Herbal supplements" illegal ingredients pose health risk, experts warn

Many herbal supplements, including for obesity and erectile dysfunction, contain hidden unlicensed pharmaceutical ingredients that could endanger people’s health, experts have warned.

The research team, from Queen’s University Belfast, Kingston University in London and the life sciences testing company LGC, concluded that not only do such supplements often make unverified claims as to their benefits but some have illegal ingredients which could pose a threat – potentially causing low blood pressure or an increased risk of heart attacks.

The substances are unlicensed medicines as they are appearing in products classified as food supplements. Among the most common substances identified was sibutramine, according to the study, published in the Journal of the Association of Public Analysts.

Sibutramine was licensed as the medicine Reductil until 2010, when it was withdrawn across Europe and the US due to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes associated with the use of the drug.

Tadalafil and sulfoaildenafil were among the most frequently undeclared ingredients in products for erectile dysfunction. When taken with other medicines containing nitrates, they can lower blood pressure drastically and cause serious health problems.

Emeritus professor Duncan Burns, from Queen’s University’s Institute for Global Food Security, said: “We have found that these supplements are often not what customers think they are – they are being deceived into thinking they are getting health benefits from a natural product when actually they are taking a hidden drug.

“These products are unlicensed medicines and many people are consuming large quantities without knowing the interactions with other supplements or medicines they may be taking. This is very dangerous and there can be severe side effects.”

The research team analysed adverse findings recorded by the European Union’s rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) between 2009 and 2016 inclusive. The database is designed to inform member states who can then take appropriate action locally. Consumers can access the database but, unlike authorities in member states, they often cannot see the product names.

The experts believe the pharmaceutical ingredients are sometimes added accidentally but on other occasions deliberately in an attempt to enhance products.

They identified 63 instances of food supplements containing sibutramine between 2009 and 2016, including 47 after 2010, when Reductil was withdrawn. There were 29 instances of tadalafil being found in food supplements in the eight-year period examined and 68 of sulfoaildenafil and chemical substances similar to it.

People suffering from conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are frequently prescribed nitrate-containing medicines. Erectile dysfunction is often associated with these conditions, raising the prospect that patients may be tempted to try herbal supplements, which they do not know contain tadalafil or sulfoaildenafil, which can interact negatively with the nitrates.

Burns said: “People who take these products will not be aware they have taken these substances and so when they visit the doctor they may not declare this and it can be difficult to determine what is causing the side effects. It is a very dangerous situation.”

Another common substance was yohimbine, found in 30 supplements, which has been said to have aphrodisiac-like effects but has been known to increase blood pressure and induce anxiety.

Burns said the RASFF list was unlikely to be comprehensive “unless they went to every health food shop and every herbalist in the country”.

He advised consumers: “Be cautious about supplements you buy and use reputable websites. Discuss any concerns with your GP and always tell them what you’re taking.”

Herbal supplements" illegal ingredients pose health risk, experts warn

High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal

The government’s plan for tackling the UK’s air pollution crisis has been judged illegally poor at the high court, marking the second time in 18 months that ministers have lost in court on the issue.

The defeat is a humiliation for ministers who by law must cut the illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide suffered by dozens of towns and cities in the “shortest possible time”.

Legal NGO ClientEarth, which brought the case, argued that current plans ignore many measures that could help achieve this, placing too much weight on costs. On Wednesday Mr Justice Garnham agreed. He also said ministers knew that over-optimistic pollution modelling was being used, based on flawed lab tests of diesel vehicles rather than actual emissions on the road.

The government said it would not appeal against the decision and agreed in court to discuss with ClientEarth a new timetable for more realistic pollution modelling and the steps needed to bring pollution levels down to legal levels. The parties will return to court in a week but if agreement cannot be reached, the judge could impose a timetable upon the government.

Air pollution causes 50,000 early deaths and £27.5bn in costs every year, according to the government’s own estimates, and was called a “public health emergency” by MPs in April.

James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, said: “The time for legal action is over. I challenge Theresa May to take immediate action now to deal with illegal levels of pollution and prevent tens of thousands of additional early deaths in the UK. The high court has ruled that more urgent action must be taken. Britain is watching and waiting, prime minister.”

