A 6-year-old kindergarten student in Massachusetts is accused of causing a “disturbance” and “traumatizing” other students by bringing a very tiny plastic toy gun on the school bus last week.
The “gun” brandished by the young boy was barely bigger than a quarter.
The child’s mother, Mieke Crane, told WGGB-TV that school officials at Old Mill Pond Elementary in Palmer, Mass., seriously overreacted after another student saw the toy and told the bus driver on Friday.
The driver said the 6-year-old “caused quite a disturbance” and left other children “traumatized,” according to Crane.
The kindergartener has been forced to write an apology letter to the bus driver. He was also given detention on Tuesday and may temporarily lose his bus riding privileges.
“I could see if it was, you know, an Airsoft gun or some sort of pistol or live bullets or something. This is just a toy,” the stunned mother said.
Additionally, the boy who reportedly yelled about the toy gun on the bus has also been forced to apologize.
Crane said her son did not equate the extremely small plastic toy gun with an actual firearm or weapon.
“At 6 years old, I don’t really think he understood the zero tolerance policy and related it to this as the same,” she added.
This is hardly the first instance of young students being taught that anything resembling a gun is bad.
In April, TheBlaze first reported that a New York father had his pistol license revoked after his son and two of his classmates talked about going to a boy’s house with a water gun, “paint gun” and a BB gun. School officials called police and apparently felt they had enough cause to revoke John Mayer’s handgun license.
In March, a 7-year-old boy was suspended from school for chewing a breakfast pastry into a shape that somewhat resembled a gun. The boy maintained he didn’t mean to make his food look like a gun.
In January, a Philadelphia fifth-grader was scolded and even searched in front of her entire class for pulling out a piece of paper that was torn into a gun-like shape. A school administrator reportedly yelled at her while other students called her a “murderer.”
Also in January, a 5-year-old girl was suspended for ten days and reportedly labeled a “terrorist threat” for threatening to shoot her friend with a toy bubble gun.
And the list goes on and on.
Originally Posted On: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/29/6-year-old-given-detention-forced-to-apologize-after-bringing-this-seriously-tiny-plastic-gun-on-school-bus/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share+Buttons
After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that's fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It's added to the chicken feed on purpose!
Even worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American consumers who eat conventional chicken have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical. (http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/fd...)
Until this new study, both the poultry industry and the FDA denied that arsenic fed to chickens ended up in their meat. The fairytale excuse story we've all been fed for sixty years is that "the arsenic is excreted in the chicken feces." There's no scientific basis for making such a claim... it's just what the poultry industry wanted everybody to believe.
But now the evidence is so undeniable that the manufacturer of the chicken feed product known as Roxarsone has decided to pull the product off the shelves (http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-06-08-fda-admits-supermarket-ch...). And what's the name of this manufacturer that has been putting arsenic in the chicken feed for all these years?Pfizer, of course -- the very same company that makes vaccines containing chemical adjuvants that are injected into children.
Technically, the company making the Roxarsone chicken feed is a subsidiary of Pfizer, called Alpharma LLC. Even though Alpharma now has agreed to pull this toxic feed chemical off the shelves in the United States, it says it won't necessarily remove it from feed products in other countries unless it is forced by regulators to do so. As reported by AP:
"Scott Brown of Pfizer Animal Health's Veterinary Medicine Research and Development division said the company also sells the ingredient in about a dozen other countries. He said Pfizer is reaching out to regulatory authorities in those countries and will decide whether to sell it on an individual basis." (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-06-08-fda-chicken-...)
Arsenic? Eat more!
But even as its arsenic-containing product is pulled off the shelves, the FDA continues its campaign of denial, claiming arsenic in chickens is at such a low level that it's still safe to eat. This is even as the FDA says arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it increases the risk of cancer.
The National Chicken Council agrees with the FDA. In a statement issued in response to the news that Roxarsone would be pulled from feed store shelves, it stated, "Chicken is safe to eat" even while admitting arsenic was used in many flocks grown and sold as chicken meat in the United States.
