FLASH UPDATE - Saturday, February 7, 2014

[boardman]

FLASH UPDATE
http://agentorangezone.blogspot.com/
Friday, February 7, 2014

Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

February 11, 2014 Memphis, Tennessee Barry Rice (615) 479-8619 6PM-9PM, Ridgway Baptist Church, 2500 Ridgway Avenue, Memphis TN 38119

February 20th 2014 Mooresville, North Carolina Date: Thursday, February 20, 2013 Time: 1 pm Town Hall Meeting: Mooresville, North Carolina Place: Richard’s Coffee Shop, 165 North Main Street, Mooresville, NC 28115 Contact: Pamela Scheffer: 704-425-5573

60 Minutes- Agent Orange

A look at the outstanding work of the Hatfield Group in Vietnam and its ground-breaking efforts on behalf of us all. Why is it that a Canadian firm can do what no U. S. firm will do? Answer: fear of our government and the international chemical industry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_NDCixWw6Y

http://www.hatfieldgroup.com/

Dr. Wayne Dwernechuk

Two sides of a safety switch

http://www.sciencecodex.com/two_sides_o ... tch-127470 The images were seen all over the world and stuck in the minds of many: in the autumn of 2004, former President of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned with a high dose of dioxin. Although he survived the attack, the chloracne caused by the poisoning, officially known as MADISH, left him severely disfigured: his face was peppered with numerous cysts, which left deep scars. Now a team of researchers headed by ETH-Zurich professor Sabine Werner and a senior researcher of her team, Dr. Matthias Schäfer, has stumbled across a link between chloracne and a molecular switch, which causes a comparable skin phenotype in mice after longer and increased activation. The new discovery has just been published in EMBO Molecular Medicine. Interesting candidate The molecular switch is Nrf2, which the ETH-Zurich researchers have been studying in connection with different skin diseases for some time. Nrf2 is a so-called transcription factor. It activates certain genes that protect cells and help them to survive under stress conditions. The ETH-Zurich scientists had discovered that a moderate activation of Nrf2 protects the skin against UV damage (see ETH Life from 20 May 2010). The molecule activates several genes designed to protect skin cells from aggressive free radicals, which are formed through UV radiation, save them from dying off and prevent damage of the genetic material. Nrf2 is thus an interesting candidate for use in skincare creams and for cancer prevention. Until now, however, the consequences of prolonged Nrf2 activation in the skin had not been characterized. After all, in a previous study Werner and Schäfer realised that the skin of mice became flaky and was thus potentially damaged upon increased activation of Nrf2. READ MORE: http://www.sciencecodex.com/two_sides_o ... tch-127470 Food Safety Update

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index. ... lasti.html As far as food safety goes, things aren't getting much better in China. So says a report in Forbes magazine. The article warns that a new strain of avian flu, H10N8, has turned up in chickens in China, forcing the slaughter of 20,000 birds in Hong Kong alone. More alarming: The strain has jumped to humans, who can become infected if they eat infected birds or are around them. A 73-year old Chinese woman died in December from the strain and a 55-year-old woman was recently hospitalized, Forbes said. A virologist from the Chinese Center for Disease Control in Beijing, who was quoted in the Chinese medical journal, The Lancet, warned this week about the potential for a pandemic. This is China’s fifth avian influenza strain to emerge in the last 17 years and the latest of its food safety woes. In 2008, melamime-tainted milk killed six children in China and hospitalized tens of thousands. Melamine, which is used in plastics and pesticides, can cause kidney failure. Pet food, which contained melamine-laced wheat gluten from China, killed scores of dogs and some cats in North America in 2007. Dial to the present and a new threat is on the horizon, critics say. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing to allow poultry raised in the U.S. to be shipped to China, turned into chicken nuggets or some other processed food, and then shipped back to the U.S. for consumption. The product labeling would not alert consumers either. If that's not enough to worry about -- and we do worry here in food safety central -- the Center for Food Safety has just launched a campaign to stop Dow Chemical from putting so-called "Agent Orange" GMO crops on the market, according to a story in Food Poisoning Bulletin. The center is worried that the USDA will approve genetically engineered crops doused in 2,4-D, a powerful herbicide that formed one half of Agent Orange. The compound was used by the U.S. government during the Vietnam War to defoliate forested and rural land, depriving guerrillas of cover. It had devastating effects on the locals and U.S. troops. Finally, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has a campaign of its own -- against a dough conditioner called azodicarbonamide, according to a story on Food Navigator. The additive is used to make dough smoother, but critics worry it could cause health problems. In its industrial form, which is chemically identical to the food-grade form, it's used in the production of foam plastics like shoe soles and exercise mats, the report says. Apparently, Subway is phasing it out. That's it for today. Keep your appetite and safe eating. -- Lynne Terry