Tag: safety

EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against.

More than three years ago, a small group of government scientists came forward with disturbing allegations.

During President Donald Trump’s administration, they said, their managers at the Environmental Protection Agency began pressuring them to make new chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. They were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports — and in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.

After the scientists pushed back, they received negative performance reviews and three of them were removed from their positions in the EPA’s division of new chemicals and reassigned to jobs elsewhere in the agency.

On Wednesday, the EPA inspector general announced that it had found that some of the treatment experienced by three of those scientists — Martin Phillips, Sarah Gallagher and William Irwin — amounted to retaliation.

Three reports issued by the inspector general confirmed that the scientists’ negative performance reviews as well as a reassignment and the denial of an award that can be used for cash or time off were retaliatory. They also detailed personal attacks by supervisors, who called them “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers.”

The reports called on the EPA to take “appropriate corrective action” in response to the findings. In one case, the inspector general noted that supervisors who violate the Whistleblower Protection Act should be suspended for at least three days.

The reports focus only on the retaliation claims. The inspector general is expected to issue reports in the future about the whistleblowers’ scientific allegations.

In an email sent to the staff of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention after the reports were released, EPA Assistant Administrator Michal Freedhoff wrote that the office plans to hold a “refresher training on both scientific integrity and the Whistleblower Protection Act” for all managers in the office. Freedhoff also wrote that the office is “reviewing the reports to determine whether additional action may be necessary.”

In a statement to ProPublica, the EPA tied the problems laid out in the report to Trump. “The events covered by these reports began during the previous administration when the political leadership placed intense pressure on both career managers and scientists in EPA’s new chemicals program to more quickly review and approve new chemicals,” the agency wrote, going on to add that the “work environment has been transformed under Administrator Michael Regan’s leadership.”

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Can Gene-Editing Pesticides Pose Risk to Humans?

The biotech industry has been tinkering with the genetic material of living organisms and crops using CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene-editing technology, resulting in changes to taste profiles, extended shelf life and enhanced resistance to specific pathogens, but with unknown health consequences.1

These genetic modifications have, so far, been conducted within the confines of controlled laboratory environments. However, a disturbing new development is on the horizon — new pesticides designed to edit genes may soon be available, touted to be “more environmentally friendly” than chemical pesticides.2

A team of scientists recently raised concerns about the possible consequences of unleashing this product in an open environment, where it can affect not just its intended targets but also a wide range of nontarget organisms, possibly causing far-reaching ecological destruction. And leading the list of potential collateral damage are us humans.3

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WHO Approves First Mpox Vaccine for Adults in Africa — Then Says Babies Can Get It, Too, Despite No Clinical Trials

The World Health Organization (WHO) today approved the first mpox vaccine for use in adults — and also said it can be used for babies, children, teens and pregnant women if they are in “outbreak settings where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.”

WHO’s approval of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine will help governments and international agencies such as the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF, buy it, MedicalXpress reported.

The MVA-BN vaccine — short for “Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic” — is a smallpox/mpox vaccine. It is sold in the U.S. under the name Jynneos.

WHO Assistant Director-General Yukiko Nakatani said, “The decision can also help national regulatory authorities to fast-track approvals, ultimately increasing access to quality-assured mpox vaccine products.”

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker called the WHO’s approval of the shot for infants and children in Africa “a train wreck in the making.”

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New study finds personal care products cause development disruptions in children

A link between the use of personal care products such as lotions, ointments, shampoos and hair conditioners and higher levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals called phthalates in children was directly correlated in a new study. Published in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, the study, which was conducted at George Mason University, examined clinical data from urine samples collected from 630 children ages 4 to 8.

The study linked endocrine disruptors, which “mimic, block or interfere with the body’s own hormones,” to disruptions in children “during key developmental moments,” NPR reported.

“We found that the recent use of several different types of skin care products was associated with higher urinary concentrations of several different types of phthalates,” Michael Bloom, a professor and researcher at George Mason University, said.

While prior studies have found similar results in infants and pregnant women, the link hasn’t been made with children between the ages of 4 and 8. But the new study “provides clear evidence of the links between kids’ exposures and a range of personal care products, Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who formerly served as an assistant administrator for toxic substances at the Environmental Protection Agency,” said, according to NPR.