What's astonishing about all this is that the FDA tells consumers it's safe to eat cancer-causing arsenic but it's dangerous to drink elderberry juice! The FDA recently conducted an armed raid in an elderberry juice manufacturer, accusing it of the "crime" of selling "unapproved drugs." (http://www.naturalnews.com/032631_elderberry_juice_FDA_raid.html) Which drugs would those be? The elderberry juice, explains the FDA. You see, the elderberry juice magically becomes a "drug" if you tell people how it can help support good health.
The FDA has also gone after dozens of other companies for selling natural herbal products or nutritional products that enhance and support health. Plus, it's waging a war on raw milk which it says is dangerous. So now in America, we have a food and drug regulatory agency that says it's okay to eat arsenic, but dangerous to drink elderberry juice or raw milk.
Eat more poison, in other words, but don't consume any healing foods. That's the FDA, killing off Americans one meal at a time while protecting the profits of the very companies that are poisoning us with their deadly ingredients.
Oh, by the way, here's another sweet little disturbing fact you probably didn't know about hamburgers and conventional beef: Chicken litter containing arsenic is fed to cows in factory beef operations. So the arsenic that's pooped out by the chickens gets consumed and concentrated in the tissues of cows, which is then ground into hamburger to be consumed by the clueless masses who don't even know they're eating second-hand chicken sh*t. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027414_chicken_disease_cows.html)
"Arsenic being intentionally added to conventional chicken"
The old saying, "You are what you eat," poses troubling implications for public health in light of a new study on chicken meat, which found that most of it contains dangerously high levels of toxic arsenic. And the worst part is that industrial chicken producers are directly responsible for causing this, as they intentionally add arsenic-based pharmaceutical drugs to chicken feed in order to bulk them up quickly and improve the color of their meat, which in turn poisons you and your family.
You can thank researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Maryland for exposing this little-known fact in a recent paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. As it turns out, virtually all commercial chicken, including certified organic and "antibiotic-free" varieties, contain some level of inorganic arsenic. But it is the conventional chicken fed arsenic-based drugs that have the highest levels.
As reported by GRACE Communications Foundation Senior Policy Advisor Chris Hunt, writing for Ecocentric, Johns Hopkins researchers collected a variety of chicken samples from grocery stores in 10 cities across the U.S. Some of the meat samples came from conventional sources, while others were U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) certified organic or "antibiotic-free." All the samples were tested side-by-side with each other, including in both raw and cooked form.
Upon analysis, the team discovered that the conventional chicken meat samples had the highest levels of inorganic arsenic overall, containing up to four times as much arsenic as the organic chicken samples. These same conventional chicken meat samples contained up to three times more arsenic than the maximum levels proposed, but later retracted, as a safety standard by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) back in 2011.
"The levels of inorganic arsenic discovered in chicken are cause for concern, especially since many of us are already exposed to the carcinogen through additional dietary and environmental paths," writes Hunt. "But unlike these other sources of exposure, which typically result from natural arsenic deposits, industry or residual contaminationfrom the days of widespread arsenical pesticide use, as noted in the study, 'arsenical poultry drugs are deliberately administered to animals intended for human consumption.'"
FDA currently allows Big Pharma to lace chicken feed with arsenic to boost profits
What the study is referring to, of course, is the common practice, at least up until 2011, of industrial chicken producers adding a pharmaceutical drug known as roxarsone to chicken feed. The Pfizer, Inc.-manufactured drug was in heavy use between 2010 and 2011 when the Johns Hopkins study was conducted, and researchers found traces of this chemical in a significant percentage of the conventional chicken meat tested.
According to Hunt's analysis, arsenical chemicals like roxarsone have been in use since the 1940s, when chicken producers began adding it to chicken feed to speed up growth, prevent disease, and improve meat pigmentation. But as we now know, these chemicals are pervasive, and are known to cause cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, mental impairment, miscarriage, and other serious human health issues.
"[T]his study provides further evidence that continued use of arsenicals in food animal production poses an entirely unnecessary threat to public health," adds Hunt. "While the practice might boost the profits earned by poultry giants and the manufacturers who supply them with arsenical drugs, it's imprudent and irresponsible. As such, the FDA has no legitimate justification for its ongoing failure to prohibit arsenicals from food animal production."
