Up Close and Personal
with CTM founder, Phillip Day

Ah, it had to end sometime.

Now it's back to work, appalled at how much we indulged ourselves. 2006 is here and there are those look-back programs to the previous year: bombings, earthquakes, tsunamis, hostage executions. You ask yourself what terrors 2006 will hold.

A new year. Another blank canvas. Another chance to get it right. How many reading this were personally caught up in the bad news reported in 2005? A few, though not many. For the rest, these were ethereal images, events we did not personally experience, which defined another year of our lives, the year London got it (again), Katrina drowned New Orleans, Indonesia was washed away, and the ground shook and lo, Pakistan was reduced to a rubble.

Holding your breath for the bird flu?

How about this for a great New Year's resolution: Switch off the media and get yourself a life. Your own. Try for a month and see how you feel. No Agatha Christie murders, no Kill Bill, no soap opera traumas piped to us through the same idiot box that gives us our opinions. Michael Hoffman studied media in depth and was not impressed:

"I remember Budd Dwyer's televised suicide. The Pennsylvania official prefaced his broadcast TV self-immolation with a quote from one of his associates who told Dwyer that the American people had become too jaded about 'routine' investigations into political corruption on TV's 60 Minutes and 20/20 to care very much about the corruption Dwyer sought to expose.

Mr Dwyer decided that a population so jaded would need a spectacular sacrificial victim to shake it awake from its apathy and therefore shot himself in front of TV cameras at a news conference.

But his televised suicide did no such thing. Instead it became, like virtually everything else that appears on television, a trivialised part of the entertainment videodrome. It merely raised the stakes for the next human life to exceed, in terms of violence and horror and brutalisation, as public fare."

We expect bad news, nay, pay for it and have our fill on the way to work. Media injects the much-needed frisson into boring lives with the usual conflicts against the odds: Eastenders, Neighbours, holding Rorkes Drift against the Zulus, a famous personality losing the fight against cancer. The cumulative assault on our psyche is overwhelming, which is actually the point. 'The whole aim of practical politics,' H L Mencken wrote, 'is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.' On a conscious level, we know it's a fiction. Subconsciously, it becomes something else.

Who asks the uncomfortable questions? Why are there no documentaries on the corrosive power of 'news'? Without the media, what would 'terrorism' play to? Who's going to blow up an airliner if they won't gain the leverage of a world stage from which to put their case? Ever wondered what would happen if you drenched yourself with good things? ITN used to do good news as an afterthought, though none of that was any of our business either. Trevor McDonald would smile "...and finally…." and go on to tell about 'The Tamworth Two', a pair of pigs who escaped the slaughterhouse and were on the run from their executioners. The joys of irony.

This month's EClub is a great one to kick off the year. My featured article from The Little Book of Attitude is entitled 'Guarding Input'. I shall be talking more on physical health and emotional freedom as the year progresses, how to gain the measure of our lives, how to achieve big things (even if they are little things), and some great new subjects.

Need a jump-start to the New Year? My UK and Ireland Tour is entitled What's News? and embarks at the University of Kent, Canterbury, on 16th January. Grab some tickets, come along and see for yourself what all the fuss is about. Have a look at the schedule to find the meeting nearest you.

Or you could stay indoors and watch TV instead.

Happy New Year.

Phillip

The Great Deception Behind the Rebate Row Deception: Now it Can be Told!
by Christopher Booker

Tony Blair was quite right to point out that, without the UK rebate, Britain would be the largest net contributor to the EU budget, paying 15 times more than France. It was precisely this imbalance which prompted Margaret Thatcher to fight for the rebate. It was never properly explained, however, why this ridiculous anomaly arose in the first place.

One of many remarkable episodes which Richard North and I were able to bring to light in our book, The Great Deception, just republished in a new updated edition, was the bizarre story behind the setting up of the Common Agricultural Policy in the 1960s. This was triggered off by the crisis facing France, through the runaway bill she was paying to subsidise French farmers for producing food nobody wanted.

President de Gaulle was terrified that this would bankrupt the French state, provoking social collapse. The French therefore cunningly devised a CAP to get other countries to buy their surplus food and foot their subsidy bill. The real reason why de Gaulle twice vetoed British entry was that it was vital first to get these arrangements agreed. Otherwise Britain could have sabotaged a system deliberately designed to benefit France, from which Britain, because she imported more of her food than anyone else, would be the biggest loser. Not only would she have to pay levies to Brussels for the food she imported, but, with a smaller farming sector, she would also get fewer subsidies.

