tagged w/ children's health
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CNN...
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Federal judge blocks anti-smoking images required on tobacco products
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From Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer
updated 12:38 AM EST, Thu March 1, 2012
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Lorillard attorney: The government "may not ...require others to mouth its position"
A Cancer Society official says the ruling is "bad for public health"
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed in 2009
It would have required graphic images and words on tobacco products warning of dangers
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal mandate requiring tobacco companies to place graphic images on their products warning of the dangers of smoking was tossed out Wednesday by a judge in Washington, with the judge saying the requirements were a violation of free speech.
"Unfortunately, because Congress did not consider the First Amendment implications of this legislation, it did not concern itself with how the regulations could be narrowly tailored to avoid unintentionally compelling commercial speech," said federal Judge Richard Leon in his 19-page ruling.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act passed in 2009 would have required nine written warnings such as "Cigarettes are addictive" and "Tobacco smoke causes harm to children." Also included would have been alternating images of a corpse and smoke-infected lungs.
A group of tobacco companies led by R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard had sued, saying the warnings would be cost-prohibitive, and would dominate and damage the packaging and promotion of their particular brands. The legal question was whether the new labeling was purely factual and accurate in nature or was designed to discourage use of the products.
"The graphic images here were neither designed to protect the consumer from confusion or deception, nor to increase consumer awareness of smoking risks" said Leon. "Rather they were crafted to evoke a strong emotional response calculated to provoke the viewer to quit or never start smoking."
Other color images required under the Food and Drug Administration rules would have been: a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, smoke wafting from a child being kissed by her mother, a diseased mouth presumably from oral cancer linked to chewing tobacco and a woman weeping uncontrollably.
There was no immediate reaction to the ruling from the FDA, and the Justice Department, which defended the law in court, said it had no comment.
But the president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network declared the ruling "bad for public health."
"Today's ruling ignores the overwhelming, decades-long need for strong cigarette warning labels and allows Big Tobacco to proceed 'business as usual,' continuing to promote its highly addictive and deadly products," Christopher W. Hansen said in a statement from the Cancer Action Network.
Richard Daynard, a lawyer and critic of smoking who leads the Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston, rejected Leon's argument.
"First of all, Congress did consider it," he said in a telephone interview. "They have elaborate findings of fact as part of the preamble to the statute that directly address why it is a now-compelling state interest, a public interest, to restrict the advertising of cigarettes. So the notion that Congress missed this one is just simply false."
He said the ruling "shows a complete lack of sensitivity to the public health dimensions of the smoking epidemic, for the fact that it's been elaborately demonstrated over and over again that tobacco marketing encourages kids to start smoking."
The way to counter that, he said, is with the kind of strong images that Leon ruled against. "Negative advertising works," Daynard said. "Everybody knows that."
Lorillard attorney Floyd Abrams applauded the legal opinion. "The government, as the court said, is free to speak for itself, but it may not, except in the rarest circumstance, require others to mouth its position," said Abrams, a prominent First Amendment scholar.
The word and image warning labels would have covered half of the cigarette packs sold at retail outlets, and 20% of cigarette advertising.
The federal law in question would also regulate the amount of nicotine and other substances in tobacco, and limit promotion of the products and related promotional merchandise at public events like sporting contests. The free speech aspect was the only issue in the current case.
Several other lawsuits over the labels are pending in federal court, part a two-decade federal and state effort to force tobacco companies to limit their advertising, and settle billions of dollars in state and private class-action claims over the health dangers of smoking.
The case is R.J. Reynolds v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (cv-11-14820).
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CNN's Carol Cratty and Tom Watkins contributed to this report.
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Federal judge blocks anti-smoking images required on tobacco products... more
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Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 5, 2011 7:11 p.m. EST
Dr. Andrew Wakefield misrepresented or altered medical histories to bolster his 1998 study, an investigation found.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* British journal BMJ accuses Dr. Andrew Wakefield of faking data for his 1998 paper
* "The damage to public health continues" as a result of the autism-vaccine claim
* Vaccination rates dipped, measles cases increased after the study's publication
* The study was retracted and Wakefield lost his license in 2010
(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May 2010. Efforts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday.
"Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession," BMJ states.
The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80 percent by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.
In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90 percent of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.
"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.
Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.
-- Unfortunately, (Wakefield's) core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism.
--Dr. Max Wiznitzer, pediatric neurologist
The series of articles launched Wednesday are investigative journalism, not results of a clinical study. The writer, Brian Deer, said Wakefield "chiseled" the data before him, "falsifying medical histories of children and essentially concocting a picture, which was the picture he was contracted to find by lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a vaccine scare."
According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.
"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects people to lie in science," Godlee said. "But it does seem a financial motive was underlying this, both in terms of payments by lawyers and through legal aid grants that he received but also through financial schemes that he hoped would benefit him through diagnostic and other tests for autism and MMR-related issues."
Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, said the reporting "represents Wakefield as a person where the ends justified the means." But he said the latest news may have little effect on those families who still blame vaccines for their children's conditions.
"Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else."
Wakefield's defenders include David Kirby, a journalist who has written extensively on autism. He told CNN that Wakefield not only has denied falsifying data, he has said he had no way to do so.
"I have known him for a number of years. He does not strike me as a charlatan or a liar," Kirby said. If the BMJ allegations are true, then Wakefield "did a terrible thing" -- but he added, "I personally find it hard to believe that he did that."
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Miriam Falco contributed to this report.Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds
By the... more
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Child scavenges for family's survival in Afghanistan
By Arwa Damon, CNN
January 4, 2011 3:09 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Marjan, 5, scavenges for trash to help keep her family warm in the winter
* Marjan's brother died from the cold and her mother worries for the other children
* UNICEF says Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a child
* UNICEF: One in five children in Afghanistan do not live past the age of five
Kabul (CNN) -- Five-year-old Marjan sniffles from the cold as she struggles under her load. Hoisted on her back is a bag almost as big as she is.
Instead of going to school, Marjan scavenges for hours with her 10-year-old aunt collecting trash. It is a heavy burden for such a small child but a necessary one. The trash she collects is what her family uses as fuel for cooking and, more importantly, to fend off Kabul's bitter winter.
It is a matter of life and death for someone so young. Last winter, Marjan's baby brother died from the cold.
"It was dark and cold, and the baby died," she says softly, wiping her running nose. "I saw him dead and I was very sad, and I cried."
"I don't blame myself," Marjan's mother, Zarkharida, says. "We don't have firewood. I set fire to the garbage but it went out and my baby died."
Zarkharida's husband was killed in a family feud over land. She was forced to move in with relatives, already struggling to make ends meet. She built a one-room mud hut on a small piece of land.
"I wasn't able to properly cover the roof, this is why when the cold weather came my son died," she says.
Plastic tarp covers the roof, windows and doorway. She stitched a blanket from scraps of clothes given to her as charity. It is all she has to keep her family warm.
But Zarkharida fears this winter will claim another one of her children.
"Of course I am worried about my children's health," she says. "I am afraid they will get sick."
UNICEF, the UN children's agency, says that Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a child. One in five children do not live past the age of five. Afghanistan is second only to Sierra Leone when it comes to child mortality. Most of those deaths are caused by curable childhood diseases and malnutrition, compounded by the security situation, which means that parents are unable to access proper health care.
"It is very hard to put a hard and fast figure to the number of children dying from hypothermia alone on Kabul's streets as there would undoubtedly be other reasons that would make them sick or vulnerable in the first place," UNICEF regional communications chief Sarah Crowe wrote in an e-mail. "Extreme poverty, having lost a parent, being trafficked or displaced, or many other reasons may have forced them on to the streets where they would be deprived of their most basic needs (decent food, health, immunization, protection) and exposed to the extreme cold of Afghan winters."
Marjan is constantly blowing warm air on her hands, which are grimy and cracked from the cold. She kicks off her plastic, torn shoes and tries to warm her feet on the trash fire blazing under the kettle. But it is never enough.
A meal is scraps of bread and weak tea.
Even though she has never set foot in a classroom, Marjan dreams of being a teacher. She also loves to play with dolls. But in one of the world's poorest countries, she is, instead, responsible for her family's survival.Child scavenges for family's survival in Afghanistan
By Arwa Damon, CNN... more
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Driver kicks 7-year-old out of taxi
By Marina Landis, CNN
October 13, 2010 6:11 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Police say cabbie Roy D. Sutherland, 66, left 7-year-old alone on a street corner
* The driver had asked the boy if he had money for the fare and got no answer
* Sutherland was arrested and is to be arraigned October 25
New York (CNN) -- A driver for the Valentine Cab Co. in Roosevelt, New York, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after he kicked a young boy out of his cab Tuesday for not having any money, police said.
