Bees in Decline

A growing volume of evidence suggests that neonicotinoid insecticides are a major factor behind the decline in the number of honey bees and other pollinators, yet the European commission sidesteps demands to suspend their use.
Read article at theparliament.com

EU Consumers reject GM food

EU Consumers are still overwhelmingly opposed to GM food, new research published by the European Commission shows.
Read article at farmersguardian.com

EC approved six GM corn varieties for food and feed

The European Commission authorized six genetically modified (GM) maize varieties for food and feed use after member states failed to return majority decisions for or against on three occasions.
Read article at foodnavigator.com

EU proposals would expose citizens to “intensive promotion” of new drugs

New attack on EU plans for patient drug information

The European Commission has been told that the “only rationale” for its current plans to ease certain controls on the provision of prescription drug information to the public “seems to be to benefit the commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies by expanding their markets and helping them to build brand loyalty.”
Read article at pharmatimes.com (UK)

EC memo tells staff how to dodge difficult questions

Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

European Commission agree to investigate health risks of fluoridated water

The European Commission has just opened a public consultation process to investigate the health risks of adding fluoride to public water supplies. The Irish health authorities, through the local councils, have added hydrofluorosilicic acid to public water supplies since 1960. However, unlike sodium and calcium fluoride used in toothpaste, Hydrofluorosilicic acid is an industrial waste by-product and a very unstable chemical which over time, accumulates in our bones and organs. There is a large and growing body of long term epidemiological evidence that links swallowed fluoride to osteoporosis, thyroid malfunctions, cancer, lower IQ in babies and many other side effects. MEP for Munster, Kathy Sinnott, welcomed the consultation saying "In my election campaign five years ago, I promised to challenge the fluoridation of our drinking water. It has taken us several years of lobbying to get the Commission to agree to this step but I am delighted that they have finally decided to take the issue seriously."
Read press release from Kathy Sinnott, MEP, on the Fluoride Action Network website

Alliance for Natural Health online petition on unfair EU restrictions on vitamins and minerals

The ANH has launched the first of its Online Petitions via the ANH homepage. The first petition aims to positively influence the approach the European Commission is taking in its efforts to limit the maximum available dosages of vitamin and mineral food supplements across the 27 Member States of Europe.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Food Supplements Directive - Head of Irish Nutrition Institute warns of Health Harm

In accordance with the requirements of a European directive, the European Commission is about to pass restrictions on formulating food supplements that contain vitamins and minerals integrating daily nutrient intake. Richard Burton, the head of the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health has written to members of the European Parliament that approved a directive mandating such restrictions, to warn that the directive, if implemented as planned, will harm the health of Europe's citizens.
Read letter from Richard Burton on the La Leva website (Italy)

EU regulations: a major threat to our future health

The regulatory pressure pot that aims to stop 500 million Europeans accessing therapeutically useful natural health products is approaching bursting point. Within two months we should see what vitamin and mineral dosages the European Commission aims to set as maximums across the EU. January 2010 then signals the delayed ban of a host of vitamin and mineral forms that won't have been ‘proven’ safe or bioavailable.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Hungary to defy European Commission call to scrap ban on GMO crops

Hungary will keep its ban on GMO (genetically modified organisms) maize imports and the planting of GMO seeds, Agriculture Ministry undersecretary Zoltán Gőgös announced. The European Commission recently called on Hungary to entirely lift its GMO ban.
Read article at realdeal.hu (Hungary)

Ray of sunlight from ANH/Irish efforts in Brussels

The Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) defended its petition in the European Parliament against the European Commission’s planned setting of EU-wide maximum limits for dosages of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The petition, submitted originally in December 2007 with the support of 60,000 Irish citizens, claims that measures to harmonise maximum levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements under the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC)—soon to be implemented by the European Commission—will unduly impact consumers, health stores and practitioners in Ireland. Instead of being closed down, the apparent goal of the European Commission, the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee chairman insisted that the petition be kept open.
Read press release on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Plans to allow genetically modified crops to be grown throughout Europe have been shelved.

Europe puts plans to grow GM crops on hold - Telegraph

Extract:

"Plans to allow genetically modified crops to be grown throughout Europe have been shelved amid fears of a public backlash against "Frankenstein foods".

The European Commission has failed to find enough support for its plans to lift a nine-year-old freeze on GM crops being grown on a commercial basis.

Officials were forced to drop plans to produce a penicillin-resistant GM potato after it became clear that a bloc of countries led by Austria, Greece and Luxembourg would vote against it.

Commission proposals to release the potato, developed by BASF for use in industrial starch, were withdrawn by the German EU presidency ahead of a meeting of Europe's environment ministers last week.

"It became clear that there was no way to get a majority for the first approval of a GM crop since 1998, so it has been taken off the agenda," said an official.

Many EU governments are strongly swayed by the campaign against GM foods which sprang up in the late 1990s. This is despite scientific advice, the approval of the European Food Safety Authority and the growing threat of a trade war with the US.

"Consumers, most of whom have no desire to eat GM produce, expect politicians to put their health, food safety and the environment before the vested interests of a few agro-chemical companies," said a Greenpeace spokesman yesterday."

Well that's a bit of good news...(o:


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Coming soon: the shopping channel run by drug firms - Guardian

What a truly horrifying prospect! - Drug companies cannot be trusted to tell the truth...)o: And pharmaceutical drugs cause very great harm because of dangerous side-effects and because of reckless prescribing or wrong administration.

See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/search/label/Pharmaceutical%20industry and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/search/label/Pharmaceutical%20companies and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/05/nhs-hospital-patients-dying-as-10000.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/search/label/Steroid%20Victims

Extract from the Guardian article:

"Four of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are proposing to launch a television station to tell the public about their drugs, amid strenuous lobbying across Europe by the industry for an end to restrictions aimed at protecting patients. Pharma TV would be a dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with health news and features but, at its heart, would be detailed information from drug companies about their medicines.

A 10-minute pilot DVD, seen by the Guardian, featured a white-coated doctor discussing breast cancer and a woman patient who reassured viewers that "there are many new treatments available". Under the proposals, viewers could use their remote control to click on treatment options and read what manufacturers have to say about the latest branded breast cancer drugs.

Four companies, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter and Gamble, are behind the pilot, which they are offering to the European commission as a way to give patients more information. The commission is consulting on potential changes to the regulations that ban all direct-to-consumer advertising of medicinal drugs.

The industry has been lobbying in Europe to be allowed direct access to patients. It argues that lifting restrictions would help its competitiveness and has hinted that companies may relocate to the US, where they can advertise to patients who then demand drugs from their doctors. Profits have soared there as a result.

The proposed change in the rules is being led within the commission by its trade arm, DG Enterprise, and not health, DG Sanco. It is backed by a number of influential patient groups that are themselves heavily funded by drug companies. But consumer organisations are opposed, warning that the companies will play down risk, and that their real interest lies in boosting profits.

The International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB) - consumer publications which analyse the benefits of drugs and draw comparisons between them - warns that the industry is not a reliable source of trustworthy information.

The US and New Zealand allow drug companies to advertise to the public; the ISDB says in both these countries this has been shown to be detrimental to health.

"Pharmaceutical companies' messages are focused on relatively few top sellers, exaggerating effects and concealing risks, confusing patients and putting pressure on doctors to prescribe drugs they would not use otherwise," it says. "Lack of comparative information in advertising means people cannot choose among several options." Johnson & Johnson presented the companies' proposals to a meeting in Brussels of the Centre for Health, Ethics and Society, a thinktank which describes itself as "developed in partnership with Johnson & Johnson". The audience comprised members of the commission, patient groups and others."