Only in 1969 did France get her way, at which point she needed Britain in, and Edward Heath accepted the absurd arrangement. Within a decade, with the CAP then taking up 90 per cent of the entire budget, Britain would become the biggest contributor.

Hence Mrs Thatcher's fight for her rebate. But even this was only a partial solution, because Britain's farmers have continued to receive dramatically smaller subsidies than their competitors, contributing to the crisis which in recent years has brought much of British agriculture to its knees.

Thus are we still living with the problems created by that French stitch-up of 40 years ago, for reasons now almost lost in the mists of time. For the full story, I naturally recommend The Great Deception: Can The European Union Survive?, just published by Continuum at £9.99.
The Sunday Telegraph, 4th December 2005

Blair Will Pay for his Betrayal in Brussels

When it comes to international negotiations, possession is nine tenths of the law. A country may be under any amount of moral pressure, but, as long as it is profiting from the status quo, it has nothing to fear from a breakdown. It is instructive, then, to compare the behaviour of the EU at the Hong Kong trade talks with that of the United Kingdom at the Brussels summit.

In Hong Kong, the EU, represented by its Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, was determined not to open its markets to developing countries. Its stance was wrong-headed and ethically indefensible.

Euro-protectionism drives up prices, erodes Europe's competitiveness and causes much poverty in the Third World. But, despite the pleas of the southern hemisphere nations, and despite a generous American initiative to cut tariffs, Brussels remained intransigent, secure in the knowledge that no deal would mean a default to the existing situation.

Britain's position in Brussels was even stronger. No mechanism existed to reduce the British rebate without Tony Blair's agreement. Here, a failure to reach terms would mean not a continuation of the status quo, but something even more attractive: a drying up of the budget.

Britain - which, for almost the entire period of its membership, has been one of only two countries to make any net payment to the EU - would thus have been spared its annual tribute of £12 billion, and might have used these savings to (for example) give us all a two thirds cut in council tax.

Why, then, was Mr Blair so determined to find an accommodation? Why did he climb down from his own position that there would be no reduction in the rebate without a commensurate dismantling of the CAP? Because his Europeanism has never really been based on a computation of Britain's national interest.

For him, being pro-EU is about being a modern internationalist, not about securing specific gains for his country. This is, of course, the worst possible frame of mind in which to enter negotiations.

More to the point, though, Mr Blair has failed in his own terms. A generous internationalist might indeed believe that Britain ought to give money to needier countries. But the EU budget is not a mechanism for doing so. Its largest per capita beneficiary is Luxembourg. By failing to secure CAP reform, Mr Blair has, in fact, done immense damage to the world's truly deserving states.

Make no mistake: the sums of money involved are immense - £7 billion, the amount Mr Blair has handed away, is roughly the entire police budget for England and Wales. At the last election, Mr Blair claimed Tory plans for a £4 billion tax reduction would mean savage cuts in public services. Never again will he be able to level such an accusation.

From now on, every time they are asked where they would find the money for tax cuts, the Tories can reasonably reply: from Brussels. Mr Blair has betrayed his word and his electorate. His budget surrender will be hung, albatross-like, around his neck and invoked every time he raises taxes. He will quickly come to rue the day that he embarked for Brussels.
The Daily Telegraph, 19th December 2005

Further Resources
Find out about the EU's real agenda and JUST SAY NO.

Ten Minutes to Midnight by Phillip Day
The Real Face of the European Union by Phillip Day, video documentary (PAL format only)
Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
Click here for telephone sales around the world.
Click here if you wish to contact Credence for information on treatment options or resources.

Guarding Input
by Phillip Day
How to pitch the odds in your favour

It's a jungle out there.

What we focus on becomes our reality.

What's going on in Equador?

Who cares? I'm not focused on Equador.

What am I focused on?

And what is it doing to me?

'One study involving more than 700 families found that 14-year-old boys who watched relatively more television were more likely to have assaulted or committed a serious act of aggression against someone by the time they were 22 years old. A similar pattern was found among females, but the relationship was much weaker.

Another study found that violence in the media can have a profound effect on the behaviour of children and teens and that TV violence is associated with aggression among children as young as 4 years.

Preschoolers who watch television violence and play violent video games are more likely to show high levels of aggression and antisocial behaviour than those not exposed, according to another study.'

Yet another example of neuro-associative conditioning. TV can work for good. Mostly it works for our undoing.

Input
… is everything we allow to enter us.
What we consume
What we see
What we hear
What we experience
What we touch
What we smell

Output
…is our reaction to the above: our deeds, thoughts, patterning and emotions.

