . The epidemiological study is described as "currently underway" wh ich suggests there are no results yet. As I said in my last E-mail, we are working on a personal exposure device that would allow detection of microwave fields in the environment where people are as they move around.


Could I ask you to let me know if such a device is available as and when this happens. Could you also confirm whether volunteer communities will be sought.

Here is the weblink to the research on the personal exposure meter. As far as I am aware it is not available commercially. You will note that certain problems were found with the test device that need to be addressed. http://www.hpa.org.uk/radiation/publications/hpa_rpd_reports/2005/hpa_rpd_008.htm

I do not know if volunteers are being sought for the MTHR epidemiological studies, you would be best to make direct contact through MTHR. I have copied this to Nigel Cridland the MTHR administrator here who knows a lot more than I about all the projects.


Thank you for passing on my e-mail to Nigel Cridland. I have looked at the details for the PEM meter, but am more interested in the "body suit" that you spoke of in your previous e-mail.


I think I said "body worn" (i.e. clipped to the belt). I did not mean "body suit. Sorry if I confused you.


Nevertheless, this is the device I am more interested in if you have more details.

I only know of one meter, the PEM.


Then you are right, I have misunderstood. I think what is needed is a device to monitor, perhaps, blood circulation, muscle activity (or lack of), nerve impulses, etc., in order to determine what is happening in the body of the subject. Surely, this is the only way. The present practice of asking the person to describe what they are feeling is leading to the unhelpful diagnosis of "all in the mind".


Not our area of expertise I'm afraid. The nearest I can think of is the physiological monitoring that anaesthetists do while people are under anaesthetic.


If epidemiological studies are being done, I would think this type of device is essential. Otherwise results of such studies are always going to be "inconclusive".

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Which shows just how much she is missing the point.

a) there are no epidemiological studies

b) MTHR is exhausted, some research appears not to have been done at all, and hardly any other has been published, except the DSTL on Ca++ which was published before being peer reviewed, the obscure driving and mobiles and one or two other bits. None is particularly accessible and the MTHR website is woefully out of date.

c) the dosimeter testing has been at least partly published by HPA, but tells us nothing other than the capacity to check some features of incident radiation on the wearer as they go about their lives. Undoubtedly of interest it monitors the radiation, not the body response. This must not be used to "prove low levels", because the complaint is already that extremely low levels do have a chronic effect, but that we don't know if the cause lies in the MW frequency, the modulation characteristics, or the power levels, or the combined effects of multiple carriers.

d) The RPD is clearly not the place to pronounce on safety, since they self-confessedly do not have the medical expertise. But since they are part of the HPA it is high time they passed it on to others or undertook meaningful collaboration.

Andy

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And this from Nigel Cridland.

Sylvia


RE: Electrosensitivity Von: "Nigel Cridland"
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:50:29 -0000
to: "Jill Meara"


Dear Mrs Wright,

The MTHR Programme Management Committee considers that whilst the availability of a personal exposure meter is an interesting development, further trials would need to be undertaken before it could be used in a full epidemiological study. The Committee has identified a need for work in this area as part of the proposed second phase of the MTHR Programme, for which funds are currently being sought. We are also keeping in contact with European researchers who have work in progress to further evaluate the potential of the personal exposure meter for epidemiological investigations. Progress towards a full epidemiological study will obviously depend on the outcome of this work and the work proposed by MTHR. Any new developments will be published on the Programme web site at http://www.mthr.org.uk

Regards,

Nigel Cridland
MTHR Scientific Co-ordinator.

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From: Eileen O'Connor
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 18:09:37 -0000
Subject: FW: Check out Press Complaints Commission

From Catherine

Press Complaints http://www.pcc.org.uk/index2.html

Commission: The telegraph and the Times ran articles in which they used so called experts to contradict Dr Meara on electrosensativity. 1 SIR COLIN BERRY had no knowledge of the subject. From the quote from him he admits total ignorance of the subject. John Hunt professor of GEOGRAPHY was not even medically or scientifically qualified to send out health advice contradicting a medical Doctor. Making out that people are mentally ill on his advice is very dangerous, as someone recently won a case in European law, who was wrongly committed as insane due to similar ignorance. The use of his Title Professor was misleading as this has no bearing on the subject, as GEOGRAPHY IS NOT THE QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED, OR RELEVANT for this. The papers did not make his Title of Professor clear. As people were misled by this, a complaint should be submitted, so that this can be corrected in the newspapers. I will also see if a similar thing exists for Academic complaints so this also can be done. I would ask everyone to complain to stop the cover up as the news today about the rise in mouth cancer is very worrying and I fear nothing to do with alcohol.

