DuPont Joins $20 Million PR Campaign to Defend Biotech and Chemical Ag

DuPont today joined an effort to bolster the image of agriculture and enhance public trust in the U.S. food production system. The initiative is led by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), a new initiative represented by more than 40 of the leading farmer- and rancher-led agricultural organizations.

The USFRA was established in October 2010 and represents farmer and rancher organizations that reach nearly all aspects of U.S. agriculture. The Alliance will work to increase the role of U.S. farmers and ranchers as the voice of animal and crop agriculture on local, state and national food issues. It also will serve as a resource to food companies on the benefits of modern production agriculture and work with leading health, environmental and dietary organizations.

"DuPont is proud to support the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance as they bring together an unprecedented group that crosses all boundaries in modern agriculture with a single goal of building understanding about the dependable, abundant supply of food produced by today's farmers and ranchers," said DuPont Executive Vice President James C. Borel. "There is an increased need to reinforce the importance of agricultural contributions and its value to society, and promoting the merits of a career in agriculture also are essential to recruiting tomorrow's farmers and innovators." 

Harmful Effects of Energy Drinks on Children, Adolescents and Young Adults

By AngelicaMD
Energy drinks may increase energy and alertness but they have no therapeutic effects. Find out more about the harmful effects they have on children, adolescents and young adults.

Why Energy Drinks Are Popular Among the Young

Marketed as energy enhancers, young adults and children take energy drinks before doing athletic activities, working on projects or just studying for exams. These popular, often carbonated beverages contain caffeine and many other substances like tea extracts, ginseng, taurine and yohimbine that boost one's energy levels. They are able to stay awake and active, perhaps believing that their strength, endurance and memory are improved.

Some take these drinks in place of high calorie meals to avoid weight gain and suppress appetite. Since these drinks are loaded with sugar some prefer diet energy drinks which may contain fewer calories but have caffeine and other substances as well. Still others may use these products to overcome fatigue, stress and tension.

Various studies have found that about 30-50% of children as young as 5 years old, adolescents and young adults consume energy enhancing beverages in various amounts, with a few drinking these habitually.

 

How to Fight Obesity and Climate Change at the Same Time

By Sarah Laskow

LOUISVILLE - This city's Broadway displays its own array of neon signs - two dozen fast-food restaurants, as diverse as McDonald's and the local Indi's - beckoning along a 2.8-mile corridor bookended by low-income neighborhoods on the front lines of a multimillion-dollar battle against obesity.

The street symbolizes one of many hurdles facing officials here working to put a severely overweight population on a diet. After all, Kentucky is where Colonel Harland Sanders first made his famous fried chicken and a hotel invented the Hot Brown, a turkey-bacon sandwich drowning in Mornay sauce.

The street symbolizes one of many hurdles facing officials here working to put a severely overweight population on a diet. After all, Kentucky is where Colonel Harland Sanders first made his famous fried chicken and a hotel invented the Hot Brown, a turkey-bacon sandwich drowning in Mornay sauce.

A Fight Over the Future of Farming: U.N. Ag Group vs. Big Ag

By Tom Laskawy

"The present paradigm of intensive crop production cannot meet the challenges of the new millennium," says a new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In other words: Big Ag, step aside. It's not as if the world is being fed particularly well at the moment -- and prospects are dimming for chemical agriculture in a resource-restricted, warming world.

The FAO has been very active in attempts to make world agriculture more sustainable. It published an influential 2006 report on animal agriculture's environmental and climate impact, and it was behind the 2008 International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development report, which laid out a vision of the future of agriculture in the developing world based on the principles of agro-ecology rather than on chemically intensive industrial agriculture.

Building on that work, the FAO has now published a "policymaker's guide" for developing-world agriculture called "Save and Grow" that begins like this:

 The Green Revolution in agriculture, which swept much of the developing world during the 1960s, saved an estimated one billion people from famine. Thanks to high-yielding crop varieties, irrigation, agrochemicals and modern management techniques, farmers in developing countries increased food production from 800 million tonnes to more than 2.2 billion tonnes between 1961 and 2000. Intensive crop production helped to reduce the number of undernourished, drive rural development and prevent the destruction of natural ecosystems to make way for extensive farming. Those achievements came at a cost. In many countries, decades of intensive cropping have degraded fertile land and depleted groundwater, provoked pest upsurges, eroded biodiversity, and polluted air, soil and water. As the world population rises to a projected 9.2 billion in 2050, we have no option but to further intensify crop production. But the yield growth rate of major cereals is declining, and farmers face a series of unprecedented, intersecting challenges: increasing competition for land and water, rising fuel and fertilizer prices, and the impact of climate change.

Prenatal Pesticide Exposure Tied to Birth Size

Researchers found that among nearly 500 newborns whose umbilical cord blood was tested for pesticide residues, those with higher levels tended to be smaller at birth.

The chemicals in question include DDT and three other organochlorines -- an older group of pesticides that are now banned or restricted in the U.S. and other developed countries, after research linked them to cancer and other potential health risks.

However, the pesticides persist in the environment for years. In the U.S., diet is the main potential source of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- with fatty foods, like dairy products and oily fish, topping the list.

In the new study, researchers found that for each 10-fold increase in any of the four pesticides in newborns' cord blood, birth weight dipped by roughly 2 to 4 ounces.

Higher levels of DDT were also linked to a decrease in head circumference, while another pesticide -- hexachlorobenzene (HCB), once used as a fungicide -- was tied to a shorter birth length.

The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, do not prove that the pesticides themselves hindered fetal growth.

Labor-Funded Progressive Leaders Cross Huffington Post Picket Line

By Mike Elk

Last week was a milestone in journalism, as the Huffington Post exceeded the New York Times in Web traffic and cemented its role as a main rival to the Gray Lady.  It was also noted that the combined AOL-Huffington Post newsroom staff of 1,300 people is now bigger than the Times' 1,200 person newsroom staff. While much of the debate about the rivalry has focused on Huffington Post's adoption of savvy Internet tactics versus the much more old-school New York Times, very little of the discussion has focused on where the two newsroom differ the most: their labor practices.

The Times' newsroom staff is entirely unionized, while the AOL-Huffington Post staff is entirely nonunionized. Also unlike the Times, which insists on paying every professional writer (even op-ed contributors), the Huffington Post has relied on a network of over 8,000 unpaid bloggers to establish itself and drive traffic to its site. In a Forbes magazine article, AOL executives were quoted as saying that AOL CEO Tim Armstrong "talked a lot about the importance of recruiting hordes of free bloggers . "It was always, 'Arianna does it. That's what she's built her business on. Why don't we do it, too?'" says a former AOL editor-in-chief."

Labor leaders claim that with 11,000 journalists having lost their jobs due to newsrooms cutbacks in the last three years, AOL-Huffington Post has risen to its stature by exploiting journalists desperate to establish names for themselves as writers, and thus willing to work for free in the hopes that they may someday find paid work. They say that the fact the Huffington Post doesn't pay its writers is an unfair business advantage that is sure to lower the standards of journalists.

Feds Mull Comments on Eastern Idaho Phosphate Mine

By The Associated Press

More time is needed to consider public comments following the release of an environmental study on plans by Monsanto Co. to open a new phosphate mine in eastern Idaho, federal officials say.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management said they need several additional months to make sure their final decision complies with the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and the Groundwater Protection Rule.

"We're pretty close to having the information we need to make a decision, maybe a month or two," said Jeff Cundick, minerals branch chief for the phosphate program of the Caribou National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management.

He added there are important issues that officials need to make sure were addressed appropriately in the environmental impact statement.

Monsanto is seeking approval to open the Blackfoot Bridge Mine in the area to produce ingredients for Roundup weedkiller because its current mine is expected to be depleted within a year and a half. The impact statement was released in early March following a process that included a draft impact statement.

Monsanto Co. officials said additional delays in opening the mine could harm the company financially and cost jobs.

"Many of the environmental safeguards designed into the Blackfoot Bridge Mine must be constructed when the ground is not frozen, and ambient temperatures are moderate to warm," Dave Farnsworth, minerals lead for Monsanto Soda Springs, told the Idaho State Journal. "In Soda Springs, that gives us a very short window for construction. If the delay is a few weeks, we may yet be able to make progress this year. A longer delay, however, could severely compromise our timetable for transition from the old mine to the new one. That, in turn, jeopardizes the competitiveness of our business and puts jobs at risk."