The more positive the input (placebo), the more positive the output, the more positive the patterns, the more positive the performance. And, of course, the reverse is true (nocebo).

The Danger of Media
Media includes advertising, news and entertainment. Media is input and changes the way we interpret the world. Media chooses what we see. Constant repetitions override and re-write opinions and patterning. Media is neuro-associative conditioning on steroids. It can be a force for good. Then again, through selective reporting, all Roman Catholic priests can become paedophiles. All dark-featured, moustachioed Middle-Easterners can become terrorists. All felons in Los Angeles are 5' 10", 160 lb black males in their early twenties not wearing a shirt. You get the picture.

Televised imagery affects real-world behaviour, the ad industry depends on it. The brain on a sub-conscious level cannot distinguish between what it experiences and what it is shown. Bad news brings pain. Good news brings pleasure. The Six O'Clock News is almost all bad news, which means The Six O'Clock News = pain/nocebo. Most of what is covered is none of our business and does not affect us directly, yet we subconsciously take on the pain.

How does a constant tide of bad news affect the way you view the world?

Constantly misrepresenting the scale of a threat keeps the populace in a state of mental siege. Relentless coverage throws the spooks into everyone. Consider:

"To get the nation healthier we must have more vaccinations, more hospitals, more doctors and nurses, more drugs, more donations for more research, and higher taxes. If we don't, continued disease poses a survival threat."

A lie repeated loud enough, long enough and often enough is still a lie. Professor Chris Bulstrode, US orthopaedic surgeon turned medical lecturer, is not the only member of his profession to make the case for less doctors for better health, not more:

"More doctors just means more illness. If we want a healthier and happier country, we should get rid of a lot of doctors. I cannot have been the only person who was absolutely incensed to discover that when the Berlin Wall came down, the military strength of the Eastern Block was an order of magnitude less than we had been led to believe. I want to try all the Western generals for lying to the public about how strong the Russians were. These generals have done three things over the last thirty years. They have frightened the hell out of the Russians, they have frightened the hell out of us, and they have stolen a huge amount of money from the budget that could have been used elsewhere. As I was thinking about this, I realized that this is exactly what we as doctors do in healthcare."

Heavy on Our Heart
TV has a strong 'conforming' effect on us, even if we think it doesn't. One in five under-fifteens in Britain is obese. Obesity in America causes 300,000 deaths a year with the total healthcare costs for overweight amounting to a hefty $100 billion. 7.3% of Americans officially have diabetes, amounting to more than 10% of the population if the undiagnosed cases are considered. If one totals the number of American citizens weighing between 10 - 30lbs over their average weight for height, 65% of the population falls into that category.

So, what do we see advertised on American TV every night? Junk food, slurpies, pizza, chocolate - constant repetition installs the pattern to choose the food we're told will bring the greatest pleasure.

Consider by the time a child is 16, he will have seen 300,000 acts of gratuitous violence, torture, mutilation, suicide and murder on television, at the cinema, and now on his PC. The Comedy Channel has us laughing at euthanasia, adultery, religion and death in a way that makes it all funnier than hell. Hollywood taught us how to enjoy the 'buzz' of sin without the aggravation of accountability in much the same way Ray Kroc showed us the Big Mac without the aggravation of the abattoir.

What a Turn-On
Media distorts our world-view with excessive focus on events we have never personally experienced. Newspapers gather up all the bad news around the world and dump it on our breakfast table. Terrorism. Disasters. Live sex acts occur in Mediterranean nightclubs, young female holidaymakers taking part while their admiring mothers look on. Drunken brawls in city streets. News of abuses of the young. The killing of little children by other little children. A British father rapes his own daughter then murders her. What was once unthinkable has now become commonplace. Or has it?

Dysfunctional input can help society fulfil the prophecy it constantly witnesses on TV. In 1976, the number of reported child abuse cases in America was 670,000. By the early 90s, this figure had risen to nearly 3 million. Movies, soaps, teen magazines and social-climber periodicals across the world deify sex, promiscuity, adultery and drunkenness. Drug abuse is now so widespread in the world's conurbations that when London's Metropolitan Police randomly searched a large cross-section of club-goers in the King's Cross area in 1998, 100% of them were found to be carrying, or under the influence of 'controlled' drugs.

Upwards of 25% of the videos rented in the US each year are pornographic. One Pentagon telephone audit showed $300,000 of taxpayers' money had been spent on 1(900) sex lines. At the last count, within a few blocks of the Department of Justice in Washington DC, there were 37 'adult' bookstores, 8 X-rated theatres and 15 topless bars. No pain, apparently, in the world's superpower capital.

