ANTIDEPRESSANTS & PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS: -

• Prozac cleared for children aged eight despite fears of suicide risk - Children as young as eight can be given the anti-depressant Prozac, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has ruled. The EMEA said that the drugwas safe for young people to take, despite concerns that it can trigger suicidal feelings in patients. However, the regulator's ruling said Prozac should only be given to children with moderate to severe depression who have not responded to several sessions of psychological therapy. The drug should also be given in small doses and must be used alongside counselling.

• Antidepressants linked to suicide risk in elderly - The risk of suicide among older patients appears to be increased during the first month of therapy with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants, but this increased risk is fairly low, researchers in Canada report. Dr. David N. Juurlink, of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, and colleagues examined coroner's data, along with data on prescriptions, physician billing claims and hospitalization, for more than 1.2 million subjects who were at least 66 years of age between 1992 and 2000. A total of 1138 individuals who suicide were identified and these individuals were closely matched to 4,552 subjects who served as comparison group, according to the team's report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

• Drug maker, FDA issue antidepressant warning: GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil may increase the risk of suicide in young adults - The antidepressant Paxil may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults, GlaxoSmithKline and the Food and Drug Administration warned Friday in a letter to doctors. The warning was accompanied by changes to the labeling of both Paxil and Paxil CR, a controlled-release version of the drug, also called paroxetine. A recent analysis of clinical-trial data on nearly 15,000 patients treated with both Paxil and placebos revealed a higher frequency of suicidal behavior in young adults treated with the drug, according to the letter.

• Drug therapy caused some scary side effects - Erin Evans is one parent who wishes she had never heard of anti-psychotics. As a military couple, she and her husband, Joe, moved around frequently. Their son, Rex, 13, was babied a lot. His mother now feels that he was not ready for school when he reached kindergarten age. He had trouble focusing in the classroom and was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder at age 6. He started on an ADHD medicine and began hallucinating about worms and bugs in his food. Soon he was also on Prozac for anxiety, but the nervousness and paranoia persisted.

• Study: Ritalin Causing Hallucinations - An expert panel concluded between 2 and 5 percent of children on the ADHD drug Ritalin suffer from psychotic episodes if on the medication for over a year. In these cases, children experienced hallucinations of feeling or seeing insects, snakes or worms. In an attempt to warn doctors and families of the risks associated with the drug, a panel of experts recommended last Wednesday that physicians discontinue the prescription of the drugs in these few cases. The panel felt that prescribing a second drug to stop the hallucinations would be an unsafe option.

• RITALIN - THE COVER-UP OF SUICIDES: TREATMENT WITH RITALIN HAS CAUSED SUICIDES AND SUICIDE ATTEMPTS IN CHILDREN. "21 CASES OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND SIX SUICIDES" - SWEDISH MEDICAL AGENCY APPROVED RITALIN ANYWAY. FDA HAS WARNED ABOUT "SUICIDE IDEATION" IN CONNECTION WITH RITALIN TREATMENT - DIDN'T FDA KNOW ABOUT THE SUICIDES? - From the depths of the archives at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) some astonishing papers have emerged. Papers showing that Ritalin, prescribed to children with the diagnosis ADHD, causes depression and has led to suicides and suicide attempts.

• Glaxo's Paxil linked to birth defects - GlaxoSmithKline PLC warned doctors that its Paxil drug may be more closely linked to birth defects than other antidepressants, according to a letter published Tuesday on the Food and Drug Administration Web site. The company said preliminary results from a retrospective analysis of women taking antidepressants during the first trimester of pregnancy found more birth defects associated with Paxil than other medications. The birth defects were typical of those in the general population, with the most common being holes in the wall that separates the ventricles of the heart.

• ADHD Drugs Can Stunt Growth - A new review of past studies on the effect that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs have on children's growth concludes that the drugs do, in fact, suppress growth to some degree. While the effect found was statistically significant, one of the study's authors, Dr. Omar Khwaja, an instructor in neurology at Children's Hospital Boston, said the average growth suppression for a 10-year-old boy was probably about three-quarters of an inch in height and a little more than two pounds in weight.

