The Alkaline Body and pH Balance

Archive for September, 2009

Researchers have discovered a possible reason why green vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are good for the heart.

Their work suggests a chemical found in the vegetables can boost a natural defence mechanism to protect arteries from disease.

The Imperial College London team hope their work could lead to new dietary treatments to prevent heart problems.

Details appear in Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

The Imperial College London team hope their work could lead to new dietary treatments to prevent heart problems.

Details appear in Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Much heart disease is caused by the build up of fatty plaques in the arteries known as atherosclerosis.

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However, arteries do not get clogged up with these plaques in a uniform way.

Bends and branches of blood vessels – where blood flow is disrupted and can be sluggish – are much more prone to the build-up.

The latest study has shown that a protein that usually protects against plaque build up called Nrf2 is inactive in areas of arteries that are prone to disease.

However, it also found that treatment with a chemical found in green “brassica” vegetables such as broccoli can activate Nrf2 in these disease-prone regions.

Lead researcher Dr Paul Evans said: “We found that the innermost layer of cells at branches and bends of arteries lack the active form of Nrf2, which may explain why they are prone to inflammation and disease.

“Treatment with the natural compound sulforaphane reduced inflammation at the high-risk areas by ‘switching on’ Nrf2.

“Sulforaphane is found naturally in broccoli, so our next steps include testing whether simply eating broccoli, or other vegetables in their ‘family’, has the same protective effect.

“We also need to see if the compound can reduce the progression of disease in affected arteries.”

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Targeted approaches

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said: “These fascinating findings provide a possible mechanism by which eating vegetables protects against heart disease.

“As well as adding evidence to support the importance of eating ‘five-a-day’, the biochemistry revealed in this research could lead to more targeted dietary or medical approaches to prevent or lessen disease that leads to heart attacks and strokes.”

Using normal mice, and mice engineered to lack the Nrf2 protein, the research found that in straight sections of arteries Nrf2 was present in the endothelial ‘lining’ cells.

Through its action on other proteins, it prevented the cells from becoming inflamed, an early stage in the development of atherosclerosis.

In the lining cells of disease-prone sites – such as bending or branched arteries – Nrf2 was attached to a protein that made it inactive. This stifled its protective properties.

But the addition of sulforaphane re-activated Nrf2 in the disease-prone regions of the artery, restoring the cells’ ability to protect themselves from becoming inflamed.

The researchers believe that this will enable these artery regions to remain healthy for longer, or even reduce the progression of existing disease.

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Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering

By CHARLES DUHIGG

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

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In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

“How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks.

She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home.

“How is this still happening today?” she asked.

When Mrs. Hall-Massey and 264 neighbors sued nine nearby coal companies, accusing them of putting dangerous waste into local water supplies, their lawyer did not have to look far for evidence. As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed in reports to regulators that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals — the same pollutants that flowed from residents’ taps.

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But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws.

This pattern is not limited to West Virginia. Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses.

However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.

Because it is difficult to determine what causes diseases like cancer, it is impossible to know how many illnesses are the result of water pollution, or contaminants’ role in the health problems of specific individuals.

But concerns over these toxins are great enough that Congress and the E.P.A. regulate more than 100 pollutants through the Clean Water Act and strictly limit 91 chemicals or contaminants in tap water through the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Regulators themselves acknowledge lapses. The new E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said in an interview that despite many successes since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, today the nation’s water does not meet public health goals, and enforcement of water pollution laws is unacceptably low. She added that strengthening water protections is among her top priorities. State regulators say they are doing their best with insufficient resources.

The Times obtained hundreds of thousands of water pollution records through Freedom of Information Act requests to every state and the E.P.A., and compiled a national database of water pollution violations that is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the E.P.A. (For an interactive version, which can show violations in any community, visit www.nytimes.com/toxicwaters.)

In addition, The Times interviewed more than 250 state and federal regulators, water-system managers, environmental advocates and scientists.

That research shows that an estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways.

Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking-water wells. Wells, which are not typically regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems.

Because most of today’s water pollution has no scent or taste, many people who consume dangerous chemicals do not realize it, even after they become sick, researchers say.

But an estimated 19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. That figure does not include illnesses caused by other chemicals and toxins.

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In the nation’s largest dairy states, like Wisconsin and California, farmers have sprayed liquefied animal feces onto fields, where it has seeped into wells, causing severe infections. Tap water in parts of the Farm Belt, including cities in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana, has contained pesticides at concentrations that some scientists have linked to birth defects and fertility problems.

In parts of New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, California and other states where sewer systems cannot accommodate heavy rains, untreated human waste has flowed into rivers and washed onto beaches. Drinking water in parts of New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts shows some of the highest concentrations of tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent that has been linked to kidney damage and cancer. (Specific types of water pollution across the United States will be examined in future Times articles.)

The Times’s research also shows that last year, 40 percent of the nation’s community water systems violated the Safe Drinking Water Act at least once, according to an analysis of E.P.A. data. Those violations ranged from failing to maintain proper paperwork to allowing carcinogens into tap water. More than 23 million people received drinking water from municipal systems that violated a health-based standard.

In some cases, people got sick right away. In other situations, pollutants like chemicals, inorganic toxins and heavy metals can accumulate in the body for years or decades before they cause problems. Some of the most frequently detected contaminants have been linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders.

Records analyzed by The Times indicate that the Clean Water Act has been violated more than 506,000 times since 2004, by more than 23,000 companies and other facilities, according to reports submitted by polluters themselves. Companies sometimes test what they are dumping only once a quarter, so the actual number of days when they broke the law is often far higher. And some companies illegally avoid reporting their emissions, say officials, so infractions go unrecorded.

Environmental groups say the number of Clean Water Act violations has increased significantly in the last decade. Comprehensive data go back only five years but show that the number of facilities violating the Clean Water Act grew more than 16 percent from 2004 to 2007, the most recent year with complete data.

Polluters include small companies, like gas stations, dry cleaners, shopping malls and the Friendly Acres Mobile Home Park in Laporte, Ind., which acknowledged to regulators that it had dumped human waste into a nearby river for three years.

They also include large operations, like chemical factories, power plants, sewage treatment centers and one of the biggest zinc smelters, the Horsehead Corporation of Pennsylvania, which has dumped illegal concentrations of copper, lead, zinc, chlorine and selenium into the Ohio River. Those chemicals can contribute to mental retardation and cancer.

Some violations are relatively minor. But about 60 percent of the polluters were deemed in “significant noncompliance” — meaning their violations were the most serious kind, like dumping cancer-causing chemicals or failing to measure or report when they pollute.

Finally, the Times’s research shows that fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials. And the E.P.A. has often declined to prosecute polluters or force states to strengthen their enforcement by threatening to withhold federal money or take away powers the agency has delegated to state officials.

Neither Friendly Acres Mobile Home Park nor Horsehead, for instance, was fined for Clean Water Act violations in the last eight years. A representative of Friendly Acres declined to comment. Indiana officials say they are investigating the mobile home park. A representative of Horsehead said the company had taken steps to control pollution and was negotiating with regulators to clean up its emissions.

Numerous state and federal lawmakers said they were unaware that pollution was so widespread.

