Friday, September 25, 2009

Suit: Meatpacker used `downer' cows for 4 years

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 24, 6:00 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – A Southern California meatpacking plant that supplied beef to the nation's school lunch program slaughtered stumbling, potentially contaminated cows for four years before undercover video of animal abuse prompted a massive beef recall, federal court filings say.

The amended complaint filed late last month in U.S. District Court in Riverside is part of an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by The Humane Society of the United States against the Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case with the new complaint after months of additional research and interviews that uncovered the startling new allegations against the now-defunct packing plant. Among them, the company failed to disclose that one of its partners had two felony convictions related to illegal industry practices.

The Humane Society released video in late 2007 showing "downer" cows — animals too weak or sick to walk — being dragged by chains, rammed by forklifts and sprayed with high-pressure water by plant employees who wanted them to stand for processing.

The video sparked the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Officials estimated at the time that 37 million pounds of the 143 million pounds of recalled beef went to school lunch programs, and most of the meat had already been eaten.

Donald W. Hallmark, whom the lawsuit lists as a company partner, told The Associated Press he retired six years ago and had no comment. Calls to a number for another partner, Steve Mendell, rang unanswered Thursday.

The new filing alleges the government paid Westland/Hallmark millions of dollars to which it was not entitled because the company lied about meeting all the conditions for the 140 government contracts it held between 2003 and 2008.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial. The original filing by the Humane Society sought $150 million.

In the papers, the government alleges the meatpacking plant slaughtered and processed downer cows for nearly four years — from January 2004 to September 2007 — at the average rate of one every six weeks and abused animals daily using chains, forklifts, high-pressure water hoses or electric prods, or by punching and kicking them.

Downer cows pose increased risk for mad cow disease, E. coli and other infections, partly because they typically wallow in feces.

The new complaint also alleges that a partner at Westland/Hallmark, Aaron Magidow, had two felony convictions that were not reported to the government when it awarded the meatpacker's contracts. Magidow, who has since died, was convicted in 1974 of bribing federal meat inspectors and in 1983 for participating in a fraudulent meat buying scheme, the lawsuit said.

The executor of Magidow's estate, which is named as a defendant in the case, said he had no comment.

"I think whatever we have to say will be said in court," said attorney Walter Weiss.
Officials with the Humane Society said the government's filing marked the first time the Justice Department had intervened in a federal false claims case involving the mistreatment of farm animals.

The lawsuit "not only confirms everything that our investigation found, but suggests that it was even more widespread than we had documented," said Jonathan Lovvorn, the Humane Society's chief counsel. "We're concerned by what they uncovered — but not surprised."

San Bernardino County prosecutors charged two of the employees seen on the undercover video. One was sentenced to six months in jail, the other to nine months in jail.

Source: Associated Press

AP IMPACT: School drinking water contains toxins

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer Garance Burke, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 34 mins ago

CUTLER, Calif. – Over the last decade, the drinking water at thousands of schools across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.
An Associated Press investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states — in small towns and inner cities alike.

But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied.

"It's an outrage," said Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech who has been honored for his work on water quality. "If a landlord doesn't tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?"

The contamination is most apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation's schools. Roughly one of every five schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.

In California's farm belt, wells at some schools are so tainted with pesticides that students have taken to stuffing their backpacks with bottled water for fear of getting sick from the drinking fountain.

Experts and children's advocates complain that responsibility for drinking water is spread among too many local, state and federal agencies, and that risks are going unreported. Finding a solution, they say, would require a costly new national strategy for monitoring water in schools.
Schools with unsafe water represent only a small percentage of the nation's 132,500 schools. And the EPA says the number of violations spiked over the last decade largely because the government has gradually adopted stricter standards for contaminants such as arsenic and some disinfectants.

Many of the same toxins could also be found in water at homes, offices and businesses. But the contaminants are especially dangerous to children, who drink more water per pound than adults and are more vulnerable to the effects of many hazardous substances.
"There's a different risk for kids," said Cynthia Dougherty, head of the EPA's Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water.

Still, the EPA does not have the authority to require testing for all schools and can only provide guidance on environmental practices.

In recent years, students at a Minnesota elementary school fell ill after drinking tainted water. A young girl in Seattle got sick, too.

