German Plans for Euro-Army
'Show Blair is Deceiving Britain'

by Toby Helm and George Jones

The German military high command wants to create a fully-fledged European army that would report to a European Union government and be financed by the European Parliament, documents obtained by the Tories show.

They claimed last night that a memorandum written by senior, German army officials on the future of European defence proved that Tony Blair was deceiving the British people by claiming there were no plans to create a unified EU military force.

The document reflects a common view at the highest levels of the German military that the only way to achieve efficient and effective defence in Europe, where spending on the military is far lower than in America, is the full pooling of national resources.

It says plans for an EU army should be based on the "democratic principles" defined by the Convention on the Future of Europe, which drew up the draft EU constitution.

"Consequently, a European army legitimised and financed by the European Parliament is the visionary goal of German policy"

It adds: "The European army should have joint structures that go beyond the ones already in place. Therefore there is a need for a joint defence system, common legislation and standardisation." Assuming that a fully fledged government would have been set up within about 10 years, it adds: "The army would report to the EU government and to the EU Parliament. Through the deployment law Parliament should decide if deploying troops is an option or not."

Addressing the sensitive issue of nuclear capabilities, it says these should also be "integrated within the European defence system". Britain and France are the only EU countries with a nuclear deterrent. The memorandum acknowledges the need to define the future relationship with NATO. "A decision should be made about possible collaborations of the EU armies with UN, the Security Council or with Nato itself".

The document reflects the long-term thinking of many German politicians and military officials. Although Berlin's official policy is far less ambitious than that outlined in the memorandum, the extent to which Gerhard Schroder's government is pushing for closer integration is already causing serious concerns in London.

At his monthly press conference yesterday, Tony Blair, who launched plans for more co-operation on European defence at St Malo in 1998, said the Government would not support German- led plans for an independent European defence headquarters. The ideas also have the backing of France and Belgium. Mr Blair would oppose any defence plans threatening the defence of Nato, which he described as the cornerstone of European security. "We don't want duplication and we certainly don't want competition with Nato."

Mr Blair stressed that EU defence should develop in a way compatible with Nato. But Europe should have a proper defence capability where Nato or America did not wish to get involved.

As the Tories launched a national petition for a referendum on the EU constitution yesterday, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said those in favour of Europe were failing to make the case for British participation effectively enough. "I believe there is a crisis of complacency among those who support Britain's EU membership," he said.

But he gave warning of uncritical pro - EU sentiment from "starry-eyed integrationists whose ideological fervour gives ammunition to super - state conspiracy theorists."
Daily Telegraph. 24th October, 2003

EU Pays £1m to Train Italian
Showgirls at 'School for Bimbos'

by Bruce Johnston

A "School for Soubrettes" that teaches young Italian women the not-so-subtle skills needed to become television games hostesses and showgirls has opened near Naples, backed by generous European Union funding.

The programme at the First Tel School has prompted a political storm over the EU's willingness to put £1 million into what critics say is a "course for bimbos".

There has been no shortage of interest from potential pupils, however, given that Italy's television networks are awash with programmes featuring scantily clad female assistants. About 1,200 women - and a handful of young men - applied for the 97 places on the eight month course when it was advertised in the summer.

Under the terms of the EU grant, students must be at least 18, unemployed and come from the Campania region - renowned throughout Italy for the beauty of its women. They will be taught diction, show presenting, make-up, singing, dancing, acting, and the history of cinema and the theatre.

Dino Giordano, one of the school's founders, said it was aimed at equipping students for a wider career than that pursued by mere bimbos. "They are being thrown in at the deep end but it will give them a head start in show business," he said last week. Some pupils, though, seem to have less ambitious objectives. "I want to be famous, rich and marry a footballer," declared Simona Toto, a diminutive blonde.

The school, in Frattamaggiore near Naples, attracted "structural funding" from Brussels - channelled through the local, Left wing regional council - because it is one of the EU's most economically backward areas. Unemployment among young people is 50 per cent.

Some of the EU funding will go directly to the students who will receive 2.07 euros (1.44) for each class they attend. Yet the grant has come under attack from local media and members of Silvio Berlusconi's conservative-led coalition.

"It is totally incomprehensible the way the region is blowing European funds that are meant for training schemes to help develop the area and so create jobs," complained Antonio Pezzella, the MP for Frattamaggiore.

He questioned why show business was being given priority in an area where there was greater need for more traditional skills such as tailoring. "Instead of creating a serious labour policy (the council) is merely putting on a show."

Pietro Vittorelli, a co-founder of the school, said that it had already built a studio set and made a dummy programme of Quiz lotto, a typical Italian games show, which it was tying to sell to television. "It's not just a school, it's an industry," he said.

One student, Antonella Sacchettino, 19, who is taking time off studying at a local university to attend, said, "It's a fantastic opportunity and I hope I enjoy myself, while to be able to get a job at the end of it would be ideal."

One of the high flyers at the school auditions, she added, "I'm going to put everything I have into this. I don't want to be a velina (a bimbo). I'm interested in the world of show business."

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: Britain's membership of the EU costs us £1.3 MILLION AN HOUR, with no appreciable benefit, save not having to change out the sterling when we smuggle all those 'duty-frees' back from the hypermarkets in Calais. And no a school for 'bimbos', eh? I rest easy knowing our money is being put to good use.

Blank Screens Loom Nearer

By Christopher Booker

Last week, several of the electricity generating companies issued a joint warning that Britain faced severe power cuts in the not-too-distant future. This brought a little nearer the time when people wake up to the energy crisis looming over this country - just as the government seems prepared to hand over control of energy policy to the European Union.

It was revealed that all our large, coal - fired power stations are likely to be closed by the cost of complying with the EU's Large Combustion Plant directive. This comes on top of fears that, as North Sea gas runs out and the nuclear plants, which provide 23 per cent of our electricity, are closed, within seven years we shall be largely dependent on imported energy. Meanwhile, the government seems so hypnotised by its EU "renewables obligation" that it pins all its hopes on expensive and inefficient wind farms.

Last Monday, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Jack Straw was so keen to see the draft EU constitution agreed in time for December's summit in Rome , that he raised no objection to the proposed "common energy policy", which will prevent us from making bilateral deals with countries such as Norway to ensure our energy supplies. Instead, we shall be at the mercy of EU negotiators with no particular concern for British interests.

When those power cuts strike havoc at our computer-based economy, leaving us staring into blank screens in the dark, we shall certainly have a few more "benefits" of EU membership for which to thank Tony Blair.
Sunday Telegraph, 2nd November 2003

March to Protest the EU Constitution

Dear All,

We may have met, or spoken, or your address could have been passed to me as someone who feels strongly about the proposed European Constitution, and their Country.

I am organising a March and Rally calling for a Referendum on the European Constitution on Saturday 24th April 2004.

I have police permission and also agreement from Hyde Park for a rally after the march.

I shall be contacting you regularly with full details but the purpose of this email is to flag up the date in your diaries. I would also ask that you forward this to anyone who may be interested and/or put them in touch with me.

I am the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stourbridge but I wish to stress that this march and rally will be cross-party and apolitical and incorporate many individuals and groups/associations of people who all feel strongly about this issue. It has to be non-political or we will not achieve the desired result. This is to make the maximum impact to try to make the Prime Minister and the Government listen to the people.

We shall form up from 10.30 a.m. on Victoria Embankment and set off between midday to 1 p.m. We shall march down Whitehall where six of us will present a letter to No. 10 and then march down Pall Mall to Hyde Park, where a rally with speakers will take place.

