Activist Groups that Fund Pharma Try to Regulate Silver as a Pesticide (Opinion)

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Activist Groups that Fund Pharma Try to Regulate Silver as a Pesticide

(Opinion)

_http://www.naturalnews.com/027186_silver_Merck_colloidal_silver.html_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/027186_silver_Merck_colloidal_silver.html)

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

by: Tony Isaacs, citizen journalist

 

 

(NaturalNews) It was revealed that a handful of the activist agencies

which were behind the petition to the EPA to regulate nano-silver as a

pesticide received funding from pharmaceutical giant Merck, which annually has

hundreds of billions of dollars in profits from patented antibiotics which

colloidal silver poses a risk to. Now, further investigation has discovered that

the initial revelations may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes

to Merck and other pharmaceutical companies funding of the groups who

support the EPA petition.

 

The actual source of the funding that was first revealed in emails and

colloidal silver blogsites was the John Merck Fund, which was set up in 1970

by Serena Merck, the widow of Merck Pharmaceuticals CEO George W. Merck. The

recipients of funding who are signees on the petition to the EPA were

identified as:

 

 

Center for Food Safety

$1,305,000.00 (1999 - 2005)

 

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

$490,000.00 (1992 - 2003)

 

International Center for Technology Assessment

$247,500.00 (1999)

 

Consumers Union of the United States

$90,000.00 (2000 - 2001)

 

Greenpeace

$80,000.00 (2000 - 2002)

 

Friends of the Earth

$45,000.00 (1992 - 2000)

 

 

Subsequently, it was discovered that a second Merck foundation, the Merck

Family Fund, gave a $200,000 grant for 2006-2007 to another petitioner,

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

 

The Center for Food Safety (CFS), which along with its sister organization

the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) initiated the

EPA petition and enlisted the other groups which signed off on the petition,

received the second largest amount of funding of any group from the John

Merck Fund. The largest recipient by far of Merck funding was the Tides

Center/Tides Foundation, whose total funding of almost $2.7 Million dwarfs the

combined total of $1.75 Million given to the CFS and the ICTA and CFS.

 

Tides Foundation & Tides Center

$2,693,000.00 (1989 - 2005)

_http://www.activistcash.com/foundation.cfm?did=138_

(http://www.activistcash.com/foundation.cfm?did=138)

 

 

As it turns out, the Tides Foundation and Tides Center are also actively

involved in the petition to regulate silver, as well as the source of

funding and support to several of the other groups who signed the EPA petition.

Their position became apparent to one and all when they posted a press

release urging support of the EPA petition:

 

_http://www.tidescenter.org/news-resources/news-releases/single-press-releas

e/article/epa-petitioned-to-stop-sale-of-26

0-products-containing-nanosilver/index.html_

(http://www.tidescenter.org/news-resources/news-releases/single-press-release/ar\

ticle/epa-petitioned-to-stop-sale-of-260-products-containing

-nanosilver/index.html)

(http://www.tidescenter.org/news-res)

 

The Tides Foundation is described by Activistcash.com as quickly becoming

" the 800 pound gorilla for activist funding. " As reported on ActivistCash:

 

" The Tides foundation was established in 1976 by California activist

Drummond Pike, Tides does two things better than any other foundation or

charity

in the U.S. today: it routinely obscures the sources of its tax-exempt

millions, and makes it difficult (if not impossible) to discern how the funds

are actually being used. "

 

 

Activistcash went on to report:

 

 

" In practice, " Tides " behaves less like a philanthropy than a

money-laundering enterprise (apologies to Procter & Gamble), taking money from

other

foundations and spending it as the donor requires. Called donor-advised

giving, this pass-through funding vehicle provides public-relations insulation

for the money`s original donors. By using Tides to funnel its capital, a

large public charity can indirectly fund a project with which it would prefer

not to be directly identified in public. Drummond Pike has reinforced this

view, telling The Chronicle of Philanthropy: " Anonymity is very important

to most of the people we work with. "

 

Due to the efforts of many foundations to keep their funding activities

anonymous, it is difficult to determine the true scope of pharmaceutical

company funding for the Tides group as well as the individual activist groups.