Nassau County Police detectives say a 7-year-old boy with special needs was put into a cab in Freeport, New York, by his grandmother and was supposed to be dropped off at his residence in the neighboring Long Island town of Roosevelt.
After picking up the child, the driver of the cab, 66-year-old Roy D. Sutherland, asked the boy if he had money for the fare. When the child was unable to provide any information, Sutherland told him to get out of the cab, police said.
Sutherland left the boy on a street corner in Freeport by himself and drove away, police said.
Sutherland was later arrested and issued an appearance ticket, police said. He's scheduled to be arraigned at the First District Court in Hempstead on October 25.
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7-year-old boy kicked out of cab - WABC/TV
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Lauren DeFranco
FREEPORT, NY (WABC) -- A cab driver is accused of dumping a 7-year-old boy onto the street because he didn't have any money.
He was making a routine trip from his Grandmother's home to his mother's house.
"I was just a little crazy at the moment, because I was like, what do you mean he didn't have fare, he's 7 years old," Joy Allen, Alex's mother said.
Joy Allen is still in a state of shock, she's so angry and upset.
Monday at around 5 p.m., a cab driver left her 7-year-old son Alex alone on a street corner in Freeport.
What's worse, is that Alex is a child with special needs and has difficulty communicating.
"He begged the cab driver not to put him out of the car, and he said that the cab driver told him, he doesn't have time for people who don't have money and to get out," Allen said.
"I said OK, and so I got out and stood by myself," Alex said.
Allen, who doesn't drive, had called the Express Valentine Taxi Company to take her son from her mother's home in Freeport to her house in Roosevelt.
When the cab driver realized the boy didn't have money, he kicked him out of the car.
"I called the cab company screaming, no forget everything, tell me where my son is before we resolve anything, where is my son, where is my son, and he couldn't get an answer out of the driver," Allen said.
Alex was alone and confused and crying for his grandmother who eventually found him.
"I was screaming for Grandma, and I keep saying, Grandma!" Alex said.
Eyewitness News went to the owner of the cab company who said it is company policy to turn away any passenger who doesn't pay the fare upfront.
Allen says a 7 year old child with a disability isn't just any passenger.
"I speak for a lot of people, I could never put a child out anywhere," Allen said.
The driver, Roy Sutherland, 66, will be arraigned on charges of endangering a child later this month.Driver kicks 7-year-old out of taxi
By Marina Landis, CNN
October 13, 2010 6:11... more
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PlanetFassa.com is calling all creative parents and former kids to submit their original kid activity ideas for a chance to win $250! Did you invent a fun game with your siblings when you were little? When you want to get your kids off the couch, what activity or game have you created to get your kids moving? Did your son or daughter make up a great game worth sharing with other kids? Contribute your ideas here: http://www.planetfassa.com/blog/contest
PlanetFassa was started by a stepmom of three when she realized that her stepkids weren't playing outside or interacting with family as much as she'd like! Here's her blog post about the whole ordeal: http://www.planetfassa.com/blog/didireallysaythat
Planet Fassa is building an interactive online resource that gives children and their families a safe, easy, and fun place to go to find stories, on- and off-line activities, and challenges. F-A-S-S-A stands for Fun, Activities, Stories, Social, Awards. Fassa is also the main character in our first series of original stories, the Fassa Tails. Designed to be lots of fun, while cleverly wholesome, Fassa sees the world from a very unique perspective, finding the silver lining in everything and the beauty in everyone.PlanetFassa.com is calling all creative parents and former kids to submit their... more
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"A large and growing number of Iraqi children are suffering from severe birth defects, as shown in the heartbreaking CNN segment embedded below, and their parents blame alleged U.S. chemical-weapons attacks.
"Lawyers representing the families have sued the British government for complicity in the alleged war crimes. But Iraq's deputy minister of health tells CNN there isn't enough evidence to prove causality, and in any case, the U.S. boycott of the International Criminal Court makes direct prosecution of the case unlikely, as do the nation's federal immunity laws.
