Green Health Watch Magazine
Children’s health Diet Energy sources Fertility
Mobile phones and electricity Vaccination Pesticides
GM crops Chemical pollution Illnesses of our time
Radiation Climate change Lifestyle Complementary medicine
Food production Orthodox medicine Transport
Welcome to the first edition of our new newsletter.I wanted to give you a representative mix of all of our principal
interests, so in this first edition of our newsletter have enclosed 20 articles. Future editions will comprise between eight and ten,
and may focus on one specific category or story.
What follows are:
- the twenty sample articles a description of Green Health Watch Magazine and the introductory subscription available when you subscribe to your first four editions
- an explanation and list of the Green Health Watch Magazine
- Subject Briefings we have compiled
- a description of OsteoTrace, one of the small range of health products sold by the magazine's online shop, Lifeworks Mail Order
Nick Anderson - Editor
The
Newsletter
18th August 2018
Chemical pollution
Am I a girl or a boy?
Another study showed that exposure to even low levels of chemical pollution while in the womb affects a foetus' development. In this study involving 207 mother and infant pairs, a correlation was found between the exposure of the foetus to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins (PCDFs) and later gender behaviour. Exposure levels were not high, probably background levels in the mothers that they had acquired from their food.
Boys exposed to higher levels of PCBs were less likely to engage in masculine patterns of play whilst girls exposed to higher levels of PCBs were more likely to engage in masculine patterns. Both boys and girls exposed to higher levels of dioxins tended to adopt more feminine play patterns.
Exposure during the earliest stages of development (i.e. in the womb) was key. Although the gender behaviours of children exposed to high levels of PCBs or dioxins in breastmilk were affected, these were the same children who had been exposed to higher levels in the womb. This study therefore found no significant link between behavioural change and exposure to PCBs or dioxins through breastfeeding.
An earlier study by another team suggested links between cross gender behaviour in boyhood and a tendency towards homosexuality in later life.
Research on babies born to mothers exposed to PCBs and PCDFs in the Yucheng rice oil contamination incident found reduced spatial orientation abilities in boys, but no effect in girls. (Boys normally perform better in tests of spatial orientation than girls.) The finding was interpreted as demasculinising or feminising effects caused by disturbances in steroid hormones by prenatal exposure to PCBs/PCDFs. Other studies have found adverse impacts of foetus exposure to PCBs and dioxins on immune system function and neurological development.
Green,R et al. British Journal of Psychiatry 1987;151:84-88
(11141) Vreugdenhil,HJI et al. Environmental Health Perspectives Magazine 27 2002;110:A593-98
Oxford Street offers "worst air pollution in world"
In 2013 research at King's College London found that, despite London's Congestion and Low Emission Zones, the levels of nitrogen dioxide gas on London’s Oxford Street amounted to some of the worst air pollution on Earth. Mayor Boris Johnson's automatic response was to ridicule the study, but he later accepted its findings and agreed that "much more had to be done". He is now proposing a new 'Central London Ultra Low Emission Zone', into which vehicles may only enter free of charge if they meet one of the European Commission vehicle emission standards (see Edii). Motorbikes will need to meet the 2007 Euro 3 standard; petrol cars, vans and minibuses the 2006 Euro 4 standard; diesel cars, vans and minibuses and both petrol and diesel buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) the stricter 2014 Euro 6 standard.
Vehicles entering the new zone but not meeting the appropriate Euro standard will have to pay a daily 'fine' on top of the daily £11.50 Congestion Charge: motorbikes, cars, vans and minibuses £12.50; buses, coaches and HGVs £100.
Editorial
(i) Transport for London is the Greater London Authority organisation responsible for most aspects of London's transport system. Among its many duties is responsibility for:
- the London Congestion Zone (the central area of London), within which anyone driving a vehicle between 7am and 6pm Monday to Friday, is currently charged £11.50 (motorcycles exempt)
- the London Low Emission Zone (the entire area covered by the Greater London Authority, the area around Heathrow, and parts of the M1 and M4 (but not the M25)), within which anyone driving a large van or larger vehicle considered 'high pollution emitting' at any time, 365 days a year is currently charged either £100 (large vans and minibuses) or £200 (buses, coaches and HGVs) on top of the £11.50 congestion charge
- the proposed Central London Ultra Low Emission Zone (the same area as the the London Congestion Zone (see main article above))
https://www.eta.co.uk/2015/01/07/pollution-charge-for-london-drivers-last-chance-to-have-your-say/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150109+newsletter&utm_content=150109+newsletter+CID_5045915e18261eb41df9ad848aab27b7&utm_source=Sneek%20Email%20Marketing%20Software&utm_term=Read%20more
(16875) Environmental Transport Association Magazine 48 (25.2.2015)
Children‘s health
Puberty at ten?
When 74 children aged six to twelve were deprived of their TVs and computers for a week and other sources of artificial light were reduced in their homes, their production of melatonin, a brain hormone produced by the pineal gland, increased by an average 30%. The increases were highest in the youngest children. It was impossible to say whether this was due to reduced exposure to bright light (melatonin is extremely light-sensitive) or to electromagnetic fields from the televisions and computer screens. Melatonin expert Roberto Salti and colleagues at the University of Florence (Italy) believe that this finding may explain why children are hitting puberty earlier and earlier.
Other studies1 have established that peak night-time melatonin levels gradually fall as children approach puberty.
Editorial
(i) Some US studies 2 have linked television watching to earlier sexual experience, including teenage pregnancies. These studies, however, did not consider melatonin, only exposure to sexual images and discussion. Other studies3 have shown that children who spend a lot of time watching television or playing video games weigh more than other children, which is also thought to hasten the onset of puberty.
(ii) It is possible that melatonin regulates the human maturing process as well as governing sleep patterns. The higher peak night-time melatonin levels in children also probably explain why they generally need more hours sleep than adults, i.e. while their body systems are developing.
(iii) According to traditional Chinese medical theory, the raw materials for brain hormones like melatonin are adrenal hormones produced in the kidneys, so lower melatonin levels may indicate an underlying kidney deficiency. Electromagnetic fields such as those from TV and computer screens are one of the stressors that can lead to kidney deficiency.
1 Salti,R et al. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2000;85(6):2137-44
Commentz,JC & Helmke,K. Hormone Research 1995;44:271-75
Waldhauser,F et al. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 1991;73:793-96
2 (e.g.) Collins,RL. Pediatrics 2004;114(3)
3 (e.g.) Anderson,RE. Journal of the American Medical Association 1998;279:938-42
(10758) Gaia Vince. New Scientist Online Magazine 27 (28.6.2004)
Climate change
In 1998 Ralph Keeling and colleagues predicted that the concentration of oxygen in the air would fall dangerously low (to below 19.5%) within 64,000 years unless humans changed the way they lived.1 A new (2015) study of air oxygen depletion by Valeri Livinia and colleagues at the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington, UK) and the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK)2 suggests that Ralph and colleagues had seriously underestimated human beings' ...
- ability to adversely affect air oxygen concentrations, and
- inability to calculate (or lack of interest in calculating) the long term consequences of their actions for future generations
The Livinia study
The Livinia Study analysed data that had also been collected by a team led by Ralph Keeling, who is now a programme director at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (La Jolla, California, US). The data came from nine weather stations (see Edi) around the world over the last 25 years. Its principal findings were:
# Air oxygen concentrations at all nine stations were falling, on average ten times faster than had been suggested by earlier studies
- All stations had detected an accelerating, rather than a linear (steady) fall
- Air oxygen concentrations were falling more quickly than current climate science would have predicted from the growing levels of fossil fuels being burned
- The growth in world population, the accelerating development of new technologies, and, as people become better off, the growing availability of the new technologies to more people - all increasing the rate of burning fossil fuels and therefore of atmospheric carbon emissions
- The accelerating demand for car and motorcycle ownership - similarly accelerating the rate of burning fossil fuels
- The ever growing production and use of synthetic nitrate agricultural fertiiisers, increasing nitrous oxide emissions. During the last ten years the use of synthetic nitrate fertilisers has increased by 35% per hectare of arable land
- The ever rising production of cement. (The cement industry accounts for around 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions)
- The accelerating rate of transformation of natural forest into agricultural land, both increasing carbon emissions and reducing oxygen emissions
- "We suggest that all industrial processes (that introduce) new technologies (that consume air) should be assessed regarding oxygen depletion before they are deployed at full scale."
- "The problem of air oxygen deficiency should be addressed in advance, before drastic (environmental and health) changes take place … Too many environmental problems have been analysed in retrospect"
The 19.5% air oxygen concentration'
The 'dangerously low below 19.5% air oxygen concentration figure' probably comes from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s current Respiratory Protection Standard.5 In a 2007 letter defending the Standard, OSHA's Director of Enforcement Programs Richard E. Fairfax explained:6
- "Any air with an oxygen level below 19.5% is oxygen-deficient and immediately dangerous to life or health" and requires employers to provide employees with a "self-contained breathing apparatus or a combination full-facepiece, pressure-demand-supplied air respirator with (an) auxiliary self-contained air supply"
- Humans begin to suffer adverse health effects (immediately) the (air oxygen concentration) drops below this level: "At air oxygen concentrations of 16-19.4% workers engaged in any form of exertion can rapidly become symptomatic of hypoxia (oxygen deficiency in the body's organs and tissues) as their organs and tissues fail to obtain the oxygen necessary to function properly"
- "Increased breathing rates, accelerated heartbeat and impaired thinking or coordination occur more quickly in an oxygen-deficient environment. Even a momentary loss of coordination may be devastating to a worker if it occurs while the worker is performing a potentially dangerous activity, such as climbing a ladder"
- "Air oxygen concentrations of 12-16% cause tachypnea (increased breathing rates), tachycardia (accelerated heartbeat), and impaired attention, thinking and coordination - even in people who are resting"
- "At air oxygen concentrations of 10-14% faulty judgment, intermittent respiration and exhaustion can be expected even with minimal exertion"
- "Breathing air containing 6-10% oxygen results in nausea, vomiting, lethargic movements and perhaps unconsciousness"
- "Breathing air containing less than 6% oxygen produces convulsions, then apnoea (cessation of breathing), followed by cardiac standstill" (and death)
- "Even if a worker survives (exposure to these oxygen deficiencies) organs may show evidence of hypoxic damage, which may be irreversible"
- "potentially debilitating effects which could appear suddenly and without warning (i.e. unforeseen)"
- "workers whose bodies are less good at 'oxygenating' than others"
OSHA holds that a worker would have to live and work in a reduced-oxygen atmosphere for around four weeks in order to be considered 'acclimatised'.
Editorial
The nine weather stations providing data to the Scripps Instituion of Oceanology were located at: La Jolla Pier in California, Cold Bay in Alaska, Alert in Canada, Cape Grim in Australia, Cape Camukahi and Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Palmer Station in Antarctica, American Samoa, the South Pole.
References
1 Keeling, R. Development of an interferometric oxygen analyser for precise measurement
of the atmospheric O2 mole fraction.
Ph. D. thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1988.
2 Livinia VN, Martins TMV and Forbes AB. Tipping point analysis of
atmospheric oxygen concentration. Chaos 2015, 25, 036403.
3 ISIS Report 19/08/09
http://www.isis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php
4 ISIS Report 18/05/15
http://www.isis.org.uk/O2_Diving_Towards_Danger_Point.php
5 OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1910.134 para (d)(2)(iii)
6 Letter. Richard E. Fairfax. OSHA ,April 2, 2007 https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=25743&p_table=INTERPRETATIONS
7 Rom, W., Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 2nd ed.; Little, Brown; Boston, 1992
(17079) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 49 (26.5.2015)
Diet
Time to end the war on salt
In 2011 Scientific American's Melinda Wenner Moyer wrote an excellent article urging the US medical powers-that-be to abandon their unfounded obsession with dietary salt reduction. It included the following:
- In August 2011 a Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis (review) of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects1 found insuffficient evidence that cutting salt/sodium intake had reduced the risk of developing heart attacks, strokes or premature death for people with normal or high blood pressure (hypertension). One of the seven trials reviewed had actually linked higher salt/sodium intake with reduced risk of hospitalisation or death due to heart failure
- Three months earlier European researchers had reported2 that the less sodium people had excreted in their urine (indicating lower salt intake), the greater their risk had been of dying from heart disease
- People declared themselves surprised by these findings, but they should not have been. Similar findings had been reported for over 20 years, e.g.