We already have many eminent people who will march and speak at the rally, from cross-party politicians to celebrities and business people. All offers of help are needed and any equipment such as loudhailers/radios, stewards tabards etc.

We need a sound stage and equipment for Hyde Park so if anyone has contacts in this area that may be sympathetic and will either offer help without charge or at reasonable rates please advise.

We would also like rallies around the Country for those who cannot come to London so if anyone has contacts in any part of the Country from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Devon & Cornwall etc these will be needed. Obviously we need the maximum number on the March and local marches.

Telephone numbers are 01628 666456 and 07881 904124 for Diana and Peter.

Thank you

Diana Coad

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: I encourage each of you to contact Diana and become involved in this most worthy endeavour. The bigger this event becomes, the more impact it will have, not only on the authorities, but also on others still sitting on the fence. Remember, this is the country we will be living in for the foreseeable future. I believe this warrants all our enthusiasm, time and effort.

EU Auditors Blast Budget Failings

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The European Union is failing to keep track of huge annual subsidies, and 91 per cent of its budget is riddled with errors or cannot be verified.

The European Court of Auditors refused to certify EU accounts for the ninth successive year, saying that Brussels has failed to match reform rhetoric with a genuine change of culture. Abuse is said to be endemic in the Common Agricultural Policy, which still consumes almost half the £65 billion budget.

Checks on subsidy claims for suckler cows found that 50.2 per cent of animals in Portugal and 31.2 per cent in Italy were false. The "error rate" in forage and crop acreage was 89.7 per cent in Luxembourg, 42.9 per cent in Sweden, 34.5 per cent in Britain, despite increased use of satellite photography to spot fraud.

The court said it was almost impossible to track funds once they had been handed over to member states, which administer 80 per cent of the budget. Money also disappears into Russia, Central Asia, the Balkans and developing countries.

Budget controls in Brussels itself are criticised. The report says that the European Commission has still not switched to the sort of modern accounting system used by the British Government and World Bank, making it impossible to know if transactions have been "fully and correctly recorded".

The court suggested that the EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale, costing tax- payers £ 54 million a year. Half the claimants had psychological- or stress-related complaints. A court official said: "These are not coal miners or deep-sea fishermen. It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health."

Most of the invalids are in their mid '30s or '40s, securing life-time pensions worth 70 per cent of the final retirement-age salaries.

The court also accused Euro-MPs of padding their pension funds with subsidies from the taxpayer. At present, the European Parliament pays two thirds of the pension cost, with the rest often paid from the MEPs office allowance - another perk worth £120,000 a year. British Euro MPs are said to be leading culprits in using the fund to employ spouses and children as aides. They also receive a tax-free attendance fee of £160 a day in Brussels and Strasbourg, and are reimbursed for full business air fares on a mileage basis, even if they take cheap flights.
The Daily Telegraph, 18th November 2003

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: In the above article, for 'error', please read 'corruption'; for 'abuse', read 'fraud'. Is any further proof required that the European Union is a criminally corrupt waste of public taxpayers' money, and hardly the sort of 'organisation', if one may be tempted to abuse the word, to run Britain's, or indeed any nation's affairs, in the future? The EU has now cooked its books for nine years in a row, and hasn't even the integrity or probity to investigate itself of its pilfering. If you still support the EU in any of its guises, have you taken a deep breath lately?

How can the EU, which so conspicuously fails to account properly for our money, possibly be allowed loose on the world stage with its own army, nuclear deterrent and secret police force, pontificating self-righteously of its mission for a stable and democratic Europe, when it is so profoundly UNdemocratic, UNrepresentative and UNaccountable to the people for whom it claims to speak?

It is Ten Minutes to Midnight, and Europeans are urged by the Campaign for Truth in Europe to consider their future. For, if this supranational monstrosity is allowed to cement in place its dangerously soviet constitution over 450 million souls as of next May (almost all of whom have not the slightest idea what is going on), and it is subsequently found to be a huge and dreadful mistake, the subsequent bloodbath as nations attempt to reassert their independence will not bear thinking about.

To live in freedom means having those who rule you completely accountable for their actions. Millions died in two world wars for the nations to learn this elementary lesson. Need millions more die to sear us once again of this most fatal apathy?

Further Resources:

Ten Minutes to Midnight
Vigilance

Available through www.credence.org

Clever Fish

Sir, Adam Nicholson (Comment, Oct 7) well explains the advantages of managing a natural resource, fish, without the interference of the EU.

I have sailed, for extended periods, in the waters of north Norway, Iceland and the Faroes. In all three, the prosperity of coastal communities stands out in contrast to our own in Scotland. The fleets are busy, boats well maintained, the houses smart and colourful and the people content. Their only fear is the EU. Our Government should follow their example in management and claim the right to 200 miles offshore.

This is the only way to encourage stock growth. In a letter, Neil Kinnock, The EU Commissioner, told me that fish know no international boundaries, forgetting that there are breeding areas.

I and my crew used to catch large fish in home waters, but this can no longer be done. Maybe these fish are cleverer than Kinnock allows, and do indeed swim north knowing that there's a good chance that they will live longer and get fatter.
David Bushby, Perthshire.

The Daily Telegraph 9th October, 2003

Brussels Threat To UK Oil Was Missed By Foreign Office

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels

The Foreign Office missed the significance of a clause handing over the strategic prize of Britain's oil and gas reserves to Brussels, a senior Labour source said yesterday.

Draft article 111-157 of the EU constitution, which gives Brussels power to decide energy policy, was slipped into the text late last summer by the drafting praesidium headed by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president.

The Foreign Office was caught off-guard, having wrongly supposed that the German government would block it. "They missed its significance and now they're becoming quite disturbed," said the source.

A confidential Department of Trade and Industry analysis disclosed to The Daily Telegraph gives warning that the proposals could threaten Britain's control over oil licences, the tax regime for exploration and development, pipelines, treaties, and strategic stocks, which can be used to modulate prices.

By dictating the rate at which reserves are depleted, Brussels could determine tax revenue. The DTI said it was probably too late to eliminate Article 111-157 but insisted that a clause on energy security should be stripped out and a veto retained.

Sir Ian Wood, co-chairman of the oil industry's Leadership Team, said he feared a repeat of the fisheries disaster that occurred when Edward Heath signed away access to the British waters in 1973.

"This text is so open-ended it gives the EU powers to do what ever it wants in the area of energy," he said. "The way we lost control over our fishing reserves is a warning of what can happen."

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, belatedly objected during treaty talks in Brussels this week after being lobbied by the Treasury, which suspects that Brussels could gain control over £5 billion of tax revenue. He asked for the language to be "tightened up" but did not make a stand on the veto.

The Government has not listed the energy clause as a no-go "red line" in its White Paper on the constitution, and seems unwilling to open a fresh battle front just weeks before the final deal scheduled for mid-December. A Foreign Office spokesman said the transfer of energy competence to Brussels was "basically OK" except for some "second order concerns". He said a safeguard clause ensured that Britain would retain control over the "general structure of energy supply".

Lord Stockton, a pro-European Tory MEP on the drafting convention, said the Foreign Office assurances were worthless. "The more I think about that clause, the more I think it could very easily become a Spanish 'fishing job' on our oil reserves," he said. "It will also drive another wedge between Britain and America since so much of the development is done jointly with US firms".

The oil industry warned the Prime Minister in a joint letter on Oct 22 that EU control would endanger "fiscal sovereignty" and harm investment at a time when fresh capital was needed to extend the life of the North Sea oil reserves for another two decades.