"Please WATCH the CNN segment in its entirety.""A large and growing number of Iraqi children are suffering from severe birth... more
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Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants being sold throughout the United States, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The most contaminated piece analyzed in lab testing performed for the AP contained a startling 91 percent cadmium by weight. The cadmium content of other contaminated trinkets, all purchased at national and regional chains or franchises, tested at 89 percent, 86 percent and 84 percent by weight. The testing also showed that some items easily shed the heavy metal, raising additional concerns about the levels of exposure to children.
Cadmium is a known carcinogen. Like lead, it can hinder brain development in the very young, according to recent research.
Children don't have to swallow an item to be exposed — they can get persistent, low-level doses by regularly sucking or biting jewelry with a high cadmium content.
To gauge cadmium's prevalence in children's jewelry, the AP organized lab testing of 103 items bought in New York, Ohio, Texas and California. All but one were purchased in November or December.
The results: 12 percent of the pieces of jewelry contained at least 10 percent cadmium.
Some of the most troubling test results were for bracelet charms sold at Walmart, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a dollar store. High amounts of cadmium also were detected in "The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed pendants.
...Click above to read the whole story...Barred from using lead in children's jewelry because of its toxicity, some... more
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"Walmart is currently selling holiday gifts for children that have dangerous levels of lead, chlorine arsenic, cadmium and bromine-all toxic substances.
As the world's largest retailer, Walmart has tremendous influence over manufacturers and could be a powerful force in making sure our children's toys meet strict safety standards.
But Walmart isn't standing up for its customer's safety. Instead it's pressuring its suppliers to deliver goods as cheaply as possible - forcing them to cut corners on product safety to meet Walmart's price demands and still make a profit.
There's no price at which we should be willing to accept products that jeopardize our children's health.
Send a letter to Walmart CEO Mike Duke and ask him to pull dangerous products off Walmart shelves this holiday season and stop sacrificing safety for profits."
Go to the link, take action and please sign the petition, 1000 more signatures to go!
We can do it.
http://www.change.org/wakeupwalmart/actions/view/tell_walmart_to_get_dangerous_products_off_its_shelves
Join Organic:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/"Walmart is currently selling holiday gifts for children that have dangerous... more
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Buulu Msembwa (Congo) and Christie Johnson (NYC) speak about the challenges facing service providers who care for orphans and other vulnerable children in Kigoma, Tanzania (July 2009).
Providing technical assistance and caring for the needs of vulnerable communities is on the agenda of these locally based NGOs.
I spent two days with them in the field and promised to raise awareness and share my skills to help fundraise on the web.
If you want to contribute financially or logistically, you can contact:
integra_lassistance@yahoo.com
IAVC
Rev. Buulu Msembwa
Founder & Coordinator
P.O. Box 979 Kigoma
TanzaniaBuulu Msembwa (Congo) and Christie Johnson (NYC) speak about the challenges facing... more
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Middle ear infections affect 75 percent of children by age 3, making it one of the most common illnesses of early childhood. Homeopathic remedies offer a mild, yet often effective way to treat these uncomfortable conditions.Middle ear infections affect 75 percent of children by age 3, making it one of the... more
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Please remember the child victims of the Chernobyl disaster today. Do what you can.
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These are the children of families who live in horrific slum conditions in downtown Los Angeles. Their food is covered in roaches. Their skin is covered in roach and rat bites. Doctors remove roaches from their ears. Their buildings are falling apart and their ladlord ignores their pleas for help.
Watch as these brave families led by SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy) pay a visit to their landlord in his beautiful beachside community (which is in stark contrast to their disheveled homes) and leave him a "bill" for all of their suffering.
More on SAJE:
Over the past two years, SAJE has been working with tenants in the buildings of notorious slumlord, Frank McHugh. He owns about 170 buildings in Los Angeles, CA.
His practices of taking rent and making shoddy or "mickey mouse" repairs to his buildings have created worlds of pain for decent people who don't have a lot of affordable housing choices in L.A.
Many are forced to live with rats, roaches, bad plumbing, and, in some cases, structural problems; for example one building owned by Frank McHugh literally FELL DOWN.