He said the increased action required would very likely include bigger and tougher clean air zones in more cities and other measure such as scrappage schemes for the dirtiest vehicles: “The government will have to be tougher on diesel.”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who took part in the case against the government, said: “Today’s ruling lays the blame at the door of the government for its complacency in failing to tackle the problem quickly and credibly. In so doing they have let down millions of people the length and breadth of the country.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Improving air quality is a priority for this government and we are determined to cut harmful emissions. Our plans have always followed the best available evidence – we have always been clear that we are ready to update them if necessary. Whilst our huge investment in green transport initiatives and plans to introduce clean air zones [in six cities] around the country will help tackle this problem, we accept the court’s judgment. We will now carefully consider this ruling, and our next steps, in detail.”

ClientEarth defeated the government on the same issue at the supreme court in April 2015. Ministers were then ordered to draw up a new action plan, but now that new plan has also been found to be illegal.

Documents revealed during the latest case showed the Treasury had blocked plans to charge diesel cars to enter towns and cities blighted by air pollution, concerned about the political impact of angering motorists. Both the environment and transport departments recommended changes to vehicle excise duty rates to encourage the purchase of low-pollution vehicles, but the Treasury also rejected that idea.

Documents further showed that the government’s plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels by 2020 for some cities and 2025 for London had been chosen because that was the date ministers thought they would face European commission fines, not which they considered “as soon as possible”.

There had been a draft government plan for 16 low emission zones, which polluting vehicles are charged to enter, in cities outside London but the number was cut to just five on cost grounds.

All these proposals will now be revisited. Thornton said a national network of clean air zones needed to be in place by 2018. “If you put in clean air zones, it works overnight.”

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: “We urgently need a new clean air act that restricts the most polluting vehicles from our urban areas and protects everyone’s lung health – air pollution affects all of us.”

Sam Hall, at conservative thinktank Bright Blue, said there should be more power and funding devolved to local authorities to enable all English cities to set up clean air zones and more support for electric cars.

Keith Taylor, Green party MEP, said: “The failure highlighted by the judge today is as much moral as it is legal: ministers have displayed an extremely concerning attitude of indifference towards their duty to safeguard the health of British citizens.”

Air pollution table

High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal

Property Office accessing NHS data to support track down illegal immigrants

Health care records. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

The Home Office has been given access to the NHS information of far more than six,900 men and women because 2010 as element of its efforts to track down illegal immigrants, prompting worries from patients’ and migrants’ rights groups.

Healthcare information are protected by information protection laws but new statistics show the Home Office has produced use of a small-noticed exemption in the principles to entry patients’ non-clinical data, with out any need to have for a court purchase.

The exemption makes it possible for officials to see the place folks have manufactured use of the well being services and when, but not the details of the clinical situations or medical interest they acquired.

Police forces and the National Crime Agency have also accessed these data, the figures present, in pursuit of perpetrators of severe crimes this kind of as murder or rape.

Individuals groups explained the use of NHS records by immigration and law enforcement officials could deter people from seeking remedy for themselves or their families, and so pose a public well being threat.

“We are concerned to discover that the House Office is searching for to track down likely immigration offenders by requesting their healthcare data,” mentioned Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Individuals Association. “While we are aware of the government’s need to have to clamp down on unlawful immigrants, we do not think that it need to be carried out by way of their medical and social care data.

“There is the really true danger that some sufferers might put off seeking medical assist for fear of their information becoming leaked. Furthermore, kids may endure if mother and father are reluctant to consider them for remedy when they are ill. The health and welfare of patients should usually be the priority and we must not introduce policies which could undermine the core ideas of our well being services.”

The House Workplace requests 1st emerged in a 91-web page independent report on data release policy at the Well being and Social Care Info Centre this month. The PricewaterhouseCoopers report located that among July 2010 and December 2013 the House Workplace made far more than 12,587 requests for data from the NHS’s Nationwide Back Office, which keeps simple data on all registered NHS patients.

The vast bulk of these requests for info – twelve,204 – had been accepted by the NBO, and information have been identified in 6,304 instances. Police and Soca (now the Nationwide Crime Agency) produced 14,951 requests more than the very same period. Information on requests prior to July 2010 had been destroyed, the report found.