Both BP and Shell have written similar letters to Mr Straw.

They are worried that assets will tumble in value as American oil giants pull back in anticipation of an EU cost or tax "premium".
Daily Telegraph, 7th November 2003

Swedish Rebuff Could be Just The
Beginning of an Anti-EU Landslide

by Ambrose Evans-Prichard in Stockholm

On the rare occasions when ordinary people in the European Union are given the opportunity to vote on anything to do with it, they seem to relish rebuking Brussels and giving their political establishment a bruising slap in the face.

This weekend it was an irrefutable Swedish "Nej" to the euro, by a margin of 14 points. Three years ago in Denmark there was another "Nej", when again the small battalions defeated the massed pro-euro forces of big business, big labour and the media.

The Maastricht Treaty, which created the euro, passed by a whisker in France, where the "No" side mustered 49.5 per cent. The Germans may have come to terms with the euro, but would almost certainly have voted to keep the mark if they had been asked in the late 1990s.

Not even the Irish can be counted on to vote for Europe, although they greatly benefit from EU largesse. In 2001, they shocked Brussels by rejecting the Nice Treaty, before backing it in a repeat referendum.

Ireland was the only country to put Nice to a popular test. Had all 15 states voted, there could have been defeat in at least half of them.

Eurosceptics do not expect the Swedish result to chasten Brussels for long.

Jens-Peter Bonde, MEP, a leader of the Danish "No" camp, said nothing would change. "It should be an earthquake, but the lesson they are going to draw is that it is best to avoid referendums".

In Brussels, the economics commissioner, Pedro Solbes, conceded no ground. He reminded the Swedes that they were legally obliged to join the euro, as they lack the British and Danish opt-outs agreed at Maastricht.

Graham Watson, MEP, the Liberal Leader in the European Parliament, said, "Sadly, the Swedish people will discover that the hardest way to cross a ravine is in two leaps. Continued self-exclusion from the euro will bring a crushing loss of investment."

It does not quite feel that way in Stockholm, the nerve centre of Europe's foremost cyber-economy. While the 12 states of the euro-zone grapple with recession, the three outsiders, Sweden, Denmark and Britain are holding up remarkably well.

Sweden's upset may be only a foretaste of the next round of referendums starting next year on the new European constitution. Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Holland are all committed to a vote, or likely to hold one. France and Italy once seemed likely to follow suit, but may now hesitate.

The latest poll shows that only 18 per cent of Danes back the current draft, which creates a full time EU president and foreign minister, doubles the power of the Euro-MPs and creates an EU supreme court.

The scale of the Swedish upset is a warning that few of these referendums can be taken for granted.
The Daily Telegraph, 16th September 2003

Aspartame Disease

by Phillip Day, excerpted from 'The ABC's of Disease'
Available through www.credence.org

Profile
Today, the sweeteners sucrose and saccharin remain as controversial as ever, and the debate over whether or not they represent a cancer hazard to the public continues to rage. And yet, people who have turned to another alternative to saccharin and sugar over the past 20 years have become equally dismayed at a parallel fur-fight over aspartame, decked out in the garb of a light blue sachet, which began adorning restaurants and diners the world over under the brand names Nutrasweet, Canderel, Equal, Spoonful and Equal-Measure.

Aspartame was discovered by accident in 1965 by James Schlatter, a chemist working for G D Serle Company, who was testing anti-ulcer compounds for his employers. Aspartame's original approval as a sweetener for public consumption was blocked by neuroscientist Dr John W Olney and consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 over concerns about both aspartame's safety and G D Serle's research practices. However, aspartame duly received its approval for dry goods in 1981 and its go-ahead as a sweetener for carbonated beverages was granted in 1983, despite growing concerns over its neurological effects. In 1985, G D Serle was purchased by pharmaceutical giant Monsanto, and Serle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company were created as separate corporate identities.

According to researcher Alex Constantine in his essay entitled "Sweet Poison", aspartame may account for up to 75% of the adverse food reactions reported to the US FDA, due primarily to its reported ability to affect neurological processes in humans. Dr Olney found that an excess of aspartate and glutamate, two chemicals used by the body as neurotransmitters to transmit information between brain neurons, could kill neurons in the brain by allowing too much calcium to collect in the neuron cells to neutralise acid. This neurological damage led Olney to label aspartate and glutamate 'excitotoxins', in that they, according to Olney, 'excite' or stimulate the neural cells to death.

Symptoms
Side-effects laid at the door of aspartame poisoning include fits, convulsions, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, ALS, memory loss, hormonal problems, hearing loss, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, AIDS dementia, brain lesions and neuro-endocrine disorders. Risks to infants, children and pregnant women from aspartame were also underscored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, a research body that traditionally follows FDA policy and adopts a softly-softly approach to chemical problems. The Federation declared: "It is prudent to avoid the use of dietary supplements of L-glutamic acid by pregnant women, infants and children. The existence of evidence for potential endocrine responses… would also suggest a neuroendocrine link and that… L-glutamic acid should be avoided by women of childbearing age and individuals with affective disorders."

Commentary
Aspartame comprises two chief trouble-makers:
Phenylalanine: The amino acid L-phenylalanine, used by the brain, comprises 50% of aspartame. People suffering from the genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU) cannot metabolise phenylalanine and so an excess of this amino acid builds up in parts of the brain, leading to a decrease of serotonin levels, bringing on emotional disorders and depression.

Methanol: Also known as wood alcohol, the poison methanol is a 10% ingredient of aspartame, which is created when aspartame is heated above 86oF (30oC) in, for example, the preparation of processed foods. Methanol oxidises in the body to produce formic acid and the deadly neurotoxin, formaldehyde, also used as a prime ingredient in many vaccinations. Methanol is considered by America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "…a cumulative poison, due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidised to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic."

A one-litre carbonated beverage, sweetened with aspartame, contains around 56 mg of methanol. Heavy consumers of soft drinks sweetened with aspartame can ingest up to 250 mg of methanol daily, especially in the summer, amounting to 32 times the EPA warning limit.

Dr Woodrow C Monte, Director of the Food Science and Nutritional Laboratory at Arizona State University, was concerned that human response to methanol was probably much higher than with animals, due to humans lacking key enzymes that assist in the detoxification of methanol in other creatures. Monte stated: "There are no human or mammalian studies to evaluate the possible mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic effects of chronic administration of methyl alcohol."

Monte's concern about aspartame was so great that he petitioned the FDA through the courts to address these issues. Monte requested that the FDA "…slow down on this soft drink issue long enough to answer some of the important questions. It's not fair that you are leaving the full burden of proof on the few of us who are concerned and have such limited resources. You must remember that you are the American public's last defense. Once you allow usage [of aspartame], there is literally nothing I or my colleagues can do to reverse the course. Aspartame will then join saccharin, the sulfiting agents, and God knows how many other questionable compounds enjoined to insult the human constitution with government approval."

Ironically, shortly after Dr Monte's impassioned plea, Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., the Commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration, approved the use of aspartame in carbonated beverages. Shortly after, he left the FDA to take up a position with G D Serle's public relations company. In 1993, the FDA further approved aspartame as a food ingredient in numerous process foods that would always be heated above 86oF as part of their preparation.

Dr Joseph Mercola is no lover of aspartame. The well-known nutrition and health researcher itemises another catalogue of woes that have come to punctuate aspartame's hopeless legacy as a food additive: "In 1991, the National Institutes of Health listed 167 symptoms and reasons to avoid the use of aspartame, but today it is a multi-million dollar business that contributes to the degeneration of the human population, as well as the deliberate suppression of overall intelligence, short-term memory and the added contribution as a carcinogenic environmental co-factor.

