Many Hand-me-down Plastic Toys Are Toxic for Kids

Kids who play secondhand plastic toys might be exposed to dangerous levels of substances such as lead and cadmium. At low levels, these compounds may be hazardous to children that are subjected to them over a protracted time period, especially if children chew on toys.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

Investigators analyzed 200 secondhand plastic toys that they found in houses, nurseries and secondhand stores.  Researchers found high concentrations of poisonous elements such as antimony, barium, bromine, cadmium, chromium, selenium and lead in several building blocks, amounts and items of jewelry which were normally either yellow, black or red. Toys included cars, trains, action figures, blocks, and puzzles – all of which were small enough to be chewed by young kids.

The findings confirm the presence of relatively large concentrations of chemicals which have since been restricted or banned, including the brightly colored pigments cadmium sulphoselenide and lead chromate.” – Andrew Turner, environmental researcher at University of Plymouth.

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To evaluate the number of compounds in the toys, investigators used what is called X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a procedure that scientists frequently use to ascertain what substances are in stones, minerals, sediments and fluids. Researchers also did extra tests made to simulate gut conditions by placing toys in a hydrochloric acid solution. Under those circumstances, several toys published amounts of bromine, cadmium, or lead which exceeded limitations allowed beneath bunny safety regulations in Europe.

Young children are especially vulnerable to the health effects of the chemicals because children have faster metabolisms than adults along with the growth and development of organs and cells.

Related: Shaken Baby Syndrome – Child Abuse or Vaccine Injury?

Example: yellow and red Lego bricks in the 1970s appeared like Legos in the 1990s, but the old variants contained cadmium that was not present in the more recent ones.

The findings imply that parents must be careful about used plastic toys since they might contain banned chemicals that can leech out readily when children chew on them, ” stated Dr. Luz Claudio, a medical health researcher in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in nyc.

The stricter regulations that limit chemicals in toys do not apply retroactively to older toys,” Claudio, not involved in the analysis

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U.S. States That Support Midwives Have Better Birth Outcomes

States with laws which make it easier for midwives to care for pregnant women and deliver infants may have better birth outcomes than states where it is tougher for midwives to provide care, a recent study indicates.

Researchers ranked each state on how easy it is for midwives to practice and collaborate with obstetricians and other providers. Scores ranged from a low of 17 from North Carolina out of 100 points, to a high of 61 in Washington. Higher scores were associated with a considerably higher proportion of babies delivered by midwives, more spontaneous vaginal deliveries, and greater rates of breastfeeding. Higher scores correlated to underweight newborns with fewer preterm births and less frequent surgical cesarean section deliveries.

The question is not whether it is better to have a midwife or a doctor, but the degree to which midwives and doctors are able to work together to provide the best care utilizing all of their expertise and abilities,” Vedam stated to Reuters via email.

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Roughly eight in 10 U.S. births were handled by physicians in 2015, while roughly 9 percent have been attended by certified nurse midwives with advanced training or other midwives, researchers notice in PLoS One.

Certified nurse midwives may get accredited in all 50 states and may offer well-woman gynecology and primary care in addition to pregnancy care.

To evaluate how simple it is to allow midwives to take care of girls, researchers evaluated licensing demands, any constraints on which sort of maintenance midwives can supply or where they could practice, any prerequisites for midwives to consult doctors or refer patients to physicians for specific conditions, any legislation regulating quality and security of births in hospitals in addition to at birthing facilities or at home, and some other laws regulating if midwives could write prescriptions.

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States with greatest scores had licensing demands for various kinds of midwives and gave midwives the maximum ability to take care of girls in various configurations, write prescriptions and get payments from Medicaid, the U.S. health insurance plan for the poor.

States in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Southwest had the maximum density of midwives, as quantified by the number of midwives practicing for every 1,000 births.

Related Reading: How Healthy is the United States Compared to Other Countries?

