~~~ Interesting Health News the Media doesn't Cover - 9-23

[Guest guest]

_Senate Studies Cell Phone Cancer Risks_

(http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/09/cell_phone_cancer.html) - brain

tumors, and increased risk of

eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin’s

lymphoma and leukemia.

 

Finally, more than a decade after a _test funded by the cell phone

industry_ (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/cell_phone_cancer_link.htm)

showed

a possible link between cell phones and cancer, the _Senate_

(http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/09/cell_phone_cancer.html#) held

hearings on

the question, while engaging in various contortions to avoid offending the

industry's powerful lobbyists.

 

“Exposure to cellphone radiation is the largest human health experiment

ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants

enrolled, " said Lloyd Morgan, lead author and member of the

Bioelectromagnetics Society. " Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors

from use

of cellphones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland

tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia. The public

must

be informed.â€

 

Read more:

_http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/09/cell_phone_cancer.html#ixzz0RQlHH\

SQw_

(http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/09/cell_phone_cancer.html#ixzz0RQlHH\

SQw)

 

===

Best (least radiation) and Worst (most radiation) Phones at:

_http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone_

(http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone)

 

 

Sign up to learn more about cell phones at:

 

_Welcome to EWG's Cell Phone Radiation Guide_

(http://www.ewg.org/project/2009cellphone/cellphoneradiation.php)

 

===

 

 

 

_Seeds of Deception - Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Cover-up.

Genetically Engineered Food._ (http://www.wanttoknow.info/deception10pg)

 

Monsanto executives described a world with 100 percent of all commercial

seeds genetically modified and patented. “The hope of the industry is that

over time, the market is so flooded that there’s nothing you can do about it.

You just sort of surrender.â€

To implement their strategy, the biotech companies needed to control the

seeds—so they went on a buying spree, taking possession of about 23 percent

of the world’s seed companies. Monsanto did achieve the dominant position,

capturing 91 percent of the GM food market.

U.S. exports of genetically modified corn and soy are down, and hungry

African nations won’t even accept the crops as food aid.

It was industry influence, not sound science, which allowed these foods

onto the market. Moreover, Overwhelming scientific research suggests that the

foods should never have been approved

 

 

===

 

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.htm\'>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.htm\

l_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.htm\

l)

 

Wendell Potter: Public Option Essential, Baucus Plan An " Absolute Gift " To

Health Insurance Industry (VIDEO)

 

Former health insurance industry executive-turned-whistleblower Wendell

Potter warned that if Congress " fails to create a public insurance option to

compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as

well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement

Act. "

 

Potter also struck back against one of the key arguments made against the

public option: that it would have an unfair competitive advantage over

private insurers.

 

'Contrary to the misinformation being disseminated by the health insurance

industry and its allies, the public insurance option would not have a

competitive advantage over private plans, " Potter told the committee. " It would

have to meet the same benefit requirements and comply with the same

insurance market reforms as private plans. "

 

 

 

Potter, who was previously a vice president of communication at Cigna, also

sharply criticized Democratic Senator Max Baucus' health care reform bill

in a conversation with reporters Monday, calling the plan an " absolute gift

to the industry. "

 

More on Potter's statements on the Baucus plan, via Politico.

_http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Former_Cigna_exec_Baucus_plan_absolute_g\

ift_to_i

ndustry.html_

(http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Former_Cigna_exec_Baucus_plan_absolute_g\

ift_to_industry.html)

 

Here is video of his opening statements.

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com

/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.html_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/wendell-potter-public-opt_n_287733.htm\

l)

 

===

 

 

_Raw Story » Report: ‘Death panels’ author worked with big tobacco to

scuttle health reform_

(http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/20/death-panels-author-big-tobacco/)

 

 

The person credited with inventing the " death panels " claim about health

care reform worked with tobacco giant Phillip Morris to railroad health care

reform in the Clinton administration, Rolling Stone magazine reports.

 

 

 

 

 

===

 

 

 

Canadian Health Care, Even With Queues, Bests U.S.

 

 

Deaths considered preventable through health care are less frequent in

Canada than in the U.S., according to a January 2008 report in the journal

Health Affairs.

 

 

" There is an image of Canadians flooding across the border to get care,

" That's just not the case. The public in Canada is far more satisfied with

the system than they are in the U.S. "

 

Canada's system of universal health coverage provides care as good as in

the U.S., at a cost 87 percent less for each person.

 

 

Canadians live two to three years longer than Americans and are as likely

to survive heart attacks, childhood leukemia, and breast and cervical

cancer, according to the OECD, the Paris-based coalition of 30 industrialized

nations.

 

The Canadian mortality rate from asthma is one quarter of the U.S.'s, and

the infant mortality rate is 34 percent lower, OECD data show. People in

Canada are also 21 percent more apt to survive five years after a liver

transplant.

 

 

Private-insurance administrative costs in the U.S. are 12.7 cents of a

dollar, and as high as 18 cents for some companies. Government plans,

including Medicare and Medicaid, spend 5.8 cents excluding costs of private drug

plans, she said. In Canada 4.2 cents is spent on administration.

 

" If we lowered our administrative costs to that of the lowest three

countries with mixed public-private health-care systems, we could save $50

billion a year, " Davis said. " This would go a long way toward financing coverage

for the uninsured. "

 

 

 

The U.S. spent $7,290 on health care for each person in 2007, according to

the latest OECD data. Canada came in at $3,895.

 

Entire article at:

 

 

_http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202 & sid=aNkLyH2VecGM_

(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202 & sid=aNkLyH2VecGM)

 

 

 

 

===

 

 

 

 

Under Senator Baucus's plan, insurers would be permitted to charge older

people five times more for their health insurance premiums than younger

people.

 

Yesterday I wrote in some detail about how the insurance companies stand

to gain from the Baucus bill (their stocks immediately jumped upon release

of his proposal, which has no public option):

It doesn't take Einstein to figure out why the Baucus bill is great for

the insurance industry: If there's no public alternative to compete with

private insurance companies, guess where all those people will have to go to

buy their government-mandated insurance?

_http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/how-baucus-plan-screws-over-50-crow

d_

(http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/how-baucus-plan-screws-over-50-crowd)

 

===

 

 

 

Peace in the Heart

 

 

_Click here: HeartMath - Peace Day_

(http://www.heartmath.com/peace09/?mtcCampaign=2200 & mtcEmail=6181119)