The FDA and Centers for Disease Control continue to receive a stream of complaints from the population about aspartame. It is the only chemical warfare weapon available in mass quantities on the grocery shelf and promoted in the media. It has also been indicated that women with an intolerance for phenylalanine, one of the components of aspartame, may give birth to infants with as much as a 15% drop in intelligence level if they habitually consume products containing this dangerous substance."

Mobile Phone Tower Regulation Should Be Obligatory,
Not Voluntary

The Australian Democrats today called for an urgent Government response to the new Dutch study that shows health effects from the radio signals from transmission towers for the next generation of mobile phone services. When the test group was exposed to 3G base station signals, they felt tingling sensations, got headaches and felt nauseous.

Democrats' Communications spokesperson Senator John Cherry and Health spokesperson Senator Lyn Allison, said no Australian research has been done on the new 3G technology. Base stations have a shorter range, meaning substantially more towers are needed to achieve the same reach as GSM technology.

Senator Allison said, "The Government relaxed emission standards to suit 3G mobiles without any scientific justification and now it seems these transmitters pose significant health risks."

Senator Allison chaired a 2001 Senate Inquiry into the effects of electromagnetic radiation and opposed the 'low impact' provisions in the Government's 1997 legislation, which left telecommunications carriers with extraordinary powers to commandeer buildings and sites for their roll-outs.

Senator Cherry called for a halt to the 3G roll-out until Government agency, ARPANSA has provided a response to the Dutch study. "Before the roll-out gets underway, Australians need to be assured that it is safe, particularly for children and those who are involuntarily exposed to transmitters. While the recent ACIF Code requires a carrier to have regard to community sensitive sites for smaller installations, it does not go far enough in terms of requiring carriers to consider alternatives to minimise the radiation risk to the public," Senator Cherry added.

Last month the Democrats moved in the Senate an amendment to give the Australian Communications Authority the power to reject mobile phone towers being built near sensitive sites such as hospitals, schools and residential areas.

The Democrat amendment would give the ACA the power to reject absolutely the siting of mobile phone towers adjacent to sensitive sites without community approval.

The Democrats will be calling on the Government to support the Democrats amendment to the communications Bill no.1, when the Bill next goes through the House of Representatives and to strengthen the planning codes to take into account potential health risks.

For an interview with Senator Cherry please contact: Pam Hose on 0408 752 750 For an interview with Senator Allison please contact: Vara Szajkowski on 0408 764 328

Cell Phones

Experts investigating biological effects of cell phone radiation asked to shut up or quit jobs

One of the most widely publicised cases of electrosensitivity is that of former Norwegian Prime Minister and now World Health Organisation Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, who is also a medical doctor by profession. Brundtland says she is electrically sensitive to cell phones and computers and does not own a mobile phone but says that there is not yet enough scientific evidence to prove the devices are dangerous.

An interview in March 2002 with the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet has put the WHO Director-General on the top of the list of persons known to be sensitive to HF EMF - low-intensity but high-frequency electromagnetic fields - as reports accumulate that researchers who question the health aspects of the rapidly escalating multi-billion-dollar industries in mobile phones, computers and related technological marvels are being gagged, muzzled and being pressured out of their jobs.

In Spain - reported the Cellular Phone Taskforce's information-crammed No Place to Hide newsletter for June - a judge ordered 49 cell phone antennas removed from a rooftop in downtown Valladolid, the second time a Spanish court has ruled antennas should be removed for health reasons.

"This time the fight was led by parents of children at Garcia Quintana Primary School, where three children had contracted acute lymphoblastic leukemia and one Hodgkin's lymphoma since the antennas were installed," reported the newsletter.

Indeed, reported Arturo Soria y Puig, who provided information for both the Taskforce and Spain's influential El Mundo newspaper: ". . . (T)he popular response to the rapid and chaotic installation of some 30.000 mobile phone antennas in Spain has been impressive. Because of judicial rulings (in a few cases) and because of pressure on municipal authorities (in the majority of cases) the mobile phone providers have had to disconnect and dismantle 2.000 already-installed antennas."

In Switzerland, an initiative to amend the Swiss Constitution and called "Moratorium on Mobile Telephone Antennas" would stop the construction of antennas particularly for "mobile telephony" as long as "the harmlessness of pulsed non-ionizing radiation, and of pulsed magnetic or electromagnetic fields, taking into account their non-thermal effects, has not been demonstrated." The signature-gathering deadline is Sept. 12, 2003.

In Oregon, Dr. William Morton, a professor at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) who pioneered studies into multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) and their apparent relationship to porphyria and became one of a handful of physicians with experience in diagnosing and documenting electrical sensitivity (ES) chose to give up his medical license on Jan. 19 rather than continue to face a raft of complaints and allegations of misdiagnosis and further investigation by the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners. The Task Force noted that the widely respected physician and researcher will continue teaching at OHSU School of Medicine and continue to do research into MCS and ES.

In France, Dr. Robert Santini, a veteran researcher in "bioelectromagnetics", said he had been forbidden by the director of the government laboratory with which he has long been associated from speaking to journalists, politicians and other researchers about "cellular phone and base station bio-effects."

On March 6 and at the request of two senators, he told the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Science and Technology Choices: "We are witnessing today the development of pressure aimed at discrediting, within their institutions, certain researchers and their findings. These campaigns of moral and professional harassment are orchestrated, in particular, by certain cell phone providers, public health bodies and elected officials. Some scientists who work on the problem of the biological effects of cell phones and relay stations have recently been made the object, following these pressures, of discriminatory measures on the part of their institutions: firing, professional change, change of research topic, blockage of career, loss of collaborators, ban on speaking."

He referred to three examples of noted scientists in France and the case of Claudio Gomez Perretta MD in Valencia, Spain, who on Feb. 25 - four days after he wrote a letter to the Valencia Medical Assn. Expressing his concern that the Spanish equivalent of the American Medical Association had taken no position on the matter of HF EMF problems - was notified that he must discontinue his work on electromagnetic fields immediately.

In his letter he reminded the local medical body: "Let us remember that there were once commissions that denied the dangers of tobacco, asbestos, and therapeutic X-rays."

In Sweden, a group of victims of electromagnetic sensitivity asked the prime minister and the prestigious Karolinska Institute not to proceed with threats to close down Karolinska's Unit for Experimental Dermatology, whose Prof. Olle Johansson has produced some of the most riveting scientific questioning of the safety of cell phones and related devices.

Said the Association for the Electrically Sensitive in Orebro County, Sweden, last Oct. 3 on hearing of a cut-off in funds for Prof. Johansson: "We see the lack of research funding and space as an affront not only to a scientist in whom we have great confidence but also to us and the handicapped organization to which we belong".

In Germany, veteran medical physicist and researcher Dr. Lebrecht von Klitzing of the Medical University of Lubeck was forbidden by the University dean to address the German Bundestag (parliament) on the medical effects of cell phones, claiming such a presentation would damage the university's reputation.

The Task Force reported that von Klitzing, forbidden to do any more research on his own, resigned from the university in March in order to continue his research.

In England, Dr. Gerald Hyland, University of Warwick, took early retirement in March following high-level pressures against his research into the biocompatibility of magnetic fields with the human organism.