The United States is still racing to determine how unapproved genetically modified wheat was found growing in an Oregon field, a discovery that continued to roil global wheat markets on Friday as South Korean buyers stepped aside.
A top official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said investigators are "pursuing many avenues" to determine how the wheat - which carries a gene making it resistant to herbicide applications - popped up in late April.
"At this point we have not ... eliminated any" potential causes, Bernadette Juarez, deputy director of the investigative unit with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
South Korean millers suspended imports of U.S. wheat on Friday and some Asian countries increased inspections after the discovery of the unapproved wheat, but stopped short of imposing import bans.
U.S. officials are attempting to tamp down global alarm about the wheat, developed by biotech giant Monsanto Co (MON.N) more than a decade ago but never put into commercial production. Field tests on GMO wheat were last conducted in 2005.
The discovery of the long-forgotten strain prompted major buyer Japan to shun wheat from the Pacific Northwest at its weekly tender on Thursday, while the European Union said it would step up testing.
So far, rival exporter Canada has not seen any benefit from the incident, a major Canadian merchant said, predicting that the nervous response from buyers might soon fade.
"It's like the lights going out in the restaurant I was in last night. Nobody really expects they'll stay out for very long," Curt Vossen, chief executive of Richardson International Ltd told Reuters. "It might be five minutes, but they'll come on again fairly quickly."
In that vein, wheat futures prices in Chicago were higher on Friday, more than retracing Thursday's small decline.
The impact of the GMO wheat find has been felt mostly on cash prices in the Pacific Northwest, a key market for Asian buyers to purchase supplies of white wheat.
Still, South Korea - which last year sourced roughly half of its total wheat imports of 5 million tonnes from the U.S. - has also raised quarantine measures on U.S. wheat bought to feed livestock, while Thailand put ports on alert.
Its scientists had conducted weeks of quiet field work and complex tests before the bombshell news was announced this week.
To pin down the origin of the wheat, USDA extracted DNA from the tissue of wheat plants collected by its investigators from the Oregon field, and sent material to three facilities.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said the wheat posed no threat to human health.
South Korean officials said the U.S. had provided the DNA sequence of the rogue GM strain to help its inspectors detect if it was in other imported U.S. wheat and flour. Test results will be released on Monday, the South Korean food ministry said.
"From this weekend, we will also collect wheat and flour imported from all over the United States and will conduct tests next week," said Ahn Man-ho, a spokesman at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
South Koreans say they will not import U.S. wheat until all tests are completed.
TIGHT AUSSIE SUPPLY
Asia imports more than 40 million tonnes of wheat annually, almost a third of the global trade of 140-150 million tonnes. The bulk of the region's supplies come from the U.S., the world's biggest exporter, and Australia, the No. 2 supplier.
But Australia will struggle to soak up extra demand as its supplies tighten in the wake of unsustainably brisk exports and growing demand from domestic livestock farmers.
"The bulk of grain suppliers (in Australia) are cancelling shipping slots and selling grain to domestic feed mills and feedlots," said Stefan Meyer, a manager for cash markets at brokerage INTL FCStone in Sydney.
Japan is not rushing to find alternative sources of wheat, however, with the county's flour milling industry body saying they have sufficient stocks for the short term.
"We haven't thought about alternatives to the grade or proposed candidates to the farm ministry (at this stage)," said Masaaki Kadota, executive director of the Flour Millers Association of Japan.
But Kadota added that it could be difficult for users to find alternative soft white types of wheat to the U.S. Western White Grade, as wheat grown in nations such as Australia and Canada is mainly the medium to hard type.
An industry official in the Philippines, which buys about 4 million tonnes of wheat a year and relies mainly on U.S. supplies, said the country could turn to Canada if it decides not to import from the U.S.
(Additional reporting by Colin Packham in Sydney, Apornrath Phoonphongphipat in Bangkok, Risa Maeda in Tokyo and Erik dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Ros Krasny, Amran Abocar, Joseph Radford and David Gregorio)
One of the core ideas here at the Daily Impact is that industry, while pursuing profits (economies of scale), simultaneously concentrates risk. What industry has to do, then, is keep us focused on its quick payoffs (We’re job creators! We help the economy!) and distracted from the long term dangers posed by, for example, pollution. As our waters have increasingly been poisoned, our air relentlessly made more noxious, our very climate changed and our land made barren, getting the crap out of sight has become more and more difficult. But necessity is a mother, and it has borne a new invention.