“I don’t think anyone realized how bad things have become,” said Representative James L. Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, when told of The Times’s findings. Mr. Oberstar is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over many water-quality issues.

“The E.P.A. and states have completely dropped the ball,” he said. “Without oversight and enforcement, companies will use our lakes and rivers as dumping grounds — and that’s exactly what is apparently going on.”

The E.P.A. administrator, Ms. Jackson, whose appointment was confirmed in January, said in an interview that she intended to strengthen enforcement of the Clean Water Act and pressure states to apply the law.

“I’ve been saying since Day One I want to work on these water issues pretty broadly across the country,” she said. On Friday, the E.P.A. said that it was reviewing dozens of coal-mining permits in West Virginia and three other states to make sure they would not violate the Clean Water Act.

After E.P.A. officials received detailed questions from The New York Times in June, Ms. Jackson sent a memo to her enforcement deputy noting that the E.P.A. is “falling short of this administration’s expectations for the effectiveness of our clean water enforcement programs. Data available to E.P.A. shows that, in many parts of the country, the level of significant noncompliance with permitting requirements is unacceptably high and the level of enforcement activity is unacceptably low.”

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State officials, for their part, attribute rising pollution rates to increased workloads and dwindling resources. In 46 states, local regulators have primary responsibility for crucial aspects of the Clean Water Act. Though the number of regulated facilities has more than doubled in the last 10 years, many state enforcement budgets have remained essentially flat when adjusted for inflation. In New York, for example, the number of regulated polluters has almost doubled to 19,000 in the last decade, but the number of inspections each year has remained about the same.

But stretched resources are only part of the reason polluters escape punishment. The Times’s investigation shows that in West Virginia and other states, powerful industries have often successfully lobbied to undermine effective regulation.

State officials also argue that water pollution statistics include minor infractions, like failing to file reports, which do not pose risks to human health, and that records collected by The Times failed to examine informal enforcement methods, like sending warning letters.

“We work enormously hard inspecting our coal mines, analyzing water samples, notifying companies of violations when we detect them,” said Randy Huffman, head of West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection. “When I look at how far we’ve come in protecting the state’s waters since we took responsibility for the Clean Water Act, I think we have a lot to be proud of.”

But unchecked pollution remains a problem in many states. West Virginia offers a revealing example of why so many companies escape punishment.

One Community’s Plight

The mountains surrounding the home of Mrs. Hall-Massey’s family and West Virginia’s nearby capital have long been mined for coal. And for years, the area enjoyed clean well water.

But starting about a decade ago, awful smells began coming from local taps. The water was sometimes gray, cloudy and oily. Bathtubs and washers developed rust-colored rings that scrubbing could not remove. When Mrs. Hall-Massey’s husband installed industrial water filters, they quickly turned black. Tests showed that their water contained toxic amounts of lead, manganese, barium and other metals that can contribute to organ failure or developmental problems.

Around that time, nearby coal companies had begun pumping industrial waste into the ground.

Mining companies often wash their coal to remove impurities. The leftover liquid — a black fluid containing dissolved minerals and chemicals, known as sludge or slurry — is often disposed of in vast lagoons or through injection into abandoned mines. The liquid in those lagoons and shafts can flow through cracks in the earth into water supplies. Companies must regularly send samples of the injected liquid to labs, which provide reports that are forwarded to state regulators.

In the eight miles surrounding Mrs. Hall-Massey’s home, coal companies have injected more than 1.9 billion gallons of coal slurry and sludge into the ground since 2004, according to a review of thousands of state records. Millions more gallons have been dumped into lagoons.

These underground injections have contained chemicals at concentrations that pose serious health risks, and thousands of injections have violated state regulations and the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to reports sent to the state by companies themselves.

For instance, three coal companies — Loadout, Remington Coal and Pine Ridge, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, one of the largest coal companies in the world — reported to state officials that 93 percent of the waste they injected near this community had illegal concentrations of chemicals including arsenic, lead, chromium, beryllium or nickel.

Sometimes those concentrations exceeded legal limits by as much as 1,000 percent. Those chemicals have been shown to contribute to cancer, organ failures and other diseases.

But those companies were never fined or punished for those illegal injections, according to state records. They were never even warned that their activities had been noticed.

Remington Coal declined to comment. A representative of Loadout’s parent said the company had assigned its permit to another company, which ceased injecting in 2006. Peabody Energy, which spun off Pine Ridge in 2007, said that some data sent to regulators was inaccurate and that the company’s actions reflected best industry practices.

West Virginia officials, when asked about these violations, said regulators had accidentally overlooked many pollution records the companies submitted until after the statute of limitations had passed, so no action was taken. They also said their studies indicated that those injections could not have affected drinking water in the area and that other injections also had no detectable effect.

State officials noted that they had cited more than 4,200 water pollution violations at mine sites around the state since 2000, as well as conducted thousands of investigations. The state has initiated research about how mining affects water quality. After receiving questions from The Times, officials announced a statewide moratorium on issuing injection permits and told some companies that regulators were investigating their injections.

“Many of the issues you are examining are several years old, and many have been addressed,” West Virginia officials wrote in a statement. The state’s pollution program “has had its share of issues,” regulators wrote. However, “it is important to note that if the close scrutiny given to our state had been given to others, it is likely that similar issues would have been found.”

More than 350 other companies and facilities in West Virginia have also violated the Clean Water Act in recent years, records show. Those infractions include releasing illegal concentrations of iron, manganese, aluminum and other chemicals into lakes and rivers.

As the water in Mrs. Hall-Massey’s community continued to worsen, residents began complaining of increased health problems. Gall bladder diseases, fertility problems, miscarriages and kidney and thyroid issues became common, according to interviews.

When Mrs. Hall-Massey’s family left on vacation, her sons’ rashes cleared up. When they returned, the rashes reappeared. Her dentist told her that chemicals appeared to be damaging her teeth and her son’s, she said. As the quality of her water worsened, Mrs. Hall-Massey’s once-healthy teeth needed many crowns. Her son brushed his teeth often, used a fluoride rinse twice a day and was not allowed to eat sweets. Even so, he continued getting cavities until the family stopped using tap water. By the time his younger brother’s teeth started coming in, the family was using bottled water to brush. He has not had dental problems.

Medical professionals in the area say residents show unusually high rates of health problems. A survey of more than 100 residents conducted by a nurse hired by Mrs. Hall-Massey’s lawyer indicated that as many as 30 percent of people in this area have had their gallbladders removed, and as many as half the residents have significant tooth enamel damage, chronic stomach problems and other illnesses. That research was confirmed through interviews with residents.

It is difficult to determine which companies, if any, are responsible for the contamination that made its way into tap water or to conclude which specific chemicals, if any, are responsible for particular health problems. Many coal companies say they did not pollute the area’s drinking water and chose injection sites that flowed away from nearby homes.

An independent study by a university researcher challenges some of those claims.

“I don’t know what else could be polluting these wells,” said Ben Stout, a biology professor at Wheeling Jesuit University who tested the water in this community and elsewhere in West Virginia. “The chemicals coming out of people’s taps are identical to the chemicals the coal companies are pumping into the ground.”

