START @ ~01:18:25

"I THINK IT'S REALLY HELPFUL TO PUT ALL OF THIS IN SOME CONTEXT, AND THE REASON WHY I KEEP HARPING ON THIS BEING THE WRONG RABBIT GOING DOWN THE WRONG HOLE IS THAT WHEN YOU COMPARE AUTISM TO AIDS, IT'S REALLY QUITE EXTRAORDINARY.

SO AS YOU SAID, CHAIRMAN MICA, $160M IS BEING SPENT IN 2012, IT'S A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN, BUT THAT'S BASICALLY THE AUTISM FIGURE, AND YOU ALSO, BOTH OF YOU, CITED THE ENORMOUS PUBLIC HEALTH COST AND ECONOMIC COST.

AIDS AFFECTS ABOUT A MILLION PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. DO YOU WANT TO GUESS WHAT THE AIDS BUDGET IS FOR RESEARCH AT THE NIH?

IT'S 3 BILLION DOLLARS.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 160 MILLION DOLLARS FOR A DISORDER (AUTISM) THAT AFFECTS AT LEAST AS MANY CHILDREN AS ARE AFFECTED BY, AS ARE AFFECTED WITH AIDS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY."

Devra Lee Davis ?@DevraLeeDavis 23h
Ask why more Toddlers R Medicated 4 ADHD perhaps 2 many apps rather than laps http://nyti.ms/1jnBG77

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/us/among-experts-scrutiny-of-attention-disorder-diagnoses-in-2-and-3-year-olds.html

Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries
By ALAN SCHWARZMAY 16, 2014


Susanna N. Visser presented a report on Friday at the Georgia Mental Health Forum in Atlanta on the diagnosis and medication for A.D.H.D. in young children. Credit Dustin Chambers for The New York Times

ATLANTA — More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines, according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, which found that toddlers covered by Medicaid are particularly prone to be put on medication such as Ritalin and Adderall, is among the first efforts to gauge the diagnosis of A.D.H.D. in children below age 4. Doctors at the Georgia Mental Health Forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented, as well as several outside experts strongly criticized the use of medication in so many children that young.

The American Academy of Pediatrics standard practice guidelines for A.D.H.D. do not even address the diagnosis in children 3 and younger — let alone the use of such stimulant medications, because their safety and effectiveness have barely been explored in that age group. “It’s absolutely shocking, and it shouldn’t be happening,” said Anita Zervigon-Hakes, a children’s mental health consultant to the Carter Center. “People are just feeling around in the dark. We obviously don’t have our act together for little children.”

Dr. Lawrence H. Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., said in a telephone interview: “People prescribing to 2-year-olds are just winging it. It is outside the standard of care, and they should be subject to malpractice if something goes wrong with a kid.”

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A version of this article appears in print on May 17, 2014, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries.

http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php/news/archive/2014/15427-andres-carrasco-scientist-and-activist-dies

Andrés Carrasco, scientist and activist, dies
on 10 May 2014.

[img][/img]

We are very sad to hear the news of the death of Professor Andres Carrasco, whose research showed that glyphosate and Roundup cause malformations in embryos.

Andres Carrasco was a brilliant and honest scientist and a fearless campaigner for truth. He will be sadly missed.

http://www.lavaca.org/notas/andres-carrasco-cientifico-y-militante-gracias/

Andrés Carrasco, scientist and activist: thank you
Lavaca.org, 10 May 2014

(In Spanish; rough English translation of excerpts only by GMWatch)

Andrés Carrasco, the scientist who confirmed the devastating effects of glyphosate, investigated sprayed people, and questioned science in the service of corporations, has died. We publish below the last interview he gave and also "Happiness can be a political issue?", the interview [with Carrasco] that [radio station] Decí Mu broadcast.

… The scientist Andrés Carrasco told how he decided to release his investigation into the lethal effects of glyphosate. He was in the south, fishing, just enjoying the beauty of the natural order. He knew his findings were crucial and felt that the perfect silence around him was a huge scream. "I had to do something." To do it, he just needed to find "a serious and decent journalist." On the spot, he called Dario Aranda…

by Dario Aranda

Carrasco said: "I'm a researcher at CONICET (Argentine government scientific research council) and studied the impact of glyphosate on embryos. I would like you to see the work."

It was the first thing I heard on the other end of the phone.

It was 2009 and the conflict over Resolution No. 125 [by which the government increased the taxes on agricultural exports, mainly soybeans, sunflower, wheat and corn] was still inactive[?]. Pagina12 (newspaper) had given extensive coverage to the consequences of the agricultural model and this journalist had written about the effects of the spraying of agrochemicals.

