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Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) Stands Ready to Defend Health Freedom

By  Dr. Byron J. Richards (July 9, 2007)

On Tuesday, July 10, the house plans 40 minutes of testimony on HR.2900 (the companion to S.1082 which has already passed the Senate), followed by a forced vote. House democrats are seeking to ramrod this legislation through without allowing any debate or amendments.  Immediate consumer action must be taken on or before the morning of July 10 to stop this bill from moving forward with its attack on your right to have access to a wide variety of dietary supplements. 

The problem for the dietary supplements is that HR.2900/S.1082, as written, gives the FDA broad new power to evaluate dietary supplements using drug-related risk benefit analysis and thereby remove any dietary supplement from the market at its whim.  At the same time, this legislation turns the FDA into a quasi drug company, allowing it to work in partnership with Big Pharma and Big Biotech to develop, patent, license, and market the next generation of drugs.  The unelected bureaucrats of the FDA have demonstrated time and time again that they will abuse their power to defend Big Pharma and stamp out its competition (dietary supplements and alternative health options).  HR.2900 grants the FDA the ability to do this based entirely on opinion.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), presidential candidate for 2008, stands ready to defend your health freedom. Working closely with the grassroots and noted health freedom attorney, Jonathan Emord, Ron Paul is ready to introduce amendments to HR.2900 that are vital for the protection of your access to safe and effective dietary supplements--and preventing the FDA from running wild with unprecedented new regulatory power. Ron Paul's important Health Freedom Protection Act is HR.2117.

However, the House leadership is seeking to prevent Ron Paul from introducing these amendments by forcing a vote on the legislation without any debate or amendments.  This is a political game to circumvent the constitutional process and to deny the voice of the people.

What To Do Now:

The following message must be communicated to the House leadership and to your own Representative:

“Please remove HR.2900 from the Suspension Calendar so that it can be brought up under a regular order so it can be properly debated and amendments can be made. As it stands S.1082/HR.2900 poses a significant threat to natural health options and allows the FDA unprecedented new regulatory power thorough the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA. It enables the FDA to brand dietary supplements as unsafe based on drug-related risk benefit analysis, when in fact such dietary supplements are safe at the commonly consumed doses as instructed on the labeling. Certainly you are not intending to give the FDA the power, based on FDA opinion, to deny consumers access to dietary supplements that over 150 million Americans rely on for health. HR.2900 must be amended to prevent this flagrant abuse of power.”
Immediate Steps:

1. Contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office by phone and email and give her the above message.  Her phone is (202) 225-4965.  Her email is AmericaVoices@mail.house.gov
   
2. Also contact other House leadership by phone with the same message (Hoyer, Bonner, and Blunt).  Call the Capital switchboard (202) 225-3121/ 800-828-0498 and asked to be transferred.
   
3. Fax http://capwiz.com/wellnessresources/issues/alert/?alertid=9996476&PROCESS=Take+Action

Please take action now and send this message on to your friends and family who have benefited from dietary supplements!

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Ron Paul's important Health Freedom Protection Bill, HR 2117.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11754

Then click on the link below to oppsed the very dangerous HR 1561,

 sister legislation to the "FDA Revitalization Bill, S. 1082, passed with only 1 dissenting vote

on May 9 by the US Senate:

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11344

 

 

A series of international and US government actions at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007 have put Health Freedom of Choice -- with regards to Organic Standards, Nutrients, Traditional Remedies and Leading Edge Alternatives -- in greater jeopardy than any time since the adoption of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act  of 1994 (DSHEA). Thus, the Summer of 2007 has become a Summer of Decision for health freedom activists.

Codex Alimentarius is the least known, the most impactful and potentially the most dangerous threat to health and health freedom.  Most threats to health freedom are local ( e.g., a State goes on a rampage against physicians practicing drug free medicine), national (e.g.,  the US FDA decides to articulate the law inaccurately setting the stage for draconian "enforcement" of a regulatory structure which deems all health aides to be untested drugs, like cherries if used for arthritis, or untested devices, like hot rocks to sooth painful muscles).  Codex, because it is a UN project which sets standards and guidelines controlling the international trade of all foods and nutrients, not only determines what is available internationally (with all the market pressure that implies) but also becomes the domestic law for those countries which, like the United States, have decided to "Harmonize" with Codex standards and guidelines.  The US announced its intention to do just that on October 11, 1995 in the Federal Register when it stated that it would give preference to international standards over US regulation and, as it has turned out, US law as well.