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One night, Mrs. Hall-Massey’s 6-year-old son, Clay, asked to play in the tub. When he got out, his bright red rashes hurt so much he could not fall asleep. Soon, Mrs. Hall-Massey began complaining to state officials. They told her they did not know why her water was bad, she recalls, but doubted coal companies had done anything wrong. The family put their house on the market, but because of the water, buyers were not interested.

In December, Mrs. Hall-Massey and neighbors sued in county court, seeking compensation. That suit is pending. To resolve a related lawsuit filed about the same time, the community today gets regular deliveries of clean drinking water, stored in coolers or large blue barrels outside most homes. Construction began in August on a pipeline bringing fresh water to the community.

But for now most residents still use polluted water to bathe, shower and wash dishes.

“A parent’s only real job is to protect our children,” Mrs. Hall-Massey said. “But where was the government when we needed them to protect us from this stuff?”

Regulators ‘Overwhelmed’

Matthew Crum, a 43-year-old lawyer, wanted to protect people like Mrs. Hall-Massey. That is why he joined West Virginia’s environmental protection agency in 2001, when it became clear that the state’s and nation’s streams and rivers were becoming more polluted.

But he said he quickly learned that good intentions could not compete with intimidating politicians and a fearful bureaucracy.

Mr. Crum grew up during a golden age of environmental activism. He was in elementary school when Congress passed the Clean Water Act of 1972 in response to environmental disasters, including a fire on the polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. The act’s goal was to eliminate most water pollution by 1985 and prohibit the “discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts.”

“There were a bunch of us that were raised with the example of the Clean Water Act as inspiration,” he said. “I wanted to be part of that fight.”

In the two decades after the act’s passage, the nation’s waters grew much healthier. The Cuyahoga River, West Virginia’s Kanawha River and hundreds of other beaches, streams and ponds were revitalized.

But in the late 1990s, some states’ enforcement of pollution laws began tapering off, according to regulators and environmentalists. Soon the E.P.A. started reporting that the nation’s rivers, lakes and estuaries were becoming dirtier again. Mr. Crum, after a stint in Washington with the Justice Department and the birth of his first child, joined West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, where new leadership was committed to revitalizing the Clean Water Act.

He said his idealism was tested within two weeks, when he was called to a huge coal spill into a stream.

“I met our inspector at the spill site, and we had this really awkward conversation,” Mr. Crum recalled. “I said we should shut down the mine until everything was cleaned up. The inspector agreed, but he said if he issued that order, he was scared of getting demoted or transferred to the middle of nowhere. Everyone was terrified of doing their job.”

Mr. Crum temporarily shut the mine.

In the next two years, he shut many polluting mines until they changed their ways. His tough approach raised his profile around the state.

Mining companies, worried about attracting Mr. Crum’s attention, began improving their waste disposal practices, executives from that period said. But they also began complaining to their friends in the state’s legislature, they recalled in interviews, and started a whisper campaign accusing Mr. Crum of vendettas against particular companies — though those same executives now admit they had no evidence for those claims.

In 2003, a new director, Stephanie Timmermeyer, was nominated to run the Department of Environmental Protection. One of West Virginia’s most powerful state lawmakers, Eustace Frederick, said she would be confirmed, but only if she agreed to fire Mr. Crum, according to several people who said they witnessed the conversation.

She was given the job and soon summoned Mr. Crum to her office. He was dismissed two weeks after his second child’s birth.

Ms. Timmermeyer, who resigned in 2008, did not return calls. Mr. Frederick died last year.

Since then, hundreds of workplaces in West Virginia have violated pollution laws without paying fines. A half-dozen current and former employees, in interviews, said their enforcement efforts had been undermined by bureaucratic disorganization, a departmental preference to let polluters escape punishment if they promise to try harder, and a revolving door of regulators who leave for higher-paying jobs at the companies they once policed.

“We are outmanned and overwhelmed, and that’s exactly how industry wants us,” said one employee who requested anonymity for fear of being fired. “It’s been obvious for decades that we’re not on top of things, and coal companies have earned billions relying on that.”

In June, four environmental groups petitioned the E.P.A. to take over much of West Virginia’s handling of the Clean Water Act, citing a “nearly complete breakdown” in the state. The E.P.A. has asked state officials to respond and said it is investigating the petition.

Similar problems exist in other states, where critics say regulators have often turned a blind eye to polluters. Regulators in five other states, in interviews, said they had been pressured by industry-friendly politicians to drop continuing pollution investigations.

“Unless the E.P.A. is pushing state regulators, a culture of transgression and apathy sets in,” said William K. Reilly, who led the E.P.A. under President George H. W. Bush.

In response, many state officials defend their efforts. A spokeswoman for West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, for instance, said that between 2006 and 2008, the number of cease-operation orders issued by regulators was 10 percent higher than during Mr. Crum’s two-year tenure.

Mr. Huffman, the department’s head, said there is no political interference with current investigations. Department officials say they continue to improve the agency’s procedures, and note that regulators have assessed $14.7 million in state fines against more than 70 mining companies since 2006.

However, that is about equal to the revenue those businesses’ parent companies collect every 10 hours, according to financial reports. (To find out about every state’s enforcement record and read comments from regulators, visit www.nytimes.com/waterdata.)

“The real test is, is our water clean?” said Mr. Huffman. “When the Clean Water Act was passed, this river that flows through our capital was very dirty. Thirty years later, it’s much cleaner because we’ve chosen priorities carefully.”

Some regulators admit that polluters have fallen through the cracks. To genuinely improve enforcement, they say, the E.P.A. needs to lead.

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“If you don’t have vigorous oversight by the feds, then everything just goes limp,” said Mr. Crum. “Regulators can’t afford to have some backbone unless they know Washington or the governor’s office will back them up.”

It took Mr. Crum a while to recover from his firing. He moved to Virginia to work at the Nature Conservancy, an environmental conservation group. Today, he is in private practice and works on the occasional environmental lawsuit.

“We’re moving backwards,” he said, “and it’s heartbreaking.”

Shortcomings of the E.P.A.

The memos are marked “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE.”

They were written this year by E.P.A. staff, the culmination of a five-year investigation of states’ enforcement of federal pollution laws. And in bland, bureaucratic terms, they describe a regulatory system — at the E.P.A. and among state agencies — that in many ways simply does not work.

For years, according to one memo, federal regulators knew that more than 30 states had major problems documenting which companies were violating pollution laws. Another notes that states’ “personnel lack direction, ability or training” to levy fines large enough to deter polluters.

But often, the memos say, the E.P.A. never corrected those problems even though they were widely acknowledged. The E.P.A. “may hesitate to push the states” out of “fear of risking their relationships,” one report reads. Another notes that E.P.A. offices lack “a consistent national oversight strategy.”

Some of those memos, part of an effort known as the State Review Framework, were obtained from agency employees who asked for anonymity, and others through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Enforcement lapses were particularly bad under the administration of President George W. Bush, employees say. “For the last eight years, my hands have been tied,” said one E.P.A. official who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. “We were told to take our clean water and clean air cases, put them in a box, and lock it shut. Everyone knew polluters were getting away with murder. But these polluters are some of the biggest campaign contributors in town, so no one really cared if they were dumping poisons into streams.”

