Posts Tagged FDA

Why Splenda®, NutraSweet®, and the FDA May Be Hazardous to Your Health

The Deception May Be Sweet… But Deadly


The Potential Dangers of Sucralose (Splenda)

By Dr. Mercola | December 03 2000

Is Splenda Really As Safe As They Claim It to Be?

As of 2006, only six human trials have been published on Splenda (sucralose). Of these six trials, only two of the trials were completed and published before the FDA approved sucralose for human consumption. The two published trials had a grand total of 36 total human subjects.

36 people sure doesn’t sound like many, but wait, it gets worse, only 23 total were actually given sucralose for testing and here is the real killer:

The longest trial at this time had lasted only four days and looked at sucralose in relation to tooth decay, not human tolerance.

Why Do You Need to Know About Splenda?

Splenda, best known for its marketing ploy, “made from sugar so it tastes like sugar,” has taken the sweetener industry by storm. Splenda has become the nation’s number one selling artificial sweetener in a very short period of time. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Story of Cosmetics (2010)

http://youtu.be/pfq000AF1i8

The Story of Cosmetics, released on July 21st, 2010, examines the pervasive use of toxic chemicals in our everyday personal care products, from lipstick to baby shampoo. Produced with Free Range Studios and hosted by Annie Leonard, the seven-minute film by The Story of Stuff Project reveals the implications for consumer and worker health and the environment, and outlines ways we can move the industry away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. The film concludes with a call for viewers to support legislation aimed at ensuring the safety of cosmetics and personal care products.

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It’s All a Dream [song]

Music – Written & Recorded by: Steve Phillips
Title: Dumbing Down

http://www.youtube.com/user/StevePhillips11
http://www.stevephillips-music.com/

Song Lyrics:
They’re dumbing us down
putting aspartame in our drinks
and fluoride in our toothpaste and the water
until we can’t even think straight any more

Taking prozac when we’re down
ritalin for the kids and
tamiflu for the swine flu scare
we just can’t feel no more

Things are not what they seem
It’s all a dream

There’s chemtrails in the sky and
pollution in the sea
there’s Monsanto taking over the food chain
but we just don’t see the lies

The TV and the newspapers
they’re keeping us all asleep
the bankers and the oil men
they’re feeding off our sheep mentality

Things are not what they seem
It’s all a dream

An eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth
we’re so busy fighting each other that we don’t see
only the truth will set us free

Things are not what they seem
It’ all a dream

 

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Is Your Favorite Ice Cream Made With Artificial Hormones?

It may surprise you to learn that a significant portion of U.S. milk is actually genetically engineered. This milk, and the ice cream, cheese, and myriad of other dairy products made from it, contains genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, or rBGH.

U.S. milk producers treat their dairy cattle with rBGH because it boosts milk production. But this artificial growth hormone also increases udder infections in cows, leading to pus in the milk along with excessive use of antibiotics in the cows, which is triggering the creation of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and leaving residues of antibiotics in your dairy.

Worse still, milk treated with rBGH also contains higher levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), a hormone linked to breast, prostate and colon cancers in humans.

How Was This Cancer-Causing Hormone Ever Approved?

You may be interested to know, especially before you go out to buy your next pint of ice cream or gallon of milk, that rBGH is NOT a hormone that’s commonly used around the world. On the contrary, it’s been banned in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Australia and all 27 nations of the European Union. Read the rest of this entry »

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Should Pregnant Women Avoid All Vaccines?

It’s been many months since the CDC and ACIP put children and pregnant women at the top of their priority list for getting the H1N1 vaccine in the U.S.

pregnant womanThe vaccine was released with very little clinical testing done on it, and absolutely none on pregnant women. Then, in a shoot first, ask questions later move, the National Institutes of Health and vaccine manufacturers began seeking pregnant volunteers for several H1N1 vaccine safety trials.

Meanwhile, women who believe that this vaccine caused them to lose their babies are forming support groups and blogs to record their experiences, with the intent of warning others not to get the vaccine.

But in reality, pregnant women should not be getting any vaccines. Read the rest of this entry »

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Time for the Truth about Gardasil

In an important OpEd piece from the Washington Examiner, Barbara Hollingsworth sets the record straight about Gardasil:

“Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1 percent of all cancer deaths — so it was somewhat surprising when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked approval of Gardasil, a Merck vaccine targeting the human papilloma virus that causes the disease.

As of the end of January 2010, 49 unexplained deaths following Gardasil injections have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. By contrast, 52 deaths are attributed to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, which triggered a $2 billion recall.”