Codex is a mechanism for moving the entire world rapidly towards an industrialized, nutrient poor diet which benefit a multinational constituency and threaten health everywhere by compromising food on a cataclysmic scale.  Under Codex, dangerous, expensive and health-damaging changes in the global food supply are being implemented. Organic standards are being degraded, permitted heavy metal residue levels are being increased, Codex permits astonishingly high levels of dangerous industrial drugs, chemicals, pesticides, toxic veterinary drugs and other poisons in the food supply.  Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) for many pesticides are being removed so that there is no upper limit whatsoever to the amounts of these systemic poisons which can be introduced into foods (and into the bodies and environments of the farmer, his family and his land. Others are being increased dramatically.  Organic standards are being lowered so pure, unadulterated food can be expected to vanish globally since the phrase will be maintained but the reality will be degraded beyond recognition to meet the needs of industrial farming.  At the same time, high potency (dose) nutrients are being prohibited since they are treated as if they were toxins (severely limited, unlike most toxins) and "assessed" by "Risk Assessment" to be present at  no more than, for vitamins and minerals, for example, 115% of the amount found in untreated foods.  High potency nutrients will become unavailable in any country which "HARMonizes" with Codex" (the US) or adopts its texts as its domestic laws (most of the developing world).

In effect, Codex standards and guidelines mandate unparalleled levels of toxicity plus global under-nutrition, the very same condition to which the World Health Organization (WHO), one of Codex's parent organizations (Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO,  is the other) attributes the global epidemic of non communicable diseases of under nutrition: cancers, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes and obesity. These diseases are the principle killers in the developed world (after properly used pharmaceuticals) and are rapidly becoming the principle killers in the developing world as well.  These preventable diseases are also major profit centers for industries that depend on illness for their profits: the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

At this year's Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) meeting (FAO Headquarters, Rome, July 2-7, 2007) the procedure has been radically altered.  In previous years, standards and Guidelines proposed by the various Codex Committees and regional associations were discussed (at least to some extent) by the national delegates to the annual CAC. Unjust, dangerous, unwise or unhealthy Codex texts were opposed by countries whose self interest or public health was harmed by the text under consideration.  If the standard or Guideline was not approved or needed to be revised, it would either be killed or sent back to Committee for revision, often along with specific instructions to that body.  When ready, the text would return to CAC for further consideration, advancement to another level of acceptance or rejection.

That has changed dramatically.  The anticipated date for implementation and globalization of total control of the world's food trade appeared to be dramatically off track.  Things were not moving very rapidly despite the near-desperate efforts of Committee chairpersons like the German Rolf Grossklaus, MD. of the Codex Committee for Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) and the Canadian Ellen Mackenzie, Ph.D. of the Codex Committee for Food Labeling to rush decisions, curtail discussion and gallop through their view of the agenda at a dizzying pace. Of course, pro-health options like the WHO's Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Nutrition (mandated for implementation by Codex by both WHO and FAO) somehow never seemed to garner adequate time for meaningful discussion leaving implementation strategies in the dust and in the dark.

This year at CAC not only has the Natural Solutions Foundation been prevented from mingling, eating or talking with the Codex Delegates (by security guards on several occasions!), but the delegates have been prevented from discussion of the standards and Guidelines they are advancing through the Codex process!  It is strikingly reminiscent of the US Senate being handed sealed copies of the Patriot Act weeks after 9/11, assured that their security clearances were not high enough to read the law but being instructed to vote on it anyway. If you recall, 99 US Senators did.  Robert Bryd of Virginia was the sole member of the Senate to refuse to buy that pig in that poke.

At CAC, the Chair now urges members to adopt whatever texts have been brought forward, whether they agree with them or vehemently disagree.  Texts and amendments to them are presented "en bloc" for approval en mass without a single word of discussion, if the Chair can bully the delegates into it.  When delegates try to overcome this de facto gag rule, either they are told that they are getting in the way of the good work of the CAC (shame) or that they are making it impossible for the CAC to complete its work (guilt).

Those few delegates who try to clarify the irregularities of the process or the dangers of the standards or Guidelines are told that they are getting in the way.  Since Codex refuses to define "consensus" and the Chair's agenda is set before the meeting, the Chair does whatever the Chair had intended to do in the first place.  An example: today new standards were authorized for a whole group of dangerous industrial chemicals (pesticides) whose MRLs were simply evaporated by the Chairman's administrative fiat.  This means that there is no upper limit to the amount of these metabolic poisons which may be incorporated into your food.

Critical health freedom choices this summer mean making sure that your country does not harmonize with Codex Alimentarius and that your national scientists and legislators follow the Codex Two Step Process to make pro-health choices where Codex makes pro-industry ones and to protect your right to clean, unadulterated and healthy food.  If you are a United States citizen, that also means signing the Natural Solutions Foundation Citizens Petition to force the US Government to comply with US law, rather than Codex standards and Guidelines, with reference to vitamins and minerals.