Despair Not: by Sandra Steingraber

By Sandra Steingraber
In Alton, Ill., downstream from Peoria, the Illinois River town where I grew up, the abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy was pumped full of bullets on a dark November night by a mob intent on silencing the man once and for all. On this evening, they succeeded.

By dawn, Elijah was dead, and his printing press-the means by which he distributed his radical ideas-lay at the bottom of the Mississippi River. The year was 1837. The Rev. Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister who attended Princeton Theological Seminary, was buried on this 35th birthday.

But the story doesn't end there.

Almost immediately, membership in antislavery societies across the nation swelled. Vowing to carry on the work of his fallen friend, Edward Beecher, president of Illinois College in Jacksonville, threw himself into abolitionist efforts and, in so doing, inspired his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who went on to write the most famous abolitionist treatise of all: Uncle Tom's Cabin. Meanwhile, Elijah's brother, Owen Lovejoy, turned his own house into a station along the Underground Railroad. Owen went on to win a seat in Congress and, along the way, befriended a young Illinois politician by the name of Abraham Lincoln. 

We've Borrowed from the Planet and the Debt's Due

By Paul Gilding
THE Earth is full. In fact our human society and economy is now so large we have passed the limits of our planet's capacity to support us and it is overflowing.

Our current model of economic growth is driving this system, the one we rely upon for our present and future prosperity, over the cliff.

This in itself presents a major problem. It becomes a much larger challenge when we consider that billions of people are living desperate lives in appalling poverty and need their personal economy to grow rapidly to alleviate their suffering. But there is no room left.

This means things are going to change. Not because we will choose change out of philosophical or political preference, but because if we don't transform our society and economy, we risk social and economic collapse and the descent into chaos. The science on this is now clear and accepted by any rational observer.

While an initial look at the public debate may suggest controversy, any serious examination of the peer-reviewed conclusions of leading science bodies shows the core direction we are heading in is now clear. Things do not look good.

Finding Justice for Vietnamese Victims of Monsanto's Agent Orange

By Len Aldis
On 10th August 1961 an event began that was to last for ten-years, and would leave a tragedy that has yet to find an end.  Fifty years on, the Vietnamese people and their many friends around the world will be commemorating this special anniversary.

Let's recall and reflect on what happened on that day of 10th August 1961, and the consequences, so horrific, it is difficult to grasp, to understand.  It raises in the minds of many the questions: WHY? And what can be done to overcome the criminal legacy of Agent Orange?

When the first planes took off from their base in South Vietnam on that fateful day, with its cargo of Agent Orange that was itself contaminated with Dioxin the world's most poisonous substance, and to begin the first spraying that was to continue for ten long years, none of the pilots or their crews were to know that they had set out on a mission that was to be repeated by others time and again resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent unborn babies, further, their actions were to cause the early deaths of many more thousands of innocent children, denying them their human rights, a right never to reach beyond their teenage years.

The results of the use of Agent Orange/Dioxin over those years have travelled down the years with devastating results; for the magnificent forests on which the chemical was sprayed, for the people living and fighting for their country's independence within the forests, the animal life, insects, all so vital for any forest.

For the people going about their daily lives in the fields outside the cities growing their crops, and tending to their animals, they too were to become victims of Agent Orange as were the children walking to school and who later, on returning home, were to help their parents in the fields. As the spaying continued, so the soil itself became poisoned as did the food being grown ..As did the fish in the rivers and lakes.

The Problem With Patents

By J. Maureen Henderson

Kevin Drum wonders if patents really slow down innovation and growth to a degree that anyone should be all that worried:

 During the 80s, I remember learning that IBM held the original patents for stuff like DMA and interrupt controllers,1 which surprised me because by that time those things were like oxygen: just a standard part of every computer in the world. But hey - someone had to invent that stuff, and in the end the patents didn't really slow anyone down. Basically, the technology got incorporated into chips, the chipmakers presumably paid royalties, and everyone else just bought the chips. There was a modest cost, but it didn't prevent Steve Wozniak from designing the Apple II. The same thing happens with patent pools for things like MPEG and other standards. It's all a gigantic pain in the ass, and it can impede progress while the lawyers hash everything out, but once they do, all the little guys end up using the patented technology without having to jump through hoops.

The question always becomes, without all those patents and protections of incumbent players and barriers to entry, how fast would innovation occurred? How many potential startups and innovators were shutdown by big entities like IBM, or later Microsoft or Intel, due to legal protections that reward capital over entrepreneurship?

Of course, maybe it's hard to get a handle on the costs since tech has expanded so much in recent decades. What about other parts of the economy where IP law has a major impact? This is nowhere more insidious than agriculture and the world of genetically modified crops.

Take it away Kevin Carson:

 Take, for example, "intellectual property" - a state-granted monopoly central to the corporate neoliberal order, but which has precious little to do with anything remotely resembling an actual free market. Your Internet service provider isn't a business performing a service for you - the paying customer - so much as an adjunct of the RIAA and MPAA and their lackeys in government. Your ISP spies on you on behalf of Big Content to ensure you're not downloading any big torrents.

Big Ag Won't Feed the World

By Tom Philpott

Back in March, USDA secretary Tom Vilsack spoke at an event called the Commodity Classic in Tampa, Fl. Sponsored by agribusiness giants Monsanto, BASF, Syngenta, John Deere, Dow AgroSciences, Dupont, Syngenta, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, the event hails itself as the "premier national trade show and convention for corn, soy, wheat and sorghum farmers."

According to an account in the trade journal Agri-Pulse, Vilsack spoke "with sometimes evangelistic fervor." He thundered against critics of corn-based ethanol, reiterated the Obama administration's goal of doubling US farm exports by 2014 by ramming open foreign markets, and praised the assembled farmers and agribusiness flacks for their record of "ensuring affordable food for US families," Agri-Pulse reported. The former governor of Iowa ended his speech on an evem more flattering note: "The farmers in this room have provided the prescription that this nation must follow to get itself back totally on its feet ... You should never ever bet against the American farmer because if you do, it's a losing bet." The audience roared its approval.

The ag secretary was essentially promoting an agribusiness-as-usual vision of farm policy: maximum production of a few commodity crops, mainly to be used to fatten confined animals, create cheap sweeteners and fats, and fill gas tanks. He did so amid much rhetoric about "jobs," the Agri-Pulse account shows. But that's ludicrous. The modern food system lionized by Vilsack has been a massive net destroyer of jobs. And the fixation on doubling US ag exports can't be good news for farmers in the global south, who struggle to compete with their highly capitalized US peers. Ever get a threatening phone call from your ISP? You might as well be their employee, rather than the reverse. Ever get a DMCA takedown notice? Ever have a website taken down by your host in response to an unsubstantiated complaint? Welcome to "our free market system."

Remember the Pinkertons, uniformed private thugs the bosses used to hire to bust union organizers' heads? Now Monsanto hires them to snoop around private farms, testing farmers' crops to see if they contain any genetic material from engineered seeds under patent. The Runyons, an Indiana farm family, were invaded in 2008 by Monsanto's hired goons in response to an "anonymous tip" that their farm hosted Roundup-ready soybeans.  Sounds almost like - ahem - the Drug War, doesn't it? 

Record 'Dead Zone' Predicted in Gulf of Mexico

By Doyle Rice
The "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico - a region of oxygen-depleted water off the Louisiana and Texas coasts that is harmful to sea life and the commercial fishing industry - is predicted to be the largest ever recorded this year, federal scientists announced Tuesday.

The unusually large size of the zone is due to the extreme flooding of the Mississippi River this spring.

The dead zone occurs when there is not enough oxygen in the water to support marine life. Also known as "hypoxia," it is created by nutrient runoff, mostly from over-application of fertilizer on agricultural fields. It flows into streams, then rivers and eventually the Gulf.

Forty-one percent of the contiguous USA drains into the Mississippi River and then out to the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the land in Mississippi's watershed is farm land.

Excess nutrients such as nitrogen can spur the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can suffocate, threatening the region's commercial fishing industry.

Food for thought

German officials say they are no longer sure Spanish cucumbers are the source of the outbreak

In most outbreaks, the victims are children because they have not developed the immune system to fight off the food poisoning - but in the German case, it is adults and female adults, in particular.

Scientists simply do not know why.

One theory was that the victims were often people who liked eating what they thought was healthy food, say because it was low calorie (like cucumbers) or because it was organic.

But the scientists are now cautioning against that view. It may be too pat.

Dr Ulf Goebel of the Charite university hospital in Berlin said it might just be that this specific strain had something in it which found women's bodies suitable and not men's (just as some strains work on some ethnic groups and not others).