The data are launched under an exemption to the Information Protection Act, which normally protects the confidentiality of NHS data, for the pursuit of serious crime. The NBO passes on basic data on the patient, such as the nearby NHS region the patient last had get in touch with with. The Residence Workplace or police force concerned is then free of charge to pursue more thorough data from nearby NHS agencies.

A supplemental release of info covering the first three months of 2014 showed the House Office had because overtaken police forces as the primary requester of wellness data, creating 725 requests for information versus 635 from police and the NCA.

Requests for NHS information

Ruth Grove-White, the policy director of the Migrants’ Rights Network, called the findings “disturbing” and questioned regardless of whether the information requests had been a sensible use of strained NHS sources.

“NHS workers are previously underneath stress and the last point we require is for them to be forced to act as immigration officers as nicely,” she mentioned. “This further proof that the House Office is making use of the NHS as a vehicle for immigration enforcement is disturbing.

“Some migrants who are entitled to entry the NHS are already too intimidated to look for the care they or their children want. In result, this approach discourages men and women from going to their GP or hospital when they need to have to, with wider public wellness implications.”

The House Workplace declined to react to queries about how many of the six,965 men and women whose NHS details it had acquired have been further pursued by means of their local NHS bodies or GP surgeries, but it defended its use of NHS data.

“We function closely with a wide variety of partners across government and the personal sector to make sure people who are in the United kingdom illegally are removed,” mentioned a spokesman. “Any requests for info are proportionate and in line with data sharing legislation.”

The National Crime Company stressed that its use of NHS records was strictly limited to severe crimes.

“The NCA utilizes National Back Workplace information as one of a amount of tactics and intelligence sources to trace identified fugitives,” explained a spokesman. “The use of these enquiries is proportionate and can only be produced for significant offences, for example murder and critical assault, and we make them only after all other checks which includes open source have also been pursued.”

The HSCIC stressed that the data requests covered only non-clinical information, and mentioned acquiring health-related records would call for a court purchase. It additional that it had by no means obtained an purchase seeking medical records.

Property Office accessing NHS data to support track down illegal immigrants

Illegal abortion medical professionals encounter no action

All were identified in an investigation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2012 and referred to the Common Healthcare Council.

But none will be brought just before a hearing in which they could be disciplined, suspended or struck off regardless of the offence becoming punishable by imprisonment.

In England and Wales abortions are only allowed if particular situations in the 1967 Abortion Act are met.

Terminations can be carried out 24 weeks into pregnancy with agreement from two physicians. They should sign a type agreeing that a lady can have an abortion if they agree the pregnancy could risk the bodily or psychological health of the female or her unborn youngster. It is advised that at least one of the doctors sees the lady and at the very least each must have go through her healthcare notes or spoken to her.

David Burrowes, Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate told the newspaper: “There is one thing scary about this.

“It says something about how sinister and unaccountable abortion practice in the Uk has turn out to be that this kind of a huge variety of medical doctors could brazenly break the law and the most senior healthcare establishment in the land omit to refer their crimes to the police.”

Jim Dobbin, Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, stated the figures – from spot checks carried out on 250 personal and NHS abortion clinics – have been evidence of Britain’s “abortion-on-demand” culture.

The disclosures adhere to the Daily Telegraph’s investigation into unlawful terminations. In two cases medical professionals had been filmed providing to organize abortions soon after getting told the mother–to–be did not want to go ahead with the pregnancy because of the sex of the unborn child.

One advisor, Prabha Sivaraman, who worked for each personal clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was recorded telling a lady: “I never inquire concerns. If you want a termination, you want a termination.”

Dr Raj Mohan, functioning at the Calthorpe Clinic in Birmingham, was also filmed agreeing to conduct the procedure even although he told the lady: “It is like female infanticide, is not it?”

Last year the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) mentioned the two physicians would not face criminal expenses due to the fact the instances had been not in the public curiosity, in spite of there getting ample proof to get them to court.

Illegal abortion medical professionals encounter no action

California Tackles Illegal U.S. Seafood Imports

Would it be concerned you to know the fish on your plate isn’t what you consider it is or exactly where you feel it’s from?

Taking into consideration the U.S. imports 91% of its seafood in a system that makes it effortless for businesses to get away with unknowingly marketing clients mislabeled fish, perhaps it should.