States from the South had the lowest scores for midwifery policies, and these countries also had the greatest levels of premature births, underweight infants, and infant mortality, the analysis found.

The analysis was not a controlled experiment designed to establish whether midwives may mean better birth outcomes or the way specific state policies regulating midwives may lead to greater health for mothers or infants.

Since scientists looked whatsoever policies collectively, the analysis also could not shed light on which impact individual coverages concerning midwife practice could mean for birth results, the authors note. Nevertheless, the findings increase the evidence that birth results might be better compared to midwives perform much more deliveries, ” explained Erin Wright, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore who was not involved in the analysis.

In many other nations midwives manage 50 to 70 percent of births according to Wright.

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GMO Corn Bathed in Glyphosate is Now Vermont’s Top Crop

Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets eventually released the data from January in response to a public records request after three years of not publishing the information. The newly published data covers the years 2014-2016 and reveals a dramatic growth in pesticide use on Vermont’s dairy farms, particularly with GMO cornfields. Glyphosate use more than doubled in the last three years, while total corn-related pesticide usage climbed 27 percent.

GMO corn is growing on 92,000 acres in Vermont, making it the state’s number one crop by far. The corn is not for human consumption; it’s being fed to the state’s 135,000 cows.

Related: The Difference Between Heirlooms, Hybrids, and GMOs

In 2016, Vermont’s GMO corn plants acquired a 194,631 pound bathing of pesticides, a poisonous stew that comprised 34 distinct goods, everything from atrazine into 2,4-D. The most heavily employed cornfield pesticide in 2016 has been glyphosate, with 62,458 pounds used, over doubling the 27,440 pounds used in 2014.”  – Michael Colby

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Read More: Cornucopia Institute

Related: Understanding and Detoxifying Genetically Modified Foods


Trump Wants Death Penalty For Dangerous Drug Dealers – But who Are the Dangerous Ones?

President Trump suggested drug dealers in the United States should face harsher punishments, including the death penalty or life in prison, during a campaign rally last Saturday. Trump praised Singapore and China for their “zero tolerance policy” regarding drugs, and likes the idea for the U.S.

I think it’s a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if we’re ready. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.”

The president seems to be inspired by the Filipino President whose violent war against drugs has led to thousands of deaths, including small-time drug users and innocent people for whom he says is simply “collateral damage.”

That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty.”

Last year we know Trump congratulated the Philippines President Duterte for his efforts in eradicating drugs from the country thanks to a leaked transcript of their phone call.

I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

At Saccone’s campaign rally last Saturday, Trump said that we should handle drug dealers like murderers..

You kill 5,000 people with drugs because you’re smuggling them in and you’re making a lot of money and people are dying and they don’t even put you in jail. That’s why we have a problem, folks. I don’t think we should play games.”

These remarks are consistent with the speech he made at the White House Opioids Summit last week when he suggested that drug dealers should have to face the death penalty.

Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.” – Trump said during last week’s summit

The Real Drug Dealers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected data that shows that more people die from legally prescribed drugs than from heroin and cocaine combined. The CDC says the situation as an “epidemic.”

And the rates are skyrocketing thanks to America’s opioid dependence.

America represents just five percent of the world’s population but we consume 75 percent of the world’s prescription drugs according to Drugfreeworld.org.There’s a misperception by many people that because pharmaceutical drugs are regulated that they are safer. But when misused or taken without a doctor’s prescription drugs can often kill as easily as street drugs.

Prescription drug deaths for 2016 were tallied at 63,600, up from 52,000 in 2015. 2017 and 2018 look to continue the trend. It’s so bad that we actually except our average lifespan to have declined in 2017, and the trend is looking no better for this year.

In other words, the pharmaceutical companies, the companies supposedly in the business of saving lives, are responsible for a drop in the life expectancy of the entire United States.

Let that sink in.

And these numbers, of course, do not represent all of the other deaths caused by pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma is killing us.

If you think about it and consider the toxicity and ineffectualness of drugs to actually rid disease, the pharmaceutical companies are killing us at a rate that far exceeds anything else.