In the last days of the year the President signed the Adverse Event Reporting Act that requires supplement sellers to report reactions to their products; we view this law as potentially beneficial to consumers. At the same time the Food and Drug Administration - the FDA - issued a draft "CAM" Guidance (complementary and alternative modalities) that Congressman Ron Paul, MD, called "an abuse of FDA power..." This is and attempt to grab power over our remedies traditionally overseen by state law by an agency that has show itself unable to effectively implement its confused and contradictory authority over foods and drugs.

The FDA issued the draft Guidance on December 26th, but did not bother to give the public notice until February 26, 2007. Then the public had its turn to comment.  nearly two hundred thousand people did so, telling the FDA to leave our alternatives alone.  This same grassroots movement has swelled the ranks of NSF supporters. We've joined Dr. Paul in condemning this blatant power grab and have called for meaningful reorganization of the FDA. The FDA needs to  focus on its core mission of protecting the public from dangerous, side-effect causing prescription drugs that, these days, have much more in common with chemical toxins than natural materials. To do that, the agency's food jurisdiction should be shifted to the US Agriculture Department or other existing agencies.

Every Federal agency, however, is capable of causing great harm to the public and the USDA is no exception.  early June, the Department approved the addition of 38 more non-organic source materials to products that can continue to mislead us by pretending to be truly organic. This continues a general and disturbing trend to dilute organic standards.  The NSF supports strong organic standards and supports the disclosure of conditions, such as irradiation and genetic modification, that allow the public to make informed choices.

Late in June the FDA, 14 years after being instructed to do so by Congress, finally issued what are called "Good Manufacturing Practices" regulations to the dietary supplement industry. This 467 page document has capacity to reduce consumer access to high potency nutrients and admits that many small companies will be driven out of business as a result.  We are very concerned about this increase in regulation. Just previously, the US Senate adopted the FDA "Revitalization" bill which would "solve" the problem of FDA failures by granting it more power  to abuse.  When the public rose up against that bill, it was amended to protect dietary supplements from its new powers.  But the House must now consider it, as HR.1567, which ought to be further amended to further protect  natural remedies. We note that Dr. Paul has introduced the Health Freedom Protection Act, HR.2117, that would do just that.  Our Representatives need to hear from the public so they support our freedoms with Dr. Paul instead of the new restrictions proposed by Sen. Kennedy.

At the same time, various regional and international agencies continue to threaten market access to wholesome foods, natural remedies and dietary supplements. As always, the FDA's announced intent to "HARMonize" our  freedoms to international rules (even where that decreases our access to safe products), operating through the North American Union, Codex and the new US/EU cooperation agreement, remains an ever present threat. Codex Alimentarius -  the world food code - still remains too much a creature of big governments and big commercial interests, although a nascent alliance of health-friendly countries, inspired by information from NSF is making inroads and recently protected healthy babies from being exposed to fluoride in their formulas.

This is an especially exciting time for the Dietary Supplement / Natural Products market. While stricter regulations seem on the way, scientific advances and ongoing clinical studies point the way to better and more effective products. The problem is not in the science or the production; the problem is in the politics. These products are generally recognized as safe  when used as directed, like any food. We therefore need to reject the big government notion that tells us we will only be safe if bureaucrats have more control over us.  That nostrum is provably wrong, as we see from the failure of government, with plenary power over approving drugs (as to efficacy and safety) to protect the public from what some estimate to be hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths each year from lawful and correctly used prescription drugs.

The wise people who wrote the Declaration of Independence told us, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,  it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..."

It is now time for people concerned with natural solutions to our health care crises to declare our independence from the failures of the bureaucratic  system and to demand new freedoms to offset and correct the old failures of the regulators.

Ralph Fucetola, JD
Trustee


Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Citizens Petition: www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=184

HR. 2117: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11754 

HR. 1561:

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11344 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other
Richards
Articles:

The Meltdown of Public Health and Personal Freedom

FDA Celebrates Hundred Years of Pretense

 

More
Richards
Articles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Byron J. Richards, CCN

June 27, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

The FDA, emboldened by its transformation into a drug company, has embarked upon an anti-American plan of interfering with business and intentionally eliminating various dietary supplement companies from the market. The FDA announcement came on Friday, June 22, 2007 under the guise of a final rule for dietary supplement good manufacturing practices (CGMPs). Within this 800 page rule the FDA states, “We find that this final rule will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.... Establishments with above average costs, and even establishments with average costs, could be hard pressed to continue to operate. Some of these may decide it is too costly and either change product lines or go out of business.... 140 very small [less than 20 employees] and 32 small dietary supplement manufacturers [less than 500 employees] will be at risk of going out of business.... costs per establishment are proportionally higher for very small than for large establishments....The regulatory costs of this final rule will also discourage new small businesses from entering the industry.”