- A 2007 study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology3 followed 1,500 older people for five years and found no link between urinary sodium levels and the risk of developing coronary vascular disease or premature death. For every study that suggests that salt/sodium is unhealthy, another does not
- A 2006 study4 compared the reported daily sodium intakes of 78 million Americans to their risk of dying from heart disease across fourteen years. It found that the more sodium people ate (and so excreted) the less likely they were to die from heart disease
- In 2004 an earlier Cochrane Collaboration review of eleven salt-reduction trials5 found that, long-term, low-salt diets only reduced the systolic blood pressure* of people with normal systolic blood pressures by just 1.1 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) and their diastolic blood pressure* by 0.6 mmHg. That is the equivalent of one's blood pressure going down from 120/80 to 119/79 - irrelevant in terms of improving health. The review concluded that "intensive interventions (to reduce salt intakes) unsuited to primary care or population prevention programs provide only minimal reductions in blood pressure during long-term trials". A 2003 Cochrane review of 57 shorter-term trials had similarly concluded that "there was little evidence for long-term benefit from reducing salt intake"
- In 1988 a meta-analysis6 had compared sodium/salt intake with blood pressure in subjects from 52 international research centres and found no relationship between sodium/salt intake and the prevalence of hypertension. In fact, the people who had consumed the most sodium/salt (averaging 14 grams (g) a day) had a lower median blood pressure than the people who had consumed the least (averaging 7.2g a day)
Editorial
Systolic blood pressure is the blood pressure at the moment the heart beats (the top number in the blood pressure ratio).
Diastolic blood pressure is the blood pressure at the moment the heart relaxes (the bottom number in the blood pressure ratio).
In the UK a healthy resting blood pressure ratio for an adult is considered to be just below 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic).
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/
References
1 Reduced dietary salt for the prevention of cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (Cochrane review). Taylor RS1, Ashton KE, Moxham T, Hooper L, Ebrahim S.Am J Hypertens. 2011 Aug;24(8):843-53. doi: 10.1038/ajh.2011.115. Epub 2011 Jul 6. PMID: 21731062
2 Fatal and nonfatal outcomes, incidence of hypertension, and blood pressure changes in relation to urinary sodium excretion.
Stolarz-Skrzypek K1, Kuznetsova T, Thijs L, Tikhonoff V, Seidlerová J, Richart T, Jin Y, Olszanecka A, Malyutina S, Casiglia E, Filipovský J, Kawecka-Jaszcz K, Nikitin Y, Staessen JA; European Project on Genes in Hypertension (EPOGH) Investigators. JAMA. 2011 May 4;305(17):1777-85. doi: 10.1001/jama.2011.574. PMID: 21540421
3 Sodium and potassium intake and risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: the Rotterdam Study. Geleijnse JM1, Witteman,JC, Stijnen,T, Kloos,MW, Hofman,A, Grobbee DE. Eur J Epidemiol. 2007;22(11):763-70. Epub 2007 Sep 28. PMID: 17902026
4 Sodium intake and mortality in the NHANES II follow-up study. Cohen HW1, Hailpern SM, Fang J, Alderman MH. Am J Med. 2006 Mar;119(3):275.e7-14. PMID: 16490476
(16864) Melinda Wenner Moyer. Scientific American Magazine 48 (8.7.2011)
Salt and high blood pressure genetic
Further to 'Time to end the war on salt' aboveThe hypothesis that high levels of salt in the diet could cause high blood pressure (hypertension) was first published in 1904, but refuted just three years later.1 It took a further 40 years until a certain Dr. Wallace Kempner's apparent success in treating hypertension with a low-salt diet led to the general acceptance of a 'high salt - hypertension' link.2 Other researchers then launched population studies that measured the effect on blood pressure of different daily average salt intakes.
Genetic salt sensitivity
The population study that caught the most attention was that performed by Dr. Lewis Dahl at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (Upton, New York State (US)) Not only did it test the 'high salt - hypertension' link across various peoples (salt intake levels vary widely across geographically- and genetically-distinct groups),3 it also established that:
- hypertension was common in societies with higher than average salt intakes and rarely seen in populations with low salt diets
- every population included individuals who consistently consumed high levels of salt but did not develop hypertension. Later (rat-based!) work suggested that, on average, three quarters of a population were 'salt-sensitive', a quarter 'salt-tolerant'.4 Lewis was quickly able to breed 'salt-sensitive' and 'salt-tolerant' rats to 'support' his observations.5
- frightening the US medical powers-that-be into promoting salt intake reduction health promotion programmes from 1972 to the present day (see Ed.)
- demonstrating that, combined with reducing salt intake, increasing potassium intake can reduce hypertension6
- demonstrating that salty processed baby foods caused fatal hypertension in 'salt-sensitive' rats7
- inspiring work to identify which genes in the rats (and so possibly in humans) make them salt-sensitive or salt-tolerant. So far geneticists have identified:
-
sixteen regions in the genome of salt-sensitive rats that may
contain genes that regulate hypertension8 -
the single gene that encodes '11 ß-hydroxylase', an enzyme
required for the synthesis of a steroid that
stimulates salt retention. It is their form of this gene that gives
the salt-sensitive rats their predisposition for
hypertension9
Editorial
In 1969 Lewis Dahl warned Senator George McGovern’s Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs that he had "unequivocal" evidence that higher salt intakes cause hypertension. The committee cannot have been very critical. Some of the evidence was rat-based, and Lewis had induced high blood pressure in the rats by feeding them the human equivalent of 500 grams (g) of sodium a day! (The average American adult then and now consumes daily an average 8.5g of salt, which contains 3.4g of sodium.)
Lewis also warned the Committee that many baby foods contained such high levels of added salt that they might trigger life-long hypertension.
References
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2118645/
1 Graudal, N. 2005. Int. J. Epidemiol. 34:972–974
2Taubes, G. 1998. Science. 281:898–907
3 Dahl, L.K. 2005. Int. J. Epidemiol. 34:967–972
4 Dahl, L.K. 1960. J. Exp. Med. 114:231–236
5 Dahl, L.K., et al. 1962. J. Exp. Med. 115:1173–1190
6 Dahl, L.K., et al. 1972. J. Exp. Med. 136:318–330
7 Dahl, L.K., et al. 1970. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 133:1405–1408
8 Garrett, M.R., et al. 2002. J. Hypertens. 20:2399–2406
9 Garrett, M.R., and J.P. Rapp. 2003. Mamm. Genome. 14:268–273
(16861) Bashyam,H. Journal of Experimental Medicine Magazine 49 2007; 204(7): 1507
Energy sources
North Sea Oil - how much is left?
As Scotland’s Independence Referendum approached, both the ‘Yes’ Campaign and the ‘No’ Campaign made North Sea Oil a key issue. The ‘Yes’ Campaign would have us believe that there was a lot left, and that it was relatively easy (and therefore cheap and profitable) to extract. The ‘No’ Campaign warned voters that, bar the discovery of substantial new easy-to-tap oil fields (very unlikely), the vast majority of any highly profitable oil had already been extracted. An independent Scotland, it says, could not rely on oil revenues to finance its transition into an independent country.
As luck would have it, Sir Ian Wood’s UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) Maximising Recovery Review - Final Report was published recently (February 2014), triggering much debate on the future or otherwise of North Sea Oil. This would be a good time, Green Health Watch Magazine (GHWM) thought, to establish how much North Sea oil was really left at this moment. Not a bit of it! ‘Experts’, pro-Scottish independence and anti- Scottish independence campaigners all used the phrase ‘barrel of oil’ randomly to mean either:
- a barrel of crude oil (i.e. the stuff), or
- the unit of energy ‘barrel of oil equivalent’ (BOE - the energy generated by burning one barrel of crude oil)
For the record ...
The measure 'barrel of oil' means 42 US gallons/35 UK gallons/159 litres of crude oil, which is considered to generate between 5.4 and 6.1 gigaJoules/1.7 megaWatts, depending on the grade of oil.
Burning 5,800 cubic feet of natural gas is considered to generate the same amount of energy as one barrel of oil, as is one 'barrel of oil equivalent '.
These "experts" and campaigners also mislead public opinion by using the phrases 'barrel of oil' and 'barrel of oil equivalent' randomly to describe all of the crude oil (or its energy potential) probably present under the North Sea despite the fact that:
- it will include a lot of oil that will never see a barrel, let alone a match, for the foreseeable future, because (i) it is simply too difficult or expensive to extract, and (ii) world crude oil prices are not expected to rise (thereby making some currently unprofitable oil profitable) bar some international disaster, like war in the Middle East
- it will include a lot of natural gas
So, how much oil remains under the North Sea?
The UK Government's Department of Energy and Climate Change reckons that between 12 and 35 billion (bn) oil + gas BOE remain. The Wood Report plumps for 24bn oil + gas BOE. Pessimistic 'experts' suggest somewhere between 8 and 15bn oil + gas BOE.
We have not been able to separate these large BOE estimates into oil and gas.
How much profitably extractable oil/gas remains?
And how much of this might be profitably extractable? Both BP5 and the Daily Telegraph (23/5/14) - possibly using BP's figures) reckon3 that remaining profitably extractable oil from proven North Sea oil fields amounts to just 3bn barrels. This is only enough to meet UK oil consumption for five years. (The UK consumed 1.5 million barrels a day/0.6bn barrels of oil a year, during 2013).5
BP's figures for profitably extractable gas, on the other hand, are 200 billion cubic metres/8.6 trillion cubic feet/1.48bn BOE at the end of 2013. BP's 2013 figures correspond plausibly with the slightly higher 2009 figures given in the 2010 CIA World Fact Book, : 292 billion cubic metres/10.3 trillion cubit feet/1.78 billion BOE.6 On this basis, 67% of the profitably extractable energy under the North Sea is from oil, 33% from gas.
How much oil is currently extracted in a year?
Oil production has dropped off significantly in recent years. In 1999 3.4 million barrels a day/1.24bn barrels a year were extracted. By 2013 that had dropped to 0.9 million barrels a day//0.5bn barrels a year).2 The Wood Report believes that this could be increased to 2 million barrels a day/0.7bn a year with improved business practices and regulatory oversight (but see below). If this increase is achieved and no new significant oil fields come on line it will take four and a half years to extract the remaining profitably extractable oil.
The cost of extraction
But why the rush? The principal reason North Sea oil production has slumped is that nearly all of the profitably extractable oil has gone. According to the Wood Report, the cost of extracting North Sea oil quintupled between 2004 and 2014. There is no incentive to make those improved business practices!
Money
The 'Yes' Campaign claims that remaining North Sea oil reserves are worth £1.5 trillion. The 'No' Campaign dismisses this as either ignorance, deceitfulness or evidence that the Scottish National Party is not sufficiently financially literate to run a country. The £1.5 trillion, it says, is not taxable profit but the nominal value of the profitably extractable oil under the North Sea oil at today's crude oil prices. The trouble is (the UK Government claims) is that it would cost £1 trillion to extract, leaving £0.5 trillion/£500 billion of taxable profit.
Similarly, the Scottish National Party claims that remaining North Sea oil reserves are worth £57bn to an independent Scotland. More evidence of ignorance, deceiptfulness, etc., says the 'No' Campaign. They cite the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at Strathclyde University, which warns that much of the remaining profitably extractable oil is owned by foreign state-owned oil companies, so the revenue to Scotland would be a lot lower.
Editorial
(i) How much money an independent Scotland will reap from North Sea oil and gas is important, in that it would ease the financial pain of becoming independent, but it must not be allowed to dominate the issue. Scotland, like the rest of the world, has to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources as quickly as possible.
(ii) The BP Review5 explains that the term 'proved reserves' is generally taken to mean "those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions", which GHWM takes to mean 'profitably recoverable'.
References
1http://www.woodreview.co.uk/documents/UKCS%20Maximising%20Recovery%20Review%20FINAL%2072pp%20locked.pdf
2 Energy Matters - http://euanmearns.com/uk-north-sea-oil-production-decline/
3 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10853017/The-North-Sea-and-southern-shale-Britains-oil-in-numbers.html
4 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10661448/North-Sea-oil-facing-biggest-challenge-in-50-years.html
5 http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/Energy-economics/statistical-review-2014/BP-statistical-review-of-world-energy-2014-full-report.pdf
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_proven_reserves
(16711) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 946 (23.5.2014)
Fertility
Parisians and polar bears not the men they used to be French researchers have discovered that the average sperm counts of Parisian men have dropped 30% in the last 20 years. The vitality of the sperm had also fallen. The study adds weight to the emerging theory that cocktails of pesticides and other chemicals in the environment are imitating oestrogen or blocking testosterone in the womb, so disrupting sexual development.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has stated that immune system effects are likely at the levels of dioxins some of us already have in our bodies and that “some more highly exposed members of the population may be at risk ... of decreased sperm counts, higher probability of endometriosis in women, reduced ability to withstand immunological challenge and others”.