In Bangkok, Thailand, the English language Nation newspaper reporting May 24 on the near-ubiquity of mobile phones among Thai teenagers ("many teens today are utterly devoted to their mobiles, even to the extent that they regard them as an extra limb") accompanied its in-depth coverage with the following recitation of health risks known to be associated with the omnipresent gadgets.

A study published in the UK (in April) suggested mobile phone use may be as addictive for teenagers as smoking.

A recent British study reported that phone driving is more dangerous than drunk driving. The Transport Research Laboratory found reaction times for those driving on the phone was 30 percent slower than those driving drunk and nearly 50 percent worse than someone sober and not using a cell phone.

The (Thai) Ministry of Public Health in 2001 recommended that people under 12 should not use a mobile phone, while studies on health risks - particularly the links to brain cancer - are underway by the World Health Organization.

In 2000, a study by Action on Smoking and Health in London found a number of common traits, including the desire to rebel, prevalent among smokers as well as young cell-phone users.

A recent study by the Physicists Association in Japan warned of the harm of using mobile phones in passenger trains. Researchers said, "Passengers might be harmed by microwaves emitted from phones, which reflect on the train's metal structure and accumulate on the passengers." The researchers suggested there should be a ban on the use of mobile phones in trains, busses and elevators.

In her March 9 interview. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland MD, a former prime minister who said she has never owned a mobile phone herself and that there now is reason to be cautious about the technology, told Dagbladet's Aud Dalsegg: "In the beginning I felt a local warmth around my ear. But the problem grew worse, and turned into a strong discomfort and headaches every time I used a mobile phone."

At first she tried to avoid the pain by cutting her calls short, but this did not work. Nor was it sufficient to stop using the phones herself, because everyone around her, including at her workplace at the WHO in Geneva, used them. "I gradually understood that I had developed a sensitivity to this type of radiation," she said, "and in order not to be suspected of being hysterical - that someone should believe that this was only something I imagined - I have made several tests: People have been in my office with their mobile phone hidden in their bag or pocket. Without my knowing whether it was off or on, we have tested my reaction. I have always reacted when the phone has been on - never when it is off. So there is no doubt."

As for wireless home phones, Brundtland said: "I get an instant reaction if I touch such a phone."

She also spoke about her reactions to computers: "If I hold a laptop in order to read what is on the screen it feels as if I get an electric shock up through my arms. So I must keep portable computers away from me. I have a regular desktop computer in my office, but only the secretary uses it. I have not noticed the same symptoms near it, but I turn it off as soon as I come in". The headaches she gets from mobile phone radiation subside about a half hour to an hour after the exposure stops, she said.

Last year, the ICHF reported (ICHF V:2, 2001) on 20 years of Western-suppressed research from the former East Bloc which suggests the "micro blitzing" of the human race by what was variously described as low-intensity but high-frequency electromagnetic fields or radiation (HF EMF, HF EMR) coming from cell phones, computers, television, antennas and a wide range of electrical marvels.

Research primarily from Russia and the Ukraine connected such radiation to immune disorders, environmental diseases, cancer, neurological impairment and even a physically based addiction syndrome to computer use. "It can be proposed that the current increase in electromagnetic pollution of the environment exceeds human adaptation capacities," warned Ukrainian researchers Nikolai Nikolaevich Kositsky, Aljona Igorevna Nizhelska and Grigory Vasil'evich Ponezha.

Where to learn more:

(Important information in this area is available from the Cellular Phone Taskforce, PO Box 1337, Mendocino CA 95460 - not available through the internet. Its publication No Place to Hide is must reading. Other resources include:

Chemical injury Information Network, Cynthia Wilson, Director, PO Box 301, White Sulphur Springs MT 59645.

The Electromagnetic Research Foundation, c/o Dr. Duane Dahlberg, 1317 Sixth Ave. N., Moorhead MN 56560.

Disability Council of the White Mountains, c/o Susan Molloy, PO Box 483, Snowflake AZ 85937.

EMR Network, Janet Newton, President, PO Box 221, Marshfield VT 05658.

Heavy Metal Bulletin: international forum focusing on immunotoxic effects of dental fillings and related disorders, Monica Kauppi, Editor, Lilla Aspuddsv. 10, S-12649 Hagersten, Sweden.

Electromagnetic Radiation Task Force Canada, Milt Bowling, Director, 3570 Corsica Way, Vancouver BC, V5S 4J3, Canada.

Council on Wireless Technology Impact, Libby Kelley, Executive Director, PMB 206, 936-B 7th St., Novato CA 94945.

- MLC

This article was found in ICHF (International Council for Health Freedom)
Newsletter Vol. VI, Nos. 3-4 published by ICHF, 5580 La Jolla Blvd, PMB429, La Jolla Ca 92037.
Tel. (619) 702-1282.
Web contact: http://www.ichf.net
E-mail: ccichf@san.rr.com
Original title: Cell phones, etc: industry muzzles and punishes those who dare say they are dangerous to health

Household Chores Can Give You Asthma

by Celia Hall

Doctors have added "cleaner's chest" to the long list of occupational diseases, including housemaid's knee and writer's cramp, because of new evidence that domestic cleaners have an increased risk of asthma.

Respiratory diseases, such as chronic bronchitis and asthma were found to be more than twice as common among women who had worked as cleaners than among those who had not. The researchers estimated that a quarter of the asthma cases in their study could be attributed to domestic cleaning work.

Cases were highest in women who had given up being domestic cleaners. The researchers suggested that this may be because their chest conditions were bad enough to make them leave their jobs. With working women increasingly employing cleaners, and unknown numbers of people cleaning their own homes, the authors say their findings, published in the journal Thorax, may be very significant.

They say that cleaners are often exposed to a wide range of materials found in cleaning products, as well as to common allergens such as house dust mites and pet dander.

The survey was conducted among a random sample of 5,000 women from Barcelona, Spain, and its surroundings. Out of 4,521 women who completed the survey, 593 were working as cleaners and nearly 4 out of 10 had worked as cleaners at some time.

Dr Joseph Anto, from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research, Barcelona, and colleagues found that 12 per cent of domestic cleaners, current and former, had asthma and chronic bronchitis compared with only five per cent of women who had never been cleaners.

Women who worked as cleaners in hospitals and health clinics also had an increased risk. Those who cleaned in hotels, laboratories and kitchens had a slightly greater chance of having respiratory diseases but not significantly so. Women who cleaned offices had no increased risk.

"The high risk of asthma attributable to domestic cleaning suggests a substantial public health impact," Dr Anto says.

According to a study by the Work Foundation this summer, one in 10 women in Britain employs a cleaner.

Dr John Harvey, the chairman of the communications committee of the British Thoracic Society, says, "We have known for many years that certain occupations have an increased risk of developing lung conditions such as asthma and it is important that employers take the necessary steps to help protect their staff. It is also important that the general public are aware of the risks associated with inhaling certain chemicals including cleaning products and should see their GP if they develop breathlessness, cough or wheeze."
Daily Telegraph, 28th October, 2003

GM Crops Fail Key Trials Amid Environment Fear

by Paul Brown

Two out of three strains 'should not be grown'

Two of the three GM crops grown experimentally in Britain, oil seed rape and sugar beet, appear more harmful to the environment than conventional crops and should not be grown in the UK, scientists are expected to tell the government next week.

The Guardian has learned that the scientists conclude that growing these crops is damaging to plant and insect life.

The judgement will be a serious setback to the GM lobby in the UK and Europe. Re-opening the acrimonious debate about GM food.

The third crop, GM maize, allows the survival of more weeds and insects and might be recommended for approval, though some scientists still have reservations.

