Cancer // Current TV

FDA Raids Herbal Distributor Over Cancer Remedies

(NaturalNews) At the prompting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of its ongoing war against natural cancer treatments, federal marshals recently seized a number of anti-cancer products from Notions-n-Things, a Bogard, Missouri-based distributor of skin salves and other products. According to an FDA announcement issued on March 29, 2012, more than 1,600 containers of skin salve were seized as part of the bust.

A complaint filed by a user of one of the now-seized products back in January originally prompted the FDA to inspect the Notion-n-Things facility. The Missouri State Department of Health and Senior Services eventually embargoed the products in question, and on March 27, 2012, Judge Gary A. Fenner from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri signed the official seizure order.

The three products seized were Chickweed Healing Salve, a wild-crafted, cold-infused skin care product that contains comfrey, a natural treatment for skin cancer (http://chickweedhealingsalve.com/); To-Mor-Gone, a product that allegedly helped treat cancer; and R.E.P., a treatment for headaches and sinus infections that the FDA says did not contain ingredient information on its label.

None of these products had been officially approved by the FDA as safe and effective for their intended uses, which means the agency considers them to be unapproved drugs. Regardless of whether or not these products actually worked, the FDA says they were "misbranded" under the guidelines of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Speaking on behalf of the agency, Dara A. Corrigan, an associate commissioner for regulatory affairs at the FDA, admitted that one of the FDA's primary concerns with the three products, and others like them, is that cancer patients will choose them over so-called "effective and proven treatment[s]." Only treatments that have received rubber-stamp approval from the FDA, in other words, are considered to be valid -- the public has no freedom of choice in the matter.

As far back as 2001, the FDA has taken issue with comfrey, also known as Symphytum officionale, which is often used in skin salves for healing purposes. At that time, the agency sent a letter to several natural medicine groups warning them about comfrey's supposed dangers when ingested, even though comfrey is primarily used topically (http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/Alerts/ucm111219.htm).

http://www.naturalnews.com/035556_FDA_raids_herbal_remedies.html

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When will true progressives stop supporting plutocratic state agencies in bed with Big Business?(NaturalNews) At the prompting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part... more

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Monsanto and big tobacco sued for birth defects

Monsanto, Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco giants knowingly poisoned Argentinean tobacco farmers with pesticides, causing "devastating birth defects" in their children, dozens of workers claim in court. The farmers, on their own behalf and for their injured children, sued Altria Group fka Philip Morris Cos., Philip Morris USA, Carolina Leaf Tobacco, Universal Corporation fka Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Monsanto, and their affiliates and Argentine subsidiaries, in New Castle County Court.

The farmers grow tobacco on small family-owned farms in Misiones Province and sell it to U.S. tobacco distributors. Most of Argentina's tobacco is grown in Misiones, a rural northeastern province. The farmers claim the tobacco companies asked them to use herbicides, pesticides and other toxic products made and distributed by Monsanto, and assured them the products were safe.

They say the defendants "wrongfully caused the parental and infant plaintiffs to be exposed to those chemicals and substances which they both knew, or should have known, would cause the infant offspring of the parental plaintiffs to be born with devastating birth defects." Birth defects cited in the 55-page complaint include cerebral palsy, psychomotor retardation, epilepsy, spina bifida, intellectual disabilities, metabolic disorders, congenital heart defects, Down syndrome, missing fingers and blindness.

The farmers claim Philip Morris and Carolina Leaf used a tobacco brokerage company, Tabacos Norte, to buy tobacco from the farmers and sell them crop production supplies, including herbicides and pesticides. Tabacos Norte, based in Misiones, was created by Carolina Leaf and Philip Morris' Argentine subsidiary in 1984, to produce tobacco fit for the North and South American markets, according to the complaint. The farmers say the tobacco companies that bought their crops asked them to replace the native tobacco with a new type, used in Philip Morris cigarettes, which required more pesticides.

They say the defendants pushed for excessive use of pesticides and failed to warn them of the dangers or provide them with information or protective gear. Most farmers in Misiones used Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide made by Monsanto, to kill weeds and clear tobacco fields, according to the complaint. Monsanto and Philip Morris told them to use glyphosate frequently and in quantities beyond that necessary for effective weed control, the farmers say.

"Monsanto defendants, the Philip Morris defendants, and the Carolina Leaf defendants promoted the use of Roundup and other herbicides to tobacco farmers in Misiones even though they were on direct and explicit notice that at all relevant times farmers in Misiones, including the instant plaintiffs, lacked the necessary personal protective equipment and other safety knowledge and skills required to minimize harmful exposures to Roundup," the complaint states.

"What is more, at all relevant times Tabacos Norte, the Monsanto defendants, the Philip Morris defendants, and the Carolina Leaf defendants did not recommend protective measures to farmers and their families in Misiones. In fact, aforementioned defendants actively recommended and/or required that contracted tobacco farmers, including the instant plaintiffs, purchase excessive quantities of Roundup and other pesticides.

"At all relevant times, defendants were on direct and explicit notice that fruits, vegetables and farm animals designated for family consumption would be contaminated with pesticides including Roundup if contract farmers followed the defendants' aggressive chemical application specifications for tobacco cultivation." Monsanto's pesticides contaminated the farmers' non-tobacco crops, water wells and streams meant for family use, exposing their families to the toxic substances, the farmer say.

"The plaintiff tobacco farmers' lack of training and instruction on the safe disposal of unused Roundup and other pesticides caused further exposure," the complaint states. "Leftover pesticides were discarded in locations where they leached into the water supply." The farmers claim their exposure to the pesticides caused their children's birth defects.

More at the linkMonsanto, Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco giants knowingly poisoned Argentinean... more

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Regulate marijuana billboard grabs eyes near Mile High Stadium

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The Fracking Frenzy's Impact on Women

Dirty fracking. http://truth-out.org/news/item/8336-the-fracking-frenzys-impact-on-women

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Uranium mines dot Navajo land, neglected and still perilous

CAMERON, Ariz. — In the summer of 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land and figured he had better call in the feds. Engineers from the Environmental Protection Agency arrived a few months later, Geiger counters in hand, and found radioactivity levels that buried the needles on their equipment.

The abandoned mine here, about 60 miles east of the Grand Canyon, joins the list of hundreds of such sites identified across the 27,000 square miles of Navajo territory in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico that are the legacy of shoddy mining practices and federal neglect. From the 1940s through the 1980s, the mines supplied critical materials to the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

For years, unsuspecting Navajos inhaled radioactive dust and drank contaminated well water. Many of them became sick with cancer and other diseases.

The radioactivity at the former mine is said to measure one million counts per minute, translating to a human dose that scientists say can lead directly to malignant tumors and other serious health damage, according to Lee Greer, a biologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. Two days of exposure at the Cameron site would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year.

The E.P.A. filed a report on the rancher’s find early last year and pledged to continue its environmental review. But there are still no warning signs or fencing around the secluded and decaying site. Crushed beer cans and spent shell casings dot the ground, revealing that the old mine has become a sort of toxic playground.

“If this level of radioactivity were found in a middle-class suburb, the response would be immediate and aggressive,” said Doug Brugge, a public health professor at Tufts University medical school and an expert on uranium. “The site is remote, but there are obviously people spending time on it. Don’t they deserve some concern?”

Navajo advocates, scientists and politicians are asking the same question.

More at the linkCAMERON, Ariz. — In the summer of 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry... more