The Australian Christian Lobby is wrong. Australians don"t support a gag rule | Rebecca Huntley

It’s the photo that launched a thousand memes. The freshly inaugurated Donald Trump, surrounded by a posse of white dudes signing a directive reinstating a “global gag rule” banning US-funded groups around the world from discussing abortion.

I saw the news about it on social media, shuddered, donated to Planned Parenthood and then felt just a little bit more grateful that I live in this country, a place where abortion and reproductive rights aren’t the hysterical hot button issues they are in the United States. I’ve only recently learned that while we might not share their toxic politics around reproductive rights, we have in the past taken America’s lead on the implementation of the global gag rule. It was last removed in Australia in 2009 by Kevin Rudd.

If the Australian Christian Lobby had its way, we’d follow America’s lead yet again. They are currently engaged in a pretty intense letter writing campaign calling for the re-instatement of an Australian global gag rule.

What is the ‘global gag rule’, and why does Trump support it?

Groups like Family Planning NSW are calling for funding to aid programs, specifically in Pacific Island countries, to be maintained in the May budget and with good reason. The Pacific has some of the worst reproductive and sexual health outcomes globally, with high rates of maternal and infant deaths, unintended and teenage pregnancies, sexual violence and unacceptably high rates of cervical cancer deaths.

Women giving birth in the Pacific are dying at 34 times the rate of women in Australia. Women in the Pacific are dying at up to 10 times the rate of women in Australia from cervical cancer. In developing regions, eight in 10 women with curable sexually transmitted infections do not receive treatment. Every two minutes, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth – the majority of these deaths are preventable. The main purpose of the global gag rule might be to stop aid agencies providing advice about abortion but the direct consequence is also to stop them providing a whole range of other services associated with sexual and reproductive health.

The people pushing for a gag rule in this country like to think they speak for the silent majority of Australians. Yet there is no evidence they do. Figures from last week’s Essential Report show Australians strongly support the nation’s commitment to providing important health services to women in Pacific Island nations.

In fact, 89% of Australians feel it is important women in Pacific Island countries have access to sexual and reproductive health services like contraception, cervical cancer screening and family planning. A strong majority of men (85%) and an even stronger majority of women (91%) support Pacific Island women having access to these services. There is very little variation in support across generations and party affiliation.

How important is it that women in Pacific Island countries have access to sexual and reproductive health services – like contraception, cervical cancer screening and family planning?

On the issue of whether our foreign aid budget should support the provision of these services in those countries, again there is strong support across gender and generation. This isn’t a women’s issue, it’s a community concern.

How important is it that Australia, through its foreign aid budget, supports Pacific Island countries to provide sexual and reproductive health services including contraception, cervical screening and family planning?

Finally, on the question of the global gag rule, 67% of Australians (64% men and 70% women) would be concerned if Australia also introduced this rule and stopped aid to groups that provide family planning and sexual and reproductive health services in Pacific Island countries. While opposition to the rule is highest among Greens voters, 62% of Coalition voters report being concerned about such a move.

How concerned would you be if Australia introduced a global gag rule and stopped aid to groups that provide family planning and sexual and reproductive health services in Pacific Island countries?

So much for the silent minority. Only 6% of those polled in the Essential Report would be unconcerned about a gag rule being reinstated. It’s clear that bringing vaccines, maternal health care, family planning and cervical cancer screening to the Pacific Island region is the intent of men and women across Australia.

Australians might be fascinated with Donald Trump. They might applaud his recent action in Syria and some of us might even sympathise with the idea of a ban on Muslim immigration. But the research shows there is no widespread support for a Trump-style gag rule that puts a rightwing Christian agenda before the health and wellbeing of Pacific Island women.

The Australian Christian Lobby is wrong. Australians don"t support a gag rule | Rebecca Huntley

Unproven alternative medicines recommended by third of Australian pharmacists

Nearly one third of pharmacists are recommending complementary and alternative medicines with little-to-no evidence for their efficacy, including useless homeopathic products and potentially harmful herbal products.

The finding comes from a Choice survey of 240 pharmacies including Priceline, Chemist Warehouse and Terry White. Mystery shoppers were sent in to speak to a pharmacist at the prescription dispensing counter and ask for advice about feeling stressed.

Three per cent of the pharmacists recommended homeopathic products, despite a comprehensive review of all existing studies on homeopathy finding that there is no evidence they work in treating any condition.

Twenty-six percent recommended Bach flower remedies to shoppers, homeopathic solutions of alcohol and water containing diluted flower essences. The solution was invened by a British homeopath, Edward Bach, who claimed to have a psychic connection to plants. A comprehensive review of all existing studies on Bach flower solutions found no difference between the remedies and placebos.

