Big Pharma , the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Truth About Drug Companies: How they Deceive Us and What to Do About It is a new book written by Marcia Angell, a physician and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Angell says that Big Pharma has huge influence in Washington, with more lobbyists at times than there are members of Congress to lobby, and contributes heavily to political campaigns. As a result, Congress dutifully wrote into the new Medicare law a provision that explicitly forbids Medicare from regulating drug prices in any way.

As to spending money on research, the big drug companies spend less on research and development than they make in profits. They spend at least twice as much on marketing and administration as on research. Could we miss out on new cures if prices were lowered? Angell says that the industry is not very innovative at all. In 2002 the Food and Drug Administration approved 78 new drugs, of which only seven were truly innovative, and not one of the seven came from the major American drug makers. Instead, they came from European companies or biotech firms. Much of the really creative work in inventing new drugs is done at universities and government labs; then licensed to industry.

How Safe is Teflon?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed a complaint against DuPont for withholding evidence revealing negative health and environmental impacts from a chemical used to produce Teflon. The chemical, commonly known as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Due to Teflon's popularity (those nifty non-stick frying pans, etc.), PFOA can now be detected in the bodies of 90% of Americans. The EPA is investigating the possibility that DuPont may have learned of potential problems with the chemical more than two decades ago. On an international level, the EPA's announcement has prompted foreign governments to launch investigations into the toxicity of the chemical, and stores in China have begun pulling Teflon products from their shelves. (www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/teflon080904.cfm)

Prozac in UK Drinking Water
So many Britons are now taking the antidepressant pharmaceutical drug Prozac that it is showing up in the water supply. With 24 million prescriptions for the happy pills, the drug is finding its way into the water via treated sewage. Experts are debating the possible impacts to the environment and human health given this new constant exposure to low levels of the antidepressant.
www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/prozac080904.cfm

Fluoride Not FDA Approved
Sally Stride writes in Health Freedom News, April/June 2004 issue, that the anti-cavity drug products have never been found safe or effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They were never even tested.

In Stride's exchange of correspondence with the FDA concerning fluoride drugs never being approved, the response was that the fluoride supplements were ”grandfathered in” before the 1938 law requiring drug testing was enacted. Drug products on the market prior to 1938 were presumed safe by the FDA and were allowed to be sold without any testing. In the case of sodium fluoride when on the market prior to 1938 was not used at that time to stop cavities, nor was it used for any medical reason. Sodium fluoride was sold as a rat poison. Over 91% of U.S. fluoridating communities now use cheaper silicofluorides, another chemical which was never approved by the FDA.

The same issue of Health Freedom News contains a book review of The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson. In August 2003, the EPA requested that the National Research Council review recent scientific literature to reevaluate our water fluoride safety standards.

In a society where asbestos, lead, silica, beryllium and many other carcinogens have found their way into the marketplace and then been recalled, one has to wonder why fluoride, so toxic it is used as a rat poison and pesticide, is embraced so thoroughly and so blindly. The Fluoride Deception documents a powerful connection between big corporations, the U.S. military and the historic reassurances of fluoride safety provided by the nation's public health establishment.

Food News
A new study on rats by scientists at the University of Illinois found that eating broccoli and tomatoes in combination could maximize the amount of cancer protection both foods afford. Recognizing that both vegetables contain chemicals that have been shown to fight cancer - broccoli's glucosinolates and the lycopene found in tomatoes, rats fed that combination had markedly less prostate tumor growth than rats that ate the diets containing either food alone.

Researchers at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland gave 60 people with Type2 diabetes various amounts of cinnamon every day for 40 days. A control group took a placebo. All those receiving cinnamon experienced a drop in glucose, fat and cholesterol levels by as much as 30%. All you need is a teaspoon of cinnamon a day. You can add it to fruit juice or cereal.