This FDA rule will directly raise the price of dietary supplements for all consumers. The FDA acknowledges this and says “We expect that the majority of these costs will be borne by consumers of dietary supplements, who will likely respond to the increase in prices by reducing consumption.” Thus, the FDA is intentionally seeking to shrink the size of the dietary supplement industry and reduce the influence of safe and effective options to improve the dreadful trend in the health of Americans. The goal is to leave toxic drugs as the primary health option.

Independent analysis of this FDA rule has placed cost of compliance at 10 fold what the FDA estimates with as many as 50% of small companies unable to comply.

The gutless cowards of Congress, a majority of whom are on the Big Pharma payroll or will be on it once they leave Congress, have delegated their lawmaking powers granted by the U.S. Constitution to a bunch of Big Pharma-friendly unelected bureaucrats at the FDA, who are in turn using this power to undermine free commerce and help Big Pharma eliminate competition from the market. This is the behavior of a government in tyranny, inviting a revolution by the people. It is noteworthy that fascist governments of the past have eliminated health freedom and health options as a necessary condition to enslave and brainwash a population. Congress has delegated its responsibility to the people to such an extent that over half the laws in this country are now concocted by unelected bureaucrats with vested interests.

A Vehicle for Unprecedented Harassment

Any company that can afford to comply with the costs and regulations of this new FDA rule can be targeted and eliminated at will by the FDA. In essence, the FDA is seeking to make the dietary supplement industry document every phase of production, including expensive testing at multiple points in the production process. Massive recordkeeping will be required, including all customer complaints and returns for any reason! This is utterly draconian and unnecessary interference and burden to free commerce. It is completely Anti-American. No doubt, the FDA will impose user fees as an additional charge so that FDA agents will have the funding required to enforce the regulations. Under the new rule any flaw in bookkeeping can result in a company’s products being declared adulterated, allowing the FDA to remove them from the market even though nothing is wrong with them! A company can then be forced out of business because they won’t be able to sell any products to raise the money to comply. The rules are so complex and vague that the FDA can selectively target any company it chooses, even those attempting to comply in good faith.

The FDA is doing this under the pretense of improved consumer safety. Consumer safety could readily be guaranteed by simply having all companies test their final products for purity and potency. Instead of this simple approach the FDA has gone to the extreme of burdening the dietary supplement industry with regulations in excess of the drug industry! Supplements are foods, not drugs. The food industry couldn’t begin to comply with these FDA rules, even though food contamination is far more dangerous to health than dietary supplements.

The FDA intends to phase this rule in over the next three years. This means that within five years half the industry and many of the health options individuals rely on will either be gone or significantly more expensive.

Even more chilling is that forces within the dietary supplement industry itself are in no small part responsible for this FDA final rule.

Trade Groups and their Big Companies Turn on America

The Natural Products Association (formerly the National Nutritional Food Association – NNFA) and the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) have been instrumental in forcing these drug-like rules on dietary supplements. These globalist organizations are selling out America, destroying American jobs, undermining the U.S. Constitution, and working in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies to usher in Codex and the New World Order. Consumers of dietary supplements should learn who these companies are before buying their products and helping to inadvertently fund the destruction of health freedom in this country.

When DSHEA was passed in 1994 part of that law required the FDA to establish current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) for the dietary supplement industry. During a period of FDA outreach to the industry the FDA was surprised to learn that CRN and NPA were in favor of drug-like CGMPs for the dietary supplement industry. These trade groups, working closely with Senators Orin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), have intentionally taken the supplement industry down a slippery slope. It is noteworthy that Hatch takes in more money from Big Pharma than he does from dietary supplement companies. Not only is Hatch a big supporter of the Medicare Part D drug rip off of Americans he has saved Big Pharma billions by protecting them from generic competition, as he is currently attempting to do with his legislation for new biologic drugs. Hatch also has a son working for NPA and another son that lobbies for NPA and the dietary supplement industry. When Hatch leaves the Senate he will be first in line for a six or seven figure Big Pharma salary.

The CRN has been taken over by multinational drug and food companies. Key players are the nutritional divisions of Bayer, BASF, Cargill, Monsanto, Wyeth, and Archer Daniels Midland. Nutrition companies that participate are in most cases owned by pharmaceutical companies, heavily invested in pharmaceutical companies, or jockeying for position in the international market as part of the New World Order. Key names include Mannatech, Shaklee, Herbalife, GNLD International, The Vitamin Shoppe, and GNC. These companies are glad to eliminate competition from small companies and start up ventures.