• School Killer's Animated Terror - The Minnesota teenager responsible for Monday's high school shooting spree last year created a violent, blood-soaked video that included an animated character shooting four people and blowing up a police car before committing suicide, The Smoking Gun has learned. Using the alias "Regret," Jeff Weise, 16, last October posted online a 30-second animation entitled "Target Practice." Weise posted a second short, "Clown," several weeks after uploading "Target Practice" to a popular multimedia web site. The 50-second "Clown" ends with one character apparently being strangled by the clown.

• Drug company warns of risk of liver problems with antidepressant - The warning about possible liver-related problems with the depression drug, Cymbalta, has been expanded and doctors are being cautioned against its use in chronic liver disease patients. Drug company Eli Lilly has issued a new label for the antidepressant, known generically as duloxetine, which also includes reports of hepatitis, jaundice and other liver-related problems in patients using the drug. The information is displayed on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration web site.

• Suicide warning over ADHD drug - Children on a medicine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may be at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour, UK experts caution. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is warning doctors to be on the look out for warning signs.

• Drug for children with behavioural problems has 'unknown risks' - A controversial new drug for children with behavioural disorders is being prescribed by doctors despite the pharmaceutical company that makes it admitting it has "unknown risks". The disclosure is included in confidential contracts being handed to children and their parents by Eli Lilly. The firm hopes to give Strattera to the youngsters as part of a study to plug the gaps in its knowledge about the drug, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

• Study: Ritalin Causing Hallucinations - An expert panel concluded between 2 and 5 percent of children on the ADHD drug Ritalin suffer from psychotic episodes if on the medication for over a year. In these cases, children experienced hallucinations of feeling or seeing insects, snakes or worms. In an attempt to warn doctors and families of the risks associated with the drug, a panel of experts recommended last Wednesday that physicians discontinue the prescription of the drugs in these few cases. The panel felt that prescribing a second drug to stop the hallucinations would be an unsafe option.

• Mental illness linked to diet - According to new research released this week, mental health is linked to diet and changes to diets over the last 50 years may hold the key to the rise of mental illness. The findings support a growing body of evidence that food can have an effect upon a person's mental health and behaviour that is both immediate and long lasting because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain. Food campaigners Sustain and the Mental Health Foundation say the way food is now produced has altered the balance of the key nutrients people consume.

• Mental illness 'diagnosed too quickly' - Doctors may be too quick to label patients who have a mental illness, a major report suggests. Psychologists have suggested some mentally-ill patients may be receiving inadequate treatment because they have been diagnosed in "general terms", such as schizophrenia or manic depression. The British Psychological Society said that diagnosing patients in such terms meant doctors were failing to take account of individual experiences and were failing to treat patients as individuals.

• Schizophrenia drug claims questioned - Scientists have raised concerns that claims about the benefits of a new generation of drugs for conditions such as schizophrenia may have been exaggerated. Not only are the new antipsychotic drugs - known as atypicals - thought to be more effective, they have also been associated with fewer side effects.

• ADHD drugs to carry new warnings about psychotic behavior - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday that several ADHD drugs must now carry information on the labels warning consumers of the risk of heart problems and psychotic behavior associated with taking the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Susan Bro says GlaxoSmithKline's Dexetrine drug and Novartis AG's Ritalin must now include warnings about risks of serious heart problems and sudden death. ADHD drugs act as stimulants and can raise blood pressure, possibly triggering heart trouble. Users of the drugs are also at risk of displaying behavioral problems -- which the drugs are often prescribed to treat -- such as aggression and mania.

• Drug companies and regulators 'too close' - DRUGS regulators and manufacturers are "too close", meaning they ignore warning signs over potentially dangerous medications, a Welsh doctor claimed today. David Healy, Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University, said bodies like the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) do not always act in the best interest of patients. In a paper in the British Medical Journal, Prof Healy points to the increased suicide risk from taking some anti-depressants, such as Seroxat.