To learn more visit www.saje.netThese are the children of families who live in horrific slum conditions in downtown... more
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Monday 08 December 2008
by: Blake Morrison and Brad Heath, USA Today
"Children are often exposed to dangerous chemicals at home and in schools. (Photo: Garrett Hubbard / USA Today)
Addyston, Ohio - The growl of air-monitoring equipment has replaced the chatter of children at Meredith Hitchens Elementary School in this Cincinnati suburb along the Ohio River.
School district officials pulled all students from Hitchens three years ago, after air samples outside the building showed high levels of chemicals coming from the plastics plant across the street. The levels were so dangerous that the Ohio EPA concluded the risk of getting cancer there was 50 times higher than what the state considers acceptable.
The air outside 435 other schools - from Maine to California - appears to be even worse, and the threats to the health of students at those locations may be even greater." continued at link above.Monday 08 December 2008
by: Blake Morrison and Brad Heath, USA Today... more
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Study covered pain reliever's use among children in 31 countries
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A government agency has dropped plans to test a controversial treatment for autism that critics had called an unethical experiment on children.A government agency has dropped plans to test a controversial treatment for autism... more
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Super-Olympian Michael Phelps, who famously follows a horrendous junk food diet, has now signed a lucrative deal to promote Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes. In doing so, he will leverage his celebrity status to push sugary, processed foods onto a generation of children who already suffer from unprecedented rates of obesity and diabetes. Processed sugar, as you know, promotes both diseases and causes nutritional deficiencies at the same time.
The deal has earned Phelps harsh criticism from some doctors, such as nutritionist Rebecca Solomon of Mount Sanai Medical Center. In a Daily News article posted this morning, Solomon said, "I would not consider Frosted Flakes the food of an Olympian."
That's the understatement of the day. I would consider Frosted Flakes to be the food of a generation of obese, diabetic, ADHD kids who need real role models they can follow, not sellout junk food promoters who trade fame for unethical profits.
Does Phelps have the right to promote Frosted Flakes? He has the legal right, sure, but given his considerable notoriety, he has the moral obligation to more carefully consider the consequences of his endorsements. Still, to expect a junk-food-eating 23-year-old to understand nutrition and ethics may be asking a bit too much, but it's not exactly rocket science to understand that processed sugar promotes obesity.
Michael "Sellout" Phelps
In my view, by endorsing Frosted Flakes cereal, Michael Phelps has gone from a Super Olympian to a Super Sellout. He has now proven himself no different than anybody else who pushes unhealthy substances to American kids, other than the fact he can swim really fast. Why couldn't Phelps have sought out a superfood company to endorse instead? Or at least a healthy food product? (Answer: Because cereal companies operate on much higher markups and have a lot more money to burn on celebrity endorsements.)
Alchemists say you can't turn lead into gold, but with this Kellogg's deal, Phelps has done something even more amazing: He's turned gold into fool's gold, because sugared-up corn flakes is not the breakfast of champions; it's the breakfast of fools.Super-Olympian Michael Phelps, who famously follows a horrendous junk food diet, has... more
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Interesting... Is Monsanto feeling the heat from farmers, people in the medical field, consumer groups, and state attorney generals who know this product is dangerous? Or are they simply looking to do this to invest more in their continuing effort to control the entire seed market of the world and the pesticides that are toxifying it? Personally, I think they are feeling some heat regarding the labelling of products, and people are becoming more informed as to what they buy. People are becoming aware and don't want antibiotics and pus in their milk, nor an added injection of IGF-1 everytime they pour a glass of it. Perhaps the next step will be to have it banned altogether as it should be.Interesting... Is Monsanto feeling the heat from farmers, people in the medical field,... more
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Children face the greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods:
Young, fast-developing bodies are influenced most.
Children are more susceptible to allergies.
Children are more susceptible to problems with milk.
Children are more susceptible to nutritional problems.
Children are in danger from antibiotic resistant diseases.
(For more information, watch a preview of Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods, read a review of Hidden Dangers in Kid's Meals; or read Genetically Engineered Foods Pose Higher Risk for Children or the Spilling the Beans article Another Reason for Schools to Ban Genetically Engineered Foods.)