However, information on the Tides Center`s website and other web searches

found that the Tides Center itself is a big source of funding and support to

several of the other groups not listed as direct recipients of funding

from Merck.

 

For example, the Center for Environmental Health is itself a a project of

the Tides Center.

 

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy received previous funding

and had previous connections with the Tides Foundation.

 

The Clean Production Action is a Tides Center project.

 

Food and Water Watch receives donations from the Tides Foundation.

 

Though not listed as a recipient of funding from Merck or the Tides

Center, The Loka Institute, which has no current offices, was previously

provided

office space and a mailbox in Washington, DC by the International Center

for Technology Assessment in their own offices.

 

Lest one think that Merck is the only Big Pharma company funding the

activist groups directly or else indirectly funneling money to them through the

Tides Foundation and Tides Center, a quick internet search found the

following listed as the top funding recipient from the Pfizer Foundation:

 

Tides Foundation & Tides Center

$300,000.00 (2003 - 2004)

 

Thus far, the EPA has taken no action on the petition, though it is widely

expected to make a ruling by early fall, and many expect that silver will

indeed be regulated as a pesticide. Such an action would have the effect of

banning virtually all the colloidal silver products currently used by

millions of people to combat infections and pathogens of all kinds. In many

instances, mainstream medicine has no answer for some of the deadliest of

pathogens, such as MRSA.

 

The environmental groups would have us believe that they are primarily

concerned with new products that incorporated " nanosilver " into their makeup

such as computer keyboards, clothing and other textiles that were

impregnated with nanosilver for antimicrobial purposes. However, it appears

clear

that the true agenda of the petition to the EPA is to constrain colloidal

silver. Colloidal silver represents a huge threat to the billions of dollars in

profits Big Pharma annually rakes in from less effective, less safe and far

more expensive patented antibiotic drugs.

 

Such an agenda becomes obvious when one looks at the list of products

singled out for banning that was part of the petitions and finds the three

largest producers of colloidal silver specifically listed among the products.

Many more colloidal silver products were later added as an addendum.

 

 

As an example of the subterfuge, one of the environmental groups which

signed the petition, Friends of the Earth, sent emails this past spring to

concerned members who used colloidal silver to assure them that they had no

desire or intention to regulate colloidal silver. Then in June they published

a position paper which stated, " We believe that all over-the-counter

colloidal silver products should be immediately withdrawn from the market and

their sale should be banned (unless approved as a drug by the appropriate

regulatory agency). "

 

Source:

Friends of the Earth (FOE), June 2009 report " Nano and Biocidal Silver:

Extreme Germ Killers Present a Growing Threat to Public Health " pg. 13

 

 

Similarly, in March of this year, just before the EPA closed the door to

public comments on the campaign to regulate silver as a " pesticide, " the

environmentalists published an article claiming that a " major new clinical

study " had proven that silver harms human cells.

 

What the environmentalists failed to report in their article is

enlightening. First of all, it turned out that the study they cited was hardly

" major. " Indeed, it was a very small study conducted by a virtually unknown

research group in China.

 

It also turned out that the group conducting the study was in cahoots with

two major pharmaceutical companies who are major producers of prescription

antibiotic drugs. And finally, the study itself merely demonstrated the

well-known fact that silver kills e. coli bacteria by damaging its cellular

structure and preventing it from replicating.

 

In other words, the study was on bacterial cells, not human cells.

 

The justification for considering silver to be a pesticide in the first

place is because it kills bacteria, viruses and other single celled

pathogens, which the environmental groups have defined as " pests " . Using the

same

definition would apparently also make common bleach, rubbing and drinking

alcohol, aerosol disinfectants, and antibiotic and antiviral drugs

" pesticides " as well - but only silver has been singled out.