Carrying on the general theme of Big Pharma ownership and a globalist agenda are the companies that control the NPA. One need only look at the new NPA China board to understand who these key players are. Jarrow Formulas, Now Foods, GNC, and Herbalife top the list. At the end of 2006 Jarrow and Now helped lead the charge with Senators Hatch and Harkin to burden the dietary supplement industry with bizarre Adverse Event Reporting legislation (AER) which insisted that dietary supplement companies keep extensive records on any type of consumer complaint. Aspects of this AER law are now implemented in the FDA final rule on CGMPs. Of course, NPA was quick to offer expensive training to its members to indoctrinate them into how to comply with the rules that NPA, working on behalf of the FDA, just forced on its own members. Are their member companies really this stupid? Or are they all working together? I would recommend that any NPA member that believes itself to be a true American company that values our constitution immediately withdraw from NPA membership – consumers will be looking to see who you are.

The picture is now crystal clear for any person who cares to look. Numerous dietary supplement companies are anti-American and actively selling out our country and our constitution, working hand-in-glove with the FDA and Big Pharma. The majority of such companies can be found as members of CRN and NPA. It will be up to the American consumer to save the dietary industry from itself and preserve their own access to safe and effective natural health remedies. This is a relatively simple task. Quit buying products from or quit being a distributor in these fascist organizations. Support the small companies that are the backbone of America, otherwise they will soon be extinct.

Update on S.1082 Threat to Dietary Supplements

Many of you have been following the extreme threat to dietary supplements posed by S.1082. Similar legislation has now cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is headed for the floor of the House in the next week or two. The House version of this bill now contains the “food and food ingredients” language that the FDA can use to apply drug-related risk/benefit analysis to dietary supplements and have them removed from the market at their whim.

It is noteworthy that both CRN and NPA have posted on their websites information stating that S.1082 is not a threat to dietary supplements. Both organizations are flat out wrong. They cite a colloquy by Hatch, Harkin, Kennedy, and Enzi as their evidence. This colloquy was a direct result of our grassroots campaign to alert the American consumer to this major threat. In no way does this colloquy protect dietary supplements. UNTIL THE LANGUAGE IN THE BILL IS CHANGED THE THREAT EXISTS AND IS VERY REAL.

CRN and NPA also tell their members that the Codex initiative to scare consumers into thinking that dietary supplements are unsafe above miniscule amounts and need to be regulated by international laws is also no big deal. It is clear that CRN and NPA, again working hand-in-glove with the FDA, are a major part of the problem and are actively engaged in forwarding the globalist agenda of the New World Order. While pretending to represent the dietary supplement industry these organizations are in fact shooting the industry in the back and undermining health options for Americans.

The FDA is Out of Control

The FDA is a tyrannical organization that is now emboldened and completely out of control. It is not surprising that the FDA is seeking to eliminate competition to Big Pharma, they have been doing that for much of the past century. What is surprising is that they are openly stating in their final rule a plan that directly eliminates small businesses from existence. This fascist organization believes itself to be above the rule of law and is actively working against America and the rights of Americans. It must be stopped.

© 2007 Truth in Wellness, LLC - All Rights Reserved

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Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist and nationally-renowned health expert, radio personality, and educator. He is the author of Mastering Leptin, The Leptin Diet, and Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America.

Richards encourages individuals to take charge of their health, stand up for their health rights, and not blindly succumb to propaganda from the vested-interests who profit from keeping Americans sick. As founder of Wellness Resources, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN, an independently-owned fine-quality dietary supplement company since 1985, he has personally developed 75 unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional formulas. www.wellnessresources.com

FREE Subscription to Byron's Health Newsletter, click here.

E-mail: byron@truthinwellness.com

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the school year began in the late summer of 2002, Mindoro Elementary School teacher and principal Angela Olstad was ready to call it quits,” wrote Emily Winter in her article “Dirty electricity at center of debate” that appeared in the Aug. 2, 2006 issue of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Since Olstad took the job at Mindoro three years earlier, she suffered from chronic illness and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in April 2002. Other faculty members reported health problems as well, and 37 Mindoro students had developed asthma.

“Even after treating the school twice for mold, rampant illness persisted and its source remained a mystery.

“ ‘I was exhausted. I absolutely had no life for three-and-a-half years’ Olstad said. ‘I was afraid to go back.’

“But all that would change in October 2002,” continued the article.

In October 2002, the superintendent, Ron Perry, invited a power quality expert to measure the school for electrical problems. He found elevated levels of high frequency radiation on the wires in the school (commonly referred to as “dirty electricity”) and installed Graham Stetzer (GS) filters to remove these high frequencies. The staff knew that an electrical contractor was working in the building but were unaware of what work was being done. Within days they began to notice marked improvements in their health.