Growing levels of oestrogen in the environment are blamed for falling sperm counts. Not only man is affected. Polar bears in the arctic, alligators in the Florida swamps and bull elephants in Africa have all experienced a 40% drop since 1945.
(14) Guardian Society Magazine (15.2.1995) p4
Deanne Pearson. Endometriosis - the chemical connection. What Doctors Don’t Tell You 1995; 5:10;2-3
Observer 12.2.95
GM Crops
Ten reasons why GM food will never feed the world
In Europe the biotech industry has failed to convince most people that their stomachs need GM crops. Accordingly it has decided to appeal to their hearts and souls. Developing effective GM foods, their main argument now goes, is central to feeding a fast-growing global population. In March 2008, writing in The Ecologist, Mark Anslow gave us ten reasons why GM crops are not required for that purpose either.
1. Failure to deliver on promises, e.g.
Despite the hype, only two GM properties have ever made it to market: - resistance to herbicides and BT toxin expression:
- The much vaunted GM food, ‘golden rice’ (hailed as a cure to vitamin A deficiency in developing countries) never got further than the laboratory. It turned out that one would need to eat twelve bowls to achieve the recommended daily vitamin A intake
- In 2004 the Kenyan government admitted that Monsanto’s GM sweet potatoes were no more resistant to feathery mottle virus than ordinary strains, and produced lower yields
- Similarly, in January 2008, news that scientists had produced a GM calcium-rich carrot to treat osteoporosis by providing calcium caused some mirth when they eventually admitted that one would need to eat 1.6 kilograms to achieve the recommended calcium intake
GM crops are costing farmers and Governments more money than they are making:
- A 2003 Soil Association report estimated that GM crops had cost the US economy around $12 billion (£7.5 billion) since 1999 (inflated farm subsidies, loss of export orders and GM seed recalls)
- A study in Iowa found that GM soybeans produced lower yields but incurred the same costs as their natural equivalents (i.e. conventional crops)
- In India an independent study found that BT GM cotton crops were costing farmers 10% more and yielding 40% less profit than natural cotton crops. Between 2001 and 2005 more than 32,000 Indian farmers committed suicide, mostly as a result of mounting debts due to poor crop volumes
You can never be sure that what you are eating is GM-free these days. Contamination and cross-fertilisation between GM and natural crops has happened on many occasions, e.g.:
- In late 2007 US company Scotts Miracle-Gro was fined $500,000 by the US Department of Agriculture when genetic material from a new GM golf-course grass was found in native grasses as far as thirteen miles away
- In 2006 an analysis of 40 Spanish conventional and organic farms found that eight had been contaminated with GM corn varieties. In one farm the crop had ended up 12.6% GM!
Contrary to all of the biotech industry's promises, GM crops frequently require higher levels of spraying:
# No surprise, really. Monsanto's range of GM crops were genetically modified specifically to survive much higher than average levels of the Roundup pesticide the company also manufactured. The final crops, of course, also contain much higher than average levels of pesticide residues
# BT maize, genetically modified specifically to produce its own insecticidal toxins, has never eliminated the need to spray. It delivers particularly high levels of pesticide residues because the BT gene cannot be ‘switched off’. The unnatural maize produces its toxins until it is cropped
5. ‘Frankenfoods’
Their initial, devastating experience of GM seed has turned farmers and Governments against GM crops in many countries. In India, for instance:
- Farmers’ experience of planting BT cotton (see above) has been so disastrous that the Maharashtra government now advises that farmers grow soybeans instead
- A moratorium has been placed on the commercial cultivation of Monsanto's GM aubergine, Bt Brinjal. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh stated that it was his "duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary principle-based approach ... until such time that independent scientific studies establish, to the satisfaction of both public and professionals, the safety of the product"
- In Australia over 250 food companies lodged appeals with the State Governments of New South Wales and Victoria against the lifting of bans against growing GM canola crops
- The cross fertilisation of GM crops and natural 'weeds' has produced 'superweeds resistant to many pesticides. Canadian farmers have had to resort to even stronger, more toxic herbicides, further increasing the levels of pesticide residues in/on the fruit and vegetables we all eat
- Similarly, pests have been quick to develop resistance to the BT toxin produced by Monsanto's genetically-modified BT cotton (notably the Diamondback moth by 2007)
Many of the so-called ‘problems’ by which the biotech industry justifies its existence turn out to be solvable by natural means:
- The biotech industry argue that we need to reduce the need for ploughing and weeding mechanically, in order to reduce the carbon emissions that occur when soil is disturbed. The biotech industry's solution is to create GM strains of crops that can survive even heavier spraying with toxic pesticides. But there is always a less toxic alternative when one researches the issue properly. A new long-term study by the US Agricultural Research Service has shown that organic farming, even with ploughing, stores more carbon in the soil than the heavy toxic dowsing of GM crops can save
- Monsanto's BT maize was claimed to be more resistant to pests than natural maize. Farmers in East Africa discovered a more effective, natural solution. If they inter-planted their maize crop with a local weed, local pests lay their eggs on the weeds rather than on the maize
The results of tests on animals exposed to GM crops give serious cause for concern over their safety for animals (including humans):
- Way back in 1998 Scottish scientists had already found damage to every single internal organ in rats fed allegedly blight-resistant GM potatoes
- In a 2006 experiment, female rats fed on herbicide-resistant soybeans were found to give birth to severely stunted pups, of which half died within three weeks. The survivors were sterile
- In the same year, Indian news agencies reported that thousands of sheep allowed to graze on BT cotton crop waste had died suddenly. Further cases of livestock deaths followed in 2007
- There have also been reports of allergy-like symptoms in Indian labourers in BT cotton fields
- In 2002 the only GM trial ever to involve human beings appeared to show that altered genetic material from GM soybeans not only survived in the human gut, but also might even have passed its genetic material to bacteria co-existing within the human digestive system
The biotech industry always promises increased yields, but this has rarely been the case:
- A three-year study of 87 Indian villages found that natural cotton consistently produced 30% higher yields than the (more expensive) GM BT cotton
- It is now widely accepted that GM soybeans produce consistently lower yields than natural varieties. In 1992 Monsanto’s own trials showed that its Roundup Ready soybeans yielded an average 11.5% less than natural soybeans. Subsequent Monsanto studies revealed that some GM canola crop yields in Australia had been 16% below the national average for natural canola
No GM crop has yet eliminated the need for the heavy spraying of synthetic (chemical) fertilisers made from fossil fuels, a dwindling, increasingly expensive, unsustainable natural resource. The biotech industry has raised the possibility of making fossil fuel-based fertilisers redundant by splicing nitrogen-fixing genes into the crops themselves (fertilisers boost yields by increasing the levels of nitrogen in the soil) but have made little progress on this to date.
Also, GM crops have more often than not been designed for Western-style, large-scale, industrial agriculture. GM herbicide resistance, for instance, is too expensive and of no real benefit unless your farm is too vast to weed mechanically. GM BT toxin expression was intended, allegedly, to eliminate the need to dowse vast areas of a single crop with pesticides.
An agricultural model facing ...
- increasingly expensive and scarce raw materials (fossil fuels) and
- a possibly warming or cooling planet
(15442) Mark Anslow. Ecologist Magazine 42 (1.3.2008)
Food Production
Scottish farmed salmon omega-3 levels halved - so?
In October 2016 BBC News flagged up that the average omega-3 essential fatty acid content of salmon grown in Scotland's salmon farms had halved over the last five years. The reason, apparently, was that the fish had once been fed a 'turbofeed' comprising 80% small oily fish (like anchovies) to make them grow faster and larger, but are now fed a more balanced feed comprising only 20% small oily fish and 80% vegetable oils and plant protein.This may not only be simple cost-cutting or profit maximisation. The salmon farming industry explained that:
- natural stocks of smaller oily fish could no longer support the ever-growing demand from the international farmed salmon industry
- more alternative omega-3-rich low small oily fish/high vegetable oil and plant protein feeds were being developed
- although the average omega-3 content of farmed Atlantic salmon had halved, it was still very high, and still higher than that of wild Atlantic salmon
Editorial
(i) Another reason (not mentioned by the farmed salmon industry) to change the recipe for salmon feed from 80% small oily fish to a low small oily fish/high vegetable oil/high plant protein mix may be that the small oily fish are chemically contaminated and this contamination is ending up, dangerously concentrated, in the farmed salmon.
(ii) Salmon's famed rich content of omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) is more a marketing ploy than a matter of nutrition. Its rich content of omega-3 is genuine (even after the 50% reduction) but most of it not the form of omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid) that can bring significant health benefits to humans. Atlantic salmon contains a little omega-6 (28%) and lots of omega-3 (72%), but the vast majority of the omega-3 (93%) is 'derivative', either eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). If I were looking to increase my consumption of essential fatty acids I would not consider salmon - wild or farmed - as a good source.
(iii) According to EFA expert Brian Peskin, given the essential fatty acid contents of current diets, the lifestyles and environmental degradation in the more industrially developed countries, we need to consume 1.5g of linoleic acid (LA - 'parent' omega-6) and 1.5g of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA - 'parent' omega-3) a day. The human body always seeks to consume 'parent' EFAs, of which it (a) digests {~}95% and (b) converts/derives {~}5% into 'derivative' EFAs in order to fulfil specific body needs. The body prefers to use 'parent' EFAs and the 'derivative' EFAs it itself derives from them rather than the 'derivative' EFAs made by other animals
(iv) The linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid must be vibrant, so must never have been exposed to heat exceeding 120oFahrenheit (49o Centigrade). Essential fatty acids are heat-sensitive. Their vibrancy (and therefore their ability to perform their functions in the body) is easily damaged.
(v) The linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid must also be organic if at all possible. Exposure to some industrial and agricultural chemicals can also quickly damage the vibrancy of EFAs. Both wild and farmed salmon are highly polluted. Wild salmon often contain industrial marine pollution, like mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, while farmed salmon often contain farm antibiotics, pesticides and the artificial colourings canthaxanthin and astaxanthin.
(vi) Superior Sources of EFAs
If you want to get your 'parent' EFAs from food rather than a dietary supplement (always better if at all possible) Brian suggests:
- (liquids) five grams of organic, cold-pressed, high linoleic sesame oil plus two grams of organic, cold-pressed flaxseed oil a day, or
- (solids) ten grams of raw, organic pumpkin seeds a day
(vii) Other objections to farmed salmon
# It takes between two and eight kilograms of wild small oily fish to produce one kilo of farmed salmon
# Sometimes salmon feed is transported half way round the Earth from producer to user
This is not a sustainable industry. Scottish and Norwegian salmon farmers need to develop other, sustainable salmon feeds (possibly comprising mainly plants rich in omega-3) which can be grown locally
(viii) Cold-smoked salmon
- Cold-smoked salmon is smoked at around 99oF (37oC) so should contain vibrant EFAs, but they will still be mainly omega-3 and mainly derivative omega-3
- Organic, cold-pressed salmon oil is available. It should also contain vibrant EFAs, but again …
Illnesses of our time
Worsening memory not down to ageing
Many people experience reduced mental ability (including memory loss and forgetfulness) as they age, but it is not because parts of the brain stop developing and self-repairing at a certain age (as was once thought). This 2014 study found that:- the brain's 'white matter' (neural pathways), specifically the cingulum bundle and inferior fronto occipital fasciculus,* continues to change and develop throughout life
- in childhood, increased activity in the cingulum bundle and inferior fronto occipital fasciculus are linked to higher executive and general cognitive functioning*
- in adulthood, these changes and developments are not linked to increases or reductions in mental speed, attention, memory and learning capabilities (except, possibly, visual learning capability)
The study set a series of mental tests for a group of 296 healthy volunteers aged from eight to 68, while monitoring their brains at the same time.
Definitions
The cingulum bundle and the inferior fronto occipital fasciculus - well marked bundles of fibres connecting parts of the brain such as the occipital cortex and the frontal and temporal lobes.
Executive function (when discussing the brain) - an umbrella term for the regulation and control of the brain's cognitive processes, including working memory, reasoning, learning, problem solving, planning and execution (and is also known as 'the cognitive control and supervisory attentional system').
Editorial
(i) A bit like rural post offices (use them or lose them)!
(ii) Some neurologists suggest that it is continually setting yourself previously untried mental activities, rather than continually engaging in activities at which one has become expert, that is key. Thus, doing the Times cryptic crossword every day, or learning a new language every year, is not as brain-stretching as, for instance, moving from The Times cryptic crossword to the Guardian cryptic crossword, or moving on to Suduko, or signing up to the Open University course in quantum mechanics.
