Comment:  Might the government scientists, perchance, be putting industry needs ahead of individual health?

►January 11, 2004 - Fishy Warning About Mercury - The Cato Institute - "The Food and Drug Administration just issued a new warning to pregnant women about mercury in seafood. You can "protect your baby" from developmental harm by following three rules, claims the FDA...But there's no evidence the rules will protect anyone and they're only likely to foster undue concern about an important part of our food supply."

►January 11, 2004 - Has fish had its chips? - If you have suddenly lost your appetite for salmon, don't get too fond of the other options. Trouble is brewing for all farmed seafood, reports Stephen Khan - The Guardian, UK - "This was not some fringe pressure group or band of tree-hugging environmentalists out to rattle cages. It was some of the world's leading experts on industrial pollution. And what they had to say was devastating: farmed salmon was poisonous. What's more, the most dangerous fish of all were salmon raised in Scotland...Researchers based at the University of Albany in New York revealed in the journal Science how they found high levels of contaminants such as PCBs, dioxins and pesticides in Scottish fish, which is marketed around the world as a premium product. Eating more than three portions a year, they warned, risked increasing the consumer's chances of developing cancer."

Comment:  Wow, only three portions a year!  But perhaps you prefer getting your toxins by injecting them directly into your body; if so, try vaccines.  (Of course vaccine toxins are just fine and dandy and pose absolutely no health risk.)

►January 10, 2004 - Homeopathy: introduction - The long established complementary therapy comes with a royal seal of approval. But does it work? - www.timesonline.co.uk

►January 19, 2004 - You Will Start to Feel Very Sleepy ... And you should go to bed, becasuse shortchanging your rest can hurt your health - Newsweek via MSNBC

►December 8, 2003 - When the Body Attacks Itself - Autoimmunity: Rates of immune disorders like Crohn's and MS more than doubled in 40 years - Newsweek via MSNBC - "

►January 11, 2004 - Going natural not always the best way - Molecular structure is what counts in a substance, not ancestry - (freelance article) The Gazette via www.canada.com - "Now repeat after me: 'The properties of a substance depend on its molecular structure and not on its ancestry; whether the substance is synthetic or natural is totally irrelevant when it comes to assessing effectiveness and safety.'...I bring this up because the belief that 'natural is better' is so widespread, and sooo wrong! A thousandth of a milligram of botulin toxin will kill an adult. And it's perfectly natural! Scorpion venom, cocaine, nicotine, morphine and a myriad of other naturally occurring substances are remarkably toxic as well. They are not toxic because they are natural; they are toxic because their molecules just happen to interfere with some aspect of body chemistry."

►Definitions of various PDDs (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) (scroll down the left side of the page) - PDD Parent Support

►January 10, 2004 - The 2004 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule - American Family Physician via http://i-medreview.subportal.com

►January 11, 2004 - Life, love and autism: A tale of one couple's journey - Pioneer Press

►January 11, 2004 - Some overworked parents get a break - An autism support group program offers care for special-needs children to give mom and dad some time off. - Times Leader

►January 10, 2004 - County considers tax raise - The News-Gazette - "The Champaign County Board is expected to decide later this month whether to put a proposal on the November ballot to enact a countywide tax of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to provide services for the county's 1,700 developmentally disabled residents."

►January 9, 2004 - Tragic mum's plea for rare bug vaccine - The Mercury - "The first time Stacey Harper heard of pneumococcal disease was a few minutes after her seven-year-old son died...Jacob, her only child, lost his life to streptococcus pneumonia septicemia less than six hours after arriving in hospital."

►January 8, 2004 - Florence's Medicis To Be Exhumed - Discovery Channel - "No fewer than 50 members of the family that dominated the Florentine Renaissance are to be exhumed in the attempt to unveil their last secrets, Italian authorities have announced...The project, to be filmed by The Learning Channel, aims to reconstruct how the Medici family, who ruled Florence and Tuscany from 1434 to 1737, lived and died."

