Free Republic

We won! That is, the forces of science-based public health policy seem to have won -- if not the war, at least a major battle. At long last, federal risk assessors and regulators have come around to the view that administering chemicals to rodents in super-high doses does not reliably predict human risk -- of cancer, or anything else -- and that a better method needs to be employed, if we are to avoid more unnecessary bans, anti-chemical media hysteria, and activist crusades. High dose animal tests on one rodent species don't reliably predict cancer risk in another rodent type,...

...FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs. ..257 refusals of Chinese products were recorded in April... Refused by the FDA in April because they were "filthy": * salted bean curd cubes in brine with chili and sesame oil * dried apple * dried peach * dried pear * dried round bean curd * dried mushroom * olives * frozen bay scallops * frozen Pacific cod * sardines * frozen seafood mix * fermented bean curd...

It's The Nation's First Statewide Ban Of The Chemical (AP) SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California regulators on Thursday enacted the nation's first statewide ban on the most common chemical used by dry cleaners, pleasing environmentalists but worrying some small businesses. By 2023, no more dry-cleaning machines that use the toxic solvent perchloroethylene, a potential carcinogen, will be permitted in the state. The regulation by the California Air Resources Board will phase out the fluid next year, banning dry cleaners from buying machines that rely on the solvent. The state's 3,400 dry cleaners who now use it must get rid of machines...

AUSTRALIAN medical experts have urged women not to abandon oral contraception or hormone replacement therapy despite a World Health Organisation decision to classify them as cancer causing. The WHO's leading cancer research body - the International Agency for Research on Cancer - has changed its classification for combined oestrogen-progestogen oral contraceptives and combined oestrogen-progestogen HRT drugs from "possibly carcinogenic to humans" to "carcinogenic to humans". The decision puts the widely used compounds in the same category as the cancer-causing agents asbestos and tobacco...

REALLY? THE FACTS A widely circulated e-mail message has caused fears that heating plastics in the microwave can contaminate food with dioxins, a group of carcinogens. Experts say there is little truth to this: dioxins almost never turn up in commercial plastics. But Dr. Rolf Halden of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health said another substance that gives many plastics their flexibility, called plasticizers, can migrate into food in small amounts. Plasticizers, unlike dioxins, are not known to be toxic. To be on the safe side, however, the Food and Drug Administration recommends that consumers use only plastic containers...

A German scientific research institute has warned that most condoms on the market contain a cancer-causing chemical and has urged that their manufacture be subjected to stringent quality control. The Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Institute in Stuttgart said on Friday it had found the carcinogen N-Nitrosamine in 29 of 32 types of condoms it tested in simulated conditions. The condoms, which were kept in a solution with artificial sweat, exuded huge amounts of cancer-causing N-Nitrosamine from its rubber coating. Researchers measured amounts of N-Nitrosamine, that were way above the prescribed limits for other rubber products such as baby pacifiers. "N-Nitrosamine...

While I.B.M. officials deny it, evidence is being offered by stricken employees that unusually large numbers of men and women who worked for the giant computer corporation over the past few decades have been dying prematurely. I.B.M. employees, and relatives of employees who have died, are claiming in a series of very bitter lawsuits that I.B.M. workers have contracted cancer and other serious illnesses from chemicals they were exposed to in semiconductor and disk-drive manufacturing, laboratory work and other very basic industrial operations. Dr. Richard Clapp, a respected epidemiologist from Boston University who was hired by a group of 40...

From: The Pro-Life Infonet Carcinogens and the Abortion-Breast Cancer Link By Karen Malec [Pro-Life Infonet Note: Karen Malec is the president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.] An official list of "known human carcinogens" released by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2002 includes steroidal estrogens for the first time. The Report on Carcinogens states that steroidal estrogens are used in estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and common abortifacient drugs. Both kinds of drugs have been widely utilized by American women. The federal report is available on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences website. [1] While certain...

<p>WHEN MICHAEL LERNER volunteered to give blood and urine samples to medical researchers, he figured they'd only find a few chemicals in his body. After all, Lerner, the president and founder of Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Marin County, has lived in Bolinas for 20 years, eaten a healthy diet and avoided exposure to industrial chemicals.</p>