Fluoride’s Corruption Exposed

When I was a kid, if I were told that I’d be writing a book about diet and nutrition when I was older, let alone having been doing a health related radio show for over 36 years, I would’ve thought that whoever told me that was out of their mind. Living in Newark, New Jersey, my parents and I consumed anything and everything that had a face or a mother except for dead, rotting, pig bodies, although we did eat bacon (as if all the other decomposing flesh bodies were somehow miraculously clean). Going through high school and college it was no different. In fact, my dietary change did not come until I was in my 30′s.

Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.

After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a “plastic” community would be an understatement.

Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.

I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, ” let’s become vegetarians”. I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, “okay”! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $ 100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.

So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, “The Little Kitchen”.

Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.

I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I’ll elaborate on that in a minute.

But right now, back to “The Little Kitchen”. Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.

The owner said to me, “Let’s make a deal. You do our tax return and we’ll feed you as well”. So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.

But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, “Hawaii”. Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called,” Mr. Natural’s”. I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at “Mr. Natural’s.” To make a long story short, that’s exactly what happened.

So, I’m working at “Mr. Natural’s” and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle – it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka’anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.

Since I was the new guy, and didn’t really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that’s exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.

I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.

Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I’m asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn’t thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, “You expected anything less”? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, ‘enchilada’s at “Natural’s” tonight’. I never had to cook anything else.

A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That’s when they found out I was an accountant and “Down to Earth” was born. “Down to Earth” became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.

In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD’s that would call in asking for my credentials.

My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.

I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii’s premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She said,” If you want to be with me you’ve got to stop working on naked women”. So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.

Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a “chicken” or “egg” or “fish” or “pig” or “cow” was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.

The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.

Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.

For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.

Namaste!

Fluoride’s Corruption Exposed

Plight of child workers facing cocktail of toxic chemicals exposed by report

Children as young as eight, working in the tanneries of Bangladesh producing leather that is in demand across Europe and the USA, are exposed to toxic chemical cocktails that are likely to shorten their lives, according to a new report.

Approximately 90% of those who live and work in the overcrowded urban slums of Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar, where hazardous chemicals are discharged into the air, streets and river, die before they reach 50, according to the World Health Organisation.

Their plight spurred the volunteer doctors of Médicines Sans Frontières (MSF) to set up clinics in the area to diagnose and treat those who are the victims of their workplace. It is, says a paper published in BMJ Case Reports, “the first time they have intervened in an area for reasons other than natural disasters or war”.

MSF’s intervention was triggered by “the widespread industrial negligence and apathy of owners of tanneries and other hazardous material factories” towards the more than 600,000 largely migrant population who have no access to government-funded healthcare.

MSF set up and ran four main clinics for 5,000 workers in 2015, located in the centre of communities involved in four different manufacturing processes at factories for tanning, plastics recycling, garment-making and metals.

The hazards of the 250 or so tanneries in Hazaribagh – which are 30 to 35 years old and discharge 6,000 cubic metres of toxic effluent and 10 tonnes of solid waste every day – are best known. In 2012, Human Rights Watch produced a report called “Toxic Tanneries” which revealed the flouting of Bangladesh’s own laws as well as international law in the employment of children under 18 in work that is harmful or hazardous.

The factories douse animal skins in cauldrons of chemicals as part of the processing of “Bengali black” leather, which is exported to European leather goods manufacturers in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

“Apart from heavy metals like chromium, cadmium, lead and mercury, a conglomerate of chemicals are discharged by the tanneries into the environment,” says the paper. “Workers aged eight and older are soaked to the skin, breathing the fumes for most of the day and eat and live in these surroundings throughout the year. Personal protective equipment [is] not provided.”

Child workers clad in no more than loin cloths and wellington boots are exposed to chemicals including formaldehyde, hydrogen sulphide and sulphuric acid, write Venkiteswaran Muralidhar, associate professor at the Sri Balaji Medical college in Chennai, and colleagues.

The other factories– for plastics recycling, garments and metals – are in Kamrangirchar, an urban slum which is not officially part of Dhaka city. “In these, there are complex risk hazards from cotton dust, heavy metals and chemicals like mercury, phthalates, acids and dioxins and ergonomic hazards,” says the paper.

Chronic skin and lung diseases are common, say the authors. Within six months of the setting up of the clinics, 3,200 of the 5,000 eligible workers had come forward for at least one consultation. Among them, 468 (14.6%) were diagnosed with suspected work-related diseases, and 30 (0.9%) had work-related injuries.

The figures do not reflect the overall harm to the population, however, said Muralidhar. Those who are severely injured by chemicals or accidents would not go to one of the clinics. “They will probably be taken by rickshaw to a hospital in Dhaka,” he told the Guardian. And the clinics were only open four days a week, during the daytime, and workers needed the owner’s permission to go for a consultation.

He feels strongly that a hospital should be set up in the slum to help its people. “They are the most horrible conditions you can imagine,” he told the Guardian. “I work in this area. I have never seen anything as bad as this.”

Plight of child workers facing cocktail of toxic chemicals exposed by report

New concerns over BPA as workers exposed to levels 70 times the average

Health concerns over Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical commonly found in plastic packaging and the lining of food cans, are well documented. Previous studies have linked low levels of BPA to a variety of potential health issues, including obesity, diabetes and fertility problems. A 2008 ruling by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) found that low exposure to the chemical is safe because it is generally ingested orally and thus eliminated from the body quickly, although research is ongoing to determine the chemical’s impact on human hormones.