The call resulted in mistrust. I did not know the caller. Why was I called?

The scientist continued his presentation. "My name is Andres Carrasco, I was president of CONICET and I am head of the Embryology Laboratory of the UBA... "

I had never heard his name. I had never written about scientists...

I called the newspaper and asked colleagues. All confirmed that he was a known scientist with a thirty-year career, who had made major discoveries in the 80s and had worked hard in the '90s, when he confronted the governments of President Carlos Menem...

His research made the front page of the newspaper (April 2009). The news: glyphosate, the chemical pillar of the soy farming model, was devastating to amphibian embryos. Nothing was ever the same. Social organizations, farmers, and activists sprayed families and Carrasco took Carrasco's work as proof of their experience of living in the region.

"I did not discover anything new. I said the same thing as the families that are sprayed, except that I confirmed it in a laboratory," he used to say. And he began to be invited to meetings. From universities and scientific conferences to environmental meetings and sprayed schools. Trying to go everywhere, while leaving time for the lab and his family.

He also won many enemies. First and foremost: agrochemical companies. Attorneys for CASAFE (an industry group of large agribusiness corporations) came to his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and bullied him. He began receiving threatening anonymous phone calls. And the Science Minister, Lino Barañao defamed him...

Barañao discredited Carrasco's work and defended glyphosate (and the agricultural model)… He even questioned the work of Carrasco in meetings of Aapresid (agribusiness entrepreneurs) and, above all, within CONICET.

Carrasco would not be silenced. "They think they can easily smear my thirty-year career. They are hypocrites, corporate footsoldiers, but they are afraid. They know they can not cover the sun with one hand. Scientific evidence and above all hundreds of people, are living proof of the health emergency."

The Clarín and La Nación (newspapers) launched a campaign against him. They could not allow a renowned scientist to question agribusiness. They even said that (Carrasco's research) did not exist and it was a government operation to ban glyphosate, in retaliation for the failed (Resolution) 125. Carrasco responded angrily. "If there is someone that does not want to touch the soy model, it is the government," he said over a coffee in downtown Buenos Aires. But Carrasco was a government official: he was Secretary for Science at the Ministry of Defence. They asked him to tone down his criticisms of glyphosate and the agricultural model. He did not. He resigned.

http://news.usc.edu/62416/obama-honored-with-usc-shoah-foundations-ambassador-for-humanity-award/

President Obama honored with USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassador for Humanity Award
The president thanked the foundation for “setting alight an eternal flame of testimony that can’t be extinguished”

by Josh Grossberg
May 8, 2014

[img][/img]

In recognition of his efforts to protect human rights, his commitment to education and his work advancing opportunities for all people, President Barack Obama was presented May 7 with the Ambassador for Humanity Award by Steven Spielberg, USC trustee and founder of USC Shoah Foundation’s Institute for Visual History and Education.

Obama’s acceptance speech centered on the theme of memories and stories — good and bad. Urging the audience to share stories so others can learn from them, he credited Spielberg with safeguarding Holocaust stories before they are lost to history and thanked the USC Shoah Foundation for “setting alight an eternal flame of testimony that can’t be extinguished.”

Obama also thanked the thousands of survivors who shared their painful stories. “None of these stories could be preserved without the men and women with the courage to tell them,” he said.

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Robyn O'Brien @foodawakenings · May 7
U.S. spends more on cancer drugs than any other country, accounting for 40% of the $91 billion spent globally http://cbsn.ws/1rYOLTz

Robyn O'Brien @foodawakenings · May 7
According to the National Association of School Nurses, 19% of school children have food allergies, 1 in 5 kids. http://twitpic.com/e378lb

Robyn O'Brien @foodawakenings · May 7
Every 3 minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the ER, accounting for more than 200,000 emergency department visits per year

Robyn O'Brien @foodawakenings · May 7
80% apples coated w/ chemicals banned in EU bc of cancer risk. Join others to protect US apples & families & sign=> http://www.mommygreenest.com/poison-apples/

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B846909A-A5E3-4A27-A8DA-631FD66F9DED

POLITICO
NRDC to launch attack on food ingredient approvals
By: Helena Bottemiller Evich
September 10, 2013 04:30 PM EDT

http://www.pewhealth.org/other-resource/pew-examines-gaps-in-toxicity-data-for-chemicals-allowed-in-food-85899493633

Aug 14, 2013
PEW EXAMINES GAPS IN TOXICITY DATA FOR CHEMICALS ALLOWED IN FOOD
Project: Food Additives Project

The peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology published a paper from The Pew Charitable Trusts' food additives project examining the data used to make safety recommendations for chemicals added to food sold in the United States. The analysis of three major sources of toxicology information found significant gaps in the data for chemicals that are added to food and food packaging.