In more than 1,500 places across the U.S., according to a Pro Publica investigation, industries are injecting toxic materials into underground aquifers — underground reservoirs of drinkable water. They are doing this, even in the areas hardest hit by drought, with the specific approval of the oddly named Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA is approving this suicidal practice for what it calls “waters that do not currently serve as a source of drinking water and will not serve as a source of drinking water in the future and, thus, do not need to be protected.” Apparently the EPA bases its dismissal of the value of vast deposits of pristine water located thousands of feet underground on the cost of getting to it. One analysis done in Wyoming estimated the cost of a well drilled to a deep aquifer at half a million dollars. Prohibitive, if you have lots of cheap water available. Chicken feed, if you have no water at all.
But no one will have the option when the frackers and the uranium miners and the coal burners have made undrinkable forever the last, best hope of a desertified country.
That the EPA is dead wrong to write off deep water has just been demonstrated in Mexico City, one of the most water-starved cities on the continent, where the draining of overtaxed, shallow aquifers is causing the entire city to sink as much as a foot a year. Last month the city announced the successful tapping of an aquifer more than a mile under the city. Officials hope that when fully developed — five wells for a mere $40 million — it will be a 100 year supply.
Good thing they don’t have a law, and a law enforcement agency, like we do — one that prohibits the deliberate poisoning of underground drinking water unless an industry wants to.
Groundbreaking new research has linked sodium fluoride to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers found that fluoride consumption directly stimulates the hardening of your arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis that is highly correlated with the #1 killer. Sodium fluoride is currently added to the water supply of many cities worldwide, despite extreme opposition from health professionals and previous studies linking it to decreased IQ and infertility.
In their research, scientists examined the relationship between fluoride intake and the hardening (calcification) of the arteries. Studying more than 60 patients, the researchers found a significant correlation between fluoride consumption and the calcification of your arteries. Published in the January edition of the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications, the research highlights the fact that mass fluoride exposure may be to blame for the cardiovascular disease epidemic that takes more lives each year than cancer. In 2008, cardiovascular killed 17 million people.
According to the authors of the study:
“The coronary fluoride uptake value in patients with cardiovascular events was significantly higher than in patients without cardiovascular events.”
Amazingly, this is not the first report to come out on the dangers of water fluoridation, however the United States government along with other nations have allowed for the continued fluoridation of the public water supply despite these key findings. In fact, the U.S. government has even gone on record stating that a reduction in water fluoridation needs to occur following the results of a massive study that found water fluoridation affected cognitive function to the point of lowering the IQ of children. It turns out that the announcement was little more than a public relations stunt to curtail the massive wave of activism that followed the findings.
Government Admits Dangers Yet Continues to Pump Fluoride Into Your Water Supply Over 24 other studies have unanimously concluded that fluoride negatively impacts cognitive function. In addition to these 24 studies focusing on cognition, over 100 animal studies have linked fluoride to an increase in male infertility, diabetes, and a whole host of other health problems. In the latest study on cognition, it was found that that 28% of the children who lived in an area where fluoride levels were low achieved the highest test scores. This means that the children exposed to less fluoride scored normal or advanced, while only 8% of fluoridated children did the same.
In fact, the safety precautions regarding sodium fluoride are quite telling themselves:
Risk and Safety Phrases.
R25 – Toxic if swallowed. R32 – Contact with acid liberates very toxic gas. R36/38 – Irritating to skin and eyes. S1/2 – Keep locked up and out of reach of children. S22 – Do not breathe dust. S36 – Wear suitable protective clothing. S45 - In case of accident or if you feel unwell, seek medical advice immediately (show the label whenever possible.) But what about cavity prevention?
Since 1962 the government has recommended fluoride levels between 0.7 and 1.2 milligrams per liter in the nations drinking water. Toted as an excellent cavity blocker, fluoride has been praised for its alleged power to prevent tooth decay and boost oral health. Research has now revealed that fluoride, the very substance that is supposed to prevent tooth decay, actually does nothing to prevent against cavities. In fact, vitamin D has been found to be significantly more effective in cavity prevention without the extreme side effects. Instead of damaging your body, vitamin D slashes your risk of just about everything fluoride consumption causes.