The results of the three years of field-scale trials - the largest scientific experiment of its type on GM crops undertaken anywhere in the world - will be published next Friday by the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The results have been a closely guarded secret for months, and will be studied by scientists, farmers, food companies and governments across the world.

The study will include eight peer-reviewed papers about the effect of growing GM crops, and accompanying herbicides, on the plants and animals living in the fields around. The papers compare the GM fields with conventional crops grown in adjacent fields.

The overwhelming public hostility in the UK to GM crops has not been shared by the scientists or the government but the results of the field scale-trials are expected to be a jolt to the enthusiasts. The Royal Society refused to publish a ninth paper produced by the scientific group.

The society's explanation was that the ninth paper was not a scientific document but a summary of findings and, in effect, a recommendation to the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment- the expert quango. The scientists involved will publish this summary at the same time as the other eight papers, concluding that two of the three crops should not be grown.

The trials were set up four years ago by the former Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, urged on by English Nature, the government's watchdog on the natural world, which feared that the UK's already declining farmland species might be further damaged by the introduction of GM crops.

A three-year moratorium on the commercial introduction of crops was negotiated with the GM companies and Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer Bioscience while the experimental field trials took place. Despite repeated attacks by anti-GM protestors that destroyed many of the fields, the scientists decided they had enough results to be scientifically valid. Experts not involved in the trials had not expected definitive results, even though hundreds of fields were used.

The numbers of weed species and various types of spiders, ground beetles, butterflies, moths and bees in fields of GM crops and the adjacent conventional crop fields, were counted to see if they showed marked differences. All were treated with herbicides to kill weeds but the GM crops were modified to survive special types made by Monsanto and Bayer.

The papers accepted for publication by the Royal Society show that in GM sugar beet and oil-seed rape the weeds and insects were significantly less numerous. Spraying with the Monsanto herbicide glyphosate had taken a heavy toll in the beet fields and the Bayer product, glufosinate ammonium had wiped out many species in the rape fields.

For maize the reverse appears to be the case. The reason seems to be that maize fields are normally sprayed with atrazine, which kills weeds as they germinate, and is an even more savage killer than the Bayer product. But the result may be controversial because maize is particularly sensitive to competition from weeds and yields may be down. Farmers in America found glufosinate ammonium was not enough to kill competitive weeds and used a second herbicide further damaging biodiversity.

The political fall out from the trial results is potentially enormous. It would give the government every right to refuse permission outright for two of the three crops on environmental grounds. One of the two legally watertight reasons for such refusal is the environment, the other is health

GM maize, grown in the UK as a fodder crop may be given the green light under strict guidelines, as a concession to the GM companies and the US, where a trade war looms. The US is threatening to take the EU to the World Trade Organization if the moratorium on GM crops is continued.

The government has other minefields to negotiate before GM crops can be introduced. The Agricultural and Environment Biotechnology Commission is still wrestling with the vexed question of distances required between GM and conventional crops to avoid cross contamination, and compensation for injured farmers if all goes wrong.
The Guardian, 2nd October 2003

GM The Facts

By The Soil Association

What is GM?
Genetic modification (GM) involves the artificial insertion of a foreign gene into the genetic material of an organism in an essentially random way.

There are currently two main types of genetically modified crops, those engineered to be resistant to herbicides in order to kill weeds, and those engineered to produce toxins to kill pests.

GM crops were first grown in 1996 in the US. Three-quarters of the world's GM crops are now grown in the US and Canada. The main GM crop in the US is soya and maize and in Canada it is oilseed rape.

Breakthrough or uncontrollable nightmare?
GM agriculture has been heralded as a breakthrough for the world. Its advocates claim it yields higher crops, uses fewer herbicides and pesticides (and is therefore kinder to the environment), can provide a solution to world hunger, and can co-exist with non-GM crops.

Seeds of Doubt, a report published last September by the Soil Association, reports on the experiences of the only continent to have embraced the technology - North America. The evidence we set out suggests that, in reality, almost every benefit claimed for GM crops has not happened and many problems have occurred.

Fact! GM contaminates organic crops. In one province of Canada, Saskatchewan, GM contamination has wiped out the whole oilseed rape sector. GM and organic cannot co-exist.

Fact! GM does not increase yields. Reports from farmers of substantially reduced harvests have been substantiated by scientific studies. The US Government now admits that GM crops do not increase yields.

Fact! GM does not reduce herbicide use. GM 'volunteers' (plants that appear after harvest with built- in resistance to herbicides) have spread quickly. Farmers are spraying with more herbicides, sometimes reverting to older, more toxic chemicals in their efforts to control these.

Fact! Contamination of the whole food chain has occurred within a couple of years.

Facts! The recall of foods containing GM StarLink maize cost an estimated $1 billion and only happened after many people reported allergic reactions.

Fact! GM crops have destroyed trade. Within two years the US and Canada lost over $600 million a year of agricultural exports due to GM crops, making their farmers even more dependent on subsidies.

Health concerns
Though GMOs have been marketed for several years, scientific knowledge of the processes involved are actually at a very early stage. Very little is known about the side-effects of the inserted genes' random location, how gene function is controlled, and gene transfer into other micro-organisms such as the bacteria in the human gut. The British Medical Association has said the potential adverse effects have not been sufficiently investigated and strongly recommended caution. Why take the risk?

Can GM feed the world?
No! GM seeds are expensive, can reduce yields and are often dependent on specific chemicals. Small farmers will need loans to buy them (as they have done for chemicals) and debt and dependency on large agrochemical companies will continue. Poverty is considered a main cause of hunger. Oxfam and Christian Aid have both warned that GM crops could intensify poverty in the developing world.

What the papers say
The results, in a new government report, show - for the first time in Britain - that genes from GM crops are interbreeding on a large scale with conventional ones, and also with weeds. The report is so devastating to the government's case for GM crops that ministers last week sought to bury it by slipping the first information on it out on the DEFRA website on Christmas Eve, the one day of the year when no newspapers are being prepared.
The Independent on Sunday, 29th December 2002

British scientific researchers have demonstrated for the first time that genetically modified DNA material from the crops is finding its way into human gut bacteria, raising potentially serious health problems. Michael Antoniou, a senior lecturer in molecular genetics at King's College Medical School, London, last night said that the work was significant. "They have shown that this can happen even at very low levels after just one meal."
The Guardian, 17th July 2002

A new government funded review on the safety and usefulness of GM crops will ignore the results of Britain's chief scientist, Professor David King. It is being presented as independent, although the panel holds representatives from Monsanto and Syngenta.
Financial Times, 29th November 2002

Britain's top aid charities have told the prime minister that genetically modified foods will not solve world hunger, but may actually increase world poverty and malnutrition. The joint submission to the government's official debate on GM crops and foods is signed by the directors of Oxfam, Christian Aid, Save the Children, Cafod and Action Aid.
The Independent on Sunday, 11th November 2002

It's wicked when there is so much non GM food aid available. We have the means to assist, but we are playing politics over GM.
Michael Meacher, quoted in The Guardian, 4th December 2002

Soil Association response to the GM threat

In the coming months we plan to:

· Alert the entire organic sector to the dangers posed by GM agriculture.
· Print and distribute thousands more copies of our Seeds of Doubt report, which details the disastrous effects of commercial planning of GM crops in North America (see www.soilassociation.org for copy)
· Promote our second GM report which focuses on issues of GM cotton now being introduced in India. Biotechnology companies, facing stiff opposition in Europe, are targeting less well resourced countries in the hope that GMOs will spread irreversibly before public opinion has time to intervene.
· Organise a UK wide tour for North American farmers anxious to provide personal accounts of their experiences of GM crops. These views are only now starting to be heard in the US, and need to be heard by politicians and the public here too.
· Work directly with the government's strategy unit to highlight the economic consequences of GM crops in North America. We have been appointed to one of their advisory panels and have already provided input into a series of government consultations on GMOs. We must continue to get the facts to the decision makers.
· Challenge the legal position on liability so that the GM companies can be held responsible if an organic farmer loses a crop, or if a whole species gets wiped out. At the moment weaknesses in UK law mean there would be no legal redress.
· Co-ordinate a strong public awareness programme through regional meetings, press articles and radio and television interviews, and build our list of supporters prepared to write to the government expressing their concerns.