The Double Mind
British TV today is a smorgasbord of Big Brother ogling, Celebrity Love Island shenanigans, the hate-filled faces of soap opera, Sex and the City, an autopsy performed live for a Kentucky-Fried-Chicken-munching public. We desire pleasure no matter the consequences, happily divorcing cause from effect, what everything is doing to us.

Thus arises the double mind, a society able to moralise in the newspapers about rape, murder and sex abuse, while having no problem accommodating the latest Kill Bill movie advertised on the very next page. England wept like babies during the serial run of the program Hearts of Gold, seeing ordinary folk doing good deeds for one another, dissolving the nation into sentimental goo. But the following day it was 'Hearts of Lead' as we cussed out the kids, gobbled down the porridge and carved up the grannies on our mad dash into work.

There's one thing at which we [Britain] DO lead the world. And we should hang our heads in shame: Britain has the highest rate of unmarried teenage mothers - nine times worse than Japan. Why is Britain so different? Not because we don't teach children about contraception. Just the opposite - we teach them too much and in the wrong way.

The more sexually aware our children become at too early an age, the more they are tempted. Tragically, it has become unfashionable to drum into children the word 'No'. We are paying the price in wrecked lives.

This from The Sun, page 8. Turn five pages back and drool at the daily half-page photograph of a teenage girl stripped to the saddle in provocative pose, earning some pin-money as she breaks onto the 'modelling' scene. Is The Sun doing its bit to prevent our youth from being sexually 'tempted'? Hardly. But such hypocritical rubbish passes us by with nary a blink.

"I want to be famous!" the school children chorus.
"Famous for what?' asks the teacher.
"Just famous!'

The double mind: "A mind profoundly at war with itself and ignorant even of that fact."

The Twenty-Third Channel
The TV is my shepherd,
I shall not want,
It makes me lie down on the sofa,
It leads me away from the fridge,
It destroys my soul,
It leads me in the path of sex and violence
For the sponsor's sake.
Yea, though I walk
In the shadow of social responsibilities,
There will be no interruption,
For the TV is with me,
Its cable and remote,
They comfort me.
It prepares a commercial for me
In the presence of all my worldliness.
It anoints my head with consumerism,
My coveting runneth over.
Surely laziness and ignorance
Shall follow me
All the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house
Watching TV forever.

Learn More About Yourself
What sort of input am I willingly subscribing to?
What effect can I see this having on me?
Is the double mind in evidence in my life?
How do I reconcile my hypocrisies?
Does this bother me?
Has media usurped my right to make up my mind based on my own experience, or am I given my opinions?
Do I think media is a force for good?
Do I think media is a force for ill?
And the question they'll take you out and shoot you for asking:

DO I REALLY NEED MEDIA AT ALL?

Based on your answers, try switching off the TV for fourteen days. If you break out in a sweat and can't, at least total up the time you spend in front of the box, reading newspapers, listening to the radio, etc., and consider what you could have done with the time instead:

· Played some sport and made myself healthier
· Got a university degree
· Started a business
· Written a good book
· Read a good book
· Organised worthwhile activities for my children
· Saved the £40-a-month cable fee and put it towards a college education for my child instead
· Created something
· Served someone

Moral of the story?

Pain in, pain out.

Pleasure in, pleasure out.

Guard your input like a pit-bull.

Practise good thoughts (I'm not sure pit-bulls do this).

Copyright © 2005 Phillip Day
Extracted from The Little Book of Attitude
www.credence.org

New Flu Vaccine is Loaded With Mercury

GlaxoSmithKline's new flu vaccine Fluarix was approved Wednesday for sale in the USA this fall under an accelerated FDA approval process. Another flu vaccine manufacturer, Chiron, moved closer to getting their license back; it was suspended when their flu vaccine was found to be contaminated with bacteria.

Chiron's license was suspended by British regulators in October, and the FDA barred U.S. distribution of the vaccine, cutting the nation's expected supply of flu vaccine in half.

GlaxoSmithKline expects to distribute 8 million doses of Fluarix and will begin shipping immediately. Chiron, if its vaccine is re-approved, could supply 18 million to 26 million doses of Fluvirin.
USA Today August 31, 2005

DR MERCOLA'S COMMENT: It has been six years since the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service joined forces in requesting the removal of all mercury-containing preservative thimerosal from vaccines.
A quick surf on the net easily reveals that this new vaccine indeed contains mercury.