Intriguingly, a previous outbreak of this rare type of E. coli happened in the United States in 1994 - and again the victims were predominantly women, with the average victim being 36 years of age.

DNA tests

If it is simply that women are more susceptible to this particular type of E. coli, then that would point away from the "health food" theory.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIt's a good idea to wash fruit and vegetables before you eat them to ensure that they are clean, and to help remove germs that might be on the outside ”

End Quote Q&A: Contaminated vegetables As if to confuse matters further, the German authorities, having pointed the finger at Spain earlier, said tests on the suspect cucumbers had shown a trace of a different strain of E. coli - in other words: the cucumbers were not guilty of causing the current outbreak.

All this matters greatly because once a country's farms are tainted, trade collapses. Information affects livelihoods, which explains the outrage in Spain at German accusations.

There is some dismay in other cucumber-growing countries too.

A lack of clarity serves to put a cloud of suspicion over many. Some consumers simply shy away from the suspect vegetable without making a distinction about source.

So the task of getting clarity is urgent.

There is an immense amount of extraordinarily clever work going into identifying the source, like studying the DNA of the bacterium.

But the true breakthrough will come, Dr Goebel says, through what amounts to detective work: simply asking all the surviving victims what they ate and when they ate it, and then comparing notes to find a pattern.

Simple, really - or not.

How the cucumber crisis affects EuropeCountryAction Germany

Consumers told not to eat cucumbers, lettuces and raw tomatoes. 1,150 cases of E.coli confirmed; 14 deaths

Sweden

One death and 36 suspected E. coli infections, linked to travel in northern Germany.

Spain

Top European cucumber producer - threatens to seek compensation from the European Union for lost vegetables sales

Russia

Ban on all imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh salad from Spain and Germany pending further notice

Czech Republic

Some Spanish-grown cucumbers removed from sale

France

Some Spanish-grown cucumbers removed from sale

Austria

Ban on sale of cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines imported via Germany

Belgium

Reported to have banned cucumber imports from Spain

Netherlands

Halted all cucumber shipments to Germany

Denmark

Testing cucumbers for contamination

Beatboxer's brain

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Take a look inside the brain of Reeps One as he beatboxes

Scientists compared the brain activity of UK champion, Reeps One, with that of a novice, while they both beatboxed.

Reeps One mostly used two brain areas, including the cerebellum - responsible for learning complicated movements.

The novice used many more brain areas, suggesting a need to plan each sound and a lack of automatic processing.

12 people, one idea

The red ribbon has become a global symbol Thirty years after the HIV virus was first documented, the red ribbon is the ubiquitous symbol of support for those living with the illness. Who thought of it and how did it get so big?

In the sparse surroundings of a former classroom on a spring day in 1991 - a decade after the rise of Aids - a group of 12 artists gathered to discuss a new project.

They were photographers, painters, film makers and costume designers, and they sat around in the shared gallery space known as PS122 in New York's East Village.

"We wanted to make something that was self-replicating," says Patrick O'Connell, who chaired the meeting. "It's extremely simple, like Bauhaus but half a century later. You cut the ribbon 6-7 inches, loop it around your finger and pin it on. You can do it yourself."

The ribbon was the latest project by Visual Aids, a New York arts organisation founded by O'Connell that raises awareness of HIV/Aids.

When they sat down in the shared gallery space of PS122 in May 1991, they wanted to get people talking about the illness that was decimating their professional and social network, in the face of public indifference and private shame.

People were dying without even telling their friends why they were sick, and the artists wanted a visual expression of compassion for people living with Aids and their carers.

Health warning

Nye Bevan's NHS legacy is both cherished and fiercely fought over

The coalition wouldn't be the first government to come to grief trying to reform the health service. Jonathan Harvey, Political Producer for BBC Radio 4's PM, looks at the problems past governments have encountered.

Much may have changed since the NHS was first launched in 1948 and yet fast forward to today and what would its founder Nye Bevan make of the modern health service?

Lord Warner, who served as minister for health under Tony Blair, says his Labour predecessor would be surprised.

"I think Nye, who was a great reformer, would have actually wondered why we couldn't get on our bikes and reform it."

But he believes it is the public's attitude towards the NHS which is the real road block to reform.

"I think the people have got very attached to their local district general hospitals," he believes.

"People have got it into their heads that if we tamper with some of these local services they're somehow going to be disadvantaged and we've not done a very good job at explaining to them that the world does move on."

In Canada they had a very radical approach to combating public resistance to change.

When the Canadian government deemed Calgary General Hospital no longer financially viable they simply blew it up.

Political will

It's doubtful such an approach would be acceptable here. Which begs the question do politicians lack the nerve to reform the NHS?

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteNigel Lawson famously said that the NHS is the closest thing we now have to an established church”

End QuoteStephen DorrellConservative MP NHS reforms may change - Lansley NHS overhaul: What next? Former Conservative Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell thinks it's easy for people to portray politicians as "spineless" but that's not really the point.

"Nigel Lawson famously said that the NHS is the closest thing we now have to an established church, and anyone who wants to change it has to take people with them. You can't simply ask them to believe you know what you're doing."

There's also the problem of imposing change on a workforce of more than a million.

Nick Seddon, from the think tank Reform, says staff have a very powerful vested interest in resisting change.

"Our GPs are the highest paid in the world, no wonder they don't want the system to change".

It's a claim hotly disputed by the doctors themselves, who insist the real problem is the politicians who try to change the NHS too much to often.

"Every time the new reforms come along it's taken about three of four years for the next government, or sometimes even the same government, to abolish that reform and start another one." Dr Mark Porter, from the British Medical Association, suggests.

Rhetoric

And then there's the rhetoric around the NHS.

Successive prime ministers have used the health service to gain political advantage.

Margaret Thatcher once said the NHS "is safe in our hands". In 1997 Tony Blair claimed that only by electing him would the public be able to "save the NHS" and recently David Cameron said "it is because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it".

Does the overblown rhetoric make the consensus required for reform almost impossible?

One former government minister thinks so.

"It certainly needs people in the different political parties not to turn the NHS into a political football." Lord Warner says.

All of which doesn't mean reform of the NHS is impossible - but it does rather suggest that despite Mr Lansley's immediate political problems - history too would not appear to be on his side.

'Face death head-on'

As we are frequently reminded, we are in an ageing society and we live and die differently now.

Previously, most people died from accident, infection or childbirth having been previously well. This is still the way that many die in developing countries- from HIV, TB, infant diarrhoea, and trauma.

Over the last century the way we die has changed - most of us now dying later from more predictable gradual decline of one or many of our organs.

Previously we could be death-fearing or death-denying - now we have to be death-aware and "death-prepared".

For the first time therefore we have a chance , not only to know that one day we will die, but to prepare for it and to live in the context of our dying.

For many, death is still seen as failure as we perform futile heroics, postponing the inevitable whilst providing inadequate support for those at this crucial time in their lives.

How can we hold the balance of striving to prevent avoidable early death, yet facing its imminent reality by better supporting people at this vital time?

Good preparation

The answer is, in part, to listen harder.

When asked, most people say they want to live, and live as well as possible until they die.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIf we get it right for the dying, we get it right for the living too”

End Quote We then want to die well in the place and manner of our choosing with those we wish to be with, peacefully, with dignity, having done all we need to do and made good preparations for our final journey.

That is the essence of advance care planning and the movement to improve end of life care for all, of which I and many colleagues are involved.

It does not inevitably lead to an attempt to control death through euthanasia, but it is a fervent desire to affirm life, supporting people to live well until they die and to get it right when the time eventually comes to die.

It is time we face our own mortality head-on.

Surely we must firstly admit that this is going to hit us all; secondly, make strategic practical plans at every level to be prepared; and thirdly, initiate our own personal plans.

Dying matters

The majority of those working in health and social care who deal with people nearing the end of life are not specialists, but generalist frontline staff doing the best they can with the resources they have.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteWe need to deliver better end-of-life care for all in every setting”

End QuoteProfessor Keri Thomas Like the rest of us, they find it difficult to tackle the taboo subject of death and dying.

And yet, if people are not given the opportunity to discuss their preferences for how and where they would like to be cared for, the chances of fulfilling those wishes are inevitably reduced.

Advance care planning can play a major part in improving the care a person will receive.

Although in essence it is a considered discussion with family, friends and professional carers, it works best as part of a process of planning leading to the delivery of quality care in alignment with peoples' wishes.

We need to deliver better end-of-life care for all in every setting, and to have more discussions of matters related to death and dying.