However, a new study – the first of its kind in the US – has looked at the exposure levels of people who come into contact with high doses of BPA, and found that employees who directly handle the plasticizing chemical had urine levels of BPA around 70 times greater than that of the average US adult.

The federal study, carried out by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh), looked at BPA levels in the urine of 78 American manufacturing workers employed at six companies that either manufacture BPA or use it to make other products.

BPA is used in the production of plastic food containers, the lining of food and soda cans, and in thermal receipt paper. Because of the ubiquity of BPA in food containers, and its ability to leach into food or drink, the estrogen-mimicking chemical can be found in the urine of most of the US population. In addition to finding it in urine, studies have found the chemical in breast milk and umbilical cord blood. BPA was originally researched as a potential source of synthetic estrogen before its current use in plastic manufacturing.

“The Niosh study is a wake-up call about the dangers of workplace exposure to BPA,” says Noah Sachs, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and director of the Merhige Center for Environmental Studies. “Every company that manufacturers BPA or uses it as a raw material has a responsibility to workers to prevent such excessive BPA exposures. Business-as-usual is putting BPA workers at risk.”

Studies surrounding the long term effects of BPA on health and reproduction have previously centered on consumer exposure. Pressure from consumer advocates led to manufacturers voluntarily removing the chemical from baby bottles and sippy cups in the US. The FDA eventually also banned it from baby formula packaging. Outside the US, a law prohibiting the use of BPA in food packaging of any kind went into effect in France in 2015. The US has attempted to pass similar legislation outlawing the use of BPA in all food containers, most recently with the introduction of the Ban Poisonous Additives Act of 2016.

While the Niosh study highlights the high levels of BPA found in US manufacturing workers, it does not assess any potential health effects from that exposure.
Previous studies in Chinese manufacturing workers, who had similar levels of BPA in their urine to the workers in the Niosh study, found that male employees who handled BPA had lower levels of testosterone, decreased semen quality and higher levels of self-reported sexual dysfunction.

While the Niosh study raises serious concerns, before there are any policy changes, regulatory bodies will require more research with a larger pool of subjects to show the consequences of BPA exposure in manufacturing workers, explained Lori Hoepner, assistant professor at Suny Downstate Medical Center School of Public Health.

Currently, the Occupational Safety and Health Association (Osha) does not set any workplace exposure limit for BPA. Without Osha exposure limits for the chemical, manufacturing workers who are concerned by their exposure to BPA don’t have any real recourse when to avoiding the chemical on the job. “Workers could request reassignment or more protective BPA handling equipment, but they could face retaliation or getting fired,” says Sachs.

To help convince Osha of the potential dangers of BPA exposure for manufacturing workers, a longitudinal study showing the impact of the endocrine disrupting chemical over time would be needed. But longitudinal studies are notoriously expensive and getting manufacturers to agree to the studies would be difficult, explains Hoepner. For example, collecting urine samples multiple times during the workday, as in the Niosh study, is disruptive for companies.

Any kind of policy change from Osha will take years, says Sachs. “We know from past experience that an Osha rulemaking to set a permissible exposure limit can often take five to seven years, with industry challenging it every step of the way.”

Ideally, Osha should initiate that rule making on its own because it is obligated by law to set a standard that assures, to the extent feasible, no “material impairment” of worker health, even if a worker is exposed to that substance for a lifetime.

While there may not be enough evidence yet for Osha to set limits for worker exposure to BPA, amid growing consumer concern over the chemical, scientists and manufacturers have explored alternatives. BPA substitutes like bisphenol F (BPF) and Bisphenol S (BPS) have been used in plastics that are labeled BPA-free to appeal to consumers. “BPA free is a misnomer,” explains Hoepner. “It should really say BPA substitute.” BPF and BPS are very similar in terms of chemical structure to BPA and there are indicators that they may have similar health effects.

Another alternative that has been studied by scientists is using plastic made from plants. “Studies have determined that it is possible to economically and beneficially switch to plant-based plastic,” Hoepner says. “It costs a lot at the start to make the switch but it pays for itself over time.”

Because of the large economic investment needed to make the switch, companies have been reticent to switch their plastic production. But as companies continue to face pressure to switch away from BPA, and consumers become more savvy and discerning about their plastic consumption, manufactures may eventually make the switch as a way to appeal to customers.

For now, there are no new guidelines around BPA exposure for manufacturing workers around the corner, though Sachs is hopeful that the Niosh study will prompt advocates to file petitions with Osha to set permissible exposure limits for BPA.

But, when it comes to any immediate changes, Sachs warns: “I’m not optimistic about any new BPA regulations under the Trump administration, which has already shown that it disregards scientific conclusions.”

New concerns over BPA as workers exposed to levels 70 times the average

A third of children hospitalised with asthma "exposed to cigarette smoke"

One in three children who ends up in hospital with an asthma attack has been exposed to cigarette smoke, prompting renewed concern about parents smoking at home around their offspring.

A major review of how hospitals treat children with asthma found that 32% of those treated for breathing difficulties encountered “environmental tobacco smoke” just beforehand.

