Monsanto ordered to pay $93million for poisoning people

Big wins can happen in small places. The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.

The settlement was approved last year, but details were worked out only weeks ago as to how the funds were to be spent.

Continue Learning>>>http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_67121.shtml

Roundup Chemical Doubles Your Risk of Lymphoma

There’s been a striking increase in the number of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases over the past three decades, and a major new scientific review suggests chemical pesticides—particularly glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weedkiller Roundup—are playing an important role in fueling the cancer.

 Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate have been linked to:
• death of human embryonic cells
• breast cancer and other cancers
• infertility
• hormone disruption
• birth defects
• eye, skin, and respiratory irritation
• spontaneous abortions in farm animals.

Continue Learning>>>http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/06/roundup-chemical-doubles-risk-lymphoma

The Chemicals That Stick Around in the Body How the U.S. tracks the potentially harmful substances that build up in humans

The CDC tests for 212 of the more than 80,000 chemicals developed since the industrial revolution. Its latest full survey, released in 2009, listed many new ones, including Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy; perchlorate, found in fireworks and explosives; perfluorinated chemicals, used in many nonstick coatings in cookware; and acrylamide, a chemical formed when carbohydrates are cooked at high temperatures (think french fries).

Virtually all the survey participants had measurable levels of those chemicals in their blood or urine, the CDC reported.

Many questions remain about which chemicals pose imminent threats, to whom and how people can avoid them. And the Toxic Substances Control Act, which regulates new and existing chemicals, hasn't been updated since 1976.  

Continue Learning:  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304360704579417241249848968

The Toxins That Affected Your Great-Grandparents Could Be In Your Genes

Not only is your great-grandmother’s environment affecting your health, Skinner concluded, but the chemicals she was exposed to may have left a fingerprint that scientists can actually trace.

The findings point to potentially new medical diagnostics. In the future, you may even go to your doctor’s office to have your methylation patterns screened. Exposure of lab rats to the chemical DDT can lead to obesity in subsequent generations—a link Skinner’s team reported in October. Hypothetically, a doctor might someday look at your methylation patterns early in life to determine your risk for obesity later. What’s more, toxicologists may need to reconsider how they study chemical exposures, especially those occurring during pregnancy. The work raises implications for monitoring the environment, for determining the safety of certain chemicals, perhaps even for establishing liability in legal cases involving health risks of chemical exposure.

Continue Learning:  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/The-Toxins-That-Affected-Your-Great-Grandparents-Could-Be-In-Your-Genes-231152741.html?c=y&page=2

Where are toxic chemicals in your home?

Outdated law means we're surrounded by toxic chemicals at home

EDF has long advocated for an overhaul of the outdated 35-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

TSCA's slack standards allow the majority of the 80,000 chemicals available for use in the U.S. to stay on the market, even though they have never been tested for health effects. They also allow chemicals known to be dangerous to continue to be used. See what we're doing to reform the law.
Continue Learning:  http://www.edf.org/health/where-are-toxic-chemicals-your-home

The Environmental Health Registry Programs for Veterans Brochure

The Environmental Health Registry Programs for Veterans brochure

Were Vets Who Served in Guam Exposed to Agent Orange and Denied Benefits?

The life-changing damage done by the Agent Orange herbicide continues to haunt American soldiers who served during the Vietnam War. It took years for the government to yield to pressure and acknowledge the devastating effects of the chemical. Many Vietnam veterans have been compensated for the debilitating illnesses but others who served outside Vietnam continue to be denied benefits by the VA. Diane Dimond spoke with a group of these forgotten veterans, and heard from some that they fear they will die before receiving treatment and justice from the country they served.

Continue Learning:   http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hero-project/articles/2013/09/25/were-vets-who-served-in-guam-exposed-to-agent-orange-and-denied-benefits.html

EPA RULES, TOXIC SUBSTANCE CONTROL ACT, CHEMICALS, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, CHRONIC DISEASE, CAREGIVER SUPPORT

"New and Improved" EPA rules boost "acceptable" levels of toxins

In the editorial for the September 2013 Consumer Reports, CR President Jim Guest writes about the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act:

"In theory it gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to collect information about the hazards posed by chemicals and to take action to control 'unreasonable risks'. In reality, collecting information is all but impossible because of trademark secrets embedded into the law; and controlling risks is so tied up in legalese that even asbestos, long ago proved to cause cancer and other fatal diseases is not banned in the U.S.

There are now more than 83,000 chemicals and classes of chemicals listed in the EPA inventory. In the years since the act was passed, the agency has banned, limited or restricted the use of five of those.
Five.

Does that mean that the manufacturers of the other 82,995 have confirmed that they're safe to be in our food containers, cleaning products, carpets and toys?  No, it doesn't. Manufacturers don't have to do a thing; the law requires instead that the EPA prove that a chemical is not safe."
 



Even very low levels of chemicals in the environment found to cause signs of chronic disease

A common mantra of the "skeptics" crowd purports that industrial and environmental chemicals are not necessarily a threat to humans, because these chemicals exist at levels so low that their toxicity is moot. But a new study published in The FASEB Journal suggests otherwise, having found that exposure to even very low levels of chemicals is dangerous, particularly due to their synergistic toxicity.

Individual chemicals may be deemed 'safe' at certain levels, but what happens when these chemicals combine?

But are individual chemicals the problem? Not necessarily. As it turns out, it is the synergistic effect of chemicals in combination with one another that poses the highest risk. And yet existing toxicology assessment protocols fail to look at how individual chemicals affect humans when they combine with other chemicals.

The Human Experiment is a new documentary which explores chemicals that are in everyday household products. 

 


23 Tips For Men on Supporting a Partner with Chronic Pain

Pete Beisner knows a lot about supporting a partner in pain. Here, he shares insights on how to take care of the person you love.

So, I have two sets of tips. The first set of tips is for supporting someone you love who has chronic pain. The second set of tips are practical suggestions for how to support a woman in an episode of critical pain, like just after she has had major surgery or a serious injury.



VA CAREGIVER SUPPORT

How can we help you?
I need help with:
SERVICES
Caregiver Support Coordinators
In-home services
Respite care
Services for Caregivers of post 9/11 Veterans
All Caregivers services
DIAGNOSES (PDF)
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Alzheimer's
CAREGIVING RESOURCES
Resources for new Caregivers
Staying organized