HRT drug Prempro-Cancer Law Suit

Jury Returns Verdict in Prempro-Cancer Case


Mary Claire Dale, Associated Press Writer, writing from Philadelphia on October 26th, 2009, says a Philadelphia jury returned a sealed punitive-damages verdict on Monday against drug maker Wyeth Pharmaceuticals after finding a link between a woman's breast cancer and the hormone-replacement drug she took. Connie Baron’s case is one of a handful of Prempro lawsuits to go to trial out of several thousand filed across the country. About 1,500 are pending in Philadelphia.


At Wyeth's request, the amount of Barton's punitive award was sealed pending the verdict in a second Prempro case underway in the same courthouse. The jury had awarded Barton $3.75 million in compensatory damages on Friday and found the company wilfully hid evidence of a cancer link, prompting the deliberations Monday on punitive damages.


"They knew back in the 1970s that these drugs had the potential to cause breast cancer, so they didn't have the studies done," said Esther Berezofsky, one of Barton's lawyers. "When bad study results came out, Wyeth consistently downplayed the results, tried to discredit the results, tried to neutralize the critics."


Sales of the drug have plummeted since 2002 when a large federal health study, the Women's Health Initiative, was stopped when researchers saw more breast cancers in those on Prempro.
Read the full story on http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WireStory?id=8920959&page=1

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Argyria – A story of the blues

Argyria is an irreversible condition, causing blue colouration to skin, gums and nails, which is promoted when people self-medicate on a commercial treatment known as colloidal silver

Silver in any form is a heavy metal, like mercury and copper. Whereas copper toxicity is rare, and whilst many people have lived long and healthy lives with mouths full of mercury fillings, even small amounts of heavy metals can cause serious illness. Multiple sclerosis is a common example, often due to just a small amount of mercury leaching into the gums

So where there may be many people using regular doses of colloidal silver with no ill-effects, the fact remains that there are others who have experienced irreversible and unwelcome symptoms such as:

Seizures
Neurological problems
Kidney damage
Indigestion
Headaches
Fatigue
Skin irritations

Is it worth the risk?

Decide for yourself by watching the clip on News.com.au

Phone mast allergy 'in the mind'

Mobile phone masts are not responsible for the symptoms of ill health some blame them for, a major UK study says, as reported on the BBC.

Dozens of people who believed the masts triggered symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.

However, the Environmental Health Perspectives study stressed people were nonetheless suffering "real symptoms".

What is interesting to note is that this article is funded by the mobile telecommunications industry which is typically slanted towards positive outcomes for them. As we know, they are a multi billion dollar industry with huge interests to protect. They know there is a health problem, but won’t admit it and will do everything possible to communicate to the public that there is no health risk

Why? Well, on the one hand, no insurance company is prepared to cover the risk of possible health related claims due to cell phone usage and on the other hand, they want to avoid the flood of lawsuits against them

See the summary of an article from the Safe Wireless Initiative, an independent non profit scientific research institution that puts into perspective a Danish research study funded by the mobile telecommunications industry and used extensively as a PR campaign.

Image source=the BBC
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14-year-olds 'use cannabis daily'

Teenagers as young as 14 are using cannabis every day, according to a study by Queen's University Belfast

Dr Patrick McCrystal says cannabis used at a young age can lead to metal illness and other problems.

While 4,000 teenagers from 43 schools in Ireland have annually taken part in this survey since they entered secondary school, they seem to be unmoved to the dangers of the habit:

• Smoking marijuana on a regular basis causes a weakened immune system and soothe users lose the ability to stop allergies, bacteria or viruses from making them sick
• Occasional marijuana smoking leaves it in the body for up to 10 days, but if smoked regularly it will remain in the system for up to 30 days. It is fat soluble and so is stored in the major organs of the body, being the liver, brain and kidneys
• Short-term effects of marijuana smoking include memory and learning problems; distorted perception; fuzzy brain; difficulty in thinking and problem solving and increased heart rate
• Depression, disturbed personalities and anxiety are all linked with the use of marijuana
• Heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema are all exacerbated with increased risk as a result of chronic cannabis smoking
• An analysis of a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal of previous research into the effects of the drug on tens of thousands of people, provides the most persuasive evidence to date that smoking cannabis can cause mental illness years after people have stopped using it.

And now to make matters worse, the drug has been downgraded from 'Class B' to 'Class C', putting it on a par with tranquilizers and steroids. Of course we could look at this step from another angle – tha tranquilizers and steroids are pretty damaging drugs!

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Power lines and Childhood Leukemia

Wednesday morning, 18 July 2007 brought a headline report on New Scientist about power lines and the link with childhood leukemia.

Alternatively take a look at the video link below on Sky News.

If you are concerned about this widely suspected silent enemy, you are not alone. There are many reported links between leukemia and the proximity of power lines, but the scientists cannot agree on their findings

In the meantime, don’t buy a house within 150m of anything you may think is producing unseen radiation, such as mini-substations, pylons, mobile phone masts or any kind of transformer

Especially if you have Alzheimer’s concerns

Just in case …….

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A great cold and flu treatment

If you are in the middle of a cold or ‘flu (which means you can’t get out of bed - there’s no such thing as ‘a touch of ‘flu’. If you’re not flat on your back, you haven’t got ‘flu), try this powerful ginger root tea from Dr Andrew Weil:

o grate a 1in piece of ginger root into a pot
o cover with 2 cups of cold water and bring to the boil &
o simmer for five minutes
o add ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper and
o simmer for another minute
o remove from heat and
o add two teaspoons fresh lemon juice
o honey to taste and 1or 2 mashed cloves of garlic
o cool slightly and strain if you like

Drink as much of it as you like, get under the blankets and feel better soon!

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