In a letter posted on the website, www.electricalpollution.com, Char Sbraggia, the district nurse, documented some of these improvements after the GS filters were installed: “Teachers are stating they are less fatigued and tired.... The students seem to have more energy and appear and seem less tired…. Several staff who doctored regularly for allergies have not had to take medication or see their doctors because they are having less problems.... Students who have been diagnosed with migraine headaches have had their headaches reduced, or no headaches at all.”

But perhaps the most impressive result was for students with asthma. Of the 37 students who required nebulizer treatments daily, only three students used inhalers for exercise-induced asthma before physical education classes after the filters were installed.

Two years later the results were the same. Absenteeism, due to illness, was reduced and students continued not to need inhalers and to have a lot of energy. According to district nurse Sbraggia in a follow-up letter on Jan. 14, 2005, “We are a much healthier school since the filters have been installed.”

The Wisconsin Department of Health no longer classified the school as a “sick” building and a lawsuit, initiated by the teachers’ union, was dropped.

Is the Mindoro school unique? No! The problem at the Mindoro school was dirty electricity generated by fluorescent lights, computers and typical office equipment like photocopy machines—equipment that is present in most North American schools.

I became aware of dirty electricity in 2003, when I was invited to do a study at a Toronto private school for students from Grade 1 to 12 with learning disabilities. A parent concerned about her daughter’s health and education initiated this study.

Scientific studies have repeatedly documented an increased risk of childhood leukemia associated with exposure to elevated magnetic fields. For this reason, it is advised that schools not be built near high voltage transmission lines, sub-stations or transformers and that computer stations be reconfigured to minimize student exposure to magnetic fields. The Toronto school did not have high magnetic fields but did have high levels of dirty electricity.

Dirty electricity is a power quality problem that the utilities are concerned about because of the damage it does to sensitive electronic equipment, hence the need for computer surge suppressors. The GS filters are powerful surge suppressors that reduce dirty electricity in the four to 100 kHz range. According to Guy Leavitt, the superintendent of Blair/Taylor School District in Wisconsin: “We did have a number of electronic failures in the district prior to installing the [GS] filters. Since installing them, we have eliminated nearly all of these types of failures. Over the three-year period we may have saved in the range of $40,000.”

I was unaware of studies showing that dirty electricity was harmful to human health and was skeptical that filters would alleviate the health problems in the school. I agreed to do the research because even a negative result has value in a scientific study.

We designed a wellness questionnaire based on an abbreviated list of symptoms common in radio-wave sickness or electrical hypersensitivity. Electrical hypersensitivity (EHS) was defined by the World Health Organization in 2004 as: “a phenomenon where individuals experience adverse health effects while using or being in the vicinity of devices emanating electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fields.… EHS is a real and sometimes a debilitating problem for the affected persons.” Teachers completed this questionnaire at the end of each school day documenting their energy, health, mood and performance, and another questionnaire documenting the behaviour of students in their last class of the day. This single blind study lasted six weeks.

To my surprise both teachers and students improved when the filters were installed. Teachers were less tired (50 percent); less frustrated (45 percent); less irritable (35 percent). They had better health and more energy (30 percent). During this period they had a greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, were more focused and experienced less pain.

Student behaviour also improved with the GS filters, especially in the elementary grades. Fewer students were late for class. It took less time to start class and less time was spent unproductively. Students were better able to focus, they were more active, less disruptive, and needed instructions repeated less frequently. Symptoms often associated with ADD or ADHD were the behaviours that improved when the filters were installed.

Attention deficit disorder is one of the most common behavioural disorders of childhood—it accounts for two percent to 18 percent of school-aged children—and is increasing at an alarming rate. As of 1996, 2.4 million children in the US were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, up from 950,000 just six years earlier according to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in 2002.

An important question that needs to be addressed is, “Is dirty electricity in homes and schools contributing to ADD and ADHD?”

The results for the school in Toronto intrigued me and we repeated it at an elementary, middle and high school in Minnesota in 2005. A total of 45 teachers participated in this study and, because a new meter became available (a microsurge meter), we were able to get more detailed information about the dirty electricity in each classroom with and without the GS filters.

Approximately 40 percent of the teachers improved after the GS filters were installed compared with placebo filters. This effect was statistically significant. Elementary student behaviour also improved significantly during this period. High school student behaviour did not change except in the computer labs where the highest amount of dirty electricity was recorded before filters were installed.

Symptoms of radio wave sickness

 

Neurological: headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, irritability, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, weakness, tremors, muscle spasms, numbness, tingling, altered reflexes, muscle and joint paint, leg/foot pain, flu-like symptoms, fever. More severe reactions can include seizures, paralysis, psychosis and stroke.