Pharmaceutical companies are the dangerous drug dealers we need to put a stop to. We at OLM do not condone the death penalty, we like to see people get well, not get killed. But wouldn’t it be nice if someone had the scruples and fortitude to go after the real bad guys?

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Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Sentenced to 7 Years In Prison

Martin Shkreli is the still-boyish-looking 34-year-old entrepreneur derisively known as “Pharma Bro.” His own attorney confessed to wanting to punch him in the face occasionally. Martin, before the sentence, choked up as he confessed to mistakes and admitted to the shareholders that he had defrauded them. At one stage, a clerk handed him a box of tissues.

CNBC reports that Shkreli asked for leniency before his sentence.

I want the people who came here today to support me to understand one thing: The only person to blame for me being here today is me,” he said. “There is no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli.” – Martin Shkreli speaking in third person, like all the greats do

In August, the 34-year-old was detained on federal fraud charges, accused of deceiving investors regarding a set of hedge funds he worked. Shkreli also manipulated inventory stocks for his firm Retrophin, and utilized that money to pay back investors of the hedge funds.

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U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto gave Martin a sentence of 7 years. Prosecutors wanted 15 and his defense argued for 18 months. He was also fined $75,000.

Back in August he was found guilty of lying to his investors in and cheating them out of millions. This case was not related to the 2015  incident where he was accused of price-gouging and went on TV with his famous smirk, but his arrest was seen as sweet justice by many.

Recommended: Opioids No Better than NSAIDs for Chronic Back or Arthritis Pain

The judge insisted that he did not take into account Shkreli’s online antics, or when he famously raised the price of the anti-parisitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a pill.

This case is not about Mr. Shkreli’s self-cultivated public persona … nor his controversial statements about politics or culture.” – Judge Kiyo Matsumoto

But she did say that she doubted the sincerity of his remorse due to his conduct after the verdict. She cited when he bragged after the verdict that he would only be sentenced to time served. And she quoted him in correspondence having written, “F— the feds.”

He received credit for the roughly six months he has been in jail.



Opioids No Better than NSAIDs for Chronic Back or Arthritis Pain

Acetaminophen, aspirin and other NSAID medications are better than opioids for dealing with chronic back, hip or knee pain, a U.S. study indicates. Opioids are no better than NSAIDs at reducing pain intensity involving daily activities such as walking, exercising, exercising, or enjoying life, researchers report in JAMA on March 6th.

We already knew opioids were more dangerous than other treatment options because they put people at risk for accidental death and addiction. This study shows that extra risk doesn’t come with any extra benefit.” – lead researcher Dr. Erin Krebs of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and the University of Minnesota.

Related: NSAIDs Study Shows Side Effects are Worse Than Original Ailments

U.S. deaths from opioids such as heroin and prescription medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone have more than quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Nowadays, more than six in 10 drug overdose deaths are traced to opioid use.

Related: U.S. Life Expectancy To Decline, CDC Blames Pharmaceutical Companies

Amid this worsening opioid catastrophe, the CDC has urged doctors to use opioids just as a last resort. Instead, physicians should consult with patients about the capacity for exercise or physical treatment to help alleviate symptoms and prescribe other, less addictive medications for pain such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDS like aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve).

But NSAIDs have their own dangers, like internal bleeding, kidney damage, and heart attacks to name a few. However, NSAIDS are not addictive.

Related: Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen – Why They All Are Unsafe

For the opioid study researchers randomly assigned 240 patients seeking pain therapy at VA primary care practices for either opioids or other drugs like acetaminophen or aspirin for one year. Participants were 58 years old on average. Back pain was their most frequent complaint, impacting 156 sufferers, or 65 per cent of the trial participants, and the remainder had knee or hip osteoarthritis pain. Individuals from the opioid group began their therapy with instant release oxycodone or the fast-acting opioid morphine, which is a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen. If the first medication was deemed ineffective patients would receive a long-acting morphine or oxycodone, and when those didn’t work physicians treated the pain with fentanyl patches.