There is much good work already going on, but more still to do.

This week is the national 'Dying Matters' awareness week, and next month we will hold our annual GSF meeting as part of the International Society for Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care conference, being held in London.

The NHS also has the National End of Life Care Programme, which works with health and social care providers across England to improve adult end of life care.

By actively and bravely living with dying and planning ahead, nationally, locally and personally, we might be able to affirm the full value of life so that "when our time comes to die, dying is all we have left to do".

If we get it right for the dying, we get it right for the living too.

 

Visits to virtual gym seem to help real life weight loss

Can the virtual world help you lose weight in the real one?

Participants in two 12-week weight loss programmes - one real, and one online - lost similar amounts of weight.

Indiana University researchers told a conference that confidence and motivation built in the virtual gym continued in normal life.

A UK psychologist said mixing online and real world support might work best.

Second Life, launched in 2003, allows individuals to create online personae and explore an online world, interacting with others.

Dr Jeanne Johnston, who led the study which was presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Conference in Denver, worked in partnership with a Second Life interactive weight loss community called Club One Island to devise a weight loss programme.

Overweight and obese people were recruited to take part in either this programme, or a similar programme delivered more conventionally in a face-to-face setting.

Both courses involved four hours a week at meetings either in Second Life or the real world.

Most of those taking part were women, with an average age of 46 in the Second Life programme, and 37 in the face-to-face group.

Side by side

Over the 12-week period, both groups achieved similar weight loss - losing 10 pounds on average.

However, when the groups were surveyed on whether their overall behaviour had changed, those using Second Life appeared to have made more changes towards healthy eating and physical activity, suggesting that they might fare better in the future.

Dr Johnston said: "It's counter-intuitive, the idea of being more active in a virtual world, but the activities that they do in a virtual world can carry over into the real world.

"The virtual world programme was at least as beneficial as the face-to-face programme, and in some ways, more effective.

"It has the potential to reach people who normally wouldn't go to a gym or join a programme because of limitations, such as time or discomfort with a fitness centre environment."

New York wants fizzy drink ban

With a month to go before the height of summer, temperatures in New York are already hitting 30C (86F).

For Dennis, Johnson and Javii, playing basketball in the Bronx, it's the kind of weather for a refreshing fizzy drink.

"Soda's good for us," says Johnson.

Dennis is even sure fizzy drinks can help with medical problems: "If you have a stomach ache," he says, "What does your mom buy?"

He answers his own question: "Ginger ale, right? That's a soda."

Twenty-three-year-old Dominique Pleasant is sitting nearby with her two daughters. They're all drinking cans of cola.

Like more than a quarter of people in the Bronx, Dominique qualifies for food stamps.

"Food stamps is free money from the government to purchase food," she explains.

"It's for people on low incomes, single parent families like us or people that don't have a job."

'It's stupid' It's estimated 1.7 million New Yorkers claim food stamps.

Now the city's waiting to hear if the federal government in Washington will allow a ban on spending food stamps on fizzy drinks.

NHS reforms may change - Lansley

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley promised he would "never privatise our NHS"

He told the Daily Telegraph there could be changes to the health bill "if they help us improve care for patients".

But Mr Lansley warned the NHS would face "financial crisis within a matter of years" unless it was reformed.

Labour, as well as Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, have called for the bill to be sent back to MPs for reconsideration.

'Threaten values'

With the government's "listening exercise" on its proposed changes drawing to a close, Mr Lansley said: "We have always been clear that we are ready to accept any changes - substantial and significant - if they help us improve care for patients.

"When the Health and Social Care Bill comes back to Parliament, people should have every confidence that we will make the changes necessary to ensure the NHS is protected for our future generations.

"We will never privatise our NHS.

"But if we choose to ignore the pressures on it, the health service will face a financial crisis within a matter of years that will threaten the very values we hold so dear - of a comprehensive health service, available to all, free at the point of use and based on need and not the ability to pay.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteOur health service is facing huge challenges that, if not dealt with today, will almost certainly mean a crisis tomorrow”

End QuoteAndrew LansleyHealth Secretary "I will not allow that to happen."

Mr Lansley said reform was necessary in the face of "enormous financial pressures" caused by an ageing population and the rising cost of treatment.

He said the number of people in the UK aged above 85 had almost trebled over the past 25 years and was set to double again over the next 20 years. By 2034, one in 20 of the population would be aged over 85.

Enzyme offers Huntington's hope

Researchers reduced the death of neurons in fruit flies by blocking a particular enzyme.

The incurable disease, caused by degeneration of nerve cells, gradually impairs a person's ability to function.

Researchers slowed the development of neurodegeneration - a key factor in Huntington's disease - by targeting a particular enzyme in fruit-flies.

The study, led by the University of Leicester, is published in Current Biology.

"This breakthrough is important as no drugs currently exist that halt progression, or delay onset of Huntington's disease," said Dr Giorgini, who led the study.

The researchers found decreasing the activity of a certain enzyme - known as KMO - reduced the number of neurons dying in the fruit-flies.

"Since we have identified an actual target and there are chemicals that can act on the target, there is a possibility that we could develop drugs to delay the onset of the disease," Dr Giorgini said.

Scientists also found that targeting other related enzymes with chemicals improved Huntington's symptoms in fruit flies.

"We would like to look in closer detail at the other enzymes in the same pathway and to develop new inhibitors of KMO," Dr Giorgini said.

Brain inflamation

Research from America also suggests the enzyme could be a key target for therapies.

The US research, published in Cell, found symptoms of Huntington's disease in mouse models could be reduced by blocking the same enzyme.

They developed a new compound - known as JM6 - that blocks the enzyme, leading to reduced brain inflammation in mice.

Working with mouse models of another neurodegenerative condition - Alzheimer's disease - they found that JM6 also prevents memory loss.

"The discovery has significant implications for two devastating diseases and suggest that the KMO enzyme is a good protein for us to target with medications in diverse neurodegenerative disorders," said Professor Lennart Mucke, of the Gladstone Institute, where the research took place.

Huntington's Disease Association chief executive Cath Stanley said: "This is an exciting piece of research that will offer hope to the many people affected by Huntington's disease."

Proposal to give newborns TB jab

London has the worst rate of cases of TB in Britain

Cases of TB have risen 50% in the capital, according to London Health Programmes (LHP), which has produced the draft plan.

LHP hopes its range of proposals, which also includes targeted testing, will help to cut the rate of the respiratory illness by 50% over the next 10 years.

The consultation runs until 13 July.

London has the poorest rate of cases of TB in Britain at 40 per 100,000 people, and it is also one of the worst in Western Europe.

The LHP draft plans say all newborn children should be vaccinated within six weeks of birth.

'Serious issue'

The BCG jab was discontinued for school children in 2005, after it was deemed unnecessary.

Other proposals include improved early identification of people with infectious TB, targeted testing and treatment of latent TB infection and an awareness and education programme.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We recognise that tuberculosis is a serious issue in London, particularly in more deprived boroughs and among the migrant community.

"We welcome the consultation on the draft TB Plan for London.

Early detection

"However, consideration of future vaccination needs is just one of a range of areas the plan identifies for further control of TB."

Dr John Moore-Gillon, Vice President at the British Lung Foundation and TB specialist, said: "People can unknowingly have TB bacteria present in their bodies without being ill, and early detection through screening programmes is also important.

"Crucially, both the public and health care professionals need to be aware that TB is back, and growing fast."

Leukaemia return 'may be blocked'

Recurrence of the blood cancer caused by rogue leukaemic stem cells is a major problem for doctors.

But a team at King's College London, working on mice, have raised hopes of a solution.

They describe in the journal Cell Stem Cell how they eliminated the stem cells by suppressing two key proteins.

It is hoped the work, funded by Cancer Research UK and Leukaemia Lymphoma Research, will lead to new treatments which will enable complete remission for patients with a form of acute leukaemia.

Cancer stem cells appear to be more resistant than other leukaemia cells to standard treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

So even after treatment appears to have been initially successful, they can remain to trigger a new round of disease, which often reappears in a more aggressive form.

More than 50% of acute leukaemia patients will relapse and survival is poor, with fewer than half living for five years.

The King's team looked at leukaemic stem cells found in a type of acute leukaemia involving mutations in a gene called MLL.

This particularly aggressive form of the disease accounts for about 70% of infant leukaemias, and 10% of adult acute leukaemias.

Only half of children diagnosed with the disease survive for two years after receiving standard treatment.