How is it possible that they can approve vaccines that have a preservative that has been outlawed for six years? Last year I ran an article that documented that flu vaccines still contain mercury. How can the US federal government justify this morally reprehensible behavior and expose your children and you to this well documented neurotoxic poison?

The "Mad Hatter" from Alice in Wonderland wasn't just an idle fancy. In fact, hatters in England went insane with astonishing frequency a couple of hundred years ago, until "mad hatter" became a cliché. Why? Mercury salts were used to make felt for fancy hats.

Mercury exposure can cause a devastating array of problems, including:
· Multiple Sclerosis
· Central Nervous System Disorders
· Autism
· Alzheimer's Disease

Is this really something you want injected into yourself, and your children?

Avoid mercury poisoning; don't eat fish, unless you are absolutely certain that it has been tested in a laboratory and shown not to contain detectable levels of mercury and other toxins. To get your vital omega-3 fatty acids, eat high quality fish oil instead. This will also, incidentally, help keep you from getting the flu.

Other ways to avoid getting the flu without taking dangerous shots include:

· Eating a healthy diet by eliminating sugar
· Exercising
· Getting enough rest
· Eating garlic regularly
· Not letting stress become overwhelming
· Washing your hands

To learn more about the dangers of flu vaccines, you might want to consider calling into our telephone clinic on the subject, where you will hear a live discussion I will conduct with my top vaccine advisor, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, who is widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians regarding the impact that vaccines can have on health.
www.mercola.com

Pollutants Link to Rise in Diabetes Cases
by Roger Highfield

The dramatic rise in the incidence of type 2 diabetes could be driven in part by exposure to pollutants as well as obesity, according to a study published yesterday.

A link has emerged between the disease and exposure to high levels of persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs), which are most likely to come from eating fatty fish such as salmon and herring from the Baltic.

However, the professor who led the Scandinavian study of the families of fishermen emphasised that more research was required on the wider implications. Type 2 diabetes is usually found in older people and complications include heart disease, stroke and blindness.

Currently 1.4 million Britons are diagnosed with diabetes, including 200,000 youngsters with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. Up to one million adults have undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and the total is expected to double by 2010.

The study published yesterday in the Journal of Environmental Health shows that exposure to high levels of POPs, a family of chemicals that includes polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the insecticide DDT, is associated with a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes in fishermen and their wives.
The Daily Telegraph, 29th November 2005

Soy Milk May be Tied to Infant Deaths

Although the autopsy is inconclusive and tests on the food are not yet complete, a porridge made of EdenSoy Extra soy milk and cornmeal may be responsible for the deaths of two infant brothers living in Brooklyn.

When their mother attempted to wake them, shortly after noon, she found they were unconscious and took them to the hospital. Both were pronounced dead on arrival. Initial thoughts were that the twins had been overcome by a gas leak, but tests showed no leak.

Because medical examiners also found no evidence of choking as a result of consuming the food, or any signs of foul play, the police instead began focusing on what the infants had eaten. The police cleaned out two nearby supermarkets of EdenSoy milk and cornmeal for testing.
New York Times October 21, 2005

DR MERCOLA'S COMMENT: If you ever wondered why I'm so concerned about the health dangers tied to the rampant use of soy products -- especially in processed foods -- this kind of incident is exactly the reason. In my view there just simply isn't any justification to ever use soy formula or worse, soy milk, in infants.

This isn't the first time soy milk has been investigated for its toxic side effects. Separate incidents in California and Arkansas prompted the FDA to issue a 1990 warning against using soy milk as a formula substitute. Most brands have followed the tougher FDA labeling guidelines, except EdenSoy, says Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food.

In fact, the deaths of three infants prompted the Israeli Health Ministry to issue a health advisory earlier this year, recommending babies not be fed soy formula -- except as a last resort -- and severely limiting a child's intake of soy products.

Without question the best food you can give your infant is breast milk and this should be your primary choice if at all possible, as it is the healthiest source of milk you can give to your infant. I believe very strongly all soy formula should be avoided and is not fit for human consumption.

If breastfeeding is not an option, the best article I ever read on the topic is one published in a recent edition of the Weston Price ogranization. I am on their board and was able to obtain reprint rights for their article on healthy alternatives to breast milk and commercial formula from Sally Fallon to run it in our newsletter. I would strongly encourage you to review this multi-part series in this issue if you are unable to breastfeed.