Widespread commercial planting of GM crops in this country may begin later this year and poses a direct threat to organic food and farming. If you are opposed to this, Please support the Soil Association today and make sure your voice is heard.

For more details contact Alissa Cook at action@soilassociation.org www.soilassociation.org

Deadly Medical Mistakes
Are Number One US Killer

For the first time, new information has been presented showing the degree to which Americans have been subjected to injury and death by medical errors.

The results of seven years of research reviewing thousands of studies conducted by the Nutrition Institute of America show for the first time that medical errors are the number one cause of death and injury in the United States.

According to the NIA's report, over 784,000 people die annually due to medical mistakes. Comparatively, the 2001 annual death rate for heart disease was 699,697 and the annual death rate for cancer was 553,251. Over 2.2 million people are injured every year by prescription drugs alone and over 20 million unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics are prescribed annually for viral infections.

The report also shows that 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed every year and 8.9 million people are needlessly hospitalized annually. Based on the results of NIA's report, it is evident that there is a pressing need for an overhaul of the entire American medical system.

The findings, described as a 'revelation' by Martin Feldman, MD, who helped to uncover the evidence, are the product of the first comprehensive studies on iatrogenic incidents (those caused by the treatment or drug itself). Never before has any study uncovered such a massive amount of information about the degree and effect of iatrogenesis. Historically, only small individual partial studies have been performed in this area.

Carolyn Dean, MD, a physician and author who also helped to uncover the findings said, "I was completely shocked, amazed, and dismayed when I first added up all the statistics on medical death and saw how much allopathic medicine has betrayed us."

The Nutrition Institute of America is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that has been enlightening the public on health issues for nearly 30 years. For more information, contact David Slater, President of NIA at (646) 505 - 4660 ext 155.

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: More evidence of the disastrous failure of drug-based medicine. These figures are substantially higher than those reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association's July 2000 edition, where 225,000 was the given total.

Do not be fooled or coerced into taking treatments that ring alarm bells before they have been fully investigated by you. The following titles deal with this phenomenon of medical deaths in more detail and the natural and very effective alternatives.

Health Wars
Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth
Wake up to Health in the 21st Century

Available through www.credence.org

International Fluoride Information Network

IFIN BULLETIN 878: Melbourne waking up.
November 13, 2003.

Dear All,

We have just received this email from David McRae from Geelong, Australia. Geelong is located about an hour from Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, which has been fluoridated for 26 years. However, the efforts of the state to spread its poison to other cities like Ballarat may be backfiring as people in Melbourne are beginning to hear the arguments filtering back to them from these threatened communities. A key to this reawakening maybe the involvement of the Green Party which has been so important in this battle in the UK, Ireland and more recently in New Zealand.

Thanks for your bulletin, David!

Paul Connett.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Paul

As you know, we may have won a small victory here in Geelong in the state of Victoria, close to the huge fluoridated city of Melbourne. After a year and half of submissions to government and public meetings and copious letters to local papers, the local members of Parliament have announced to the press that they have told the Health Minister to back off (you have already done a bulletin on this). The people of Geelong do not want fluoride, the MP told the minister. We don't know what the minister thinks of that, but it may be a sort of reprieve, however short.

The Health Minister's 'excessive urge to fluoridate', however, has moved to the city of Ballarat, and the Yarra Valley, the far eastern outer fringe of Melbourne. An area of vineyards, orchards and rural living. Hopefully local people there will organise and stand up for their right to safe & clean water on tap.

Last weekend, Nov 8 & 9, a sign emerged in Melbourne that people may be awaking and stirring against the scourge of fluoridation that has been imposed on them, with no account of public opinion, for 26 years.

Mr Phillip Day, health writer and lecturer from England, presented three public seminars, to a total audience of about 2000 people. He speaks on a range of topics related to hopeful health and medical methodologies that are largely kept from the general public due to lack of commercial benefits for doctors or drug companies. He also speaks about health hazards to avoid in the home and the general environment.

He devoted some time to the awful history, politics and toxicity of water fluoridation. He told the audiences about the victory that the people down the road in Geelong had achieved - that they were to stay 'fluoride free'! In the seminar I attended he then asked the audience: "How many of you want to get rid of fluoridation in Melbourne?" To a person the audience waved their arms in the air and roared: "Yes !"

From that seminar alone some 300 hundred people signed up a petition or an address list to be part of a campaign. Unfortunately there was insufficient forms at all the lectures, but over the weekend about 600 people signed up. Genevieve O'Connell and friends in Melbourne are leading a campaign, and trying to involve the Greens who are showing much interest. Of course Melbourne has always had an 'anti fluoridation' association, headed up by Mr Glen Walker, author of the 1970s classic 'Fluoridation: Poison on Tap'.

But the signs are good that people are fed up, and after too many years of resignation to fluoridation, are getting ready to act for their rights. The state of Victoria, of course, has for years had the draconian Fluoridation legislation that gives water suppliers indemnity against claims for harm caused by their toxic water, just like the British Parliament is right now trying to introduce.

I can't say at this stage what shape the movement for clean, safe water in Melbourne will take, or what the next step is. I am most happy to answer people's enquiries and connect them to the Melbourne group. I won't include their details here as I don't have their permission (this message is sent on the spur of the moment after reading about the outrageous move passed by the British Parliament, and the distorted arguments used by the head of the British Dental Association to justify his support of mass fluoride medication of the population).

My feeling is that it is time for the great fortress of Melbourne's fluoridation to crumble. There has always been much rotten about it. The so called "public consultation" back in the 70s was a complete sham and so was the government enquiry into fluoridation. The Chairman of ICI, the chemical company which first supplied the fluoride chemicals, was the brother of the Premier of the day, the politician who approved fluoridation. Senior dental figures like Philip Sutton, Sir Arthur Amies (previous Dean of Dentistry at Melbourne University) and the highly respected dental surgeon Geoffrey Smith, were silenced or ignored by the enquiries.

I remember 5 months ago, Paul, when you visited the government's senior medical advisor on fluoridation, Dr Paul Van Buynder. You asked him to give his opinion on the research on fluoride and the pineal gland (Luke, 1997, 2001), and on the Alarcon-Herrera et al (2001) study in Mexico correlating dental fluorosis and bone fractures. He hadn't heard of them. You had to ask his secretary to write down the references, because he wasn't asking. He seemed to know almost nothing about the subject other than the kind of spin and waffle that you see in Dental Association factsheets.

So that is what the public is up against: entrenched ignorance and 'Spin' (and vested interests, of course). But I don't think that combination can stand up forever if people are starting to get informed and angry.

By the way, Phillip Day is still doing his tour around Australia. It is not too late to get to one of his talks, and perhaps he can facilitate the connecting up of fluoridation opponents in other cities. Brisbane is November 22 & 23. For info on seminars and booking: www.credence.org.