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Dear Jill Meara

Thank you very much for your fast response to my email queries and thank you for your comments.

Please will you expand your kind explanation of research that has to be published in a peer reviewed journal further for me? For instance, is the paper titled 'Increased Incidence of Cancer Near a Cell-Phone Transmitter Station' by Ronni Wolf MD and Danny Wolf MD, published in the Internal Journal of Cancer Prevention Volume 1, Number 2, April 2004, eligible to be considered by the HPA?

As I am just an ordinary concerned person who becomes ill in the vicinity of mobile phone masts, I really do need to know how much protection the HPA is affording myself and the great numbers of other people like me. Please will you let me know what journals the HPA continually scours and uses for information on the adverse health effects from mobile phone masts?

Finally, as the methods used in the Austrian research on electro-sensitivity mentioned in my earlier email do not appear to be expensive or complicated, please can you tell me if similar research is currently being carried out in Britain?

In the meantime, thank you once again for your kind assistance so far.

Best wishes

Mrs Jane Lee

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Dr Neil Irvine, CDSC NI, coordination epidemiology, Tel: 028 90263765, Tel: 028 90263765

He is regional epidemiologist of HPA Belfast.

I found also dr. Helene Irvine, Public Health Consultant to the Glasgow Health Board, about GSM phones and masts in 2000,
http://www.feb.se/EMFguru/EMF/cell-health/cellphone-health.html
but I really do not know if she is related to Neil Irvine. There are a lot of people called Irvine.

Mike Clark, Mike.Clark@hpa-rp.org.uk answers the questions to Neil Irvine.

Neil Irvine has written about sexually transmitted infections

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ew/2005/050203.asp and

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cache:UXC26P4Jr9UJ:www.aidsmap.com/en/news/B46322FF-ED9A-4FC4-B471-8292356165F3.asp%3Ftype%3Dpreview+%22irvine+n.%22+hpa&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

It is not clear why NRPB has asked Neil Irvine to do the investigation.

Michael Clark of the NRPB says: "There is no evidence for this effect but lots of people report it. They are affected by something, they go a bit strange and all sorts of symptoms appear."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,,1398868,00.html

I think what happens in U.K. now is what happened before in Sweden. Not only the WHO, also Michael Clark of NRPB says many people report EHS/ES.

Still, they act as if it can not be caused by environmental radiation/fields, though the people involved report real physical symptoms and the relationship with more or less radiation/fields.

Dr Neil Irvine, EHSSB Eastern Health and Social Services Board, is mentioned here on page 62 (about physically disabled and sensory impaired people)

http://www.ehssb.n-i.nhs.uk/EBWEB.NSF/0/f374826006e4c54b80256f540041ccd1/$FILE/PDConsultation.pdf
EHSSB is in Belfast.

Neil Irvine has advise about meningococcal disease

http://www.ehssb.n-i.nhs.uk/ebweb.nsf/4cdbab0966e6c2f880256c1d00408939/eafc48183b6e706f80256e6a005171c1?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,irvine

Neil Irvine was one of the authors of a report for HPA before:

http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/injectingdrugusers/Shooting_Up_2004_data.pdf

He has also co-worked on this:

http://www.cdscni.org.uk/publications/MonthlyReports/Volume_13_2004/No%2011.pdf#search='neil%20irvine%20hpa'

I have no idea why Neil Irvine was asked or proposed to write the HPA/RPD 010 report.

Interesting question, just ask him or the HPA.

Frans

--------

Dr Neil Irvine is described on the title page of the report as: Regional Epidemiologist, Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Northern Ireland, HPA Belfast.

Now more evident on Google for this latest report, he does have a history with streptococcal infections, HIV and STDs (for example) and his email is neil.irvine@hpa.org.uk . His final report as published may reveal a poor appreciation of EHS and presentation of the issues, but we really should not assume he is a poor epidemiologist.

I'm afraid that knee-jerk reactions that people are either faithfully represented by the press, or that they are necessarily mad, bad or sad just because they don't say what we want, will just not do. It doesn't mean they are good and faithful scientists either, but the basis of dialogue is respect.