The Choice survey also found products containing a B group vitamin complex were recommended by pharmacists for stress in 46% of cases. Other frequently recommended products were St John’s wort and valerian. There is no good evidence that these products reduce stress.

Fifty-nine per cent of people were just told the complementary and alternative product recommended to them worked, and 24% were told the product was scientifically proven, without any evidence being provided to them, the survey found.

A prominent public health expert and the director of Medreach, Dr Ken Harvey, famously quit his job as an adjunct professor with Victoria’s La Trobe University in 2014 after the university struck a $ 15m, six-year deal with vitamins manufacturer Swisse.

He said the Choice survey demonstrated that some pharmacists were failing in their professional duty to consumers.

“Pharmacists are giving crazy advice, and it is dangerous in some cases,” he said.

“My view is that pharmacists, if they are going to sell these products, need to have a big shining sign over the shelves of the complementary and alternative medicine section that says ‘these products have not been assessed by the government regulators to see if they work, please talk to pharmacist’.

Harvey said it was not uncommon for manufacturers of complementary and alternative medicines to do deals with pharmacists so that when customers filled a script for a prescription medicine, the pharmacist would recommend a “front of shop” product to “complement” the prescription medication.

“Pharamacists are giving poor advice and they clearly have a conflict of interest,” Harvey said.

“There is no doubt about that companies. Vitamin companies come into their stores and stick their products on the shelves and provide the pharmacist with posters and pamphlets, and the pharmacists wash their hands of it. But they’re abdicating their professional responsibilities.”

National president of the Pharmacy Guild, George Tambassis, said people trusted pharmacists, and therefore they had a duty-of-care to be aware of available clinical evidence about the therapeutic and marketing claims made about products sold in their stores.

In a statement, the Guild said it was “essential that consumers have access to objective, informed advice about complementary medicines, and by far the best place to obtain that advice is at a community pharmacy”.

Pharmacology lecturer Ian Musgrave from the University of Adelaide said while he expected shop assistants might not be up to date with the latest evidence for complementary and alternative products, he expected better from pharmacists, who have at least four years of university education.

“I would suggest that we need more education, potentially post-graduate education, on herbals and complementary medicines, especially seeing as now a number of pharmacies have a substantial section with these products,” he said.

Unproven alternative medicines recommended by third of Australian pharmacists

Almost half of young Australian adults binge-drink every month, report says

Almost half of young Australian adults engage in binge-drinking on at least a monthly basis, a new report shows – but across the board rates of alcohol consumption are falling.

Findings from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on trends in alcohol availability, use and treatment show that 18- to 24-year-olds are most likely to report risky drinking behaviour.

The report says 47% reported drinking more than four standard drinks on a single occasion on at least a monthly basis, 33% consumed 11 or more standard drinks on a single occasion at least yearly, and 18% at least monthly.

But older Australians were more likely to have more than an average of two standard drinks a day, with 23% of respondents aged from 40 to 49 reporting what was defined as a “lifetime” risk.

Similarly, nearly half (49%) of respondents receiving treatment were aged in their forties. Overall, treatment for alcohol had increased by 20% from a decade ago, with patients in 2014-15 most likely to be males aged over 40 and living in major cities.

Researchers said it was possible that problems related to drinking did not develop until later in life or that people simply did not seek treatment for them until then.

The report, released on Friday, assessed trends in alcohol availability, use and treatment.

Volume of alcohol consumed per capita

Tim Beard, a spokesman for the AIHW, said binge-drinking – particularly among younger Australians and those living in rural or very remote areas – was at odds with the downward trend of consumption rates overall.

“That contrast really jumped out at us.”

He said drinking alcohol in significant quantities became less socially acceptable as people aged, and those who reported receiving treatment was “an ageing cohort”, seeking help for “habits they formed sometimes 20, 30 years ago”.

“They might have been receiving treatment for years.”

In 2013, just over 15 million Australians, about 78% of the population, had consumed alcohol in the past year – but the apparent consumption of alcohol as determined through sales and taxation data has decreased nationally from 2003-04 to 2013-14.

The proportion of people abstaining – who had never consumed a full serving of alcohol – had risen from 17% in 2004 to 22% in 2013; the rate of ex-drinkers had also increased.

Alcohol consumption per person had also fallen to 9.7 litres in 2013-14 from 10.8l in 2008-9.

The increasing price of alcohol, restrictions on trading hours, and fewer outlets were understood to be effective in reducing harms.

