FDA Finally Admits Mercury Fillings May Damage Your Health
This and the other short announcements following come from a wonderful resource newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association.
FDA Finally Admits Mercury Fillings May Damage Your Health
After years of pressure from scientists, citizen groups and health advocates, the FDA has posted a statement to its website that is nothing less than a watershed event in oral hygiene history (it's actually quite a bit more exciting than that may sound). Although the FDA has previously adamantly denied any and all scientific evidence pointing to negative health impacts from mercury fillings, the FDA has now posted the following to its website: "Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses...Pregnant women and persons who may have a health condition that makes them more sensitive to mercury exposure, including individuals with existing high levels of mercury bioburden, should not avoid seeking dental care, but should discuss options with their health practitioner."
Proposed USDA Rule Could Harm Organic Farmers
The OCA alerted consumers on October 29th about a proposed rule that represents the broadest rewrite of federal organic regulations in history. OCA welcomes the new proposed rules in terms of closing loopholes relating to pasture and forage requirements that had previously allowed dairy companies like Aurora and Horizon to source their milk from giant industrial feedlots. Unfortunately, the new proposed rules also include a number of new cumbersome regulations that would cause tremendous hardship, or even put the majority of organic livestock farmers out of business. OCA also objects to the part of the proposed regulations that would allow non-organic cattle to be brought onto a certified organic dairy farm and then be considered organic. The OCA has joined together with the Cornucopia Institute and a number of the nation's leading organic certifiers to encourage the USDA to revise its proposed rule to crack down on factory farm abuses, and uphold organic integrity, without making it impossible for existing organic farms to operate and thrive.
Choosing a Truly Green Christmas Tree
The majority of Christmas trees sold in the U.S. are grown on large plantations where pesticides are used that may cause the trees to contaminate your house with pesticide residues. Here are some quick tips to avoid that problem:
1) Buy a used artificial tree. People are always buying the latest and greatest and looking to dispose of perfectly beautiful ornamentation. Check out ebay, craigslist, freecycle or your local newspaper.
2) Shopping for a tree at a big box store, large garden center or city lot usually means you'll have no idea where the tree was grown or what chemicals were used.
3) Trees found at "cut-your-own-tree" farms and farmers' markets usually have little to no pesticides. Find an organic local tree farm here
How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Sugar This Holiday Season
Over the past year, Organic Bytes has warned its readers about the forced introduction of genetically engineered sugar beets into the U.S.
food supply in 2008. The health and environmental effects of these crops are relatively unknown and have historically resulted in an increase in pesticide use. Most of the mainstream table sugar, cereal and candy companies have refused to ban genetically engineered sugar in their products, including American Crystal and Kelloggs. While OCA and its allies continue to work to remove this new biotech food from the mainstream market, before it becomes as ubiquitous as genetically engineered corn, soybeans and rBGH, we have some tips for consumers:
1) Purchase organic sugar. The USDA organic standards do not allow foods labeled as "organic" to contain ingredients derived from genetically engineered crops.
2) According to Ken Roseboro, the editor of The Organic & Non-GMO Report, two non-organic sugar companies that are still GE-free are Spreckels Sugar in California and Rogers Sugar Alberta, Canada. Spreckels is processing non-GMO beets because sugar beet farmers in California do not yet have GM sugar beet seed varieties. According to Roseboro, "I spoke with the plant manager and he said farmers would plant GM varieties as soon as they are available possibly by next year. Unless farmers are given extra incentives to grow non-GMO beets they will grow GM." Maybe it's a good time to contact the company and let them know you'd like them to stay GE-free.
3) The OCA is continuing its campaign to pressure major sugar and candy companies to use GE-free sugar.
Affordable, Meaningful & Sustainable Holiday & Travel Gifts
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Comments (2)
This admission is long overdue. I wonder how many people have suffered and died as a direct result of this delayed warning.
When I was six weeks old my parents went to live in the tropics. I had to have all sorts of very nasty vaccinations when I was just four weeks old. These were preserved with mercury. By the time I was four I had lots of holes in my teeth that were filled with amalgam (mercury fillings) and I got more and more of these as life went on. I was plagued continually by septic tonsils that were treated with repeated antibiotics.
My health went from bad to worse. At eighteen I got a severe bout of glandular fever and strep throat that left me in bed for six weeks during which time my weight dropped to just 77 pounds. I managed to claw my way back to being able to return to my studies after taking a year out to recover.
Next I got repeated kidney infections and a kidney stone. Twice after visiting the dentist I got terrible fevers and my tonsils became so inflamed that only a tiny gap in my airway was left. Once after eating a tuna fish sandwich I became violently ill with extreme vomiting and diarrhea. (Tuna is one of the fish species that contain significant amounts of Mercury along with Shark, Marlin and Swordfish)
The antibiotics got stronger and stronger. At one stage I had 12 shots of penicillin that left me with chronic fatigue syndrome, unable to work full time or walk up a flight of stairs without resting up halfway.
The final blow came when I went to the opening of a new cinema, with newly laid carpet. The fumes from the carpet glue made me very ill again, with a very high fever and septic throat. That time I really thought I might die, but I had a very young child and somehow hung on.
Whilst I was recuperating, I happened to be reading some homeopathic self help books (I was a student of homeopathy) and a light went on in my head. When I got sore throats they were worse on the right side, my breath smelled foul and I had excessive saliva that I had to spit out constantly as swallowing was so painful. This is the exact description for the homeopathic medicine Mercurius (Mercury). Mercury also causes holes in teeth. (This is the typical presentation of a patient who will respond to the Homeopathic medicine made from Mercury).
I rang the cinema, explained I had become ill from the fumes, said I didn’t want to sue, but I needed to know what exactly was in the glue. They sent me the full list and there, not surprisingly, was “mercurial biocide” an antifungal agent.
I realised then, without any doubt, that I had been suffering from Mercury poisoning all my life – something I may never have understood but for homeopathy.
I took homeopathic doses of Mercury to help me get well. I also had all my amalgam fillings very carefully removed. I have never had a septic throat or an antibiotic since then and slowly, with the help of further Homeopathic constitutional prescriptions, I have returned to health. I feel I literally owe my life to homeopathy.
I guess like a lot of people I truly fell in love with homeopathy because it rescued me in my darkest hour and I went on to become a homeopath in 1995.
Recently I had a client with exactly the same pattern as I had had. She was 17 and had been ill for a year. I asked if she had had any amalgam fillings at 16 and she had. I gave her a safe, diluted homeopathic dose of Mercury and she arranged to have her fillings replaced, in just six weeks her health was restored.
After many many years working in Europe I have just set up my first ever practice in the US, in downtown Ojai, and I am happy to work with anyone who may be suffering the effects of mercury poisoning or indeed any other health issue.
Be well
Mary Aspinwall
Comment #1 Posted by: mary aspinwall | December 11, 2008 04:57 PM
A state-by-state listing of dentists who provide safe removal of amalgam fillings:
http://mercuryfreedentists.com/
Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation
http://www.SpontaneousCreation.org
director@spontaneouscreation.org
Comment #2 Posted by: Jock Doubleday | December 12, 2008 10:53 AM