(16562) Peters,BD et al. Biological Psychiatry Magazine 46 (11.12.2016)
Lifestyle
A 'Citizens' Income'
A Citizens' Income Scheme (CIS) is much more than a benefits system that ensures that everyone can afford 'the absolute basics' (food, clothing, shelter and heating). It also promotes social equality, cohesion and empowerment. All of these are achieved by the simple measure of paying every citizen (however defined) of the community (e.g. a village, a country) a regular weekly or monthly income weekly simply because they are a citizen, irrespective of:- their wealth or income from other sources
- whether or not they are in paid employment or higher education
- whether or not they are actively seeking paid employment or higher education
The Scottish Green Party's proposed CIS for Scotland would:1
(on the up side)
- pay a weekly, modest, liveable, tax-free, non-means-tested income of:
- around £100 a week to every person aged 16-18, whether or not they are living with or supported by a family, and whatever the income or wealth of that family member
- around £100 a week to every person aged over 18 and below pensionable age
- around £150 a week to every person of pensionable age
- around £50 a week to every person aged below 16 (paid to the parent or guardian)
- make 70% of households in Scotland better off
- end extreme financial poverty in Scotland
- benefit those in the lowest income bracket (earning less than £8k/year) most
- remove much of the stigma around receiving benefits. ("This may seem like a minor problem but the mental health impact of the (stigma) attached to being on the dole … can have crippling effects on otherwise healthy individuals"2
- promote solidarity rather than difference between the worse and better off (because everyone is paid CIS whatever their wealth or income)
- give everyone the opportunity to (e.g.) job share, work part-time, do voluntary work, take part in raising children, care for ill, disabled and older people, pursue higher education or skills re-training, be creative, or start a new business or project, without ending up on 'the bread line'
- recognise that socially-essential unpaid work, such as parenting, caring and volunteering, is as valuable as paid work and so equally worth paying for
- remove the 'poverty/employment trap' disincentive to look for paid work inherent in the current UK benefits system (where, because almost any increase in income leads to an almost equivalent reduction in benefit payments, taking on modestly paid work does not lead to a noticeable rise in net income)
- help improve working conditions. If working people know that they have their Citizen's Income to fall back on if necessary they sometimes feel more able to stand up for their rights, challenge their employer on working conditions and healthy and safety issues, whistle blow, or even leave their job in order to look for a fairer one
- reduce benefit fraud and the cost of fraud detection and prosecution (saving £millions)
- be much simpler to administrate and police, so much cheaper to run, than the current, hugely complex 'means test'- and punishment ('benefit sanction')-based system
- reduce Scotland's current 'income gap' (see Edii) to the level of some of the most 'income equal' countries in the world (e.g. Japan, China, Irish Republic, Sweden, Norway, Germany)1
- replace most of the current benefits and state pension arrangements (e.g. Tax Credits, Jobseeker's Allowance, tax-free allowances, Child Benefit, Income Support, Pension Credit and the State Pension)
(on the down side)
- replace the personal tax-free allowance (£10,600 in 2015) with a new 20% income tax levied on all income other than the Citizens' Income
The Scottish Green Party worked with the UK campaigning organisation The Citizen’s Income Trust, and Dr. David Comerford (then Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Stirling (Scotland)) to calculate (i) the levels of 'Citizens' Income' payments (see above) that the Scottish economy could support and (ii) the likely additional cost to Scotland of replacing the current benefits system with their proposed CIS.
When they took the projected cost of:
- the CIS payments themselves (around £27.5 billion), plus
- the administration of the CIS (around £3 billion)
- the revenue from the new 20% income tax on the first £10,600 of all other income
- the cost of running the current benefits system in Scotland, excluding all disability benefits, Carer’s Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction Scheme (which would continue to be paid on top of the CIS payment)
One unknown is what all those Scottish citizens not claiming benefits at the time CIS is introduced will do with their new £50/£100/£150 weekly CIS payments. Will they be prudent and add them to their regular savings deposits or (perhaps more likely) will they spend them on things they could not afford before? If the majority choose the latter course the introduction of CIS will trigger a significant, long-term increase in consumer spending and therefore in tax revenue. This should also be set against the likely increased cost of £1 billion per year.
The Scottish Green Party promise that no-one would be worse-off financially under its proposed CIS.
Why work?
Critics of CIS suggest that it removes the incentive to work. CIS supporters point out that:
- CIS payments are usually set at levels just sufficient to pay for the absolute basics, so people wanting anything more would need to undertake paid work
- to earn money is not the only reason people work. The innate desire for a fulfilling life and all that that entails provides the vast majority of people with equally or more powerful reasons. After all, consider how many people undertake voluntary work despite the powerful, capitalist, 'do nothing for no £s' propaganda to which we are exposed via the Media every waking hour. Other non-money reasons to work include:
- the desire to engage in meaningful or socially-useful activity
-
the desire to join or interact with others in meaningful or socially-
useful activity -
the desire to be valued and respected by one's peers and other
people one respects
No long-term trials of CIS have been undertaken and, arguably, short/medium-term trials do not provide good data. The problem is that if people know that their CIS payments will stop in, say, six months or a year, they do not react in the same way as they would if they knew that their CIS was guaranteed long-term. Having said that ...
Several short and medium-term trials of CIS have found that any reductions in paid work undertaken are small and specific:
- One study saw the average number of paid hours worked a week fall 5% (from 40 to 38 hours). The reductions were highest in second earners in two-earner households and lowest in main earners2
- The Mincome Experiment in rural Dauphin, Manitoba (Canada) in the 1970s found that the only two groups who worked significantly fewer paid hours were new mothers and teenagers working to support their families. The new mothers spent this time with their newborns instead. The working teenagers invested significantly more time in their schooling.3 Overall "the reduction in paid work effort was modest: about 1% for men, 3% for married women, and 5% for unmarried women."4
- A short-term CIS study in the village of Omitara (Namibia) during 2008 and 2009 concluded that paid work activity actually increased, particularly through the launch of new small businesses and the local market benefiting from households' increased buying power5
- CIS had brought other benefits:
- a significant reduction in child malnutrition
- a significant improvement in children's school attendance
-
an increase in the community's income significantly above the
total value of the CIS payments given -
an influx of people into the village even though they knew they
would not qualify for CIS payments until they - had lived there for six months
-
overall crime rates fell by 42%. In particular, theft of farm
animals fell by 43% and overall theft by nearly 20%
- Two CIS pilot projects have been underway in India since January 2011.6-8 The first communication from the projects report that:
- the villagers are spending more on food and health care
- children's school performance has improved in 68% of families
- children's time spent in school has nearly tripled
- personal savings have tripled
- new business start-ups have doubled
An early CIS-like system was proposed by the philosopher Thomas Paine in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1797). 9 It proposed that:
- every man and woman aged over 50 should be paid a £10 annual pension (about half the average annual agricultural wage at that time)
- every man and woman should be paid a once-off £15 on attaining the age of 21, to give them a start in life
- these payments should be funded by an inheritance tax and a land value tax
- people with serious disabilities (e.g. lameness, blindness) should be paid a small additional pension if sufficient funds from the two new taxes permitted after the main CIS had been launched
Over a century later, in 1920, Major C.H. Douglas proposed Social Credit or National Dividend schemes (forms of CIS) as a remedy for the effect of unemployment. The concept was discussed actively by several leading economists associated with John Maynard Keynes in the 1920s and 1930s.
During and immediately after World War II the concept of a UK Welfare State gained popularity. Sir William Beveridge's 1942 Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services and the subsequent legislation included a provision for family allowances, including an allowance for every child except the first in each family. Child Benefit later extended the benefit to all children and was given to all parents whatever their incomes or wealth. This was probably the inspiration for the non-means-tested CIS proposals being currently discussed and trialled.
Editorial
(i) Earlier names for Citizens' Income Schemes include 'Basic Income Schemes', 'Social Dividends', 'State Bonuses' and 'National Dividends'.
(ii) In The Spirit Level: equal societies almost always do better, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett reported the findings of their many years work comparing the 'health' and income gaps in the world's 20 richest countries. Their conclusions were:
- the key factor is neither the wealth of a country nor the average income of a citizen, but the average 'income gap' between the rich and poor living in that country
- the greater the average income gap in a country, the 'iller' the country is, and
- both the rich and the poor appear to suffer equally due to this inequality
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/08/citizens-income-instead-of-benefits
UK Campaigning organisations
http://www.citizensincome.org/
http://basicincome.org.uk/about-us/
http://www.citizensincome.org/FAQs.htm
http://makewealthhistory.org/2012/07/18/the-citizens-income/
http://basicincome2013.eu/
Jack Duncan, Moden Scotsman 1.15.2015 http://modern.scot/citizens-income/
1 Scottish Green Party http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/news/greens-publish-citizens-income-plan-for-fairer-scotland/#sthash.VG0R6JCs.dpuf
http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/08/Citizens-Income-Briefing-Note.pdf
http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/news/citizen-s-income-key-to-beating-the/
2 Gilles Séguin. "''Improving Social Security in Canada – Guaranteed Annual Income: A Supplementary Paper'', Government of Canada, 1994".
3 Belik, Vivian (5 September 2011). "A Town Without Poverty? Canada's only experiment in guaranteed income finally gets reckoning". Dominionpaper.ca. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
4 A guaranteed annual income: From Mincome to the millennium (PDF) Derek Hum and Wayne Simpson
5 "Basic Income Grant Coalition: Pilot Project". BIG Coalition Namibia. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
6 India: Basic Income Pilot Projects are underway, Basic Income News, 14 September
7 "INDIA: Basic Income Pilot Project Finds Positive Results," Basic Income News, BIEN (22 September 2012).
8 Fernandez, Benjamin (4 May 2013). "Rupees in your pocket". Le Monde diplomatique. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice
(16889) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 48 (5.2.2015)
Medicine
- complementary
Lay off homeopathy!
What is it about homeopathy (and, currently, that homeopathy can be prescribed by GPs) that turns otherwise intelligent and rational people into 'Spanish inquisitors'? In the last few months the British Medical Association felt the need to dismiss it as 'witchcraft', the Chief Medical Officer felt the need to dismiss it as "rubbish", and former Government scientific advisor Professor Sir John Beddington felt the need to call it "mad" that GPs were able to prescribe treatment for which there was "no underlying scientific basis". It is almost as if the people currently running the UK medical profession feel the need to make a public condemnation of homeopathy every year or so, in much the same way as the people at the top of the Catholic church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries felt the need to make regular public anti-Semitic or anti-Protestant declarations. Even (or perhaps, especially) at the top of one's profession, it appears to be important to be seen to be believing in the right things.Of course, all of these people know why GPs are currently permitted to prescribe homeopathic treatment. It is not because its efficacy has been demonstrated by a raft of medical studies (for what value most of those are worth - funded by, often warped by and even faked by the pharmaceutical industry). It is because:
- homeopathy benefits thousands of patients ( all the benefits derided as 'anecdotal' or 'placebo' by homeopathy's public opponents as if the words both meant 'worthless')
- homeopathy often brings benefit when the NHS has no remedy for the patient's illness. And, above all
- prescribing a course of homeopathy has been shown time and time again to be not only beneficial but cheaper than the miscellany of drugs the GP might otherwise have tried
·
the UK's four remaining homeopathic hospitals (in
Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London) are also centres for a range of
complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, osteopathy, and herbal and
nutritional medicine, that are often better than the NHS at illnesses like
musculoskeletal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine and allergic
conditions. As such they are, he says "beacons of medical pluralism",
where different traditions in medicine co-exist and cross-fertilise, and are an
alternative medical model to the conventional one almost completely controlled
by the pharmaceutical industry
·
the net cost of homeopathy to the NHS is tiny -
around £4 million out of a current total budget of around £108.9 billion and a
tiny cost for so much benefit conferred. GPs spent £121,000 of NHS money on
homeopathic prescriptions compared to £8.6 billion on conventional drug
prescriptions in 2010
Editorial
Even if the power of homeopathy was no more than 'placebo power', as all true UK medical establishment leaders tell us, this would not be a reason to end its use. Articles in Green Health Watch Magazine 43 reported that (i) GPs use placebo power regularly and effectively and that (ii) placebos work even when patients are told that what they have just been prescribed is a placebo. Or perhaps this should be stopped as well!
(16179) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine Magazine 45 (15.4.2013)
Editorial
Even if the power of homeopathy was no more than 'placebo power', as all true UK medical establishment leaders tell us, this would not be a reason to end its use. Articles in Green Health Watch Magazine 43 reported that (i) GPs use placebo power regularly and effectively and that (ii) placebos work even when patients are told that what they have just been prescribed is a placebo. Or perhaps this should be stopped as well!