The E.P.A. administrators during the last eight years — Christine Todd Whitman, Michael O. Leavitt and Stephen L. Johnson — all declined to comment.

When President Obama chose Ms. Jackson to head the E.P.A., many environmentalists and agency employees were encouraged. During his campaign, Mr. Obama promised to “reinvigorate the drinking water standards that have been weakened under the Bush administration and update them to address new threats.” He pledged to regulate water pollution from livestock operations and push for amendments to the Clean Water Act.

But some worry those promises will not be kept. Water issues have taken a back seat to other environmental concerns, like carbon emissions.

In an interview, Ms. Jackson noted that many of the nation’s waters were healthier today than when the Clean Water Act was passed and said she intended to enforce the law more vigorously. After receiving detailed questions from The Times, she put many of the State Review Framework documents on the agency’s Web site, and ordered more disclosure of the agency’s handling of water issues, increased enforcement and revamped technology so that facilities’ environmental records are more accessible.

“Do critics have a good and valid point when they say improvements need to be made? Absolutely,” Ms. Jackson said. “But I think we need to be careful not to do that by scaring the bejesus out of people into thinking that, boy, are things horrible. What it requires is attention, and I’m going to give it that attention.”

In statements, E.P.A. officials noted that from 2006 to 2008, the agency conducted 11,000 Clean Water Act and 21,000 Safe Drinking Water Act inspections, and referred 146 cases to the Department of Justice. During the 2007 to 2008 period, officials wrote, 92 percent of the population served by community water systems received water that had no reported health-based violations.

The Times’s reporting, the statements added, “does not distinguish between significant violations and minor violations,” and “as a result, the conclusions may present an unduly alarming picture.” They wrote that “much of the country’s water quality problems are caused by discharges from nonpoint sources of pollution, such as agricultural runoff, which cannot be corrected solely through enforcement.”

Ultimately, lawmakers and environmental activists say, the best solution is for Congress to hold the E.P.A. and states accountable for their failures.

The Clean Water Act, they add, should be expanded to police other types of pollution — like farm and livestock runoff — that are largely unregulated. And they say Congress should give state agencies more resources, in the same way that federal dollars helped overhaul the nation’s sewage systems in the 1970s.

Some say changes will not occur without public outrage.

“When we started regulating water pollution in the 1970s, there was a huge public outcry because you could see raw sewage flowing into the rivers,” said William D. Ruckelshaus, who served as the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Richard M. Nixon, and then again under President Ronald Reagan.

“Today the violations are much more subtle — pesticides and chemicals you can’t see or smell that are even more dangerous,” he added. “And so a lot of the public pressure on regulatory agencies has ebbed away.”

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Dr. Ron Paul Introduces Health Freedom Bills!

Go here to help support the Bill

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27732

As of September 1, 2009 over 91,000 emails sent to Congress!

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August 1, 2009 Announcement

Dr. Ron Paul, health freedom’s friend in Congress, introduced two important bills yesterday that, if passed, would rein in the excessive interference in advanced health products by the FDA and FTC.

Here is the Life Extension Foundation’s description of the bills:

HR 3395: The Health Freedom Act. This bill removes FDA’s power of prior restraint over all nutrient-disease relationship claims. Under the bill, the FDA may not prohibit any statement concerning a nutrient affecting a disease (including treatment effects) from being made in the market and may only act against a statement once made if it possesses clear and convincing evidence that the statement is false. Presently the FDA blocks an enormous quantity of truthful information concerning the effects of nutrients and foods on disease from reaching consumers. That barrier is removed by the Health Freedom Act, but the Act preserves the power of the government to prosecute those who communicate falsehood. The essential purpose of the First Amendment is to disarm the federal government of the power to impose a prior restraint on speech. The FDA has imposed a prior restraint for decades to the health detriment of the public. Passage of the Health Freedom Act will restore constitutional governance by reasserting the supremacy of the First Amendment over the Food and Drug Administration.

HR 3394: The Health Information Protection Act. This bill prevents the Federal Trade Commission from taking action against any advertiser that communicates a health benefit for a product unless the FTC first establishes based on clear and convincing evidence that the statement made is false and that its communication causes harm to the public. Presently, the FTC reverses the Fifth Amendment burden of proof on the government when it charges advertisers with deceptive advertising and then demands that they prove their speech true based on contemporaneously held documentation or be deemed to have advertised deceptively. The Fifth Amendment requires that FTC bear the burden of proving advertising deceptive. It may not constitutionally shift the burden to the advertiser to prove its statements not deceptive. The First Amendment requires that FTC not act against speech unless the speech is probably false. It may not constitutionally accuse a party of false advertising yet lack proof that the advertising is false and condemn advertising based on an absence of documentation concerning the truth of the statement rather than the presence of evidence establishing the falsity of the statement.

These bills go to the heart of the issue of valid health claims for nutrient products: how do companies substantiate the claims they are making. Essentially the bills apply Constitutional principles to the making of claims, which are a type of speech, and are therefore protected from excessive bureaurcratic burden.

In this context it is useful to see what then Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for the Supreme Court majority in the leading health claim free speech case, Thompson v. Western States Medical Center – 01-344, decided on April 29, 2002 – 535 U.S. 357 -

“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last – not first – resort.”

“We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making bad decisions with the information.”

“Even if the Government did argue that it had an interest in preventing misleading advertisements, this interest could be satisfied by the far less restrictive alternative of requiring each …to be labeled with a warning that the [product] had not undergone FDA testing and that its risks were unknown.”

The basic rule, announced by the case, to determine constitutionally permitted government restrictions on Commercial Speech (speech that makes or is about an offer for a transaction) is a Two Prong Test: the first prong is to ask two questions: (1) is the speech in question about unlawful activity and (2) is the speech misleading. If “no” to both, the speech is entitled to protection unless the Government can carry its burden and prove (1) the governmental interest involved is “substantial”, (2) the regulation must “directly advance” the governmental interest and (3) the regulation of Commercial Speech cannot be “more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest” (quoting Central Hudson v Public Service, 447 US 557, at 566).

Dr. Paul’ s bills make it clear that the government has the burden of proof if it seeks to restrict what marketers say about their health related products. In this way, his bills preserve the Constitutional protections for Commercial Speech.