“I think we should be much more concerned than we have been in the past about the fact that these [chemicals] might be allowed in cosmetics and personal care products,” Goldman said.

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CDC wants to inject BABIES with COVID-19 shots – but they aren’t licensed for kids under 12

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants babies to get doses of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. However, no COVID-19 vaccine is licensed for children under the age of 12.

According to the public health agency’s guidance issued on Aug. 30, children as young as six months old should get injected with either two doses of the 2024-2025 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine or three doses of the 2024-2025 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

For the latest Moderna injection, the CDC recommends that babies get the first dose at six months and the second dose a month after the first. For the latest Pfizer shot, the agency advises that the first dose should be given at six months. The second dose should be given three weeks after the first, and the third dose should be given at least eight weeks after the second.

Following the CDC’s guidance, nine-month-old babies must have been injected with the COVID-19 vaccine to be considered “up to date” with their vaccination. But the problem is that both the latest versions of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are not licensed for use on children under 12. This is because the Food and Drug Administration only granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the new vaccines.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland remarked that the CDC is “absolutely misleading” the public by asserting that COVID-19 vaccines granted EUA are safe and effective. This is because EUA vaccines are not held to the same safety or efficacy standards as licensed vaccines.

“By law, EUA products ‘may be effective’ and they have not undergone the safety testing required to permit licensing. This is one more horrific example of the CDC putting profits before people and acting as an unethical arm of Big Pharma’s marketing operation,” she said.

“The earlier COVID-19 shots have been proven unsafe and ineffective. Now we’re asked to believe that newer versions are miraculously safe and effective?”

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School Monitoring Software Sacrifices Student Privacy for Unproven Promises of Safety

Imagine your search terms, key-strokes, private chats and photographs are being monitored every time they are sent. Millions of students across the country don’t have to imagine this deep surveillance of their most private communications: it’s a reality that comes with their school districts’ decision to install AI-powered monitoring software such as Gaggle and GoGuardian on students’ school-issued machines and accounts. As we demonstrated with our own Red Flag Machine, however, this software flags and blocks websites for spurious reasons and often disproportionately targets disadvantaged, minority and LGBTQ youth.

The companies making the software claim it’s all done for the sake of student safety: preventing self-harm, suicide, violence, and drug and alcohol abuse. While a noble goal, given that suicide is the second highest cause of death among American youth 10-14 years old, no comprehensive or independent studies have shown an increase in student safety linked to the usage of this software. Quite to the contrary: a recent comprehensive RAND research study shows that such AI monitoring software may cause more harm than good.

That study also found that how to respond to alerts is left to the discretion of the school districts themselves. Due to a lack of resources to deal with mental health, schools often refer these alerts to law enforcement officers who are not trained and ill-equipped to deal with youth mental crises. When police respond to youth who are having such episodes, the resulting encounters can lead to disastrous results. So why are schools still using the software–when a congressional investigation found a need for “federal action to protect students’ civil rights, safety, and privacy”? Why are they trading in their students’ privacy for a dubious-at-best marketing claim of safety?

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High Levels of Glyphosate Linked to Cluster of Young People With Brain Disease, Dementia

A piercing investigative article on Aug. 14 in The New York Times by journalist Greg Donahue reveals the abandonment of a group of brain disease patients in an area of Canada with forestry management for paper products, agriculture and large amounts of pesticide use, including glyphosate.

It illustrates the tension in the relationship between government authorities, regulated industries and neurologists (physicians) on the front lines.

The article details the manner in which health officials appeared to manipulate their own investigation of a disease cluster to make it less disruptive to the economy of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. (This Beyond Pesticides analysis, where not otherwise indicated, draws on Donahue’s article.)

New Brunswick has one major town, Moncton, and a large rural area characterized by agriculture and forestry. The province’s agriculture industry is dominated by blueberry production, which occupies the fourth-largest amount of agricultural land in New Brunswick.

About half the province is forested, with increasing amounts of land devoted to tree plantations intended for paper production.