Pew’s analysis reveals:

* The Food and Drug Administration or industry decided that almost two-thirds of known additives were safe without having fed the additives to lab animals. This is based on Pew’s analysis of data reported in FDA, National Institutes of Health, or other leading toxicology databases.

* FDA’s own database on chemicals added directly to food indicates that:

* Only one in five chemicals has been evaluated using the simplest lab animal test recommended by FDA to evaluate safety.
* Only one in eight chemicals that FDA recommended be evaluated for reproductive or development problems had evidence it was tested for these effects.

* The lack of data means that often we don’t know whether these chemicals pose a health risk to the hundreds of millions of Americans who eat food with untested chemical additives.

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May 7, 2014, Vol 311, No. 17 > http://jama.jamanetwork.com/issue.aspx?journalid=67&issueid=930078

Current Issue

JAMA
May 7, 2014, Vol 311, No. 17PDF

Theme: Child Health

EDITORIAL

The Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Autism: Looking Beyond Twins
PDF
Diana E. Schendel, PhD; Therese K. Grønborg, MSc; Erik T. Parner, MSc, PhD
Topics: autistic disorder, twins, genetics
JAMA. 2014;311(17):1738-1739. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.3554.

ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION

The Familial Risk of Autism
PDF
Sven Sandin, MSc; Paul Lichtenstein, PhD; Ralf Kuja-Halkola, MSc; Henrik Larsson, PhD; Christina M. Hultman, PhD; Abraham Reichenberg, PhD
Includes: Supplemental Content, Author Interview
Topics: autistic disorder, relationship - sibling
JAMA. 2014;311(17):1770-1777. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.4144.

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2014/04/extreme-levels-herbicide-roundup-found-food

“Extreme Levels” Of Herbicide Roundup Found In Food
By: Emily Cassidy, Biofuels Research Analyst

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014

A new study led by scientists from the Arctic University of Norway has detected “extreme levels” of Roundup, the agricultural herbicide manufactured by Monsanto, in genetically engineered soy.

The study, coming out in June’s issue of Food Chemistry and available online, looked at 31 different soybean plants on Iowa farms and compared the accumulation of pesticides and herbicides on plants in three categories 1) genetically engineered “Roundup Ready” soy, 2) conventionally produced (not GE) soy, and 3) soy cultivated using organic practices. They found high levels of Roundup on 70 percent of genetically engineered soy plants.

Crop scientists have genetically engineered soy to survive blasts of Roundup so farmers can spray this chemical near crops to get rid of weeds. But some so-called “super weeds” resistant to Roundup have developed. In turn, some farmers use yet more Roundup to try to kill those hardy weeds. This leads to more Roundup chemicals being found on soybeans and ultimately in the food supply.

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Other research has detected Roundup residues in animals and people.

A study led by German researchers found high concentrations of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, in the urine of dairy cows and humans. This study, published last January in the journal Environmental & Analytical Toxicology, concluded that “the presence of glyphosate residues in both humans and animals could haul the entire population towards numerous health hazards.”

Big Ag wants us to believe that there is no difference between GE and conventional crops, but mounting research tells us that just isn’t true.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338670

Reprod Toxicol. 2011 May;31(4):528-33. doi: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2011.02.004. Epub 2011 Feb 18.

Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

Aris A1, Leblanc S.
Author information

Abstract
Pesticides associated to genetically modified foods (PAGMF), are engineered to tolerate herbicides such as glyphosate (GLYP) and gluphosinate (GLUF) or insecticides such as the bacterial toxin bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between maternal and fetal exposure, and to determine exposure levels of GLYP and its metabolite aminomethyl phosphoric acid (AMPA), GLUF and its metabolite 3-methylphosphinicopropionic acid (3-MPPA) and Cry1Ab protein (a Bt toxin) in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. Blood of thirty pregnant women (PW) and thirty-nine nonpregnant women (NPW) were studied. Serum GLYP and GLUF were detected in NPW and not detected in PW. Serum 3-MPPA and CryAb1 toxin were detected in PW, their fetuses and NPW. This is the first study to reveal the presence of circulating PAGMF in women with and without pregnancy, paving the way for a new field in reproductive toxicology including nutrition and utero-placental toxicities.

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