Double assault

A protein called Bmi1 was already known to play a key role in the survival and proliferation of various cancer stem cells.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteThis research is important in uncovering how leukaemia stem cells are controlled at the genetic level which, in turn, will guide new treatments to tackle this difficult problem”

End QuoteDr David GrantLeukaemia & Lymphoma Research But the King's team showed that targeting Bmi1 alone was not enough to eradicate the rogue stem cells, as had previously been thought.

To do that, the scientists found that Bmi1 had to be targeted in harness with a second protein, Hoxa9.

This double assault abolished the ability of MLL mutation to induce leukaemia.

Researcher Professor Eric So said: "These findings take us a step forward in our understanding of how this devastating disease can return in patients after they have received the standard treatment.

"Now we know that leukaemic stem cells in certain types of leukaemia, such as MLL, can survive and proliferate independently of the Bmi1 protein, we need to consider more carefully the future of stem cell therapy to treat the disease.

"It's not as easy as people originally thought it might be."

Professor So said the next step would be to pin down exactly how the two proteins help cancer cells to grow.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "Cancer stem cells appear to be more resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy than the other leukaemia cells, so understanding how they originate - and how we can kill them - will be a major step in being able to help even more people survive leukaemia in future."

Dr David Grant, scientific director of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said: "It is now widely agreed that leukaemia stem cells are the true target for new or existing drugs if patients are to be cured.

"This research is important in uncovering how leukaemia stem cells are controlled at the genetic level which in turn will guide new treatments to tackle this difficult problem."

New strain of MRSA found in cows

Dr Garcia-Alvarez said finding a new strain in both in humans and cows is 'very worrying'

Environmental campaigners say the new strain has emerged because of the over-use of antibiotics by dairy farmers.

Dr Mark Holmes of Cambridge University, who led the research, said this was a "credible hypothesis".

The researchers, writing in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, say there is no additional health risk from eating milk and dairy products.

'Financial pressure'

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a drug-resistant form of a usually harmless bacterium which can be deadly when it infects wounds.

The 35 or so strains of antibiotic-resistant superbugs are genetically fairly similar. However, this new variety is very different and it is thought that it might have first emerged from cows.

Its discoverers have dubbed it "New MRSA"

Antibiotics are widely used by dairy farmers to treat cows with mastitis. However over-use means some bacteria become resistant and difficult to treat if humans become infected.

Dr Holmes said the problem might be exacerbated by financial pressures on diary farmers.

"If you drive your cows harder to produce more milk you get more mastitis," he told reporters at a news conference.

The Soil Association has called for a complete ban on routine use of antibiotics in farming.

Soil Association director Helen Browning said: "Dairy systems are becoming ever more antibiotic-dependent. We need to get farmers off this treadmill, even if that means that milk has to cost a few pennies more".

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIt does appear that the numbers are rising”

End QuoteDr Mark HolmesCambridge University National Farmers' Union chief dairy adviser Rob Newberry said the health and welfare of cows were of "paramount importance" to British dairy farmers.

"In the interests of human and animal health, and animal welfare, it is important that veterinary medicines are administered as little as possible but as much as necessary," he said.

"Any antibiotic or veterinary medicine being administered to a food producing animal has strict conditions of use, including milk and meat withdrawal times, and in general, under European law, would only be available under prescription."

Dr Holmes and his colleague Dr Laura Garcia-Alvarez discovered the new strain while studying a bacterium known to cause mastitis in cows.

They found that, like other MRSA strains, it was resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics. However, the bug was found to be genetically very different.

Subsequent research showed that the strain was also present in humans.

Dr Garcia-Alvarez says that finding a new strain in both in humans and cows is "very worrying".

UK reports four new E. coli cases

Spain says it will seek damages from Germany over claims about its cucumbers

It brings the total number of British cases to 11, with all those affected having recently travelled to Germany.

The HPA said there was no evidence of it being passed from person to person in the UK.

British farmers are concerned that the E. coli outbreak in Europe will drive down prices for local producers.

Britain's Health Protection Agency continues to advise that people travelling to Germany should not eat raw cucumber, lettuce or tomatoes and that they should seek medical advice if they have bloody diarrhoea.

Three patients in the UK have developed the potentially fatal complication in the blood and kidneys known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Eight have bloody diarrhoea.

While there have not been any cases of person to person transmission, the HPA said maintaining good hand hygiene was very important.

There have been 1,213 cases in Germany of bloody diarrhoea and 520 cases of haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), which affects the kidneys and can be fatal.

Some British supermarkets have already noticed a slight decrease in fruit and vegetable sales.

'Behaving sensibly'

Sarah Pettitt, the National Farmers' Union horticulture and potatoes board chairman, said the NFU had spoken to all of Britain's major retailers to seek assurances that they were backing British growers and paying an appropriate price for their product.

"So far, I'm extremely encouraged to hear that the major supermarkets are behaving sensibly when it comes to price, and are not using this unfortunate situation as an excuse to drop prices to British growers.

"Cucumbers are a high-cost crop to produce and rising input costs have meant reduced margins for growers in recent years," she said.

Derek Hargreaves of Britain's Cucumber Growers' Association told the BBC on Thursday that he feared the outbreak would affect British producers if the source of the E. coli remained unknown.

"If this keeps rolling on and the Germans don't find the source of the outbreak, then obviously people are going to say 'well, there's no point in listening to experts, they've all got it wrong,' people will stop buying the salads."

Small sales drop

Supermarket chain Morrisons said it had noticed a "small drop in sales of salad items". A spokeswoman said its stores did not stock any fresh salad supplies from Germany.

Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose said their sales of fruit and vegetables had so far been unaffected by the outbreak.

The Co-operative Group said it was too early to say if the outbreak had affected sales figures "given the relatively poor weather over the past week compared to the same period last year".

A spokesman from Sainsburys said the supermarket chain was unable to give out information on its sales figures.

Care regulator has staff shortage

Serious concerns have been raised over the care industry

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has 283 unfilled posts in its workforce, including inspectors whose job it is to ensure care homes meet standards.

It blamed a recruitment freeze imposed by the Government last year - but the Department of Health said it relaxed the curb in February.

Charities have expressed concern at news of the shortfall.

Shadow health and social care minister Emily Thornberry said she wrote to Health Minister Paul Burstow on Friday to ask for an independent inquiry into whether the CQC had sufficient powers and resources.

"It's a matter of great concern that, at a time when the work of the CQC is set to increase sharply and when care services are under such stress as a result of government cutbacks, that it can be 133 inspectors short," she added.

News of the shortfall, initially reported by the Financial Times, comes after serious questions were raised over the care industry, as abuse at the Winterbourne View home for learning disabilities sufferers and financial problems at Southern Cross care homes came to light.

Southern Cross, Britain's largest care home provider, has delayed rent payments to its landlords in an effort to fend off bankruptcy.

Secret filming by BBC Panorama, broadcast on Tuesday, found a pattern of serious abuse at Winterbourne View.

'Unreserved apology'

The regulator said that following an internal review it recognised that "there were indications of problems at this hospital which should have led to us taking action sooner".

It offered an "unreserved apology" after admitting it failed to respond to at least two warnings from a former nurse at the centre in Bristol.

The Government has ordered a report into the abuse.

An inspector working for the CQC has told the Daily Mail the regulator was understaffed and unable to make the necessary inspections.

The inspector said checks on hospitals had been sidelined and the CQC was "completely hampered by bureaucracy and red tape".

Fully accountable

Mark Milton, chief operating officer of the National Autistic Society, said: "We are extremely concerned that there have been 70% fewer inspections of adult care services in the past year, which may be partly attributable to a lack of inspection staff.

"The horrifying abuse uncovered by Panorama shows a clear need for robust regulation, as well as high-quality commissioning and the development of a culture within organisations of zero tolerance of abuse.

"We are calling on the government to ensure that the CQC is properly resourced to provide a fully accountable regulatory system that protects the vulnerable people that we all trust in them to support."

David Congdon, head of campaigns and policy at Mencap, said: "The government must look at investing money into the sector to ensure the safety and quality of life of some of society's most vulnerable."

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing said the CQC needed to demonstrate it was a "robust regulator with real teeth".

"Clearly it has some urgent work to do to make certain that it can fulfil this important role - and this includes the proper resources to enable it to deliver," the spokeswoman added.

The CQC said its inspection rate had fallen while it assessed care providers as part of a new system - but they were now on the rise again.

It said it was "committed" to effective regulation.

A spokeswoman said: "The CQC has had a recruitment freeze imposed on it after the election which has only just been raised and we are beginning to recruit frontline staff."