You can support these bills here:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27732

Chlorophyll and Chlorophyllin

Summary

• Chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b are natural, fat-soluble chlorophylls found in plants. (More Information)
• Chlorophyllin is a semi-synthetic mixture of water-soluble sodium copper salts derived from chlorophyll. (More Information)
• Chlorophyllin has been used orally as an internal deodorant and topically in the treatment of slow-healing wounds for more than 50 years without any serious side effects. (More Information)
• Chlorophylls and chlorophyllin form molecular complexes with some chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, and in doing so, may block carcinogenic effects. Carefully controlled studies have not been undertaken to determine whether a similar mechanism might limit uptake of required nutrients. (More Information)
• Supplementation with chlorophyllin before meals substantially decreased a urinary biomarker of aflatoxin-induced DNA damage in a Chinese population at high risk of liver cancer due to unavoidable, dietary aflatoxin exposure from moldy grains and legumes. (More Information)
• Scientists are hopeful that chlorophyllin supplementation will be helpful in decreasing the risk of liver cancer in high-risk populations with unavoidable, dietary aflatoxin exposure. However, it is not yet known whether chlorophyllin or natural chlorophylls will be useful in the prevention of cancers in people who are not exposed to significant levels of dietary aflatoxin. (More Information)

Introduction

Chlorophyll is the pigment that gives plants and algae their green color. Plants use chlorophyll to trap light needed for photosynthesis (1). The basic structure of chlorophyll is a porphyrin ring similar to that of heme in hemoglobin, although the central atom in chlorophyll is magnesium instead of iron. The long hydrocarbon (phytol) tail attached to the porphyrin ring makes chlorophyll fat-soluble and insoluble in water. Two different types of chlorophyll (chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b) are found in plants (structures of natural chlorophylls). The small difference in one of the side chains allows each type of chlorophyll to absorb light at slightly different wavelengths. Chlorophyllin is a semi-synthetic mixture of sodium copper salts derived from chlorophyll (2, 3). During the synthesis of chlorophyllin, the magnesium atom at the center of the ring is replaced with copper and the phytol tail is lost. Unlike natural chlorophyll, chlorophyllin is water-soluble. Although the content of different chlorophyllin mixtures may vary, two compounds commonly found in commercial chlorophyllin mixtures are trisodium copper chlorin e₆ and disodium copper chlorin e₄ (structures of two commercial chlorophyllins).

Metabolism and Bioavailability

Little is known about the bioavailability and metabolism of chlorophyll or chlorophyllin. The lack of toxicity attributed to chlorophyllin led to the belief that it was poorly absorbed (4). However, significant amounts of copper chlorin e₄ were measured in the plasma of humans taking chlorophyllin tablets in a controlled clinical trial, indicating that it is absorbed. More research is needed to understand the bioavailability and metabolism of natural chlorophylls and chlorin compounds in synthetic chlorophyllin.

Biological Activities

Complex Formation with Other Molecules

Chlorophyll and chlorophyllin are able to form tight molecular complexes with certain chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in tobacco smoke (5), some heterocyclic amines found in cooked meat (6), and aflatoxin-B₁ (7). See a computer-generated molecular model of a chlorophyllin-aflatoxin-B₁ complex. The binding of chlorophyll or chlorophyllin to these potential carcinogens may interfere with gastrointestinal absorption of potential carcinogens, reducing the amount that reaches susceptible tissues (8). A recently completed study by Linus Pauling Institute investigator Professor George S. Bailey showed that chlorophyllin and chlorophyll were equally effective at blocking uptake of aflatoxin-B₁ in humans, using accelerator mass spectrometry to track an ultra-low dose of the carcinogen (C Jubert et al., manuscript submitted).

Antioxidant Effects

Chlorophyllin can neutralize several physically relevant oxidants in vitro (9, 10), and limited data from animal studies suggest that chlorophyllin supplementation may decrease oxidative damage induced by chemical carcinogens and radiation (11, 12).

Modification of the Metabolism and Detoxification of Carcinogens

To initiate the development of cancer, some chemicals (procarcinogens) must first be metabolized to active carcinogens that are capable of damaging DNA or other critical molecules in susceptible tissues. Since enzymes in the cytochrome P450 family are required for the activation of some procarcinogens, inhibition of cytochrome P450 enzymes may decrease the risk of some types of chemically induced cancers. In vitro studies indicate that chlorophyllin may decrease the activity of cytochrome P450 enzymes (5, 13). Phase II biotransformation enzymes promote the elimination of potentially harmful toxins and carcinogens from the body. Limited data from animal studies indicate that chlorophyllin may increase the activity of the phase II enzyme, quinone reductase (14).

Therapeutic Effects

A recent study showed that human colon cancer cells undergo cell cycle arrest after treatment with chlorophyllin (15). The mechanism involved inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase activity. Ribonucleotide reductase plays a pivotal role in DNA synthesis and repair, and is a target of currently used cancer therapeutic agents, such as hydroxyurea (15). This provides a potential new avenue for chlorophyllin in the clinical setting, sensitizing cancer cells to DNA damaging agents.

Disease Prevention

Aflatoxin-Associated Liver Cancer

Aflatoxin-B₁ (AFB₁) a liver carcinogen produced by certain species of fungus, is found in moldy grains and legumes, such as corn, peanuts, and soybeans (2, . In hot, humid regions of Africa and Asia with improper grain storage facilities, high levels of dietary AFB₁ are associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. Moreover, the combination of hepatitis B infection and high dietary AFB₁ exposure increases the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma still further. In the liver, AFB₁ is metabolized to a carcinogen capable of binding DNA and causing mutations. In animal models of AFB₁-induced liver cancer, administration of chlorophyllin at the same time as dietary AFB₁ exposure significantly reduces AFB₁-induced DNA damage in the livers of rainbow trout and rats (16-18), and dose-dependently inhibits the development of liver cancer in trout (19). One rat study found that chlorophyllin did not protect against aflatoxin-induced liver damage when given after tumor initiation (20). In addition, a recent study reported that natural chlorophyll inhibited AFB1-induced liver cancer in the rat (18).

Because of the long time period between AFB₁ exposure and the development of cancer in humans, an intervention trial might require as long as 20 years to determine whether chlorophyllin supplementation can reduce the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in people exposed to high levels of dietary AFB₁. However, a biomarker of AFB₁-induced DNA damage (AFB₁-N⁷-guanine) can be measured in the urine, and high urinary levels of AFB₁-N⁷-guanine have been associated with significantly increased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (21). In order to determine whether chlorophyllin could decrease AFB₁-induced DNA damage in humans, a randomized, placebo-controlled intervention trial was conducted in 180 adults residing in a region in China where the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma is very high due to unavoidable dietary AFB₁ exposure and a high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection (22). Participants took either 100 mg of chlorophyllin or a placebo before meals three times daily. After 16 weeks of treatment, urinary levels of AFB₁-N⁷-guanine were 55% lower in those taking chlorophyllin than in those taking the placebo, suggesting that chlorophyllin supplementation before meals can substantially decrease AFB₁-induced DNA damage. Although a reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma has not yet been demonstrated in humans taking chlorophyllin, scientists are hopeful that chlorophyllin supplementation will provide some protection to high-risk populations with unavoidable, dietary AFB₁ exposure (8). For more information about the Chlorophyllin Clinical Trial, see Dr. George Bailey’s article in the Fall/Winter 2002 Linus Pauling Institute Newsletter.

It is not known whether chlorophyllin will be useful in the prevention of cancers in people who are not exposed to significant levels of dietary AFB₁, as is the case for most people living in the U.S. Many questions remain to be answered regarding the exact mechanisms of cancer prevention by chlorophyllin, the implications for the prevention of other types of cancer, and the potential for natural chlorophylls in the diet to provide cancer protection. Scientists from the Linus Pauling Institute’s Cancer Chemoprotection Program (CCP) are actively pursuing these research questions. For more information about the CCP, see Dr. David Williams’ article in the Spring/Summer 1999 Linus Pauling Institute Newsletter and the more recent update by Dr. Rod Dashwood in the Fall/Winter 2003 Linus Pauling Institute Research Report.