There has been no recall for Gardasil, however. In fact, as Hollingsworth points out, it is required for sixth-grade girls in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and many other states.

Unfortunately, “Merck denies any of the deaths are related to its vaccine, and the parents involved can’t prove they were,” Hollingsworth writes.

India Suspends Gardasil!

Unlike in the United States, The Indian Council of Medical Research Read the rest of this entry »

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40,000,000 Doses of Gardasil

Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/24/Spain-Withdraws-Gardasil-After-Illnesses.aspx

Since its launch in 2006, 40 million doses of the Gardasil vaccine have been distributed worldwide, amidst a rash of side effects and complaints. At least Spanish health authorities were quick to act this time, when two girls became seriously ill just hours after receiving the shot.

In response, close to 76,000 doses of Gardasil were withdrawn from the market, all of them part of batch NH52670. Unfortunately, this is not a move to pull the vaccine from the market entirely; only use of shots from this particular batch has been suspended.

I don’t know what more health officials from all over the world could be waiting for to let them know how potentially dangerous this vaccine actually is.

Over 10,000 adverse reactions, including 29 deaths, have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in relation to Gardasil — and that is just from the United States.

Although Merck, which manufactures Gardasil, has reported a 16 percent decline in quarterly sales of the vaccine, and said it expects sales this year to be lower than expected, a massive campaign is still underway urging young girls to get vaccinated and become “one less” victim to cervical cancer.

This is going on in many parts of the world, including in Sweden, which recently announced all primary school girls will be able to be vaccinated with Gardasil for free starting in 2010.

Merck has also been pushing for an expansion of uses for Gardasil. In the U.S., the vaccine can also be promoted to prevent two rare vaginal and vulvar cancers, and Merck just recently filed for FDA approval to use Gardasil for boys!

What Types of Risks Does Gardasil Pose?

Side effects including paralysis and death have been reported in relation to Gardasil, among many, many others. Yet, on October 21, 2008 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in association with the FDA released a report alleging that the vast majority, or even ALL, of the 10,000+ adverse reactions reported are not related to the vaccine. Therefore, they say, Gardasil is safe.

How did they come to this conclusion? Only the investigators know, and the information is not being made public so independent researchers can make their own decisions.

Well, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), which was co-founded by Barbara Loe Fisher, one of the top vaccine experts in the world, is now calling for the CDC and FDA to publicly release the study design, data, and names of principal investigators involved.

To not properly evaluate the risks of Gardasil, they say, is “a callous disregard for human life.” As Fisher said:

“Parents of young girls and women cut down in their prime — some of them paralyzed or dead within hours or days of getting Gardasil vaccine — deserve better answers than a whitewashing of this vaccine’s very serious side effects.”

On NVIC’s Web site, you can read several stories of women and girls who have been seriously injured, and in some cases died, shortly after receiving this vaccine, including:

  • Christina Tarsell, a 21-year-old college student majoring in studio arts at Bard College, who died suddenly and without explanation shortly after receiving the third Gardasil shot in June 2008.
  • Gabrielle, a 15-year-old former gymnast and cheerleader who can no longer attend school and is suffering from severe headaches, heart problems and seizures since getting the vaccine. She has been diagnosed with Inflammation of the Central Nervous System as a result of a Gardasil vaccine reaction, and her condition continues to deteriorate.
  • Megan, a 20-year-old college student who died suddenly, without explanation, about one month after receiving her third Gardasil shot. No cause of death was found.
  • Ashley, a 16-year-old who became chronically ill after receiving Gardasil, and now suffers regular life-threatening episodes of seizure-like activity, difficulty breathing, back spasms, paralysis, dehydration, memory loss and tremors.

Sadly, Merck only studied the Gardasil vaccine in fewer than 1,200 girls under 16 prior to it being released to the market, and most of the serious side effects that occurred during the pre-licensure clinical trials were merely called a “coincidence.”

It is beyond me how that explanation can hold water, considering all the bad press coming out about this vaccine. NVIC has been following the risks of Gardasil closely, and just released a new analysis comparing the vaccine to another for meningitis (Menactra). They found, compared to Menactra, Gardasil was associated with:

  • At least twice as many emergency room visit reports (5,021)
  • Four times as many death reports (29)
  • Seven times as many disabled reports (261)
  • Three to six times more fainting reports

Further, there have been a dizzying array of reactions reported among girls who received Gardasil alone, without any other vaccines, such as:

  • 34 reports of thrombosis
  • 27 reports of lupus
  • 23 reports of blood clots
  • 16 reports of stroke
  • 11 reports of vasculitis
  • 544 reports of seizures

On top of this, in the VAERS database there are 467 “rechallenge” reports, which involve cases where there was a worsening of symptoms after a repeated vaccination — and nearly 60 percent of them are for Gardasil!