According to the latest numbers, over 72 percent of Americans drink water treated with fluoride. Is it any wonder that cardiovascular disease rates are off the charts? Perhaps most concerning is the fact that fluoride does not even prevent cavities, which is the very reason legislators have pushed to keep it in the public water supply despite the links to deadly disease. Even if fluoride was found to prevent cavities, would it be worth the adverse effects?
The major change involved with cardiovascular disease is development of atherosclerosis in critical arteries, which is partially characterized by vascular calcification. The level of coronary artery calcification is thought to be the most important indicator of future cardiovascular events.
Increased arterial calcifications have frequently been reported in those with skeletal fluorosis (Tuncel, 1984). Fluoride accumulation leads to cellular toxicity, likely causing the accumulation of calcium (Susheela and Kharb, 1990). The aorta has been shown to accumulate more fluoride than possibly any other soft tissue, with 8,400 ppm F reported in one case (Greever et al., 1971). Similarly, studies indicate that animals chronically exposed to fluoride have increased levels of both fluoride and calcium in the aorta (Susheela and Kharb, 1990) and heart (Stookey and Muhler, 1963).
EXCERPTS FROM THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
“Given the assumption that fluoride uptake represents dynamic atherosclerotic calcification, we would expect that fluoride uptake occurs at the stage before the formation of detectable calcium deposition. Fluoride uptake either overlaps with calcification or locates adjacent to the detectable calcium deposits, suggesting that fluoride uptake and detectable calcification represent different stages of the atherosclerotic process.”
SOURCE: Li Y, et al. (2012). Association of vascular fluoride uptake with vascular calcification and coronary artery disease. Nuclear Med Comm 33:14-20.
“Results of this study suggest that endemic fluorosis might cause aortosclerosis, which greatly aggravate the course and range of sclerosis and calcification of the conducting arteries and which in turn make fluorosis severer.”
SOURCE: Song AH, et al. (1990). Observations on fluoric aortosclerosis by two-dimensional echocardiography. Endemic Diseases Bulletin 5(1):91-4.
“As with the liver tissue, the hearts from those animals which received the calcification-inducing diet and fluoride were found to contain nearly twice as much calcium and fluoride as those of comparable control animals.”
SOURCE: Stookey GK, Muhler JC. (1963). Relationship between fluoride deposition and metastatic calcification in soft tissues of rat and guinea pig. Proceed Soc Exp Biol Med 113:720-25.
“the fluoride contents of the serum and the aorta are significantly raised compared to normal, suggesting that prolonged administration of fluoride to rabbits results in the accumulation of fluoride in the aorta. It is evident that calcium levels are significantly increased in the aorta of animals administered fluoride, while phosphorus contents remain unaltered. The enhanced calcium content as well as the Ca/P ratio supports the view that the aorta is undergoing mineralization.”
SOURCE: Susheela AK, Kharb P. (1990). Aortic calcification in chronic fluoride poisoning: biochemical and electron microscope evidence. Exp Mol Path 53:72-80.
“A review of the literature indicates that, in skeletal fluorosis, arterial calcifications are common. Over age 60, patients in the high-fluoride group showed a significantly higher incidence of Moenckeberg [arterial] calcifications. A highly significant correlation (p<0.001) was observed between the severity of these calcifications and the severity of skeletal changes within this group.”
SOURCE: Tuncel E. (1984). The incidence of Moenckeberg calcifications in patients with endemic fluorosis. Fluoride 17(1):4-8.
“the decrease in elastic properties of the aorta in patients with chronic fluorosis might be due to calcification and degeneration of smooth muscle fibers in the tunica media of the aorta.”
SOURCE: Varol E, et al. (2010). Aortic elasticity is impaired in patients with endemic fluorosis. Biol Trace Elem Res 133:121-7.