“I think there’s a lot more public awareness of the impact of all sorts of behaviours on health,” said Beard, noting the National Drug Strategy aimed to reduce rates of smoking, drinking and drug abuse across the board through prevention.

“It’s not just younger people who aren’t taking it up – it’s a lot of people who are giving it up.”

But despite some emerging positive patterns, risky drinking and alcohol dependence continued to be significant issues in Australia, particularly among some groups.

Remote and very remote areas were more likely to engage in risky drinking than people living in major cities, said Beard.

Interactive

“They’re sort of bucking the trend, unfortunately, when you look at them as a group. It’s a small pocket but a notable one.”

The report found 15% of people who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual reported drinking at very high levels each month, compared to 7% of people who identified as heterosexual.

Indigenous Australians were more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to report risky drinking on single occasions, and more than three times as likely to drink at very high levels every week – though the gap was decreasing over time.

Alcohol was the leading cause of burden of disease for Australians under the age of 45 in 2011; alcohol-use disorders were responsible for 1.5% of the total burden of disease.

Research published by the University of Adelaide last week highlighted the difficulties experienced by Australians to cut back on their alcohol intake or quit altogether.

Ashlea Bartram, a PhD researcher at the university’s School of Public Health, found that people routinely made excuses to remove themselves from situations where others were drinking, or provided accepted excuses for abstaining such as being unwell or needing to drive.

She said it was “quite clear there is a stigma attached” to people attempting to change their drinking habits. “It’s as though some kind of social code has been violated.”

People tended to make excuses not to attend social gatherings, and instead found “new ways to spend time with their peers that weren’t focused on alcohol,” Bartram said.

Almost half of young Australian adults binge-drink every month, report says

Australian police detainees employing ice at record costs: survey

Connected: No ice epidemic but growing purity is performing damage, say researchers

Australian prisoners are using amphetamines at record prices, and the most potent type, methamphetamine, is driving this rise, a survey of police detainees by the Australian Institute of Criminology has unveiled.

As component of the annual Drug Use Monitoring in Australia survey, 3,456 adult police detainees had been questioned about their drug use in between July 2013 and December 2014 at six places across Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. Urine samples were also taken to corroborate answers provided.

“Overall, in 2013–14 the most notable trend in illicit drug use within the Australian detainee sample was a 13% enhance in detainees testing positive to amphetamines,” a report on the survey findings launched on Sunday mentioned.

Connected: Methamphetamine use the largest drug issue dealing with Australian police – report

“This was largely due to an 11 percentage-level improve in detainees testing good to methamphetamine.” Methamphetamine is far more generally acknowledged as ice, and current research suggests its strength and purity has risen, triggering more harm to end users.

Of the prisoners surveyed, 37% examined optimistic to amphetamines, in contrast with 24% the previous 12 months. It marked the highest recorded rate of amphetamine use in the survey’s history, with the previous peak becoming 35% in both 2003 and 2004.

The survey has been running because 1999, generating it the largest and longest-working survey of drug use between police detainees in Australia.

The director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, Chris Dawson, said the findings meant it was important to proceed to closely monitor methamphetamine market trends, this kind of as availability and purity.

“This new information shows the continuing nationwide rise in methamphetamine use amongst Australian police detainees,” he wrote in a foreword to the report.

Connected: Queensland’s ‘war on drugs’ a waste of police time, says Ted Noffs Foundation

“Methamphetamine use was recognized in 23% of urine samples supplied by detainees in Adelaide, 24% in Bankstown, 34% in Brisbane, 37% in East Perth and 52% in Kings Cross.

Whilst specialists are unsure why ice use has elevated provided it remains reasonably costly when in contrast to other medicines, the availability of ice as a end result of growing local awareness and sophistication in how to manufacture it is suspected to have contributed.

The majority of prisoners surveyed – 78% – reported that when ice supply was low, they managed to abstain from utilizing the drug, but did not boost their use of much more readily offered drugs, this kind of as alcohol.

“These findings suggest that provide-side reduction methods may possibly be successful in terms of harm minimisation: that is, a reduction in supply appears to lessen use of that drug with out escalating the use of other substances,” Dawson wrote.

Relevant: Tony Abbott to establish nationwide drug taskforce to tackle ice ‘scourge’

Nonetheless, cannabis continues to be the most typically detected drug amid police detainees. Even though peak cannabis use between prisoners was recorded in 1999, when 61% tested constructive, 46% examined positive in the most latest survey.

Alcohol use was also substantial, with 41% of detainees reporting that they had drunk alcohol in the 48 hrs prior to their arrest.