(16179) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine Magazine 45 (15.4.2013)
Medicine
- orthodox
Oxygen holds cancer back
Many causes have been suggested for the current cancer epidemic - chemical pollution, pesticides, diet, not enough exercise, electromagnetic radiation - the list goes on and on. According to Professor Brian Peskin,a these should all be seen as 'contributory factors'. Following the largely forgotten work of Dr Otto Warburg (first published in 1925) Brian believes that the fundamental cause of cancer is insufficient oxygen in our body's organ and tissue cells (hypoxia). Otto developed a way of measuring the oxygen pressure inside cells and determined that the drop in oxygen pressure that permitted cancer to begin developing was 35%.1Brian's hypothesis
Brian suggests that inadequate oxygen levels in cells are due to inadequate levels of undamaged 'parent' essential fatty acids (PEFAs) in the cells' membranes (see 'Parent essential fatty acids' below). He explains that PEFAs act as 'oxygen magnets', which pull oxygen from the bloodstream through the membrane into the cell.2 Until the right levels and ratio of vibrant undamaged PEFAs are present, he states, no amount of organic fruit, vegetables, soy or fibre, omega-3 or fish oil, exercise regimes or national screening programmes will reduce the cancer epidemic a great deal.3
Editorial
Otto's work and its implications for research into cancer prevention have never been disproved (it earned him a Nobel Laureate in 1931) but his findings did not and still do not suit the medical powers-that-be. Odd really, many cancer specialists happily accept that cancer cannot thrive in an oxygen-rich environment.4
References
http://www.cancerfightingstrategies.com/oxygen-and-cancer.html#sthash.3cl5o6Dn.dpbs
a http://www.brianpeskin.com/
1 Warburg,O. Science 1956;123(3191):309-14
2 Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry, 26th edition, p191
3 Further analysis for consumption of green leafy vegetables and fruits ... showed a similar lack of association with breast
cancer risk.” Smith-Warner,SA. Journal of the American Medical Association 2001;285:769-776
“(Fibre) worsens colon cancer rather than helping prevent it.” Levin,B. Lancet 2000;356:1286-87 and 1300-106, Fuchs,CS
et al. New England Journal of Medicine 1999;340(3):169-76, Potter,JD. New England Journal of Medicine
1999;340(3):223-24
“Contrary to popular belief and assurances by the US media...mammography is not a technique for early diagnosis. In fact, a breast cancer has usually been present for about eight (8) years before it can finally be detected...” International Journal of Health Services 2001;(31(3):605-15
4 e.g. Knoop, Hockel, et al. Radiotherapy and Oncology 1993;26(1):45-50
David Brizel, et al. Radiotherapy and Oncology 1999;53:113-17
(17096) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 49 (4.6.2015)
Bisphosphonates weaken bones
This small, early-stage study at Imperial College London used very bright light from the Diamond synchrotron particle accelerator (see Edi) at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Didcot (Oxfordshire) to take extremely high density pictures of bone samples removed from:- sixteen patients diagnosed with osteoporosis who had fallen and suffered a broken hip. Eight had been taking a bisphosphonate drug to try to increase the resilience of their bones. Eight had not
- sixteen healthy controls (no osteoporosis, no hip fracture, no bisphosphonate)
- contained 24% more micro-cracks than the bone samples from the eight hip fracture patients who had not
- contained 54% more micro-cracks than the bone samples from the healthy controls
- were 33% weaker than those of the eight hip fracture patients who had not been taking a bisphosphonate
Editorial
(i) A synchrotron harnesses the power of electrons to produce light ten billion times brighter than the sun that scientists can use to study anything from fossils to jet engines to viruses and vaccines. In terms of bones it can 'see' and display detail way beyond the scope of DXA and CT scanners.
(ii) The adverse effects of taking bisphosphonates include:
- Five years use may double the risk of developing oesophageal cancer from 1 per 1000 to 2 per 1000
- Intravenously administered bisphosphonates have been linked with osteonecrosis of the jaw (localised death of bone tissue)
- Raised risk of developing atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm) for women
Pesticides
Glyphosate - pipe-descaler to GM crops
The chemical formulation glyphosate started life in the 1960s as a pipe-descaling agent. In 1969 it was 're-invented' and re-patented as a weed-killer by biotech multinational Monsanto, becoming the principle active ingredient of its highly effective herbicide Roundup (released 1974). Apparently both more effective at killing weeds and less toxic to health and the environment than other organophosphate herbicides, Roundup was welcomed by farmers world-wide.These were Roundup's honeymoon days. As the farmers got to know their new partner better it became evident that s/he was even stronger than first appeared, and was damaging the crops as well as killing the weeds. The glyphosate it contained was so effective, in fact, that it could be argued that it was the main reason Monsanto developed its Roundup Ready range of genetically-modified crops in the mid 1990s: a range of crops that could survive multiple sprayings of Roundup.
The partnership of Roundup/glyphosate pesticide and Roundup Ready GM crop has done Monsanto proud, but evidence of damage to both human health and the environment has mounted. By March 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC - the World Health Organisation's cancer agency) felt that it had enough to declare glyphosate "probably carcinogenic (cancer-causing) to humans". This may well be the beginning of the end of glyphosate/Roundup. Monsanto may be challenging the IARC decision, but local and national authorities world-wide are already taking action. Several countries, including Holland, Denmark, Sweden, El Salvador, Bermuda and Sri Lanka, have banned or restricted the use of glyphosate-containing weed-killers by local authorities, concerned about possible links with both a range of human illnesses (including cancer, birth defects, kidney failure, coeliac disease, colitis and autism) and insect problems (bee colony collapse, the demise of the monarch butterfly population). Cities like Chicago, Paris and Vancouver have declared their intention to make their public spaces glyphosate-free.
Editorial
(i) Glyphosate-based weed-killers are used both on farms and in domestic gardens. Always check the ingredients of weed-killers before purchasing.
(ii) Glyphosate-based weed-killers were supposed to be a safe replacement for earlier organo-phosphate-based weed-killers. Perhaps we simply need to accept that anything poisonous enough to kill plants and as heavily used as weed-killers is almost bound to have a negative effect on the health of humans and other animals.
Perhaps, too, in the urban environment, we need to re-evaluate which of the many often pretty wild grasses and flowers that grow there are truly 'weeds' (i.e. dangerous and/or undesirable so must be eradicated). If the need for weeding was reduced through reclassification it could be achieved by less toxic and industrial ways, e.g. voluntary weeding programmes using hand-weeding, flame-torching, scalding and even electrocution.1
Reference
1 Glyphosate is a 'probably carcinogenic' pesticide. Why do cities still use it? - Guardian 21/4/15
(17092) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 49 (1.6.2015)
Radiation
UK punters to pay twice for French electricity
In October 2013 the UK Government and a consortium of nuclear power companies led by French state-backed Electricité de France Group agreed the principal terms for the building of a nuclear power station.* Having failed to draw up and follow an energy policy during the last 30 years or so, the Government was so desperate to begin to construct new nuclear power stations that it agreed to guarantee the consortium a 'strike price' of £92.50 (adjusted annually for inflation) for every megaWatthour (MWh) of electricity it sold during the new nuclear power station's first 35 years of electricity generation. £92.50/MWh is almost double the current (2014) wholesale price of electricityAs the vast majority of the UK Government's revenue comes from tax revenues, it is the UK taxpayer who will have to pay this subsidy on top of what s/he has already paid to the electricity supply company of her/his choice.
But none of this may ever happen ...
- The new nuclear power station may never be built if objections on European Union legal grounds succeed
- One of the manufacturers, Areva is failing miserably to complete a nuclear power plant in Finland (see Ed.). Areva is a long-standing member of Electricité de France Group and, it tells the world on its website, "the worldwide leader of the nuclear supply industry"
Editorial
Courtesy of the Institute of Science in Society
In 2005 the Finnish Government contracted nuclear power plant constructor Areva to build a nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto in the far north of the country. It was supposed to cost € 3.2 billion and produce electricity from 2009. The 2014 Areva predicted cost is nearly € 9 billion and predicted switch-on 2016 respectively. Cynics reckon that means 2018 or 2020.
The Finnish power consortium Teollisuuden Voima (managing the project for the Finnsh Government) is understandably furious. It and Areva have now locked horns in what Areva’s Chief Operating Officer has described as "one of the biggest conflicts in the history of the (nuclear power station) construction sector".
Sources
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Nuclear_subidies_largess_by_other_names.php
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/The_Real_Cost_of_Nuclear_Power.php
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/The_True_Costs_of_French_Nuclear_Power.php
(16518) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 46 (16.1.2014)
Transport
Fuel cell-electric versus All-electric cars
A few vehicle manufacturers cling doggedly to the vision of an internal combustion engine (ICE) fuelled by hydrogen rather than by petrol, diesel or liquid petroleum gas (LPG), but attempts to develop a hydrogen gas-fuelled or liquid hydrogen-fuelled ICE as efficient as (e.g.) a petrol or diesel ICE have not gone well. It seems more and more likely that people will be choosing between:- vehicles with an electric engine powered by a hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell (which is essentially a mobile electrolyser that produces electricity, water vapour and heat from hydrogen), and
- vehicles with an electric engine powered by an electric battery
- Both will rely on the availability of large amounts of electricity, hopefully progressively generated less from fossil fuels and nuclear energy and more from sustainable/renewable energies (solar, wind, tidal, etc.).
- Because hydrogen fuel cells are fuelled by ultra-pure hydrogen gas, each kilogram of which requires 4.4 gallons of water to produce, hydrogen-powered vehicles will be a major burden on our already dwindling resources of drinking water. Hopefully, both less thirsty ways of producing ultra-pure de-ionised water and less fussy hydrogen fuel cells will be developed
The competition between the hydrogen fuel cell and sustainable/renewable energy to be oil's successor as the world's dominant energy is seen clearly in the domestic car industry. We have chosen three electric cars, one powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and two powered by an electric battery, to illustrate the current state of the arts and their affordability: the Hyundai ix35 FCEV (allegedly the world's first series mass production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle) and the all-electric cars (i) the Nissan Leaf and (ii) the Tesla Model S. We then looked at the UK-wide availability of hydrogen re-fuelling points and electric battery Rapid Charge Points.
Hydrogen fuel cell-powered
The Hyundai ix35 FCEV
Think hydrogen-fuelled Ford Fiesta. The Hyundai ix35 FCEV:
- has a range of 406 miles on one tankful (claims Hyundai). A range of 360 miles is more typical given that you are bound to use some of the electric accessories, e.g. the lights, the heating, the windscreen de-mister and the air-conditioning
- has a top speed of 99 mph
- accelerates from 0 to 62mph in 12.9 seconds
- has a combined energy consumption (Hyundai claims) of 29 kiloWatthours/100 miles, the petrol car equivalent of 115 miles per gallon
- takes 4.5 minutes to fill the tank (5.6kg of hydrogen)
- costs to run: an average 14.5 pence a mile to run (claims ITM Power)
- costs to buy: £16,995
As of 2013, the three best-selling "motorway-capable", electric battery-powered cars are the Nissan Leaf (global sales 75,000+, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (30,000) and the Tesla Model S (12,700+).
The Nissan Leaf
Think all-electric Ford Fiesta. The latest (2013) version of the Nissan Leaf 'town car':
- has a range of 121 miles on one fully-charged battery (claims Nissan). A range of 80-90 miles is more typical given that you are bound to use some of the electric accessories, e.g. the heating, the windscreen de-mister and the air-conditioning
- has a (limited) top speed of 100mph
- accelerates from 0 to 62mph in 12 seconds
- has a combined energy consumption (claims Nissan) of 29 kiloWatthours/100 miles, the petrol car equivalent of 115 miles per gallon
- takes four hours to fully charge or 30 minutes to 50% charge at home. Supercharger (see below) takes 20 minutes to do a 50% charge
- costs to run: an average 2.5 pence a mile (claims Nissan)
- costs to buy: £20,990 (UK Government £5,000 grant possible provided you agree to lease the battery for at least £70 a month)
Think 'all-electric BMW. When 'Supercharger’/'Rapid Charge' stations (see below) arrive en masse in the UK from mid-2014, the Tesla model S (car magazine Auto Express suggests) will be the first powerful electric car with true road trip potential.