A new research published in the journal Marine Policy exhibits that up to one-third of wild-caught seafood imported into the U.S. comes from unlawful, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU). The unlawful imports are well worth between $ 1.three and $ 2.1 billion in a $ sixteen billion marketplace. The examine was sponsored by the Planet Wildlife Fund Globe Wildlife Fund.

California currently has its Nation of Origin Labeling (Cool) law in location, but the lack of transparency, accountability and a appropriate monitoring technique makes it challenging to know in which seafood is really coming from.

The report found that about 90% of seafood exported by the U.S. to China is either re-processed and exported by China to other nations or re-processed back to the U.S. In 2009, about 97% of China’s complete imports of whitefish, salmon and tuna have been sourced from 10 countries, with 57% of it coming from Russia.

A research in 2013 by nonprofit ocean protection group Oceana unveiled that in 120 samples labeled red snapper, 28 various species of fish were discovered, which includes 17 that weren’t even in the snapper loved ones. The research prompted the California Senate Wellness Committee to approve a bill Wednesday that would make it illegal for any man or woman to knowingly promote mislabeled seafood.

Still, the mixing of illegal fish items into provide chains when processed muddies the circumstance.

“We have a complicated international industry in which a substantial percent of the item is coming from the method illegally that we cannot figure out how to keep out,” said David Schorr, senior manager of the WWF’s Transparent Seas Project.

Schorr said the U.S. demands to figure out how to trace fish the way it traces a good deal of other items like an Amazon.com Amazon.com buy, which utilizes barcodes.

“We require to use that type of technology to start tracing fish simply because it is not just a threat to shoppers, but it can hurt business brand names,” mentioned Schorr.

In California, some restaurants and firms are already tackling the dilemma in sustainable seafood reform. Arctic char, for instance, is rated as the greatest choice different for farmed salmon, in accordance to Shawn Cronin, enterprise outreach manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Observe program. Cronin has been working on expanding the system, beginning with inbound requests in California but hopes to set up a nationwide system.

Amongst 120 dining establishments that participate in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Observe Plan, 75% are primarily based in California. Other participating organizations incorporate Total Food items Industry Whole Foods Market, Safeway Safeway and Wal-Mart.

Not only would a worldwide initiative to track seafood shield at-risk species, a motion for sustainable seafood consumption would thwart risks of consuming specified species of fish with unhealthy ranges of mercury and serious allergic reactions.

California Tackles Illegal U.S. Seafood Imports

Ketamine could deal with depression illegal drugs do have their uses | Sue Blackmore

‘Commonly used antidepressants such as Prozac can take weeks to perform. A fast-acting option would be so useful.’ Photograph: Design and style Pics Inc/Rex Features

Could ketamine, that notorious celebration drug, treat depression? It would seem so. Final results of a new trial have just been launched and medical professionals say the results are surprising and dramatic. Twenty eight folks had been slowly injected with a low dose of ketamine – all significantly depressed patients who didn’t respond to traditional treatment method. Eight reported feeling much better and 4 improved so drastically that they were no longer classed as depressed at all. One went for a stroll on her personal for the very first time in ten many years some remembered that this was how they employed to believe, and relatives said they had acquired their loved ones back.

Some people look amazed that an unlawful street drug can have such good utilizes, but they ought to not be. Without a doubt, a lot of other well-liked recreational medicines have useful therapeutic possible. But our system of prohibition can make it exceptionally tough to do investigation with these medicines, and falsely demonises them.

Ketamine – usually identified as K or “Particular K” – is fundamentally an anaesthetic, although it is utilized far more often on cats and horses than grownup humans because of its peculiar side-effects. In higher doses it leads to paralysis and anaesthesia, but in reduced doses it causes hallucinations, euphoria, time distortion, synaesthesia, and strange dissociative results. I have had ketamine only after. I wanted to attempt it, in risk-free problems, because of my function on out-of-physique and close to-death experiences, and the claim that K could induce them. I was injected with a dose just below that needed for unconsciousness, and the results have been dramatic. I did indeed come to feel as however I was not portion of my physique. I was paralysed except for my eyes, struggling to make sense of anything going through unusual visions and hearing each tiny sound as even though it filled my head. But despite the fact that this was exciting and intriguing, I concluded it was nothing at all like the spontaneous out-of-body experiences that I and numerous other folks have had.

