September 2010 Health in the News Archive

[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]

Medicinal salt with pharmaceuticals

September 30, 2010

There is an email making the rounds that takes prompts you to look at a website about so-called medicinal salt. In part, the site says: "Are you feeling depressed? Sick of paying exorbitant rates for birth control? Try Alviso's Medicinal All-Salt, harvested locally in San Jose. Traditionally, medical conditions are treated through expensive appointments and prescription drugs. Alviso's Medicinal All-Salt is a unique low-dosage cocktail of our most commonly used drugs, all brought together in one simple salty remedy, naturally. Our process harvests two popular commodities, sea salt and recycled pharmaceuticals from water treatment plants, to produce one fine medicinal product: Alviso's Medicinal All-Salt. A salt for every condition, hand harvested and sun dried for purity."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

You have to give these folks in San Jose, California an A for effort. With dry humor, they make a timely statement about the fact that municipal water treatment plants cannot filter out all the pharmaceutical drugs Americans take. Think of the drug menagerie – your husband's statin to lower cholesterol, your boss' hypertension pill, your neighbors' antibiotics and birth control pills...

In one part of the site, they do get serious: "The U.S. represents the largest single national market for pharmaceuticals: 44% of all Americans take at least one or two prescription drugs, and almost one in five take three or more. Our bodies don't fully absorb all the pharmaceuticals we take, and the unabsorbed compounds end up in the sewer system. After sewage is treated and cleaned by a wastewater treatment plant, the water and any remaining compounds, like pharmaceuticals, are released into the [San Francisco] bay."

They make a darn good point. Researchers discovered "intersex fish" in the Potomac River and its tributaries in 2006. Two years later, an Associated Press investigation of water providers in all 50 states found a vast array of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones. The amounts were far below the levels of a medical dose and utilities insist their water is safe. But the fact is, as AP pointed out, we "do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies – which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public – have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife."

The EPA looks at traditional water contaminants like pesticides, lead, and PCBs; but they do not look for drugs. However, medications may pose a unique danger because, unlike most chemical pollutants, they were crafted to act on the human body.

The EPA suggests people toss unused prescription drugs in the trash, not to toss the tablets in the toilet. And it's not just a problem of polluting the water supply – our nation is so awash in prescription drugs that the majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends. This year, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) began holding "National Take Back Initiative" events for people to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs.

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Unlabeled GMO Salmon Debated

Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies is producing a type of salmon in a contained fresh water culture facility that grows twice as fast as conventional salmon. The company takes a growth gene from Chinook salmon and a "promoter" gene from another fish called ocean pout. The promoter gene turns on the Chinook salmon growth gene, said John Buchanan, AquaBounty's director of research and development. The resulting salmon grow to market weight about twice as fast (18 months) as ordinary Atlantic salmon (36 months), though they don't get larger overall.

If the FDA approves the fish, it would mark the first time a genetically modified animal has been approved for America's dinner plates and restaurant menus. The bulk of the genetically modified foods already on the market are soybeans, corn, canola, cottonseed oil, and sugar beets. The U.S. leads the world in GM foods because as much as 80% of prepared and prepackaged foods use GM ingredients.

On September 3, a scientific panel that advises the FDA paved the way for the approval of the genetically modified salmon, calling it "as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon." The FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee said the fish contained the same amount of nutrients and had "no biologically relevant differences" from ordinary farmed Atlantic salmon.

The FDA is regulating genetically engineered animals as it would a new veterinary drug, which means that much of the research and information about the product is being kept confidential.

There is an outcry from consumer advocates. "We don't know if it's safe for humans to eat and the only research that has been done was done by the company," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch in Washington, D.C. "The FDA is an under-resourced agency that has had so much trouble with the regulatory system for foods – we've had tainted eggs, poisonous peanuts and other contaminations – and is now taking on something in a very non-transparent way."

Food & Water Watch was joined by 30 other animal welfare, consumer, environmental and fisheries groups, including the Sierra Club, which issued a statement citing concerns that the fish could escape and pose an environmental threat. Consumer advocates have also warned that "transgenic fish" could introduce new or unknown allergens into the food supply.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

If GM salmon is no different, then why are there several patents for the process? Opponents are demanding that the FDA will at least require transparent GM labeling. That would be a first – GM soy, corn, canola, sugar beets, etc., are not labeled. A lot is at stake. If the GM salmon is approved, it will set a precedent for the approval of many other types of GM animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens.

The FDA is keeping food from cloned animals out of the food supply at this time "in order to ensure a smooth transition to the market. Food from the sexually reproduced offspring of clones has been entering the food supply freely. Genetically engineered animals, on the other hand, are regulated under the new animal drug provisions of the FFDCA, and as such must receive formal approval before they may be introduced into commerce."

Food & Water Watch is circulating a petition, asking for labeling: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org

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Flu and H1N1 combo shot mandatory in New York?

September 21, 2010

New York State Senator Tom Duane is introducing a bill that would require all health care workers in the state to have mandatory flu shots.

"People don't like being told what to do, but frankly, if you work in a hospital setting, flu vaccination should be mandatory," Duane (D-Manhattan) told the New York Daily News. "There will be people mad about it, but I do believe it's necessary." Duane said health care workers would be less likely to spread the virus if they were vaccinated.

During 2009's H1N1 outbreak, the New York state Health Department said all health care workers needed to get shots, but the proposal was withdrawn because of union protests and because there was so little supply of the vaccine at first.

The bill, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation and has support from numerous medical groups, according to the Daily News. However, there is still strong opposition to the bill from unions and health care professionals which call it an extreme step.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

The flu shot for the upcoming season will be a combination of the seasonal flu and last year's H1N1 virus. As usual, it will be sold in multi-dose vials which are preserved with mercury. There are single-dose vials made, but usually those are not covered by insurance.

I think this is one place you can save your time and money. The studies and evidence over time show that flu shots just don't work very well. It is rare that a healthy person succumbs to influenza; ninety percent of the fatalities occur with people 65+ who are already in fragile health. Several recent studies show that vitamin D wards off the flu better than a vaccine. The "sunshine vitamin" helps make a strong immune system that fends off viruses, even cancer.

So do yourself a favor, get your vitamin D level checked and let your body do its job – don't outsource your immune system.