A Department of Health spokesman said the recruitment freeze was relaxed in February and it approved the recruitment of 75 inspectors in October

"The hiring of inspectors and staff is the direct responsibility of the CQC," a spokesman added.

UN urges more funds for HIV drugs

In India, the rate of new HIV infections fell by more than 50%, according to UNAids

The head of the agency, Michael Sidibe, said a new study showed it could reduce the risk of HIV transmission by 96%.

He said the challenge was to expand access to drugs, and deal with social factors which stigmatise the disease.

On Thursday, a UN report said there had been a nearly 25% decline in new HIV infections and a reduction in Aids-related deaths during the past decade.

It was published ahead of the 30th anniversary on Sunday of the first official report on Aids by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The General Assembly is to meet at UN headquarters to discuss the epidemic next week, with 20 world leaders and more than 100 ministers expected to attend.

An estimated 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2010 and nearly 30 million have died from Aids-related causes since 1981, the report said.

'Shunned disease'

In the report published ahead of the anniversary, UNAids said the global rate of new HIV infections had declined by nearly 25% between 2001 and 2009.

Continue reading the main story30 years of HIV 5 June 1981: Center for Disease Control mentions a new virus in its weekly mortality report 1982: The term Aids (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) first used 1984: Virus identified and named HIV 1985: Rock Hudson dies of Aids, teenage haemophiliac Ryan White expelled from school because infected through treatment 1987: First showing of Aids Memorial Quilt on National Mall in Washington DC 1991: Jeremy Irons wears red ribbon and basketball's Magic Johnson has the virus 1993: Philadelphia film wins two Oscars 2000: Infection rate in US among African Americans overtakes that in gay men 2011: Global death toll 22m, infections 60m How a red ribbon conquered the world'More money needed' for HIV cure In India, the rate of new HIV infections fell by more than 50% and in South Africa by more than 35%; both countries have the largest number of people living with HIV on their continents.

The report found that in the third decade of the epidemic, people were starting to adopt safer sexual behaviour, reflecting the impact of HIV prevention and awareness efforts. But there were still important gaps, it warned, with young men more likely to be informed about HIV prevention than young women.

There has also been significant progress in preventing new HIV infections among children as increasing numbers of mothers living with HIV have gained access to antiretroviral prophylaxis during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.

About 6.6 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral drugs at the end of 2010, a nearly 22-fold increase since 2001.

"Thirty years ago this mystery disease was called a gay plague - it was a shunned disease, people were scared about each other," Mr Sidibe said. "Now it's a completely different world - we've been breaking the conspiracy of silence."

However, the report found that at the end of last year nearly nine million people who needed treatment were not getting it, and that treatment access for children was lower than for adults.

And while the rate of new HIV infections has declined globally, the total number of HIV infections remains high, at about 7,000 per day.

The report also noted that there had been an increase in the rate of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East and North Africa, and that HIV was the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age.

'Game-changer'

UNAids also said that while funding for HIV treatments in low- and middle-income countries had risen 10-fold between 2001 and 2009, international resources had declined in 2010. Many states remain dependant on external financing.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteAccess to treatment will transform the Aids response in the next decade”

End QuoteMichael SidibeExecutive Director, UNAIDS "I am worried that international investments are falling at a time when the Aids response is delivering results for people," Mr Sidibe said. "If we do not invest now, we will have to pay several times more in the future."

He stressed the importance of a recent trial, which found that if a person living with HIV adhered to an effective antiretroviral regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner could be reduced by 96%.

"Access to treatment will transform the Aids response in the next decade. We must invest in accelerating access and finding new treatment options.

"Antiretroviral therapy is a bigger game-changer than ever before - it not only stops people from dying, but also prevents transmission of HIV to women, men and children," he added.

Mr Sidibe said the challenge was to expand access to drugs, and deal with social factors that in some countries continue to stigmatise the disease and make women particularly vulnerable.

To do this, UNAids believes an investment of at least $22bn is needed by 2015, $6bn more than is available today. It estimates such funds would stop 12m new HIV infections and 7.4m Aids-related deaths by 2020.

Blow to ovarian screening hopes

Screening did not detect cancerous cells

Almost 40,000 US women were checked annually over a 10-year period, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported.

During the following nine years, the number of ovarian cancer deaths matched those in an untested group of the same size.

Cancer Research UK said it was seeking new methods to detect the cancer.

While ovarian cancer is not the most common in the UK, it causes more than 4,000 deaths a year.

This is because it is often far advanced by the time that symptoms become obvious.

If caught early, up to nine out of 10 women can survive.

Two types of test are at the centre of hopes for a successful screening programme - a blood test looking for a high levels of a chemical associated with the cancer, and an ultrasound test which looks directly for abnormalities.

Unsuccessful

The University of Utah study, which started in 1993, used both tests in combination, with women given the blood test once a year for the first six years, then annual ultrasound examinations for the remaining four years.

Continue reading the main storyOvarian Cancer Fourth most common cause of cancer death in UK Nearly 7,000 diagnoses and nearly 4,500 deaths a year Survival rate when diagnosed in early stages: up to 90% Survival rate when diagnosed in later stages: 30% Early detection is complex as signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer are easily mistaken for other, more common and less serious conditions The average GP only sees one case of ovarian cancer every five years By the time the study closed in 2010, slightly more cases of ovarian cancer had been diagnosed in the screened group, compared with the group offered no screening.

However, there were 118 deaths among the screened women, and 100 in the unscreened women, which amounted to no real difference in statistical terms.

In addition, the screening programme threw up 3,285 "false positive" results, in which the tests suggested cancer might be present, even though this was not the case.

Of these women, more than 1,000 underwent unnecessary surgery, many opting for surgical removal of one or both of their ovaries. These operations led to 222 cases of "major complications".

The researchers suggested that using a different combination of blood tests and ultrasound might improve the outcome.

However, they said that the fast-growing nature of many ovarian cancers could mean that even annual tests might not offer enough women the chance to catch it at an early stage.

A similar UK-based trial is still some years away from giving its verdict on the effectiveness of ovarian screening.

The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) delivered encouraging results at its halfway point in 2009, with both types of test proving accurate in detecting cancers.

Like the Utah researchers, British teams are now waiting until the middle of this decade to see if this has any positive effect on overall deaths from the disease.

Dr James Brenton, an ovarian cancer specialist at Cancer Research UK, said that the charity was funding research into different methods of spotting tumours in their early stages.

He said: "This important research suggests that having a yearly ultrasound test along with a blood test, which provides a snapshot of the levels of protein associated with ovarian cancer - the serum CA125 test - is not going to cure more women.

"We are testing whether smaller rises in CA125 over time can be a better predictor, and working with international groups to identify common genes that might slightly increase the risk."

Cystic fibrosis research 'delay'

Mucus in the lungs can lead to infection Continue reading the main storyRelated StoriesCystic fibrosis gene cure closerDrug 'aids lung mucus clearance' UK scientists say pioneering research into cystic fibrosis has been delayed by funding problems caused by the economic downturn.

The researchers were hoping to begin a trial later this summer, using gene therapy to try to protect patients' lungs from potentially fatal damage.

They have been shortlisted for a prestigious award medical innovation.

The Cystic Fibrosis Trust says public donations for this type of work have fallen in the tough economic climate.

The Medical Futures Innovation Awards celebrate some of the best ideas for new treatments and help them attract funding.

But that is proving especially challenging at the moment.

The winners will be announced on Monday, but a team in the running, which is looking at pioneering gene therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF), says plans were in place to begin the world's biggest trial of its kind later this summer.

Funding Shortfall

But this has been put back while efforts continue to meet a shortfall of six million pounds.

The UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium has spent 10 years working on a novel way of treating the disease, which is caused by a faulty gene that controls the movement of salt and water through cells.

When this gene fails internal organs become clogged with sticky mucus which attracts infection. Most people with the disease die of chronic lung damage.

The scientists have developed a way of delivering droplets containing healthy genes into the lungs. They have completed initial safety trials, and say the early findings are "hugely encouraging".

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteYou need a large critical mass of people doing the research, getting scientists and doctors working as a team, recruiting patients and making the material for the trial. It's been a decade of effort. No one else is capable of doing it. It is completely unique. ”

End QuoteProfessor Eric AltonUK CF Gene Therapy Consortium However they say problems with funding mean the next trial to test clinical effectiveness will not get under way until March next year at the earliest.

Delay for patients

Professor Eric Alton, who is heading the research, says without further fresh backing the project could disintegrate.