The AP analyzed a database showing federal drinking water violations from 1998 to 2008 in schools with their own water supplies. The findings:
• Water in about 100 school districts and 2,250 schools breached federal safety standards.
• Those schools and districts racked up more than 5,550 separate violations. In 2008, the EPA recorded 577 violations, up from 59 in 1998 — an increase that officials attribute mainly to tougher rules.
• California, which has the most schools of any state, also recorded the most violations with 612, followed by Ohio (451), Maine (417), Connecticut (318) and Indiana (289).
• Nearly half the violators in California were repeat offenders. One elementary school in Tulare County, in the farm country of the Central Valley, broke safe-water laws 20 times.
• The most frequently cited contaminant was coliform bacteria, followed by lead and copper, arsenic and nitrates.

The AP analysis has "clearly identified the tip of an iceberg," said Gina Solomon, a San Francisco physician who serves on an EPA drinking water advisory board. "This tells me there is a widespread problem that needs to be fixed because there are ongoing water quality problems in small and large utilities, as well."

Schools with wells are required to test their water and report any problems to the state, which is supposed to send all violations to the federal government.

But EPA officials acknowledge the agency's database of violations is plagued with errors and omissions. And the agency does not specifically monitor incoming state data on school water quality.

Critics say those practices prevent the government from reliably identifying the worst offenders — and carrying out enforcement.

Scientists say the testing requirements fail to detect dangerous toxins such as lead, which can wreak havoc on major organs and may retard children's learning abilities.
"There is just no excuse for this. Period," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "We want to make sure that we fix this problem in a way that it will never happen again, and we can ensure parents that their children will be safe."

The problem goes beyond schools that use wells. Schools that draw water from public utilities showed contamination, too, especially older buildings where lead can concentrate at higher levels than in most homes.

In schools with lead-soldered pipes, the metal sometimes flakes off into drinking water. Lead levels can also build up as water sits stagnant over weekends and holidays.
Schools that get water from local utilities are not required to test for toxins because the EPA already regulates water providers. That means there is no way to ensure detection of contaminants caused by schools' own plumbing.

But voluntary tests in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles have found dangerous levels of lead in recent years. And experts warn the real risk to schoolchildren is going unreported.

"I really suspect the level of exposure to lead and other metals at schools is underestimated," said Michael Schock, a corrosion expert with the EPA in Cincinnati. "You just don't know what is going on in the places you don't sample."

Since 2004, the agency has been asking states to increase lead monitoring. As of 2006, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found nearly half of all schools nationwide do not test their water for lead.

Because contaminant levels in water can vary from drinking fountain to drinking fountain, and different children drink different amounts of water, epidemiologists often have trouble measuring the potential threats to children's health.

But children have suffered health problems attributed to school water:
• In 2001, 28 children at a Worthington, Minn., elementary school experienced severe stomach aches and nausea after drinking water tainted with lead and copper, the result of a poorly installed treatment system.
• In Seattle several years ago, a 6-year-old girl suffered stomach aches and became disoriented and easily exhausted. The girl's mother asked her daughter's school to test its water, and also tested a strand of her daughter's hair. Tests showed high levels of copper and lead, which figured into state health officials' decision to phase-in rules requiring schools to test their water for both contaminants.

Many school officials say buying bottled water is less expensive than fixing old pipes. Baltimore, for instance, has spent more than $2.5 million on bottled water over the last six years.
After wrestling with unsafe levels of arsenic for almost two years, administrators in Sterling, Ohio, southeast of Cincinnati, finally bought water coolers for elementary school students last fall. Now they plan to move students to a new building.

In California, the Department of Public Health has given out more than $4 million in recent years to help districts overhaul their water systems.

But school administrators in the farmworker town of Cutler cannot fix chronic water problems at Lovell High School because funding is frozen due to the state's budget crisis.

Signs posted above the kitchen sink warn students not to drink from the tap because the water is tainted with nitrates, a potential carcinogen, and DBCP, a pesticide scientists say may cause male sterility.

As gym class ended one morning, thirsty basketball players crowded around a five-gallon cooler, the only safe place to get a drink on campus.

"The teachers always remind us to go to the classroom and get a cup of water from the cooler," said sophomore Israel Aguila. "But the bathroom sinks still work, so sometimes you kind of forget you can't drink out of them."

Source: Associated Press

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Fat Chance!

Obesity rates have soared in all age groups over the past three decades. They’ve DOUBLED among children and TRIPLED among adolescents. And nearly one in three Americans are overweight or obese. All of which foretells a sobering future.

If we don’t succeed in reversing this epidemic…”, according to a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “…we are in danger of raising the first generation of American children who will live sicker and die younger than their parents’ generation.”

