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The Man-Made Peanut Allergy Epidemic, A revealing history of a medical mystery
Fraser Horne ^ | Heather Fraser

Posted on 10/18/2009 7:34:55 PM PDT by Coleus

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To: Flightdeck
I wonder if this is another one of those "Fenton Communications" - generated scares like the alar and apples scare and the the dairy hormone scare.

1989 : (ALAR SCARE -- See FENTON COMMUNICATIONS, NRDC, WWW) One of Fenton's most publicized achievements was his 1989 attack against the producers of Alar, a preservative used in apples that he  erroneously reported as carcinogenic. The misinformation Fenton fed to the news media triggered mass hysteria and caused the apple industry to lose over $200 million in revenue. Later, in a memo uncovered by the Wall Street Journal, Fenton bragged, "We designed [the campaign against Alar] so that revenue would flow back to the Natural Resources Defense Council from the public." The Natural Resources Defense Council was another of Fenton's primary clients.  --------This profile [of David Fenton] was adapted from the article titled "Peaceful Tomorrows, Leftists Todays," written by Thomas Ryan and published by FrontPageMagazine.com on March 17, 2004.

1989 : (DAIRY INDUSTRY HORMONE SCARE-- See FENTON COMMUNICATIONS, BEN & JERRY'S) Since 1989, Fenton and his company, Fenton Communications, has been largely preoccupied with creating media strategies for left-wing groups, including one of his primary clients, Environmental Media Services. Its anti-biogenetic message, which claims that genetically engineered foods are dangerous to eat, has made millions of dollars for Fenton's clients, which include such health food producers as: Whole Foods Markets, Honest Tea, Kashi Cereal, Green Mountain Coffee, and Rodale Press, a magazine publisher of periodicals concerning organic gardening and foods.
This approach has also worked for ice cream producers Ben & Jerry's, another client of Fenton's. Starting with a series of press conferences in the late 1990s, Environmental Media Services promoted the idea that a hormone given to dairy cows to produce milk could cause cancer, despite the fact that the FDA had shown the hormone to be safe. Ben & Jerry's ice cream stood to gain from the bad press aimed at the dairy industry because their ice cream is made with hormone-free milk. --------This profile [of David Fenton] was adapted from the article titled "Peaceful Tomorrows, Leftists Todays," written by Thomas Ryan and published by FrontPageMagazine.com on March 17, 2004.

And more recently :

JUNE 2009 : (STATS REPORT ON BPA FEARMONGERING----- See FENTON COMMUNICATIONS {See DAVID FENTON [See WEATHER UNDERGROUND, SANDINISTAS, MPLA, GRENADA'S MAURICE BISHOP, FMLN, WHITE PANTHERS, MOVEON.ORG, HEINZ FOUNDATION, PEACEFUL TOMORROWS, ... ]}) Last month [June] , the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University, released "Science Suppressed: How America became obsessed with BPA," a report which accuses the media "of ignoring the extensive research of respected scientists and major health agencies in the United States and around the world, which found BPA was not only safe but played an important role in ensuring food safety."   It also confirms what countless previous studies have said; BPA is safe.
If you're unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics.  It's also one of the most extensively tested products in the world.  For example, as  Norris Alderson, the FDA's associate commissioner for science, said just last year, "a large body of available evidence" demonstrates that products made with it are safe. 
And as recently as July 15 of this year, a regulatory board in the liberal state of California, composed of seven physicians, unanimously voted that "BPA should not be covered under Proposition 65, a voter-approved measure used by regulators to identify substances that can cause birth defects, developmental or reproductive harm."
Don't trust America?  The latest research by Health Canada (essentially, their FDA), demonstrated that you would have to drink 1000 liters of bottled water a day -- an amount that is literally impossible -- in order to approach the amount they deem to be the "tolerable daily intake" for the chemical bisphenol A.
Despite countless studies demonstrating that BPA is safe, reporters, environmentalists, and liberal politicians continue to make hay out of this political issue...So why is this witch hunt happening?
Until recently, this appeared to be nothing more than a typical attempt by liberals to go after business and manufacturing.  But as several bloggers have recently pointed out, there appears to be a more sinister motive.  You see, the radical environmental groups who fundraise off of this issue, the trial lawyers who line their pockets with class action lawsuits against BPA manufactuers, and the Democratic politicians who score political points by attacking BPA all have one thing in common:  They all share the same PR guru -- David Fenton.
If the name David Fenton of Fenton Communications sounds familiar, it may be because he's the guy who invented the 'General Betray Us' ad campaign that MoveOn.org used to attack General Petreaus.
As North Dakota blogger Rob Port of the Say Anything Blog recently wrote, the one common denominator that all the anti-BPA forces share is Fenton Communications...----"Ken Blackwell: A Chemical Scare Campaign Is Good Business for Some," American Thinker ^ | July 23, 2009 | Ken Blackwell

21 posted on 10/18/2009 9:08:03 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Coleus

This is certainly an interesting hypothesis. There was definitely an explosion in the number of people with peanut allergies in the decade cited in the article.