"This project cannot be parked. If we do not get the funding patients will become more unwell. Some will die. A huge amount of hope and effort and science has been invested in this."

The consortium is talking to potential partners from the pharmaceutical industry and has applied for a grant from the National Institute for Health Research.

Smoking Could Kill 8 Million a Year by 2030: WHO

By Kate Kelland

Tobacco will kill nearly six million people this year, including 600,000 non-smokers, because governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Since there is often a lag of many years between when people start smoking and when it affects health, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun, the WHO said. But by 2030, the annual death toll could reach 8 million.

The United Nations health body urged more governments to sign up to and implement its tobacco control treaty, warning that if current trends persist, tobacco could cause up to a billion deaths in the 21st century, a dramatic rise from the 100 million deaths it caused in the previous century.

So far, 172 countries and the European Union have signed up to the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which came into force in 2005 and obliges them to take steps over time to cut smoking rates, limit exposure to second hand smoke, and curb tobacco advertising and promotion.

The WHO noted some encouraging recent moves -- Uruguay now requires health warnings that cover 80 percent of the surface of tobacco packs, and China last month implemented a ban on smoking in public places such as restaurants and bars.

Dangerous Toxins From Genetically Modified Plants Found in Women and Fetuses

By Jeffrey Smith
When U.S. regulators approved Monsanto's genetically modified "Bt" corn, they knew it would add a deadly poison into our food supply. That's what it was designed to do. The corn's DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It's a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.

But Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.

Oops. A study just proved them wrong.

Doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found the corn's Bt-toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women.i (Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of 30 pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of 39 non-pregnant women.) The study has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology.

According to the UK Daily Mail, this study, which "appears to blow a hole in" safety claims, "has triggered calls for a ban on imports and a total overhaul of the safety regime for genetically modified (GM) crops and food." Organizations from England to New Zealand are now calling for investigations and for GM crops to be halted due to the serious implications of this finding.

Family Farmers Amplify Legal Complaint Against Monsanto's GMOs

New York: New threats by Monsanto have led to the filing of an amended complaint by the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) in its suit on behalf of family farmers, seed businesses, and organic agricultural organizations challenging Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed.

"Our clients don't want a fight with Monsanto, they merely want to be protected from the threat that they will be contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed and then accused of patent infringement," said PUBPAT Executive Director Daniel B. Ravicher. "We asked Monsanto to give our clients reassurances they wouldn't do such a thing, and in response Monsanto chose to instead reiterate the same implicit threat to organic agriculture that it has made in the past."

Over the years Monsanto has sued farmers alleging they have stolen the corporation's intellectual property by saving their proprietary seed rather than purchasing new seed each year that would include a "technology fee." Because pollen, and genetics, can be spread through the wind, or by insects, farmers are vulnerable to having their crops contaminated and then subsequently being sued by Monsanto.

Soon after the March filing of the lawsuit, Monsanto issued a statement saying that they would not assert their patents against farmers who suffer "trace" amounts of transgenic contamination. In response, and in the hope that the matter could be resolved out of court, PUBPAT attorneys wrote Monsanto's attorneys asking the company to make its promise legally binding.

Organic Agriculture's Resilience Shows Untapped Potential

By Supriya Kumar

Washington, D.C. - Despite the crippling effects of the recent economic slowdown on many industries, the organic agriculture sector not only sustained itself during this period but also showed signs of growth. "In 2009, organic farming was practiced on 37.2 million hectares worldwide, a 5.7 percent increase from 2008 and 150 percent increase since 2000," writes policy analyst E.L. Beck, in the latest Vital Signs Online release from the Worldwatch Institute.

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) defines organic agriculture as: "a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment."

Although organic agriculture is practiced around the world, certified organic agriculture tends to be concentrated in wealthier countries. The Group of 20 (G20), comprising both developing and industrialized countries, is home to 89 percent of the global certified organic agricultural area. But nongovernmental organizations, including Slow Food International and ACDI/VOCA, are working with farmers to promote organic agriculture in developing countries as a means of bettering livelihoods and rejuvenating the land.

Mom-and-Pop vs. Big-Box Stores in the Food Desert

By Gary Nabhan and Kelly Watters

A few weeks ago, when the Obama administration released its Food Desert Locator, many of us realized that a once-good idea has spoiled like a bag of old bread. If you go online and find that your family lives in a food desert, don't worry: You have plenty of company. One of every 10 census tracts in the lower 48 has been awarded that status.

Two years ago, when one of us (Gary) moved to the village of Patagonia, Ariz., he inadvertently chose to reside in what the USDA deems to be on the edge of a food desert. Its maps show that Gary now lives more than 15 miles away from a full-service supermarket or chain grocery store that has 50 or more employees and grosses $2 million or more in food sales each year. Apparently, that's bad. Gary and his low-income neighbors are now being told that if they were bright enough to reside within walking distance or five minutes driving distance to a Safeway, Alberston's, Winn-Dixie, or Walmart, they would undoubtedly be more "food secure."

Why? A USDA report

European Leaders Don't Want Cell Phones and WiFi in Schools

By Dr.Mercola
A Council of Europe committee examined evidence that the cell phones and wireless internet connections have "potentially harmful" effects on humans, and decided that immediate action was required to protect children. They ruled that the technologies pose a health risk and should be banned from schools.

The committee report argued that it was crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes made when public health officials failed to recognize the dangers of asbestos, tobacco smoking and lead.

According to the Telegraph:

 "The report also highlighted the potential health risks of cordless telephones and baby monitors, which rely on similar technology ...  The Council of Europe ... is highly influential in policy-making and has often seen its decisions enacted through conventions and treaties."


Dr. Mercola's Comments:

 The powerful Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has echoed the warning I have been making for years now, that children should be protected from cell phones and "one must respect the precautionary principle" in regard to cell phones and other wireless technologies.

 In a new report, they conclude that evidence is strong enough to warrant immediate action to protect children and others from the potentially harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless devices:

     "  non-ionizing frequencies, be they sourced from extremely low frequencies, power lines or certain high frequency waves used in the fields of radar, telecommunications and mobile telephony, appear to have more or less potentially harmful, non-thermal, biological effects on plants, insects and animals, as well as the human body when exposed to levels that are below the official threshold values.

Natural and Organic Products Industry Sales Hit $81 Billion

BOULDER, Colo.-- Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine's 2010 Market Overview reports healthy growth for the natural and organic products industry. With more than $81 billion in total revenue last year, the industry grew 7 percent over 2009, showing that consumers are spending again and that the natural products industry is healthy and growing.

Natural Foods Merchandiser's 2010 Market Overview is a comprehensive report detailing sales results for the natural and organic products industry. In addition to overall spending figures, the Market Overview also reports product segment sales, average sales per store and overall business statistics for natural products retailers.

Market research found that certain categories experienced double-digit growth. Dairy and produce, for example, grew 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively, over the previous year. "Double digit growth in 2010 is impressive," said Carlotta Mast, Editor-in-Chief of Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine. "These numbers demonstrate that shoppers are returning to natural products stores for everyday groceries," she said. The pet products category boasted 10 percent growth last year, as Americans continue to feed their furry friends food fit for a king. In the supplements aisle, sports nutrition products grew a whopping 22.2 percent, a reflection of new and innovative products on the market and the improving economy. Digestive aids and vitamin D continued on their upward trajectories in 2010.

Also included in the Market Overview is the Gourmet Guide, which shows that specialty natural products sales grew 15.6 percent in natural products stores last year. "The lines between natural and gourmet are blurring, as more  natural retailers stock specialty products that meet their stringent ingredient and packaging standards," Mast said. 

Humans May Have Loaded the Bases, but Nature Bats Last

By David Suzuki

Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we've ever had to confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change. Exponential growth is causing an already huge human population to double in shorter and shorter time periods.

When I was born in 1936, just over two billion people lived on the planet. It's astounding that the population has increased more then threefold within my lifetime. That staggering growth has been accompanied by even steeper increases in technological innovation, consumption, and a global economy that exploits the entire planet as a source of raw materials and a dumping ground for toxic emissions and waste.

We have become a new kind of biological force that is altering the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the planet on a geological scale. Indeed, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen has suggested that the current geologic period should be called the Anthropocene Epoch to reflect our new status as a global force -- and a lot of scientists agree.

As noted in a recent Economist article, "Welcome to the Anthropocene," we are altering the Earth's carbon cycle, which leads to climate change, and we have sped up by more than 150 percent the nitrogen cycle, which has led to acid rain, ozone depletion, and coastal dead zones, among other impacts. We have also replaced wilderness with farms and cities, which has had a huge impact on biodiversity.