It:
- has a range of 230 miles on one fully-charged battery (claim Nissan) - upgradable to 300 miles (more powerful battery). (A range of 208 miles is more typical given that you are bound to use some of the electric accessories)
- has a top speed of 120mph
- accelerates from 0 to 62mph in 5.9 seconds
- has a combined energy consumption (Tesla claims) of 35 kiloWatthours/100 miles, the petrol car equivalent of 94 miles per gallon
- delivers 65 miles from every hour of home charging (claims Tesla, which also offers the option of a twin home charging system that doubles the range per charging hour). The car also recharges the battery when decelerating or driving downhill. A Tesla Supercharger (see below) takes 20 minutes to do a 50% charge The car also recharges the battery when decelerating or driving downhill. A Tesla Supercharger (see below) takes 20 minutes to do a 50% charge.
- costs an average 2.5 pence a mile to run (claim Tesla)
- costs £82,400 to buy
Hydrogen recharge stations - UK
A hydrogen recharge station is usually a filling point for hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles. As at 2013 there are three public stations: one serving the M4 near Swindon, and two in London. London plans to increase its score to six by 2015.
The UK private-public initiative UK H2Mobility:
- projects that up to 1.6 million hydrogen cars could be on UK roads by 2030, by which time annual sales will hopefully have reached 300,000 cars
- projects that hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars will account for 30-50% of the new car market by 2050
- envisages a preliminary UK network of just 65 refuelling stations (nearly ten times more than we have now) mainly located in heavily populated areas and along busy national trunk routes
- hopes for a national network of around 1,150 refuelling stations by 2030
Self-contained home hydrogen stations are also envisaged. A solar-powered water electrolysing hydrogen home station, for instance, would comprise solar cells to generate direct current (DC) electricity, an electricity converter to turn that into alternate current (AC) electricity , a reverse osmosis and de-ionising unit to convert tap water into ultra-pure de-ionised water, an electrolyser to extract hydrogen gas from the de-ionised water and a compressor to compress the hydrogen to 700 bars pressure.
As reported in Green Health Watch Magazine 41 Honda plans to offer purchasers of its hydrogen fuel cell-powered FCX Clarity their very own 'Home Energy Station' (HES) on their drive or lawn. It produces sufficient hydrogen, Honda claims, to (i) fuel your car and (ii) supply the average house's electricity and hot water requirements. Furthermore, says Honda, it should reduce the average car-owning home's carbon emissions by around 30% and its overall energy costs by up to 50%.
Electric Supercharger Stations/Rapid Charge Points - UK
Supercharger Stations/Rapid Charge Points supply an electric vehicle directly with direct current (DC) electricity. Typically it takes less than 30 minutes to do an 80% battery charge up. At present there are only a few dozen in the UK but the car manufacturers themselves, private business and the Greater London Authority are all convinced that the electric car market will boom, e.g.:
- Greater London Authority Group's Source London initiative has ensured that there are already more than 1,400 Rapid Charge Points in London
- the UK Government has backed the UK’s first privately funded nationwide Charge Points network. The London-based company Chargemaster plans to create its 'Polar Network' of 4,000 Charge Points in 100 towns and cities by the end of 2014. Access to the Polar network will be via a monthly subscription, which will initially be set at £24.50, plus a payment of 90 pence each time a Rapid Charge Point is used
- Renewable power company Ecotricity and car manufacturer Nissan have installed Rapid Charge Points at sixteen Welcome Break motorway service stations across the UK. The majority of Welcome Break's 27 motorway services should be so equipped by April 2014. The Rapid Charge Points are powered by wind or solar energy and supply free electricity to members of the Ecotricity/Nissan 'Our Electric Highway' scheme.
- Nissan itself plans to install a further 150 Rapid Charge Points across the UK by April 2014
- Tesla Superchargers (Rapid Charge Points) allow their Tesla all-electric Model S car owners to travel for free between cities along well-travelled highways in the US. They provide a 50% charge in about 20 minutes. By Autumn 2013 Tesla hopes to have covered most US metropolitan areas, by Winter 2013 it hopes to have enabled all-electric coast-to-coast travel, and by 2014 it hopes to have covered 80% of the country plus parts of Canada. Tesla's Superchargers are usually located near amenities like roadside restaurants, cafés and shopping centres. Drivers can stop for a quick meal and have their Model S charged while they are eating. Tesla has now also created an experimental network of six Superchargers in Norway and will, no doubt, get round to the UK one day soon
But will moving from petrol to hydrogen/electric reduce or increase humankind's impact on its environment?
Electricity
Setting aside the electricity used while extracting the raw materials and transporting them to the oil refinery, It takes around 7.5kWh of electricity to make a US gallon of petrol, compared to 74kWh to make a kilogram of ultra-pure hydrogen (the 'usable energy equivalent'). Although a kilogram of hydrogen provides more than twice as many miles as a US gallon of petrol (106 compared to 42) this makes ultra-pure hydrogen production much heavier on electricity than petrol production, and suggests that a Hydrogen Age will require higher electricity production.
If, on the other hand, we compare petrol production's electricity consumption of 7.5kWh to provide 42 miles (UK) to electricity's consumption of zero kiloWatt hours to generate 40kWh (the 'usable energy equivalent') to provide 130 miles, there is no competition
And of course, until most electricity worldwide is generated from sustainable/renewable energy technologies higher electricity consumption means higher carbon emissions into the atmosphere (see 'Electricity production - carbon dioxide emissions' below).
Water
The production of one US gallon of petrol, it is said, consumes 12.9 US gallons of water, as opposed to 4.4 US gallons consumed while making a kilogram of ultra-pure hydrogen gas (the 'usable energy equivalent). Cutting the 'water footprint' of energy generation by nearly two thirds at a time when drinking water is becoming scarce would be very welcome, but it is much better than that. One kilogram of ultra-pure hydrogen provides 106 miles of driving compared to one US gallon's 42 miles (in the UK). Overall, in terms of making engines turn, using hydrogen fuel cells rather than petrol-fuelled internal combustion engines could reduce demand for drinking water from manufacturing industry and transport by over four fifths (82.5%).
The water consumption of electricity generation varies hugely, depending on the method of generation, but we can say with some certainly that, while we continue to use coal, oil, gas or nuclear energy to produce electricity, water consumption will be much, much higher than when we use primarily (e.g.) solar, wind or tidal energy.
Vehicle carbon dioxide emissions
It is said that 'burning' a US gallon of petrol in a car emits 8.02kg of carbon dioxide (CO{2}) into the atmosphere. Using a hydrogen fuel cell to convert a kilogram of ultra-pure hydrogen gas into electricity, then using the electricity to power an electric engine only emits water vapour, heat and a tiny bit of nitrogen and unconverted hydrogen.
Electricity production - carbon dioxide emissions
The volume of carbon dioxide emissions per kiloWatthour of electricity generated by the different ways of producing electricity varies enormously. One 'cradle-to-grave'* comparison suggested that a coal-burning power station emitted between 800 grams (g) and 1050g (median 1,001g) of carbon dioxide, compared to around 430g emitted by a natural gas-burning power station (combined cycle), around 1,500g emitted by a wood-burning power station, between 60 and 150g (median 45g) emitted by photovoltaïc solar panels, between 4 and 110g (median 12g) emitted by a nuclear power station, and between 3 and 45g (median 11g) emitted by wind turbines.
(ii) Desalination
One huge source of water for industrial purposes is, of course, seawater, which may be desalinated to produce virtually salt-free water. Except where there is no other option, desalinated water (as with de-ionised, distilled or reverse-osmosis-produced water) should not be drunk by humans and animals or used for growing foods for long periods. The water purification processes involved in most methods of desalination remove too much of the salts, minerals and trace elements that living creatures need for good health.
* also called 'life-cycle assessments', 'cradle to grave' analyses attempt to incorporate all of the environmental impacts of all of the stages of a product's life, i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling).
Reference
1 http://www.benwiens.com/energy4.html
(16346) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 45 (10.8.2013)
Vaccination
MMR - NHS economical with the truth
The NHS Choices website1 is the UK Department of Health's principal organ of information and propaganda to the UK public.The NHS is an enthusiastic promoter of mass vaccination, so it is no surprise that it considers the Measles+Mumps+Rubella (MMR) vaccines "safe and effective," and measles, mumps and rubella "highly infectious conditions that can have serious, potentially fatal, complications".2What it knows, and what it almost wants us to know, is that its glowing description of the MMR vaccines should have been 'safe and effective for most people '. We say that the NHS 'almost wants us to know' because, seventy or so lines below the glowing promotion (and by this time most people will have stopped reading) it offers the chance to read the vaccine manufacturers' Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) for SmithKlineBeecham's Priorix and Merck's M-M-R-RVAXPRO, the two MMR vaccines currently used in the UK (as at 2016). Just a click below the surface, as it were, you can discover that SmithKlineBeecham (SKB) and Merck are much more cautious than the NHS about their products.
SKB's Priorix PIL
Sections two and three of SKB's PIL for Priorix ('What you need to know before you receive Priorix' and 'Warnings and Precautions') warn that it should not be taken if:
- you are allergic to any of the ingredients of Priorix (see 'The Priorix SPC' below)
- you are known to be allergic to neomycin (an antibiotic)
- you are known to be intolerant of sorbitol
- you have a severe infection with a high temperature (a minor infection such as a cold should not be a problem but talk to your doctor before taking the jab)
- you currently have any illness (e.g. HIV, AIDS, cancer) or are taking any medicine that weakens the immune system
- you are pregnant or breastfeeding, think you may be pregnant, or are planning to have a baby, consult your doctor. In addition, pregnancy should be avoided for one month after having the jab. (Adults are encouraged to top up their measles, mumps and rubella antibody levels regularly.)
- you currently have disorders of the central nervous system, a history of convulsion accompanying high fever or family history of convulsion. (In case of high fever following a Priorix MMR vaccination please consult your doctor promptly)
- you currently have or have ever had a severe allergy to egg protein
- you had an adverse effect to a previous Priorix vaccination that involved easy bruising or bleeding for longer than usual
- you should tell your doctor if you are taking or have taken any medicines recently
- Priorix may be taken at the same time as other prescribed vaccines, or at least one month apart from them if they contain live attenuated (weakened) viruses
- your doctor may delay your vaccination if you have received a blood transfusion or transfusion of human antibodies within the last three months
- Priorix should be injected under the skin or into the muscle, BUT NEVER intra muscularly
Merck's warnings concerning its M-M-R-RVAXPRO vaccine are almost identical to SKB's warnings concerning Priorix. In addition Merck warns people not to have a M-M-R-RVAXPRO vaccination if they:
- have active untreated tuberculosis
- have a blood disorder or any type of cancer that affects the immune system
- have a family history of congenital or hereditary immuno-deficiency
- are infected by HIV but symptomless
- Your doctor may postpone your M-M-R-RVAXPRO vaccination three months if you have recently been given an immunoglobulin (IG) transfusion
- If a tuberculin test is to be performed it should be done either at any time before, simultaneously, or four to six weeks after having the M-M-R-RVAXPRO vaccination
- M-M-R-RVAXPRO is NOT to be injected into any blood vessel
As well as publishing a Patient Information Leaflet (PIL), vaccine manufacturers publish a Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) for every vaccine they make. SPCs are intended for health professionals so are usually more detailed than PILs.3
The Priorix SPC
The Priorix SPC adds the following information of relevance (in our view) to parents and guardians deciding whether or not to give their child/ward a Priorix vaccination:
- The viruses contained in Priorix are live, attenuated (weakened) viruses
- The other ingredients are amino acids, anhydrous lactose, mannitol, sorbitol and water for injections
- The measles strain is Schartz CCID50, the mumps strain is RIT4385 CCID50 (derived from the Jeryl Lynn strain) and the rubella strain is Wistar RA27/3 CCID50
- The measles and mumps viruses are cultured in chick embryo cells
- The rubella virus is cultured in human diploid (MRC-5) fibroblast cell lines (originally derived from lung tissue taken from a fourteen week old aborted foetus of a caucasion male)
- "The administration of Priorix should be postponed in subjects suffering from acute, severe illness. The presence of a minor infection, such as a cold, should not result in the deferral of a vaccination"
- People with a history of anaphylactic, anaphylactoid or other immediate reactions … to egg ingestion ... should be vaccinated with extreme caution
- Studies have shown that breastfeeding postpartum women vaccinated with live attenuated rubella vaccine may secrete the virus in their breast milk and transmit it to their breastfeeding infants. It is not known whether this is the case with the rubella virus in Priorix. BUT
- Only if the infant or child is known or suspected to be immuno-deficient should the risks and benefits of vaccinating the mother be evaluated. See also Ediii. 'Nutrition status'
Adverse reactions to injection with Priorix are:
- very common (1+ cases in 10) - injection site redness and fever (rectal 38+oC, armpit/oral 37.5+oC)
- common (between 1 in 10 and 1 in 100 cases) - upper respiratory tract infection, rash, pain and swelling at the injection site, fever (rectal 39.5+oC, armpit/oral 39+oC
- uncommon (between 1 in 100 to 1 in 1,000 cases) - otitis media (middle ear infection), lymphadenopathy (a disease of the lymph nodes), anorexia, nervousness, abnormal crying, insomnia, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, cough, parotid gland enlargement, diarrhoea, vomiting
- rare (between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 cases) - allergic reactions, febrile convulsions
- Adverse reactions reported but where there is insufficient evidence to quantify the risk include meningitis, measles-like syndrome, mumps-like syndrome (including orchitis, epididymitis and parotitis), thrombocytopenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, anaphylactic reactions, encephalitis*, cerebillitis, cerebillitis-like symptoms, (including transient gait disturbance and transientataxia (intermittent poor muscle coordination), Guillaume BarreZZZ syndrome, transverse myelitis, peripheral neuritris, vasculitis, erythema multiforme, arthralgia, arthritis
Priorix's pharmacodynamic (seroconversion) properties
'Seroconversion' rate is the proportion of people vaccinated against a given illness whose body responded by raising its blood level of antibodies specific to that illness from undetectable to detectable. See Edii below.