Therapeutic Uses of Chlorophyllin

Internal Deodorant

Observations in the 1940s and 1950s that topical chlorophyllin had deodorizing effects on foul-smelling wounds led clinicians to administer chlorophyllin orally to patients with colostomies and ileostomies in order to control fecal odor (23). While early case reports indicated that chlorophyllin doses of 100-200 mg/d were effective in reducing fecal odor in ostomy patients (24, 25), at least one placebo-controlled trial found that 75 mg of oral chlorophyllin three times daily was no more effective than placebo in decreasing fecal odor assessed by colostomy patients (26). Several case reports have been published indicating that oral chlorophyllin (100-300 mg/day) decreased subjective assessments of urinary and fecal odor in incontinent patients (23, 27). Trimethylaminuria is a hereditary disorder characterized by the excretion of trimethylamine, a compound with a “fishy” or foul odor. A recent study in a small number of Japanese patients with trimethylaminuria found that oral chlorophyllin (60 mg three times daily) for three weeks significantly decreased urinary trimethylamine concentrations (28).

Wound Healing

Research in the 1940s indicating that chlorophyllin slowed the growth of certain anaerobic bacteria in the test tube and accelerated the healing of experimental wounds in animals led to the use of topical chlorophyllin solutions and ointments in the treatment of persistent open wounds in humans (29). During the late 1940s and 1950s, a series of largely uncontrolled studies in patients with slow-healing wounds, such as vascular ulcers and pressure (decubitus) ulcers, reported that the application of topical chlorophyllin promoted healing more effectively than other commonly used treatments (30, 31). In the late 1950s, chlorophyllin was added to papain and urea-containing ointments used for the chemical debridement of wounds in order to reduce local inflammation, promote healing, and control odor (23). Chlorophyllin-containing papain/urea ointments are still available in the U.S. by prescription (32). Several studies have reported that such ointments are effective in wound healing (33). Recently, a spray formulation of the papain/urea/chlorophyllin therapy has become available (34).

Sources

Chlorophylls

Chlorophylls are the most abundant pigments in plants. Dark green, leafy vegetables like spinach are rich sources of natural chlorophylls. The chlorophyll contents of selected vegetables are presented in the table below (35).

Chlorophyll Content of Selected Raw Vegetables
Food	Serving	Chlorophyll (mg)
Spinach	1 cup	23.7
Parsley	½ cup	19.0
Cress, garden	1 cup	15.6
Green beans	1 cup	8.3
Arugula	1 cup	8.2
Leeks	1 cup	7.7
Endive	1 cup	5.2
Sugar peas	1 cup	4.8
Chinese cabbage	1 cup	4.1

Supplements

Chlorophyll

Green algae like chlorella are often marketed as supplemental sources of chlorophyll. Because natural chlorophyll is not as stable as chlorophyllin and is much more expensive, most over-the-counter chlorophyll supplements actually contain chlorophyllin.

Chlorophyllin

Oral preparations of sodium copper chlorophyllin (also called chlorophyllin copper complex) are available in supplements and as an over-the-counter drug (Derifil) used to reduce odor from colostomies or ileostomies or to reduce fecal odor due to incontinence (36). Sodium copper chlorophyllin may also be used as a color additive in foods, drugs, and cosmetics (37). Oral doses of 100-300 mg/day in three divided doses have been used to control fecal and urinary odor (see Therapeutic Uses of Chlorophyllin).

Safety

Natural chlorophylls are not known to be toxic, and no toxic effects have been attributed to chlorophyllin despite more than 50 years of clinical use in humans (8, 23, 29). When taken orally, chlorophyllin may cause green discoloration of urine or feces, or yellow or black discoloration of the tongue (38). There have also been occasional reports of diarrhea related to oral chlorophyllin use. When applied topically to wounds, chlorophyllin has been reported to cause mild burning or itching in some cases (39). Oral chlorophyllin may result in false positive results on guaiac card tests for occult blood (40). Since the safety of chlorophyll or chlorophyllin supplements has not been tested in pregnant or lactating women, they should be avoided during pregnancy and lactation.

References

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Written in December 2005 by:
Jane Higdon, Ph.D.
Linus Pauling Institute
Oregon State University

By Gordon Pedersen Ph.D.

Influenza viruses are the respiratory viruses of greatest public health importance, particularly Influenza A (1). Every year 36,000 people die from Influenza making it the 6th leading cause of death in America (1). The CDC estimates that it would cost America $71 – 166 billion if we have an Influenza epidemic today. Approximately 1 in every 1,000 swine flu patients dies from the infection. This is close to the same rate we have been seeing the past few years but antigenic drift and antigenic shift may create a new and fatal form of Influenza that humans have no immunity against (2). Antigenic drift is a variation within the HN sub-type. Antigenic shift is a variation between different HN sub-types, changes in the Heamagluttinin (H) and Neuraminiadase (N) makes large portions of the population immunologically naïve on a regular basis (1). The problem with Type A is that it undergoes both antigenic drift and antigenic shift making it more dangerous and unpredictable (1). The World Health Organization declared the H1N1 Swine Flu a pandemic in June of 2009 (3).

The annual average U.S. winter epidemics affect 5% to 20% of the population.
The CDC (1) reports the following pandemic death histories:

Health Care Practitioners Are At the Highest Risk

Doctors, nurses and other health care providers are at the highest risk of becoming infected with Influenza. Because doctors are exposed to the virus most frequently, it is significant to recognize the survivability of the Influenza virus in open environments.

Mammalian Influenza A survives 1 hour in mucous, while Avian Influenza survives 100 days in water, 200 days @ 63 degrees F, 1 day in feces and indefinitely when frozen. Influenza is easily transmitted from human to human as indicated in the following table.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SILVER SOL

Doctors have the obligation to protect themselves and their patients from the potentially pandemic Influenza viruses. This protection could come from many different sources including Vaccination, Hygiene, Anti viral drugs, Antibiotic drugs, Nutritional supplements, Air filters, Water purifiers, Masks, Topical gels and Silver Sol.

Past epidemics provide important insights into what might happen in the potential spread of the current Swine Flu (4-13). The most persistent viruses survive and the most diverse seem to go extinct within a few years (14, 15). This is most likely the result of strong host-mediated selection pressure, resulting in continual evolution at key antigenic sites, a process termed ‘antigenic drift’ (15, 16). This antigenic evolution is observed with major changes in antigenicity occurring periodically in patterns of approximately 3 years between episodes (17).

According to reports from the Army Medical records, (from the 1918 Spanish Flu, H1N1 epidemic) 24% of the people died from the virus and 76% died form a secondary bacterial infection that produced pneumonia in the lungs. There is a high probability that the swine flu will have similar death rates, and if this is the case, then preventing and treating the secondary bacterial infection will be as important if not more important. The conclusion is that the influenza virus will need to be treated by multiple or combination therapies crossing viral and bacterial lines.