Schools throughout the UK and parts of Europe banned GM food years ago. In the 1990s, many Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in the U.S. rallied against rbGH and more than a hundred school districts banned milk from rbGH-treated cows. Wisconsin dairy farmer John Kinsman describes the method he used to inspire several schools: "I simply talked to parents of small children. Once mothers heard about this, they didn't rest until their school made the commitment."
The emergence of the “healthy school lunch” movement in the U.S. today provides a ready platform to promote GM-free school meals. Parents and schools are already seeking to change kids’ diets in response to the obesity and diabetes epidemics, the proliferation of ADD/ADHD, and the increased understanding of the impact of food and behavior. Several school systems have made sweeping changes to their meal programs, and new parents are consistently the largest group of new buyers of organic food each year.
In addition, the US government has taken steps to upgrade school nutritional standards - the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, for example, states that all school districts with a federally funded school meals program develop and implement wellness policies that address, among other things, nutrition and nutrition education by the start of the 2006-07 school year.
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Parent Actions
1. Educate yourself, and stay informed.
A good place to start is with this website, as well as the Institute’s publications, and in particular the Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals video, which presents a compelling case for the dangers of GM foods to children of all ages. Plus sign up for our newsletter, Spilling the Beans, to stay up-to-date on the issues.
2. Educate your child(ren).
For older children, consider showing them the Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals video. We are compiling other material that can be used in the home or school, that describes the issues for various age groups.
3. Make your home GM-free.
Use the Buying Non-GM Shopping List to identify what food items you’re currently buying contain GM ingredients and what items you can purchase to replace them.
4. Speak with other parents.
We recommend sharing the Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals video with other parents you know. You can do this one-on-one or invite a group of parents to watch the video and discuss possible follow-up action.
5. Get involved in a local GM-Free Schools campaign.
See Supporting Local GM-Free Schools Campaign Efforts, above.
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There are ways to have the power to choose what you and your children eat. This is just a start. And you can check with your Board of Education before the next school year to find out what they serve children in school on lunch programs. You have the right to know, but you have to get involved.Children face the greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods:
Young,... more
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Turning dozens of hungry children away from a free meals program wasn't how Vince Harper wanted to start the summer.
Harper oversees a program in Santa Rosa, California, that provides food to kids during schools' summer recess. More than 90 lined up at a community center on June 9, the first day of the service. Only 50 meals were available.
``It's a terrible feeling,'' said Harper, 41, director of youth and neighborhood services for the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County. ``You have to tell them to come back tomorrow, and hopefully they will.''
As California schools let out this month, food banks in the state face record demand for free meals from families pressed by food price inflation and economic hardship.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has requested extra donations, saying 115,000 children may go hungry in the region. The San Francisco Food Bank has been forced to find new sources to distribute enough food for 66,000 meals a day, a 16 percent increase from last year.
``There are some kids this summer that might not have enough food because they're not getting meals at school,'' said Marguerite Nowak, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Food Bank.
In California, a state with 36.5 million residents, food banks serve about 5 million people per month, said Jessica Bartholow of the California Association of Food Banks.
Some food banks say they are having trouble meeting demand because of a 59 percent drop in goods provided by the federal government, forcing them to buy more food while prices are rising. Manufacturing efficiencies also have decreased the amount of surplus and defective products typically donated by companies, food bank employees say.
Graduation Ceremony
In Kettleman City, California, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, kindergarteners took a break from their June 6 graduation ceremony to go to a food bank.
``They walked across the street in their Sunday best to get food from us so they could eat that weekend,'' said Dana Wilkie, president of Community Food Bank in Fresno.
Californians are being squeezed by the nation's highest gas prices, averaging $4.609 a gallon for regular unleaded, some of the country's most expensive housing markets and an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, fifth highest in the country.
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I used to work in the school system in my town, and spoke to some children who claimed the free lunch they got (which believe me was substandard by any standard) was the only meal they had. I actually brought in lunch for a couple of students who you could tell didn't have much. It is bad enough to see adults going hungry, but knowing children in this country are is something that should never be ignored. Children shouldn't have to go hungry because the money is going in gas tanks! This is the heartbreaking reality we face in this country. The Congress can approve bills to budget and approve billions for "war" and yet our children cannot even get a basic meal or a decent education. This is not only an American tragedy but an American disgrace.
Turning dozens of hungry children away from a free meals program wasn't how Vince... more
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