“The regular quantity of alcohol detainees reported consuming on the final occasion of drinking was 19 regular drinks, although it was as large as 31 standard drinks for the sub-group of detainees who reported consuming a combine of beer, wine or spirits on the last event,” the report found.

The regular in the earlier 12 months was 22 normal drinks, the report said.

Australian police detainees employing ice at record costs: survey

Australian Health care Association accuses The Australian of selling smoking

The Australian Medical Association has accused Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper of marketing smoking and “big tobacco” by publishing a series of articles undermining the nation’s plain packaging legislation.

The Australian, owned by News Corp, has previously argued that plain packaging deprives tobacco firms of their intellectual house rights, and earlier this month went additional and claimed that plain packaging had led to an improve in tobacco product sales.

“The AMA urges the government to restate its support for the plain packaging laws and tobacco control typically, and we urge the Australian and other media to stop offering Large Tobacco a totally free ride in marketing its killer merchandise,” the AMA president, Associate Professor Brian Owler, mentioned.

The intervention of the peak health care physique came after The Australian published an additional five content articles on Wednesday essential of public health initiatives to lower smoking costs, such as plain packaging.

The series of news reviews and view pieces have been in response to the ABC’s Media View plan, which slammed The Australian’s earlier exclusive story claiming that there had been an increase in consumption as “garbage”.

On six June The Australian ran a front-page story headlined “Labor’s plain packaging fails as cigarette income rise”.

“Labor’s nanny state push to kill off the country’s addiction to cigarettes with plain packaging has backfired, with new sales figures exhibiting tobacco consumption expanding throughout the 1st complete year of the new laws,” the newspaper reported.

But the accuracy of the proof presented in the report was instantly called into question by some economists and well being experts, as it right contradicted government figures.

A single of the economists who condemned the story, Stephen Koukoulas, stated tobacco consumption in the 1st quarter of 2014 was the lowest ever recorded.

The professor of health policy at Curtin University, Mike Daube, also condemned the report: “Every bit of the report is dodgy, from the way it was set up, to what’s in it, to the lack of analysis.”

Media Watch quoted the two experts in its story, and recommended The Australian had been influenced by the views of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a proper-wing thinktank.

Undeterred by the Media Watch report, The Australian returned fire, publishing a total broadsheet web page of stories on Wednesday.

One particular of the viewpoint pieces was written by Professor Sinclair Davidson, an economist at RMIT and a senior fellow at the IPA, which has reportedly obtained money from the tobacco business. British American Tobacco Australia informed the Sydney Morning Herald in 2012 it was a member of the IPA.

Davidson wrote that plain packaging policy introduced by the earlier Labor government was “state-sponsored persecution of that minority who eat tobacco”.

Davidson was also quoted in the newspaper as saying: “I have no doubt that the consumption of cigarettes has risen because plain packaging was introduced we just can not be positive regardless of whether it is by current smokers or new smokers.”

But according to the division of well being, recent figures launched by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) demonstrate that complete consumption of tobacco and cigarettes in the March quarter 2014 is the lowest ever recorded.

It has dropped from $ three.508bn in December 2012 to 3.405 billion in March 2014.

The Guardian’s Information Blog analysed the figures used by The Australian on June 6 and located there was indeed a little .28% boost in sales 12 months on yr but the paper had failed to account for the improve in the population between 2012 and 2013.

“Adjusted for population, tobacco income per particular person have truly continued to reduce from 920.four in 2012 to 906.9 in 2013,” the Data Site reported.

The AMA was joined by the Cancer Council in pointing the finger at the tobacco industry for driving a misinformation campaign to undermine the effectiveness of plain packaging, but stopped brief of naming the Australian.

The Cancer Council CEO and healthcare oncologist, Professor Ian Olver, cited new Treasury figures which he said had been a more indication of a decline in smoking, with tobacco clearances (like excise and customs duty) falling by three.four% in 2013 relative to 2012, when tobacco plain packaging was launched.

“The so-called data becoming spun by the tobacco market to declare that plain packaging has not worked is plain wrong,” Olver stated in a statement.

“If we utilised tobacco market claims to guidebook wellness policy, existence expectancy in Australia would be much reduce than it is today.”

The Cancer Council mentioned the tobacco industry’s misinformation campaign was “aimed at undermining the introduction of plain packaging in the UK”.

“In a nation of 63 million people, plain packaging would be a main blow to the tobacco industry’s earnings,” Prof Olver said.

In Wednesday’s report The Australian claimed that the government’s anti-smoking measures had been driving a boom in low cost cigarettes because smokers were “purchasing far more cigarettes from the lowest marketplace section”.

