Archive for the 'Health' Category
Merck Mumps Vaccine Fraud
July 1st, 2012Via: Courthouse News Service: Merck has known for a decade that its mumps vaccine is “far less effective” than it tells the government, and it falsified test results and sold millions of doses of “questionable efficacy,” flooding and monopolizing the market, a primary caregiver claims in a federal antitrust class action. Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care […]
Google Was Secretly Planting Cookies on Millions of iPhone Browsers
June 28th, 2012Via: Pro Publica: Jonathan Mayer had a hunch. A gifted computer scientist, Mayer suspected that online advertisers might be getting around browser settings that are designed to block tracking devices known as cookies. If his instinct was right, advertisers were following people as they moved from one website to another even though their browsers were […]
Security Lapses Found at CDC Bioterror Lab in Atlanta
June 28th, 2012Via: USA Today: A federal bioterror laboratory already under investigation by Congress for safety issues has had repeated incidents of security doors left unlocked to an area where experiments occur with dangerous germs, according to internal agency e-mails obtained by USA TODAY. In one incident, an unauthorized employee was discovered inside a restricted area. … […]
Mutated Pests Are Quickly Adapting to Biotech Crops
June 28th, 2012Via: io9: Genetically modified crops are often designed to repel hungry insects. By having toxins built into the plant itself, farmers can reduce their use of environmentally unfriendly insecticide sprays. But as any first-year evolutionary biology student can tell you, insects are like the Borg in Star Trek: they quickly adapt. And this is precisely […]
China Downplays Risk to Children from Lead Poisoning
June 27th, 2012Via: Reuters: Chinese children suffering lead poisoning from polluting smelters and factories have been denied testing, effective treatment and even basic information by officials who downplayed health threats, a human rights advocacy group said on Wednesday. The report from Human Rights Watch comes after China’s latest lead pollution outbreak, when 103 children and scores of […]
China: Genetically Modified Cows Churn Out ‘Human Breast Milk’
June 27th, 2012Via: Reuters: Chinese scientists have produced a herd of genetically modified cows that make milk that could substitute for human breast milk — a possible alternative to formula in a nation rocked by tainted milk powder scandals. Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology of the China Agricultural University introduced human genetic coding into […]
Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us
June 26th, 2012Via: Pro Publica: Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation’s geology as an invisible dumping ground. No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until […]
Germany: Religious Circumcisions Are Crimes
June 26th, 2012Via: The Local: Non-medical circumcision is a “serious and irreversible interference in the integrity of the human body,” the Cologne district court ruled. This criminalises religious circumcisions performed by Jews and Muslims, the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper said on Tuesday. It says circumcision should be considered a crime of bodily harm. Thousands of very young […]
From Milk to Peas, a Chinese Food-Safety Mess
June 23rd, 2012Via: New York Times: There’s mercury in the baby formula. Cabbages are sprayed with formaldehyde. Gelatin capsules for pills, tens of millions of them, are laced with chromium. Used cooking oil is scooped out of gutters for recycling, right along with the sewage. Accounts of dubious or unsafe food in China are as mesmerizing as […]
Baby Soaps and Shampoos Trigger Positive Results on Pot Tests
June 21st, 2012[???] Via: Time: Commonly used baby soaps and shampoos, including products from Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno and CVS, can trigger a positive result on newborns’ marijuana screening tests, according to a recent study. A minute amount of the cleansing products in a urine sample — just 0.1 milliliters or less — was found to cause […]