 

One wonders why environmental groups are seemingly in bed with Big Pharma

to begin with on the issue of silver, which is a natural element that has

been in our waters, soils and plants since mankind first put down footsteps

in the sands of time. Where is the concern over all of the drugs that are

polluting our drinking water? According to a recent investigative report from

the Associated Press, " U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers,

have released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceutical drugs into

waterways that often provide drinking water for millions of Americans -

contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked... "

 

According to the Associated Press report, " ...trace amounts of a wide

range of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood

stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in American drinking water

supplies...pharmaceuticals have now been detected in the drinking water of at

least 51 million Americans. "

 

The figures reported may be merely the tip of the iceberg since, as the

report itself states, " Most cities and water providers still do not test. "

The report also notes, " Some scientists say that wherever researchers look,

they will find pharma-tainted water. "

 

The AP report also noted that " Pharmaceutical makers typically are excused

from having to submit an environmental review for new products, and the

FDA has never rejected a drug application based on potential environmental

impact. "

 

Furthermore, according to the AP report, the Big Pharma companies do not

even need to submit environmental reviews for their drugs, which are now

contaminating the drinking water of tens of millions of American men, women

and children.

 

But colloidal silver, which has never been demonstrated to contribute to

environmental pollution, is being singled out by the environmental groups

(backed by their Big Pharma paymasters) for extreme and completely

unwarranted environmental regulations that will literally drive most if not all

colloidal silver manufacturers and vendors completely out of business. And it`s

all being pulled off in the name of " protecting the environment. "

 

In short, Big Pharma produces hundreds of billions of dollars a year worth

of prescription drugs and millions of pounds of these drugs annually end

up polluting our environment, yet the environmental groups remain silent

with nary a single call to regulate Big Pharma`s drugs as environmental

pollutants. In other words, Big Pharma is polluting the environment with drugs,

but, rather than opposing Big Pharma, the environmentalist groups are taking

money from them and ruthlessly attacking the most popular natural health

alternative to the prescription antibiotic drugs produced by Big Pharma.

 

Given the information outlined above, one can only wonder what other

pharmaceutical funding is linked to activist groups such as the ones listed in

this article. One shudders to think of how many activist groups have been

corrupted by funding from Big Pharma and other companies with agendas that

are anything but in the public interest.

 

It is easy to see how such hypocrisy and subterfuge can corrupt decision

making, the same as can pay lobbyists and political funding. Obviously it

would be in the distinct public interest to require full disclosure of

funding sources for every organization which petitions a government agency or

legislative body to see where there might be funding sources that would stand

to benefit as a result of the desired action or legislation.

 

Similarly, it would also be in the public interest to require full details

of all the activities and efforts of lobbyists, including expenses and the

details of each meeting held by lobbyists with government officials. While

we are at it, we would also be a better informed and better served

citizenry if every elected official`s vote on any measure included donations and

links to any companies or other entities affected by such legislation.

 

Granted, such reforms are a tall order, but until we see such altruistic

change all the talk about true transparency in government is merely lip

service - and the words from our own lips will continue to have little chance

of reaching the ears of those captured by the special interests who have

bought them off and rigged the process in their favor.

 

Notes:

 

The complete list of groups who signed the petition to the EPA is: The

International Center for Technology Assessment, the Center for Food Safety

(the sister organization of the CTA), Beyond Pesticides, Friends of the Earth,

Greenpeace, ETC Group, Center for Environmental Health, Silicon Valley

Toxics Coalition , Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Clean Production

Action, Food and Water Watch, the Loka Institute, the Center for Study of

Responsive Law, and Consumers Union.

 

Sources included:

 

_http://www.silvermedicine.org/nano-silver.html_

(http://www.silvermedicine.org/nano-silver.html)

_http://www.activistcash.com/_ (http://www.activistcash.com/)

_http://www.tidescenter.org/_ (http://www.tidescenter.org/)

_http://colloidalsilversecrets.blogspot.com/_

(http://colloidalsilversecrets.blogspot.com/)