“Neilsen data signifies that 42.three per cent of all cigarettes now purchased are priced at significantly less than $ 15 a pack, a rise from 25.6 per cent of the market in 2011 and 35.2 per cent at the end of final yr,” the report explained.

The report quoted tobacco industry executives to back this claim. The managing director of Philip Morris, John Gledhill, informed The Australian: “As market and market authorities have previously warned, the government’s forced removal of tobacco manufacturers and trademarks has triggered intense cost competitors.”

Australian Health care Association accuses The Australian of selling smoking

Australian youngsters obtaining fatter as politicians and food sector blamed

New statistics on weight problems in Australian children reveal the burgeoning difficulty is not becoming taken seriously by politicians or the meals sector, a major public wellness professional says.

Statistics released on Thursday by the Australian Institute of Well being and Welfare show much more than a quarter of young children have been overweight or obese in 2012, growing from 23% in 2007-08.

The excess weight of kids aged in between 5 and seven is rising swiftly, the statistics present, with just above 21% of kids in this age group overweight or obese in 2007-08. 4 years later, that had grown to more than 24%.

Professor of public wellness and Public Wellness Advocacy Institute director Mike Daube said Australia was doing worse in tackling weight problems than it was in addressing tobacco in the 1980s.

“At least with tobacco there was recognition of a need to have for committed, evidence-based method to tobacco handle and the begin of successful action,” Daube mentioned.

“We haven’t even acquired to that starting level with obesity.”

In spite of residing in an affluent nation, Australians have been also sedentary, ate too a lot processed and pre-prepared meals, and have been currently being bombarded with junk food advertising, he said.

“The unhappy reality is that this is just one more day, one more report telling us we’re body fat and getting fatter,” Daube explained.

“I am profoundly pessimistic about the future of action on weight problems. I really don’t feel we have even commenced to consider the dilemma seriously and doubt that we will actually see any true action for decades to come.”

He has prolonged called on the government to crack down on the meals business and ban the advertising and marketing of junk foods in direction of youngsters, specifically at sporting events and throughout children’s television displays.

The Preventative Wellness Taskforce has previously reported that if current trends proceed, due to the fact of obesity alone the life expectancy of youngsters will fall by almost two many years by the time they are 20.

In spite of the negative news on childhood weight problems rates, the information released Thursday also exhibits infant deaths dropped amongst 2006 and 2012, from 4.seven to 3.three per 1000 reside births.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spokeswoman Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman stated this was largely due to a decline in sudden infant death syndrome, a reduction in injuries to youngsters under the age of one particular, and improved treatments, specifically in managing young children in neonatal and intensive care.

“But 1 spot I would like to see improvement on is immunisation charges,” Al-Yaman stated.

“While an immunisation rate of 90% is great, given the huge volume of scientific evidence we have for immunising, that rate ought to be at a hundred%.”

The information also demonstrates youngster literacy and numeracy skills are strengthening, with 94% of youngsters attending preschool in 2013. The proportion of kids who had been developmentally vulnerable at college entry also fell.

Australian youngsters obtaining fatter as politicians and food sector blamed

Australian Intercourse get together propositions voters in excess of budget - video

The Australian Sex celebration is refusing to take the government’s price range position lying down. In a crowdfunded video, the small celebration proves size doesn’t matter when it comes to the big concerns: the NBN, the proposed college chaplaincy program, the raising of the retirement age, modifications to university funding and the Medicare co-payment. Its select-up line to voters? “We’re not just about sex we’ll make sure you do not get fucked.”

• Source: Australian Sex Celebration


• Length: 1min 16sec


• theguardian.com


• Thursday 29 May possibly 2014

Australian Intercourse get together propositions voters in excess of budget - video

"No Such Thing As GMO Contamination" Principles Australian Court in Landmark Selection, Rebuffing Organic Activists

As the Genetic Literacy Project reports, in an endorsement of the co-existence of genetically modified and natural farming, the Western Australian Supreme Court today rejected claims by a farmer who contended that his natural licensed farm was “contaminated” by a neighboring farmer growing GM canola.

“I am not pleased that in 2010 Mr. Baxter breached any (lesser) duty of reasonable care,” Justice Kenneth Martin wrote in his judgment.

Natural farmer Steve Marsh had sued his neighbor and former buddy, Michael Baxter, claiming that GM canola from Baxter’s land had drifted onto his organic oats, rye and sheep farm in Kojonup, Western Australia. The Nationwide Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) temporarily suspended Marsh’s natural certification on about 70 % of his house in late 2010. Marsh sought monetary compensation of $ 85,000 (AU) from Baxter, as effectively as a long lasting court injunction banning Baxter from planting GM crops.