Source: http://www.fluoridealert.org/studies/cardio02/ More references: http://www.fluoridealert.org/issues/health/cardio/
"Prolonged administration of a daily dose of 5-10 mg. of fluoride to patients with hyperthyroidism may cause clinical improvement together with a significant fall in the level of plasma protein-bound iodine and a reduction in the basal metabolic rate. Studies with radioactive fluorine failed to demonstrate any important accumulation of fluorine within the thyroid in vivo. Thyroidal, blood and urinary radioiodine studies suggest that fluorine inhibits the thyroid iodide-concentrating mechanism. Fluorine does not impair the capacity of the gland to synthesize thyroid hormone when there is an abundance of iodide in the blood. However, inhibition of the thyroidal concentrating capacity when the total iodide pool is low will impose a critical limitation of hormonal synthesis, and may explain the therapeutic effect.
THE widespread use of fluoride to reduce dental caries has
aroused
considerable controversy because of the toxicity of this
halogen.
Under the conditions of relative iodine deficiency of
Central Europe, a
possible thyroid-inhibiting action of fluorine has elicited
the interest of
physicians and public health officers. Previous studies on
animals and
human beings did not demonstrate any significant and
reproducible alterations of thyroidal function due to small doses of fluorine
which did not
exceed a daily intake of 2.0 mg (approximately the doses
used for prophylaxis of dental caries). In man, however, administration of
larger
doses over a longer period of time caused a noticeable
reduction of several
parameters of thyroidal biologic activity (1-5).
Several authors postulated that goitrous states may be
attributed to
fluorine intake and, conversely, that this element can be
utilized in the
treatment of hyperthyroidism (6-8). Other investigators,
however, could
not reproduce these definite changes in the thyroid, and
thus the thyreostatic activity of fluorine is still questioned. Since the
hyperfunctioning thyroid is a more sensitive structure than the normal gland,
we studied the effect of fluorine on patients with hyperthyroidism. Few
clinical studies
are concerned with physiologic and toxic effects of fluorine
over long
periods (9). Therefore this investigation Avas limited to
intelligent and
reliable patients in whom the course of the disease as well
as the intake of
prescribed doses and the possible appearance of toxic
manifestations could
be carefully controlled."
Read the Full PDF File here: http://www.fluoridealert.org/uploads/galletti-1958.pdf _____________________________________________________________
"FLUORIDE AGGRAVATES THYROID DAMAGE CAUSED BY EXCESS IODINE INTAKE"
An adequate iodine intake is essential for a proper functioning thyroid gland. When iodine intake is deficient, the thyroid is unable to produce sufficient quantities of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4 upon which countless systems in the body depend. Iodine deficiency disorders can thus wreak havoc on the body, including permanent brain damage if the deficiency exists during the early years of life. Excessive intake of iodine can also impair thyroid function, causing hypothyroidism and other thyroid disorders. (Leung 2012; Connelly 2012)
Just as fluoride can aggravate the impact of iodine deficiency, it may also aggravate the impact of iodine excess. In the following studies, Chinese researchers found that the combination of excess fluoride with excess iodine exacerbated the thyroid effects produced by either scenario in isolation. This research indicates that individuals with excessive iodine intake may be a previously overlooked part of the population with a heightened susceptibility to fluoride toxicity.
HUMAN STUDIES:
“The concentration of serum TSH of children from high fluoride and iodine area and high iodine area was higher than that of children from high fluoride area and control area. Conclusion: High fluoride and iodine increase the prevalence of goiter. High iodine increases the concentration of FT4. Fluoride can increase the concentration of FT4 under high iodine condition.” SOURCE: Ba Y, et al. (2009). Effect of different fluoride and iodine concentration in drinking water on children’s dental fluorosis and thyroid function. Chinese Journal of Public Health 25(8):942-43.