When making the alternative to breast milk described in the article, ideally, it would be best to use raw milk as the base (other ingredients to add are described in the article). The best way to get it is to find a local dairy farmer in your area through your local health food store or the Real Milk Web site. Raw milk is a safer and far healthier alternative to pasteurized milk.
www.mercola.com eHealthy News You Can Use. 8th November, 2005

Supermarkets "Undermine Health" with Fat and Sugar
by David Derbyshire

Supermarkets were accused yesterday of undermining public health by encouraging customers to buy high-fat, high-sugar foods.

A survey by the National Consumer Council found that unhealthy food was twice as likely to be included in special offers and price promotions as fresh fruit and vegetables. Just seven per cent of "buy one get one free" and "multi-buy" offers at Somerfield, and nine per cent at Morrisons were for fresh produce, the survey found. However, supermarkets have made "significant strides" in reducing levels of salt, improved labelling and taking sweets off the check-out.

Supermarkets denied that they were acting irresponsibly and insisted that the council's figures were out of date.

The report, Healthy Competition, compared all nine major supermarket chains for their attitude to healthy food, labelling, salt, snacks at the till and special offers. The Co-op came first in the "health responsibility index", while Morrisons came last. Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, was ranked sixth.

Ed Mayo, the council's chief executive, said: "There is a change under way that is good news for consumers as supermarkets start to compete on health. The fact that the Co-op has an above-average share of budget-conscious shoppers shows that this is not just for the better off. But we are dismayed that the biggest supermarket - Tesco - is a laggard on health."

The survey checked more than 2,300 price promotions at nine major supermarkets. The proportion of fruit and vegetable promotions was highest at Marks & Spencer - with 27 per cent. However, no stores met the target of 33 per cent, the proportion of fruit and vegetables recommended for a balanced diet.

"In respect of in-store promotions, we conclude that the majority of retailers are undermining public health goals," the report said.

Morrisons and Somerfield, which had the lowest proportion of fruit and vegetable promotions are both retailers with relatively high numbers of low-income customers, it added.

The Co-op was praised for reducing salt, "excellent nutrition labelling" and the best information on its customer help line.

Most supermarkets were praised for taking unhealthy sweets off displays at checkouts, although Marks & Spencer continued to have chocolate at child height. The council asked the Food Commission to hold spot-check surveys of nine major supermarkets around England in June and July.

A spokesman for Morrisons said the report failed to present a true reflection of its approach to health responsibility.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a spokesman for Tesco, branded the document "out of date". A spokesman for Somerfield said: "We have consistently championed fresh foods for our customers."
The Daily Telegraph, 25th November 2005

Teddy Bear Mobile 'Puts 4-Year-Olds
at Risk From Radiation'
by Nic Fleming

A teddy bear-shaped mobile phone aimed at children as young as four was launched yesterday.

The manufacturers of the Teddyfone claimed it would help parents keep track of their children while minimising potential health hazards posed by radio frequency emissions.

With no screen and only four buttons that can be pre-programmed by parents, the device prevents users from being targeted by text message bullying, calls from strangers or inappropriate adult material.

The makers of the Teddyfone claim that the rate at which the body absorbs energy from the handset, known as its peak specific absorption rate, is 0.16w/kg - close to the lowest available. Most mobiles have SAR values of 0.4 to 0.7w/kg.

Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, advised parents earlier this year to discourage use of mobile phones by children under eight as a
precaution against potential health risks.

Yesterday the agency was joined in its criticism of the Teddyfone by even the industry body that represents mobile phone operators.

A spokesman for the Mobile Operators Association said: "The companies we represent don't market their products to under-16s, as recommended by Sir William Stewart. We believe that is a responsible policy and is in line with the advice on health."

Paul Liesching, the managing director of Teddyfone Ltd, who said the device was aimed at four- to 10-year-olds, pointed to research showing that a quarter of seven- to 10-year-olds owned mobiles. He said parents should be able to buy low-emission handsets that also protected children from other potential dangers.

"This is a basic parental decision. If you see the utility and benefits of your child having a mobile phone are greater than any potential risks, give your child a mobile phone. If you don't, then don't. One million children under 10 already have mobile phones which potentially put them at risk from text-bullying, excessive charges and inappropriate material. Teddy-fone is a response to clear demand in the market."

The new handset has an SOS button that allows children who feel under threat to connect automatically to a parent's mobile.

A child monitor option allows concerned parents to listen in to what is happening around their child and an optional child locator service sends parents a map of where their son or daughter is, on request, for 50p.

The handsets and two years' line rental are free. Calls are charged at standard rates. Sir William, the Government's leading adviser on radiation, said in January that children under nine should not use mobiles and that those aged nine to 14 should make only short, essential calls.