In addition the costs of medical care for obesity-related disease and the resulting loss in productivity could be staggering. The obesity epidemic already costs our nation $117 billion annually in medical expenses and lost productivity. Childhood obesity alone costs up to $14 billion of that $117 billion annually, and if trends continue, that number will only get worse.

I think it’s literally going to overwhelm us. “says Dr. Sandra Hassink, who heads a youth-obesity clinic in Wilmington, DE, and chairs the obesity leadership group for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Authorities also say obesity affects a child’s quality of life. Obese kids have negative body images, poor self-esteem, many become targets for bullying, and obesity threatens a child’s health-both in the short and long term. Overweight kids suffer greater risks for diabetes, heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, depression and other problems.

Think of obesity as an accelerator for disease…”, Dr. Hassink says, “…until recently we called Type 2 diabetes ‘adult onset’ because we never saw it in children. Now, it’s showing up in kids as young as 12.”

Dr. Judd’s Comments:

This is a very powerful article chronicling the consequences of being obese as a child. So did it come from the New England Journal of Medicine, AMA Journal or the Lancet? No, in fact this is from the September/October 2009 issue of “Scouting”, a magazine especially for members and adult leaders of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). BSA is tasked with helping boys become the best that they can be. The BSA leadership discovered an alarming trend among boys and leaders, more and more boys are unable to handle the stresses of simple outdoor activities. Plus their general health has declined dramatically. In fact, 41% of youth and 77.5% of adult applicants to the 2010 National Scout Jamboree were overweight, obese, or morbidly obese! BSA is so concerned that new health guidelines will be implemented starting in 2010.

Shouldn’t we be concerned too? I am a parent and a Scout Leader and a member of my community. I am deeply concerned with the health of my children and that of the boys in my Troop. BSA makes no apologies for their new stringent guidelines. Neither should we. It is time to take control of the health of our children and our community! They need us, let’s not miss this chance to make a difference!


Dr. Judd

Read the 1st page of the newsletter HERE

Raising Healthy Kids In An Unhealthy World
September 16th @ 6:30 pm
Guests welcomed & RSVP required.
You get 60 minutes of Migun Massage for every person you refer!!!
Speak up and tell others!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Hidden Sources Of MSG In Foods

From the book 'Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kills' By Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD

“What if someone were to tell you that a chemical (MSG) added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could effect how your children's nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties?

“What if there was scientific evidence that these chemicals could permanently damage a critical part of the brain known to control hormones so that later in life your child might have endocrine problems? How would you feel? Would that affect your buying decisions?

“How would you feel when you learn the food industry hides and disguises these excitotoxin additives (MSG and Aspartate) so they can't be recognized? Incredulous? Enraged? The fact is many foods are labeled as having "No MSG" but in fact not only contain MSG but also are laced with other excitotoxins of equal potency and danger.

“All of the above are true. And all of these well known brain toxins are poured into our food and drink by the thousands of tons to boost sales. These additives have NO OTHER purpose other than to enhance to TASTE of food and the SWEETNESS of various diet products.

Dr. Judd’s Comments:
In the movie “So I Married An Axe Murderer”, the main character’s father rants about Kentucky Fried Chicken in a thick Scottish brough, “It’s a well known fact that they put an addictive chemical in it to make you crave for it nightly!!” Pretty funny until you realize that he was right! This is truly scary stuff. These ‘addictive chemicals’ really are put in food to make us crave it! Did you ever wonder why kids love stuff out of a box? It’s ADDICTIVE!! Dr. Blaylock continues by giving us a list of food additives to look for when shopping. Make good choices and we can avoid this stuff together!


* Food Additives that ALWAYS contain MSG *

Monosodium Glutamate
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Hydrolyzed Protein
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein
Plant Protein Extract
Sodium Caseinate
Calcium Caseinate
Yeast Extract
Textured Protein (Including TVP)
Autolyzed Yeast
Hydrolyzed Oat Flour
Corn Oil


* Food Additives That FREQUENTLY Contain MSG *

Malt Extract
Malt Flavoring
Bouillon
Broth
Stock
Flavoring
Natural Flavors/Flavoring
Natural Beef Or Chicken Flavoring
Seasoning
Spices


"Raising Healthy Kids In An Unhealthy World"
September 16th, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
**Guests welcomed & RSVP required.

**You get 60 minutes of Migun Massage for every person you refer!!!

Read the 1st Page of This Newsletter HERE