So why does it impact depression? Prior research on rats identified the receptor in the brain on which ketamine acts, and showed that blocking this receptor decreases background exercise in the brain. This, some argue, is equivalent to the impact of electroconvulsive treatment, which is really unpleasant and now rarely employed even although its effects on lifting depression can also be dramatic.

Far more frequently employed antidepressants, this kind of as Prozac, operate to improve ranges of serotonin in the brain. Amongst their disadvantages are that they do not perform for every person, have unpleasant side-effects, and even when they do operate, can get weeks to get impact and to dress in off yet again. This is why a rapid-acting antidepressant would be so valuable. In this new study, some individuals seasoned unpleasant side-effects for the duration of the slow infusion, but not soon after it stopped, and the good results began speedily, lasting anything from six hours to nine months with most lasting about two weeks. In a previous trial, half the sufferers improved inside of two hours and by the finish of the first day in excess of 70% had been better and almost thirty% symptom-totally free. Yet another modest study showed similarly dramatic effects on bipolar disorder.

These results are very good news without a doubt, but need to we be shocked? No. All medication have multiple results and any psychoactive drug as strong as ketamine is bound to have unexplored likely. The sad reality is that when any drug is located to be enjoyable – for partying, for pleasure or even for spirituality – it will get stamped on and manufactured unlawful. After that occurs, study is manufactured exceptionally difficult and the possible of the drug is ignored. This has been tragic in the case of LSD, which is perhaps the most feared and demonised of all psychoactive medicines. Through its power to transform the mind it has lengthy been recognized to release the terminally unwell from nervousness and help them to die far more peacefully. Aldous Huxley was provided LSD on his deathbed. Now, at last, the first trial for a lot more than 40 many years has confirmed this, and there is hope that LSD’s potential can finally be appreciated. Organisations such as Maps and the Beckley Foundation are, against the odds, pioneering research on the therapeutic prospective of cannabis, ecstasy, and psilocybin amongst other folks. It is long overdue.

Ketamine could deal with depression illegal drugs do have their uses | Sue Blackmore

China cracks down on illegal sex-determination clinics

Sex-determination has been illegal in China given that the late 1980s. In 2012 there have been 117 boys born for every one hundred women, official figures present. Photograph: Li Bo/Xinhua Press/Corbis

Chinese authorities have cracked down on a gang that gives illegal sex-determination services to women, a procedure which is typically tied to sex-selective abortions, China’s wellness ministry has stated.

Authorities have arrested ten people, in accordance to the ministry. 1 of the gang’s leaders, Wang Ermin, was sentenced to 3-and-a-half many years in prison and fined £10,000 his subordinates acquired more lenient jail terms. Police also froze a financial institution account belonging to the network, which contained £112,000.

Considering that 2010, the group solicited consumers from across the nation and carried out the procedures at a clinic in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Much more than 1,000 women utilized the services final year, the ministry of well being observe mentioned, numerous of them from the affluent coastal province Zhejiang.

“This went on for a lengthy time, covering a broad region and involved several folks,” the recognize explained. “It was malicious, had critical outcomes and was a great risk to society.”

In November 2012, one of the group’s clientele – from Yiwu City, Zhejiang – died of an amniotic fluent embolism following the procedure, according to a report in the state-owned China News Services.

China outlawed intercourse-determination procedures in the late 1980s, as a standard preference for boys – coupled with a one-little one policy – has led to a high incidence of abortions of female foetuses, skewing the country’s gender ratio.

In accordance to official statistics for 2012, 117 boys have been born for every one hundred girls. All through significantly of rural China, obtaining a son is deemed a stage of pride and an financial necessity – daughters have a tendency to leave the family after marriage whereas sons do not.

The a single-little one policy and gender imbalance have also contributed to a high incidence of human trafficking, as some desperate couples and unmarried guys venture outdoors the law to uncover child boys and long term brides.

Final week, a court handed a suspended death sentence to a medical professional in Shaanxi province, north-west China, for stealing 7 newborns from the hospital where she worked and promoting them to traffickers.

China announced a dramatic revision to its one-kid policy late last 12 months, allowing couples to have two young children if 1 of the parents is an only youngster. The policy previously makes it possible for some rural couples to have a 2nd little one if their very first child is a woman. On Friday, Zhejiang grew to become the first province to apply the revised policy.

China cracks down on illegal sex-determination clinics