Rising Infertility And Cancer Rates Possibly Linked To Pharmaceuticals And Household Chemicals

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), household products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food all contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which may be causing significant increases in diabetes, obesity, cancers and increasing infertility. 

In recent decades, the incidence of many human diseases and disorders including diabetes, breast and prostate cancer, and male infertility has increased significantly and many scientists believe this is due to increasing levels of exposure to mixtures of some chemicals in widespread use.

The report also highlights that EDCs negatively effect early development of the brain, immune, reproduction and metabolic systems. These affects are often unnoticeable until several years or decades after exposure.

Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director explained:

"Scientific research gathered over the last few decades shows us that endocrine disruption is a real problem, with serious effects on wildlife, and possibly people. It would be prudent to take a precautionary approach to many of these chemicals until their effects are more fully understood."

Even though there is sufficient evidence of harm from EDCs in some wildlife species and in laboratory studies using rodent models for human health, it is difficult to demonstrate the effects of EDCs on humans due to the length, cost and methodological challenges with these types of studies.

Read More:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245485.php

Brett LoGiurato - If History Is A Guide, Obama Is Heading For A Loss In November

Gallup is out with a look today at some key indicators that look troublesome for Barack Obama's re-election prospects this fall. 

There are three main indicators, which Gallup looks at from historical perspective to judge Obama's prospects this year. They are his approval rating, economic factors and Americans' view of the direction in which the country is headed.

So, first is Obama's job approval. At 47 percent in May, it compares with other presidents that have lost their bids for re-election in recent history. At this point in 2004, George W. Bush had a 49 percent approval rating. That's the lowest for a president to win re-election since 1964.

The key here is whether the number improves as we head closer to November. Bush was back up to 50 percent by October. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush — three presidents that lost re-election — plummeted down to the 30s. 

Read More:

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-re-election-loss-signs-point-to-loss-2012-5

Andrew W. Saul - Dispensing with Fluoride

Evidence-based medicine requires evidence before medicating. Fluoridation of water is not evidence-based. It has not been tested in well-controlled studies. Fluoridation of public water is a default medication, since you have to deliberately avoid it if you do not want to take it." ~ Andrew W. Saul

As a child, there was nothing I liked about going to the dental dispensary, with the possible exception of the large tropical fish aquarium in the waiting room. This was a distraction to what was coming: three hours in a vast hall containing a double line of black dental chairs and a matching double line of white-clad dental students. And that, as a six-year-old, is where I first met fluoride on a regular basis. After a free cleaning and checkup (the reason my cost-conscious parents had me go there, and the reason it literally took three hours to complete), fluoride was applied to my teeth with a swab.

I remember both the smell (acrid) and the taste (astringent). I actually looked forward to the fluoride treatment, simply because it was the last thing they did to me before I was allowed to leave. Did it work? Probably not. In addition to my regular topical fluoride treatments, I lived in a city with fluoridated water and was raised on fluoridated toothpaste. And I had a mouthful of amalgam by high-school graduation.

Read More:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n16.shtml

Stephanie Pappas - Report: Global Biodiversity Down 30 Percent in 40 Years

The world's biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could get bleaker.

Humanity is outstripping the Earth's resources by 50 percent — essentially using the resources of one and a half Earths every year, according to the 2012 Living Planet Report, produced by conservation agency the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Colby Loucks, the director of conservation sciences at WWF, compared humanity to bad houseguests.

"We're emptying the fridge, we're not really taking care of the lawn, we're not weeding the flower beds and we're certainly not taking out the garbage," Loucks said.

Read More:

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/44400

NDAA's 'Indefinite Detention' Provisions Unconstitutional, says Judge

A federal judge in New York on Wednesday ruled in favor of a group of civilian activists and journalists and struck down highly controversial 'indefinite detention' and 'material support' provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last December. In their suit, the plaintiffs stated they could be detained 'indefinitely' for their constitutionally protected activities. Citing the 'vagueness' of certain language in the bill, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest -- who was appointed to the court by Obama -- agreed, and said the law could have "chilling impact on First Amendment rights" for journalists, activists, and potentially all US citizens.

"An individual could run the risk of substantially supporting or directly supporting an 'associated force' without even being aware that he or she was doing so," the judge said.

The ruling came as part of a lawsuit brought by seven plaintiffs — Chris Hedges, Dan Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Alexa O’Brien, Kai Wargall, and Jennifer Bolen — alleging that the NDAA violates ”both their free speech and associational rights guaranteed by the First Amendment as well as due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

Salon's Glenn Greenwald, who has written critically and extensively of the NDAA, called the ruling "a sweeping victory for the plaintiffs."

"This is an extraordinary and encouraging decision," Greenwald continues, though he noted that many caveats still must be applied. "This is only a preliminary injunction (though the judge made it clear that she believes plaintiffs will ultimately prevail). It will certainly be appealed and can be reversed. There are still other authorities (including the AUMF) which the DOJ can use to assert the power of indefinite detention. Nonetheless, this is a rare and significant limit placed on the U.S. Government’s ability to seize ever-greater powers of detention-without-charges, and it is grounded in exactly the right constitutional principles: ones that federal courts and the Executive Branch have been willfully ignoring for the past decade."

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/17

June Gruber - Four Ways Happiness Can Hurt You

Can feeling good ever be bad? New research says yes—and points the way to a healthier, more balanced life.

In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of scientific research revealing precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments.

This has made happiness pretty trendy. The science of happiness made the covers of Time, Oprah, and even The Economist, and it has spawned a small industry of motivational speakers, psychotherapists, and research enterprises. This website, Greater Good, features roughly 400 articles about happiness, and its parenting blog is specifically about raising happy children.

