All U.S. Fish Tested Positive for Mercury

In a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), every single fish tested from 291 freshwater streams across the United States was found to be contaminated with mercury.

“This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds and many of our fish in freshwater streams,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that builds up in the food chain at ever higher concentrations in predators such as large fish and humans. It is especially damaging to the developing nervous systems of fetuses and children, but can have severe effects on adults, as well. The pollutant enters the environment almost wholly as atmospheric emissions from industrial processes, primarily the burning of coal for electricity. It then spreads across the plant and settles back to the surface, eventually concentrating in rivers, lakes and oceans, where it enters the aquatic food chain.

The number one cause of human mercury poisoning in the United States is the consumption of fish and shellfish.

Researchers tested the water, sediment and fish of the 291 streams between 1998 and 2005. Fish tested were mostly larger species near the top of the food chain, such as largemouth bass.

All fish were contaminated with mercury, more than 66 percent of them at levels higher than those set by the Environmental Protection agency as a “level of concern for fish-eating mammals,” according to Reuters. More than 25 percent of the fish were contaminated at levels higher than those set as the threshold for human consumption.

The study is the first to focus on mercury contamination of streams, rather than lakes, reservoirs, wetlands or oceans. The researchers found the highest mercury concentrations in fish from the coastal blackwater streams of the Southeast. Apparently the combination of pine forests and wooded wetlands found in these regions transforms mercury very effectively into its more toxic organic form (methylmercury). Mercury concentrations were also high in streams fed from areas with a history of mining.

China Inadvertently Creating Superbugs

China’s reckless use of antibiotics in the health system and agricultural production is unleashing an explosion of drug resistant superbugs that endanger global health, according to leading scientists.
Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for simple maladies like the sore throats and the country’s farmers excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain.

Studies in China show a “frightening” increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA . There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly through international air travel and internation food sourcing.

“We have a lot of data from Chinese hospitals and it shows a very frightening picture of high-level antibiotic resistance,” said Dr Andreas Heddini of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control.

“Doctors are daily finding there is nothing they can do, even third and fourth-line antibiotics are not working.

“There is a real risk that globally we will return to a pre-antibiotic era of medicine, where we face a situation where a number of medical treatment options would no longer be there. What happens in China matters for the rest of the world.”

Particular alarm has been raised by resistance rates of MRSA in Chinese hospitals, which has more than doubled from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, according to Professor Xiao Yonghong of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at Beijing University.

Last year researchers found a new strain of MRSA in Chinese pigs imported into Hong Kong and called for urgent new studies into its potential to infect humans after an infection of the new strain was confirmed in Guangzhou, where many of the pigs were farmed. … Continue Reading

Genetically Modified Corn Found Toxic

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of three genetically modified corn varieties from the American seed company Monsanto, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen, based in Caen), which participated in that study, December 11

“For the first time in the world, we’ve proven that GMO are neither sufficiently healthy nor proper to be commercialized. [...] Each time, for all three GMOs, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems,” indicated Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert member of the Commission for Biotechnology Reevaluation, created by the EU in 2008.

Caen and Rouen University researchers, as well as Criigen researchers, based their analyses on the data supplied by Monsanto to health authorities to obtain the green light for commercialization, but they draw different conclusions after new statistical calculations. According to Professor Séralini, the health authorities based themselves on a reading of the conclusions Monsanto has presented and not on conclusions drawn from the totality of the data. The researchers were able to obtain complete documentation following a legal decision.

“Monsanto’s tests, effected over 90 days, are obviously not of sufficient duration to be able to say whether chronic illnesses are caused. That’s why we ask for tests over a period of at least two years,” explained one researcher. Consequently, the scientists demand a “firm prohibition” on the importation and cultivation of these GMOs.

These three GMOs (MON810, MON863 and NK603) “are approved for human and animal consumption in the EU and especially the United States,” notes Professor Séralini. “MON810 is the only one of the three grown in certain EU countries (especially Spain); the others are imported,” he adds. A meeting of EU ministers over MON810 and NK603 is scheduled Monday.

For Further reading on this subject, check out this article: Here

Eyesight Restored with Stem Cells

Russell Turnbull from Consett, County Durham lost his sight in a chemical attack on his way home following a night out in Newcastle in 1994.

On his bus journey home he tried to intervene in an altercation between two men which eventually spilled into a fight.

When Turnbull attempted to break up the scuffle, one of the men began squirting ammonia around the bus. The chemical hit his right eye, causing great damage to his cornea, leaving him with severely impaired vision – a condition known as Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency (LSCD).

“I was in agony instantly, my eye was clamped shut,” he said.

“I went home and my mum tried to wash out the chemical and then I went to hospital”

“I was in hospital for two weeks and eventually I was able to open the eye again”.

LSCD is a painful, blinding disease that requires long-term, costly treatment with frequent clinic visits and intensive hospital admissions.

“It was like looking through scratched Perspex. My eye was sensitive to light, it was constantly watering. I was unable to drive as any bright light would cause me pain” he said

The vision loss due to LSCD makes this disease not only costly, but often requires social support due to the enormous impact on the patient’s quality of life. This is further magnified by the fact that LSCD mostly affects young patients.

After undergoing various treatments with creams and washes Turnbull became a guinea pig for trials towards his eventual stem cell procedure.

He was one of eight patients with impaired vision who have been treated successfully by surgeons at the North East England Stem Cell Institute.

The treatment involved using a tiny amount of stem cells from the good eye and growing them in a lab.

The growth was then implanted in the damaged eye, which then helped it to begin functioning as normal – eventually restoring sight.

Dr Francisco Figueiredo, a consultant eye surgeon, that led the project said:

“Corneal cloudiness has been estimated to cause blindness in eight million people world wide each year. This new treatment will alleviate patient suffering and remove the need for long term multiple medications as well as returning the patient to functional and social independence.”

Mr Turnbull said: “I can’t thank the staff at the RVI (Royal Victoria Infirmary) enough. This has transformed my life, my eye is almost as good as it was before the accident.

“I’m working, I can go jet-skiing again and I also ride horses. I have my life back thanks to the operation.”

Faking Fingerprints

Lin Rong, 27, had previously been deported from Japan for overstaying her visa. She was only discovered when she was arrested on separate charges.

Tokyo police said she had paid $15,000 (£9,000) to have the surgery in China.

It is Japan’s first case of alleged biometric fraud, but police believe the practice may be widespread.
Japanese police suspect Chinese brokers of taking huge sums to modify fingerprints surgically.

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin’s fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.

The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable – not least the United States, according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic.