Health News:Swine Flu Panic in Turkey ♦ Toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater ♦ Researchers ride new sound wave to health discovery

Swine Flu Panic in Turkey The risk of the spreading of swine flu is growing in Turkey, as 35 citizens were identified with this disease in last two days, Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported on January 9. Five of 35 people who have been diagnosed with swine flu have died from the infection

Researchers ride new sound wave to health discovery Acoustics experts have created a new class of sound wave -- the first in more than half a century -- in a breakthrough they hope could lead to a revolution in stem cell therapy

Toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater In an analysis of more than 1,000 chemicals in fluids used in and created by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), researchers found that many of the substances have been linked to reproductive and developmental health problems, and the majority had undetermined toxicity due to insufficient information.

Factors in the blood during dieting may have anti-diabetes properties Factors in the blood from calorie-restricted rats can modify energy-producing mitochondria within the insulin-producing cells that regulate blood sugar levels, new research shows. This has a positive impact on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and protects cells from fatty acid and glucose toxicity

Health Research: Fracking industry wells associated with premature birth ♦ Antioxidants cause malignant melanoma to metastasize faster ♦ Preventing memory loss before symptoms appear

Antioxidants cause malignant melanoma to metastasize faster Antioxidants can double the rate of melanoma metastasis in mice, new research shows. The results reinforce previous findings that antioxidants hasten the progression of lung cancer. People with cancer or an elevated risk of developing the disease should avoid nutritional supplements that contain antioxidants.

Difficulty processing speech may be an effect of dyslexia, not a cause The cognitive skills used to learn how to ride a bike may be the key to a more accurate understanding of developmental dyslexia. And, they may lead to improved interventions. Scientists investigated how procedural learning how individuals with dyslexia learn speech sound categories. They found that learning complex auditory categories through procedural learning is impaired in dyslexia.

Fracking industry wells associated with premature birth Expectant mothers who live near active natural gas wells operated by the fracking industry in Pennsylvania are at an increased risk of giving birth prematurely and for having high-risk pregnancies.

Preventing memory loss before symptoms appear A clinical trial is looking at removing a key protein from the brain to prevent memory loss at least a decade before symptoms are noticed in healthy older adults. The trial is focused on an investigational treatment to reduce the impact of the protein beta amyloid.

Popular crime shows may help reduce sexual assault Viewers of 'Law and Order' have a better grasp of sexual consent than viewers of other crime dramas such as 'CSI' or 'NCIS,' suggesting that individuals who watch programs in which sexual predators are punished may avoid sexual predatory behavior in real life.

Health News: NASA: Synthetic Muscle Ready for Launch ♦ Radon in Pennsylvania homes--fracking ♦ Being underweight in middle age linked to dementia risk

NASA: Synthetic Muscle Ready for Launch NASA plans to send advanced material into space on Monday, April 13. The Synthetic Muscle™ has been developed to adhere to metal, and could be used in robotics in deep space travel such as travel to Mars because of its radiation resistance, "Based on the good results we had on planet Earth, the next step is to see how it behaves in a space environment,"

Increased levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes--fracking Researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes -- where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe -- have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state

Microbes disprove long-held assumption that all organisms share a common vocabulary Some microorganisms found in nature and not grown in the laboratory reinterpret the instructions coded into their DNA. Short segments of DNA that signal other organisms to stop adding building blocks or amino acids to a protein are instead interpreted as "add another amino acid,"

Nitric oxide joining oxygen and carbon dioxide in respiratory cycle Latest findings regarding nitric oxide have the potential to reshape fundamentally the way we think about the respiratory system. Scientific dogma has the respiration process involving only two elements -- oxygen and carbon dioxide. Recently published information demonstrates that nitric oxide is essential for the delivery of oxygen to the cells and tissues that need it.

Being underweight in middle age associated with increased dementia risk Middle-aged people who are underweight (with a Body Mass Index [BMI] less than 20 kg/m2) are a third more likely to develop dementia than people of similar age with a healthy BMI, according to new research.