In contrast to the United States, the European Union and Japan, which let trace amounts of GMO crops in natural meals in acknowledgement of cross pollination by wind or pollen transfer, Australia maintains a zero threshold.

Anti-GMO groups have gotten a great deal of traction by branding cross pollination as “contamination.”  Cross pollination occurs naturally but is regarded unacceptable to organic purists, who want natural crops to be entirely cost-free of pollen from GM crops and want individuals demands incorporated into legislation.

Just lately, voters in two southern Oregon counties accepted measures to ban the cultivation of GM crops based on “contamination” issues. The Marsh versus Baxter case has attracted global consideration as it sheds light on how “contamination” claims by organic farmers may be received in other courts.

In the 150-webpage judgment summary, Justice Martin wrote there had been no unreasonable interference with Marsh’s crops. He found that the determination to withdraw natural certification was produced by the Australian organic certifying bodies NASAA/NCO and it was that decision and not natural cross pollination that price Marsh about $ 85,000 (AU) in decreased cash flow.

“Mr. Baxter was not to be held accountable as a broadacre farmer merely for expanding a lawful GM crop and deciding on to adopt a harvest methodology (swathing), which was completely orthodox in its implementation,” he wrote. “Nor could Mr. Baxter be held responsible, in law, for the reactions to the incursion of the Marshes’ organic certification entire body, NCO, which in the conditions presented to be an unjustifiable response to what occurred.” Martin added there was “a really strong physique of proof in this trial to suggest that there was no reputable contractual basis for NCO to decertify” Marsh’s farm.

Natural tolerance requirements challenged

In the course of the eleven-day hearing in February, scientists also testified that Roundup Ready canola swathes have been harmless to animals, people and land even if consumed.

The court case has highlighted contradictions in recent Australian farming and natural certifying regulations. Professor Rick Roush from Melbourne University’s College of Land and Atmosphere stated he believes the situation is exclusive to Australia, simply because the Australian organics industry has a zero tolerance to the presence of any GM materials in certified organic merchandise.

“In other nations, there is a tolerance for quite little levels of legally accepted seeds, or pollen, or no matter what, to be found in a crop, even in organics,” he mentioned. “In the United States, for instance, there are broad-scale examples of GM and natural crops being grown in near proximity. In fact, in some farming operations in the United States the very same farmer will be using both GM and organic production.”

The Australian court ruling has no direct impact upon U.S. law. While related issues and fears of “GMO contamination” are also widespread amid organic farmers in the US, there has been no case in which an organic farmer has misplaced natural certification because of cross pollination. Even so, typical growers have had grain rejected for shipment simply because of the presence of GMO seeds.

The US Department of Agriculture says there is no threshold for the sum of acceptable cross pollination, and handles the concern as such:

As opposed to several pesticides, there aren’t distinct tolerance levels in the USDA organic regulations for GMOs. As this kind of, National Organic Program policy states that trace amounts of GMOs don’t immediately indicate the farm is in violation of the USDA natural regulations. In these instances, the certifying agent will investigate how the inadvertent presence occurred and advocate how it can be much better prevented in the long term.

Decision fallout

Throughout a major overview in 2011-twelve, the USDA Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) endorsed coexistence in between farmers expanding typical, natural and genetically modified crops and rejected calls by natural activists for “zero tolerance”:

Numerous commenters recommended that we set up a “threshold” for the unintended or adventitious presence of items of excluded strategies in natural products. Some commenters argued that a threshold is required because, with no the necessary labeling of biotechnology-derived items, organic operations and certifying agents could not be assured that items of excluded approaches had been not getting utilised. Other folks argued that, without having an established threshold, the laws would constitute a “zero tolerance” for items of excluded techniques, which would be extremely hard to attain.

"No Such Thing As GMO Contamination" Principles Australian Court in Landmark Selection, Rebuffing Organic Activists

Life expectancy for Australian men third-highest in planet, says WHO

Australian males have the third highest life expectancy in the globe, but ladies are lagging in sixth place, according to the Planet Wellness Organisation (WHO).

Nevertheless, ladies are expected to dwell 84.6 years on common, compared with 80.five for men.

The WHO figures are for a little one born in 2012, and demonstrate an increased expectancy across the planet.

In bad countries this is because fewer young children are dying just before their fifth birthday. In richer countries it is simply because fewer folks are dying of heart condition and stroke just before their 60th birthday.