GSB's SPC tells us that ...
In babies aged nine to ten months
One trial vaccinated 147 healthy infants with Priorix MMR and Varilrix (a chickenpox vaccine) at the same time. This achieved 'seroconversion' (detectable antibodies where before there were none) against measles, mumps and rubella in 92.6%, 91.5% and 100% of cases respectively.
A second vaccination of Priorix MMR given to the same babies three months later raised the seroconversion rate for measles to 100% of cases and for mumps to 99.2% of cases. (Ed.- This is probably why GSB advises immunisers to give infants two vaccinations of Priorix, three months apart.)
In babies aged twelve to twenty-four months
One vaccination of Priorix MMR achieved 'seroconversion' rates for measles, mumps and rubella of 98.1%, 94.4% and 100% of cases respectively. Over the next two years these rates dwindled to 93.4% of cases in measles and 94.4% of cases in mumps but remained at 100% in rubella.
See also Ed.ii.
Priorix for adolescents and adults
GSB reports that the safety and effectiveness of Priorix used by adolescents and adults has never been tested in clinical trials
Editorial
(i) According to Merck's PIL for M-M-R-RVAXPRO:
- The active ingredients of M-M-R-RVAXPRO are live, attenuated measles (Enders Edmonston strain), mumps (Jeryl Lynn (Level B) strain) and rubella virus (Wistar RA 27/3 strain)
- The other ingredients are sorbitol, sodium phosphate, potassium phosphate, sucrose, hydrolysed gelatin, medium 99 with Hank's salts, MEM, monosodium L-glutamate, neomycin, phenol red, sodium bicarbonate, hydrochloric acid (to adjust the pH), sodium hydroxide (to adjust the pH) and water (for injections)
- The live attenuated measles virus was originally cultured in chick embryo cells
They do not indicate:
- how strongly the bout took place (but we can presume they were mild because:
and very few people are made ill with adverse reactions that resemble
the symptoms of the illnesses against which the people are being
vaccinated)
- what (additional) level of immunity has been conferred by these (presumed mild) bouts of illness
- what the terms 'good immunity' and 'very good immunity' mean in terms of the risk of catching or not catching a passing illness
Dr Dick van Steenis (deceased) always argued that an immuniser should check a person's vitamin and mineral status before vaccinating them:
- Inadequate levels of vitamins A and E can drastically reduce a vaccine's ability to provide immunity. This is of particular concern given that MMR itself depletes levels of vitamin A. Studies have consistently shown that vitamin A or vitamin E supplementation prior to a vaccination usually increases its effectiveness and durability4
- Low levels of zinc or selenium, or high levels of mercury or cadmium, increase the probability of adverse reactions
References
1 www.nhs.uk/pages/home.aspx
2 www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-vaccine.aspx
3 vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/links#spcs
4 e.g. Rahman,MM et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1997;65(1):144-48,
Meydani,SN et al. Journal of the American Medical Association 1997;277(17):1380-86
(17295) Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 51 (6.9.2016)
Injecting immunity?
Vaccines are assessed, accepted and bought by mass immunisers (like the NHS), and taken up by parents, guardians and indviduals, on the basis that their injection into the body provides a high level of immunity to a given illness in most cases. This 'high level of immunity' is deemed to have been provided if the injection triggers the body to produce detectable levels of antibodies specific to the illness.The problem is that, as all vaccine manufacturers and mass immunisers know:
- There are many instances where individuals with detectable levels of antibodies to a given illness have caught it when individuals with undetectable levels have not1
- "There is not a precise relationship between the level of (illness-specific antibodies produced) and the level of protection provided (against that illness)"2
- "Immunity can be demonstrated in individuals with very low or no detectable levels of antibodies"2
- i.e. "the presence of (even high levels of) antibody is not an indication of immunity"3
Editorial
(i) The above statements concerned vaccine-induced levels of antibodies. It may be that vaccination cannot provide the full 'immunity information package' (of which antibodies are one part) that catching the illness naturally provides (and that the body needs in order to expand and update its immune system).
(ii) That (a) antibody levels do not correlate with risk of catching or not a passing virus, and (b) antibodies are a relatively minor part of the human immune system, has been generally accepted since the 1950s.
References
1 Medical Research Council, Report 272, HMSO, 1950
2 Letter from the World Health Organization to The Informed Parent October 1995
3 Comparing Natural Immunity with Vaccination, by Trevor Gunn 2006. The Informed Parent Publications
(17303) (11.9.2016)
NEWSLETTER ENDS
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Health
Watch
Magazine
Green Health Watch is a 24-page magazine that aims to
bring you the best information and research on how the
way we live, and how the actions of Government and Big Business,
affect our health.
Often this is information that the-powers-that-be would
prefer us not to know.
It is available worldwide both as an A4 paper
magazine and as an electronic (PDF or EMAIL) magazine.
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of GREEN HEALTH WATCH MAGAZINE will cost you just
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overseas
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posted to an address on mainland Europe costs £28
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posted to an address in the US costs £31
The first four editions of the paper magazine
posted to an address elsewhere in the world costs £32
A
Free
Briefing
Every new subscriber also receives a copy of the
briefing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY with our
compliments (normally £4). It contains the
'51 most interesting articles from the last thirty
editions' as voted by subscribers in 2012.
(See 'The Other Side of the Story' and
'Green Health Watch Magazine Testimonials
below)
Subscribing to your first four editions ...
Please send us your full contact details, viz
Full name, postal address and post code,
STD code and telephone number,
email address (if you have one)
Ways of paying
Our preferred payment method is cheque (which should be
made out to 'The Environment-Health Trust'
and posted to:
Migdale Villa, Little Crook, Forres, Scotland IV36 1LN)
but you can also ...
- telephone (01309 358538) and pay with a debit/credit card
- pay by bank transfer (bank name TSB sort code 87-34-44
- account name 'Mr N Anderson T/A The Environment-Health Trust'
- account number 83427360)
- pay by PayPal (user ID nick@greenhealthwatch.com)
- pay by Moneygram (make payment to 'Nicholas Robert Anderson')
- go to our website welcome page
(www.greenhealthwatch.com) and
click the word ‘Subscribe’ in the top right hand quarter of the page
The
Other
Side of the
Story
In 2012 we asked our subscribers which articles from the
previous thirty editions they had found the most interesting.
Here are the titles and by-lines of their choices ...
Puberty at ten?
- it could be the TV or the computer
Death by chocolate
- cocoa plantations heavily sprayed with pesticides
Killer bras
- a link with breast cancer?
Brain's last defence overcome
- mobile phone radiation opens up blood-brain barrier
Bugs drop out of the air
- ionisers wipe out hospital infections
Organic milk just oozes health
- gallons more brain-boosting omega-3
Animals give GM the thumbs down
- chickens, rats, cattle and pigs all say 'No'
Out of the frying pan
- overheated ‘non-stick’ pans cause ‘Teflon flu’
Barking up the wrong tree
- new trees not answer to global warming
Windfarm villagers revolting
- migraine and depression soar
Single jabs? Not so fast!
- single jabs worse than MMR
Yes. Just looking can hurt
- ultrasound scans damage babies
Not "just a quick call" on a mobile
- short calls affect child brains for 50 minutes
Beware of Calpol
- you won't believe what's in it!
The mercury in Mum’s mouth
- why there are four times as many autistic boys
Pot plants ‘hoover up’ pollution
- indoors more polluted than outside
Am I a girl or a boy?
- chemicals in the womb have their say
Cleaning the earth but poisoning the planet
- GM trees absorb then breathe out mercury
Essential fish oils missing
- birth defects and mental ill health predicted
Bad for the eyes
- margarine brings fourfold risk of blindness
Real chocolate good for heart
- active ingredient keeps blood circulating
Leave the sun screen at home
- skin cancer rise continues. Rickets re-appears
Butterflies vote with their wings
- organic farms have twice as many
Elderberry knocks out ‘flu
- significant improvements within two days
Multiple sclerosis
- good levels of vitamin D halve the risk
Phone masts disguised as burglar alarms
- thousands slip through planning loophole
Fried by the person next to you?
- train carriages magnify phone radiation
Carrots: Government warns again
- must peel, top and tail
Coca Cola the new DDT
- also good for loos and rust
Six UK hot spots to avoid
- radon may kill 19,000 a year
Somerset’s nuclear seaside resort
- breast cancer rates double the UK average
Evidence for MMR-autism link strengthens
- Government favours shoddy “no link” research
Generous and kind testimonials
Here are some of the generous and kind things our subscribers
have said about Green Health Watch Magazine ...
The best and most informative magazine on health
and the environment in existence - L.N., Carmarthen
An excellent source of information that I do not find
anywhere else - Dr. E.N., Cambridge
It’s a mine of information - helps us to make informed
decisions and to keep fighting back - A.R., Dorchester
Superb information. If I was able to subscribe to only
one publication it would be this one - S.D., Chipping Norton
An absolutely first class publication ... up-to-the-minute
news items covering all the important issues relevant to
the environment ... excellent value for money - P.B., Belper
What is needed to get an overall picture without having to
read many specialist publications - M.B., Grange-over-Sands
Congratulations on a beautifully produced, extremely
informative and valuable publication - M.G., New Ross, Ireland
We find it a very useful survey of interesting facts and
ammunition for our newsletter - C.R., Chard
It performs an invaluable service whereby subscribers benefit
immediately and the whole community could
benefit likewise. The Health Secretary should read it - A.C., Poole
Gripping. Love the editorial comments! - R.S., London
Extremely good. I appreciate how hard it would be to
find this information on my own - C.K., Barnsley
Vital reading. We are grateful to have found it - N.H., Stroud
Informative about matters I would not otherwise hear about - B.R., Luton
Well researched and very informative. It brings together
research from a wide range of sources - F.H., London
Essential reading, a good balance between positive
and negative with just enough positive to preserve
some optimism. Thank you for all your hard work - Y.L., Helston
Your magazine has opened my eyes to what is
happening in the world - M.F., Glasgow, Scotland
Excellent value for money and well researched - D.B., York
I have passed it on to my M.P. - E.C., Cowes
Extremely useful in discussions and lectures - Dr. T. de D., Sao Paolo, Brazil
Excellent. I feel more informed in a wide range of issues.
Long may you exist - you are most important - Mr. & Mrs. P.S., Freshwater
An inspiration. Everyone should be reading it. There’s so
much to learn that we’re not told about - P.A., Glasgow, Scotland
A very important, informative, up-to-date publication
Reader-friendly format - H.W., Forest Row.
Lifts the curtain on the skullduggery going on in Industry and Medicine - M.C., Maidenhead
Best read of the year - D.W., Helensburgh, Scotland
Useful to take to my consultant when discussing
the many destructive influences which go together
to make my M.E. worse - J.W., London
Excellent! Keep going! - M.F., Wallbach, Switzerland
An excellent magazine - I.N., Hove
You do an excellent job - M.M., Solihull
Very interesting and helpful - W.G., Cupar, Scotland
The facts are truly staggering! - Y.S., London
It is extremely well done and of the highest quality - E.G., Richmond
An excellent way of keeping up with current issues.