“In conclusion, high iodine and high fluorine in the drinking water have, to some extent, effects on children’s intelligence and thyroid function.” SOURCE: Wang X, et al. (2001). Effects of high iodine and high fluorine on children’s intelligence and thyroid function. Chinese Journal of Endemiology 20(4):288-90. [See study]
“An excess of fluoride and a lack of iodine in the same environment has been shown to have a marked effect on child intellectual development, causing a more significant intellectual deficit than lack of iodine alone. In our study the study group of children from the high fluoride-high iodine village area had an average IQ of 76.67±7.75, which was somewhat lower than the control (IQ 81.67 ±11.9), although the difference is not statistically significant (P > 0.05). However, as seen in Table 2, the percentage of children in the low range (16.67%) is higher in the endemic group than in the control group (10.0%), suggesting that a high iodine-high fluoride environment also has a definite negative influence on child intellectual ability.” SOURCE: Yang Y, et al. (1994). The effects of high levels of fluoride and iodine on intellectual ability and the metabolism of fluoride and iodine. Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 15(4):296-98 (republished in Fluoride 2008; 41:336-339). [See study]
“The number of children whose level of intelligence is lower is significantly increased in regions of high fluoride/iodine, regions of high fluoride only, regions of high fluoride/low iodine, against their respective comparative groups.” SOURCE: Xu Y, et al. (1994). The effect of fluorine on the level of intelligence in children. Endemic Disease Bulletin 9(2):83-84. [See study]
ANIMAL STUDIES:
“OBJECTIVE: Investigating the influence of combined iodine and fluoride on phospholipid and fatty acid composition in brain cells of rats. METHODS: Five groups of rats were provided with deionized drinking water containing 0 and 150 mg/L NaF, and containing both 150 mg/L NaF and 0.003, 0.03 or 3 mg/L KI respectively for 5 months. Then phospholipid and fatty acid composition were determined using liquid chromatography. RESULTS: The phospholipid composition had no obvious change. The high concentration fluoride (150 mg/L) and high concentration Iodine (3 mg/L) with high concentration fluoride could cause significant changes of the fatty acid composition in brain cells of rats, the proportion of unsaturated fatty acid (C18:2) was significantly decreased and the saturated fatty acid (C12:0) increased obviously. The antagonistic action of 0.03 mg/L KI drinking water on this kind of influence induced by 150 mg/L NaF was the most evident, whereas that of 3 mg/L KI was action of synergetic toxicity. CONCLUSION: Fluorosis had obvious influence on phospholipid and fatty acid composition in brain cells of rats, and its mechanism might be associated with action of lipid peroxidation, and 0.03 mg/L KI is the optimal concentration for the antagonistic action with this influence from fluorosis.” SOURCE: Shen X, et al. (2004). [Influence of combined iodine and fluoride on phospholipid and fatty acid composition in brain cells of rats].
“fluorine also affected the thyroid changes induced by ID [iodine deficiency] or IE [iodine excess]. After 100 days of treatment, fluorine showed some stimulatory effect on the thyroid in ID conditions and inhibitory effect in IE conditions. After 150 days, however, the effects of fluorine on the thyroid reversed as compared with that of 100 days. On the other hand, difference of iodide intake could also increase the toxic effects of FE on the incisors and bones.” SOURCE: Zhao W, et al. (1998). Long-term effects of various iodine and fluorine doses on the thyroid and fluorosis in mice. Endocrine Regulation 32(2):63-70.
Originally Posted On: http://www.fluoridealert.org/studies/thyroid04/
"Monsanto Modified Wheat Not Approved by USDA in Field"
A farmer in Oregon has found some genetically engineered wheat growing on his land. It's an unwelcome surprise, because this type of wheat has never been approved for commercial planting.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's investigating, trying to find out how this wheat got there. The USDA says there's no risk to public health, but wheat exportersare worried about how their customers in Asia and Europe will react.
In fact, worry about export markets is the main reason why genetically engineered wheat isn't on the market in the first place.
The biotech company Monsanto did create varieties of wheat that tolerate the weedkiller glyphosate, or Roundup — just as it created "Roundup Ready" corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. It also carried out field trials of this wheat in 16 different states.
But the country's wheat growers told the company that they did not want it.
"We are not in favor of commercializing any biotech trait unless it's gone through regulatory approvals in the U.S. and in other countries," says Steve Mercer, vice president of communications for U.S. Wheat Associates. Many countries, including some that import wheat from the U.S., are quite hostile to genetically engineered crops.
Monsanto dropped the wheat project. It never asked for government approval, and it ended its field trials of wheat in 2005.
Fast forward eight years. About a month ago, a farmer in eastern Oregon noticed some wheat plants growing where he didn't expect them, and they didn't die when he sprayed them with Roundup.
