TAPPED– The high cost – to both the environment and our health – of bottled water is the subject of this documentary that enlists activists, environmentalists, community leaders and others to expose the dark side of the bottled water industry.
Tapped trailer
Trapped, full film
Photo by flickr user stevendepolo
SMART PLANET– Take a look at your prescription bottle. If you’ve noticed an increasing
number of side effects on your prescription label, you aren’t alone.
According to a new study, researchers found that the average prescription drug label lists 70 potential side effects, reported WebMD. On the higher end, one medication in the study listed 525 potential side effects, reported WebMD.
“It’s out of control,” said Jon Duke, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, in a phone interview with SmartPlanet.
By looking at almost 5,600 drug labels, researchers were able to see which drugs had the highest list of side effects.
Read full article about Prescription Pill Side Effects – Information Overload.
© 2011 Smart Planet
Photo by flickr user Charles Williams
UPI– International humanitarian organization Oxfam in Washington said global food prices could double in the next two decades.
The report released Tuesday, “Growing a Better Future,” said prices of staples such as corn were already at record highs.
The largest single factor, Oxfam said, is climate change. “Up to half of this rise is due to climate change and the world’s poorest people, who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food, will be hardest hit,” Oxfam said in a statement.
Rising prices for staples in 2010 “pushed an estimated 44 million people into poverty,” Oxfam said.
The report, which kicks off a GROW campaign within the organization, “catalogs the symptoms of today’s broken food system. It warns we have entered a new age of crisis,” Oxfam said.
Read more about Oxfam: Food Prices to Double By 2030.
© 2011 UPI
Photo by flickr user michaeloh
GRIST– Chemicals and additives found in the food supply and other consumer products are making headlines regularly as more and more groups raise concern over the safety of these substances. In a statement released this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked for reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. The group is particularly concerned about the effects these substances have on children and babies.
Last month, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) held hearings on the safety of food dyes but failed to make a definitive ruling. The most recent study on Bisphenol-A (BPA) added to growing doubts about its safety; but the FDA’s stance on it remains ambiguous. Meanwhile, in 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported [PDF] that the FDA is not ensuring the safety of many chemicals.
Yet while the FDA stalls and hedges on the safety of these substances, Americans are exposed to untested combinations of food additives, dyes, preservatives, and chemicals on a daily basis. Indeed, for the vast majority of Americans consuming industrial foods, a veritable chemical cocktail enters their bodies every day and according to the GAO report, “FDA is not systematically ensuring the continued safety of current GRAS substances.”
The term GRAS refers to “generally regarded as safe,” the moniker the FDA uses to regulate food additives, dyes, and preservatives. The trouble is, this system is not effective. Dr. Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union, said in an interview that many additives in our food supply are never even tested. That’s because the GRAS designation is a voluntary process – instead of being required to register food additives, companies can notify the FDA about their product, but only if they so choose. Hansen added that even for those additives considered GRAS, he didn’t have much faith in the designation.
Read more about Are You Enjoying Your Daily Chemical Cocktail?
© 2011 GRIST
Photo by Flickr user joepitz
TRUTH OUT– For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
The peer-reviewed study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks.
The research was conducted by four scientists at Duke University. They found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. They also found that the type of gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting from thousands of feet underground, strongly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.
“Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale gas exploration worldwide,” the article states.
The group tested 68 drinking water wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling areas in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. Sixty of those wells were tested for dissolved gas. While most of the wells had some methane, the water samples taken closest to the gas wells had on average 17 times the levels detected in wells further from active drilling. The group defined an active drilling area as within one kilometer, or about six tenths of a mile, from a gas well.
Read more about Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking
© 2011 Truth Out
Photo by Flickr user Aunullah
Trailer for Gasland