I pass on your information to others - M.T., Colchester
Essential reading for those who care about the world’s effects
on all of us. It is hardly possible to exaggerate its value - A.A., Crowborough
We need this information - P.H., London
It’s superb. Highly professional layout and intelligent selection of
items and information. A major contribution. Your magazine is read
from cover to cover as soon as it’s received - R.Z., Reading
I get a tremendous amount of mail but the arrival of
Green Health Watch News is special. I invariably read it in one
sitting. In my opinion it ranks as one of the best productions
around and I congratulate you on the format and consistency.
Ten out of ten - J.J., London
Very interesting and enlightening - H.O., Farnham
A valuable scan of information. Worth every penny - M.W., Barnet
Your magazine is very informative. I am often quite shocked
at what I read. However, I feel I have a right to this news and
am glad people like you publish this information.
It is very necessary - W.B., Bristol
GHW is as valuable to me as a medical handbook - Dr. D.R. London
Green Health watch is the best publication I subscribe to. I would be
happy to support your work in any way I can - Dr A.B., Scharmer, Netherlands
I enclose a donation of £500 to further support your excellent work.
I do not have or want a computer. You keep me up to date and I
thoroughly read every page. Articles precise and to the point.
Saves me the effort of keeping up to date via other methods.
May you go from strength to strength - M.S.,Carbost, Isle of Skye
I enjoy and learn from your magazine. - Dr. D.D., London
With thanks for your excellent and informative magazine. - P.A., Marlborough
OsteoTrace
Bone
and
Body
Food
OsteoTrace was developed by Dr. Rex Newnham
to treat (successfully) his own arthritis.
It contains boron plus fifteen other nutrients
essential to healthy bones and joints.
OsteoTrace is also good for the body as a whole:
a powerful and so a cost-effective daily multi-vitamin.
Dr. Rex Newnham developed OsteoTrace following his
discovery of a conclusive link between low levels of
boron in the soil, water and plants of a region and raised levels
of osteo/rheumatoid arthritis in the populations living
in that region.
Many people now use OsteoTrace in arthritis and
osteoporosis care, including McTimoney Chiropractor
Marianne Woollhead, who recommends it to both her
patients and fellow therapists.
Marianne
Woollhead
assesses
OsteoTrace ....
Dear Colleagues,
I first read about Rex Newnham’s work developing OsteoTrace
and his successful use of it against his own worsening arthritis
in Green Health Watch Magazine. I wanted to test OsteoTrace out
so I suggested to a handful of clients that they buy the recommended
three-month course and see if it helped.
The results were very good. Just over half reported reduced
joint pain and improved mobility. Another quarter reported benefit.
The remaining quarter did not feel that OsteoTrace had benefitted
them but passed the rest of the pills on to others with very positive results.
I considered these results very good and now recommend
OsteoTrace to all my clients with osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis.
Best wishes,
Marriane Woollhead
Why soil, water
and plant levels
can be low
In countries with adequate levels of boron in the soil,
like most parts of the UK, the US and Australia,
eating good levels of fresh organic vegetables and fruit
would provide 2-5 milligrams (mg) of boron a day.
The way most of us now eat, and the synthetic
chemical fertilisers most of our farmers use, means that
the average intake in more industrially developed countries
is 1-2mg a day. People living in institutions may get as little
as 0.25mg a day.
The chemical fertilisers make it more difficult for plants to
take up the boron in the soil. We eat too many over-processed
foods. We discard the cooking water of vegetables, rather than
add it to a gravy.
Adequate boron levels in the body are important to many body
functions, but OsteoTrace has been developed particularly to
promote healthy bones and joints. None of the sixteen nutrients in
OsteoTrace should react with any medication or drug. They should
all be present in the vegetables and fruit we eat.
What's
in
OsteoTrace?
OsteoTrace contains sixteen substances essential to
healthy bones and joints. The OsteoTrace we supply is as formulated
by Dr. Rex Newnham, but with:
the Devil's Claw and Horsetail removed (sadly) to satisfy the requirements of the European Union Supplement Harmonisation Programme, and
10mcg of vitamin D2 added:
·
to compensate for the loss of the Devil's Claw
and Horsetail and
·
because adequate concentrations of vitamin D in
the blood
are essential to bone's reuptake of calcium
The current full list of ingredients in each tablet is now therefore ...
Boron (Di Sodium Tetraborate)
Boron not only increases bone hardness and relieves arthritic and rheumatoid pain,
but also helps the body convert vitamin D2 into vitamin D3, the form of
vitamin D the body uses to absorb calcium from food to:
prevent loss of bone mineral density and osteporosis
protect against (e.g.) colon, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers,
heart disease, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, tuberculosis,
rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, seasonal affective
disorder, lower respiratory infection, obesity, type 1 diabetes and
depression
B vitamins
B Vitamins aid amino acid metabolism, a key factor in bone and tissue repair.
They also help people with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis because they can reduce oedema, pain, joint stiffness,
sensory numbness and tingling. Specifically ...
Niacin (B3 (Nicotinamide - 10mg) helps the body's enzymes
digest carbohydrates, fats and proteins. It also improves
blood circulation and reduces blood cholesterol
Vitamin B5 (Calcium - D - Pantothenate - 9mg) is very effective
for joint pain
are essential to bone's reuptake of calcium
The current full list of ingredients in each tablet is now therefore ...
Boron (Di Sodium Tetraborate)
Boron not only increases bone hardness and relieves arthritic and rheumatoid pain,
but also helps the body convert vitamin D2 into vitamin D3, the form of
vitamin D the body uses to absorb calcium from food to:
prevent loss of bone mineral density and osteporosis
protect against (e.g.) colon, breast, prostate and ovarian cancers,
heart disease, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, tuberculosis,
rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, seasonal affective
disorder, lower respiratory infection, obesity, type 1 diabetes and
depression
B vitamins
B Vitamins aid amino acid metabolism, a key factor in bone and tissue repair.
They also help people with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis because they can reduce oedema, pain, joint stiffness,
sensory numbness and tingling. Specifically ...
Niacin (B3 (Nicotinamide - 10mg) helps the body's enzymes
digest carbohydrates, fats and proteins. It also improves
blood circulation and reduces blood cholesterol
Vitamin B5 (Calcium - D - Pantothenate - 9mg) is very effective
for joint pain
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride - 10mg) helps build up collagen
Vitamin B12 (B12 preparation - 3mcg) activates the enzymes which
help maintain good cell health, especially that of red blood cells
Vitamin C (Magnesium ascorbate and Calcium ascorbate - 200mg)
helps to prevent inflammation at the joints.
Calcium (Calcium ascorbate- 83mg) protects against osteoporosis
and is essential to optimal bone health.
Copper (Copper citrate - 81mcg) helps the body absorb iron from food
and turn protein into muscle. It also works with vitamin C to help the
body form elastin, an important part of connective tissues,
and promotes healing in general.
Vitamin D2 (D2 preparation - 400IU/10mcg) plays an important role
in calcium absorption and bone health.
Magnesium (Magnesium ascorbate - 12mg) helps disperse
calcium throughout the body Inadequate levels of magnesium
leads to low calcium levels.
Manganese (Manganese citrate - 4.5mg) helps with the formation
of connective tissue and is essential to strong bones
Molybdenum (Sodium molybdate - 25mcg) helps the body
absorb nutrients, remove toxins, and is essential for
normal sexual function.
Phosphorus (di Calcium phosphate - 68.6mg) works with
zinc to help maintain bones and teeth
Selenium (L-Selenomethionine - 30mcg) is a powerful
anti-oxidant which helps maintain tissue elasticity and
slows the ageing process.
Zinc (Zinc citrate - 5mg) is key to many body functions,
including physical development and growth, wound
healing and good enzyme functioning.
Kelp (7.5mg) is a good source of iodine, calcium,
magnesium, potassium and sodium and
other trace nutrients
Each tablet is coated with a little cellulose,
maltodrexin, silica and protein. The maltodextrin is
maize-based and therefore gluten free.
The protein coating is made from zein, which is made from
maize gluten meal which, despite its name,
contains no gluten, i.e. gliadin or glutenin.
There is no lactose in the formulation.
Suitable
for
vegans
OsteoTrace is suitable for vegans. It contains
no gelatin, gluten, wheat or lactose.
Dosage and
therapeutic
course
A pot of OsteoTrace contains 90 tablets
- one month's supply.
Dr. Newnham cautioned that, in cases of long-term
boron deficiency, it can take up to three months
to restore adequate levels.
So his recommended doses were ...
therapeutic dose for adult humans
- three tablets a day, taken with meals
maintenance dose for adult humans
- one tablet a day, taken with a meal
therapeutic dose for adult non-human mammals
- one tablet per 25 kilograms bodyweight a day,
taken with meals
maltodrexin, silica and protein. The maltodextrin is
maize-based and therefore gluten free.
The protein coating is made from zein, which is made from
maize gluten meal which, despite its name,
contains no gluten, i.e. gliadin or glutenin.
There is no lactose in the formulation.
Suitable
for
vegans
OsteoTrace is suitable for vegans. It contains
no gelatin, gluten, wheat or lactose.
Dosage and
therapeutic
course
A pot of OsteoTrace contains 90 tablets
- one month's supply.
Dr. Newnham cautioned that, in cases of long-term
boron deficiency, it can take up to three months
to restore adequate levels.
So his recommended doses were ...
therapeutic dose for adult humans
- three tablets a day, taken with meals
maintenance dose for adult humans
- one tablet a day, taken with a meal
therapeutic dose for adult non-human mammals
- one tablet per 25 kilograms bodyweight a day,
taken with meals
maintenance dose for adult non-human mammals
- a third of a tablet per 25 kilograms bodyweight
a day, taken with a meals
- a third of a tablet per 25 kilograms bodyweight
a day, taken with a meals
Dr. Rex Newnham
Rex Newnham was in his nineties when he died (in 2008). He took OsteoTrace
daily,
as a preventive measure, and was completely free of bone and joint problems
and hale and hearty until a couple of weeks before his death.
Buying
OsteoTrace
as a preventive measure, and was completely free of bone and joint problems
and hale and hearty until a couple of weeks before his death.
Buying
OsteoTrace
The price of a pot of 90 OsteoTrace tablets is £9.99 plus
the postage the UK Post Office charges us to deliver your goods to you.
If you order twelve pots of OsteoTrace at the same time
we reduce the pot price to £9.00 - saving you £11.88!
BUY NOW
We send OsteoTrace everywhere in the world.
- which part of the world you want your OsteoTrace sent to -
mainland Europe
the USA, or
elsewhere in the world and
- how many pots you want
Posted to an address in the UK
1 pot - £12.71 (incl. £2.72 postage)
2 pots - £22.70 (incl. £2.72 postage)
3 pots - £32.69 (incl. £2.72 postage)
- the recommended trial course
6 pots - £63.66 (incl. £3.72 postage)
12 pots - £111.72 (incl. £3.72 postage)
Posted to an address on the European mainland
1 pot - £18.69 (incl. £8.70 postage)
2 pots - £28.78 (incl. £8.80 postage)
3 pots - £40.22 (incl. £10.25 postage)
- the recommended trial course
6 pots - £72.04 (incl. £12.00 postage)
12 pots - £124.30 (incl. £16.30 postage)
Posted to an address in the United States
1 pot - £19.39 (incl. 9.40 postage)
2 pots - £29.88 (incl. £9.90 postage)
3 pots - 42.62 (incl. £12.65 postage)
- the recommended trial course
6 pots - £76.84 (incl. £16.90 postage)
12 pots - £129.55 (incl. £21.55 postage)
Posted to an address elsewhere in the world
1 pot - £19.64 (incl. £9.65 postage)
2 pots - £30.23 (incl. £10.25 postage)
3 pots - £43.12 (incl. £13.15 postage)
- the recommended trial course
6 pots - £77.64 (incl. £17.70 postage)
12 pots - £130.95 (incl. £22.95 postage)
Ways of paying
Our preferred payment method is cheque, which should
be made out to 'The Environment-Health Trust'
and posted to:
Migdale Villa, Little Crook, Forres, Scotland IV36 1LN)
but you can also ...
- telephone (01309 358538) and pay with a debit/credit card
- pay by bank transfer (bank name TSB sort code 87-34-44
- account name 'Mr N Anderson T/A The Environment-Health Trust'
- account number 83427360)
- pay by PayPal (user ID nick@greenhealthwatch.com)
- pay by Moneygram (make payment to 'Nicholas Robert Anderson')
- go to our website welcome page (www.greenhealthwatch.com),
- and click the word ‘osteotrace’ in purple in
the
top right hand quarter of the page
END OF COMMUNICATION FROM
NICK ANDERSON
EDITOR
GREEN HEALTH WATCH MAGAZINE
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