US Committee Calls for a “Phase-out” of Dental Amalgam

More good news this week from Consumers for Dental Choice: the US Mercury Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee has called for the phase-out of dental amalgam. The Committee is part of an international effort to prepare a global, legally binding treaty on mercury. According to an email from Charlie Brown, National Counsel of CDC and President of …

Confused about Fluoride?

Recently, the US Department of Health and Human Services recommended lowering the “recommended” amount of fluoride in public water sources due to rising rates of dental fluorosis, and the Environmental Protection Agency released a research review showing an increased risk of bone problems due to long-term ingestion of high levels of fluoride. (Read about it …

As If We Needed Another Reason to Oppose Fluoridation…

Perhaps Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine Arvid Carlsson put it best: “Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It’s really obsolete.” It’s also risky, with health effects ranging from fluorosis to any number of physical illnesses and problems. The Fluoride Action Network lists 50 reasons to oppose fluoridation, but now there might be another …

County of Hawaii Directors Say “No” to Mandatory Vaccination

Kudos to the Big Island of Hawaii Council for doing its part to ensure freedom of choice in health care decisions: Department of Health officials in Hawaii were overruled by County of Hawaii directors supporting a resolution favoring First Amendment constitutional rights and vaccination exemptions for everyone demanding them. The nearly unanimous 7-1 Big Island …

Stat!: Parents & the H1N1 Vaccine

Percent of American parents concerned about side effects of the H1N1 vaccine: 72   izahorsky/Flickr   Percent who say they would let their kids get H1N1 vaccinations at school: 59 Percent who wouldn’t allow it: 38   Source: SF Chronicle/AP

Vaccine Nation

 

More Mercury in the Blood & Other News of Note

Mercury Found in Blood of 1/3 of American Women (Environment News Service) The level of inorganic mercury in the blood of American women has been increasing since 1999 and it is now found in the blood of one in three women, according to a new analysis of government data for more than 6,000 American women. …

Protecting Businesses at the Expense of Health

Should anyone doubt that money can trump health policy, witness what happened to the head of the Bay County (Florida) Health Department: Via CBS News: A 38-year-old former Army doctor who served in Iraq, [Dr. Jason] Newsom returned home to Panama City a few years ago to run the Bay County Health Department and launched …

What’s Going to Happen to Fluoride in California?

The State’s Qualified Experts of the Carcinogen Identification Committee have recommended – much to the dismay of the American Dental Association and other trade groups – that fluoride be evaluated as a potential carcinogen: On May 29, 2009, over protests by the lobbyists for the American Dental Association and the Personal Care Products Council who …

How Concerned Do You Really Need to Be about “Swine Flu”?

Thinking about how events have shaped up since the swine flu – now officially called H1N1, influenza A (its scientific name) by the World Health Organization – outbreak was first reported, we can find a few reasons for concern. At last count, more than 100 people have died after contracting it. Thousands more are sick …