Iceland tops the male table at a healthy typical of 81.two many years, with Japanese ladies anticipated to dwell 87 years. New Zealand guys come fourth at 80.2, tying with Israel, Singapore and Italy. New Zealand ladies come 8th, at 84 many years, tying with Portugal.

A boy born in 2012 in a substantial-revenue nation can count on to live to about 76, in accordance to the statistics. This is 16 many years longer than a boy born in a reduced-income country. Women in large-revenue nations are most likely to reside to the age of 82, in contrast with 63 in poor nations.

Life expectancy for Australian men third-highest in planet, says WHO

Australian cardiologist regrows monkey hearts with human stem cells

An Australian cardiologist has accomplished what could demonstrate a key breakthrough in treating heart disease, following operating with US scientists to use human stem cells to regenerate the broken hearts of monkeys.

A evidence-of-principle examine, published in Nature, showed that human embryonic stem cells boosted heart regeneration when transplanted into injured macaque hearts.

The findings represent the very first time that scientists have been ready to develop stem cell-derived heart muscle at a scale to treat huge animals. The study was also profitable in displaying that the transplanted cells worked in tandem, rather than towards, host tissue.

Preceding work has shown that the human cardiac stem cells, known as cardiomyocytes, could be utilised on rodents. But the breakthrough with the macaque monkeys exhibits it could be possible to use the same remedy in people, albeit following many much more years of research. A lot more than twenty,000 Australians die from heart failure every single 12 months.

Dr James Chong, a cardiologist at the Westmead Hospital and Sydney University lecturer, authored the study paper in collaboration with a University of Washington group, led by Charles Murry.

The researchers induced a heart attack in eight macaque monkeys by impeding the blood flow into the organ. Two weeks later on, the stem cells had been injected into the heart.

In excess of a time period of 3 months, the hearts had been proven to have regenerated dead tissue by up to forty% and accomplished electromechanical coupling with the unique host heart. Even so, it is unclear from the examine whether a full recovery would be achievable by way of stem cell remedy.

Chong explained the investigation was a “very important advance” in the work to locate much better ways to treating heart failure.

“I feel it is practical to presume that this could be used in humans sooner or later on,” he informed Guardian Australia. “A whole lot of function needs to be accomplished but I don’t believe we’re also far away.

“Heart failure is a increasing issue. We’ve acquired much better at treating heart attacks but it means that a whole lot of people are living longer with damaged heart muscle. This harm gradually spirals out of handle and the drugs we have only slow down the approach.

“The only remedy truly is a heart transplant, which is certainly problematic. The human heart and brain are the least regenerative parts of the physique.”

The researchers are now looking for even more funding to advance the studies so that human clinical trials can eventually be undertaken.

Australian cardiologist regrows monkey hearts with human stem cells

Australian wellness amenities at risk from international trade deal, says union

The trade union representing Australia’s nurses and midwives is warning that a worldwide trade deal in solutions might herald a new wave of privatisations in the country’s public hospitals and health services.

The New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association has written to the federal trade minister, Andrew Robb, requesting that details of the Trade in Providers Agreement (Tisa) be made public to handle issues from a variety of groups that the proposed pact will have a profound impact on the provision of public providers.

Negotiations on the Tisa resume in Geneva on Monday and Australia is chairing the talks from then until Friday.

The 23 parties to the agreement are Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union (representing its 28 member states), Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

Talks on the agreement began last year, and Australia is moving the deal forward with the US and the EU. The pact is getting pursued outside the World Trade Organisation by a group of pro-trade liberalisation nations with the notion that the final text be compatible with the Standard Agreement on Trade in Providers (Gat).

Australia has a significant economic curiosity in liberalising the international trade in solutions. The solutions sector comprises about 70% of domestic economic activity and 17% of exports, in accordance to evaluation by the Division of Foreign Affairs and Tade.

But unions representing public sector employees internationally are getting ready to campaign towards the agreement.

Public Providers International, the global physique for public sector unions, has commissioned a report that attacks the foundations of the proposed pact. That report, released at the Australian embassy in Geneva on Monday, contends that the Tisa is “among the alarming new wave of trade and investment agreements founded on legally binding powers that institutionalise the rights of traders and prohibit government actions in a broad selection of regions only incidentally related to trade”.

It claims the agreement will avert governments from returning public services to public hands when privatisations fail, will restrict domestic rules on employee security, will restrict environmental laws and will impact client protections and regulatory authority in places such as licensing of healthcare services, electrical power plants, waste disposal and university and school accreditation.

The PSI has known as on the negotiating parties to release the provisional text, exclude all public services from the agreement and guarantee that all nations have the correct to regulate in the public curiosity.