Cardiac: palpitations, arrhythmias, pain or pressure in the chest, low or high blood pressure, slow or fast heart rate, shortness of breath

Respiratory: sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma

Dermatological: skin rash, itching, burning, facial flushing

Ophthalmologic: pain or burning in the eyes, pressure in/behind the eyes, deteriorating vision, floaters, cataracts

Others: digestive problems; abdominal pain; enlarged thyroid, testicular/ovarian pain; dryness of lips, tongue, mouth, eyes; great thirst; dehydration; nosebleeds; internal bleeding; altered sugar metabolism; immune abnormalities; redistribution of metals within the body; hair loss; pain in the teeth; deteriorating fillings; impaired sense of smell; ringing in the ears.

These symptoms resemble symptoms associated with electrical hypersensitivity (EHS). Between three percent and 35 percent of the population may have symptoms of EHS according to The Power Watch Handbook by Alasdair and Jean Philips.

Common sources of Radio Waves
(wired and wireless)

Outdoors: broadcast and cellphone antennas, radar, cellphones, pagers, two-way radios

Indoors: cordless telephones and their base units, wireless computers and their base units, wired computers, televisions, microwave ovens, dimmer switches, security systems, remote controls, fax machines, answering machines, assistive listening systems and devices for the hearing impaired, wireless microphones, variable speed motors, transformers, child monitors, electric utility smart meters, signal-broadcasting smoke alarms, some electronic games

Vehicles: CB radios, ignition systems, mobile radar units. The original symptoms listed were published in “No Place To Hide” Volume 3, Number 1, April 2001, “Special Issue on Russian and Ukrainian Research” by Arthur Firstenberg, Editor of The Cellular Phone Taskforce.

Conclusions

I am convinced that dirty electricity is contributing to the ill health of staff and students; that elementary-aged students are the most sensitive; and that this form of pollution may be significantly compromising the learning and working environment in schools. Dirty electricity refers to an electrical signal that deviates from a normal 60-Hertz sine wave. It is generated by modern electronic equipment that isn’t properly filtered, by equipment turning on and off and by arcing on electrical wires. Dirty electricity is a ubiquitous pollutant that has long been known to damage sensitive electronic equipment. Its effects on human health are just emerging.

Dirty electricity is a power quality problem and is likely to be present in most schools since they have fluorescent lights, computers and other electronic equipment that generate dirty electricity. Our studies show that young children seem to be the most sensitive to dirty electricity and their behaviour in the classroom improves when this pollutant is removed. Many of the behavioural traits that disappear are those we associated with ADD and ADHD. Students with asthma and teachers with allergies also improve when dirty electricity is reduced in school. Sick building syndrome has been associated with poor indoor air quality but recent evidence suggests that dirty electricity may be a significant contributor to this phenomenon.

Although more research needs to be done, monitoring schools for electromagnetic pollution is an important first step to determine the extent of this pollutant in the school environment. Schools with high absenteeism due to illness are good candidates for initial monitoring. Cleaning up the problem is much less costly than removal of mold and may be a good first step in dealing with sick building syndrome at schools.

Although this article deals exclusively with dirty electricity, another form of electromagnetic pollution that needs to be addressed is radio frequency radiation from wireless technology. The major difference between these two forms of energy is that dirty electricity flows along wires and wireless RF, as the name implies, flows through the air. Antennas on or near school property, wireless computers, wireless microphones in classrooms to help the hearing-impaired—all expose students and education workers to radio frequency radiation. The long-term consequences are poorly understood because our exposure to this technology is so recent. The few studies that are available suggest multiple health and biological effects near cellphone antennas including cancers, symptoms of radio wave sickness and impaired learning in school.

My recommendation is to err on the side of caution. We need to monitor schools for all forms of electromagnetic pollution and to mitigate exposure where levels are high. The health of students and education workers is too important to ignore. Monitoring and mitigating electromagnetic pollution in schools improves the school environment and may reduce ill health and learning difficulties.

 



Dr. Magda Havas, BSc, PhD is a professor in Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University, Peterborough.

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The Future of Food: The Biotech Threat To All Life
May 4, 2007
RaidersNewsNetwork.com

Review: The Future of Food, a must-see documentary
that exposes the
biotech threat to life on our planet

 
by: Mike Adams

 
 There is a cabal of power-hungry corporations that
 are systematically
 destroying humanity's future. These companies have
 taken over the food
 supply, injected pesticides, viruses and invading
 genes into staple
 crops, engineered "terminator" genes that make crop
 seeds unviable,
 destroyed the livelihood of farmers and used every
 tactic they could
 think of -- legal threats, intimidation, bribery,
 monopolistic market
 practices and many more -- to gain monopolistic
 control over the global
 food supply.