From the non-opioid group, patients obtained acetaminophen and NSAIDs. If these options did not help enough physicians tried alternatives such as the nerve pain medication gabapentin (Neurontin) and topical painkillers such as lidocaine, followed with the neural pain medication pregabalin (Lyrica) and tramadol, an opiate painkiller.

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Researchers asked participants to rate how much pain interfered with their own lives at the onset of the research, and 12 weeks later.

With this step, the two groups improved throughout the course of this calendar year, dependent on a 10-point scale with higher scores indicating worse handicap.

Together with opioids, scores dropped from a mean of 5.4 in the onset of the research to 3.4 annually after. Together with other medications, scores dropped from 5.5 to 3.3.

In the two groups, patients originally rated their pain intensity in 5.4, however, dozens dropped to only 4.0 with opioids and dropped to 3.5 on another medication.

One limitation of this study is that individuals understood which drugs they had been prescribed, which could influence how patients reported that their particular pain severity and everyday operation, the authors note.

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Bug Foggers Are Dangerous and Cause Injury Despite Relabeling Efforts

Insecticide foggers, also called”bug bombs,” are still causing injuries in the U.S., despite the fact that manufacturers worderedderd to modify the products’ labels in order to make them safer. The study team notes in the Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted that some types of incidents even increased.

The best precaution is not to have bugs inside your house in the first place, so depriving food, shelter and water from insects. If these steps don’t work and you want to use insect ships, it’s necessary that you read and follow the label directions.” – Walter Alarcon of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety via email to Reuters.

Due to high injury rate the EPA required bug bombs to have improved instruction labels after 2012, with images emphasizing safety precautions such as leaving the home for at least two hours and ventilating the area well for an additional two hours. But the rate of illness related to bug bombs was not reduced. Some types of incidents even increased.

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If you’re going to use foggers or bug bombs follow all instructions and keep them away from heat sources and evacuate the building. The EPA has put out a series of videos regarding fogger safety.

Obviously, we at OLM contend there are better ways to eliminate a bug problem other than through the use of toxic chemicals, though eliminating the problem in the first place by depriving them of food, water, and shelter is the right first step. Keeping the home as clean as possible, use essential oils like neem and lemongrass to wipe down, spray, and clean every surface insects may come in contact with.

Alarcon and colleagues used several health surveillance databases to see whether the relabeled products changed the statistics, characteristics, or severity of illnesses with bug bombs between 2007-2015. In particular, they looked at data from pesticides programs and poison control centers in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, California, Louisiana, New York, Oregon and Nebraska. Among 3,222 illnesses, common symptoms included coughing, vomiting, nausea, respiratory pain and abdominal pain. Five percent of cases happened in children less than five years of age, and 14% of injuries occurred in adults over age 60.

Exposure narratives in case reports indicated that most users didn’t read or follow label directions,” Alarcon said.

Individuals who did not leave their houses throughout the insect bomb installation were much more likely to report illeness. Others had problems following re-entry to their homes too early or by spraying themselves from simply pointing the nozzle in the wrong direction.

Foggers are obsolete residential pest management apparatus for many reasons. It isn’t too powerful for several insects, like bed bugs or cockroaches. It certainly introduces a fantastic concern for human exposure to pesticides following usage as residue is left on surfaces which individuals, particularly toddlers and young kids, develop into contact afterwards.

It is quite simple to abuse them adhere to the directions correctly. I have a tough time following the specific instructions.”- Dr. Alex Lu of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston (wasn’t involved in the study).

A limitation of this study is the poison control centers might not have info from those who had moderate cases and did not report their encounters. A few of the cases might also be considered”false positives” because the symptoms might not be brought on by foggers, the authors note. Moreover, the analysis only includes data from 10 nations and also for three years following the new EPA label conditions have been in force.

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