The New South Wales nurses have also written to Robb seeking clarification about Australia’s stance in the discussions. The union’s general secretary, Brett Holmes, claims the Tisa “would make it less difficult for multinational firms to revenue with impunity”.

“If profitable it could open up a wide selection of crucial public solutions, such as wellness care, to be offered off permanently for personal revenue and never permitted to be returned to public hands,” Holmes mentioned. “Every new wellness-care support would also have to be privatised beneath this agreement.”

The feedback echo arguments the ACTU has put to the government as part of the public submissions procedure into the proposed agreement.

But the Tisa also has powerful supporters in the organization community, each in Australia and internationally. The Australian Companies Roundtable has utilized its submission to the foreign affairs department to get in touch with for a pact with a “high degree of ambition”.

“Now that the Tisa negotiations have begun, it is crucially important to sustain momentum and retain a substantial degree of ambition,” the group says.

“We think that an ambitious agreement must cover 21st century troubles, like cross-border data flows, regulatory transparency and co-operation, movement of organization individuals and principles for state-owned and state-sponsored enterprises that compete in business markets and the digital economic system.”

One more supporter is the ANZ Financial institution. Its submission says the bank “strongly supports the Tisa negotiations and believes they signify a considerable opportunity not only for lowering barriers to trade for recent parties to the negotiations, but can also set important targets for additional liberalisation in the long term by nations at the moment not a get together to the negotiation”.

Australian wellness amenities at risk from international trade deal, says union

Pill class action: about 600 Australian girls express curiosity in joining situation

About 600 Australian ladies have expressed an interest in a prospective class action against the manufacturers of the contraceptive tablets Yasmin and Yas, reporting adverse reactions which includes blood clots and strokes after taking the drugs.

The females approached the Adelaide law firm Tindall Gask Bentley following employees posted a discover on their web site calling for expressions of interest last 12 months. About 600 females have considering that responded, some of whom have had reported substantial reactions right after taking the drugs, the company mentioned.

A lot of of the females who have approached the law company have had experiences following taking Yasmin or Yas that do not relate to thrombosis (clotting), and may possibly not be element of the class action, must it go ahead.

“The critical thing to understand is the important complications that some girls have had with blood clotting following taking either of these tablets,” Tindall Gask Bentley lawyer Tim White advised Guardian Australia.

“What we’re speaking about are issues like deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke or heart attacks. They’re generally the sorts of factors that have resulted in a great deal of these women who have approached us being hospitalised.”

Studies in excess of the final number of years have mentioned the well-known contraceptives have a risk of blood clotting up to two or 3 times larger than other contraceptives.

Professor Michael Permezel, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog), advised Guardian Australia that the research getting cited had been retrospective, and while there was an elevated chance of thrombosis with oral contraceptives, the threat was little, and actually far increased in the course of pregnancy.

“I believe on stability most medical professionals would feel there is a slight increase of danger with newer contraceptive drugs than older ones,” he stated.

“The main issue is that all oral contraceptive capsules carry a modest chance of thrombosis. The chance is quite little, probably much less than 1 in 1,000 women per 12 months. Nevertheless if you’re the 1 in one,000 … it can be very essential.

“Given that we’ve acknowledged for around forty many years that the oral contraceptive increases the threat [of thrombosis] a bit, are there some capsules that boost it far more than other folks? That stays controversial.”

Women could aid minimise their risk of thrombosis by not smoking, steering clear of excessive bodyweight gain, and taking precautions such as keeping up motion for the duration of long travel and informing doctors that they are on the pill before undergoing procedures, he mentioned.

Permezel mentioned Ranzcog’s position was that a woman’s determination to get an oral contraceptive was a “risk-benefit equation” to be made with a medical doctor, as pills have various side-impact profiles, some of which suit a lot of girls.

Some US legal proceedings towards producer Bayer more than reported adverse reactions right after taking the tablets have resulted in settlements.

“We are [confident]. They are extremely diverse laws that are governed in the US compared to Australia. But it’s precisely the exact same medicine,” stated White.

“What 1 of the central issues in Australia – as in the US – was was regardless of whether or not consumers had been totally informed of a amount of prospective dangers … the far more considerable danger becoming the blood clotting.”

In December, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration explained it would investigate Bayer in excess of claims the company breached laws which prevented it advertising and marketing the pill Diane-35 as a contraceptive. Diane-35 was temporarily banned in France last yr following a number of deaths there.

In Australia it is only permitted to be prescribed as a quick- or medium-phrase treatment method for acne and hormonal circumstances, ABC reported.

Pill class action: about 600 Australian girls express curiosity in joining situation