All the best

David McRae

Mailbag

Some feedback from our subscribers

"Read your article in a magazine called New Vegetarian and Natural Health, one of the best articles I have read related to cancer. I have survived cancer of the bile duct and liver since 1992." - Alan A., Queensland, Australia

"Inspiring and captivating; a real eye-opener!" - Hayley K., Devon UK

"Excellent work and much needed!" - Mr Dan U., Devon, UK

"I was totally mortified by the toxic chemicals that are in our everyday-day cleaning products which we use without knowing the effect they have on us." - Amanda B., Dorset, UK

"What a wonderful evening - so much information. I am a firm believer that we should come out of the Common Market. The harm that it has done to this country doesn't bear thinking about." - Mrs Edna C., Devon UK

"Keep up the good work and keep it accurate because there are many who would like to expose any erroneous reporting. It would be well if every citizen had your information."- Doyle A. Georgia, USA

"We appreciate the knowledge and the scrutiny expressed and made by Phillip Day." - Selwyn & Valerie J. Victoria, Australia

"When are you coming back Phillip? You made a great impact here in humble QLD, Australia. We hope you will return one day in the near future" - Mrs Sarah B., Queesland, Australia

"Excellent - an eye opener. I already felt sure that the major drug companies were withholding information from the public in order to make their massive profits, but I didn't know diet could make such great impact on serious diseases. Lots of reading ahead….. Also, I have never agreed with the EU - my partner and I have spoken about it many times - this just confirmed my beliefs." - Mrs Gail O'B. Essex, UK

"Have learned a lot of useful information. Keep up the good work!" - Mr James R., Tennessee, USA

"I greatly appreciate the work CTM is doing with the books available and with the public meetings." - Mr Don A., Victoria, Australia

"Fabulous organisation, thank you so much for your work and for the vital information that you make available to the general population." - Mrs Regina P. New South Wales, Australia

"Thank you for your wonderfully inspiring talk in Sheffield, so many affirmations and confirmations. Looking forward to your next presentation."- Mr Ian M., Derbyshire, UK

"My husband took Essiac (tea) for 5 years after his colon cancer surgery. He has not had a recurrence and it has been 8 years from diagnosis. Keep the information coming on alternative treatments and on other secrets that are being held from the public in both America and UK." - Mrs Ruth M., Ohio, USA

"I would love to receive any information on alterative healing and staying well. Thanks for this opportunity." - Mrs Cathy C., Western Australia, Australia

"Very interested and thankful that someone is watching out for all the "baddies" around." - Ms. Shirley B., Queensland, Australia

"In recent years I have become more and more disillusioned with conventional medicine. Doctors don't have a monopoly on wisdom, and a system of healthcare that promotes profit-driven, pharmaceutical-based solutions and vetoes any proven alternatives does not constitute democracy! We can take back responsibility for our own health through access and dissemination of impartial and factual information, leading to informed choice. A healthy body is an integral part of human wellbeing and is therefore everyone's birthright." - Mrs Diana C., West Sussex, UK

"I work for a small business in Australia which makes "living foods" - high in enzymes - mainly papaya and guava concentrates which we export world wide. My employers said I should become a member of CTM! - I am very interested in health and nutrition, not disease. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to your tour in Oz in November!" - Ms Stephanie L., Queensland, Australia

"We have enjoyed reading Phillip Day's book 'Cancer, Why we're Still Dying to Know the Truth', and have passed the information to the family who are also becoming aware of the dangers of modern medicine. Keep up the good work!" - Mrs Pamela O., Michigan, USA

"The truth about the foundation and preservation of genuine health must be trumpeted to all people. The freedom to choose must also be preserved as a fundamental right." - Mrs Constance F., USA

"Everyone needs access to these truths. It's a pity so many choose to be so ignorant." - Miss Kylie B., Queensland, Australia

"I am very happy to see that an organisation such as this exists. Thank God for the internet! Too bad that you don't have a chapter in Canada!" - Guy C., Alberta, Canada

"A real eye-opener. I have found the information I was looking for. Very interesting. The speaker delivered the message very well." - Mrs Carla R., Kent, UK

"My deep interest is to improve health and my passion is to help others. By becoming a member of Credence Publications' CTM, I am able to inform on issues, be able to improve my knowledge of health and pass that knowledge on. Thank you." - Mrs Andrea G., Victoria, Australia

"Inspiring and informative!" - Jude K., Devon, UK

"I am a victim of conventional cancer treatments. I was grossly over-treated by deceitful oncologists who promised me minimal treatments and did the opposite. I had a nasty shock when I woke up from surgery and discovered that, instead of a tiny lumpectomy, I had received a wide-excision mastectomy and removal of four lymph nodes. I have been trying to take action against the surgeon and radiation oncologist without success. I am among those women whose miniscule breast cancer was not likely to ever have been a problem, and who should never have been treated at all, but I was panicked and stampeded into doing something I was disinclined to do. My research tells me that I am now much more at risk for all sorts of things, including cancer. My fibromyalgia is much more severe and I have other health problems related to the treatments. I am now engaged in finding out all I can about alternative remedies to control my cancer and to help undo some of the damage the conventional oncologists have done me. I also want to be a witness and warn others about abuses in the medical system, and The Cancer Industry, as well as alternative remedies which I am convinced are the true answer to this disease." - V P., Alberta, Canada

"Most interested in the eradication of fluoridated water supply that we have here in Melbourne, Australia. Not exactly sure as to the best way to go about making the politicians obey our wishes." - George S., Victoria, Australia

"I am totally against man tinkering with the food chain. What is wrong with the original seeds? Hybrids have not proved they have the stamina. Only the original seed can go the distance." - Mr D., Taranaki South, New Zealand

"I believe that all people have a right to the truth in every aspect of their lives so that they can make informed choices." - Mrs Helen McF., Victoria, Australia

"I feel very passionate about supporting an organisation such as this, and in assisting in the dissemination of accurate and true nutritional information. Thanks for this opportunity to join." - Mrs Sapphire C., Victoria, Australia

"I sell quality nutritional supplements and also lecture on nutrition. I am very interested in what you are doing as these issues have been on my heart for years. I am a born-again Christian and I believe that getting these issues heard is very important, as, even in the Church, there seems to be a blinkered approach to health. My heart is for more education about health issues." - Mrs Karen W., Cheshire, UK

"Just wanted to say, 'Keep up the good work,' and I'll do anything I can to help if you need me. I am so glad I know the truth and I want to make a difference. Thank you so much." - Matthew G., South Australia, Australia

"Until substantial numbers of people are informed as to the realities behind our current medical 'treatment' systems, the destruction will continue. CTM is spearheading this movement and we will assist in any way we can within our speciality of psoriasis." - Jerry S., Ontario, Canada

You Know You're Living in 2003 When...

You know you're living in 2003 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail your co-worker who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do
not have e-mail addresses.
6. When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the
phone in a business manner.
7. When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9"to
get an outside line.
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three
different companies.
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
12. Contractors out-number permanent staff and are more likely to get
long-service awards...

and the real clinchers are...

13. You read this entire list, and kept nodding and smiling.
14. As you read this list, you think about forwarding it to your friends.
15. You got this e-mail from a friend that never talks to you anymore,
except to send you jokes from the net.
16. You are too busy to notice there was no No. 9.
17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a No.9.

WELCOME MAT

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Published by Campaign for Truth in Medicine, UK