He said: "When it comes to suggesting that mobile phones should be available to three- to eight-year-olds, I can't believe for a moment that can be justified. My advice is that they should not have them because children's skulls are not fully thickened, their nervous systems are not fully developed and the radiation penetrates further into their brains."

Published research suggests that a child's brain absorbs 50-70 per cent more of the emissions from a mobile phone than an adult's.

Alasdair Philips, of consumer group Powerwatch, said yesterday: "Marketing a product at children when there is increasing evidence that it may be causing them both short-term and long-term harm is at the very least highly irresponsible." Dr Michael Clarke, of the Health Protection Agency, said: "It's up to any company to justify its product in light of our advice that children should be discouraged from excessive use of mobiles."

Communi8, a British company, lost about £500,000 after launching Mymo, a mobile for under-eights, last year. It withdrew the product following Sir William's comments.

A survey of 1,232 parents of children under 16 carried out on behalf of Teddyfone found that 35 per cent of respondents were concerned about the potential health hazards for children under 10 with mobiles. Nearly a quarter were worried about their child's phone being stolen.
The Daily Telegraph, 29th November 2005

UK Victims of Faulty Drugs Denied Payout
Claimants Caught in legal limbo
by Clare Dyer

One of Britain's leading QCs warned last night of a "serious risk" that people injured by faulty drugs will no longer be able to mount compensation claims in the British courts. Lord Brennan QC, a former chairman of the Bar and a deputy high court judge, spoke after the Guardian discovered that more than 500 people who had had strokes or heart attacks following treatment with the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx had lost an appeal against the refusal to pay them legal aid.

Martyn Day, a solicitor who acts for 200 claimants, said they appeared to be caught in a legal limbo barring them from seeking compensation. They have no funding to sue in Britain after being refused legal aid and they have also been denied the insurance they would need to pursue a claim on a no-win, no-fee basis.

Mr Day said the case was the strongest against a pharmaceutical company in 10 years, because it was supported by "gold standard" scientific studies showing a significant risk of adverse effects compared with similar drugs.

He said the failure to get funding for the case spelled "the end of litigation against drug companies in the UK," adding: "If this case can't get into the courts here, then I don't know what will. There's a real chance that we will simply end up in some mid-Atlantic limbo land where we can't get funding here, we can't get the cases going here and at the same time we get thrown out in the US. So British people end up with no justice, no recompense, whereas in the States there's a very strong feeling that Merck will settle these cases."

Lord Brennan, who has acted for claimants in some of the biggest drug cases, said there was "a serious risk" that compensation claims against drug firms could no longer be brought in Britain because of restrictions on funding. He called for consideration of US-style contingent fees where lawyers get a share of the damages, rather than just extra fees, as UK lawyers get if they win a case on a no-win no-fee basis.

One claimant, Vivian Wyatt, 57, of Highbridge, near Bridgewater, Somerset, said she took Vioxx for four years until her GP told her not to take it any more because of liver damage. A week later she had a heart attack. Now disabled, she said: "The only way I could fund it [the case] is by selling my house and all my possessions."

Mr Day said legal aid for such cases had been "massively cut back" in recent years. No-win, no-fee arrangements - known as conditional fee agreements - had been meant to take up the slack. But insurance against losing and having to pay the drug company's costs was hard to get and prohibitively expensive. Some insurers will defer the premium and charge only if, and after, the case is won. In the Vioxx case, the costs of losing are estimated at £5m, and insurers will agree to defer the premium only up to £250,000 of costs.

Some UK claimants are trying to sue in the US but Mr Day said an attempt by Merck Inc, the drug's US-based maker, to try to get foreign claims thrown out had a "real" chance of success.

Merck faces about 7,000 lawsuits over Vioxx, prescribed mainly for arthritis, which it withdrew from the market last year when a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. Three months ago a jury awarded $253m (£147m) to a widow whose husband, a Vioxx user, died. But the firm won a second case, when the jury ruled it gave adequate warnings. A third US trial starts today. Merck said in a statement: "We believe we have meritorious defences and intend to vigorously defend individual Vioxx cases one by one."
The Guardian, 29th November 2005

Vioxx: Two Claims Down, 6398 To Go

The drug industry has for years enjoyed a protected and privileged position that has allowed it to kill sections of its market with impunity. Sadly, those heady days seem to be coming to an end, certainly in the United States.

There, drug giant Merck is facing 6,400 separate suits from patients, or their surviving relatives, who claim its COX-2 anti-inflammatory, Vioxx (rofecoxib) has caused heart attacks or strokes.