Given that both the number of people and also the number of mothers who smoke is declining, “the fact that one third of children admitted in this audit were recorded as being exposed to cigarette smoking is worrying”, according to the British Thoracic Society’s national paediatric asthma audit.

It examined the records of 5,443 children treated as inpatients for asthma in 153 hospitals during November 2015.

“This study highlights the importance of making homes smoke-free since that is where children are most likely to be exposed to tobacco smoke, which can trigger asthma attacks,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health.

“Health professionals need to do more to inform parents of the health risks of second-hand smoke, particularly to their children, and also to support parents who smoke to quit.”

Dr Russell Viner, officer for health promotion at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “It is concerning that one third of children are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. The effects of second-hand smoke on children are well known, yet it seems our children are still often feeling the brunt of it.”

Children’s doctors want the government to reverse its £200m-a-year cut to the public health budget in England in order to boost stop-smoking services, he added. “If adults and parents are properly supported to overcome this addiction, then this can have a real positive knock-on effect to asthma sufferers.”

A legal ban on adults smoking in cars containing under-18s came into force in England and Wales in October 2015. However, freedom of information requests in March showed that 39 out of 44 police forces who responded to the BBC’s request had issued none of the £50 fines or court summons and only six warnings to adults found smoking in a vehicle containing a child. Police officers say the law is almost unenforceable as they cannot issue a physical ticket for the offence.

The audit found that “medical care of children with acute wheeze/asthma continues to be highly efficient and effective”. Few children need to be ventilated or spend time in intensive care and most spend only a short time in hospital.

But too many children who present with asthma receive an X-ray or antibiotics or both and 44% still do not receive a written personal asthma plan when they are being discharged, making it more likely that they will have to be readmitted, the audit points out. In addition, 58% were not shown how to use their inhaler properly and 47% received explanatory leaflets about asthma and how to avoid a flare-up.

A third of children hospitalised with asthma "exposed to cigarette smoke"

London’s black communities disproportionately exposed to air pollution – study

Black communities in London are disproportionately more likely to breathe illegal levels of air pollution than white and Asian ones, new research seen exclusively by the Guardian shows.

The study for the mayor of London shows black, African and Caribbean people account for 15.3% of all Londoners exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels that breach EU limits, but they account for just 13.3% of the city’s population.

The proportion of white and Asian individuals exposed to the dangerous NO2 levels is lower than the fraction of the population they account for, said Aether, the consultancy which produced the report.

Southwark, Lambeth and Hackney were among the boroughs with an overlap of both a higher proportion of black residents and

other’ ethnic groups are more likely to be exposed to above EU NO2 limit value concentrations than those in areas with a high proportion of white people,” said the Aether study. “This effect is not seen for areas with a high proportion of Asian groups.”

pollution graphic

But because of the “very mixed ethnic geography of London”, the pattern is less strong between ethnicity and exposure than the one between deprivation and exposure, Aether found. In areas with poor air quality, 32% of people living there were from the most deprived groups, versus 7% from the least deprived.

“This research shows the disproportionate impact air pollution has on deprived communities in London,” said Aether’s director, Katie King.

“We have known for some time now that poor families end up living in cheaper housing which is often in close proximity to busy roads,” said a spokesman for the air quality unit at King’s College London.

However, he said the new study’s use of proportionate data was misleading, as in absolute terms there are more Asian and white people exposed to high NO2 levels.

Last month, the Black Lives Matter UK group linked ethnicity and environmental issues during a protest at London City airport – although the protestors were also criticised for their largely white membership.

The study compiled King’s data on NO2 concentrations in 2013 – the most recent available – census results, official statistics on deprivation and ethnic profiles of small areas in London. In total, 1.9 million people in London were exposed to NO2 concentrations above the EU’s annual average limit.

The work is an update of a report which the former mayor Boris Johnson was accused of burying when Khan took office. That earlier report showed 433 primary schools were exposed to NO2 above the limits in 2010, with that number falling to 360 by 2013 in today’s study, showing some areas have got cleaner.

Transport for London (TfL) published a consultation on Monday seeking Londoners’ views on Khan’s new measures to tackle the problem. They include whether to introduce a £10 emissions surcharge in October 2017, the so-called T-charge, which will mostly apply to pre-2005 diesel cars.

Khan and TfL are also consulting on whether to bring in an enlarged “ultra low emissions zone” (Ulez) in 2019 rather than 2020 as previously planned, charging owners of dirtier cars £12.50 to enter. Both charges will be in addition to the existing £11.50 congestion charge.

“Toxic air in London is a health emergency that requires bold action, including introducing charges for older polluting vehicles and expanding the Ulez,” said Khan.

Environmental groups and thinktanks welcomed the proposals, but Friends of the Earth said the mayor needed to go further.

“To bring down London’s air pollution as quickly as possible, Sadiq Khan must extend the Ulez for all vehicles across the whole of London; and create a plan for phasing out diesel on London’s roads altogether,” said Sophie Neuburg, a campaigner at the green group.

Next week the government faces a court case brought by environmental law firm ClientEarth over what it says is an inadequate plan to reduce NO2 pollution.

“Today’s announcement sends a clear message to the government that it needs to get a grip with this public health crisis. This is a national problem that needs a national solution. That is why we are taking them back to court next week,” said Alan Andrews, a ClientEarth lawyer.