• TeenScreen - Normal Kids Labeled Mentally Ill - Despite years of public outcry, based on recommendations by President Bush's New Freedom Commission to screen all school children for mental illness, TeenScreen is now being administered in the nation's public school system and children are being regularly diagnosed with one, or more, disorders chosen from the close to 400 listed in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV" (DSM), also known as the psychiatric "Billing Bible." The list of mental disorders to chose from when diagnosing children mentally ill with TeenScreen, are "voted" into the Billing Bible by members of the American Psychiatric Association, and include, among others, conduct disorder, avoidant personality disorder, mathematics disorder, reading disorder, disorder of written expression, general anxiety disorder, nightmare disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and factious disorder.   (Alternative Backup Link)

• Latest FDA Warnings On Antidpressants Marks 1,700% Increase In Psychiatric Drug Warnings: In only the past 4 years there have been 20 government warnings regarding the dangers of psychiatry's drugs by five different countries - On July 21st, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked antidepressant drug makers to add two more warnings to the drug labels. According to the FDA, antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac or Zoloft taken during pregnancy can cause the newborn to develop a fatal lung disease. The FDA also warned that taking antidepressants with certain migraine drugs can lead to "serotonin syndrome," which can lead to hallucinations, vomiting, blood pressure changes, restlessness and death. These two most recent warnings about antidepressants may sound shocking, but they are consistent with the disturbing history of psychiatric drug warnings.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS: -

• ASPARTAME RISKS FOR REAL? - The evidence has been trickling in, almost since the substance first began to take over the soft-drink industry, and insinuate itself into every aspect of the food world, over 20 years ago. But now, more and more licensed physicians are advising against the use of the artificial sweetener, aspartame. As the active ingredient in Equal, Nutrasweet and Spoonful, this substance has been a major part of the diet of most Americans, especially those seeking an alternative to natural sugar. But almost from its inception, aspartame has been suspect. In fact, one theory of the origins of Gulf War Syndrome traces the ailment, at least in part, to a large diet-soda shipment left too long in the scorching desert sun during transit and storage; aspartame breaks down chemically under temperatures above only about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, producing formaldehyde, a known human poison.

• The Lowdown on Sweet? - HEN Dr. Morando Soffritti, a cancer researcher in Bologna, Italy, saw the results of his team's seven-year study on aspartame, he knew he was about to be injected into a bitter controversy over this sweetener, one of the most contentiously debated substances ever added to foods and beverages. Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid. Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide. And Dr. Soffritti's study concluded that aspartame may cause the dreaded "c" word: cancer.

• A 100 YEARS OF SODA POP PROFITS CONTRIBUTES TO THE PANDEMIC OF DIABETES - Women who drink more than one can of sugar-filled soda a day might be increasing their chances of developing diabetes along with gaining weight. A study showed that women who drank the minimum of one soda each day could increase their likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes by 85 percent over the women who drank less than one can a day.

• Company Refuses To Pull Aspartame From Parkinson's Drug - It has been almost two weeks since I wrote you this letter. And I called before that. I just want to advise you if aspartame is not removed from Parcopa within two weeks, the information below will go out as a global press release. One victim just went through the agonizing withdrawal from the aspartame in the product. I do not want to see anyone go through what she did, sick taking the drug in the first place, and then the withdrawal process from the aspartame. Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol. Methanol is classified as a narcotic. The chronic methanol poisoning affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes addiction.

GARBAGE IN THE FOOD CHAIN: -

• Several states ban Coke and Pepsi - After an environmental group claimed that Pepsi and Coke are contaminated with pesticides more and more states are banning the colas. Today, the Gujarat University banned the drinks in campus of over over 600 colleges and 1000 schools. The Rajasthan Assembly has also stopped sales in their canteen. The Madhya Pradesh government has said no more cold drinks in government offices and education institutions.

• FDA finds cancer-causing benzene in soda drinks - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reported that it found a high level of cancer-causing benzene in five of the 100 soft drinks and beverages that it tested. The levels of benzene were more than the recommended 5 parts per billion limit for drinking water. The FDA said that it had alerted the companies that make the soft drinks in which benzene was over the prescribed limit. All companies had agreed to reformulate their drinks or have already done so, the FDA revealed on Friday. It maintained that there was no cause for concern although some environmental groups have expressed dismay at these findings.