Merck lost the first case in August when a Texas jury found for a patient's family, and awarded compensation of $253 million. Then, in November, Merck enjoyed a small victory when a New Jersey jury decided that Vioxx had not caused a heart attack in a 60-year-old postal worker.

So there are a mere 6,398 cases to go, and Merck is committed to fighting every one of them. If it goes badly, analysts estimate the actions could cost Merck around $35 billion in compensation, and that's just for the cases that have been filed thus far.
These are indeed worrying times for drug companies. If word gets out that their products are killing patients, where could it end? So, please, don't tell a soul.
(Source: The Lancet, 2005; 366: 1763-4).
Per www.zeusinfoservice.com .

The Flouride Action Network

Victory in California!
by Prof. Paul Connett

More champagne please! We have just heard today that we had another
victory on election night (November 8). It was in California.

Citizens in Mono County voted for Measure C, a motion in opposition to fluoridation.

Here is how the Mammoth Times covered this vote:

"The fluoridation ballot initiative, is seen as a victory for the people's right to make a choice about their water supply," according to Debie Schnadt, proponent and supporter of the measure. The landslide decision by voters to not fluoridate their water was a success story for the spread of knowledge, Schnadt believes.

"This makes me so happy to see democracy work," Schnadt said. She sees the opportunity to use the initiative process to make a change as a positive process. "It speaks well for the people." -MT

Election Summary for Mono County...

Measure C: Yes (72.14%) No (27.86%)

We will forward more details on this successful battle when we get them, as well as contact details so that we can congratulate the folks who pulled this off.
www.fluoridealert.org

Cirrhosis Cases Soar Among Britain's Fat Children
by Ben Fenton

Doctors have reported the first cases of teenagers with signs of cirrhosis caused by overeating, as the epidemic of childhood obesity in Britain becomes clear.

One leading expert in childhood liver diseases said the number of teenagers suffering from the disease that most commonly leads to cirrhosis, a condition normally associated with chronic alcoholism, had risen by between 12 and 20 times in the past decade.

And Prof Roger Williams, the doctor who treated George Best for his fatal liver condition, said he found the increased incidence of cases "frightening".

The reports came on the same day that an all-party parliamentary group began a campaign for extra funding on obesity research.

Prof Georgina Mieli-Vergani, a consultant paediatric hepatologist at King's College Hospital in London, said: "I have seen a 15-year-old boy, hugely overweight, who was suffering from cirrhosis and a great increase in other liver problems caused by obesity."

She said that there had been an extraordinary rise in the number of cases of the severe liver condition known as non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH), which preceeds the onset of cirrhosis.

"Ten years ago, I might see one child every two years with NASH, but now it is anywhere from six to 10," she said. "These are not children with psychological conditions, just what I call Ronald McDonald children who eat too many burgers."

Prof Williams does not treat children often, but said: "Recently, I saw a 13-year-old boy who was in the stage before the full onset of cirrhosis and it was frightening. It's an awful thought that children are running this kind of risk, but some may now no longer seem to exercise or even walk to school."

Cirrhosis, or irreparable scarring, of the liver is normally the last stage of liver disease before death, although swift action can prevent fatal results.

The existence of these cases was described by one expert as "the pinnacle of the tip of the iceberg" of childhood obesity in Britain, which has the fastest growing rate of the condition in the developed world. Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said: "Childhood obesity is not an epidemic in the making, it is an epidemic that is already existing and these reports show that very clearly. It is incredibly important that this information is out there both for members of my profession and also for parents, to let them know what are the risks of not educating children about their diets."

Exposed to a high-fat, high-sugar diet, the liver can become surrounded by fat and expanding fat cells within the organ damage its tissues.

In the process of repairing itself, scars are left on the liver that eventually interfere with its ability to perform the dozens of vital functions that are so crucial to health.

In France, farmers force-feed geese using a funnel so that their livers become saturated with fat and produce the delicacy foie gras.

Dr Haslam said: "Without the funnel, that is in effect what is happening to some children today." He said it was vital that the Government paid attention to this new and worrying trend in public health. But one doctor counselled caution.

Dr Indra van Mourik, a consultant at the liver unit of Birmingham Children's Hospital, said: "I have not seen conclusive proof that overeating alone produces these levels of liver damage. We have certainly seen an increase of patients attending what we call the 'fatty liver clinic' and many of them are obese, but they also have other problems and symptoms that have brought them to us."
The Daily Telegraph, 29th November 2005

From the Mailbag
Some comments from our new subscribers

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