Let’s hope the trial lawyers don’t get any ideas.


22 posted on 10/18/2009 9:28:12 PM PDT by Darnright (There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive. - Tacitus)
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To: The Comedian

NO DOUBT

is there.


23 posted on 10/18/2009 9:52:33 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: freedumb2003
TB

There is a vaccine for TB???

24 posted on 10/18/2009 10:15:28 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 2ndreconmarine; Fitzcarraldo; Covenantor; Mother Abigail; EBH; Dog Gone; ...

Ping....(Thanks, nully!)


25 posted on 10/18/2009 10:18:33 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Thanks for the ping!


26 posted on 10/18/2009 10:43:06 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: heartwood
What in the world have the molecular weights to do with anything?

It's quite helpful in convincing uneducated morons on urban juries to award multi-million dollar damages against Tha Man on the flimsiest of evidence.

-ccm

27 posted on 10/18/2009 10:45:17 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: Alamo-Girl

You are welcome, Alamo-Girl!


28 posted on 10/18/2009 11:06:21 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Coleus; Quix; All

Thx.

Qx ping.

Vaccination side effect bookmark.


29 posted on 10/19/2009 3:54:13 AM PDT by Joya (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me, a sinner!)
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To: Nik Naym; GovernmentShrinker

Well, can we put forward another explanation for the explosion of peanut and other allergies?

I’m mainly agnostic on the whole vaccine thing in general—I’m not in the field so what do I know. Yet I do believe that pro-vaccination folks have their case dramatically undermined by pushing for vaccines against things like chickenpox where the severity is very slight, and things like HPV for young girls, a disease that can be entirely avoided almost by keeping your pants on.

Forcefully triggering an immune reaction has risks of its own. Maybe the benefits outweigh the risks for smallpox and polio. I’m not so sure in the case of chickenpox.


30 posted on 10/19/2009 4:05:28 AM PDT by Claud
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To: Smokin' Joe

>>There is a vaccine for TB???

Yes, it has been available since 1921. I sure got it back when they used the “thimble” — many of my era have a little mark still.


31 posted on 10/19/2009 4:06:38 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Claud

While chickenpox maybe a minor illness in your childhood, when it comes back as shingles in adulthood there can be serious complications.

In my case I think it lead to the loss of hearing in my left ear. My first experience with shingles was on my left forehead (and subsequent concern about it getting into the left eye).

IMHO Vaccines risks to rewards have to be weighed. As does every action we make.

“Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you’ve had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles.” Ref: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/shingles/DS00098


32 posted on 10/19/2009 5:22:10 AM PDT by Crazy Jim (There are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns. - Donald Rumsfeld)
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To: freedumb2003

“the thimble ...”

I’m pretty sure that’s from the small pox vax. I’m old enough to have one of those.


33 posted on 10/19/2009 5:23:21 AM PDT by Cloverfarm (Obama = Nixon II)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I can’t speak for anyone else - but, the night I had to rush my child in to the emergency room due to a particular tree nut, was far from ‘made up’.


34 posted on 10/19/2009 5:49:42 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: HollyB
I think you replied to me by accident -- but no harm done.

FWIW, I absolutely recognize this as a real problem for many people. What I'm curious about is why the frequency of this problem seems to have increased. Something changed: I have no idea what.

35 posted on 10/19/2009 5:55:19 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Play the Race Card -- lose the game.)
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To: Crazy Jim
IMHO Vaccines risks to rewards have to be weighed. As does every action we make.

I agree 100%. I'm immediately skeptical of the attitude "all vaccines are bad" as well as the "vaccines are perfectly safe." It's a risk analysis that should be made by parents and their doctors.

And I'm sorry to hear about your hearing loss. I thought that the risk of shingles decreased (if not was practically eliminated) if you had the chickenpox as a youngster...is that not the case?

36 posted on 10/19/2009 5:56:07 AM PDT by Claud
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To: ClearCase_guy

Actually, I did not completely understand the article. But, I did find it strange in our family where no one has had food alergies - that my child popped up with a few at around 5 yo. I’m glad peanuts are fine, but I have found it odd that there are so many peanut/nut allergies as well. If someone could explain why this is, I’d love to know.


37 posted on 10/19/2009 6:10:26 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: Joya

THX


38 posted on 10/19/2009 6:30:43 AM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: freedumb2003

I think you got the Smallpox vaccine, not TB. Few of my generation do not have that scar as well.


39 posted on 10/19/2009 7:17:03 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Coleus

Is that you, Bill? Who knew Bill Maher was a Freeper?!

Great article, thanks. Sure makes sense to me.


40 posted on 10/19/2009 7:19:53 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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