• FDA okays virus use on meat, poultry: Bacteria-eaters can be sprayed on food - A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive. The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey, said John Vazzana, president and chief executive officer of manufacturer Intralytix Inc.

• Children doomed to obesity by 'toxic, addictive' fast-food - WESTERN diets of "addictive" foods, high in calories and low in fibre, are causing hormonal imbalances that encourage children to overeat, researchers said yesterday. Youngsters and their parents have faced a barrage of blame when it comes to the current childhood obesity epidemic. But Professor Robert Lustig, from the University of California, said changes in manufacturing processes were making food "toxic" and "addictive", leading to obesity. Scotland, along with the rest of the UK, faces a growing health timebomb as more and more youngsters become obese. Figures show that a third of 12-year-olds in Scotland are overweight and a fifth are obese. The latest study said food manufacturing processes had created a "toxic environment" that dooms children to being overweight.

• Military Waste In Our Drinking Water: The U.S. military is poisoning the very citizens it is supposed to protect in the name of national security - In 1982 our family was living on the southside of Tucson, Ariz., in a primarily working class and Latino neighborhood not far from the airport. That year Sunaura was born with a congenital birth defect known as arthrogryposis, a condition that severely impedes muscle growth and requires her to use an electric wheelchair. On nearby blocks, women were giving birth to babies with physical disabilities and neighbors were dying of cancer at worrisome rates. Over time, we learned that our groundwater was contaminated.

• Ski yoghurt advert misleading: It wrongly implied yoghurt contained no additives - Nestlehas been criticised by the advertising watchdog after a Ski yoghurt advert misleadingly implied the product contained no additives. It follows a magazine advert for Ski which featured a child's handwriting stating: 'I don't want pork gelatine, aspartame, locust bean gum, citric acid or potassium sorbate. I just want deliciously simple fruit yoghurt.' The advert also showed a picture of the yoghurt pot next to the words: 'Keep it simple. No artificial colour, sweetener or preservative.' But following a complaint Nestle told the Advertising Standards Authority that the Ski yoghurt was made with a synthetic flavouring and the additive E440 (pectin) which requires a chemical process to extract it from fruit and vegetable sources.

• Study: Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Grasses Will 'Wreak Havoc' on Native Species: Escaped GM grass could spread bad news - An escaped strain of transgenic grass bred for golf courses could wreak havoc on native grassland species in the northwestern United States, ecologists are warning. The strain, which was growing in a test plot in Oregon and hadn't yet been approved for use by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has now been detected in the wild, up to 3.8 kilometres outside the test area. While the transgenic component of the plant might not in itself pose a problem, the hardy strain could replace many other native grasses if it gains a foothold, ecologists say.

• Genetically Engineered Crops May Produce Herbicide Inside Our Intestines - Pioneer Hi-Bred's website boasts that their genetically modified (GM) Liberty Link corn survives doses of Liberty herbicide, which would normally kill corn. The reason, they say, is that the herbicide becomes "inactive in the corn plant." They fail to reveal, however, that after you eat the GM corn, some inactive herbicide may become reactivated inside your gut and cause a toxic reaction. In addition, a gene that was inserted into the corn might transfer into the DNA of your gut bacteria, producing long-term effects. These are just a couple of the many potential side-effects of GM crops that critics say put the public at risk.

VACCINES: -

• Doc Makes Candid Comments on HIV Vaccine - In an unusually candid admission, the federal chief of AIDS research says he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one. And that means the government has had to spend more time focusing on the processes that drug companies ordinarily follow in developing new medicines and bringing them to market. "We had to spend some time and energy paying attention to those aspects of development because the private side isn't picking it up," Dr. Edmund Tramont testified in a deposition in a recent employment lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press.

FLUORIDE: -

• Harvard Study: Strong Link Between Fluoridated Water and Bone Cancer in Boys: Department Chair With Industry Ties Misrepresented Results to Federal Authorities - Boys who drink water with levels of fluoride considered safe by federal guidelines are five times more likely to have a rare bone cancer than boys who drink unfluoridated water, according to a study by Harvard University scientists published in a peer-reviewed journal.