London’s black communities disproportionately exposed to air pollution – study

Girls exposed to "electronic babies" more likely to become pregnant, study finds

Young girls exposed to electronic babies – designed to simulate the real experience of having a baby and discourage teenage pregnancy – were more likely to get pregnant, a study of Australian schools has found.

The landmark study, published in the Lancet, found that 17% of girls who used the dolls had become pregnant by the age of 20, compared with 11% of those who did not.

The electronic “Baby Think It Over” dolls were part of a Virtual Infant Parenting (VIP) program run in 57 schools in Western Australia, first implemented in 2003.

Similar programs, based on the US concept, are now delivered in 89 countries, despite there being no robust evidence of their effectiveness.

Researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia conducted a randomised control assessment of the VIP program and warn that the electronic babies may be an ineffective use of public funds.

Nearly 3,000 Western Australian schoolgirls aged 13 to 15 took part in the study.

Of the girls who became pregnant in the VIP group, 58% had abortions, compared with 60% of girls from the control group.

The lead investigator, Dr Sally Brinkman, said the study highlighted that even the most well-intentioned programs could have “unexpected consequences”.

“Australia has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate out of 21 OECD countries and this study will help policymakers better tackle the issue,” she said.

Girls exposed to "electronic babies" more likely to become pregnant, study finds

"Wildly generous" rewards for NHS executives exposed

This newspaper’s investigation has now revealed that they are just two of dozens of “interim” administrators who have been awarded such packages by the believe in, with 10 managers getting shell out equivalent to much more than £200,000 every a 12 months.

Nurse leaders last night urged the Government to get a grip on the scale of extra in elements of the NHS and mentioned “wildly generous” packages for some administrators were starving frontline solutions of money.

Among the hugely-paid managers, some of whom are paid through personal firms, are a banking professional who fees the believe in far more than £45,000 a month, which is equivalent to £540,000 a yr.

Robert Griffiths obtained the package for acting as “treasurer” for the believe in, whilst his assistant James Mitchell, has been paid £25,000 a month.

Each men come from consulting and restructuring company Red Clover Partnership.

Mr Griffiths’ entry on its internet site says “his knowledge, in particular as a restructuring banker, provides him with a distinctive insight into the various demands and mindset of all stakeholders in stressed and distressed business negotiations.”

It can also be uncovered that the trust has now just appointed a temporary finance director Tim Bolot, a barrister and accountant who charged £40,000 a month for previous NHS placements, with funds paid by way of his organization, which specialises in “turnaround programmes”.

Interim director of operations Mark Morgan fees the believe in around £28,000 a month.

The trust’s chief executive Nigel Beverley, who was hired in February on a £30,000 a month package deal, left the believe in final week, a number of weeks ahead of his contract as an interim was due to expire, leaving the trust’s health care director to act in the part.

The disclosures come right after The Telegraph exposed last week that in February, Christopher Langley, the trust’s chairman, was awarded a package deal worth £190,000 a yr for a single or two days’ operate a week.

The money are paid to his private business, and under the deal, he can declare £17,000 in bills a yr, without having any evidence of how or whether or not the money was spent – a deal which patients’ groups described as “indefensible”.

However, in spite of the large sums becoming spent on mangers, most recent figures demonstrate that the believe in is spending almost £1 million a month on agency nurses, whilst a report to the board says 120 much more nurses are needed to offer a “safe establishment.”

Figures published earlier this month propose the worst shortages of nurses and healthcare assistants are taking place at evening.

Board papers from this month warn that the trust is presently “being challenged to provide a clinically safe minimal staffing levels”.

Final evening nurse leaders mentioned the revelations had been an outrageous instance of a wider issue in the NHS, with senior managers getting given “wildly generous” rewards, whilst frontline companies had been desperately overstretched.

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal School of Nursing urged the Government to “get a grip” on the circumstance.

He explained: “Frontline staff and patients alike will be shocked that interim managers are receiving this kind of wildly generous payments while the trust is in desperate need to have of much more nurses.

“The NHS faces massive monetary problems and what’s been taking place at Medway is an outrageous instance of a wider problem in the health support.”

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Sufferers Association, explained: “It’s a disgrace. These are huge sums currently being invested bringing in all these senior folks, however meanwhile the shortages of workers are risking patient safety and compromising care.”

Keep track of – which regulates basis trusts – ordered the appointment of Mr Langley as chairman in February.

It justified his salary by saying the trust “needed the proper men and women in location to make urgent enhancements required for its sufferers.”

A spokesman for Medway Foundation trust mentioned: “Use of interim workers with suitable capabilities has been essential for the duration of a time period in which the believe in faces significant issues. A important priority for the board is to recruit permanent staff for all key roles all through the organisation.”

He stated the believe in was striving to recruit more nurses, and had held many open days and meant to search abroad for far more workers.

A Division of Well being spokesman explained: “We have been absolutely clear that while executive directors and senior managers, like other workers, deserve to be paid relatively for the essential function they undertake, we do not feel in a culture inside the NHS the place higher shell out is normal.”

"Wildly generous" rewards for NHS executives exposed

Jimmy Savile"s reign of abuse across NHS exposed in comprehensive investigation

The minister in charge when Jimmy Savile was appointed to work at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital stated she was “shocked, stunned, startled, disgusted”, as information of his catalogue of abuse inside of the NHS was exposed.