Good News in Nevada on Health Freedom

Good News In Nevada

AB289 (Dietitian Licensing Bill) was successfully amended

SB412 (Complementary Integrative Medicine Bill) did not move out of Committee.

Thank you to Nevada Assemblyman John C. Ellison for advocating for a last minute successful health freedom amendment that makes it clear that the Nevada Dietitian licensing bill AB289 will not apply to a person "who furnishes nutrition information, provides recommendations or advice concerning nutrition, or markets food, food materials or dietary supplements and provides nutrition information, recommendations or advice related to that marketing, if the person does not represent that he or she is a licensed dietitian or registered dietitian .".

On May 30 th, AB289 passed both House and Senate and was enrolled. (Click Here to read the enrolled bill) The health freedom amendment was an important addition in the last committee. Assemblyman Ellison and his staff as well as Committee Chair Senator Schneider deserve congratulations on their work to listen to citizen concerns to the fast moving bill and find and accept a solution that would preserve and protect consumer access to so many nutrition practitioners who are currently practicing in the public domain and who do not intend to become Dietitians. Especially citizen Jim Jenks, herbalist and coordinator of Nevada Sunshine Health Freedom Foundation and Citizen Debbie Pawelek, owner of a local health food store, deserve our deepest thanks for their important lobbying and educational efforts on behalf of health freedom. 

Obama Deregulates GMO Crops Despite Supreme Court Injunction

By Robbie Hanna Anderman

Early this spring, while the world was distracted by Egypt's uprising, President Barack Obama pushed the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets in the United States. The USDA came through as he directed, totally deregulating these Monsanto-patented genes in early February.

In so doing, Obama and the USDA have chosen to override and ignore decisions and injunctions made by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned planting of genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets without consideration of the Environmental Impact Assessments, which showed high risks to organic and conventional (chemical) farmers.

So how does this affect you and me? Neither of us remembers seeing alfalfa or sugar beets on our breakfast table or even on our Seder table. Or do we?

Sugar beets provide over 50 percent of the sugar Americans use in their coffee, cereals, and desserts. For the moment, let's not focus on the fact that sugar beets can cross-pollinate with red beets and make our borscht genetically modified.

Alfalfa reaches our tables within milk, cream, butter, and meat, as it is used as a major animal feed in the dairy industry. It is also used to enrich soils in organic farming.

At this time, no genetically engineered crops are permitted for sale in the European Union (though WikiLeaks has revealed that the U.S. government is exerting strong pressure on the EU to allow them). Thus this new deregulation will potentially close off present markets for organic farmers' crops.

US-Led Global War on Drugs a Failure: Report

A 19-member international panel has condemned the US-led "War on Drugs" campaign as a failure and has recommended major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy report, released on Thursday, argues that the four-decades-long campaign has failed to make significant changes in the international drug scenario and has, in fact, devastating consequences on human societies across the world.

The term "War on Drugs" was first used by US President Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971 and was intended to define and reduce illicit drug trade globally. However, the new report points out that the result of this campaign has been nothing but a drastic increase in drug violence, especially in regions like Brazil and Mexico.

"Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government's global war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed," stated former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso. "Let's start by treating drug addiction as a health issue, reducing drug demand through proven educational initiatives and legally regulating rather than criminalizing cannabis." 

Three Strikes and You're Hot: Time for Obama to Say No to the Fossil Fuel Wish List

By Bill McKibben

In our globalized world, old-fashioned geography is not supposed to count for much: mountain ranges, deep-water ports, railroad grades -- those seem so nineteenth century. The earth is flat, or so I remember somebody saying.

But those nostalgic for an earlier day, take heart. The Obama administration is making its biggest decisions yet on our energy future and those decisions are intimately tied to this continent's geography. Remember those old maps from your high-school textbooks that showed each state and province's prime economic activities? A sheaf of wheat for farm country? A little steel mill for manufacturing? These days in North America what you want to look for are the pickaxes that mean mining, and the derricks that stand for oil.

There's a pickaxe in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, one of the world's richest deposits of coal. If we're going to have any hope of slowing climate change, that coal -- and so all that future carbon dioxide -- needs to stay in the ground.  In precisely the way we hope Brazil guards the Amazon rainforest, that massive sponge for carbon dioxide absorption, we need to stand sentinel over all that coal.

Doing so, however, would cost someone some money.  At current prices the value of that coal may be in the trillions, and that kind of money creates immense pressure. Earlier this year, President Obama signed off on the project, opening a huge chunk of federal land to coal mining.  It holds an estimated 750 million tons worth of burnable coal. That's the equivalent of opening 300 new coal-fired power plants. In other words, we're talking about staggering amounts of new CO2 heading into the atmosphere to further heat the planet.

Corporate Dictatorship: Citizens United 2.0

By George Zornick

Campaign fundraisers are already at work on the upcoming presidential election-Obama 2012 is soliciting donations, and Republican candidates like Tim Pawlenty are spending more time meeting donors than voters.

Outside groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which spent $50 million on the recent midterm elections, are also no doubt revving up the money machine. Crossroads and similar groups with benign names like Americans for Job Security, FreedomWorks, and yes, the US Chamber of Commerce will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the presidential race.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Citizen's United, which allowed unlimited corporate expenditures on political advocacy efforts, has vastly improved the fundraising abilities of groups like American Crossroads. (Karl Rove has admitted this). Corporations can funnel unlimited money into an outfit like American Crossroads, and then let it do the dirty work of conceiving, producing, and airing advertisements that bash or support a chosen candidate.

States Along the Mississippi Battle Over Farm Runoff

By Leslie Kaufman

As the surging waters of the Mississippi pass downstream, they leave behind flooded towns and inundated lives and carry forward a brew of farm chemicals and waste that this year - given record flooding - is expected to result in the largest dead zone ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dead zones have been occurring in the gulf since the 1970s, and studies show that the main culprits are nitrogen and phosphorus from crop fertilizers and animal manure in river runoff. They settle in at the mouth of the gulf and fertilize algae, which prospers and eventually starves other living things of oxygen.

Government studies have traced a majority of those chemicals in the runoff to nine farming states, and yet today, decades after the dead zones began forming, there is still little political common ground on how to abate this perennial problem. Scientists who study dead zones predict that the affected area will increase significantly this year, breaking records for size and damage.

For years, environmentalists and advocates for a cleaner gulf have been calling for federal action in the form of regulation. Since 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency has been encouraging all states to place hard and fast numerical limits on the amount of those chemicals allowed in local waterways. Yet of the nine key farm states that feed the dead zone, only two, Illinois and Indiana, have acted, and only to cover lakes, not the rivers or streams that merge into the Mississippi.  

Down with Healthy School Lunches, Says House GOP

By Tom Laskawy

Having already moved to gut USDA programs promoting agricultural conservation and renewable energy and strip the USDA of its authority to enact the first meaningful reform of the irredeemably monopolistic livestock industry, House Republicans have now turned their attention to that other great threat to American freedom: USDA nutrition guidelines.

According to the Associated Press, Republican appropriators in the House of Representatives (the lawmakers who control the government's purse) are on the verge of defunding significant parts of school-lunch reform and elements of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! program, as well as the recently announced voluntary Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines that would restrict junk-food advertising aimed at young children.

As a spokesperson for House Appropriations Committee Chair Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) put it, the new FTC rule in particular is "classic nanny-state overreach":

 "Our concern is those voluntary guidelines are back-door regulation," he said, deploring the fact that kids can watch shows that depict sex and drugs on MTV, but "you cannot see an advertisement for Tony the Tiger during the commercial break."

Ah, the House GOP -- making the world safe for Tony the Tiger. But the fury of the Cuddly Corporate Marketing Character Lobby pales in comparison to that of the Potato Lobby. Big Spud is furious -- furious, I tell you -- that the new USDA guidelines for school lunches would restrict starchy vegetables such as the potato to a one-cup-a-week appearance on the plates of schoolchildren nationwide. In place of the mighty potato would come additional servings of whole grains, orange and green veggies, and low-fat milk. It's enough to drive you around the bend!

Never mind that the potato is by far the most-consumed vegetable in America and that restricting it at school would still allow parents to stuff their children with French-fried, mashed, and chipped potatoes outside of school hours. Attention must be paid! So the Potato Lobby and representatives from potato-growing regions are fighting back hard.

And how about the new calorie-labeling requirement that was included in health-reform legislation? The House GOP is going after that, too.