Recommendations for Influenza prevention and treatment (1)
Hygiene: The CDC recommends washing the hands after any exposure because most influenza is transferred by hand contact. Masks and gloves can help but the mask must fit tightly with no leaks to be effective. A surgical mask helps protect the persons around the wearer, so if you have a fever, cough or sneeze, wear a surgical mask to protect the patients.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SILVER SOL

Anti viral drugs:
These drugs have the ability to destroy viruses but cannot be taken for an extended period of time. They produce side effects that mimic the flu making it difficult to diagnose the severity of the disease. If taken for prevention, Tamiflu produces resistance. 18% of the influenza virus is resistant to Tamiflu already (1). It is suspected that the health care professionals who were taking it for four months as a preventive agent were the persons that developed resistance. This indicates that we cannot use the antiviral drugs for long periods of time. In addition, some drugs cannot be used in children under 13 years of age (Tamiflu). Relenza cannot be used in children under one or in adults over 65. The antivirals must be given within 48 hours of the onset of illness or the virus will run its course. Combine this with the fact that 76% of H1N1 subjects in the Spanish flu 1918, died from a bacterial infection that produced pneumonia and you have an incomplete solution to the influenza problem. Because Tamiflu has developed resistance Relenza may be a better choice as long as you monitor the bronchospasms.

Antibiotic Drugs:
Antibiotic drugs provide no solution against the virus but can be very beneficial for pneumonia that develops later. A broad spectrum antibiotic should be used because there are numerous bacteria that can produce pneumonia. According to a Penn State publication, silver sol can be given with the antibiotics and produce up to a tenfold increase in antibiotic activity (18).

Nutritional Supplements:
There are hundreds of supplements that can be of significant benefit for the immune system and even some that claim to have antiviral activity. The best proven choices for nutritional supplements come in the form of immune stimulants and wellness products. These include: immunity Vit C, B complex, folic acid, vit D (prevention) ginseng, Echinacea, garlic, probiotics, expectorants and silver sol.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SILVER SOL

Air Filters:
CDC recommends one in every room. HEPA air filters use silver to inactivate viruses and can effectively kill 99% of all bacteria, and viruses in minutes.

Water Purifiers:
Proper hygiene and a water purifier are recommended by the CDC because the influenza virus can survive 100 hours in water. Get one that has a silver filter that can actually destroy the virus. Carbon, filtration, reverse osmosis does not destroy or remove the virus.

Topical Disinfectants:
Topical disinfectants are recommended by the CDC for use between each patient and can kill germs for 4-6 hours. Patients and health care professionals should use these 4 times a day or as needed. Silver so gel demonstrates effectiveness against some of the worst pathogens including: MRSA, VRE, Strep, and the other bacteria that cause pneumonia.

Silver Sol:
Prescription drugs and vaccines treat and help prevent viral infection and disease but are not capable of totally controlling a dangerous new or novel virus (18). Nutritional supplements such as Vitamins, Minerals, Echinacea, Ginseng, Probiotics and many others have the ability to help boost immune function and improve natural defenses which results in some defense against disease causing viruses and the associated secondary infections

Silver Sol provides proven prevention and treatment against viral and bacterial infections, while there is nothing else with such broad spectrum benefits (19). In addition, Silver Sol can be safely taken every day for prevention where it has been shown to provide protection against the very dangerous Bird flu H5N1. The combination of antibiotics with Silver Sol has been shown to enhance antibiotic function by as much as ten fold due to the fact that Silver Sol kills the residual pathogens that the antibiotics cannot (19). Results of the combination of 19 different prescription antibiotics and silver sol demonstrate safe additive and/or synergistic benefits across 7 different pathogenic strains (Staphyloccocus, MRSA, E coli, Pseudomonas arugenosa, Salmonella and Streptococcus). The results of this combination therapy result in significant pathogenic destruction while helping to reduce bacterial resistance (19). This can be attributed to the fact that Silver Sol does not produce resistance, nor does it destroy the benefitcial intestinal probiotic bacteria (18).

LEARN MORE ABOUT SILVER SOL

Discussion:
H1N1 is a serious threat to our health and way of life. The best way to treat it influenza is to prevent it. Prevention produces a problem is that drugs have serious side effects and cannot be used by the entire population and should not be used for long periods of time. The other problem is that approximately three fourths of the people who have died from H1N1 influenza have succumbed to a secondary bacterial infection in the lungs and no antiviral drug will treat this condition.

In order to control an epidemic, all types of treatment should be employed including prescription drugs, vitamins, mineral, herbs, proper hygiene, air filtration, water filtration and the proper use of diet and nutritional supplements, especially the newly patented, FDA approved Silver Sol technology. Silver Sol destroys bacteria, viruses, and mold so it demonstrates broader spectrum of activity than any antibiotic or antiviral drug. It can be taken daily due the fact that it passes through the body unchanged, and can prevent viral infections, treat them and work synergistically with antibiotics to produce as much as a ten fold increase in activity against the bacteria that cause death in influenza. It is evident that the newly patented EPA certified and FDA approved Silver Sol technology provides tremendous treatment options for prevention and combination therapies. Silver Sol gel can help stop viral spread on the most contagious areas like hands, nose, mouth and skin. It is sufficiently documented and proven to be considered to be a first line of defense against Influenza and a significant companion to antiviral and antibacterial drug regimens topically and orally.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control contributing Authors: Burke Squires (UTSW), Marc Gillespie (CSHL), Peter E’dustacio (CSHL), Adolfo Garc�a-Sastre (MSSM).

2. CDC. Update: swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus—United States and other countries. MMWR 2009;58:421.
3. Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Investigation Team. Emergence of a novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus in humans. N Engl J Med 2009;361.

4. World Health Organization. Situation updates—influenza A (H1N1). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2009.

5. Rowe T, Abernathy RA, Hu-Primmer J, et al. Detection of antibody to avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in human serum by using a combination of serologic assays. J Clin Microbiol 1999;37:937–43.

6. Laver WG, Webster RG. Selection of antigenic mutants of influenza viruses. Isolation and peptide mapping of their hemagglutination proteins. Virology. 1968;34:193–202.

7. Sleigh MJ, Both GW, Underwood PA, Bender VJ. Antigenic drift in the hemagglutinin of the Hong Kong influenza subtype: correlation of amino acid changes with alterations in viral antigenicity. J Virol. 1981;37:845–853.

8. Fitch WM, Leiter JMF, Li X, Palese P. Positive Darwinian evolution in human influenza A viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1991;88:4270–4272.

9. Bush RM, Fitch WM, Bender CA, Cox NJ. Positive selection on the H3 hemagglutinin gene of human influenza virus A. Mol Biol Evol. 1999;16:1457–1465.

10. Rvachev LA. Computer modeling experiment on large-scale epidemic. Dokl USSR Acad Sci. 1968;2:294–296.

11. Longini IM, Fine PE, Thacker SB. Predicting the global spread of new infectious agents. Am J Epidemiol. 1986;123:383–391.

12. Bonabeau E, Toubiana L, Flahault A. The geographical spread of influenza. Proc Biol Sci. 1998;265:2421–2425.

13. Grais RF, Ellis JH, Glass GE. Assessing the impact of airline travel on the geographic spread of pandemic influenza. Eur J Epidemiol. 2003;19:1065–1072.

14. Viboud C, Bjørnstad ON, Smith DL, Simonsen L, Miller MA, et al. Synchrony, waves, and spatial hierarchies in the spread of influenza. Science. 2006;312:447–451.