Edwina Currie explained: “I wish we had by no means noticed hide nor hair from him”, 26 years after she rubber-stamped his appointment by a civil servant to a taskforce aimed at enhancing the substantial security hospital’s governance.

Her remarks came on the day that NHS investigations confirmed that Savile – previously exposed for abusing children when he worked at the BBC – was an “opportunistic sexual predator” at a string of hospitals around the country.

Currie was accountable for mental well being issues in 1988 when the BBC Radio one DJ was provided a managerial role at Broadmoor at the instigation of a senior civil servant in her division, Cliff Graham. She was also supportive of Savile’s promise to confront unionised prison officers about their functioning practices and issued a press release praising his work ending with the phrases “he is an incredible man and has my full confidence”.

On Thursday the NHS published the findings of investigations into Savile’s activities at 28 hospital trusts, which concluded that he utilised the NHS and his celebrity standing to “exploit and abuse” vulnerable patients and staff at hospitals across the nation, such as Broadmoor and Leeds General Infirmary. Investigators found he even boasted about possessing sex with corpses, and had a well acknowledged fixation with the dead. Jeremy Hunt, the recent overall health secretary, described the Broadmoor appointment as “indefensible” in a Commons statement, as Labour named for an independent inquiry into the tv personality’s relationships with politicians, such as Ken Clarke, overall health secretary at the time.

Hunt apologised on behalf of the government and the NHS to victims, and warned that if anyone had broken the law or hospital rules they ought to face full legal consequences.

Shadow wellness secretary Andy Burnham said Savile’s Broadmoor appointment raised “significant questions about the perform of the civil servants and ministers in the Department of Well being”.

Investigators identified that at Leeds Standard Infirmary, in which Savile worked as a volunteer porter, there were at least 60 victims, from 5 to 75 in age. Primarily youngsters at the time, they integrated guys, ladies, boys and girls. Thirty-three were patients, and 19 of these had been young children. Three mentioned they were raped.

9 of the victims advised a member of workers at the time, but the inquiry discovered no evidence that reports of abuse by Savile have been communicated to senior managers.

Abuses took area on wards, in lifts, in corridors, in offices, in his mother’s property and in the campervan he parked in the hospital automobile park. The most current was in 2009, when Savile was 82, two years ahead of his death.

Assaults at other hospitals integrated the rape of a girl in his campervan at Digby mental hospital in Exeter, the sexual assault of two other individuals on a ward at Moss Side in Liverpool, and an incident when he jumped into bed with a 14-12 months-previous and touched her inappropriately at St Catherines in Birkenhead.

But it was at Broadmoor, exactly where Savile frequently watched female individuals undress to bathe, that his influential position was sanctioned at the highest level when he was appointed to the task force in 1988. Of eleven reported allegations of abuse, investigators were confident of five or six, but unable to interview the remaining alleged victims, and believed the figure to be under reported. They integrated individuals, workers and minors.

Savile’s informal association with Broadmoor started in 1968 with an unofficial function in patient enjoyment, but inside of a number of years he had hospital accommodation, a automobile parking area and, crucially, keys allowing him accessibility to safe areas.

In 1988 the senior civil servant in charge of psychological overall health within the then DHSS, Cliff Graham, had formed a near working romantic relationship with Savile and appointed him to head a job force properly working the hospital – a determination reported to Currie, then minister for psychological overall health issues.

Graham, who has since died, thought the DJ “a man of substantial knowing, insight and intelligence”, and accompanied him to Buckingham Palace when Savile’s knighthood was conferred.

Currie informed the inquiry the “activity force” appeared like a excellent thought as Savile promised to confront the Prison Officer Association (POA) about their working practices. She considered his “blackmail” strategy to the POA was “a pretty classy piece of operation”. She had met him, and wrote of him in a press release: “He is an remarkable man and has my complete self-confidence.”

Currie informed the Guardian she was only accountable for the portfolio “for around 4 months”. Most of the revelations have been fully new to her, and his abusive behaviour was hidden at the time.

But Labour MP Tom Watson said Currie and other ministers have further inquiries to answer about the accessibility granted to Savile, who had senior political connections which includes a friendship with Margaret Thatcher.

“In her naivety, it allowed a hazardous, predatory intercourse abuser unfettered access to some of the most vulnerable men and women in the nation,” he explained.

Investigators discovered the appointment enabled Savile to use his influence to appoint a shut associate as basic manager in charge of Broadmoor for the subsequent eight years. He also utilised it to “strengthen the impression that he was shut to government ministers and Division of Health officials and was consequently in a position of authority”, explained the report.

Rumours of Savile’s inappropriate behaviour towards young ladies had reached Whitehall around the time of this appointment. Investigators had been informed that one particular division official in the mental wellness policy group in the 1980s had heard of Savile’s liking for “young ladies”, and the head of the team had challenged Savile for an assurance that if he have been nominated for a knighthood there would be no embarrassing revelations. There was no suspicion the ladies have been aged under sixteen.

An additional senior DoH official was mentioned to have told the long lasting secretary at the department, Sir Kenneth Stowe, that Savile had “got a track record for selecting up the ladies. He goes all around the country and it truly is not very nice.” In Stowe’s view Savile was “a man of no repute whatsoever”, but “we had no indication whatsoever that he was in any way suspect of doubtful behaviour … in which he was concerned with the NHS,” the report stated. There was no proof ministers or officials suspected allegations of sexual abuse, it said.