The farmer sent samples of these curious plants to Carol Mallory-Smith, a scientist at Oregon State University who has investigated other cases in which genetically engineered crops spread beyond their approved boundaries.
She found that this wheat was, in fact, genetically engineered. She passed samples on to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed her results.
Bernadette Juarez, an official with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in a statement that her agency is collecting more samples from the farm, conducting more tests. "We have a team of dedicated investigators working on the ground daily to figure out what's going on here, she says.
Nobody knows how this wheat got to this farm. Monsanto's last field trials in Oregon were in 2001. After all such trials, the genetically engineered crops are supposed to be completely removed.
Also, nobody knows how widely this genetically engineered wheat has spread, and whether it's been in fields of wheat that were harvested for food.
According to the USDA, even if it has, there's no danger to public health. Still, if further tests show that this unapproved wheat has spread into the food supply, it could play havoc with wheat sales.
In 2006, traces of genetically engineered rice — also unapproved — were discovered in large parts of the American rice harvest. That discovery shut down America's rice exports to some countries. Exporters lost millions of dollars. The wheat harvest is much bigger.
Steve Mercer, from U.S. Wheat Associates, says there's no indication that this will happen to wheat. Right now, it's just a few isolated plants growing in eastern Oregon.
"We're in the process of getting in touch with all of our customers," he says. "We are going to work to make sure that they have all the information that they need to make their decisions, and reassure them that this isolated trait hasn't entered commerce."
So far, he says, those customers aren't making any decisions. They're just asking for more information.
Genetically modified wheat created by Monsanto Co. (MON) that wasn’t approved for use turned up on an 80-acre farm in Oregon last month, threatening the outlook for U.S. exports of the grain that are the world’s largest.
A farmer attempting to kill wheat with Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found several plants survived the weedkiller, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday in a statement. Scientists found the wheat was a strain field-tested from 1998 to 2005 and deemed safe before St. Louis-based Monsanto, the world’s largest seedmaker, pulled Roundup Ready wheat from the regulatory approval process on concern that importers would avoid the crop.
“I would imagine even the perception that GM wheat is out there would have some impact on our exports” with so many countries “putting their foot down on not accepting” gene-altered crops, Ryan Larsen, an assistant professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University in Fargo, said by telephone. “This continues that bad persona that GM crops have. It allows people to say ‘See, it’s out there and we’re not being told it’s out there.’ ”
Wheat futures fell 0.5 percent to $6.99 a bushel by 4:58 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Japan suspended imports of western-white wheat and feed wheat from the U.S., and canceled an order, said Hiromi Iwahama, director for grain trade and operation at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The European Union will recommend countries test imported U.S. wheat.
Monsanto Plans
Monsanto halted plans to develop modified wheat in May 2004 after the Canadian Wheat Board, then the world’s largest grain seller, said its 10 biggest red spring-wheat importers, including Japan, the U.K. and Malaysia, wouldn’t accept modified varieties. Italy’s biggest miller, Grandi Molini Italiani, was among buyers in Europe and Asia that refused to import modified wheat amid consumer unease over eating such products.
The location of the farm was not disclosed because of the nature of the investigation, the department said, adding that officials from Oregon, Washington and Idaho along with Monsanto and trading partners were notified before yesterday’s announcement. Criminal violations of the Plant Protection Act may include civil penalties up to $1 million.
"Nonapproved strain of genetically modified wheat discovered in Oregon"
Unapproved genetically engineered wheat has been discovered in an Oregon field, a potential threat to trade with countries that have concerns about genetically modified foods.
USDA officials said the wheat is the same strain as a genetically modified wheat that was tested by seed giant Monsanto (MON) a decade ago but never approved. Monsanto stopped testing that product in Oregon and several other states in 2005.
The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that the genetically engineered wheat is safe to eat and there is no evidence that modified wheat entered the marketplace. But the department is investigating how it ended up in the field, whether there was any criminal wrongdoing and whether its growth is widespread.
The discovery could have far-reaching implications for the U.S. wheat industry if the growth of the engineered product turns out to be far-flung. Many countries around the world will not accept imports of genetically modified foods, and the United States exports about half of its wheat crop.