Bear with the frustration in this game, it's a long one, and there is a lot of real communication still to do. We must ask direct pointed questions politely, not criticise people we do not know. (There is highly contrasting recent communication with Jill Meara that can be quite instructive here.)

Andy

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Response from Jill Meara

Dear Mrs Lee

Firstly, sorry that I called you Mr Lee in the last E-mail, slip of the finger I'm afraid. In general the HPA looks at evidence from all sources but would give especial weight to high quality reports in the peer reviewed scientific literature. However, even these journals can publish reports that do not have the best methodology or that report "chance" findings that are not backed up by their own results or replicated in later studies. Therefore we would always review the detailed methods of any study for possible sources of bias and confounding. The International Journal of Cancer Prevention is a peer reviewed journal but we would still subject any papers in to a quality review. We do not have a list of "publications that we scan", but would take information from any source, but examine it carefully for quality. The problem with epidemiology is that "cheap and cheerful" methods, whilst attractive to researchers who have limited resources, may not end up with a study that is rigorous enough to trust the conclusions drawn. In many ways epidemiological studies are much more difficult to design than laboratory studies precisely because there is no "control" over the lives of real people. Another point is that not all authors draw conclusions that are supported by their data. If you want to know more about the epidemiological studies going on in the UK at the moment, look on the MTHR website at mthr.org.uk. If you want to know more about the design of epidemiological studies, definitions of bias and confounding etc why not try to get hold of an epidemiology textbook such as "Essential Pubic Health Medicine" which is co-written by the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson and his late father who was also a legend in Public Health. You could also look at the website of CASP, which is a programme based in Oxford that trains both Health Service staff and patients how to critically appraise the scientific literature. http://www.phru.nhs.uk/casp/casp.htm

I hope these observations are helpful.

Dr Jill Meara
FFPH Deputy Director/Public Health Physician

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Er, yes?

What epidemiological studies?

Please, anyone, help me find them here! As far as I have ever been able to tell, there are no MTHR epidemiological studies, just one or two papers discussing the nature of such studies.

See my earlier summary here:
http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/mthr.php

Andy


From Mast Sanity

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HPA-RPD-010: Definition, Epidemiology and Management of Electrical Sensitivity
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1115204/

50% increase in cancer in teenagers - Oral cancer cases increase
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1160454/

An open letter to Rod Read, director of Electrosensitivity-UK
http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000654.php



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electrosensitivity
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=HPA-RPD-010
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Brian+Stein
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Jill+Meara
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Rod+Read
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Nic+Fleming

Todd Gitlin: Not so fast. George W. Bush's season of defeats does offer the appearance of deliverance for Democrats. While Harry Reid's move Tuesday to throw the Senate into closed session to demand answers on Iraq intelligence was a good start, Democrats need a lot more of such fighting spirit to prevail, despite all Bush's troubles. It's going to take a lot more than indictments to defeat the GOP. The only way the Democrats can win back at least one house of Congress is to look and sound like fighters. And the only way to look like fighters and sound like fighters is to be fighters.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305F.shtml

Rep. Tom DeLay's staff tried to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff win access to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, an effort that succeeded after Abramoff's Indian tribe clients began funneling a quarter of a million dollars to an environmental group founded by Norton.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305D.shtml

The White House sought to deflect politically charged questions Wednesday about President Bush's use of prewar intelligence in Iraq, saying Democrats, too, had concluded Saddam Hussein was a threat.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305C.shtml

Bob Herbert: The reporter, Dana Priest, gave us the best glimpse yet of the extent of the secret network of prisons in which the CIA has been hiding and interrogating terror suspects. Worse stories are still to come - stories of murder, torture and abuse. We'll watch them unfold the way people watch the aftermath of terrible accidents. And then we'll ask, "How could this have happened?" Ultimately the whole truth will come out and historians will have their say, and Americans will look in the mirror and be ashamed.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305B.shtml

Bush may find himself besieged by charges of cronyism, but that doesn't seem to have affected his picks for a panel assessing intelligence matters.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110305A.shtml

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Thursday for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States after a report of a covert CIA prison system for al Qaeda captives.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10869.htm



International Committee of the Red Cross Seeks Access to CIA Prison
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1103-01.htm

The inside story of how the Bush administration pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10871.htm

The United States risks losing sight of some key foreign policy issues, including relations with China and the Muslim world, because of its "single-minded focus" on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former senior Pentagon official said.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10864.htm