The present Division of Well being long term secretary, Una O’Brien, explained the report manufactured surprising reading.

“On behalf of the preceding DHSS and DoH, we are deeply sorry that inadequate processes in 1988 enabled Jimmy Savile to occupy a position of authority that he utilised to abuse his victims at Broadmoor Hospital,” she stated.

Bill Kirkup, who headed the Broadmoor investigation, said the reported figures had been probably an underestimate, with several victims failing to come forward: “The reality that he occupied the position in the operating of the hospital and produced it identified to all of the personnel that he had the energy to hire and fire, and in numerous circumstances they had tied accommodation as nicely, I consider it manufactured it extremely hard in that setting for anybody to challenge what he was carrying out.”

Julian Hartley, existing chief executive of the Leeds Educating Hospitals NHS Trust, mentioned the Leeds report “paints a grim image of an individual with a very dark side who utilized his part as a volunteer and fundraiser, combined with his national fame, to mask a variety of dreadful acts he perpetrated on young children and grownups alike over a prolonged time period of time.”

Jimmy Savile"s reign of abuse across NHS exposed in comprehensive investigation

Boys who produce autism "exposed to higher ranges of hormone in the womb"

The lead to of the elevated hormone amounts is unclear, it is considered to be a genetic problem.

The researchers stated due to the fact the hormones have been discovered in the amniotic fluid, which surrounds the child in the womb, the supply is a lot more most likely to be the infant than the mother. They strategy additional exams on the mother’s hormones to create this.

Autism is a broad spectrum of disorders affecting social interaction, and occasionally speech and understanding.

It is believed up to one in one hundred children might be impacted by autism spectrum disorders.

The findings had been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Lead writer Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at Cambridge, stated: “We previously knew that elevated prenatal testosterone is connected with slower social and language improvement, much better focus to detail and a lot more autistic traits.

“Now, for the initial time, we have also proven that these hormones are elevated in youngsters clinically diagnosed with autism.”

The study drew on 19,500 amniotic-fluid samples stored in a Danish biobank from folks born in between 1993 and 1999.

The researchers identified samples from mothers who gave birth to 128 boys later on diagnosed with an autism-spectrum condition.

Simply because some of the hormones are made in considerably higher quantities in males than in females, the obtaining may possibly help clarify why autism has an effect on far more boys, the researchers said.

Prof Baron-Cohen stated: “These new outcomes are especially striking because they are located across all the subgroups on the autism spectrum, for the very first time uniting people with Asperger Syndrome, traditional autism, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not-Otherwise-Specified.

“We now want to check if the very same locating is found in females with autism.”

However there were some boys who did not have autism who had been exposed to higher amounts of hormones in the womb and some boys with autism who have been exposed to reduced levels of hormones, so the outcomes cannot be utilised to create a prenatal check for autism, specialists mentioned.

Dr Rosa Hoekstra, Lecturer in Psychology, The Open University, explained: “This paper is the first to recommend that male foetuses who later on produce autism may have been exposed to somewhat larger ranges of prenatal steroid hormones, as measured in amniotic fluid, compared to male foetuses who create typically following birth.

“Moreover, this study centered on comparisons between boys with autism and boys with no psychiatric diagnoses or studying difficulties. As the authors stage out themselves, it is as nevertheless unknown if similar distinctions apply to ladies with autism, and to kids with other problems, this kind of as ADHD or intellectual disability.”

Prof Richard Sharpe, of the Healthcare Analysis Centre for Reproductive Well being at the University of Edinburgh, mentioned: “Finding the fetal leads to of autism-spectrum ailments is a challenging activity, so this carefully made research wants to be viewed in this context.

“It is an important initial phase.

“At face value this seems to fit with the previously argued hypothesis that ‘overexposure’ to fetal androgens could increase the chance of autistic disorders, and would also fit with the increased prevalence of these disorders in boys, who are naturally exposed to increased amounts of fetal androgens than are girls.

“However, as the authors are mindful to point out, if you examine real hormone levels (I.e. Testosterone) in the amniotic fluid samples in their research, there is no clear distinction among hormone ranges in controls and in people who went on to build an autistic disorder.

“There could be several explanations for this, this kind of as variation in personal sensitivity to hormones or that the time widow investigated is also early to detect a correct elevation of hormone amounts as the amniocentesis procedure from which these samples are collected is usually undertaken in between 15-twenty weeks.”

He advised there may be option explanations including that kids with autism are more sensitive to hormone amounts or their bodies use them in a distinct way to normal.

He explained: “We now know that subtle variations in fetal growth are an essential determinant of later disease, which may be lifelong.

“Studying this in humans is exceptionally tough because of the obvious limitations in accessing what is occurring in the foetus within the womb, so investigations this kind of as the current research have to be viewed as pioneering.”

A paper published in March in the New England Journal of Medication found that individuals diagnosed with autism missed essential genetic markers for brain cells that are supposed to create prior to birth.

A Norwegian study published last year discovered that taking folic acid dietary supplements in early pregnancy was linked to a reduce danger of autistic disorder. Folic acid is required to fuse the spinal cord in early fetal advancement.

Vaccination has been feared as a prospective cause of autism right after a review by Andrew Wakefield, published in the Lancet healthcare journal in 1998, linked the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to an enhanced threat of building the situation.