7/28/14 Health News: Halliburton Fracking Spill Mystery ♦ EUROPEANS DON’T REFRIGERATE RAW SHELL EGGS ♦ China probes food businesses ♦ Claims of chicken contamination

WHY MOST AMERICANS REFRIGERATE RAW SHELL EGGS AND EUROPEANS OFTEN DON’T

American travelers to Europe may have noticed that people “across the pond” often store raw shell eggs at room temperature. They can safely do that because of the way eggs are produced in Europe, but it can’t be safely done in the U.S. because of Salmonella. Salmonella bacteria, discovered in 1885 and named for the... Continue Reading

China probes food businesses, HK bans imports

Shanghai, China (Reuters) - China's food regulator has visited close to 600 restaurants, businesses and food distributors as it investigates a fast-spreading food safety scare that has dragged in a number of global brands and hit food outlets as far away as Japan. Hong Kong said on Thursday it suspended, with immediate effect, all imports from the US-owned Chinese supplier at …continue reading

UK supermarkets investigate after claims of chicken contamination

Chicken farm. Credit: Chris Radburn/PA Comments (1) Supermarkets in the UK are investigating following claims that chicken being sold on Britain's high street is contaminated. UK Poultry processors 2 Sisters Food Group and Faccenda, who are at the centre of the the claims, are denying the allegations which is forcing Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencers to … continue reading

Halliburton Fracking Spill Mystery: What Chemicals Polluted an Ohio Waterway?

A recent accident highlights how state fracking laws protect corporate trade secrets over public safety.

On the morning of June 28, a fire broke out at a Halliburton fracking site in Monroe County, Ohio. As flames engulfed the area, trucks began exploding and thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals spilled into a tributary of the Ohio River, which supplies drinking water for millions of residents. More than 70,000 fish died. Nevertheless, it took five days for the Environmental Protection Agency and its Ohio counterpart to get a full list of the chemicals polluting the waterway. "We knew there was something toxic in the water," says an environmental official who was on the scene. "But we had no way of assessing whether it was a threat to human health or how best to protect the public."Continue Reading

7/12/14 Health News: Americans are too Stupid for GMO Labeling ♦ Fracking' our food and farming system ♦ Chinese-style soup with pathogen contamination ♦ Smallpox vials Found

Americans are too Stupid for GMO Labeling, Congressional Panel Says

It’s pretty rare that members of Congress and all the witnesses they’ve called will declare out loud that Americans are just too ignorant to be given a piece of information, but that was a key conclusion of a session of the House Agriculture Committee this week. Continue Reading

Fracking' our food and farming system: "Extreme agriculture" and the politics of denial

Published in a shortened version in The Land, Summer 2014 It might seem a bit of a jump – talking about "fracking" and food production in the same article. However, when we look at what's planned for the next phase of intensive agricultural development, what we find is the same economic and political theories at the root of the measures proposed. As we approach the … continue reading

Hong Kong: Prepackaged Chinese-style soup with suspected pathogen contamination

Subsequent to finding a bottled organic black soybean milk sample with excessive Bacillus cereus, a pathogen, yesterday (July 9), the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (July 10) that a sample of locally produced Chinese-style soup with pork lung, apricot kernel and Chinese ham of the same brand was also detected to contain Bacillus cereus at an excessive level. Members of the public should stop consuming the affected batch of the product.Continue reading

Smallpox vials, decades old, found in storage room at NIH campus in Bethesda

A government scientist cleaning out a storage room last week at a lab on the National Institutes of Health’s Bethesda campus found decades-old vials of smallpox, the second incident involving the mishandling of a highly dangerous pathogen by a federal health agency in a month.Continue Reading

Fracking Affecting Food Safety

I first heard about fracking from my grandfather in the 1950’s He owned a stock in a company that was considering using the technique on land that they owned.  I just looked it up it was invented in 1947. For a technology that has been around so long you would think they would be better at fracking without damaging the environment.

On Facebook there was the picture of a dead cow. In story they told about three herds of cows in different states that had died due to fracking chemicals. My worry is the cows that did not die. They could end up on our dining room table.

The USDA checks beef for pathogens and antibiotics in meat. The FDA checks for pathogens and pesticides in our fruit and vegetables. I have never heard of either checking for fracking chemicals in our food.

With fracking causing earthquakes in parts of the country and causing a town in Louisiana a town sinking into the swamp with gas bubbling up, its obvious that the industry is playing with forces they can not control.

To me it makes sense to outlaw fracking over agricultural land. The Idea of trying to farm on land where they are fracking makes no sense. Besides endangering the public with contaminated food, the fracking endangers the health of the farm workers.