Clearly, happiness is popular. But is happiness always good? Can feeling too good ever be bad? Researchers are just starting to seriously explore these questions, with good reason: By recognizing the potential pitfalls of happiness, we enable ourselves to understand it more deeply and we learn to better promote healthier and more balanced lives.

Read More:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_happiness_can_hurt_you?utm_source=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_campaign=GG+Newsletter+-+May+2012+%232&utm_medium=email

Anuradha Mittal - Large-Scale Land Investments are Violating Human Rights and Undermine Food Security in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's Land Lease Project

May 17, 2012, Oakland, CA: On the eve of upcoming meeting at Camp 
David on May 19, 2012, with four African leaders to discuss food 
security, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,  the 
Oakland Institute and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia 
(SMNE),  call upon  President Obama to address what may be the single 
largest man-made contributor to food insecurity on the continent 
today: large-scale land investments by foreign investors.

In an Open Letter to President Obama, the Oakland Institute and SMNE 
are delivering a petition signed by over 8,000 supporters of the 
indigenous and local communities of Gambella, Ethiopia - 70,000 
people in all - who are being forcibly relocated to make land 
available for investment in agriculture. There are plans to relocate 
an additional 150,000 people, most of whom are subsistence farmers 
who have been able, until now, to feed their families without 
receiving government or foreign aid over the last twenty years.

The letter points out that in addition to the many problems 
surrounding forced relocations and human rights abuses, the loss of 
ancestral lands where people farm equals the loss of their ability to 
feed themselves. Farmers and pastoralists are being turned into 
plantation workers with false promises that result in menial seasonal 
jobs that do not put food on the table or provide for their basic 
needs.

The Oakland Institute's field research in Ethiopia revealed a grim 
picture of violence, coercion, and unrealized benefits by relocated 
communities. These findings are confirmed by Human Rights Watch's 
independent study involving 100 interviews and sixteen site visits 
this year.

The burden of the Ethiopian government's objective of economic growth 
is being borne by the indigenous and local people of Gambella and the 
Lower Omo Valley, where a half million will lose their lands. This is 
too great a cost. As Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of US 
aid (more than $1 billion a year since 2007), the US bears 
responsibility on matters of such grave consequence. The letter 
cautions that something has to be done to ensure that the United 
States is not an unwitting partner in this current tragedy.

The Oakland Institute and Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia are 
urging President Obama to look beyond the charade of so-called 
responsible investment that will supposedly benefit all in the long 
run, and instead, calls for the US to reassess the terms of its 
support to the Ethiopian regime.

Our hope is that President Obama will take leadership in responding 
to an international call asking him to put the brakes on this 
impending and present-day catastrophe.

Pam Frost Gorder - Statistical Analysis Projects Future Temperatures In North America

For the first time, researchers have been able to combine different climate models using spatial statistics - to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America. They performed advanced statistical analysis on two different North American regional climate models and were able to estimate projections of temperature changes for the years 2041 to 2070, as well as the certainty of those projections.

The analysis, developed by statisticians at Ohio State University, examines groups of regional climate models, finds the commonalities between them, and determines how much weight each individual climate projection should get in a consensus climate estimate.

Through maps on the statisticians' website, people can see how their own region's temperature will likely change by 2070 - overall, and for individual seasons of the year.

Given the complexity and variety of climate models produced by different research groups around the world, there is a need for a tool that can analyze groups of them together, explained Noel Cressie, professor of statistics and director of Ohio State's Program in Spatial Statistics and Environmental Statistics.

Read More:

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Statistical_Analysis_Projects_Future_Temperatures_In_North_America_999.html

Asthma Cases Continue to Rise in U.S., Affecting Millions

Asthma continues to take its toll on Americans, with almost 19 million adults (8.2 percent) suffering from the disorder in 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC analysis also found that more than 29 million (almost 13 percent) of adults have been diagnosed with the illness at some point in their lifetime.

Children are also being hit hard by the wheezing and discomfort of asthma. According to the report, in 2010 about 10 million children had been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetime and 7 million (9.4 percent) still had asthma.

Rates of asthma are rising, not falling, the experts noted. From 2001 to 2010, the proportion of people with asthma increased by almost 15 percent. And by 2009, asthma accounted for nearly 3,400 deaths, nearly 480,000 hospitalizations, 1.9 million emergency department visits, and 8.9 million physician office visits.

Read More:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_125190.html

John Feffer - America the Serial Killer

Everybody loves Dexter. He’s handsome. He’s helpful. He works at the Miami Metro Police Department, and he’s very good at his job as a blood-splatter analyst. Oh, did I mention that he moonlights as a serial killer? Don’t worry: he only kills bad guys. That’s part of the code that Dexter’s adoptive father, himself a police officer, passed down to his son. As a child who had watched his mother die a horrendous death, Dexter couldn’t overcome the murderous impulses that surged within him. His father, channeling those impulses in the only constructive way he could think of, created a better monster of his son’s nature: a serial killer of serial killers.

The other essential rule of Dexter’s code: don’t get caught. He is very precise in the way he dispatches his victims, and he will do almost anything to evade detection. Dexter works for the law, but his second job is most definitely above the law.

During its six seasons on Showtime, the popular TV show Dexter has asked a vexing moral question: can a person do good by doing bad? Let’s throw in one more twist. Sometimes Dexter makes mistakes and kills people who don’t fit his definition of Really Bad. He must then wrestle with his (rudimentary) conscience and, more importantly, try to resolve the paradoxes of his father’s code. One last painful element of the Dexter story: his efforts to wipe out bad guys occasionally endanger and even lead to the death of his own nearest and dearest. Dexter has a serious problem, in other words, with blowback.

Read More:

http://www.fpif.org/articles/america_the_serial_killer