15. Buonagurio DA, Nakada S, Parvin JD, Krystal M, Palese P, Fitch WM. Evolution of human influenza A viruses over 50 years: rapid, uniform rate of change in NS gene. Science. 1986;232:980–982.

16. Fitch WM, Leiter JMF, Li X, Palese P. Positive Darwinian evolution in human influenza A viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1991;88:4270–4272.

17. Fitch WM, Bush RM, Bender CA, Cox NJ. Long term trends in the evolution of H(3) HA1 human influenza type A. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1997;94:7712–7128.

18. Smith DJ, Lapedes AS, de Jong JC, Bestebroer TM, Rimmelzwaan GF, Osterhaus AD, Fouchier RA. Mapping the antigenic and genetic evolution of influenza virus. Science. 2004;305:371–376.

19. Ferguson NM, Galvani AP, Bush RM. Ecological and immunological determinants of influenza evolution. Nature. 2003;422:428–433.

20. Thompson WW, Shay DC, Weintraub E, Brammer L, Cox N, et al. Mortality associated with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus in the United States. JAMA. 2003;289:179–186.

21. Thompson WW, Shay DC, Weintraub E, Brammer L, Bridges CB, et al. Influenza- Associated hospitalizations in the United States. JAMA. 2004;292:1333–1340.

22. Ina Y, Gojobori N. Statistical analysis of nucleotide sequences of the hemagglutinin gene of human influenza A viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1994;91:8388–8392.

23. Hay AJ, Gregory V, Douglas AR, Lin YP. The evolution of human influenza viruses. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B. 2001;356:1861–1870.

24. Jenkins GM, Rambaut A, Pybus OG, Holmes EC. Rates of molecular evolution in NA viruses: a quantitative phylogenetic analysis. 2002;54:156–165.

25. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Update: influenza activity–United States and worldwide, 2006-2007 and composition of the 2007–2008 influenza vaccine. MMWR. 2007;56:789–794.

26. Roy, R. Ultradilute Material Research Innovations, Ag-aquasols with extradrdinary bactericidal properties: role of the system Ag-O-H2O. 2007 vol 11 no 1.

27. Pedersen, G., Effect of Prophylactic Treatment with ASAP – AGX-32 and nd ASAP Solutions on an Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus Infecrion in Mice.

28 Nelson Labs . Hepatitis B and Silver Sol.

29. De Souza. A., Mehta, D, Bactericidal activity of Combinations of Silver-Water Dispersion with 19 Antibiotics Against Seven Microbial Strains. Current Science, Vol 91, No 7, October 2006.

30. Leavitt, R, Pedersen G,. Resistance of Silver Sol and Bacteria: A Discussion, ABL, 2009.

31 Viridis BioPharma, Probiotic Bacteria and Silver Sol, 2007.

32. Laver WG, Webster RG. Selection of antigenic mutants of influenza viruses. Isolation and peptide mapping of their hemagglutination proteins. Virology. 1968;34:193–202.

33. Sleigh MJ, Both GW, Underwood PA, Bender VJ. Antigenic drift in the hemagglutinin of the Hong Kong influenza subtype: correlation of amino acid changes with alterations in viral antigenicity. J Virol. 1981;37:845–853.

34. Fitch WM, Leiter JMF, Li X, Palese P. Positive Darwinian evolution in human influenza A viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1991;88:4270–4272.

35. Bush RM, Fitch WM, Bender CA, Cox NJ. Positive selection on the H3 hemagglutinin gene of human influenza virus A. Mol Biol Evol. 1999;16:1457–1465.

36. Rvachev LA. Computer modeling experiment on large-scale epidemic. Dokl USSR Acad Sci. 1968;2:294–296.

37. Longini IM, Fine PE, Thacker SB. Predicting the global spread of new infectious agents. Am J Epidemiol. 1986;123:383–391.

38. Bonabeau E, Toubiana L, Flahault A. The geographical spread of influenza. Proc Biol Sci. 1998;265:2421–2425.

39. Grais RF, Ellis JH, Glass GE. Assessing the impact of airline travel on the geographic spread of pandemic influenza. Eur J Epidemiol. 2003;19:1065–1072.

40. Viboud C, Bjørnstad ON, Smith DL, Simonsen L, Miller MA, et al. Synchrony, waves, and spatial hierarchies in the spread of influenza. Science. 2006;312:447–451.

41. Buonagurio DA, Nakada S, Parvin JD, Krystal M, Palese P, Fitch WM. Evolution of human influenza A viruses over 50 years: rapid, uniform rate of change in NS gene. Science. 1986;232:980–982.

42. Fitch WM, Leiter JMF, Li X, Palese P. Positive Darwinian evolution in human influenza A viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1991;88:4270–4272.

43. Fitch WM, Bush RM, Bender CA, Cox NJ. Long term trends in the evolution of H(3) HA1 human influenza type A. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 1997;94:7712–7128.

44. Smith DJ, Lapedes AS, de Jong JC, Bestebroer TM, Rimmelzwaan GF, Osterhaus AD, Fouchier RA. Mapping the antigenic and genetic evolution of influenza virus. Science. 2004;305:371–376.

45. Ferguson NM, Galvani AP, Bush RM. Ecological and immunological determinants of influenza evolution. Nature. 2003;422:428–433.

6. Koelle K, Cobey S, Grenfell B, Pascual M. Epochal evolution shapes the phylodynamics of interpandemic influenza A (H3N2) in humans. Science. 2006;314:1898–903.

47. Rambaut A, Pybus O, Nelson MI, Viboud C, Taubenberger JK, et al. The genomic and epidemiological dynamics of human influenza A virus. Nature April 16; [Epub ahead of print]

48. Lavenu A, Leruez-Ville M, Chaix ML, Boelle PY, Rogez S, Freymuth F, Hay A, Rouzioux C, Carrat F. Detailed analysis of the genetic evolution of influenza virus during the course of an epidemic. Epidemiol Infect. 2005:1–7.

49. Nelson MI, Simonsen L, Viboud C, Miller MA, Taylor J, et al. Stochastic processes are key determinants of the short-term evolution of influenza A virus. PLoS Pathog. 2006;2:e125. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0020125.

50. Viboud C, Alonso WJ, Simonsen L. Influenza in tropical regions. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e89. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030089.

51. Nelson MI, Simonsen L, Viboud C, Miller MA, Holmes EC. Phylogenetic analysis reveals the global migration of seasonal influenza A viruses. PLoS Pathog. 2007;3:e131. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0030131.

52. Russell CA, Jones TC, Barr IG, Cox NJ, Garten RJ, et al. The global circulation of seasonal influenza A (H3N2) viruses. Science. 2008;320:340–346.

53. Holmes EC, Ghedin E, Miller N, Taylor J, Bao Y, et al. Whole-genome analysis of human influenza A virus reveals multiple persistent lineages and reassortment among recent H3N2 viruses. PLoS Biol. 2005;3:e300. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030300.

54. Nelson MI, Viboud C, Simonsen L, Bennett RT, Griesemer SB, et al. Multiple reassortment events in the evolutionary history of A/H1N1 influenza A virus since 1918. PLoS Pathog. 2008;4:e1000012. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000012.

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