►January 8, 2004 - Study Finds a Drug That Works Better Than Adrenaline for Some Types of Cardiac Arrest (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

►January 8, 2004 - Pa. wants pledge from doctors - Physicians will have to stay in the state for a year in return for help in paying their Mcare assessment. - AP via The Philadelphia Inquirer

Comment:  I should hope so.

►January 7, 2004 - Strategic Perspectives: Commercial Opportunites in Depression - Generating Revenue Growth In Symptoms And Comorbidities - "Introduction:The growth of the antidepressant market over the last decade has been built upon increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies. This has not only made the depression market highly competitive, but also produced an expanded patient potential as manufacturers move their products into non-traditional markets."

Comment:  And this report can be yours for a mere $6,400.00.

►January 6, 2004 - India set to emerge as major hub for vaccine production - Kerala News - "Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general N.K. Ganguly said here Tuesday the number of major vaccine producing countries in the world had shrunk from 36 to six due to various factors, including globalisation."

►January 8, 2004 - OPINION:The controversy over the polio vaccine - Vanguard Online - "The oral polio vaccine is one of the safest vaccines ever produced."

Comment: Well, maybe that just about says it all.  A polio vaccine that causes polio is "one of the safest vaccines ever produced".  (Which is why it is no longer recommended for use in the United States and many other places.)

►January 8, 2004 - Lone flu shot gives kids limited benefit - Officials say one dose still better than none. - www.news-leader.com - "Until more studies are done, federal health officials say they won't know how much protection a child has with only one dose of flu vaccine...'We had parents extremely upset with us,' Hamburg (of Doctors' Hospital clinic) said . 'People were disappointed and we were disappointed. But we feel it was better to get one dose into some people even if they didn't get a second vaccine.'"

►January 7, 2004 - Immune System Attack Tied to Birth Defects - A new study bolsters the case for folic acid supplements in women of childbearing age. - HealthDay Reporter via www.healthcentral.com

►January 11, 2004 - E-mails show state sought military's help with vaccine - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Georgia Division of Public Health officials were so desperate to buy flu vaccine last month that they contacted Fort Stewart in search of extra supplies, according to division correspondence obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Meanwhile, department officials were barraged by local health officials desperate for more vaccine and peppered by e-mails from salesmen hawking the vaccine at exorbitant prices."

►January 11, 2004 - Polio Cases in West Africa May Thwart W.H.O. Plan (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Polio has spread to two more countries in West Africa, further jeopardizing the World Health Organization's goal of wiping out the crippling disease by next year, an official of the agency said Friday...The health organization has come tantalizingly close to reaching its goal, having reduced the number of new polio cases to the lowest level since it began its program in 1988 to eliminate the disease. The W.H.O. said there were 667 paralytic cases in 2003, about 1 percent of the number in 1988."

►January 19, 2004 - Smallpox mixes make a stir - Virus Research - www.usnews.com - "Cleaning out the freezer usually turns up old stuff that's been long forgotten. That holds true even for the supersecure freezers that safeguard vials of deadly smallpox virus deep within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A recent inventory unearthed unusual chimera viruses created 40 years ago by crudely combining smallpox with other pox viruses...To many public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on, albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to do about strange variants of the deadly virus."

►January 11, 2004 - Moms with HIV encouraged to breastfeed - www.startribune.com - "'You can't just say, "Don't breastfeed." That's a death sentence for many babies. Fine, they won't get HIV, but they will die of diarrhea,' said Jean Humphrey, who heads Zvitambo, a research project funded in part by Canada that examines HIV and breastfeeding in Zimbabwe."

►January 19, 2004 - The good news about prions - www.usnews.com - "Last month's discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. food supply has elevated prions from an obscure biological curiosity to topic A on the talk shows. But just as these villainous, twisted proteins are becoming notorious, researchers are saying: Hold up; they might not be so bad after all. Indeed, prions and their cousin proteins may prove to be benign--even helpful--in normal mental functions like memory."

►January 7, 2004 - From the heart: Dad speaks out on autism - Raises awareness among medical personnel - Owings Mills Times