 
 One documentary brings you this astonishing story.
 Through the testimony
 of family farmers, ecological scientists,
 agricultural experts and
 numerous public documents, The Future of Food tells
 a horrifying,
 heart-stopping story of how Big Agriculture has sold
 out the future of
 human civilization for the almighty dollar.
 

 The Future of Food is a compelling, eye-opening
 documentary that I
 consider a "must-see documentary" by anyone who eats
 food (which
 probably includes you). Even if you think you know
 everything worth
 knowing about your food, there's still a dark secret
 the biotech
 companies believe U.S. consumers should not be
 allowed to know: That
 many foods are genetically engineered with dangerous
 pesticides and
 foreign DNA, and there is currently no U.S. law
 requiring their labeling
 as such.
 

 Do whatever it takes to see this documentary. Buy
 it, rent it, or view
 it online by clicking on the link above

Just ake sure you
watch this film.

 It starts off looking a bit boring. But stick with
 it. The film picks up
 steam after the first ten minutes, and then it takes
 you on an
 outrageous ride that will have you gripping the edge
 of your seat,
 shaking your head in disbelief. Watch this entire
 film from start to
 finish, and then, when you're done watching it, send
 the link to your
 friends. This is an extremely important documentary
 for our time. Don't
 make another trip to the grocery store without
 seeing this film!
 
 
 The future of humanity is determined by the future
 of food
 What's at stake here is not merely control over
 today's food profits.
 The actions taken by Big Agriculture are
 systematically destroying the
 very agricultural biodiversity that will one day be
 desperately needed
 to save us from a global food crash. And at the same
 time these
 multinational agricultural giants are destroying our
 food biodiversity,
 they're also patenting seeds, then using
 imperialistic intellectual
 property law to extort profits from farmers,
 universities and research
 institutions all over the world.
 
 The whole problem of genetically engineered crops
 became a tidal wave of
 trouble following the U.S. Supreme Court's ill-fated
 decision in 1980 to
 allow corporations to patent life. The patenting of
 the first
 genetically engineered microbe opened the floodgates
 to corporate greed,
 and it wasn't long before Big Ag firms began
 patenting every seed they
 could get their hands on (a process called
 "biopiracy"), stealing the
 inventions of nature and declaring them to be their
 own.
 
 Today, an astonishing 20 percent of the human genome
 is now owned by
 corporations. The simple act of reproducing by
 having children is now a
 violation of U.S. patent law. Technically, the
 corporations that "own"
 these human genes could sue the parents of all
 newborns, demanding
 royalty payments for the use of their intellectual
 property.
 
 Want to know more shocking facts about intellectual
 property and the
 future of food, agriculture and human civilization?
 See The Future of
 Food for yourself. And while you're at it, be sure
 to visit the Center
 for Food safety (www.centerforfoodsafety.org), a
 non-profit organization
 that's been doing the oversight job our own
 government should have been
 doing. But since the people who run the USDA, EPA
 and FDA are the very
 same people who occupy top positions in the most
 powerful agricultural
 organizations in the world, the U.S. government has
 no intention
 whatsoever to protect the public from financial
 exploitation by
 influential corporations (regardless of the cost to
 the future of life
 on planet Earth). It's the same story with Big
 Pharma, as you no doubt
 already realize.
 
 
 The coming food bubble
 Curious how modern civilization might ultimately
 end? In previous
 articles, I've discussed the coming food bubble -- a
 global collapse of
 the food abundance we naively enjoy today. Depending
 on who you talk to,
 this collapse of the global food supply could be
 caused by the end of
 peak oil, a collapse of bioversity followed by
 widespread crop blight,
 the depletion of freshwater tables, radical weather
 patterns caused by
 global warming, or the widespread disruption of
 global ecosystems
 through the continued use of synthetic chemicals
 (pesticides,
 herbicides, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
 
 Each of these explanations sounds like bad news to
 me. Any one of them
 could conceivably pose a major threat to the future
 of our global food
 supply. And yet the real news is even worse: We're
 facing all of these
 threats at once!
 
 Biotechnology companies claim they're coming to the
 rescue with a new
 breed of genetically engineered crops that can
 produce more food, with
 greater farming efficiency, than ever before. What
 they don't tell you
 is that these GM foods contain pesticides and their
 use encourages the
 massive dumping of herbicides on croplands by
 farmers. Those synthetic
 chemicals wash right off the farms and into the
 aquatic ecosystems
 (rivers, wetlands, oceans) where they are creating
 "dead zones" that
 can't even support aquatic life.
 
 It's all being done for the sake of the almighty
 dollar. Corporations
 (and the governments they control) are sacrificing
 the very future of
 human civilization in order to boost next quarter's
 profits. The food
 supply is now toxic, the environment is being
 systematically destroyed,
 and government departments that should be protecting
 the public are now
 

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.htm

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