What Makes The Gardasil Vaccine Even More of a Rip-Off?

It’s intended to prevent a virus (human papilloma virus, or HPV) your body can clear up on its own, and does so more than 90 percent of the time!

At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives, according to the National Prevention Information Network (NPIN). Most often, the infection causes no symptoms at all, and is easily cleared up by your immune system. In some cases the infection can result in genital warts, and much less often, cervical and other genital cancers.

Even the National Cancer Institute says:

“It is important to note, however, that the great majority of high-risk HPV infections go away on their own and do not cause cancer.”

So while Merck would like you to hear that 6 million women contract HPV annually — they do not tell you most of those cases are harmless. Cervical cancer actually claims less than 3,900 women a year — most of which are due to not getting regular Pap smears.

You should also know that Gardasil does not protect against all types of HPV, and you can still get cervical cancer even if you’ve been vaccinated. As the CDC states:

“About 30% of cervical cancers will not be prevented by the vaccine.”

What this all boils down to is that Gardasil is largely ineffective, potentially very dangerous and a major waste of money.

If you are a parent considering the Gardasil vaccine for your daughter, you would likely be far better off teaching her how to keep her immune system strong and healthy — and discussing the realities of sexually transmitted diseases and how to avoid them — than having her injected with this worthless vaccine.

Related Links:

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HPV Vaccine Activism In Canada

By, Rick Fontana

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.”
– T.R. Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow)

October 7, 2008
Morgana, Tamsin [VC]
Regional Immunisation Leader
Communicable Disease Control
British Columbia, Canada

Ms. Morgana . . .

It’s come to my attention that you will be launching the HPV vaccine into the community. As one who has just been marketed to, courtesy of the HPV package being distributed by schools, I feel it’s only appropriate to reciprocate by sharing some observations and opinions with you.

A VCH (Vancouver Coastal Health) newsletter submission by you stated that the “HPV vaccine is a safe vaccine that is highly effective in preventing infection from four types of HPV that cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.” [1] May I ask what your sources are? I can find no double-blinded studies (by disinterested third parties) in support of your position. Studies are ongoing (see below), and, apparently, the jury will be out until, at the very least, September 30/2009 (again, see below). It is, therefore, by definition, an unproven vaccine – an experiment. On children. Our children.

I’d like to bring your attention to the following quote: Read the rest of this entry »

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CDC Reports on Adverse Reactions to Gardasil Vaccine

By CBC News July 7, 2008 | 3:09 PM ET

Almost 8,000 U.S. recipients of the vaccine used to protect against cervical cancer have reported adverse reactions, ranging from pain at the injection site to serious side-effects, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 7,802 people who received Gardasil, made by Merck and Co. Inc., have reported adverse events to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between June 8, 2006, and April 30, 2008. The United States distributed 2.2 million doses of the vaccine in 2006 and 11.3 million in 2007.

Of the people who reported adverse reactions, the most common side-effect was pain at the injection site, according to a recent CDC report.

Seven per cent had serious side-effects – “about half” the average of vaccines overall, according to the report. There were 31 reported cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a neurological condition that results in temporary but often total body paralysis, with 10 cases confirmed. Read the rest of this entry »

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GSK Faces US Delay on Cancer Vaccine

By Andrew Jack in London, FT.com July 1 2008 03:00

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is unlikely to receive US approval for its key cervical cancer vaccine until 2010 at the earliest, under a new timetable it released yesterday.

After requests for fresh information on Cervarix from the Food & Drug Administration in December, GSK said it had decided to await completion of a pivotal clinical trial to be filed with the US regulator during the first half of next year.

Cervarix is a probable blockbuster treatment that is central to the company’s future growth. The cervical cancer vaccine market is expected to be worth more than $1bn a year in sales.

GSK’s timetable change confirms long-standing analysts’ fears of delays for Cervarix, which is competing with a rival vaccine, Gardasil, produced by Merck of the US and already on sale in north America.

GSK filed originally for US approval from the FDA in March 2007, and it has refused to reveal the regulator’s precise concerns other than to say they relate to “safety and efficacy”.

Observers believe the queries focus on the nature of Cervarix’s proprietary adjuvant, a chemical that boosts the immune response to the vaccine. The FDA has not approved a new adjuvant since the 1930s. Read the rest of this entry »

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