The Lancet retracted the examine in 2010, citing “false” claims, and the British Health care Journal referred to as it a fraud in a report the following year.

Boys who produce autism "exposed to higher ranges of hormone in the womb"

Autistic boys exposed to higher levels of hormones in womb, study finds

Outcomes might assist scientists unravel some of the underlying leads to of the autism. Photograph: Alamy

Research on youngsters in Denmark has found that boys with autism had been much more probably to have been exposed to larger levels of hormones in their mother’s wombs than individuals who created normally.

Boys diagnosed with autism and related ailments had, on typical, raised amounts of testosterone, cortisol and other hormones in the womb, in accordance to analyses of amniotic fluid that was stored soon after their mothers had medical tests in the course of pregnancy.

The findings add to a increasing body of proof that the biological foundations of autism are laid down properly prior to birth and involve elements that go past the child’s genetic make-up.

The outcomes could assist scientists to unravel some of the underlying triggers of the autism and clarify why boys are 4 to five occasions more most likely to be diagnosed with the situation, which influences about a single % of the population.

Amniotic fluid surrounds the little one in the womb and is made up of hormones and other substances that they pass through their urine. The liquid is collected for testing when some women have an amniocentesis around 4 months into their pregnancy.

Scientists in Cambridge and Copenhagen drew on Danish healthcare records and biobank materials to uncover amniotic fluid samples from 128 boys who have been later on diagnosed with autism. In contrast to a handle group, the boys with autism and related circumstances had higher ranges of four “sex steroid” hormones that form a biological production line in the physique that begins with progesterone and ends with testosterone.

“In the womb, boys create about twice as considerably testosterone as women, but compared with typical boys, the autism group has even larger ranges. It truly is a considerable big difference and may have a huge impact on brain improvement,” said Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University.

Simply because boys are naturally exposed to much more testosterone in the womb, even a modest rise in the hormone may possibly place them in the threat variety for autism. Ranges of the tension hormone, cortisol, had been also larger in the autism group. “From this study we can’t say this is causal, but it is telling us that component of the biology of autism commences prenatally,” Baron-Cohen extra.

Prior function in animals has shown that testosterone plays a key role in shaping the male brain in the womb. The newest review, published in Molecular Psychiatry, will now be followed up, to solution whether or not higher ranges of hormones lead to more autism in ladies, and why ranges may well rise in the womb in the very first area.

The work does not aim to produce a prenatal test for autism, Asperger’s syndrome, or milder, relevant situations. In the examine, some boys exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb designed properly generally, although others exposed to lower amounts were diagnosed with autism. The results cannot indicate whether or not an personal will go on to produce autism or not.

Even if a test could predict autism, it would raise significant ethical problems. “A prenatal check that is utilised to make a decision to terminate a pregnancy could efficiently be a form of eugenics. A prenatal test that is utilised for early detection, with a see to starting intervention in early postnatal life could be significantly less ethically contentious, and would need to be evaluated for its positive aspects. But we are a prolonged way from that at present,” stated Baron-Cohen.

He went on to warn that the review does not justify the use of drugs that block sex hormones as a treatment method for autism. Drugs that do this have already been supplied, inappropriately, to individuals with autism, but they could have damaging side results and could do nothing at all to alter the brain once it has been shaped in the womb.

Richard Sharpe at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Well being at Edinburgh University described the function as “pioneering”.

“We now know that subtle variations in foetal advancement are an crucial determinant of later condition, which could be lifelong. Studying this in people is exceptionally challenging since of the obvious limitations in accessing what is occurring in the foetus inside the womb,” he said.

Autistic boys exposed to higher levels of hormones in womb, study finds

French youngsters exposed to dangerous cocktail of pesticides, campaigners say

The samples have been taken from childrenliving among 50 and 200 metres from agricultural zones. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

French children in agricultural regions are currently being exposed to a dangerous cocktail of pesticides, some of them banned, a French overall health and setting group has claimed.

Générations Futures carried out independent evaluation of the hair of youthful people residing or studying near farms or vineyards right after dad and mom expressed concern about their children getting exposed to poisons that could disrupt their endocrine technique.

The group, a non-profit organisation specialising in the use and results of pesticides on people and the environment, says its findings confirmed their fears.

Researchers took hair samples from a selected group of young children aged amongst three and ten living or attending colleges among 50 and 200 metres from diverse agricultural zones. It sent the samples to an independent laboratory in Luxembourg that utilised methods equivalent to those employed by detectives investigating poisoning circumstances.

A complete of 624 pesticide traces were found in the 29 samples tested – 1 sample was deemed of insufficient quantity – suggesting that 80% of the children had been exposed to agricultural pesticides in the earlier three months.

In total, the laboratory found traces of 53 pesticides believed to influence hormone technique of mammals, major to cancerous tumours, birth defects, developmental problems and understanding disabilities in humans.

An regular of 21.52 different pesticides had been found for every single little one, 35 so-known as “endocrine disruptor” pesticides were discovered at least when, even though 13 had been identified in every hair sample. Just underneath three-quarters of the young children ate natural make routinely, suggesting the contamination came from an outside source and not their meals.

“The presence of much more than 21 pesticides, on regular, that are endocrine disruptors in the hair that was analysed demonstrates that our children are exposed to a considerable cocktail of these substances,” mentioned François Veillerette, a spokesperson for Générations Futures. “Now the European commission must ultimately public a clear and protective definition of the endocrine disruptors that have to be banned.”

