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Friday, 11 November 2016

Agony caused plastic thrown into Sea Turtle writhes in pain as drinking straw is pulled from its Nose

This distressing footage shows the dangers of plastic and the detrimental effects it can have on marine wildlife if disposed of irresponsibly.

A male Olive Ridley sea turtle was discovered with a 12cm plastic straw lodged inside its nose in Costa Rican waters.

A research team rescued the turtle and explained, alongside a video of the removal procedure, that they first believed the foreign object was a parasitic worm.

They then set about attempting to remove it with the limited tools at their disposal and discovered that it was in fact a straw.

The team decided that a pair of pliers would be the best tool to pull the object free.

Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Fluoride Officially Classified as a Neurotoxin in World’s Most Prestigious Medical Journal

The movement to remove industrial sodium fluoride from the world’s water supply has been growing in recent years, with evidence coming out against the additive from several sources.

Now, a report from the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, has officially classified fluoride as a neurotoxin — in the same category as arsenic, lead and mercury.

The news was broken by author Stefan Smyle, who cited a report published in The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, in the March 2014 edition, by authors Dr. Phillippe Grandjean and Philip J. Landrigan, MD. The report, which was officially released in 2014 and published in the journal, can be viewed by clicking here.

Fluoride Classified Along with Mercury, Lead and Others

As noted in the summary of the report, a systematic review identified five different similar industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene.

The summary goes on to state that six additional developmental neurotoxicants have also now been identified: manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The authors added that even more of these neurotoxicants remain undiscovered.

Also in the report, they note that neurodevelopmental disabilities, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, are now affecting millions of children worldwide in what they call a “pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity.”

Because of the documented health risks of fluoride, many people have launched campaigns to remove the chemical from their water supplies, to varying degrees of success.

Such initiatives usually begin through the are often controversial and emotionally charged because of the reputation fluoride still enjoys among mainstream dentistry practitioners.

In addition to fluoride in city water supplies, the substance can also be found in certain foods, especially in heavily processed brands of tea that may be grown in polluted areas (see this list for more info).

If you’ve ever noticed the warnings on toothpaste labels you probably know just how serious fluoride poisoning can be, especially for children if they swallow too much at one time.

Because of this threat, many parents have begun eschewing fluoridated toothpaste brands altogether and are using more natural brands such as Earthpaste, Desert Essence, Uncle Harry’s Toothpaste Dr. Bronner’s toothpaste line, or even making their own from a combination of ingredients such as coconut oil, organic neem leaf powders, essential oils like peppermint or cinnamon, and other natural ingredients.

The fluoride added to our water supply is mostly seen as a cumulative toxin that accumulates in our bodies and can manifest itself in problems over time, including dental fluorosis, or far worse health problems.

Global Fluoride Prevention Strategy Recommended

In the Lancet report, the authors propose a global prevention strategy, saying that “untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity.”

They continue: “To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse.”

The report coincides with 2013 findings by a Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health that concluded that children in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores that those who live in areas with low amounts of fluoride in their water supplies.

Sodium fluoride in drinking water has also been linked to various cancers. It is functionally different than the naturally-occurring calcium fluoride, and commonly added to drinking water supplies and used by dentists who posit that it is useful for dental health.

Fluoride Link to Cancer

Long-lost research linking fluoride to cancer has resurfaced in a Dutch film clip featuring Dr. Dean Burk, who in 1937 co-founded the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and headed its cytochemistry department for over 30 years. In the taped interview, he equates water fluoridation to "public murder," referring to a study that had been done on the 10 largest U.S. cities with fluoridation compared to the 10 largest without it.

The study clearly demonstrated that deaths from cancer abruptly rose in as little as a year or two after fluoridation began. This and other studies linking fluoride to cancer were government-ordered but were quickly buried once fluoride was found to be linked to dramatic increases in cancer.

Fluoridation is Actually Uncommon in Europe

Currently, fluoride is added to water supplies across much of North America, but as this list of countries that ban or reject water fluoridation shows, the practice is actually not too common, or banned entirely throughout most of Europe and in several other developed nations across the world.

Since most places in America still add fluoride to the water a high quality water filter is recommend to filter out the fluoride, and it can be especially important to avoid exposing yourself to too much fluoride in your daily shower or bath.

Many Towns are Being Pressured to Remove Flouride

While it was originally added as a way to assist in the area of dental health, more and more people are questioning whether that is actually true and many towns are removing fluoride due to grassroots citizens’ movements.

(A list of towns that have removed fluoride since 2014 can be viewed here).

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Boy’s death confirmed as first case of brain eating amoeba in tap water

Researchers have discovered the first confirmed case of someone contracting a deadly brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri through tap water. Prior victims were infected after swimming in warm bodies of freshwater.

A study published this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reported that a 5-year-old Louisiana boy did, in fact, pick up the microorganism from tap water, possibly via a Slip n’ Slide. About two weeks later, he perished from an infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).

Naegleria fowleri is called the brain-eating amoeba because it can digest neural tissues. Upon entering the body via the nasal passages, N. fowleri penetrates bone between the sinuses and the brain to form an infection, breaking down nerve cells in the process. Ensuing swelling of the brain occurrs, ushering in PAM, which is usually fatal. PAM kills up to eight people per year in the US, usually males with a median age of 12.

The Louisiana boy was taken to a hospital in July 2013 after he acquired a 104-degree Fahrenheit (40° C) fever and complained of a devastating headache, in addition to bouts of vomiting. Doctors later recorded two short “staring episodes,” in which the boy would gaze straight ahead for a few seconds without responding.

The infection, though, could not be identified or halted after several tests and antibiotics. The boy eventually developed seizures, and was declared brain dead. His family took him off life support five days after he entered the New Orleans hospital, according to Newsweek.

His was the first confirmed case to have been triggered by tap or faucet water, and not freshwater immersion, according to study author Jennifer Cope, a medical epidemiologist for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Anyone who swims in lakes or uses a netti pot should read this. Use bottled water only in your netti pot. http://t.co/YHcZu2hGfN
— lonnie wayne harper (@stickymagician) January 26, 2015

Other cases have been the result of drinking water contaminated via a body of freshwater, such as other cases in Louisiana that have pointed to Hurricane Katrina’s effect on the water supply system. Neti pots, or nasal rinses, have been associated with the microorganism as well, such as one case in the US Virgin Islands.

Louisiana has recently increased efforts to test for the amoeba while advising higher levels chlorine in its water treatment operations. The CDC has an emergency drug called miltefosine to combat PAM cases, though it is not commercially available.

Other studies are probing how N. fowleri becomes infectious.

“This is a free-living amoeba that doesn't have to infect anybody, it's perfectly happy feeding on bacteria,” Francine Marciano-Cabral, a microbiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University who is studying the microorganism, said to Newsweek. “What we want to find out is why in some people is it so pathogenic and deadly and what makes it that way?”

The reason Louisiana Gov. Jindal has been making such stupid comments lately? He drinks Louisiana tap water! http://t.co/FjeRW1pur2
— Michael E. Cohen (@lymond) January 26, 2015

Source:
Russia Today