Glyphosate is hands-down the most heavily used pesticide in New Brunswick forestry, and New Brunswick is second only to Ontario in Canada’s total area of glyphosate-treated forest. The herbicide is especially heavily used in clearcuts and tree plantations.

Glyphosate’s innocence, assumed for decades since it entered the market in 1974, has been thoroughly disproved.

According to a comprehensive 2020 review, it is toxic to cells; disrupts hormones and gut microbe balance; contributes to non-alcoholic liver disease; may trigger heart arrhythmias; has been strongly correlated with multiple myeloma and large B-cell lymphoma; and less strongly correlated with melanoma, leukemia and colon, rectal, bladder and kidney cancers.

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The Propaganda of ‘Safety Testing’

Be on alert for Propaganda in the news cycle, as we are in a S-election year.

In the article, Curb Your Enthusiasm, the propaganda of “Safety Testing” for toxic metals in vaccines is featured:

…to challenge the use of “toxic metals” in vaccines…. at a time where vaccine science has finally advanced enough that said metals – used as “adjuvants” to stimulate a stronger immune response – are no longer required.

By focusing only on the use of “toxic metals” in vaccines…  ensures ultimately the integrity the vaccine programme remains in tact.

But look at the timing: the damage has already been done.

The establishment now has little to lose by allowing the whistle to be formally blown, now the aims of the vaccination programme (to subdue fertility, to lower IQ, to create lifelong customers for Big Pharma) have been completed for so many millions – and now that they have an alternative that doesn’t require these adjuvants.

Under the subject heading vaccine Safety Testing, the concept of “safe vaccines” is propaganda.

Why? Because there is no such thing as a “safe vaccine.”

Moreover, the technology of mercury and aluminum in childhood CDC-approved injections has been long superseded by mRNA technology, i.e., nanotechnology, which was developed in the 1970s.

The development of vaccines and the lack of safety testing is tied to politics.

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They lied: Canadian government contract with Pfizer states that the long-term efficacy and safety of covid injections was unknown

The Pfizer covid-19 vaccine contract between the Canadian government obtained by The Canadian Independent shows the “long-term effects, efficacy, and adverse effects” of the vaccine were not known at the time the contract was signed and the population was mass vaccinated.

This is the original covid-19 vaccine contract between the Canadian government and Pfizer, dated 26 October 2020. It was obtained exclusively by The Canadian Independent through an access to information request.

Two months later, after the contract was signed, Canada began the process of mass vaccinating its citizens while politicians, public health officials, the CEO of Pfizer, and the mainstream media preached about the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine being “safe and effective.”

What the population was not aware of was what was in the contract. Section 5.5 of the contract, under “Purchaser Acknowledgement,” clearly states: “Purchaser further acknowledges that the long-term effects and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known and that there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known.”

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Scientists Find ‘Tiny Shards’ of Plastic in Lungs, Placentas and Other Human Organs

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that microplastics are accumulating in critical human organs, including the brain, alarming findings that highlight a need for more urgent actions to rein in plastic pollution, researchers say.

Different studies have detected tiny shards and specks of plastics in human lungs, placentas, reproductive organs, livers, kidneys, knee and elbow joints, blood vessels and bone marrow.

Given the research findings, “it is now imperative to declare a global emergency” to deal with plastic pollution, said Sedat Gündoğdu, who studies microplastics at Cukurova University in Turkey.

Humans are exposed to microplastics — defined as fragments smaller than five millimeters in length — and the chemicals used to make plastics from widespread plastic pollution in air, water and even food.

The health hazards of microplastics within the human body are not yet well-known.

Recent studies are just beginning to suggest these particles could increase the risk of various conditions such as oxidative stress, which can lead to cell damage and inflammation, as well as cardiovascular disease.

Animal studies have also linked microplastics to fertility issues, various cancers, a disrupted endocrine and immune system and impaired learning and memory.

There are currently no governmental standards for plastic particles in food or water in the U.S. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on crafting guidelines for measuring them and has been giving out grants since 2018 to develop new ways to quickly detect and quantify them.

Finding microplastics in more and more human organs “raises a lot of concerns,” given what we know about health effects in animals, studies of human cells in the lab and emerging epidemiological studies, said Bethanie Carney Almroth, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

“It’s scary, I’d say.”

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