The group’s report urges urgent action. “Our demand is easy and primarily based on an ambitious aim: no organism need to include endocrine disruptors in buy to protect the overall health of unborn children.”

Générations Futures says the French government’s very own nationwide method to deal with endocrine disruptors has reached a dead end. The program was initially to be published in 2013, but has been repeatedly postponed until the end of this month.

“Because young children are portion of the population specially vulnerable to the dangers of endocrine disruptors, they must not be exposed to them,” it stated.

The study showed that many young children had been exposed to dangerous chemicals banned in agricultural use but still utilised in parasite therapies for pet animals.

Jean-Charles Bocquet, director of the European Association of Plant Safety Product Manufacturers, dismissed the analysis. “The presence of pesticide traces is not automatically indicative of a well being danger, particularly in infinitely modest doses. I am confident you’d discover traces of diesel in our hair if you looked for it,” he informed Le Parisien.

Veillerette disagreed. “It is not the dose that the issue, but the accumulation of pesticides leading to a cocktail result,” he said.

Générations Futures says it has sent its findings to a specialised university analysis staff for further examination.

French youngsters exposed to dangerous cocktail of pesticides, campaigners say

Soldiers Exposed To Blasts At Elevated Chance Of PTSD, Brain Damage

The Institute of Medication released a complete report last week on the extended-phrase risks of blast exposure for support members.

The bulk of these blasts are caused by improvised explosive devices (IED). A lot more than 33,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been wounded by an IED, but according to the IOM report, that figure most likely underestimates the prevalence of blast-connected injuries. Soldiers who really do not sustain noticeable or catastrophic wounds may not understand that the entire body absorbs a blast shock wave, sometimes leading to nervous system or tissue damage that’s not obvious in the aftermath.

The report’s authors, a panel of a lot more than a dozen scientists and doctors, identified that blast exposure put veterans at lengthy-term heightened danger for post-traumatic anxiety disorder, specified varieties of traumatic brain injury, development hormone deficiency, and reoccurring signs and symptoms, which includes cognitive impairment and headaches. Regardless of many years of

Relevant Story: Morale, Mental Wellness Improve For U.S. Troops In Afghanistan

There is restricted evidence, the report explained, that encountering numerous blasts prospects to a degenerative brain situation acknowledged as continual traumatic encephalopathy, which gradually erodes a patient’s cognitive and emotional faculties. Although this situation has been seen in a modest number of football gamers and veterans, there are not however adequate instances to generalize the findings.

The report stressed the need for effectively-made scientific studies to assess how blasts result in complex injuries to diverse components of the entire body. The authors urged both the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs to build robust programs for identifying blast injuries and tracking outcomes. The panel’s recommendations integrated producing a registry of veterans exposed to blasts producing a database that backlinks DoD and VA health care records to coordinate extended-term overall health care wants and conducting investigation on both the instant and chronic consequences of blast injuries amongst active-duty service members and veterans.

To study the report, click here.

Soldiers Exposed To Blasts At Elevated Chance Of PTSD, Brain Damage

Aspartame Exposed – Designed with Genetically Modified-Bacteria

Aspartame is the most commonly employed substitute to sugar.  It’s deceptively labeled with pleasant names like Splenda and Equal, masking the documented adverse results it has on the body, from neurological disorders to brain lesions.  Even worse, even so, most don’t know that considerably of the aspartame supply is genetically modified.

As early as 1999, Monsanto admitted that genetically modified bacteria was employed to make aspartame.  In accordance to a firm spokesperson, “[Monsanto has] two strains of bacteria – 1 is typically modified and a single is genetically modified.  [The GM strain’s] received a modified enzyme.  It has 1 amino acid distinct.”

The big difference sounds modest, but the end result on the physique can be detrimental.  GMO meals has been linked to a plethora of illnesses, from allergic reactions and skin disorders, to tumors and cancer.  In fact, visual documentation of the harms of GMO feed has begun to garner focus in recent many years, with animal testing resulting in premature death and horrifying tumors in rats, to turning the stomachs of pigs fed GM-feed to mush.

According to Dr. Erik Millstone of Sussex University and the National Meals Alliance, “Increasingly, chemical firms are employing genetically engineered bacteria in their manufacturing method with no telling the public.”

It’s crucial to mind that the majority of our GMO consumption comes from opaque labeling and FDA-sanctioned non-disclosure laws lobbied for by the foods and pharmaceutical industries.  Corn syrup, maltodextrin, vegetable oils and shortenings, and lecithin are some of the far more frequent culprits, but there are a quantity of substances significantly less obvious that have contaminated the American food supply, each in the US and with exported items abroad.  The greatest defense is to eat natural, but when that is not achievable, stay away from the food items most likely to include GMO ingredients—anything derived from corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed oil are the most frequent.

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/information/worlds-prime-sweetener-is-made-with-gm-bacteria-1101176.html

http://naturalsociety.com/1999-investigation-finds-aspartame-is-made-with-genetically-modified-bacteria/

http://www.naturalnews.com/037249_gmo_examine_cancer_tumors_organ_injury.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/040727_gmo_feed_serious_inflammation_pig_stomachs.html

Aspartame Exposed – Designed with Genetically Modified-Bacteria