• Drinking Tap Water Increases The Risk Of Bladder Cancer - According to a new study, drinking tap water increases the risk of bladder cancer. The tap water is said to be so polluted that if one drink too much of it may be a risky factor for developing the cancer. The study, published in the April 15 issue of International Journal of Cancer, found high intake of tap water or tap water based drinks each day increased the risk of bladder cancer in men, reports foodconsumer.org. For the study, researchers reviewed six previous case-control studies involving 2,749 bladder cancer cases and 5,150 cancer free controls, most of whom resided in the U.S., Canada or Finland. Some data were collected from subjects in France and Italy.

• Adding fluoride to water may pose health risks - Scary news travels fast. Within weeks after the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences released a study citing adverse health effects of fluoride in water supplies, the Hightstown Board of Health introduced a draft recommendation to the Borough Council supporting a ban on water fluoridation. Dylan Ross, an alternate Board of Health member, told the Hightstown council "there is a possibility we might be poisoning people." Hightstown adds 1 part per million (ppm) of fluoride to its public water supplies. Hightstown is not the only town in New Jersey that should be concerned. Other New Jersey towns fluoridate their drinking water and could be putting the public's health at risk.

• Fluoride and the Atom Bomb related?????? - Some fifty years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children’s teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age. Today, two thirds of U.S. public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government’s assurances of safety. Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by building the world’s first atomic bomb, U.S. public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children’s teeth. That safety verdict should now be re-examined in the light of hundreds of once-secret World War II documents obtained by Griffiths and Bryson—including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. military group that built the atomic bomb.

• New Research: Fluoride Damages Children's Liver and Kidneys (NYSCOF) - Fluoride in drinking water damages children's liver and kidney functions, according to a new study in "Environmental Research", reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Xiong and colleagues write, "Our results suggest that drinking water fluoride levels over 2.0 mg/L can cause damage to liver and kidney functions in children." Further, dental fluorosis (fluoride-discolored teeth) can be an indicator of kidney function harm, they report.

• New Warnings About Fluoride - For a long while, the medical and health establishment brushed off claims that fluoridation of drinking water posed any danger to humans. Not any more. In a cover story in the August edition of Prevention magazine, the respected publication headlines "New Research: Is Your Water Safe to Drink?” The article notes that for over fifty years, adding fluoride to drinking water has been seen as a magic bullet to conquer tooth decay. In fact, in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control named the fluoridation of drinking supplies as one of the twentieth century’s top ten advancements in public health. But some scientists spent years questioning fluoride’s safety and believed Americans could be ingesting toxic levels. Despite fluoride’s obvious benefits as a cavity fighter, it is, nevertheless, a poison. In fact, before its discovery as a decay-fighting superhero, it was mainly used as a rat and insect poison!

• A GREAT WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFO: FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK fluoridealert.org - Broadening Public Awareness About Fluoride

HEALTH CARE (OR LACK THEREOF): -

• Tainted blood victims allege official cover-up: Letters reveal that senior civil servants destroyed crucial documents - Survivors of Britain's contaminated blood scandal last night accused the government of a cover-up after doubts emerged about the reasons for the destruction of hundreds of critical documents. Earlier this year victims were told that paperwork had been accidentally destroyed by an inexperienced civil servant. However, letters seen by The Observer reveal that only senior officers, who would have known that the 600 sensitive files should have been stored for at least 25 years, would have been in a position to retain or destroy them. The documents detailed meetings between the blood transfusion service, health boards, government officials and consultants during the Seventies and Eighties and contained critical information about what has become one of the worst disasters in the history of the NHS.

• 'Acne Drug Killed Student' - There is growing concern about a possible link between suicide and a drug taken for acne. The parents of 22-year-old medical student Jon Medland claim Roaccutane played a role in their son's death. They are convinced he had a psychotic reaction to the drug as he was happy with his life at the time. His father said his son was prescribed Roaccutane for acne on his back. Within a couple of weeks he began to feel depressed and stopped taking it. But two days later he hanged himself.

• Aids HIV Bayer - This clip from Scarborough Country highlights how Bayer knowingly dumped medicine that was known to be contaminated with AIDS virus on the European market after it killed people in America: -